First haircut

On Saturday, Evan had his first haircut by mommy. The deal in our family is mommy cuts everyones hair so mommy can afford to get her hair cut! It works out nicely, most of the time. I have learned that Evan enjoys videos that have children singing. So with our favorite "Donut Man"(if you don't know who the Donut man is you might want to check it out), we set out for our first haircut. I think it was the easiest first haircut of all the kids. Granted, he has definatly had haircuts before so may know the routine. Enough said, here are some pics from the event.

Feels like a dream

Isn't it amazing how quickly a trip or vacation, when you're back into the daily grind, can feel like a dream? Now that we've been back from Vietnam for just over two weeks, it does feel like a dream... at least until I get home from work [Eric writing] and see that cute, little, asian pair of eyes greeting me at the door!!! Then it all comes back -- we really did go and we really did bring home a son. It wasn't a dream.

I must thank again all of you who helped make this DREAM COME TRUE. I must say that over two years ago when we decided to finally fill out the adoption application with HOLT it seemed like a mountain that would be impossible to climb. We we didn't even know then that God had a job change and relocation in mind for us all at the same time! (if we would have known that we probably wouldn't have started - thank goodness God doesn't let us in on the future, otherwise we wouldn't do that things we have been asked to do).

Thank you to all who have prayed and paid - paid for part of the adoption costs. Its amazing that out of the roughly $25,000 of adoption expenses, we have only $2,000 to go - and get this, we will be receiving a $2,000 grant from the State when Evan's adoption is finalized. Get that! Totally debt free - a family of 5 (prior to evan), living on one "average" income, getting through a $25K process without owing a penny! THAT CAN ONLY BE GOD... working through gracious people like you. With MUCH THANKS... Evan and his parents and siblings:)

Dancing baby after one month being a Crawford

Today is a day of celebration for our family. Evan has been ours for one month. We rejoice in all God's faithful hand that has brought us this far. We hope you enjoy this video of him dancing.

You've come so far baby!

Today we celebrate a whole month of Evan being home. We are amazed by God's incredible faithfulness which has brought us to this point. It is awesome for us to think that a month ago we took Evan in our arms for the first time. Now he is quite content being in our family. I think my favorite "change" that has taken place over the last month is seeing him learn to trust us. A month ago I started the routine of holding and singing to him before he went to sleep. He would push away and cry then finally give in. Now, I say time for "Nigh, Night" and sit down on the bed. He curls up in my arms, puts his two fingers in his mouth and snuggles while I sing and pray over him. I praise the Lord for this, realizing that it is His amazing healing hand and knowing that it is in answer to so many prayers! We hope all of you who have prayed so faithfully for us and our family will rejoice today with us.

Signing time

Since we have had Evan, he has learned many new signs. We have taught all of our kids sign so they can communicate before they talk. He has learned the signs for shoes, mommy, daddy, ball(his favorite sign), cookie, all done, please, more, and milk! He is like a little sponge soaking up all of the learning. Here are a few pics of him signing. It may be hard to tell what he is doing, but it is much better in living color. He is signing ball in one picture and I love you in the other by crossing his arms and rocking back and forth. The other pic is just having fun with mom.

We are so blessed of the Lord to be parenting such a sweet little boy!

Boys and bath time

The kids have all been taking turns taking baths with Evan, in their swimsuits. They are all having a blast bathing together. It is so fun to watch Evan learn to splash, blow bubbles, and just have fun in the tub. We have bath pictures with all of our kids and funny hair styles. As you can see Evan has joined the funny hair club. He and Ethan show off their mohawks!

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Do the baby workout!

Okay so you've all seen Father of the Bride 2 where Frank does a workout with the two pregnant mommies. I happened to watch that movie during my labor with child #3. Last night Evan was in the Ergo and he and I were doing the baby workout. He was laughing hysterically! It was so much fun.

I know I look dorky, but it sure was fun. We were great entertainment for the rest of the family!

Settling in

Evan in his exersaucer

Evan loves being outside on his bike! He is learning that he joined an outside family.

finally all together at dinner, minus mom who is taking the pic!

Now that we are home, we are throughly enjoying being a family of six. Evan is getting to know his brother and sister. They love to hold and play with him. I am getting the distinct impression that he loves being part of a family. We had a wonderful time playing outside yesterday. It was warm enough, by Ohio standards, to be outside. Evan loved being on the tricycle and pushing himself around with his feet. First he figured out how to go forward, then backward.

We are FAMILY

Psalm 16:6 "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord. . ." I have such joy in my heart and such a peace for all that the Lord has given to us. I am truly a blessed mother of Four wonderful children, each uniquely made by God!

Granma Crawford welcomes grandbaby number 12 to the family! #13 will arrive this fall!

The sisters are so thankful to be back together after 3 long weeks apart!

The "Boys" of the family enjoy a moment together playing on the floor!

It is with great joy that I write to let you know that we are finally home and all doing well, except for a little jet lag, which is to be expected. A couple of weeks ago another adoptive mom wrote about the joys of being home and finally all being together as a FAMILY. It was such a joy to see Ethan and Ellyn's excitement over having Evan home. He is not going to have any problems learning his new name because his siblings call out to him over and over and over!

My heart is full of gratitude to the Lord for leading us to our son Evan. He is weaving our hearts all together into a family that I pray will honor and glorify Him.

WERE COMING HOME

We applied and picked up our son's visa today. The Lord opened up seats for us to come home on Tuesday instead of thursday. We have tickets in hand. The bags are 90% packed! We are going out to our favorite restaurant with our dear friends the Gainers, who are also going home tommorow! Please pray for a smooth flight with no unforseen layovers. Please pray for us all to have the strength to make it home in one piece! Please pray the Evan will sleep for at least some of the time. We know our God will answer! We'll be home on Wednesday!
Yahooooooooo!

Slide Show

Blazing new trails

This is a VIDEO of Eric taking motobike taxi - much more fun than a regular car taxi! For those of you who LIKE to drive in busy cities, bumper to bumper on the high ways, you've never seen anything like this-- and what you see is NOT even rush hour traffic!

Comfort Food

While Eric is out at the National History Museum, Kayla and I are here dreaming about the food we will eat when we get home. We played a little game to see who could come up with the best meal when we get home. So, you vote. Kim's meal: A wonderful salad with all the fixings(have not been able to eat greens in VN due to fear of water diseases), a pork roast, warm italian bread with butter, an oven baked sweet potato with brown sugar, and for dessert our favorite chocolate raspberry cake with vanilla ice cream!!!!!! Now for Kayla's: Pancakes smoothered with warm, real maple syrup and blueberry sauce, cheesy eggs and bacon, and one delicious lemon merrange(sp?) pie made by my dear Grandma Bell because no one makes it like her!!!!!!!
So who wins! Can you tell we are ready to come home?

Kindred Spirits, cute pics, and funny story:)

This is the Gainer Family... who came the same day as us, and hopefully we'll all be leaving the same day this next week! It has been a blessing to be in a totally different country with another family - but not just any family, but a family who has some much in common with ours; homeschool, faith, values, love for children (they've got a total of six now!), books, etc... Kayla has definitely looked up to nathan their 15 year old - he's been an older brother to her and has helped her adjust to very different foods and experiences. We've had all of our appointments togather. It wasn't planned... but must have known we needed each other... and our two Vietnamese sons needed each other too.

Now for some cute pics of Evan --then to the funny story of the day!

I think Evan is excited... what do you think? Really - kim has been teaching him to make these funny kind of faces... and it worked.

Evan wasn't a THUMB SUCKER... he was a two finger sucker - the first pic is from the very first day we met evan.

Here's the most recent picture of "two finger sucking" - but look in whose mouth the fingers lie! (i guess that's a good sign of bonding... I know that for myself, I only put my fingers in the mouths of people I only have the most complete trust:) )

Ok, this pictue wins the prize for the most stuff fit onto one bicycle! (yes, there is a bike under there... somewhere) This was actually in a museum, and all those things are fishing baskets/traps.

Ok, here's the funny story. We went to lunch today before visiting a museum... but it was close to 2pm, totally non lunch hour. We were in the area of the museum and just assumed we would be ablt to find somewhere to eat pretty easily... WRONG... either because the museum is in a part of town where there aren't many eating establishments, or because it was 2pm and they all shut down still the dinner rush, I don't know. what i do know is that there wasn't much around, so we had to do some walking. the first thing that looked like it would have eatable stuff, we walked into it sat down and through cave man style sign language signaled our intense desire to eat before starving to death. Kim went for the standard PHO (traditional VN soup), Kayla had lost her appetite just by the very different eating environment (she was hoping for a KFC or starbucks kind of place); But I was full of advernture and stuck to my guns - If I'm in Vietnam, i'm going to eat like the Vietnamese! I asked the lady to bring me something with rice and meat. I'm not sure exactly what we said, what she heard and vise versa... because by the end of the meal, we had two cups of strong VN coffee, three cups of tea, three main dishes, a bunch of side dishes, dessert, and a free round of Jasmine tea (compliments because of the National WOMEN'S day here in VN). By the way, the total bill came to only 60,000 VND (only $3.50 ) - the cheapest meal to date! I gave the young guy an extra $1.25 (20,000VND) and he tried to refuse it, but I insisted. So here's the funny part... here's my meal below... take a guess what it is:

YES, there's rice in there! Da! Yes, there's meat too... but do you know what kind? Well, that was the problem, I didn't. I thought I asked for something with beef in it, but who knows what she heard. I finally inquired, the curiosity was killing the cat. One of the ladies did speak a little english. I asked if there was chicken in it, because I thought for sure there was and ate all the stuff that looked and tasted like chicken. But when asked she said pretty plainly that there was not chicken... hmmm; I started to worry. How about beef... YES, there's beef. ok, i'm feeling a little better. THEN she said, "Feck hert" & she pointed to her heart....what? I didn't understand. She said it again, and then my wife said, "do you mean FOX HEART?" -- Yes, fox heart. Ok, my stomach just went to my heart, and something else's heart some how got into my stomach... all kim could do was laugh, saying my adventureous spirit finally got the bet of me!

Here's kayla enjoying some chocolate dessert later in the day.

Ok, for you who didn't believe the SNAKE WINE story from last week, here is the actual thing... A king cobra in a bottle - but this time he's got a scorpin! You won't see that in America!

Medical exam and a weeks reflection

Evan has such emotional eyes... the asian eyes with dark colors add so many emotions and added expressions... sad is much sader and happy is much more happy. I think one of the most beautiful things in Vietnam are the facial lines of the people - and evan's face is a wonderful glimpse of the beauty we see all around us each day. It is one of the things I will miss when we come back to the states.


Here's what they call DRAGON FRUIT... bright, dark pink with "tintickles" on the outside, but much like a Kewi on the inside, but much more mild and consistent... we've had them most mornings here:)

Evan is definitely warming up to Eric... here he sits on my lap and enjoys some lunch time with daddy.
We are a family who LOVE back rubs... Evan fits into the family just fine. Here is kim giving him a full body message. One of the areas of healing that many orphans go through is called "attaching and bonding" - emotionally clinging to a caregiver - which does not happen when orphaned at an early age. One way to do that is through meaningful touch. Also, smells can be used to build bonding in a family. We all use a certian kind of lotion each day... and kims uses here with Evan. BTW, for other adopting families, if you haven't read any of Gregory Keck's books, they are incredibly helpful. "Parenting the Hurt Child" is a very basis book about the needs of orphans who are placed in adoptive families.

Kayla and Evan enjoying some giggle time in bed:)

We had our medical exam for Evan's visa today. He is doing very well, despite a little constipation. So for our first doctor's appointment together, Evan weighs in at 17.6 lbs and 29 1/2 inches tall. He is tiny, but healthy. We are working on beefing him up. So far he will eat cheerios, yogurt and baby cereal. He takes his bottles very well.

Here's a pic from our medical exam today:)

Evan in true Vietnam garb:)

I fed Evan some tradition Asian food--- rice. I thought he would naturally enjoy it - he's Vietnamese. He did chew on it for about 20 seconds, then he spit it all out and then laughed:)

Kayla has been a big blessing. here's another pic of them out by the pool.
Water puppets in Hanoi - a $3/ticket, and worth it! I wish I could get a video somewhere with English subtitles. Its an art form from the 11th century!. The stage floor is water, about 2 1/1 feet deep, and the puppets are about 12-18 inches tall, connected to a long pole that is actually under the water. The men and women who guide the puppets are behind the stage, invisible to the watching crowd. There are also fireworks in the show too!

After little over a week, we have watched him grow from a timid little guy to an active, gabbering. laughing boy. He loves to put up his hands when he wants to be held. Needless to say, he has stolen our hearts.

Happy b-day ELLYN

This the first time we have missed any of the kids' b-day. Our sweet Ellyn turns 6 years old today. She is our happy go lucky, joyful, smily girl. She love to snuggle, play, draw, and best of all go out on date times with daddy or mommy. We are sad to be missing her special day. We know that her Nanny, Poppy, Grandma and Grandpa will make it a special day. We love you sweetheart and will bring home your birthday present. . . a new baby brother!

Evan Laughing - Video

You may have to give this a few moments to load... but I think you'll find it joyous watch. Not many babies are this happy after just a few days in a totally new environment. Of course, we still will hav much healing and loving to do with Evan:)

Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay... a world famous landmark of Vietnam. Is is a bay full of over 3,000 small islands - massive rock formations that just jet out of the water. Beautiful. To come all this way around the world, and only be three hours (well, only 90 miles, but with slow traffic and bumpy roads I would have lost three days worth of meals if we'd made it if traveled @ 60 miles/hour)... well, we just had to go. Kim didn't think that taking a 18month old on a two day trip, sleeping on a boat, skipping all his naps, etc. was a good idea - I married a wise woman - because it was no place for a little one. SO kayla and her daddy [me] became world travelers:) Actually, if you read our FOODS WE'VE EATEN entry about 4 entries before, you'll see that Kayla was the bravest of us all! (Go ahead, read and see the FOODS WE'VE EATEN and ask yourself, "could I have eaten that?!")

Pics just can't capture the beauty... even if I were a world famous photographer. I do have some video but not sure if blogger (or my computer) can handle that big of a file. In the meantime, here's our fist pic... kayla was actually the artist and is the best pic during the entire trip. She and I were on the kayacking leg of our adventure - in a two man kayack and we decided to go the opposite direction of everyone else... and glad we did, got an awesome view.

This pic was captured in the morning of day #2. It was foggy both days... actually this time of year isn't the best because of the haze... but we were complaining.
Kayla and me:) We had some great bonding time together!

The only bummer of the trip was that we weren't the only ones who wanted to see the sights... all the boats were loaded with us good old tourists. There was actually a group of three German guys going on a three day trip. Once you get past the two day/one night tour, you are more free from the mass of tourists. But again, we weren't going to complain about being in one of the most beautiful places on planet earth.

One part of our trip included SWIMMING... yes it LOOKS like good weather for that... but the air temp. was high 60's in the day and the 50's at night... so can you imagine what the water temp was? Kayla was SOLD on swimming in the Pacific Ocean/South China Sea... "I've never swam in an Ocean before." (I tried to talk her out of it; "Its just like swimming in a pond back in Ohio...in the middle of MARCH" - I could have used the "O, I thought I saw a SHARK!" excuse, but all you moms would have pummelled me when I got back to America-- plus I always regretted seeing JAWS when young, being scarred for life...and didn't want even a hint of that for her) Well, how cold was the water... Cold enough that after 60 seconds in the water, I couldn't feel an inch of my skin anywhere on my body... completely numb. No lie... it took a 15-minute HOT shower, plus an hour on the top deck (sun bathing deck) with 4 layers of clothes on to finally warm me up. A DADDY'S LOVE FOR HIS DAUGHTER:) And it was worth it all... to be with Kayla and be reminded of God's Grand Creativity via Ha Long Bay.

Dinner with special friends

On Saturday evening we had dinner with a very dear couple and their daughter. Eric met the wife on the plane trip from HCMC to Hanoi. She travels for business. It was a wonderful evening of sharing about life in Hanoi from a residents perspective. It gave us a picture of what it is like to live in our son's birth country. It is our hope to keep Evan's knowledge of his country as much as possible through people we know and experiences we can give him. Here is a picture of us together.

NEW POST

I just posted a new one entitled FOODS WE'VE EATEN... started the blog several days ago, but wanted more pics. so when published it, it went back to the day I started it... so just scroll down, and you'll see it in just a jiffy.

Happy boy!

Evan has and eats his first French Fry!


Evan plays happily in the balls at the hotel playroom! I wish I could let you all listen to the laughs and see the smiles on our son's face. If a joyful heart is good medicine, than our son is experiencing a lot of healing! He loves to be tickled, play peek a boo, chase mommy around the playground, roll the beach ball and the list could go on. His giggle is so sweet. This momma's heart is full of love and joy! Thank you all for your prayers on behalf of Evan. God has and is answering them. We are so blessed that He has given us this little boy to be our son. Please continue to pray for wisdom for us as we seek to make the most of these days and help our son learn to trust us!
Kim