Day One

ALL TRAVEL AND DAY ONE PICTURES

We found the Dillon staff at the airport, we were all smiles.

We arrived in HCMC to celebrate the New Year.  Most people were off today so the streets were full of people hanging out with friends, eating on the sidewalks and shopping.

We went to Ryo Restaurant for lunch and had Adam's favorite, Japanese food. 

Speaking of that food note, San Fran was a great airport, lots of internationals. The thing that made us laugh was the Japanese people eating hamburgers-fries and we were eating Japanese food. Everywhere you turned there were groups of people, every shade that God has made.

Woman's waffle stand...

It was about 90 degrees and I here I enjoyed a coconut shake. They took a real coconut, poured in the juice and mixed with some kind of ice creamish stuff. Perfectly refreshing.

We walked through the streets before heading to the Tax center to do some shopping. I became completely pampered when I showed them my list of Ao Doi's I was going to buy. I picked out what I wanted and they ran, literally, to get the right size for me.

We accomplished buying Vietnamese Ao Doi's... three for Avi Joy, three for Nehemiah and as sent by Jamie and Heather, four for Luke and three for Heather. It was great and the ao doi's are handsome/beautiful.

We then headed back to our hotel and fell asleep N- around 6pm, Adam by 8pm. We slept great and do not feel jet lag at all!!!

We think the key was not sleeping for 2 days. We woke up on Tuesday at 6am to get ready and we arrived in VN Thursday afternoon. During the whole journey I slept for a sporadic 3 hours and Adam about 6 hours. We were not tired though, running on adrenaline I guess. But that helped our clocks flip perfectly.

Two things finally gave out for both of us. Our backs said- stop! They were so achey and needed to rest, but the funny one that completely gave out was my eyelids. Once I laid down I literally could not get them to open. They were always busy, reading and watching movies being forced to stay open, then they just refused.
This is the view from our our hotel.

We are going to have breakfast with Thomas this morning. He will not be accompanying us to Can Tho and we wanted the staff to see all the Can Tho pictures we brought from all the other families. Six families whose children were born in Can Tho sent us photo albums of their children for the nannies to see and keep. They are just precious and I know will be greatly appreciated. We are also sending one to Avi Joy's nannies in Ninh Thuan and one to be kept on file at the People's Committee for her birthmother if she wants to pick it up.

We are off to enjoy day two!

"This is the day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

With much love,

Adam and Natasha

(we have no idea why the text is a link?? sorry)

Travel Days

On our way... saying bye to Avi Joy on Tuesday morning (Dec 30th)
NOW:
We are about two hours from Vietnam!
Tulsa-Denver, 2 hours/Layover, 2 hours
Denver- San Fran, 3 hours/Layover, 6 hours
San Fran - Hong Kong, 14 hours/Layover, 2 hours
Hong Kong - Ho Chi Minh City, VN, 2 hours
Then arrive and rest, drive on Sunday 6 hours to meet Nehemiah!

We celebrated New Year on our Hong Kong flight, Happy New Year family and friends.
(please notice the girl at the end of our row, her head was on the tray 8 of the 14 hours)
Flight attendants celebrated with us.
Hong Kong, China, airport.
"I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ." Romans 15:29
Hugs,
The Perryman's

closing out the year

All new pics
December 2008

Merry Christmas! A few of my fav's...

"George's" new bazooka (my 3 yr old nephew)
"Nehemiah's" new spidey web shooter
She was excited for all her presents.

Fell asleep with her favorite gift. Her pink jewelry music box with the ballerina that flips up and spins. A childhood classic and she loves it!
College roommates. 12 yr's celebrating together... 2009 will bring each of us a new addition.

The Perryman's, three generations

This has been a wonderful year.
I challenge you to flip through your planner from the last year and see what your life was like this year. Here are some things I found:
Lots of playdates, haircuts, grocery lists, baby showers, weddings, phone calls, bible studies, food deliveries, committee meetings and various other 'life' errands. All this mixed with reading books to Avi Joy, watching her verbal skills explode, seeing families united and growing in our faith, marriage and looking forward to my 30's. We will see what 2009 will be like with two kiddos in toe.

Avi Joy funny...
My girlfriend Evie was nursing and Avi Joy asked her,
"what are you doing?"
"feeding Eli"
"but you don't have any food"
"well, God makes me have milk to feed Eli"
"does it have cereal in it?"
Oh the precious things she says daily, I could write a novel!

NEHEMIAH NEWS:
We are off to the airport tomorrow morning and heading to Vietnam.
I cannot believe the day has finally come and there is nothing left to do but journey to our son!
A few friends from church came over tonight to pray for us. The prayers were so precious to my heart, praying for health, bonding, renewal and my most favorite a 'whole heart,' meaning soon Avi Joy, Nehemiah, Adam and I will all be together.


"Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
Psalm 46:10

Next post, Day One in Vietnam!
Love, The Perryman Family

January 6, 2009

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."
Saint Augustine

We are excited to announce...

Pre-approval to travel - Dec 16, 2008

Leaving Oklahoma for Vietnam - Dec 30, 2008

Giving and Receiving Ceremony - January 6, 2009

Returning home, tentative - January 18, 2009



We are able to celebrate last night at Adam's company Christmas party. Could our smiles get any bigger?

"I will praise You forever for what You have done." Psalm 52:9

With love
Adam, Natasha, Avi Joy and Nehemiah

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