finding joy

Its 16 degrees in our city today. We have had a fun day staying inside!

We are not putting up a tree this year, we didn't think we would be here... so we painted one instead! Avi Joy painted all the Christmas balls (or swirls) herself. It is so precious, I think I will have to have it framed and hang it somewhere in the house every Christmas. (or year-round : )
Avi Joy got a haircut. The front does not seem to grow much at all, but that bottom layer sure does and we do not want any mullet action going on.
Made a batch of our famous chocolate chip cookies. Today we just stuck to eating the dough. The batch makes 36 cookies, we ended up baking 27. Proven fact: you always eat more dough than you would cookies.
Our LifeGroup decided to purchase a Jesus Well for Christmas this year. In this last fews weeks where my heart has just been aching over Nehemiah, this Jesus Well has brought such sweet joy to my spirit.

Avi Joy just loves playing in our bed. Can you see Adam?

Avi Joy and Kari Lynne, two precious girls placed in their mommy's hearts.

NEHEMIAH NEWS: not much to report. I will be emailing HCMC/Hanoi tomorrow to see if our paperwork has left/arrived for pre-approval. We are hoping for a G & R date no later than mid-Jan. Hopefully we will hear something soon.

"A man finds joy in giving an apt reply- and how good is a timely word!" Proverbs 15:23

The Perryman's

Most verbal, welcome to the family.

This is an email from my sweet girlfriend RK who is in Can Tho, Vietnam right now...

We held little Nehemiah Sang today. He is a true cutie, in our unbiased, honest opinion!
He seems very strong and looks healthy. He is definitely tall for his age, and seems a healthy weight; not thin or too chubby. His skin is clear, and there were no signs of bug bites or scabies. He smelled very good; kissably, perfectly baby good.

When we walked into the room where he was, he immediately started to watch us and was very interested in what was going on. When I bent down to his crib for the first time, he made eye contact and scooted closer. I stuck my finger near his fist, and he grabbed on with a firm grip and didn't let go until I moved to pick him up.

He has excellent head and neck control. When Ken and I held him, he leaned into us, and did not pull away or push from us. He was very serious for us, but he would smile for the nannies.
I sat on the floor with him and he is beginning to sit up; he was still leaning forward in a tripod style, but definitely working to sit. In his crib, he easily got onto all fours and rocked back and forth, like he was practicing to crawl. He can scoot all around his crib and turned himself around and around to keep track of all of the comings and goings in his room. He would get himself onto his knees, and then pull with both hands on the bars to get his face as close to everyone as possible.

I heard him "talking" several times, and seemed to be the most verbal one in the orphanage. His crib is next to Levi's and he really seemed to like talking to him.
All of the nannies seem to smile and talk to the babies every time they enter the room, or just walk past their crib to change another baby's diaper, or to get something. They genuinely seem to like to make them smile.
He is just precious. We told him you were coming, and that he was going to really, really like you :)

IS THAT NOT THE SWEETEST GIFT EVER!

"A friend loves at all times." Proverbs 17:17

The Perryman's

This way ------>

Steps to getting our paperwork to HCMC. Simply follow the arrows. HA : )

So what happened??
DNA date- Oct 31st
DNA received- Nov 14th, Lost by HCMC
DNA resent- Nov 25th, US Lab actually forgot to send them, oops
DNA resent again- To arrive Dec 9th
Then wait again x 3 for preapproval to travel
Then receive G & R date
We are still hoping for Dec...

We are in good spirits at the moment. A struggle between trusting God, feeling sad, mad and wanting to scream. We are thankful we feel the Lord's peace and are grateful the strong support of family and friends who remind us that he will be home very soon.

Playdate with the Homan kids, its a sure way to cheer up.

Walking through our towns Christmas lights display. Two millon lights!

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Adam, Natasha, Avi Joy and Nehemiah

Hearts, Tummies and Nests

November/Thanksgiving 2008 pictures click here

NEHEMIAH NEWS
Had a meeting with the VN director today. Its tough knowing we could have left tomorrow had our DNA not been lost, but she encouraged us the best she could to make it though the next few weeks.

Our DNA was resent 11-25-08 and we are waiting for confirmation from HCMC that they received it. Once received they will take ? time to give us pre-approval. Then we will be issued a G & R date about 2-3 weeks from that. We have asked it be set quicker as we are ready to travel.
Our hope was to be there during Christmas, but now we are just waiting at their mercy to see if that is possible or if it will be after that (pray no!).
We received a copy of our DNA today. Here is our precious sons DNA picture, taken 10-31-08.

Recipe to help one make it though waiting... I am on my seventh day of it helping me : )

Pumpkin Crumble

bottom layer
1- 16oz can pumpkin
1- can sweetened condensed milk
3- eggs
1- tsp vanilla
3- tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2- tsp salt
1- cup sugar

topping:
1- yellow cake mix
1 1/2- sticks butter melted

Mix all bottom layer items together, pour into 9 x 13 baking dish. Sprinkle yellow cake mix on top, pour melted butter on top. Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes.
Serve hot with cool whip melting on top- enjoy!

A Christmas project... our first gingerbread house. She loved decorating her house and eating the snowmen cookies.



Avi Joy strikes a pose.
She is such a ham these days.
I could list pages of funny stuff she says but here are my current two favorites.

1. We talk about where babies come from a lot. So one day in the car she said, "babies come from hearts and tummies and do not forget nests." Which is true, God does put baby birds in nests and she did not want to leave any baby out. She says she is currently carrying Nehemiah in her belly and 4 babies from Africa in her heart.

2. Listening to the Christmas song "Hear the angels sing," she belts out as loud as she can, "Hear the Asians sing." Yeah toooo funny.

"O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in You." Psalm 84:12
Love,
The Perryman Family

Good news ~ Bad news

Lets start with the good news shall we...
New picture of precious lil'perryman.

We are very excited that we will most likely be having a Vietnamese Christmas this year!
Which leads us to the baaaadd news.
HCMC lost our DNA.
So now Dillon is contacting the US Lab and they will resend it to HCMC, then we again wait for pre-approval to travel.
Leaving on the 4th and having our G & R on the 10th was just not meant to be.

"I wait for the Lord,
my soul waits,
and in His word,
I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen
wait for the morning,
more than watchmen
wait for the morning."
Psalm 130:5-6 (said twice for emphasis)

Thank you for following our journey.
With Love,
Adam, Natasha, Avi Joy and Nehemiah

we hear ya trumpet.

NEHEMIAH NEWS
Remember this from the last post?
Well here is Avi Joy's trumpet and we heard it blaring today...
Nothing is too hard for God.

We were expecting an update today, hoping that the lab was finally done with our DNA. But instead we got an email from Mary Anne at Dillon saying the DNA Lab was having trouble with its fax machine, so the fax about our case must not have come through.
Not only had our DNA been complete, it had already been sent to HCMC and arrived!
It has been there since Nov 14th, but no one knew : )

Such a sweet surprise.
Our direct prayers now are for everyone currently waiting for pre-approval to travel to Can Tho to receive the same G & R date of Dec 10th. We will see how everything unfolds.

"Put your hope in God." Psalm 42
(I like the action word here- put, it just doesn't happen on its own, we have to put it.)

Adam, Natasha, Avi Joy and Nehemiah

Triple wedding?

Are Avi Joy, Sarah and Andrew all getting married? Esp Sarah, look at those folded hands! HA!

We have finally updated all our pictures!

August, Two Family Weddings, September & Sum Hop Day, October 2008

Sum Hop Day, September 7, 2008- home two years
(Vietnamese for "to come together, unite" sounds like Sue-mm Hop)

September 7, 2006, Ninh Thuan, Vietnam

Lots of emotions today... (and you know women- probably a million more that are not listed : )
Amazed: at Julie's perseverance, she has waited one year to travel, G & R is on Dec 4th!
Delighted: that God can exceed our wildest dreams, Jessica received I-600 pre-approval to travel.
Ready: for DNA to be complete.
Thankful: for friends who attended my pityparty today and picked me up.
Nesting: we are going to finish packing soon.
Convicted: by the scripture on my daughters bible school trumpet, its in all caps:
"NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR GOD" Story of Joshua & Jericho from Joshua 6, go read it!

I love that Avi Joy is so ready for her brother, she loves hangin out in his crib.

NEHEMIAH NEWS
Waiting for DNA to finish, we are on day 8 (usually takes 5-10 days)
Then sent to HCMC, (about 3-5 days)
Then wait for pre-approval to travel (? days)
Then told our G & R date, leave!

"The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, 'Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord.'" Joshua 6:16-17

The Perryman's