Preparing for Oklahoma

This is Kennedy in Hanoi. I was trying to prepare her for the cold weather she would encounter in Oklahoma. This picture says it all. She is cool. Very cool.

Welcome to America!

We made it! Whoever coined the phrase "there's no place like home " knew what they were talking about. With that said "Welcome to America Kennedy Grace Bayer!"
This child can not be more perfect. Not one tear the whole way home! That includes 6 hours at the airport in Hanoi waiting standby for a flight, 5 hour standby in Seoul and racing through Dallas to make another flight! And when we got home she walked up to everyone like she knew them all her life. She already has her daddy, brothers and sisters wrapped around her little finger. My husband Mike is so funny, he said at the airpot mind you " If they were all this easy and potty trained we could do this again!" Ha Ha Mike! Very funny. Our son Cody who is 21 and wasn't for this adoption at all is in love. He asked me if he could take her to show his friends! had to say no on that one but maybe later. Our son Dustin stayed home on a Saturday night (unheard of when your 17) and then wanted to take her to his Sunday school class! Again no on that request. What is really sweet is my daughters Jordan and Cameron 11 & 7 or also known as "Kennedys other mothers" smother her with so much attention it is to precious. I think Kennedy must think they are Vietnamese because when she is around them she just talks and talks to them as much as a 2 1/2 year old can in vietnamese. They just shake thier heads and smile. Our oldest Michael is out of town and has not met her yet.
She is already sleeping all night and we went to church yesterday and again she was awesome. As soon as I find my camera I will post some pictures.
So let me tell you how God got us home. Miracle after miracle. First as you know we flew standby which means you wait to see if seats are availble. The week before the group I travled with was told there were no tickets out, everything was booked until Feb 1st. So I went on Orbitz and wrote down every single flight we could take from Haoni to Seoul, I was thinking "ok, one country at a time." Well my husband emailed me on Thursday before we left about a flight that left at 1 am from Hanoi to Seoul. Now I never saw that flight at all when I pulled flights up. Michelle and Tony who traveled with us also never were told about the flight, but all of the sudden this flight appears...looks good, get to the ticked counter as we have waited 6 hours and someone at AA in America had put infant on Kennedys standby ticket instead of child so I had to buy her a $520 ticket to Seoul! At least I had the money and we got on the flight, this mystery flight. We arrived in Seoul, went to Korean Air to get on the standby list of a overbooked flight and same thing... I have to buy a child ticket $1500 one way to Dallas! I don't have the money and they will not budge, I get a lump in my throat the size of Texas and my mother in law whips out her credit card and says give us a ticket. Now since me and her are flying standby I ask if we will be able to get on if we buy Kennedy a ticket. Right then 5 hours before the flight they give us our boarding pass which isn't done when you are flying standby until the last minute! We get on the flight and we realize we had gotten the last 3 seats they had! You could not have squeezed one more person on that plane!
Then we get to Dallas and just make our connecting flight! Oh and all the flights were smooooth! Know one will every convince me that God does not answer prayers! Everyone was praying for us and He answered! Oh one more thing. I thought how are we going to pay my mother in law back? Well God answered that one also!
So I give God all the glory! How to people live without God in their lives is a mystery to me!
Know we begin our new life with Mighty One! More post and pictures to come. I need to go find my camera!

Last post from Vietnam

I hope. This afternoon we go for our visa interview and tomorrow they said we could pick them up. With that said anything can happen but hopefully we will be heading to the airport Friday afternoon.
As this part of the journey comes to an end I marvel at God and His perfect timing. He knew Kennedy was waiting on us. And though it was hard looking at her picture for nine months He knew when the perfect time was for us to travel. She was ready for us at this time. Somehow in ways we can't explain only that it was God the money came together, the crew at home survived without me and I was able to experience this wonderful country.
We know Gods timing is perfect but we still want immediate results. Then after our prayers are answered we look back in awe at His perfect timing. I hope someday I learn to enjoy the wait.
With that said and if it is His will we will be home sometime Saturday afternoon.
Your prayers, warm thoughts and best wishes have been felt and appreciated so much. Good bye Vietnam.

A gleam of hope

I have been praying and I know my family and friends have also that we will get a flight out by the weekend. Well today Brad (traveling dad) went and to see if he could exchange his tickets from next Monday to this Friday when we are suppose to get our visa, and he got them! This is the small gleam of hope we needed. So tommorow I am going to see if we have a chance of getting on the same flight. That means we would get home Saturday! I would very much appreciate your prayers.
We have no doubt Gods timing is perfect and we will get home. I am just so anxious to get Kennedy home and to see my husband and children. I am a pretty tough cookie but this cookie is ready to crumble from missing them so badly.
Tomorrow night we go see the water puppets. Both Kennedy and Kien are feeling a little bit under the weather right now, so any other adventures we will play by ear.
I would love to sight see more but that may not be in the cards this trip. I came here to bring my daughter home and that is my main focus. She is a remarkable little girl and is doing better than I ever imagined.
Thanks to everyone for your sweet comments. They mean the world to me and I look forward to reading them.
Ms. Kennedy is waking up from her nap so I will post later.

Hello Hanoi

What a difference. It is hard to beleive we are still in Vietnam. Hanoi is totally different from Ho Chi Minh City. Tonnie you are right it has more of a cosmopolitan feel to it and it is much cooler here. The hotel is great. We have a balcony that overlooks this beautiful street. Only draw back is we have to walk up 4 flights of stairs to our room!
Kennedy gets more precious everyday. Yesterday she came up to me, touched my cheek and said "Oanh youn ma" the spelling is wrong but she was saying "Oahn loves mama." I say this to every day, Ma youn Oanh" and she just smiles. She is so smart. I was showing her pictures of Olivia and she smiled from ear to ear and said her VN name! So tonight she was sitting there and starting naming the names of the four boys she knew at Ninh Thuan. We played with them when we were there. It was kind of bitter sweet. I wonder what her little mind was thinking.
She is so loving and funny. And she did great on the airplane ride. She even tried to buckle my seatbelt.
I can't wait to get her home! Only thing is we went to dinner at a missionaires house the other day and they had a dog the size of a peanut and it terrified her. I hate to see what happens when she sees our dog, he is huge!
Well it has been a very long day. I need some sleep

Good Bye Saigon

Tomorrow we leave Saigon for Hanoi. It has been incredible here. The people and their culture is amazing. We have been treated like royalty everywhere we go except when we cross the street then you are own your own. It will be bitter sweet. It feelslike home at the Kim Do. Everyone here knows us and they know we are leaving tomorrow and they are sad. We had a farewell dinner tonight with the Dillon staff and we all got kind of teary eyed. They are so incredible! I may work for Dillon but I don't beleive you could find anyone anywhere like the staff here in Vietnam. The are amazing and I will miss them terribly.
Recomendation when you are here go to the new Pizza Hut at the Diamond Department Store on the 4th floor. I would love to get this kind of service at a 5 star restaurant in Oklahoma! I promised Tuan or Tony as we called him that I would tell all of our families about them. They were great! So here is to Tony and the staff at Pizza Hut for making some weary travelers feel at home.
Please continue to pray for us as we travel. Tickets are hard to find. God has been good to us and I have no doubt He will get us home soon.

A little delay

Thomas just called and said we will not have an appointment with for the interview until next Thursday. That is the day we planned on leaving for home. So with that in mind we will suck it up and go with the flow. We are going to go ahead and fly to Hanoi Saturday. We are all ready for a change of scenery. There is Gods grace in all of this. I believe the embassy is only open Mon-Wed. The fact that we have an appointment on Thursday is a miracle, they made an exception for us and we will possibley be able to pick up our visa friday and fly out. So with that said we are asking for prayer. Myself, Kennedy and my mother n law are flying stand by and word is that flights are booked trying to get out So we need some prayer for that also.
I miss my family so much and I need to get home.

This girl we call Mighty One

Mighty One never ceases to amaze me. She loves to eat, loves the ac, loves baths, loves ice cream, she feeds herself (insist on it) and is potty trained, now take away her cherrios and she is a force to reckon with! Her vice is her bottle at nap time. I wouldn't take it from her right now for anything in the world. We will work on that when we get home.
Tonight I heard her singing in Vietnamese, so I grabbed my cam and recorded her. It was so beautiful. Then earlier she looked at me and lifted her arms and I picked her up, she put her head on my chest so I rocked back and forth with her humming and she fell asleep. It was so awesome. She is learning words. The vietnamese who watch her eat or talk tell me she if very kind and smart. Like I didn't know that?!
How in the world do you thank God for a gift such as Mighty One? Thank you seems so inadequate. But we are thankful and grateful and I know God knows this.
Thank you God for my precious gifts, Mike, Michael, Cody, Dustin, Jordan, Cameron, Kennedy, Jaylon & Amiya.

What ice storm?

Hey if your going to Vietnam go in January the weather is perfect! Even Ninh Thuan was nice.
Hmmm.... I can't come home until the ice storm in Tulsa is GONE!

A girl just wants to have fun!

Mighty One on the beach in Ninh Thuan.
I told Mike she loves to shop and he said "great I have to get a third job." My poor Mike he would if he had to. When he saw her on the web cam he grinned from ear to ear.
Kennedy is doing well. I took her to the big market today and that is when we finally had a melt down. To much stimuli to soon. Once she went back to the room
she was fine. She is such a blessing and a smile that would melt your heart.

Introducing

Mighty One, Kennedy Grace Bayer! This is after the G&R ceremony. She was not happy at all because they had put a diaper on her. So after it came off we have been smiles ever since. She is perfect and beautiful and a complete joy! Hey the girl loves to shop. We went to the mall and she says "Ma" and points and smile. She has me wrapped around her little finger. She is tiny! Her daddy, sisters and brothers were able to see her tonight via web cam. She blew them kisses.
I have so much more I want to tell everyone on but it is late and my battery is low so I will post more tomorrow. We did a lot of the paper work today and can you beleive it, the American Embassy is closed Monday for Martin Luther King Day! Oh well. We are trying to experience this beautiful country and take advantage of our free time. Thanks to all of you for your prayers it is going great.

What a day!

I can't beleive this beautiful child God has blessed us with. If you say her name in V.N. it is pronounced My T one ....Mighty one. She already calls me Ma which is mom in VN. She has a smile that will light up the world and smart!!! Oh my gosh, unbeleivalbe! She is incredible. I am trying to load a picture but of course I will have to wait until I get back to Ho Chi Minh. It isn't working here. Heather your right this hotel in Ninh Thuan is unbeleivable! I told Jynger I am not sure I want to come home. I feel like a queen. As if this day could not be more perfect, Thomas arranged a birthday party for me with all the G&R staff and most of the staff from the orphanage. Something like 30 people were there. It was incredible! I received 2 long stem bouqete of the most beautiful flowers and a gift. I felt like Ms. America. Oh and a cake that was gorgeous! We found out it was also Phoungs birthday, she is part of the Dillon Staff here. Kennedy loved it. Her nanny was here and held her the whole time. Well I need to get Mighty One to bed. I will try to post pictures later.

Tommorow is the big day!

Tomorrow I meet Kennedy! I am so excited. It is about an 7 hour trip. I can not wait to see this beautiful child God has chosen for our family. We are truly blessed. We live at 6:00 am Tuesday which would be 5:00 pm Monday night for my crew back in Oklahoma and Texas.
What a wonderful week this will be Monday my awesome grandson Jaylon turns 5, Tuesday I meet Kennedy, Wednesday she becomes ours and Thursday I have a birthday. I could not ask for a better gift. Jaylon I love you so much and I wish I could be there for your birthday but I promise I will bring you a great present from Vietnam. Give Amiya a hug and kiss for me.
I may get brave today and get on a motorcyle!!!
So the next time I post I will have Ms. Kennedy with me!

Good Morning Vietnam!

We made it! We arrived at midnight and besides being a little tired it is beautiful and wonderful! It is Saturday around 11:27 am here. We already went out to see if we could cross the streets and we made it!
I can't beleive I am here. You wait and wait and then...well your here. It is sureal.
In four days I will finally get to meet, touch,hug, hold, kiss sweet Kennedy Grace (well if she will let me!) I can't wait.
Thank you to all of our family and friends And MY CO-WORKERS who are my family/friends who have prayed for us on our Journey to Kennedy. Your love and prayers mean so much.
I brought my sons laptop, and it doesn't work in my room :( I have a webcam so I could see my family. We have skype and I came down here to the business room and used their computer. I could see my beautiful crew but they could not see me. So if anyone out there has some advice let me know.
I feel a nap coming on.

Last time before I go!

This will be my last post before I leave for Vietnam. I am ready to go but I am going to miss my family very much. We did get skype and webcams so we can actually talk and see each other, so hopefully that will make missing them a little easier.
Six days until I meet our angel Kennedy Grace. It seems surreal. I can't wait to hold this precious gift from God in my arms!
Please pray for safe travel there and back. That everything runs smoothly over there so we can come home sooner. And please pray for my husband and children while I am gone.
One more thing. I have an awesome husband. A lot of women would not be able to leave there homes and families for a couple of days let alone three weeks and know the house would still be standing when they came home. I am priveledged and honored to say I can! Also knowing my church family and good friends will be there for them also helps.
Thank you God for all of these blessings.

He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him,whose thoughts turn often to the Lord! Isaiah 26:3