The Nguyen’s + 1

Oh where do I begin? It's been over 4 years with our little bug and we've survived a lot together so far.

First, our first year together. It was learning about each other and what makes us a family. Our second year together was filled with lots of rain due to Hurricane Harvey, but we survived and rebuilt. During our third year, I went through major surgery, a total knee replacement of my left knee. And now our fourth year as a family, we're surviving through a pandemic. We've been quarantined since March and have rarely seen family and friends. Fortunately, we had a small family vacation before we were ordered to stay home.

2020 was not what anyone had planned or intended but we've done our best and gotten stronger as a family. I started doing full-time homeschooling for our little bug while the hubby has been working from home full time. After the hubby is done, he takes over so I can get work done. We're finding a rhythm in our little quarantine bubble.

Here's hoping 2021 offers more face-to-face time, more hugs and more memories!

We can't believe it's already two years! It just feels like yesterday that we brought our little June-bug home! So much has happened in the past year that everything just blurs together. Here are some highlights of the year!

We had our first family vacation in August to Colorado Springs! She loved being on the airplane and playing with her cousins!

Soon after, we were flooded by Hurricane Harvey. While we were not be able to be in our house for several months, we had lots of playdates with our cousins and she didn't even notice that our house was not ready for us to live in.

In October, she turned 4 and had a magical Mickey & Minnie themed birthday party. She was a happy little camper!

At the beginning of the year, we tackled potty training and she did great this time around. She's still having anxiety with #2 in the potty but we've got #1 down!

She's just such a sweetie pie! If one of us coughs or says ouch, she'll stop what she's doing to ask us if we're okay. She'll say excuse me if she burps or passes gas. She knows her ABC's and can count in English, Vietnamese, Spanish and a little bit in Mandarin. She knows lots of colors and shapes and talks non-stop! We have been blessed to be parents to our little June-bug!

Favorite Books: Peanut Butter & Cupcake, Moon is a Roundcake, The Biggest Kiss, Giraffe's Don't Dance, Where's Bear?
Favorite Foods: Cereal, French Fries, Cha, Cheese, Almonds, Cashews, Chicken, Coconut Rolls, Chocolate, Quesadillas, Tortillas, Ham, Bacon, Peanut Butter Chips
Non-Favorite Foods: Sour Foods, Mushrooms, Tomatoes
Favorite toys: Moana Toys, Stickers, Reading Books, Chicks, Toy house, Tsum Tsums
Favorite activity: Eating, splashing in the tub, Playing with Mommy & Daddy, Reading, Running/Chasing, Watching Moana, Playing pretend
Non-favorite activity: As of now, I can't think of anything!
What we're not a fan of: Screaming and Throwing Food

We ended 2017 with smiles on our faces. Our house is almost complete from Hurricane Harvey, round 2 of potty training is going great and we're blessed to be surrounded by family and friends.

Here are some highlights from this year!

JANUARY

We watched Daddy finish his 10th Chevron Houston Marathon!

FEBRUARY

Survived my first weekend without Daddy!

MARCH

We started cooking together!

Watched great friends get married!

Traveled to Dallas for a family wedding!

APRIL

Went on a girl's trip to Austin!

Won an apple pie from Proud Pie!

MAY

Celebrated Mother's Day!

Celebrated one full year with June!

JUNE

Celebrated Father's Day with my dad!

Celebrated Father's Day with daddy!

June wen to the movies for the first time!

JULY

Went on our first family vacation to Colorado!

AUGUST

Attempted potty training

Flooded by Hurricane Harvey

SEPTEMBER

June grew closer with her family!

OCTOBER

June turned 4!

NOVEMBER

Daddy turned 37!

Said goodbye to baby Ellis

DECEMBER

Celebrated Christmas with family at our mostly finished home!

Celebrated Christmas with family!

Ended with smiles and potty training success!

It's been a whirlwind of a week. We went into the weekend with potty training in mind. We've been prepping June for two weeks and were ready to tackle this. Underwear-check! Pee Pads-check! Chocolate-check! Stickers-check! Potty ring-check! We got this! And what do you know, it was the perfect weekend to start since it would be raining all weekend. If we were going to be stuck at home, might as well be on a rainy weekend, right?

Day 1 was full of accidents but day 2, we were getting it down. Then Day 3, Harvey made landfall and the potty training was not going so well. We were trying to keep an eye on the water level outside and the news, that waiting for June to do her potty dance wasn't going so well. All day, Phi was slowly moving important things upstairs just in case anything were to happen. We were trying to protect the furniture downstairs by putting the legs of the dining table in cups. We lifted our bed and pulled out the drawers to our dresser. We were preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.

We've lived here for over 11 years and it's never flooded, ever! We purchased flood insurance after Hurricane Ike in 2008 as a precaution. This year, we decided to let it lapse after August 29th. It's been almost nine years and it's never flooded and we've never filed a claim. However, as the day continued and the rain would not let up, we were getting nervous. I decided to give the company a call to renew the insurance, just in case. Fortunately, we were able to renew it over the phone.

We continued to watch the water levels creep up the driveway with no end in sight. The radar continued to show bands of red. When would the rain let up?

We decided to put June to bed early so I could help Phi move things upstairs. As we were transporting our valuable items upstairs, I noticed water seeping through the walls. It didn't even come through the doors first, it went through the walls! We grabbed all the towels we had and tried to stop the water. It started coming in so fast that there was nothing we could do but watch our home slowly fill with water. We moved as much as we could upstairs before it would be destroyed.

Then I broke down in tears in the middle of our bedroom as we watched the water slowly come into our house. I felt helpless. There was nothing we could do to protect our home. We were forced to hunker down upstairs while it continued to rain and water continued to fill our home.

We tried to sleep but I couldn't. My mind was racing, "what if we lose power?", "what if one of us gets electrocuted?", "what if the house catches on fire?", "what if...?". I couldn't shut off my brain. But I turn and hear Phi snoring. How could he be sleeping right now? I woke him up to share my concerns and started crying again. How could this have happened? I was so worried about us getting electrocuted that every time the AC kicked on, I would jump. I was finally able to sleep a little but jerked awake thinking I heard Phi say the roof was leaking. Fortunately, it was just a nightmare.

It was eerie sitting in our game room and the only sounds we were hearing was from the helicopters flying above or the boats going down the streets. There weren't the usual sounds of the cars driving by or airplanes flying over.

I did not get much sleep that night. I woke up earlier then usual, concerned that the water had risen more. I grabbed the flashlight to check the water level and it was above the baseboard, all the while, it continued to rain. My poor Sadie didn't go out to potty since the evening before and refused to go on the pee pads I laid out for her. Every time one of us would stand up to check outside or downstairs, she was anxious to go outside but we were afraid to open the doors because more water would come into the house.

Fortunately, June slept in later today, so we were able to grab more items downstairs, come up with a game plan for the day and check in with family and friends. We lost internet the night before so cellphone reception was spotty for me. However, Phi was able to use his phone to get weather updates. Having limited information was frustrating. We couldn't get on the tv to check, we were relying on family members and friends to update us on what was going on outside.

Phi would check the water levels inside the house every hour while I kept June entertained upstairs. Poor thing kept wanting to go downstairs to eat or play. Her routine was turned upside down and she didn't quite grasp what was going on. I tried to show her the water downstairs and in the retention are in the back, but she just wanted to play in it. I tried to keep her day as casual as possible but just ended up snacking her all day and letting her watch Mickey Mouse on the iPad. The whole time I was concerned with what I was going to feed her. We had cereal without milk for breakfast and sliced bread, peanut butter and canned fruit. Not the most nutritious of meals but she seemed happy. She kept saying, "we're eating upstairs." It was a new, fun adventure for her.

As the day went on and the rain continued, I was getting nervous. The winds were howling outside and the rain kept pouring down. We were informed that there were more red bands of rain coming down. We kept seeing boats down our street with our neighbors evacuating. I was trying to reach out to as many neighbors I could via Nextdoor. Some were waiting to evacuate while others decided to stay put.

Phi was talking to his brother and they were thinking about having him come to our house via float and take us back to his house. He was not sharing his plans with me, which made me nervous. I was just reading the exchange through group chat and not sure if this was really his plan. Were we really trying to evacuate by float through this torrential rain and winds with a 3 year old and a dog who was scared of water?

Our neighbor a few doors saw that there was a good Samaritan who had a kayak, going down the street, asking if anyone would want to be evacuated. She sent them our way since she knew we had a little girl. He was able to help us evacuate but he would have to make two separate trips. I did not want to be separated, in case something were to happen to one of us. When Phi opened the front door to talk to the kayaker, he saw that the water wasn't as high and finally convinced Sadie to go outside to try to use the restroom. After some coaxing and reassuring, she finally found a "dry" spot on my juniper bushes.

Our plan was to have our bags packed and ready to go, if needed. I packed 3-4 days of clothes, diapers and all the medicine we needed. We were told more red bands of rain was on it's way and would last a couple of hours. Then we heard people yelling. We didn't know where it was coming from but we heard it. Phi decided to open the window to see if he could pinpoint the location to see what they were saying. We couldn't find where the yelling was coming from but we did see our next door neighbor outside trying to move the floating fire ant piles away from his truck. Not only did we have to deal with flood waters and strong winds, now we were dealing with floating fire ant piles!

Now I was getting really nervous. It was about 1 pm and getting darker outside. I told Phi I was ready to evacuate. I wanted to be out of the house before it got dark in case we lost power. Who knew what was in store for us for the rest of the night. Phi thought we were able to last another day but I didn't want to risk it. We heard a boat go by the house and I was able to flag them down. They happen to be Channel 13 and said they'd be back for us. We had a new plan, we were going to leave.

We had our bags ready to go and I was trying to feed June lunch as she watched Mickey Mouse. All the while, I was telling June that we would need to get on a boat and that it would be wet and windy. I told her that she didn't need to be scared because mommy and daddy would always protect her and keep her safe.

The time continued to tick away but we did not see the boat come by. An hour later, we still didn't see them. We heard the boats go by down the main street but nothing down our way. Phi wanted to see if we could stay another night and evacuate the next day. I wanted to leave.

We decided to put June down for her nap. When I was singing her to sleep, tears came rolling down my cheek because I knew this would be the last time in a while that I would be able to put her to sleep in her crib at our house.

We came up with another plan. I tried to contact the Coast Guard, but only got a busy signal. I asked family and friends to call for me while I put out a white sheet and spelled "HELP" with painter's tape on the window. As I was finishing up, we saw a boat slowly come down our street. I asked them if they would be able to help us evacuate and they said they could!

I scooped June up from her crib, put her on my back using our carrier and grabbed her puddle jumper. Phi grabbed Sadie and our bags and we climbed into the boat. It's a strange feeling to leave your house in a boat instead of a car. As we were pulling away, I looked up at our house one last time, saw the "HELP" sign and white fabric on the upstairs window and wondered when we would be able to go back home.

As we were riding on the boat, we were surprised at how high the water levels were. We were seeing tops of cars that were abandoned on the road and trucks that tried to get to higher ground but got stuck. We were shivering and wet from the rain. I held on tightly to June's hand and kept looking back to make sure Sadie was safe. June and Sadie did so well on the boat and we were so proud of them. June just kept saying "we're on a boat". She didn't cry or scream once during it all. She didn't get upset that her hoodie kept coming off or that she was all wet and cold. She was a brave little girl and we are so thankful for that.

We were taken to Phi's brother's house, who lives in the same neighborhood as us, about a mile south of where we live. As we were headed that way, other boats were telling us that evacuation was the other way. The streets leading up to his house didn't look promising either. As we got closer, I told Phi that we had to come up with a Plan B, in case his house took on water. Fortunately, his house was still dry and we hunkered down for the night. It continued to rain throughout the night and we were nervous that we would need to evacuate again but, luckily for us, that never happened. A special thank you to the good samaritan, Scott, who came down from Austin to help with the rescue efforts. He will forever be in my thoughts and prayers.

We are safe, we are dry and we are together.

The flood waters receded enough for us to get to the house on Wednesday, August 30th, to start the clean up process. We are temporarily staying with family until we're able to rebuild.

We have been blessed with loving family and friends who've helped us during this whole process. Thank you to all who came to clear the flooring, demo the walls and pack up our entire downstairs. We cannot thank you enough. And thank you to The Busch's for watching our Sadie for us during this process of rebuilding! We love you all!

Let me start off by apologizing for not updating this sooner. I had grand plans of posting while we were in China and throughout our journey home, but life with a toddler got in the way and here we are. I cannot believe it will be a year in a few days. As I reflect on our year together, I've come to realize I am much more capable then I could imagine. This year came with a lot of challenges and obstacles. Many times I felt defeated and at a loss. I asked myself many times, "How could I care for this child? I know nothing about being a mom." I could not thank the many moms in my life enough and of course, my hubby. I have become a stronger mom because of them. Here are some photos from our trip to China.

First Family photo in China

First month home

The first few months were difficult. I was struggling with post adoption depression and how to take care of a two year old. Our worlds were turned upside down. We were trying to teach her how to communicate with us and let her know that she would be safe and loved. I remember thinking, "What did we get ourselves into?" But those few months are a blur now. She knows so many words, making sentences and recognizes all her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

She loves Sadie. She loves watching her eat her food and treats, drink water and run in the backyard. They are two peas in a pod.

First time meeting

We've learned that she has a lot of personality. She loves to sing & dance, run, eat, make you laugh and give hugs & kisses. Here are a list of her favorite things so far:

Color: Orange
Toy: Varies by day but usually her LeapFrog Remote, LeapFrog Laptop, "Sadie" dogs from Lego Duplo, Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse stuffed toys, Water Table and Little Tykes Car

Food: Coconut Rolls, Cashews, Peanuts, Almonds, Cha (Vietnamese Ham),Cereal, French Fries, Hamburgers, Egg rolls, Ham, Chicken
Favorite Books: Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Octopus, Goose on the Loose, Alphabet Books/Rhymes, Little Gorilla, Always
Favorite activity: Eating, Bath time, Playing with Mommy & Daddy, Reading, Running/Chasing, Watching Mickey Mouse, Playground, Swimming, Playdates with Cousins & Friends

I could go on and on about our little June-bug. She is a ball of energy and full of smiles. She continues to learn everyday and teaches us something new about ourselves constantly. Everyday is a new adventure with her. I can't wait to see what the next year brings us.

We have travel dates! I cannot believe this last part of everything has gone by so fast. All this waiting and finally we have a date to pick up our little girl.

We just received word from our agency that we're officially approved from China. There are a few more steps to take before we can bring our little girl home. Here's a handy little chart a friend of mine made for reference.

Waiting Child China Adoption Paperchasing Acronyms


ACRONYM	STANDS FOR	WHAT IT MEANS (BASIC)	LEVEL OF CELEBRATION
	Dossier To China	Your agency has sent your dossier to China, or, the CCCWA, where it will be translated into Chinese and logged into the system.
	Out Of Translation	Your dossier is out of translation.
	Log-In-Date	The date your dossier is officially received by the CCCWA.
	Letter Of Intent	Your agency submits this letter to China after you have accepted a referral.
	Pre-Approval	Pre-approval from China (effective June 2013, PA is not required for LID-already families).
	Letter Of Acceptance, or, Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC)	Official approval from China (effective June 2013, your agency will receive an electronic “soft LOA” prior to the hard copy of LOA).
	National Visa Center	NVC sends you an email with a PDF indicating your file has been forwarded, or, “cabled” to the US Consulate in Guangzhou (printed copy arrives later).
	Article 5 (drop-off and pick-up)	Your immigration information and child’s visa application are dropped off at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, and then picked up 2 weeks later.
	Travel Approval	Your agency has received TA from CCCWA, which means you are one step closer from traveling to China. Start packing!
	Consulate Appointment	Your agency will request a CA with the US Consulate in Guangzhou in order for you to obtain your child’s US visa when you are in China.