The Restoration Process

PART ONE
A week ago today I woke up and headed to the kitchen to fix breakfast. I immediately noticed a huge brown stain on the ceiling about 3 x 3 feet that was dripping. Then I looked over at the kitchen table and see that it is covered with water and is also leaking from the ceiling. Since it was it was dripping only in those two rooms and it happened to be above the two bathrooms, we were confident that a pipe froze and busted.
We turned off the water and waited 2 days for a plumber to arrive at our house- because all 20 that we called were snowed in and could not make it to our home. While we waited things only got worse. The kitchen ceiling fan began pouring water in a stream, the light fixture over the dining room starting streaming and room by room, water started dripping out the ceilings.
Here is what was weird... since we had no damage to the second floor, we could not figure out where the water was coming from.
The plumber came and tore a hole in the kitchen ceiling and confirmed that it was not a pipe. He said to call a roofer. We did and he suspected that we had "ice damming". We headed to the internet and after looking at pictures and seeing how the rooms were being effected we did indeed have ice damming.
Basically it is where solid ice prevents water (the snow that is melting) to run off your roof, in turn, forcing the water up under the shingles. The water was running down the walls and pooling on the first floor ceiling.
We called our insurance company and they had a restoration team come out and take a look at it. We decided to go ahead with the removal of the wet sheet rock and we were totally shocked.
Here is what we saw in every room wall and ceiling...
OUT ----> and OUT -----> and MORE OUT ----->
Then they began covering everything with tarps from top to bottom. This is our dining room.
Bathroom is covered.
Then they started tearing it out!
And MORE out...
This is our kitchen ceiling.
The dining room.
The living room wall and ceiling.
The foyer wall and ceiling.
The homeschooling wall and ceiling.
In the end, all rooms but two have either a wall or ceiling removed or parts of both.

PART TWO
Some of you know of our raccoon saga. We found out when we moved in that we had raccoons living in our attic. We had them removed, but they left behind tons of damage to the insulation and piles of feces. We knew that we needed to have it all removed and replaced, but just couldn't jump because of the expense.
As the guys started tearing everything out, they noticed the soggy poo insulation and they had to stop. Raccoons carry a bacteria that can cause meningitis and even kill you. They are in the process now to come (in protective gear) and suck out all the old funk in the attic, remove the final ceilings, blow in new insulation, re-sheet rock, trim and paint every room.
Our insurance is covering most of this damage. It will not cover any roof damage as it a new roof and was installed to code. It will cover the removal of the insulation and putting new in, but not the sanitation. It will cover all the inside construction work. And the cherry on top for me, they will have the carpets cleaned when they leave the job. Hallelujah. All in all, after we pay our deductible, Adam and I feel that we have been very well taken care of by everyone involved and we can see God's provision and working all this restoration of our home for our good.

PART THREE
So where are we now??
We are at a hotel for a week. We could not stay in the home due to raccoon feces, fans blowing and other construction issues. Hopefully we will be home by this weekend or early next week. We are a few miles from home doing life as "normal". Like a little vacation where you don't have to wash your own towels, which I like very much.
We also have a mini-fridge and microwave that has helped us tremendously. Having juice, cereal, sandwiches and soup has been so wonderful. Hotel food was good for the first day here, but then your stomach pitches a fit along with your wallet. And steaming HOT showers back to back to back for all of us! This is quite a treat as our water heater is old and does not allow us this luxury.
The hotel we chose has a huge play pool area that we have visited every morning.
Even little non-swimmer has ventured into the water. Notice the 2' 9" on the side there. Good job babe. (Seriously, he does not know how to swim.)
Nehemiah likes it most of the time...
... but then little merman has to get out and get all warm and cozy.
I CANNOT believe that school has been canceled for 2 weeks straight! This never happened to me as a child and did not happen while teaching! I am shocked, really. Lucky for us we are carrying on as normal with homeschooling. A bit more relaxed because we are swimming and hangin' at a hotel, but still our school work gives Beautiful and Avi Joy some purpose in the afternoon while brother sleeps. Here she is trying to read her comprehension book while Avi Joy sings her spelling words. Note the plugged ears.
And Oh this girl and her messy curls. I love to do a quick series of shots and post them together. They speak for themselves and I just think she is the most magnificent little thing. Enjoy.





I have had several verses touch my heart the last week or so, but none really as much as Hebrews 13:5, "Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present circumstances and with what you have; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!"

The Perryman Family

Snowflakes and Hairstyles

Sum Hop Day fun at Incredible Pizza.
Barbie and our new carpet go well together- they can stand on their own.
Soup and Sandwiches with the Butter crew. I was able to -temporarily- fix my baby fever by loving on 6 week old baby Caroline.
Miss Beautiful playing teacher to all her students. (Keep in mind that Andrew and Samuel are wearing short sleeves- it is the weekend before the snowstorm!)
Lunar New Year celebration! Our sixth year to attend Dillon's celebration that raises money for OrphanCare.
Our friends from the Vietnamese church were invited to perform a dance.
Avi Joy.was.completely.memorized.
Walked out of the shower and saw my son in a stash. Miss Beautiful had found it in the treasure box at church. Haven't laughed that hard in a while.
Somebody got braces!
As if you have not heard, Oklahoma received record breaking snowfall. We have stayed inside for over a week now. And if I may, and I can since it is my blog, get on a tiny soap box for a moment. What is the deal with everyone hating staying inside? I mean, God called it to snow. He gave us the opportunity to stop every single thing and stay home with our family. And yet we complain about staying home with our family. I just don't get it.
It is frustrating and I actually wanted to tell some people to get over it and enjoy their FLEETING downtime and extra time with their husbands and children. And don't even get me started on working mom's who complained about not going to work and had to stay home with their kids. Seriously. I mean if they were too busy, I would read FB posts about them wanting to rest. Take the opportunity is all I'm saying.
And partly this is my homebody personality coming out, when I am overbooked in life, I start to go downhill from the stress and anxiety of busyness. I do understand that working equals money and this type of month is horrible especially for small business. And when you may be in a season without family around or are single, it can be really difficult living in isolation. My prayer for myself and for others is to see things as a season. I am trying to learn to trust God and embrace my trying times instead of wishing them away.
Our backyard was a snowy paradise.
Our kids and a neighborhood friend having a snowball fight. Can you see the snowball that is in midair?
We also made snow ice cream. We made it in 5 different flavors, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, caramel and some kind of creamy flavor that we bought at the Asian store which was my favorite.
On the second day of the storm I woke up to a flooded kitchen. We thought a piped busted, but we were actually are the sad victims of "snow damming". This snow damming is where ice is packed in the gutters preventing water to drain and since snow is packed on top of the house, the water has no where to go except under the shingles and into your home. Water was literally pouring out the ceiling fans, light fixtures and dripping in many a spots in every room on the first floor.
Here is an example of just one spot. Tomorrow we have an electrician, a restoration company and a roofer coming to begin work on the repairs. Then after the next snow storm, which is predicted for 2 days from now, a construction crew will come over to complete the job by replacing basically our entire first floor ceiling. Thank you All State, like a good neighbor, they were truly there for us. I need to be in a commercial for them, I am sold out on their customer service.
We focused our energy elsewhere, like smiley pancakes from scratch. My whole wheat banana pancakes rock, if I do say so myself. And making pancakes next to my caulking gun apparently seemed appropriate.
On the last day of the snowstorm, (only received like 4 inches that day), the Homan family dropped off Sarah to spend the night. The girls had a grand time together!
Andrew was able to play for a bit with Nehemiah as well.
We baked cookies, made sticker books, played dress-up, made up ballet dances and painted nails. It was cute because after I took this picture, I let them see it and asked if they could tell who was who. They both agreed that Avi Joy was on the left and Sarah was on the right, but they were wrong- it was too cute.
This picture does not do complete justice to her Hispanic hairstyle. Miss Beautiful is gifted in Hispanic hairstyling. I have told her many times that she is going to marry a hot Mexican man and have little bambinos running around her house.
My girls and I made some cinnamon rolls from scratch. I found a new recipe to try from Food I Crave...
And they are sooooo awesome!
Adam and I just finished a Daniel Fast. We learned so much about our faith in Him and it really prepared us to face our leaking house with a more joyful attitude. When I first saw water pouring down my light fixture I felt completely anchored in the verse, "God WILL work this together for my good because I love Him." Romans 8:28

The P's

Nehemiah's Sum Hop Day

Two years ago today, January 6, 2009, we were in the beautiful country of Vietnam adopting our baby boy. The phrase Sum Hop in Vietnamese means, "To unite, to come together".
Our Sum Hop 2011 pictures in traditional Ao Doi.










I do not think I have shared a recap of his adoption story, so here it goes...

Avi Joy was an infant and we had been home for only 6 months when we started the process for our second child. It did seem a little unwise at the time, but we knew 2 years down the road we would want to have another child. I was already dreaming about another baby and told our social worker that in my dream my child was born in Can Tho. A province of Vietnam where Dillon helped run the American Red Cross orphanage. She just smiled at my active imagination!
Fourteen months into our Vietnam process we were told that the country of Vietnam would be going on hold for an indefinite amount of time and that we would not receive a referral, as we were #5 on the list.
We were heartbroken but knew God could direct us to other countries.
We were still paperwork ready for Vietnam, but switched our funds to the China program. We knew it was a five year process, so we also started a concurrent adoption with DHS. (Because China takes so long, they allow you to do this, so we thought our second child would be through DHS, then baby number three would be Chinese. And that leaving our foot, so to speak, in the Vietnam process would come to nothing.)
But that is not what happened. Our agency called and said that a miracle had happened and that all four families in front of us changed their processes. Two desired older waiting children and two families only wanted female infants. There was a little boy who had just become paper ready and lived in Can Tho and they wanted us to pray about him. But pretty much decide immediately so we could be grandfathered-in to adopting him as Vietnam would be closed by the time we traveled. (VN closed September 2008).
We then waited 8 months to travel and had many hiccups along the way. BUT it was all in perfect timing and we are so thankful and grateful for him. What a joy it is to love (and discipline!) this precious little man.
P.S. Then 6 months after we came home, we picked back up our DHS adoption and were matched with our daughter, 12, and will be finalizing her adoption within the next couple months.

All Vietnam 2009 photos
First Sum Hop day post 2010

I am working on a year in review (of pictures of him). We plan on celebrating by going to do a few things this week and I will post them soon.

"Salvation belongs to the Lord; May Your blessing be upon Your people. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!" Psalm 3:8
Perryman Family

Christmas

Avi Joy and Nehemiah recently started wearing each other clothes for dress up time. I never expected to see them come downstairs one morning both dressed in Avi Joy's princess panties. I laughed so hard it started the ball rolling. They went to Nehemiah's room to get his undies. What is funny to me here, well besides the obvious, is that N's are on backwards. (Oh and I love that they are holding hands- night and day different in temperament, but still like twins.)
Here is more dress-up. Seriously, this needs to be THE ONLY TIME he dresses like a girl, because he looks exactly like one. His sisters named him Hattie, geez!
We kicked off our December by doing our Advent Box. Here is our 25 day count down from this year. I tried to change it up a bit since last year. It is our most precious family tradition.
(The first word is what was inside the box, it was their clue for that night.)

December 1st. Tree: We got out the tree and decorated it.
2. Heart: Played hide and seek with cut out hearts, talked about Psalm 119, "I have hidden Your Word in my heart, so that I will not sin against you."
3. Band-aid: Read the story of the 10 lepers in Luke 17. We wrote with marker on our band-aids, "Jesus is my healer." And then wore them to bed.
4. Q-Tip: Read the story of Mary and Martha listening to Jesus and which was better. Then we cleaned out our ears so that we could listen to Him.
5. Popcorn kernel: Family movie night. We watched Elf and had popcorn. The movie was too adult. Although it is hilarious, we will not watch it again as a family.
6. Mend: I cut the letters m, e, n and d out of fabric. We read through Ecc 3 that there is a time for everything. A time to tear and a time to mend. We got out fabric and needles and sewed.
7. Prayer bracelets: Our church was doing Toys For Tots that week and each person in the church got a bracelet with a child's name. We put on the bracelets and prayed for each child.
8. Music note: We listed to Christmas music while we cleaned house.
9. Gingerbread house picture: We used candy to decorate a gingerbread house.
10. Jesus: We made birth announcements about Jesus' birth. I taught them out to make little feet using their hands and fingertips.
11. Snowflake: We traced circles, folded and made snowflakes. Then we hung them on the tree.
12. Empty: I said it was stolen by the Grinch. Then we watched the old Grinch who stole Christmas movie.
13. Gift tags: They made homemade gift tags with paper and glitter.
14. Little book: We made our own little books, about 5 pages in each book. They are about 3 inches by 4 inches or so. We decorated the front then wrote all the things we were thankful for from 2010. We then punched a hole and hung them on the tree.
15. Three: We pulled out the tree pictures of the children we support. One lives in Vietnam, one in Kenya and one in India. We talked about their Christmas and prayed for them to have forever families.
16. Lightbulb: We hopped in the car and went around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights.
17. Net: I took an apple net/bag and we Read Luke 5 about becoming fishers of men.
18. Star: We got out the paints and black paper and painted our own nativity scenes.
19. Red nose: (It was a human nose in drawn in red marker, so they had to figure it out.) Then we watched the old Rudolph movie.
20. Sheep: Made from the end of a Q-Tip. We talked about we are the sheep and God is our shepherd. We then took a straw and blew the "sheep" into their pen.
21. World: Talked about being the light of the world. We turned off all the lights and had one small flashlight. We each took turns playing with it in the dark and that we are the light in the darkness.
22. Soap: We talked about having clean hands and a clean heart and what they meant to us. We then washed our hands with the soap.
23. Sugar Packet: Baked a birthday cake for Jesus
24. Present: Talked about the wise men and that they gave Jesus 3 gifts. Said they would be getting three gifts each from us tomorrow.
25. Cross: Read the Christmas story from Luke 2.

Here is the top of our gingerbread house.
The Birth announcements. They were so cute.
The sheep into the brown paper bag "pen" was a total hit. My favorite from this year was the thankful books/ornaments. They were so personal and will be done each year. Miss Beautiful's was just precious. It said things like, "So thankful to be in a family" and "Thankful for a mom who treats me like a daughter and not a DHS kid".
We had the Torres family over for a tea party. I just love those two peanuts and really enjoy being with their mama. Love that we have the same parenting style, both were teachers and now stay at home. She is very creative too, her Wisp Clips business is booming!
The week before Christmas we headed to the Homan's house for our annual p.j. party. The kids made a cute snowman treat out of marshmallows and we made salt dough ornaments. They were so fun and EASY!
4 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 1/2 cups water. Kneed dough. Roll out. Cut with cookie cutters. Poke a hole. Microwave for four minutes. Cool. Paint. Hang on tree!
We ended up using 30 of them as tags for our Christmas gifts. We loved giving them away as part of the present. (Big hit with the grandparents you know.)
On Christmas Eve Eve we were able to have some old friends over for breakfast. The Woods family moved to TX last year and we were able to catch up. Their 2 kiddos are the same ages as our younger two and they are also waiting for a referral any moment from Thailand. They have a heart for the country as they lived in Thailand for a couple years. It has been my honor to walk with them through this adoption journey. I just love this picture of her, so joyous and filled with love. We were pretending to be in Vietnam. She is also one creative woman! Her handcrafted jewelry, J Woods Jewelry, is incredible.
Then we had our favorite and loudest family over to spend the night! Whoo hoo for family sleep-overs! All the kids get to play till they drop and then the adults get to stay up late and talk! The Pierce family will be leaving soon to live in India for four years doing college ministry with Student Mobilization. I am so privileged to be friends with those with a heart for God's people overseas.
Now on to some of our favorite gifts. Adam got a set of pots and pans. I had forgotten he asked for this for Christmas from his parents. I think my look of shock and happiness is hysterical. "They are pots, Natasha." "Yes and I am reallly excited!" My favorite gifts were the earrings that Shannon got for me in India and the necklace Vanessa sent from Kenya. I can't help it- I like culture.
Avi Joy and her cousin Annabelle both got princess dresses and glitter shoes.
Several years ago, I was at my friend Dana's house and saw a cross on her daughters wall. It was hanging in the middle of the wall and had her daughter's name and a date on it. I asked what it was and she told me that was the day her daughter accepted Christ. I literally burst into tears and put that away in my mom file. This year I painted one for Miss Beautiful. If you look closely, you might be able to see her new name along with the special dates. hehe.
Nehemiah got a lion from our friends who live in Kenya. They sent us jewelry, headbands, a nativity scene and a lion for Christmas. Nehemiah quickly stuffed his into his dinosaur's mouth.
Avi Joy has been super into flamingo's lately. I ran across this one, but it needed a little sparkle. So I hot-glued silver and pink jewels to miss flamingo and now she sits beautifully in her room.
Nehemiah's gifts: Dinosaur, Car set and a baseball glove.
Avi Joy's gifts: Flamingo, princess dresses and a mini haircut chair w/ hairdresser stuff.
Beautiful: Cross, purse and an apron.
They also all got filled stockings (They liked the new band-aids and pez candy the best), Christmas Eve p.j.'s and were blessed with lots of gifts from family and friends!
I think the apron was my favorite gift to give this Christmas. I am just so in love with this apron. And she looks like a dollbaby cookin in the kitchen wearing it.
Onto Deep Thoughts by Jill Handy: Each time it says the word "faith" in the Amplified version of the bible, it follows by explaining it in the Hebrew and Greek. I have come to LOVE the expanded definition of faith: "The leaning of the entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness." Amen.
The Perryman Family

Name

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet." Juliet Capulet

"God has highly exalted Jesus and has freely bestowed on Him the Name that is above every Name." Philippians 2:9

Name, Names, Naming- has been on my mind.

For several months we have been praying together about changing Miss Beautiful's name after she is adopted. We realize this is a very controversial topic so we have really kept this part of our adoption process to ourselves.
Well, at first I didn't plan on keeping it to myself, but after I told two friends with opinions ranging from, "Why would you do that? Her identity is in her name!" to, "Oh, that is the greatest idea". We could see that it needed to be kept quiet.
Many people have set opinions about "to change or not to change" a child's name after adoption. The following is purely the opinion of our family and what we have come to realize after prayer and consideration for what is best for our family.

After praying about it, we then sought counsel from other families who adopted older child/ren and how they handled name changes. Surprisingly, we found that DHS recommends that it stays the same, but that almost all families we asked did chose (as a family with the child's consent) to change the child's name after adoption. They agreed that the adjustment to a new name was challenging, but that the benefits outweighed the negatives.

I reflected on this a lot, the naming of a child that is and the benefits of it. As moms we are given the great responsibility to provide for our children. I provide food, love, school, prayer, clothes, a home, and even though it is often mixed with impatience on my part, I am still trying to 100% provide all that they need. What seemed difficult for me to understand was providing almost everything, except her name.

I know that before adoption the first family was given the honor to choose a name and I believe after adoption the forever family also gets to share in this honor. With our first two kiddos we chose to keep part of their birthnames as their middle name. We think it is a beautiful connection to their birth family. We do not want to strip anything away from our children by renaming them, if anything, we want it to be a connection to both their birth and forever families.

Almost all mom's dream about naming their child. Whether the child comes to your family from your heart or your womb, there is something magical about choosing the name of your child. I really believe that this is one of the deepest areas of bonding. It is similar a wedding day, taking a new last name.

We also realized that it is also Biblical, as God changed many names at various ages. Such as Jacob to Israel or Saul to Paul, when they came to know Him in their new life. Exactly why did He choose to show their newness in this way? He could have chosen anything to show they were a new person, but He chose to change their name.

Because of her age, 12 1/2, we did want to respect her feelings in this area of course. Therefore talked openly with her about it being her choice and a family decision.
And we have been throwing around many names for quite some time seeing what she/we thought. We would call her a name for a week or so and see if it fit. We had some close winners too and funny ones as well. My personal favorite, Svetlana. If I lived in Russia, this would be my daughters name, so she was spared. And yes, I am serious.

We have already started calling her by her new name. And it has been an adjustment. We have explained it to the little kids several times. Even tonight Avi Joy asked, "Now what is her real name?" We tell them that just like how they were born with a beautiful Vietnamese name, she was born with a birthname as well. Then when they were adopted, we kept part of that name and changed their name to the name God gave us for them.

The meaning of names is very important to our family. Avi Joy means, "My Father's Joy". Nehemiah mean, "God's compassion". And Miss Beautiful's new name means, "Cared for by God".

She has started telling everyone at school, church and family on her own, so that has been exciting for us to watch. She said that yesterday at school (she attends a school on Tues/Thurs and we do school at home on MWF) all her friends love her new name. I know it is an answer to prayer because I thought the hardest place to change was going to be kids at school who wouldn't understand the change.

This week we turned in all our paperwork to our lawyer. This started the ball rolling on her adoption process in court. Actually this is when the new name really was settled in our hearts. Our lawyer called and said, "Choose it tonight, call me in the morning". It was the "choose to change it or not" moment, and we knew the right decision for our family was to chose a new name.
The paperwork has to go through several hoops, including two judges before we are seen in court in our local town and our expected finalization is still scheduled for sometime between January-March.

"And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds.]" Colossians 3:15, AMP

The Perryman's