Lyv turns 2

     What amazing blessing from God above that our sweet girl was home for her 2nd birthday!  Another blessing is that I was still here with them to help celebrate!  She is doing great!  A few rough moments, but all-in-all she's doing better than expected.  Praise be to God alone for answering so many prayers for her and her family at this time.
     She is happy, healthy, and enjoying life for the most part.  She laughs, smiles, dances, sings, and jabbers all the time.  She loves her older siblings and sometimes loves on them too much :)!  She LOVES being outside. We try to speak to her in Korean just to help her transition be easier.  This is harder than we thought...we have the Korean words written out in phonetic form...but where to put the inflections is beyond us.  Sometimes Lyv just stares at us like...what are you even trying to say...at other times she nods her head indicating that she does indeed understand our very broken Hangul (Korean).  She is already picking up on English things we say all the time...so cute!  She's a little smartie!  Can't wait to see the progress she makes between now and Christmas! 
     My sister and her family are just doing great with her.  The kids are very patient and kind and LOVE her to pieces.  D and J are so kind and loving and just love her to pieces...they take each step with her with so much love.  They comfort her sadness, encourage her happiness, and love on her so much!  She is one blessed little girl to be placed in this family.  God's sovereign plan is indeed amazing! 

     Here are a few pics from her birthday fun!  She's amazing!!!  Thank you, to her birthmother for giving her the gift of life...to her foster moms for giving her the gift of love...and to her new mommy (and daddy) for giving her the gift of love and a forever family...and to God for planning this perfect plan for Lyv's life and for giving her to us!!  We love her sooo much!

This one isn't from the birthday, but it's a favorite from today...so I had to post it!

 

First 24+ hours

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...so you're gonna get a few of my favorites from the last 24+ hours with our sweet girl!  She is grieving some, but she is doing great.  She loves the big kids...and shadows Noah everywhere!  It's very cute!  Thankful for this new blessing to our family!  To God Be The Glory!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY

My sister's status before they went to get her -

"Verses on our minds as we woke up for this biggest of days . . . I will never leave you. . . though I journey to the far side of the sea, still Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast . . . I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. . .You will keep in perfect peace all whose thoughts are fixed on You, because they trust you. . .God has not given us the spirit of fear...

but of power and of love and of a disciplined mind . . . Though father and mother forsake you, the LORD will take you up . . . the LORD is close to the broken hearted and rescues those whose spirits are crushed. . . The LORD is my refuge and my strength a very present help . . . The LORD has done great things for us, and we are glad!!!!
 Today is the day we finally meet our daughter. I can not wait to whisper in her ear--you are my daughter . . . beloved forever. Thanks for all of your prayers for us. We desperately need the personal loving involvement of the Creator God and HE IS here helping, guiding, strengthening. Praise Him!"

 

Last night (Wednesday) at 11pm CST my sister Deb, held her sweet baby in her arms for the first time ever!  We celebrated the occasion here with a party!!!  Here are some pics from our fun!  Alyvia Huimang...you are loved with an everlasting love by your forever family and most importantly by the God that sent His Son to die for you!  Can't wait to teach you about Him and His love for you!

Yummy Snacks

Fun Games

Glow Stick fun

Noah fell asleep with glow stick in hand!

Woke up to this quote on my sisters page - "We got her and she is the sweetest EVER! Not a lot of grieving yet, Omma says she's pretty chill. Thanks for praying for her and her foster family and us. Cant wait to show you our new daughter! The LORD has done great things for us! We are glad! And forever grateful for another beautiful baby!!!!!"

Then TODAY we got to Skype with Deb, John, and ALYVIA!  She was super excited to see the bigs on the computer.  Below are a few pics!  The one is VERY fuzzy/dusty...but her smile was amazing so I posted it anyway.

And now the bigs are making welcome home posters!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY, GREAT THINGS HE HATH DONE!!!

Thankful for God's Protection

Let me preface today's story with...
    On Sunday we came home from church and Allie smelled something that smelled kinda like gas...but I passed it off as the left over frying quesadillas smell and didn't think much more of it.  On Monday all of us kinda had headaches or tummy aches...but once again...didn't think anything of it.

SO TODAY I went in to the boys room to get Noah some clothes this morning and I smelled a VERY strong gas smell.  So the older kids and I investigated.  The strongest smell was in the boys' room...odd...now what to do...I opened windows to air out the house before figuring out what to do next.  I chatted with my other sister and she suggested I call the gas company...which I had thought about, but I didn't know WHO their gas company was.  So I searched through all their bills looking for a gas bill...and turned up nothing.  So I opened up the phone book and started looking through it for gas companies.  One company sounded familiar to Allie so I tried that.  How odd is it when someone calls and says...I don't know if you're the company that supplies this house, but I thought I'd try.  I gave the lady the address and sure enough...they were my sister's gas company...SCORE one for Allie!  Sent the littles outside until we figured out the problem.  The gas man came out and found the leak...praise the Lord...BUT he couldn't fix it.  So I needed to call a plumber...RIGHT...I'm not from here...and I have to call a plumber...ok...so I called the Burdettes and they gave me a few numbers to try...however they couldn't get here until FRIDAY...that's 3 days...hmmm...not thinkin' so.  So I called a few more and finally found one that could come out today.  They were so kind and helpful.  The man came out and fixed the problem...rehooked up the gas and water heater and was on his way.  So thankful for the Lord's protection.  Our reactions could have been so much worse and we are just thankful that we smelled it and were able to get it taken care of.

     In the midst of all this I had told the kids we would take cookies to the fire department to thank those men and women for their service to our community in GI.  So inbetween the gas man and the plumber we did just that...afterall...being in the house wasn't a good idea.  The little boys LOVED LOVED LOVED the firetruck.  The man that we talked to was sooo kind and showed them the ladder truck.  They were so thrilled.  They had never seen a fire truck up close.  They loved it!

     After all the drama we went out for supper...

     Then came home to Skype with their mommy and daddy which they also love.  I told them all about the drama here and the kids told them all about the fire station!

Thankful for God's grace and protection!