My Hopes for You

Dear Charlotte,

For 37.5 weeks now you've been cozy inside of me- growing stronger in anticipation of the world beyond those dark, comforting walls of mommy's belly. You move constantly (yes, constantly), as if to say "hello? I'm still here. Don't forget about me-" as if I could. You are coming into a world that is already filled with so much love for you which only grows with each kick and movement you make. It would be impossible to measure the depth of how much mommy and daddy have already fallen in love with you.

I wish I could say that I'll be a perfect mom to you- that all those 2 a.m. feedings and diaper changes looming in our future will be pure joy, filled with love and awe and not an ounce of frustration, but I can't say those things. My body will be tired. I will be sleep-deprived. I will lose my temper. And I will worry. TOO MUCH. About EVERYTHING. I will make mistakes. I will have doubts on how to raise you. But just as I hope you will learn one day, we all make mistakes. Big ones and little ones and some lessons are harder to swallow than others. But it's what we do with these mistakes that shape who we become. With that said, here are some of the life lessons I've learned that I am passing onto you.

• When in doubt, bet on yourself.
• Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is about.
  
• If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
• If he's stupid enough to walk away, be smart enough to let him go.
• Over prepare and then go with the flow.
• If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
• Marry someone who can laugh at himself- like your dad.
• Have faith in God even if you do not hear Him. He is always listening.
• Love your family. They are the best reminders of where you've been and where you're going.
• Have a good balance of confidence and humility.
• Your life is made of two dates and a dash. Make the most of the dash.
• Love to read. Books will take you places beyond your wildest dreams.
• Respect your elders and learn from their experience.
• Those who are hardest to love need it the most.
• Don't hold grudges. It's like taking poison and expecting the other person to die.
• Do something today that your future self will thank you for.
• Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes.
• And, remember that mommy and daddy are always in your corner.

Ready, Set, Go!

Dear Charlotte,

With less than four weeks until your expected arrival, mommy and daddy have tackled many of the items on our to-do list. Your nursery is done. Daddy has assembled all of your baby gear and mommy has washed, folded, and hung all of your newborn clothes, blankets, little hats and booties. Your car seat is installed in the car. Our hospital bags are packed and currently sit by the door waiting for go time. So little girl, you can come out any time now... we are as ready for you as we'll ever be.

As much as I can't wait to meet you, a part of me is a little sad that our time together sharing mommy's belly will soon be ending. I will miss feeling your kicks and jabs and having you always with me. There will come a day when mommy won't be with you every minute of every day and it breaks my heart just thinking about it. Everyone tells me that I will be craving alone time once you're here and that I'll welcome my return back to work, I don't know about that but we'll see. For now, I'll try to look at it from a different perspective...I'll soon have you on the outside to hold and hug and kiss; we'll have a different kind of "together".

The last nine-plus months have flown by so quickly. I truly could not have asked for a more pleasant pregnancy, so thank you for not hurting me while you were growing. I hope this not hurting mommy "trend" continues well into labor. Daddy and I are hoping and praying that we'll have a smooth labor and delivery experience, so that mommy doesn't change her mind about one day giving you a little brother or sister. :)

Daddy joked that it's almost time to evict you from mommy's belly. But I told him our little girl will come out when she's good and ready, she won't be rushed. Just know that we are patiently waiting with excitement for you to come out and complete our little family. So, sweetheart, take your time but just to give you a heads up that sweaty, pasty-faced, screaming lady you'll first lay eyes on...that'll be mommy on the happiest day of her life. And don't worry the screaming part is supposed to happen, lol.

[Our packed hospital bag and your going home bag.]

[Picture of you at 36 weeks and 2 days.]

Our Maternity Pictures

Dear Charlotte,

On Sunday, November 6, 2011 mommy and daddy met with a local photographer who specializes in family, maternity and newborn pictures. With only five more weeks until your due date, (it's all happening so fast!!) we wanted to document our journey thus far. Laura of Studio Bloom Photography was a joy to work with. She even brought along a little "helper," her young daughter, and it was a delight to spend a few hours with them that Sunday. Below is a sneak peek from that morning. That's you in mommy's belly!

We joked that daddy dressed all wrong for the occasion thinking that his green shirt would blend in with the scenery and all you'd see is a giant floating head- but it doesn't look too bad! Pretty soon it won't be just the two of us in pictures anymore... we'll be a family of three. Can't wait!

How We Broke the News

Dear Charlotte,

I still remember where I was and what I was doing when I received that unforgettable call from my doctor's office that I was going to be a mom. I had just gone to the doctor earlier that day to see about a month-long cough that wasn't going away. I was given a cough prescription and went to Walmart to get it filled and to pick up ingredients for dinner. I was standing in line at the pharmacy when I received a call from my doctor's nurse. The conversation went something like this:

Nurse: "Have you filled your prescription yet?"
Me: "No, I'm still waiting in line at the pharmacy."
Nurse: "Ok, good. Don't fill it."
Me: "Huh?"
Nurse: "Are you sitting down?"
Me: "No, should I be?"
Nurse: "Well...I really think you should sit down for this news, but congratulations, you're pregnant!"
Me: "What?"
Nurse: "You're having a baby."
Me: "Really??!"
Nurse: "Yes, we got the results from your blood work and that's why your cough hasn't gone away. Your immune system had shut down to accept the growing fetus."
Me: "Okay..." (still trying to wrap my head around the news)

Needless to say I was smiling from ear to ear and never did remember what I needed to get for dinner that night.

How I Broke the News to Your Father

I wanted to call your dad and tell him right away, but I also wanted to tell him in person. Then I started thinking of how I should break the news to him in a memorable way. I decided to film his reaction when I gave him the news and the most original way I could think of was to incorporate our love for the NBA Houston Rockets by letting him know that we'll have a new little fan in the family. So I bought an infant sized Rockets jersey and wrapped it around a PS3 video game that I knew he had been eyeing.

Here is the video, sorry for the quality of the footage. I blame it on my camera phone and my shakiness from being too excited to tell him the news. Really, the Hello Kitty wrapping paper should have given it away...right? But he truly had no clue.

How We Broke the News to Your Grandmas

After I told your dad, I knew he wouldn't be able to keep quiet for too long so I had come up with a plan to tell your two grandmas on Mother's Day, but you know how plans go. We couldn't get the two moms on the same schedule to meet us for breakfast and we knew that we wanted to tell them together. We ended up breaking the news to them on the Sunday after Mother's Day which worked out well since it made that ordinary day that more special and meaningful to us than a day which everybody celebrated.

Here's the video of the reaction from your grandmothers:



So, my girl, I hope these videos show you how well loved you are and how happy everyone was to learn of your impending arrival. I am glad I was able to capture these moments for you on camera so that one day you can watch them and see for yourself how much a part of our lives you had already become.

Your Baby Shower

Dear Charlotte,

A baby shower was held in your honor on Sunday, October 23, 2011. You come from two very loving and generous families melded together not only by marriage but by deep-rooted friendship. I want you to remember that. Mommy and daddy are so lucky to have shared this wonderful experience with so many of our close family and friends. These are the same people you call aunties and uncles and cousins- all of whom I'm sure are very much a part of your life today. I want you to be grateful for these amazing people in your life. They are the ones who will help shape you into the incredible woman that I know you'll become.

[Your thumbprint tree. Guests inked their thumbprints and signed their names. This "family" tree shows your roots and where you came from. You'll recognize this very frame hanging in your nursery.]

[Party favors: candies & treats galore.]

[Yummy cupcakes made by co Linda just for you!]

[So many predict your early arrival, I hope they're right!]

[Your wishing tree where guests filled out cards & advice for you. Some of the answers are hilarious! Like your aunt Tiffany who said: "I hope you ignore...hooligans." Or mommy's favorite: "I hope you laugh at... your daddy's jokes." Mommy has kept all of these for you in your baby book so that you can read them when you're older.]

[People think you'll take after mommy but with daddy's smirk. ha.]

[BEFORE: craft table where guests decorated baby hats.]

[AFTER: your cousin Avery took over the craft table. lol.]

[The most delicious homemade fried chicken ever. People kept going back for second and third helpings.]

[Co Hien with her "prize" lol.]

[Di Tiffany who flew in from California just for your shower!]

[Co Linda and co Thien posing with the party favors.]

[Look at all the pretty dresses Grandmom got for you!]

[Adorable tutu & knit hat made for you by co Thien.]

 [Your cousin Levi. Watch out for this guy, lol.]

 [Your cousins Megan & Avery.]

[Your cousin Amanda, co Lieu, & cousin Megan.. and yep, that's Mason in co Lieu's belly!]

[Daddy, Mommy, Grandma, and Co Lieu]

Happy Birthday, Mason!

Dear Charlotte,

October 25, 2011: remember this date. It's the date your cousin Mason entered the world and joined our wonderful family. I hope you and Mason will grow up to be as close as cousins can be. I want you to watch out for each other, take care of each other and be there for each other especially during those years when "grown ups just don't understand." Daddy and I are ecstatic that you have a cousin so close in age, just remember... he may be a few weeks older than you, but you outrank him (haha), so don't let him bully you! Jokes aside, we really do hope that you and Mason will both grow up healthy, happy and will share a special bond that will link you together for life.

[Mason Minh Van. October 25, 2011. 8:39 a.m. 5lbs 15 oz 19 inches]

The Nursery: A Video Tour

Dear Charlotte,

Pretty soon after we found out that you were a girl, mommy began dreaming up your nursery. Whether you were a boy or girl, I knew going in that I wanted a giraffe theme to encourage you to grow big & tall and to one day become the first Vietnamese (W)NBA basketball player. I would then go to all your games and the cameras would pan over to this proud mother decked out in your team colors. Alas, that is my dream and not necessarily yours, but a mother can live vicariously through her child right? If it were up to daddy, he would have made your nursery into the Star Wars theme. I told him getting you to fall asleep while staring up at Jabba the Hut is out of the question. Luckily for you... mommy won this round.

The video will show two months of hard work and many trips to Hobby Lobby, Babies R Us, and Target. The sales associates at Hobby Lobby pretty much began recognizing mommy and greeting me by name as stopping there after work became a daily routine. I think the pay off was worth it though! And I hope you love your nursery as much as we loved putting it together. Daddy put all the furniture pieces together... and didn't even have [that many] screws left over..ha. Just kidding.

I am doing this video tour now with two months until your arrival- while your nursery is still neat & organized. I will admit that I can't wait to see it cluttered with your dirty diapers, onesies, blankies and burp cloths full of spit up. So bring it on, child.

This nursery was created out of love- just as you were. I hope it is everything you wanted in a home and more.

How I Met Your Father

Dear Charlotte,

I want to tell you about how your dad and I met and how you came to be. It is not a story spun from fairy tales but I think it does have kismet qualities. It is a love story that is rooted with family at its center- as all great love stories should be.

We met on Sunday, December 9, 2007. The day before daddy's birthday.

A little background: mommy and daddy's families go back to the years when both families lived in Detroit. In fact, your Grandma and aunt Lieu worked with your Great-aunt Thu for many years before they moved to Houston. Long story made even longer, though mommy always knew of daddy by name- I never had a face to put with the name. Over the years we somehow always managed to miss each other at get-togethers. Either he was away at college or I was away. I only knew him as your aunt Lieu's older brother. Looking back, God must have had a plan for us all along so that we would meet each other when we were both ready and not a second before.

Flash forward to that fateful day in December 2007, daddy met us at the Exxon Mobil on the corner of West Sam Houston Parkway and Bellaire Blvd. You will recognize this intersection as undoubtedly mommy has pointed it out to you every time we drive pass it. Why did daddy meet us at a gas station of all places? Well after spending over an hour of getting lost trying to find your Great-aunt's house in Pearland, we found out (later) that daddy actually left his own birthday party to meet us at Exxon so that we could follow him back to Pearland. You will have learned by now that mommy has absolutely zero sense of direction and tends to use landmarks as her guide. I sincerely hope that you do not inherit this trait from me.

I will tell you that it was not love at first sight, despite anything your daddy may try to tell you (like I swooned at his feet. Don't believe any of it). The love that daddy and mommy share is something that grew slowly and perhaps even from a place we didn't even know existed. When we first met, we barely spoke more than two sentences to each other, if that. By the end of the night I still viewed him as Lieu's older brother and he probably just saw me as your Great-aunt Thu's niece. Nothing more. Yet.

Skip ahead to four months after that initial meeting. Mommy decided to make the life-changing move to Houston permanently. No, despite anything anybody tells you, I did not make the move because daddy lived in Houston. In fact, I hadn't even given him much thought since we met months ago. The move was a completely career-oriented one as jobs in Detroit were scarce at the time. Moving to a new city without knowing anybody, your Great-aunt Thu decided I should give daddy a call and ask him to show me around.

Four years later, married and with our first child on the way... he's still showing me around the city. I'd be lost without him- figuratively and literally lost.

The below picture is one of the very many reasons why I love him. Because he makes faces like these and never ceases to make me laugh. At him and with him.

And this is how I met your father.

[Bytheway, in case you don't recognize him.. daddy is the one on the left. Haha.]

It's a Girl!

Dear Charlotte,

It was a Monday afternoon, August 1, 2011 when your Grandmom, daddy, and I went to the doctor's and learned that you were a girl. I am proud to admit that I was so emotional upon hearing the news that I cried right there on the spot. Then the tears of joy became laughter as you waved to us on the monitor, as if to say: "Hi mommy! Hi daddy! Hi Grandmom! I know you're watching, see what I can do!" and then you proceeded to do several 180-flips while we watched... already such a show off. :)

There's so much that I want to teach you and so much that I know you'll teach me. I promise to be patient as we go through this learning process together. In the meantime, here's one of the very first pictures we have of you: