Christmas Letter & Haven's Birth Announcement

Hi all,

I know it's been forever since I posted. I do hope to update the blog at least once a month. I have my excuses...namely 7 holidays in less than 1 month and deer hunting season which means one MIA husband any free moment we are home (He did get 2 deer. Way to go Mike!). Poor Haven has had 2 Thanksgivings and 5 Christmases with the last just taking place this last weekend. Most required travel, 1 required hosting a group of 12 overnight. Besides having a new baby in the family...it's been busy. These same excuses are the main reason I didn't even try and get our Christmas letter out on time this year...Valentine's Day has been looking like a pretty good goal since we send over 200 letters.

So I'm going to post a copy here sans the personal info and maybe some of the graphics won't go through. If you read it here and don't want to receive a paper copy either drop me an email or post a comment. I guess Blogger isn't allowing me to upload any pics today, so I'll have to try that part again some other time. Sorry, and thanks!

Love to all,
Shae


Greetings to all,
Obviously this letter did not make it to you by Christmas. I knew I shouldn’t even try and make that happen and thought a Valentine’s Day letter was sounding pretty good.
We’ve had a really great year. Our biggest news is that we are no longer a family of 4, but are now 5. Haven AviellaJoy Dalke was born June 11, 2008 in Vinh, Vietnam. Mike and Shae left Omaha on October 16 to begin their 5 flights to Vietnam, received custody of Haven when they arrived in her province on October 19, and forever adopted her into our family on October 20th. We arrived back home on November 2nd just in time for Eric’s 3rd birthday on November 3rd. Ethan and Eric stayed with Mike’s middle brother, his wonderful wife, and their 3 kiddos while we were gone and had a fantastic time. We’re so grateful to them.
The adoption process took about 1 ½ years and tons of paperwork, fingerprints, doctor’s physicals, couriers, deadlines, close calls, prayers, tears, and most of Shae’s time. However, the end result is nothing short of miraculous. Now that we’re home we still have about 6 months more “work” to do. We have 3 Social Worker visits in the home. Then once the social worker files her report with the State, we can hire an attorney to file with the courts for an Acknowledgment of Foreign Adoption so that we can get Haven a Nebraska birth certificate which will make life much easier even though she’s already a citizen. At that same time we will legally change her name. Currently, she’s actually Hanh Phuc Thi Phan which means happiness and blessing from above which we wholeheartedly agree. To keep up with us and Haven check out our blog at www.faithjourneytovietnam.blogspot.com
Haven is 6 ½ months and is a happy, lovable, easy going (except when it comes to food) wondrous little thing, or not so little, if you’ve seen her pictures. Ha! That’s been the family joke that here we thought that our little Asian princess would be a petite little thing. Nope! She’s a big, healthy baby…big even on our charts and weighed 3.8 Kilos at birth or about 8 pounds, 5 ounces. Proportionately she’s bigger than both of our boys for which we’re very grateful that she received such excellent care at her orphanage. She’s right on target developmentally and rolling everywhere she wants to go.
Ethan is 5 ½ and is a sweet, talkative, expressive, and intelligent little boy. He’s really into money which has translated into quite the knack for Math. He’s telling time and can add 3-4 coins easily in his head, count by 25’s and understands concepts like infinity (he’s tried to count that high) and basic economics, etc. I can’t say that we should get the credit as no one has really worked with him that much…so who knows? He loves his preschool, Transformers, Diego, wrestling with Daddy, playing games, reading books, playing with dinosaurs, and “hunting” just like Daddy. He’ll be going to full-time Kindergarten in the Fall of 2009.
Eric just turned 3 and is into just about anything Ethan is. He may be almost 2 ½ years younger than his brother, but he manages to keep up pretty well. He’s our tough guy, but still likes his blanket and Mom’s lap. He’s the one that’s always climbing, jumping, wrestling, or whatever involves movement and keeps us on our toes preventing the major accidents. He’s also quite the talented dancer and has great rhythm in that area considering he’s descended from us. Ha! Occasionally, he’ll remember that things more his age are still fun like Thomas the Train or Elmo and go off and start a new round of play by himself.
We’ve celebrated some firsts this year…especially relating to teeth it seems. Ethan lost his first tooth on the day before Thanksgiving. Haven got her first tooth 3 days before Christmas. Eric chipped his first tooth during his 2nd year and in following with his kamikaze personality got his first stitches (5 in the ear that he tore) a week before we left for Vietnam.
As for Mike and Shae we just celebrated 2 years in our new house, over a year in Mike’s new position with his company as a Manager of Systems Admin., and will celebrate 10 years of marriage in January. We’re also grateful to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus and pray that we, our children, and our friends and family will grow in our relationship with Him.
Merry Christmas (a little late),
Mike, Shae, Ethan, Eric, and Haven

Finally an Update

11/5 Eric trying on the kids noise blocker earmuffs.

All 3 of our kiddos 11/9

Big Brother Ethan 11/9

Haven's 1st Sunday and home a week. 11/9

Haven's 1st veggies. Yummy squash mixed with rice cereal. Ding, ding, ding we have a winner and finally a way for her to eat her cereal. In case you hadn't heard that is one of the few things that makes this normally sweet, easy going baby get so mad that she actually throws up on you...feed her plain rice cereal. 11/9

Haven's first trip to the zoo. 11/4

Haven is the sock houdini. She can get almost any kind off. You'd think she was from the tropics or something. Sorry girly, welcome to a real winter. Mom's trick is to put on shoes over the socks that are almost impossible to take off, but she still tries. You should hear her giggle when her toes are bare. 11/4

Miss Haven thinking she's big enough to hold her bottle. Sometimes we let her. LOL

Haven deciding she's had enough of tummy time. 11/4

Someday I'll remember to enter the pictures in reverse order since that's what Blogger adds first. 11/3--Eric giving his new baby sister a bottle. Also, Happy 3rd Birthday Eric. We made it home in time. Yeah!!!

Hi All,

Ok I'm quickly going to try and get an update done while Haven is napping. Crud, I think I jinxed myself as I just heard her in the baby monitor. Well we'll give it a try.

I know it's been a while of silence. Sorry about that. As you can imagine, we've been pretty busy settling in. It's going pretty well. Haven is a sweet, easy going baby (for the most part), and a good sleeper. Hallelujah!!! For those that know us well, you'll know that her 2 big brothers are not exactly laid back.

The time change transition actually went pretty well for Haven, and Mike and I are starting to emerge from the jetlag fog. Although I'll warn you, once the kids are in bed--we're zonked and soon going to sleep ourselves. So...don't call after 9:00pm if you want to talk to us in a good mood. Hee, hee. Or at least Mike seems to be getting to bed at a good time. You know after all since he's getting up a lot with the baby and all. Oh wait a minute, that's usually me. Hmmm...need to work on that. Thankfully, Haven was only getting up 1-2 times a night recently and in the last couple of nights has slept through the night since I added a 2nd cereal/veggies feeding into her daily routine. So we are feeling blessed.

The boys are doing great with having a new sister. Ethan is in his element. He loves to give Haven bottles, talk, sing, and play with her. He's really a great big brother. Haven smiles the most for Ethan of anybody.

Eric is doing pretty well, too. He also likes to give Haven a bottle. Although neither boy actually feeds her a whole bottle, it's fun for a minute. For the most part, Eric is off doing his own thing and leaving Haven alone, but he's been super nice to her...so we couldn't ask for a better transition. He is struggling a bit as expected with not being the youngest member of the family anymore. We've seen a few more fits and attitude, but overall Eric seems to really be adjusting well.

Mike's oncall this week so we're just trying to survive that and start gearing up for the holiday. We celebrate our first Christmas next week while with Mike's family at Thanksgiving. For some reason, I've had a hard time switching gears into holiday mode this year. Hmmm...wonder why. We'll be driving 3+ hours each day, for 3 days in a row so that should be a great test of how Haven does in her carseat, which obviously she didn't have in Vietnam. She really, really, dislikes the carseat cover, and absolutely hates the face flap. Poor child, still thinks she's in the tropics. Too badfor her, she can't see the boys' travel DVD player. She's quite the couch potato and loves TV...unfortunately. Her room at the orphanage had a double bed for her and 3 other babies to share and a TV in the corner...that's it. Whenever the TV comes on...she's glued. In Vietnam, soccer was her favorite.

Well got to go.

Blessings,
Shae

We're Home!!!

Hi all,

Many thanks to Dave and Sherry that already posted pics of our homecoming. That was one of my smartest moves ever adding them to the blog authors since I'm sure it would have been awhile if you had to rely on us to get it done. Ha!

We're home safe and sound and on schedule which is a miracle and with all our luggage. Now to just get settled in and survive jet lag, colds, and upset tummies.

We had a huge crowd welcoming us at the airport which was wonderful. Dave, Sherry, all the kids, and Mike's folks were there to meet us right away and by the time we were leaving the Departure area my Mom, Sister, her kids, and my Aunt and Uncle had all arrived.

We're so glad to be home and to be reunited with our boys now as a family of 5.

Love to all,
Shae

Welcome Home Haven!

My welcoming committee at the airport!

I finally met my two brothers.

One happy family of 5

I got to meet a few cousins.

My first nap in Omaha. I love Grandma!

Prayer Requests

Hi all,

Just a few things that really appreciate prayer for.

1) For Health. Haven still has a bit of a cold. Shae's has been getting worse. Also, Shae's been having tummy trouble the past few days and it keeps getting worse...just what we need when embarking on a 30+ hour journey.

2) It's been pouring here for days. The water stands 6+ in the streets in most places. Please pray that doesn't delay our flight out tonight. We can't afford to be late into Hong Kong as we only have 50 minutes as it is.

3) That we make all our connections especially the international flight out of Hong Kong.

4) For safe and easy travel.

5) That we do indeed get home Sunday AM. Eric's 3rd birthday is Monday.

6) That Haven does really well with all the flights and travel. Even a good baby has their limits. We're also worried about being able to have enough clean outfits for her fit in the carry-on. She is a little laundry producer.

Love to all,
Shae

Haven in her Panda Costume for Halloween. We went Trick or Treating with a bunch of other families amongst the rooms organized by the Hotel.

Miss Haven.

The One Pillar Pagoda. Today was our last day of sightseeing but it rained hard all morning. Once it stopped we ventured out, only to get caught in a downpour here on a no cars allowed area. So we hoofed it to the nearest taxi. Haven stayed pretty dry, but not so for the rest of us.

Hmmm...one of the other pictures might have shown it better. This was taken out our hotel room window. The water is standing at least 6" deep in the street making it kind of hard to maneuver or stay dry.

Alexa and Haven. We said goodbye to our friends Leanne, Nic, and Alexa on Wednesday night as they took off for home. We've missed them a lot these last few days.


The Hanoi Opera House, which was supposedly modeled after the Opera Garnier in Paris. Mike and I have seen both, but couldn't tell you if it's a good likeness.

All of us ate at the Chocolate Buffet at the historic Metripole Hotel on Tuesday afternoon. At the beginning we girls were sure we were in heaven, by the end we were groaning and didn't want to hear the word chocolate.

Another view of a house of a ethnic group.


One of the houses of the different ethnic groups of Vietnam at the Ethnology Museum we saw on Tuesday.

We leave tomorrow evening, Saturday at 8pm, and are getting excited and trying to finish up the laundry. I think Haven sees each finished load as a challenge to make more. Hee, hee. We've been very grateful to have an all in one washer/dryer in the apartment which we've used a lot. We're hoping the American diapers do a better job as right now Haven needs a new outfit several times a day. What her soiled diapers don't get, her spit up does. Keeping Mommy busy. We're trying to break the news gently to her that she's not an only child even though it appears that way and when we get home...things might be a little different. LOL See you Sunday AM.

Love to all,
Shae