A Very Quiet House

I am home alone finishing the packing and cleaning. The kids are at school, Jim is at work, the dogs are exhausted from barking at the guys who cut the neighbor's lawn. Packages we are taking for other children in the orphanage, whose parents still wait, have arrived. Sissie - thank you for the gifts for Marsh and Lily. They will love having something to open. It is a rare day when I am home alone for any period of time. Its kind of nice. This isn't going to happen again for probably a very long time. And that is just fine.

We leave tomorrow at 9 am and arrive in HCMC at 10:20 pm Friday night. 25+ hours of travel. Did I mention I hate to fly? I guess a mother's love (and Zanax!) is stronger than my fear. We will meet and adopt Hung in the span of about an hour on Monday morning.

We are so thankful for our friends and family as we waited and waited and waited. Our other Dong Nai parents have been a real lifeline. Wendi, Annette, Val your good humor and our monthly gift exchanges really kept me going. A huge thank you to Deb M. - my right hand at the office who, with the help of my partners Tom and Jan, will keep my practice running and the clients informed and happy. Without Tom asking "would you guys ever do this again?" after we adopted Lily, we might not have been on this path!

Father John, you have been the spiritual rock that helped us to continue to believe this child was meant to be with us and would come home on our darkest days. Your Christopher is in our prayers. God bless Thoa and Michelle at our agency Holt who for many months have taken the brunt of our anger or sadness on every Friday telephone call for the last year when we heard "no news, more delay, back to the province....." Mrs. Watson and Mrs. Moore - thank you for pulling Marshall's work together so quickly so that he could be on this important journey for our family. Although he is probably not so thankful, we are. :)

We don't know what Hung has been told or how his foster family, who has loved him for 5 years, is preparing him for the change. We do not know if we will meet a scared, angry, withdrawn or aggressive child. Our fellow adoptive parents of older children have tried their best to prepare us for every scenario. But, when it comes down to it, we will have to fall back on love and humor to get us through. As Rob and Cristel reminded us, God has been preparing Hung's heart for his forever family. We can't believe we are finally about to depart!!!!! We look forward to posting photos soon with our new son. Praising God from whom all blessings flow!!

Much love,
Mary Li, Jim, Marshall and Lily