Can't Think of Anything Clever

Where Have I Been?

2009-03-11T14:24:00.000-04:00

Fell off the planet for a little while. I realize that two people out there may be concerned and wondering how things have been going... So I will be posting again very soon, but right now I have to pick up EJ from school. I promise I'll avoid the edge of the world so I can't fall off again.

Jet Lag wearing off

2008-11-17T08:10:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, but today is the first day my brain has been capable of typing complete sentences.

We have been home for a week now, and things are good. We went to church yesterday. I felt smothered, but little miss seemed fine. She took a great nap when we got home.

She also met Mamaw Carla for the first time, and showed herself. She was a little grump and threw a fit when I did not allow her to yank her brother's snack out of his hands. She tends to behave as though she should get away with anything. We are trying not to allow that. We can't make up for the time spent in an orphanage by allowing bad behavior. She also had her first "time-out" on Saturday. She swatted a toy out of Daddy's hand and grunted. He was trying to help her clean up. We sat her around the corner (she could see us) and she cried her "I didn't get my way" cry. then she got up and started helping clean up the toys. Which proved to me she knew what she was supposed to be doing.

It's been a trip trying to know what to do when she is clearly misbehaving. We know that certain punishments are not appropriate for her, but we can't allow behavior now that we will eventually punish for. That will just make learning the rules harder for her.

Oh well, new topic. Let's go to sleep. She is finally sleeping through the night. YEAH!!!!! But Daddy has been sleeping on the couch because he can't sleep with us. BOO!!!!! So today, I am pulling her toddler bed into our room. I am going to put it right beside our bed, and I will start putting her down for nap in it. When she gets the hang of that, she will go down at night in it. After a couple of months, we'll move it back to her room. She shares a room with brother, so she won't be alone.

Now to the stuff you actually want to know. She calls us all by the VN words for Mommy, Daddy, and Brother. She is saying: I love you, night-night, bye-bye, go potty, thank you, welcome, go wonderpets, peek-a-boo, mamaw, mimi, papaw, and some others. She loves to dance. She signs eat and drink. She also says eat in VN. She loves her bath. She is fully potty trained and has only had 2 night-time accidents. She loves playhouse disney and nick jr. She loves noisy toys, uggghhh. She is a GIRLY girl. She loves picking her own shoes and always wants hair bows, although she pulls them out two seconds later.

AND she is letting Jay pick her up!!!!! The first time was because he was close to candy, BUT she didn't come get me. He has held her in his chair and picked her up several times now. She still won't let him do ceratin things, like get her out of the car seat. Continue to pray for their relationship.

All in all, being home is great. True adjustment does not happen in a hotel half a world away. It happens in day to day REAL LIFE. And we feel as thought she is adjusting very well.

The Kids!

2008-11-10T20:20:00.005-05:00

At long last...

2008-11-10T16:50:00.003-05:00

We are home. We arrived yesterday early afternoon. Elijah and in-laws met us at the airport. I swear he grew two inches while we were gone!

Then we drove home. We were welcomed by a clean home, a meal in the fridge, presents, and a wonderful sign. Thank you all!

Then the real test, how would the two interact???

They loved each other! There was giggling galore! (I will post a picture of them playing later.) They make quite the team, and that will surely bite us later. For now it's wonderful to hear our children, plural, playing in the next room.

Sadie Trinh seems to be adjusting well. She loves her new home, and plays in rooms by herself instead of following mommy around. She doesn't seem to mind the low temps. Jay still can't hold her, but she plays with him and kisses him. She is quiet when new people come over but eventually warms up and begins talking. She doesn't let new people touch her, but will allow them to hand her things.

I want to post an overall on our trip, but we are exhausted right now. Just know that all of your prayers have been greatly appreciated. We are looking forward to everyone meting our beautiful new daughter.

Three Cities; Three Days

2008-11-06T00:41:00.005-05:00

Well we finally arrived in Hanoi last night. It is
amazing how different the three cities have been.
The pictures are all from out of the hotel windows, the top is in Hanoi, next right is Danang, and the last one is Tam Ky.

We asked you all to pray for the embassy appointment for Friday, and guess what, God has come through again. The appointment for Friday is still a go with no problems.

Prayer Please

2008-11-04T06:29:00.003-05:00

Just as everything is falling into place, trouble. Our travel agent cannot find a Friday flight. The Embassy is saying if our paperwork isn't turned in by 9am on Thursday, then our appointment will be moved to Monday. Our clinic appointment is at 9:15 on Tursday so we cannot turn our paperwork in until 10am at the earliest.

We know it's all attack. Please pray that everything will work out. We want to come home! Pray that our appointment with the Embassy will stand. Pray that flights will be made sooner.

Pray! Pray! Pray!

Finally Some Photos!

2008-11-04T05:57:00.004-05:00

"Leavin' On Jet Plane"

2008-11-03T00:45:00.003-05:00

Sorry to disappoint you all :) The Willhoite's, party of 3, will be leaving Vietnam on Friday, November 7. The flights plans are being made right now, so we will have more info for you tomorrow.

Thank you for all the prayers, it is only through God's goodness that we got a Visa appointment on Friday. Some of you may not know, but the US Embassy does not always make Visa appointments on Fridays. Her Visa should be ready by Friday afternoon, and we will take the 7:55pm flight to Hong Kong.

Please continue to pray for our travel as well as Sadie's adjustment.

WE LOVE YOU ALL!

Lunchtime Fiasco

2008-11-01T02:23:00.002-04:00

We tried to take Sadie to the restaurant for lunch. She whimpered when we first got there. Everyone was standing around looking at her. I think she was overwhelmed. Then she started full on crying. I took her upstairs for her meltdown. Unfortunately, the maid was still here. Sadie's crying made her cry. I felt like a failure as a mother. I felt like everyone was thinking that she shouldn't be with us. That was hard.

With my daughter on my lap

2008-10-31T20:34:00.001-04:00

Our first night with our daughter was amazing. She was being so stubborn, she wouldn't get in the bed. I finally had to scoop her up and rock her. During the night she would reach over and touch me in her sleep. In the middle of the night she got up and sat on the floor completely asleep. I again scooped her up, and she didn't even fight. She fell asleep on my chest. I rolled her off, so we could both be more comfortable. BUT she rolled back towards me.

This morning she laid in bed for a very long time. You could tell that she was deciding how she was going to react to her new reality. She decided not to cry.

She has still been ignoring Jay. She has been clinging to me. We are both trying to help her feel comfortable by giving her what she needs. For Jay that means backing off even though he's dying to cuddle her. For me it means sitting and asking for Jay to go get things because little miss won't let me up.

We may decide to venture out later, but I'm nervous about that. We are afraid she may think that she's going back.

Continue to pray for attachment. That she would know it's okay. And pray for Jay. He wants to love on her so badly!!!

Screaming Ball of Tulle!

2008-10-31T00:30:00.003-04:00

Well the G&R Ceremony has finally came and went, Sadie is ours! As par for the course there were lots of tears and screaming and ending with Monica finally grabbing Sadie from the Nannies arms, they had no intentions of leaving. We went up to the hotel room with our little "screaming ball of tulle" in arm. She did not want to eat her lunch, so Monica rocked and rocked until she finally cried her self to sleep in Monica's arms. We knew the transition was going to be hard, but what a beautiful little cry!

God is good!

2008-10-30T15:51:00.002-04:00

Our G&R is set for Friday October 31st at 10:00am.

That's all I can say. Words fail.... Our daughter will be OURS in 7 hours!!!!!!!!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

The rain lifted but it pours on.

2008-10-30T04:33:00.003-04:00

Today was not good. Sadie was at the supermarket getting passport photos done when we arrived for our visit. We walked around for about 30 minutes in the hot sun. When she returned, she did not want to be with us. She had treats from the market, and she was more interested in those. She did take the treats we had brought but then ran away.

Then she went over to the nannies, and completely ignored us. She kept checking to see that we were there, but she was not interested in playing. Hung was gone doing G&R prep. The nannies seemed indifferent to us. It was not a good day.

Hung said we should skip the afternoon visit today. We are at the hotel, but we want to be with her.

Pray that the G&R is tomorrow. Pray that Sadie will adjust well.

We are ready to have her full time. Pray our G&R will be tomorrow!!!!!

FYI

2008-10-29T19:34:00.002-04:00

We cannot log into e-mail, so please leave comments on the blog. We can communicate that way.

Day 2: Lost without translation

2008-10-29T08:58:00.003-04:00

Okay, so apparently a two year old can hold a grudge. Sadie let us know that she was NOT happy with us leaving her yesterday. She wouldn't let us hold her, and at times flat out turned her back to us. Then when Jay put his shoes on to leave our morning visit, she began to cry. I tried to rock her, and she let me. But she wouldn't stop crying. It made the nannies step in, and I felt totally useless.

We both skipped lunch because we were a mess. Rejection hurts!

Fast forward to our afternoon visit... Little miss was sleeping when we arrived, so we watied on the porch. When she woke up the nannies pulled out the toys we had sent her. We played dolls, she combed mommy's hair, and her and daddy played a counting game with batteries (who needs toys). By the end of our visit she was back in love with us.

The truest moment of this was when other kids came in her room. She sat on my lap, and then pulled us away from them, jealousy! It's a good sign. She let me feed her a little, but she wasn't feeling very well. She only ate her soup and some meat. I think her throat is sore.

When we started to put our shoes on, she started to get upset again. The nanny picked her up and talked to her. She allowed me to cuddle her for a few minutes then she was upset. The nanny spoke to her again, and she followed us to the taxi, waving and blowing kisses.

It has been a rollercoster of a day. But at the end of it a phone call with a beacon of light. Please pray that beacon signs true!

BTW spell check is not working, and I'm tired. Forgive the mistakes.

And Now The Moment You Have All Been Waiting For...

2008-10-28T02:12:00.006-04:00

Today was the Big Day, we finally met our beautiful little girl. Words just can not explain how amazing it was, so just take a look for yourselves and see.

We're heeeerrrrreeee

2008-10-27T09:16:00.003-04:00

We arrived in Tam Ky around 6:00ish pm on Monday October 27th. (VN time) We are staying in a so far nice hotel, Le Dung Hotel (go ahead laugh). They met us outside, brought our bags in, and had wet towels and tea waiting. It is also very nice and very inexpensive. We just got here, so give it a while for the full review.

I am not going to write much this evening. I am very tired and need to sleep. I just wanted you all to know that we made it here safely. Thank You for your prayers.

We see our little girl tomorrow, and we have been advised to take presents. Apparently she loves pretty clothes, jewelry, etc. Imagine that!

Pay no attention to the time on this blog

2008-10-26T19:43:00.003-04:00

Let me start with a warning...
I am tired so tired...can't sleep sitting up...want a bed... HEILP!!!! (yes that's what I wrote) (Ya, apparently I can't spell at nearly 2am) We are in San Fran waiting for the longest leg of our flight. My eyes really want to shut but they won't.
I have been pryaing for this flight...safety, comfort, safety, and get us there quickly!

So far we have arrived at both stops ahead of schedule, now if we could leave ahead of schedule everything would be great.

San Francisco 10/25 10:46 Local time 1:46am home time, written in notebook due to lack of internet.

Okay, so we're in Hong Kong. WE have internet. We survived 14hours in uncomfort. This flight arrived early as well. And so far our terminals have been the farthest away possible. In spite of all this, we are one step closer to our daughter.

Continue your prayers for our trip. Other families are saying to expect to wait, but I know the one who has the control. Ask Him for speed on our G&R. Remember Thursday or Friday of this week.

Nerves of ... Not Steel...Maybe Plastic

2008-10-21T11:29:00.003-04:00

I am so nervous. I keep thinking of all that I could forget, or all that could happen. I am trying to focus on the day I see her face and nothing else. BUT there's all these little details that get in the way, like socks and undies. It seems so silly in light of all we've been through, but these are the things keeping me up at night.

I just read blogs of some families who have their children home now. It helps to see the videos of their little ones playing in their own back yards. Lord, help me to remember that in the end our little girl is coming HOME!!!!

I am praying that God gives me the strength I need to make it through. I know He will. Through out this whole process, without His strength I would have given up!

Please pray for our G&R to be scheduled Halloween or earlier. I know God hears you, my friends.

I feel like I'm so prepared, that I'm afraid of being unprepared.

2008-10-13T13:17:00.004-04:00

Figure that one out. I am sitting here looking at packed suitcases and wondering what to do. I packed last week. We have our tickets, passports, and visas. We have all shots and medications for our trip. Hung is looking into hotels for us (Tam Ky doesn't have hotels that do online reservations).

I have typed up the boy's schedule and important numbers for his grandparents. I have contacted his school. We get a paper notarized tonight for his medical care while we are away.

So with all this done, what am I doing? Sitting here feeling like I should be doing something. I feel nervous about being prepared so early. Is that weird?

The nature of this blog

2008-10-09T10:04:00.002-04:00

We will use this blog to chart our journey to VN. We will also use it to update family and friends during our trip.

Travel Itinerary

2008-10-09T09:56:00.004-04:00

Today, we have tickets for our trip. We will try to give as many updates and as much info as possible without giving TOO much.

We plan on leaving our home on Saturday October 25.
We fly out of our state capital to Chicago.
We then fly to San Francisco.
Next we hit Hong Kong.
At last we enter VN in Hanoi.
Then our last flight is to Danang, dangerously close to our daughter.
If there are no delays, we head to Tam Ky to find a hotel and talk to Hung.

Then the next day........We meet our daughter for the first time!