Another great day with family....

Today was a wonderful day. We spent most of the afternoon with my brother and sisters and their families. We invaded my Mom's house and had a ball. It was the first time that my Mom had all of her children and grand children together since Zoe and Khoa came home. She is very proud of the fact that she has FOURTEEN grandchildren! Five of those fourteen live in Florida, so we aren't all able to be together very often. In fact, it rarely happens, so when it does...we have to party!

Enjoy the pictures, there are several....and...if there are typos in the titles of the pictures, please forgive me. It's almost midnight and I'm tired.

God Bless.

Very fun weekend!

We went to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend a Vietnam Reunion Day organized by our adoption agency, Dillon International. It was fantastic and worth every mile that we traveled! Khoa was able to see some of his Vinh Long buddies and was so happy to especially see his friend Sera. They had a terrific time and didn't leave each other's side most of the day. When we were getting ready to leave, Khoa broke my heart. He didn't understand why she couldn't come with us. He was almost in tears.

We enjoyed getting to meet many of the people that we "knew" from reading their blogs and we were also able to spend some time with one of the families that we traveled with, The Dossers. Alex and Khoa had a great time swimming in Alex's pool and it was so nice for Rob to get to meet them, since he didn't travel with us to Vietnam.

I'm not much in a writing mood this evening, so I'm just going to post some pictures and let you enjoy.

God Bless.

Singing in Church and then Gone Fishing

Betsy and her good friend Tristen sang in church a few Sunday's ago. They did a great job. Here is a short clip of them singing. I promise, they were not as petrified as they look!



Our neice graduated from High School. We are so proud of her. She was 2nd in her graduating class! She will be headed off to college this fall. Can't believe that she is old enough to be going to college. Seems like she was just a baby....like yesterday!


We went to Leigh's graduation party and the kids got to fish in Uncle Kevin and Aunt TR's pond.
Khoa's first time fishing was so much fun. Even his sisters got in on the fun.
Thanks Uncle Bill for taking off all 22 fish that Betsy caught! Yep, 22 bluegill!!! She had a blast. Erin caught 5 and Khoa, well he helped catch several. Not sure how many.


Here is a video of Khoa reeling in a fish. Watch the very end when he stomps his feet because he's mad. It's so funny. The good news is that he doesn't stomp much. He was just so excited to get his hands on that fish!

Okay, I promise I won't always have tons of videos on the website, but I just love the fact that I can upload them if I choose too! It's so much fun.

Let me tell you what's not fun....Car Shopping. That's what's not fun! I hate car shopping. I really hate it. Why can't people be honest? It's a mystery to me. Do they really think that we won't notice the damage to the front of the vehicle that happened when they hit a deer? Do they really think that we won't notice the bumper that is cracked because they backed into a tree? Do they really think that we want a vehicle that has tires as bald as my husband and brakes that sound like they are gasping for their last breath? Do they really think we won't notice the big deep scratches on the side of the car that they tried to cover with fingernail polish???Geeze!!! I hate car shopping!

Okay, I'm done with the temper tantrum. Please pray that we will find a good dependable vehicle for Erin that won't fall apart the first time she drives it!

Khoa enjoying the Pool.

Here are a few short videos of Khoa today at the pool. He is too cute!!!

Lots of Good Things happening.....

We are so excited. We now have an Indiana Birth Certificate with Khoa's full name, listing us as his parents. It's a wonderful piece of paper! He also now has a social security number and we can FINALLY finish our taxes. The courts in Indiana offically recognized Khoa's Vietnamese adoption as a full and final adoption in Indiana also. Which basically means that the Indiana courts agreed with all of the Vietnamese documents and that the adoption is now listed in Indiana as full and final as of December 7, 2006 (the actual day of the adoption in Vietnam). On January 30th, 2007 Khoa's name was officially changed in the Indiana courts and legally has our last name. It is a wonderful feeling and we are so glad that we are done with the adoption paperwork! Praise the Lord.

His English is improving and we can understand most of what he is trying to tell us. Sadly, he no longer speaks any Vietnamese. I really wish that we could speak Vietnamese so that he wouldn't forget it all.


Erin now has her drivers license. Yikes!!! Am I really old enough to have a daughter that can drive? I guess so. She's only driven by herself now two times. It is so scary letting her drive away without anyone in the car. I told her yesterday that it took every ounce of Faith I had to let her leave. I just have to trust that God will keep her safe.


Betsy is so funny. One minute she is so good with Khoa and then the next minute, they are fighting like, well....sister and brother. Okay, since they ARE sister and brother, I guess that makes sense. :-) Anyway, Betsy is so good at teaching Khoa things. She has helped him learn to count to ten, how to sing several songs. She has even some how learned the one and only song that Khoa will sing in Vietnamese. She can sing in word for word and she is the only one that can get him to sing it. So sweet!





Here are a few pictures that describes Betsy and Khoa's relationship.....it's a "love, hate" relationship!

What's in a name???

I’ve decided that the hardest part of coming up with a blog entry is the Title. I mean if I give it some hum drum title, then the post may come across as boring. Please. As if I would ever write anything that was boring (ha ha…just trying to be funny). Seriously, I really do stress out about what the title of the entry will be…it all started when I was writing updates for our adoption blog. I love reading other blogs with fun titles. I want to have that snappy, eye catching, funny title. I’m sure the most memorable post in the adoption blog was the one titled "God, the Vietnamese Mail System, and a Hoochie Mama!" How’s that for a title! I AM rather proud of it. Okay, since it took me like two stinkin’ hours to figure out how to put the link in above, I’m going to call it quits for now. I hope that my posts are interesting enough that you’ll check back in to read what I’ve got on my mind.