Fake Christmas picture???

Is it against to rules to just MAKE UP a Christmas picture?? Here are our best faces in ONE picture. I didn't really have to find a good one of Sean...the man is like a cookie cutter when it comes to these pictures. He looks good in every one. I on the other hand had trouble finding one that I didn't have a crazed look in my eyes. So as you can see we are still on the hunt for a Christmas picture. We have some candidates that if by Wednesday have not been replaced by better photos can and will be used. You may be thinking to yourself. Why spend time in photoshop making this ridiculous photo?? I find it therapeutic. I thought maybe if it was just crazy enough it would be good. Nope...didn't work. Now onto our Christmas letter.....fake one of those too??

Update on Ian. He has had a lot of firsts these last couple of days. He took his first steps!! I'm am so very sad that I missed them, but Daddy got to see them. We don't think it will be long until we're running after him. He also took his first road trip this weekend and got to meet some family. He did really well. He slept well in his pack-n-play and even rode in the car well. This gives us great hope for next week!! We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas that we won't be seeing or have addresses for. Have a safe and happy holiday season!!

The perfect picture...

Here are pictures that WON'T be in our mailbox this season...

Every year this is an issue. Getting the best picture possible for our Christmas cards. I knew this year would be a challenge, but tonight we did our first "take". I think I chose the wrong time. I thought it was a good one...both kids were clean, fed, and happy. But it seemed as soon as the camera came out the sad faces did too. No one was looking at the camera at the right time and smiling at the same time. I broke a sweat at one point trying to keep everyone on the couch. This last one, I think Ian is looking for a escape hatch and if you notice the ears in the foreground, Amos (the dog) is trying ever so hard to do what we're asking. Good dog!

When not torturing the kids we're having a nice time as a family. With both Sean and I home right now I had all these grand plans of getting things done, but as you can see from my absence here on a the blog that isn't happening. I do think we are all falling into the grove of a four member family, though. Ian is adjusting more and more each day. We decided not to take him to our Thanksgiving dinners, which turned out to be a good choice (if not a very hard one). He came down with a cold. His second since we've been home. He's been working on his new immunities. But we see no reason he won't be visiting everyone for Christmas!

It is hard to believe that it has been one month since we've been home! Ian is really a happy baby (disregard previous pictures). He is exploring more and asking to be held more (yeah!). We've been starting baby sign language with him and he signed "more" to me today! I'm not sure he understands the sign, but it won't be long now. I feel I need to leave you with a picture free of torture...

We're still here!

I apologize for not posting in such a long time. There were days that I had to chose between showering and posting on the blog and think the people around me were happy with my choice. :-) We are doing very well, though. I think Ian is starting to feel at home here. We've been taking baby steps to get him into his own bed and we succeeded last weekend (with NO tears!!). He started out sleeping with us in our bed, then we put a mattress on the floor in his room and slept with him there. And now we just sit in his room while he goes to sleep in his crib.

He is such a happy little guy. He and Cydney "play" well together...I'm not sure Ian understands he's playing most of the time, but he likes to hang out where Cydney is. Yesterday they were playing restaurant under the table. Cydney wanted to know why Ian just wanted to eat the plates and not the play food. :-) She also likes to "talk" to him. While riding in the car the other day Ian was babbling away at her and she was graciously replying with "Oh, really? That's nice." With most certainly days ahead of us with sibling quarrels I'm soaking up all I can of these little exchanges. It is more than I'd hoped for.

Here is what we've learned about Ian's likes and dislikes. He likes yogurt, cheerios, tickling, anything that can be chewed on (he's chewing on a string from my robe in this picture) or anything that he can pull himself up on, and he loves being tossed in the air (gently, of course). And Grandpa Russell, we've even checked it out and his Gollywopper is ticklish! Things Ian dislikes are car seats, highchairs (basically anything that keeps a man down), and socks. :-) The jury is still out about the dog. He has been pretty scared of our dog, but at the same time is fascinated by him.

This past weekend was a huge turning point for Ian. I think I can now consider myself part of his inner circle.(high fives all around!) He seems to have relaxed and is enjoying himself with us. We are sure enjoying him!! He is a delight and such a great gift to our little family. He lives up to his name...Ian means "Gift from God."

Home!!

We are here!! It is so good to be home. Ian is doing well. We are enjoying getting to know him and his little isms. He is a relatively easy going baby. He is tending to do his grieving at night. It breaks our hearts when he does, but we're working through it. Here is a picture of Ian's last sunset in Korea. We said good-bye and that we'll be back someday! The flight home was a loooong one. Ian slept for about 3 hours total. He is also cutting 3 teeth the poor guy. He has taken to Sean very well. Sean seems to be the only one that can soothe him. He lets me hold him and feed him, but only Dad will do when he's sad. I'm so glad that one of us is able to soothe him when he's sad. Cydney is being such a good big sister. She doesn't like to hear him cry so when he does she goes and finds the "best" toys to bring him so he'll be happy again. Ian is likewise in awe of her. He likes to seek her out. Here is a picture of her watching TV and Ian checking on her. And here is another picture of them breaking in his bathtub. Please disregard the kids' hair. If you think that's bad you should see what I look like!! We've been in a fog since we've been home. :-) Oh and we've gotten a lot of questions as to Ian's hair. No, we haven't given him a Mohawk. It is just the endearing way it is. We gave him a bath and as soon as we dried his hair it was back up again. :-)

We're slowly exposing Ian to different things in our lives. Sean is in the other room as we speak playing the guitar for him. It is never too soon to start him on a musical instrument. ;-) It kind of looks like Ian is dancing. :-)

I'll leave you with a few pictures of Ian this morning. He seems to be happiest when he is clothes free.

One more day!!

We had a meeting with the elder Dr. Kim and lunch with his daughter, Dr. Kim. It was nice after a few days of just site seeing to finally be doing something adoption related. Here is a picture of Sean and I with the elder Dr. Kim. He's technically retired, but still likes to meet with each family that is adopting. He was a sweet man that has done so much for orphans and unwed mothers here. I had no idea the size of the organization that he's manage to build in 25 years. The lunch with the younger Dr. Kim was delicious!! We got to meet many other families here that are adopting. They sat us next to Dr. Kim and I was very nervous about my dinner etiquette. At least we've had some time to practice it the last few days. We spent the rest of the day just milling around the area near here. There is a cinema that was showing English movies with Korean subtitles, so we broke down and saw one. We finished the night with a nice meal at restaurant overlooking the street. It is the latest we've been out since we've been here (8:30pm)! We should be going to bed early tonight because tomorrow we get Ian....FOREVER!!! Or at least until he's eighteen and goes to college, but I can't think about that now. :-)

I'm very excited and scared about tomorrow. The talk at lunch today turned towards the grieving that these little guys go through being taken from everything they know into a world where nothing is familiar. This isn't new news to us, we've been warned about it and read books about it and gone to classes about it. My heart breaks for him. It is so much grief for such a little one to have to bare. I can't blame him. We look funny and smell funny to him. Most of the stares we get in public are from children. I saw a baby on an elevator today and I was trying to get her to smile at me, but she was so scared and she was in her mother's arms! Don't get me wrong, I have been ready for tomorrow for a very long time and I will hold Ian until the pain goes away and I'm a familiar face. I'm just afraid my heart might shatter in the process.

When we've taken these classes that discuss his grief and attachment to us, it has been suggested that we keep visitors to a minimum when we get home. We will probably be hermits for the first few weeks so he can work on becoming attached to us. Depending on how that goes, we are then going to ask that visitors be no more than a few people at a time and for a short period of time. This is so hard for us to do!! Believe me, I can't wait to introduce him to all of you back home that have been praying for him and loving him since before we knew him. We hope you can understand. He might surprise us all and have very little trouble transitioning. I hope so.

I'm not sure I'll have a chance to blog tomorrow or not. The ceremony is set for 4 p.m. Dr. Kim will say a prayer for Ian before he's entrusted to us. If you don't mind saying a little prayer for Ian and us tomorrow too I would very much appreciate it.

Since we didn't take very many pictures today, I'll leave you with this one. A view from our final room here at Eastern. We love it and I hope it will bring some peace to Ian tomorrow night. So our next post may be state-side. Thank you to all of you who have shared in this journey with us. It has been wonderful having all of your support over here with us!

Hiking....

Today we hiked and boy are we feelin' it tonight! We hiked up Mt. Namsan to the Seoul Tower. I think I'd recommend taking the cable car up there. I was sure envious of the people riding to the top when we were going up the stairs. We even ran into some bees and gave the locals a good show trying to get away from them. There were women with high heels passing us! (Which actually wasn't unusual, women here wear high heels everywhere.) It was a beautiful hike. The leaves are changing here and it was a wonderful view from up top! We ate lunch there and went to the observation deck. Here we are waving to Chicago...we didn't see anyone waving back. How sad. It was amazing to see how big Seoul really is. It just kept going and going....

We then walked down the mountain on the other side and walked to another shopping area called Itaewon. I had wanted to go a get the kid's names painted by this vendor that another couple had used when they were here. Little did we know that most of the stores were closed because it was Sunday. We had a time getting there and had to whip out our map several times. We had so many people stop and help us today. They would just come over and ask if they could help us. This isn't uncommon here. Like I've said before they are the warmest and friendliest people I've ever met. It turned out that the vendor wasn't there today, but we did find a fantastic dessert shop that was open!! It might have been the millions of calories that I burned going up and down the mountain, but the chocolate and dessert at this place was to die for!! And there were so many to chose from!! My mouth is watering just thinking of them again.

We started walking toward the subway and found all these antique shops that were open. That was a lot of fun!! There were so many nice things. Sean, who is ever the voice of reason in our relationship, pointed out that if I was willing to leave all my clothes here, then I could bring something back!! :-)

Speaking of clothes, I am in awe of the way people are dressed here. They are soo stylish! Everyone is dressed so nicely. Like I said before the women are usually in dress shoes everywhere they go. I bought a scarf the other day to try and blend in. Sean doesn't think it worked. I think he's right. But they sure make me want to strive to be more stylish!!

I have a correction to yesterday's blog. I posted the wrong picture of the rat. I actually posted the snake which is the animal of the year I was born. Sorry. Thank you to those of you who are REALLY reading the blog. Take my word for it, the rat look just about the same only with ears. :-)

Being tourists....

We were shameless tourists today. We went to a palace and a folk museum to learn a little more about the history of our son's country. We took pictures, tried on costumes, and watched a show of traditional dance and music. My hat wouldn't fit in this picture (my head is too big). It was kind of nice being in a place that had a lot of other foreigners. We didn't feel like we stuck out quite so much. Although we were still sought out by University students trying out their English. Today they only had us fill out some surveys. Yesterday we were separately stopped in the market and asked about what people in our country thought about their hair styles and tattoos. So Sean spoke for everyone in the US about our views on tattoos and I represented what the women in US think about their hair. Sorry ladies, you just aren't lovin' your hair right now. They asked me to pick out a hair style I wished I had from celebrities on a page and I chose Jennifer Aniston. And these kind, very generous and I'm pretty sure blind students said "Oh you look like her!" You know that annoying saying that all Asians look alike, well I think they just proved that it goes both ways. The only sad thing is, if I look like Jennifer then I also look like Joan Rivers. Yikes!

Here is a picture of me with a little statue of the rat. 2008 is the year of the rat and since it is Ian's year we thought we should take a picture of it. See... tourists.

A question that many of you have asked is if we will get to see Ian again or if we have since Thursday. The answer is no to both questions. No one gets to see their kids over the weekend and we've heard that other families are having meetings with their little people on Monday afternoon. We tried to push for a meeting with Ian that day, but it doesn't seem like it will happen until Tuesday at 4pm, when we get him forever. We have some different theories as to why that might be. His foster mom might live too far away to make the trip, perhaps they saw our first meeting as going well and didn't think we needed another one. We're just not sure. I sure am missing him, though. I'm missing both my kids. I know they want us to explore the country and learn about the culture that we will now be tied to, but I can't help feeling that I just want to zip through these days until we can get him. Three more days and he's ours forever! It won't be long, I know. Don't get me wrong I do like being a tourist.

Our little guy has a name!!!

My birthday wish today was to name our son! (Yes, I was born on Halloween). Drum role please...our little guy is now know as: IAN JEEHAN HENSON. Ian was the only name that showed up on both Sean and My's list. You'd think that would have made it an easy choice, but we felt we needed to study him and make sure it fit. It definitely seemed to!

So you all can keep your birthday presents until next year. It is going to be hard to top this one! It has been a very nice birthday. We started off the morning changing rooms here at Eastern. Then we navigated the subway again and headed over to Insadong (an art market) and did some shopping. There were a lot of nice restaurants to chose from and we had lunch, tea, and dinner there. We are finding that we might have to limit our Korean food to just one meal a day. We have much guilt admitting this, but our stomachs are having a hard time tolerating more than that. We even ordered Pizza Hut pizza last night....oh, the shame!!


Thank you to all of you who have done a do-it-yourself photoshoping of Ian's picture from yesterday. I can't wait to do it myself. :-)

What a day....

I wish I had better pictures from today, but our camera didn't cooperate. What a day for our camera NOT to work!! We got up and got ready to meet our little guy and went down at 10am, but they asked us to come back at 11am. We're not sure why, but we were willing to do whatever they asked as long as they let us meet him!! We were wondering if it was because they wanted to videotape it. There was a man that videotaped the whole meeting.

Here is a picture of us with our little guy and his foster mom. (Sean wasn't sure he was in the picture, hence his posture). He is very attached to his foster Mom. He did come to Sean and me for a little while, but always had one eye on her. When they first handed him over to me, he laid his head down on my shoulder. He sure knew what to do to melt my heart. We did manage to get a few smiles from him and he showed us his two bottom teeth! He is very strong and fast! His foster Mom said he's started pulling himself up on things and is a very good baby. He was very tired when we met him and fell asleep the instant I gave him his bottle. As a gift his foster Mom gave us a beautiful Hanbok for him to wear on his first birthday. She also kindly got a gift even for Cydney! Our time with them went all too quickly. We were only there for a 1/2 hour. We did find out that we will get him on Tuesday at 4pm. We're already preparing ourselves for a very long night, but I think it'll be good to have him with us for at least that long before we jump on the plane.

We filled the rest of our day with a very spicy lunch and then a trip on the subway to a huge book store. We had heard that they sell children's books that are in Korean and English. We did find a few and bought a picture book of Korea.


It also turns out that we are going to be able to stay at the guest house during our entire stay. We do have to change rooms a couple of times, but that just means we won't get too spread out. :-) Here is a picture of Sean in our room.

Again I apologize for not having better pictures. But all too soon you'll be able to meet him yourself!! Take my word for it, he's a sweetie!!

We Have Arrived!

We got here with relative easy. There are already so many stories to tell and we really haven't done much yet.

While in route we've both come down with a cold. Upon landing Sean read in our Korean etiquette book that a person doesn't blow their nose in public. Looking at our large bag of used Kleenex we realized that we've already managed to offend many good people!! While going through customs we had to walk through a Quarantine area and we tried to look our healthiest. Must have worked because they didn't stop us. The driver from the agency was there with a sign saying "Mr. & Mrs. Henson", I so wanted to take his picture (and give him a big hug!), but thought it would definitely make me look like a crazy tourist so I refrained. He then drove us in the "Love Mobile" to Eastern. He gave us a note saying that we could stay at the guest house for two nights and then they have made us reservations at a hotel down the street. I'm just glad we get to stay here at all. It is very nice.

Oh yeah, and the letter said to come "October 30th (FRIDAY)" to the agency and meet our son!!! Hummmm....conflicting date information.....I'm really hoping they mean tomorrow!! We'll call in the morning and check.

After we got settled in our room we went out for some dinner. We found a little restaurant not far from here. No one on the staff spoke English and we'd forgotten our Korean to English dictionary. Thank God for menu's with pictures! It was a terrific meal!! Everyone we've come in contact with has been so warm and friendly and willing to go out of their way to help us. I'm very excited to be connected to this culture for the rest of my life. I've been thinking a lot about our little guy's biological mother. In a city of 11 million people I doubt we'll run into her (or even know if we do), but I can't help looking at every woman we meet wondering. Being this close to her I want to send her a message that he's going to be OK. That we're going to honor her painful choice of letting our little guy go by giving him the best home and most love we can provide. And to just thank her.

Tomorrow is sure to be a crazy day. We'll post pictures as soon as we can!

Ready or not here we come......

Sing with me....Oh our bags are packed and we're ready to go....

So that's all of that song I know. Our bags are pretty much packed (side note: we received all the care packages and they fit just fine), and I know we're ready to go. We do have our first snag, though....So far we don't have a place to stay or anyone picking us up at the airport. THIS MAKES ME NERVOUS!! (my voice went up an octave there). Our social worker is hoping to hear from Eastern tomorrow morning if we can stay at the guest house or not. And whether their driver will pick us up or not. If we don't hear anything, then it will be a cab ride to the agency and praying their rooms aren't booked. I'm having a different emotion about every 5 minutes. Who needs pregnancy hormones to get emotional about adding a baby to a family??

Thank you for all the notes, prayers and well wishes! We feel so blessed to be surrounded by so much love and support during this very exciting adventure!! Next stop...SEOUL!!

Travel email!!!!

Ok so it wasn't a call it was an email! But we'll take it in any form they want to send it to us!! Things are soooo crazy right now...I'll tell you what I know.... We're leaving Tuesday and returning Wednesday (Nov. 5th). We have to be there for 4 full business days. For those of you who will be doing this soon, my advice is to use a travel agent. That occupation is a beautiful thing!!! So very helpful and one less major thing for us to worry about. :-)
We are very excited, we just don't know where to begin!!! I'm worried most about leaving Cydney for so long. I'm sure she'll be fine, it'll be me that is the sad one! :-)
We plan to blog while we're there so check back and I'll try to keep you updated on our going's on.

Final step complete!!

I just talked with the state department this morning (yes, I call them daily...but no more!) and our little guy's visa has been issued!!! This is the final step and the one that has been worrying me the most during this last set of steps!!! So, I let out a big Phew!! and now we wait for the call that says we can come and get him!! The soonest will be tomorrow, but I'm guessing it will be next week sometime.

For those of you who will be going through this soon, let me give you a run down of what my brain has been doing. First of all, I can't focus on anything to save my soul. And last night I had my first nightmare. This happened to me before our wedding too...in it, our plane is leaving in 20 minutes and we're still at home and I for some reason can not get packed. I put things in the suitcase, but they keep falling out. :-) Hummmm....what does that say??

I'll post more when I know it!! Thank you for all your well wishes, support and prayers. We feel very blessed!

Visa Interview!!!

I just talked to the State Department and our little guy is going for his visa interview tomorrow!!! Wooohoo!!!! For those of you not familiar with the adoption timeline, this means that his visa will be issued within the next week and we'll probably be getting THE CALL to come and get him sometime next week!!!

I usually don't share such personal information on the blog, but I'm in awe of this full circleness, that I'm going to make an exception. A year ago today, Sean and I went in for an ultrasound for what we thought was a good and strong pregnancy. We were dealt the devastating news that it didn't look good. The week that followed was a dark one for us, knowing that this was our last chance at infertility treatments. We'd always had adoption in the back of our minds and we both agreed that we still had a lot of love to give and wanted Cydney to have a sibling. So to be able to replace this coming week with such wonderful hope and excitement is beyond words and such a gift. So today especially I thank God for second chances and for bringing us full circle.

"WON" more thing off the checklist....

 
Thank you for any sympathy laughs on my little joke there. The currency used in South Korea is called WON. I ordered some through our bank to have in case of emergency when we step off the plane. It is also customary to give a donation to the adoption agency over there, so I thought I could go ahead and put our donation in a card (one less thing to take care of while we're there). I really find the money to be so pretty. I especially like the 5000 bill. It obviously isn't dollar for dollar. If it was #1) I wouldn't have this much #2) it wouldn't be on my kitchen counter & #3) seriously, what kind of emergencies would I be expecting?? What you're looking at here is about $24.

Sean's work had a surprise baby shower for him a few days ago. I'm sorry I don't have a picture of all the wonderful gifts we received. It was a book themed shower, which we absolutely loved! We'll be reading new books before bed for a long time to come! They were very generous and thoughtful!

Still no news. According to information from another fellow blogger's blog (), the South Korean government only issues emigration permissions in batches once every 4-6 weeks. Apparently the last time they issued them was September 23rd. So that would put us at receiving our EP this next week at the earliest. Of course, she said this is all conjecture, but you know what? That's all we've got right now. So I say, conjecture away!!

Whoever said....

"No news is good news," apparently was not involved in the adoption world. As of this morning our P3 packet hasn't been returned to the Embassy. Our agency needs our little guy's emigration permission before they can turn the packet back in, so I'm wondering if that possibly could be the wait. Of course, I'm wondering a lot of things lately.

This blog entry wasn't to complain about not hearing anything (although, since I was here...). It was to show you the thoughtful gifts we received last night at our baby shower. My office threw my coworker (who is due in November) and I a shower last night. I got to wear my "Pregnant on Paper" shirt. I felt a little guilty that I was making it all about me, so I made buttons for Cydney and Sean to wear as well.
Mandy and I felt a little sheepish getting a baby shower since this is both of our second children, but they insisted. And as you can see they were all very generous. We had a very nice time.

We're keeping ourselves busy. This happens to be a very busy week and so hopefully it will fly by and we'll know some more information by the end of it. He NEEDS to come home soon. Just look....we've added him to our van window family. Now he HAS to come to stop our false advertising!! :-)

Still moving forward....

Although at a slightly slower pace now. It took the full two weeks for our visa paperwork to be received at the US Embassy in Korea. I checked last week to see if it had been received a couple of times. At one point a visa specialist at the State Department said, "Why don't you try back in a couple of weeks?" I politely thanked her for her time, but was thinking "Whatever, lady, I'm calling back tomorrow!". Luckily I've gotten someone different every time I call (all of whom are very friendly), but they've probably marked our file as "a little crazy."

A P3 packet has been sent to Eastern (our agency over there) and when it is returned back to the embassy, a visa interview will be set up at that point. I guess I missed this step in my reading through the timeline information. Once he has had his interview it will be about a week or so before we get the travel call.

We're still plugging away on our list. We've managed to cross off a few things. We've been organizing things with our human resource departments. I was sad to learn last week that I will not be getting a normal "maternity" leave (shaking my fist at the state). The person I'd spoken to before in HR was mistaken. But Sean and I have a lot of sick time and vacation accrued, so between the two of us we should hopefully be able to keep our little guy at home until January at which point I'll go to working nights part time and be at home during the day with our kiddos (I like saying that). Another preparatory task that we'll be doing is going to vote next Saturday! Since we just can't be sure we'll be in the country come election day we wanted to make sure we got to have our say. :-)

So.....stay tuned for some more info in the coming weeks. It'll probably be a week before we know anything more. Unless I can't help myself and start calling again and actually get some information before then. Let's hope!!

It is Outta Here!!

O.k. So I know I wasn't supposed to contact the National Visa Center until two weeks after we got our letter and I was going to make myself wait at least a week before contacting them, but self control has never been my strong point. But it looks like it is my strong point today! I called the NVC and they said our paperwork had been sent to Korea yesterday!! Woohoo!!

Now we contact the State Department and they track the progress of the visa in Korea. For instance, when Jee Han has gone for his visa interview. This is an interview I'd like to see. Picture it if you will:
Visa worker: "So will your trip be business or pleasure?"
Little Guy: Blink...blink
Visa worker: "Will anyone be traveling with you?"
Little Guy: Looks at the little frog we sent him
Visa worker: "Is this your first trip to the US?"
Little Guy: Starts eating paperwork

So as usual we'll keep you up to date on anything we find out. We're still plugging away on our list of things to do. I started his quilt last week. Please don't go back and look to see when Cydney and I picked out the fabric. I know....procrastination.

Keep 'em comin' !!

What a week! We just got our letter from the USCIS yesterday saying they'd approved us and were sending our paperwork on to the National Visa Center (NVC)!! I guess when they said 2 - 3 weeks they meant 2 - 3 DAYS!! Woohoo!! So I called our social worker and she said to wait 2 weeks and then I can start calling to check on our visa status and see when our visa is cabled to the US Embassy in Seoul. I'll give it a week and then I think I won't be able to help myself and will start calling. :-)

This slight jump in the timeline has given us the jolt that we very much needed. We are now in operation "baby arrival" mode and have started doing the things we should have been doing these past 9 months while we've been waiting. I've made a list and am looking forward to checking things off of it. One of the items is to narrow our name selection down to 5 possible names. We won't name our little guy until we meet him, but with Cydney we had narrowed it down and it sure made it easier.

Our social worker says it all depends on how fast South Korea is processing their side of the paperwork, but to still kind of plan on traveling in November. So who knows!!

DCFS has spoken....

and it is good. We have been approved by the state to adopt. They have now sent our paperwork on to the USCIS. It will be 2-3 weeks for them to approve us.
I didn't realize but I guess I kept some of you on the edge of your chairs from the last post. We successfully got our paperwork signed and to the FedEx place with 10 minutes to spare. I spoke to the director of our program the next day and she assured me that it would NOT slow or paperwork down on the Korean side. Phew!!
We still have our fingers/toes/legs crossed for a travel call in November.

Two steps forward, One step back

We got word today that part of our paperwork was lost in transit to Korea. I heard a hesitation in our social worker's voice when I asked if this was going to slow us down. So...we need to get it filled out immediately! For those of you tapped into our personal life, know that Sean's show goes up tomorrow night and getting the two of us and a notary in the same room tonight is going to be a challenge. But we MUST PREVAIL!! (that sound you just heard was me donning my cape and putting my hands on my hips)To the kid mobile!

Care Package

 
After reading another couple's blog about their care package to their little guy, I got on the phone and asked our social worker if she knew of anyone traveling to Korea that wouldn't mind taking a little package with them. She gave me the name and number of a couple that is waiting for their travel call any day now. It is their second trip to Korea for their second son. They said they'd be happy to take it for us. It is so very nice of them to take it with them. I hope we can do the same for someone when it is our turn. So as you can see from the picture I put together a little photo album and got him a little blankie. (The jellybeans are for his foster family).
While I was talking to our social worker she gave me some surprising news. Our legal paperwork came today! A whole week earlier than she predicted! Which is FAN-TASTIC!! So she sent them on to DCFS and we'll wait to hear from them in the next 2-3 weeks. We're overjoyed that our first step took a shorter amount of time than expected, I hate to get my hopes up that the rest of the process will be quicker than we except too. But maybe....just maybe!!

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Junior!!

No, we're not naming him after Sean. I'm just trying out some new nicknames. His first 1/2 birthday is tomorrow! I doubt he'll be celebrating (since in Korea it is your first birthday that is a huge celebration), so we've decided to celebrate for him! Cydney picked out a cake mix she thought he'd probably like. It'll be fun to have a reason to celebrate him!
I don't really have any news as far as our paperwork goes. Our acceptance paperwork was delayed a couple of days getting to Korea (postal service....grumble grumble), but that shouldn't slow us down. We'll hopefully be getting our "legals" from Korea in the next 3 or 4 weeks. But who can think about paperwork when it's time to party?!?!?!?

Control Issues

I guess you can say we have "officially" accepted our son. We sent off all the paperwork to our social worker on Tuesday. It will then be sent to South Korea on Friday. I had a feeling that I didn't expect when I sent it off, sadness. Back to waiting. Only now waiting with a picture I've already come to love. I saw this coming, but not this soon. Having the paperwork to do was something that made me feel like I had some control in bringing him home. Focusing on the next step helps. For us it is to wait for our "legals" from South Korea. That will probably take about 4 weeks. During our 3-6 month wait the governments (his and ours) will be working to issue a visa for him and a passport.

I'm sure it will go faster than I'm anticipating. We have a lot we need to do before he comes. We need to finish his room, buy thank you gifts for people in Korea, get him some clothes, pick out his name.... I've been trying out a few names just to see what seems to fit him. I've been confusing Sean a lot, he says "who?" :-)

They say time flies when you're having fun....then I plan to have A LOT of fun this fall!!

We have a SON!!!

We got "the call" yesterday! We met with our social worker today to confirm our referral. Here is what we know about him. His Korean name is Jee Han (Gee Hon) Kim. He was born in Seoul on February 23, 2008. He weighed about 6 pounds. He gets excited when he sees his bottle. He's soothed by being patted. He likes to have his legs massaged when he gets his diaper changed. He drools and can roll from one side to the other. He likes to shout when he's happy!
Here are the three pictures we have of him. The first is him at 5 months, the next one is him with his foster mom, and the last one is his newborn picture.

It looks like if all the paperwork goes well we will pick him up in November or December. Just maybe in time for Christmas!!! Our social worker did have some news to be weary of, though. Korea only issues so many passports for orphans a year. If they meet their quota then we may have to wait until next year. But there are fewer referrals this year, so who knows. I only say it because I'm trying to prepare myself in case it should happen. Just thought you might like to be prepared too. That was the only slightly discouraging news she gave us.

Cydney is very excited. She's been studying his picture and telling everyone she's going to be a big sister. I'm not sure she totally has the concept of it yet, but she seems to understand more each time we talk about it.

We are over the moon with excitement! When our social worker called, she asked if I wanted her to fax the information to me. Well, yeah!! I tell you, a fax machine has never worked sooo slowly. :-) But once I saw that little face he became so very real.

There was a quote from Elizabeth Barret Browning on another couple's blog (Rachel & Josh's...for those of you who would know) that I thought is so very true. "God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame."

Moving on UP!!

Lifelink just updated their website today. (They post how many referrals they've received and how many children have arrived home to date). In July so far, they've received FOUR referrals for boys!! According to my calculations (again) that would put us at #3 on the list!! Three is my new favorite number! It is such a nice small number. Perhaps this should be a lesson to me to never doubt your social worker (see previous post).

Another word for Waiting....Anticipating

I can't believe that it has been one month since my last post. Time seems to fly in all other aspects of our life than in the adoption part. :-) According to my calculations we are now 7th on the adoption waiting list for our agency's South Korea program. They only received one male referral in June, according to their website. At this rate I'm finding it hard to believe that we will have a referral by the end of summer, but that must mean that our little guy just isn't ready yet. Our social worker swears she doesn't have a crystal ball. Although, I think it should come with their profession. :-)

We've been doing a few things here and there to get ready. I dusted off the 50,000 Baby Names book. You'd think we'd be able to find a name in there! We most likely won't have a name for him until we see him. Right now we just call him Baby Brother or our Little Guy.

Yesterday Cydney and I went and picked out fabric for his quilt. I made one for Cydney when she was born and want to carry on that tradition. I found a nice pattern for an airplane quilt. Since it will be an airplane that inevitably brings him home, I was drawn to it.

When shopping the other day I found a cute pair of little shoes. Buying them made the whole idea of him a little more real. So there they sit on the kitchen counter, I can't bring myself to put them away yet. They're a nice symbol that he WILL be home someday to wear them.

A little Q & A

What....to...talk...about???? (tapping on head) I've had writer's block for at least a week now. Don't think I've forgotten to write.... I'm constantly thinking about it. I just figure you're not interested in what I had for lunch that day. :-) Here are few questions that have come up when we were visiting with family and friends recently. Question: How old will our little guy be when we bring him home? Answer: He will be about 5 months old when we get the referral (because of South Korea's new law, the child has to be up for domestic adoption for 5 months before being placed on an international list). Then it will be 3-6 months of paperwork until we bring him home, so he'll be 9-12months old. Next Question: How long will we have to stay in Korea when we go? Answer: We have to be there for 4-5 business days. With South Korea there is an option for having him escorted over here, but we want to be able to see his country and document as much of it for him and to learn a little more about his heritage. Cydney will have her birth story. We want to give him a good story as well. Next Question: Will Cydney go with you? Answer: Most likely, no. The jury (me) is still having a hard time with this decision. But life will be easier if she doesn't go (for both her and us...see next question). Question: How long will your flight be? Answer: We've heard up to 18 hours, but the handy dandy travelocity website tells me it'll be about 14 hours. Who knows, let's just say it'll be a loooong flight. But on the way back it'll give us a lot of good "bonding" time with our little guy. He'll be placed in our care the day before we leave. His biological mother can reclaim him at any point until we step foot on a plane. It doesn't happen very often, but I think it'll be hard not to look over our shoulders while we're waiting to board.
Thank you again for reading and checking our blog. We feel your support and feel so very blessed by it. And as always if you have any questions....PLEASE let us know...it definitely helps my writer's block!

Pregnant on Paper!!!!!

We are at last "PAPER READY"!!!! We just got the O.K. from the federal government yesterday and they gave us the green light to wait for a referral. It was our last hoop in the paperwork section of our journey. I spoke with Laura (our social worker, for those of you just tuning in) and she said she'd notify the "list keeper" that we were ready. I couldn't help myself and had to ask where we are on the list. Of the families waiting for boys from South Korea we are 8th down on the list. Three of the families before us are paper ready as of the beginning of May. They have been receiving about 4-5 referrals a month, so she said we could expect a referral by the end of summer!!! I swear it is like someone just told me I'm pregnant. I'm just about as giddy. Although, I need to pace myself. Once we receive a referral it will be 3-6 months before all the paperwork is completed to go and get him. My dream of bringing him home before Christmas has a chance, but I'm trying to keep an open mind on that one.

So right now we are in the process of waiting. Laura said to let her know when we are on vacation so that she can get a hold of us if our little guy's information comes in. I'm sure she'll be sorry she told me that. I'm likely to call and tell her every time I go to the bathroom, so that she knows I won't be near my phone. :-)

A Little More Information

Since it is kind of a quiet time in the whole process, we thought maybe it would be a good time to tell you a little more about the adoption agency we will be working with over in Korea. Let's start at the beginning....(I love history). South Korea has the oldest international adoption program in the world. More than 200,000 children have been adopted from there since the mid-1950s, when many children placed for adoption were biracial children fathered by U.S. Military personnel during and after the Korean War. Most children available for adoption today are placed by unmarried mothers who are concerned about the strong stigma against children who are born out of wedlock.

Our particular agency is called the Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS). I found most of this information from their website and the information given to us from Lifelink. ESWS is based in Seoul and has been placing children since 1972. It was founded by Dr. Duk Whang Kim, a lifelong Christian and an elder of a church who has helped needy children find families, and provides places and education for disabled children. They have many homes and projects that benefit many aspects of the process of adoption. In Seoul, their main office is connected to their children's hospital, baby nursery, and guest house. The babies usually stay at the nursery for the first six weeks and are then placed into foster homes. When we go over there we may have the opportunity to stay at their guest house. Dr. Kim recently retired and was succeeded by his daughter. It was customary for him to meet with each adoptive family and share a meal with them. I'm guessing that his daughter will still carry on that tradition. I've been reading up on my Korean table etiquette for that very reason.

It is so easy to get caught up in our own story of w-a-i-t-i-n-g for our little guy. There is a book, I Wish for You a Beautfiul Life, that is comprised of letters written from Korean mothers to the children that they have put up for adoption. One wrote, "You needed to be loved by family members, and you could have that love only if you were in a family. I couldn't give that love by myself. Therefore, adoption was my gift to you." What a completely selfless act of love.

Technical update

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Next Step

Laura emailed us on Monday to say that the state had processed our paperwork and she was sending it on to CIS. Which stands for Citizenship & Immigration Services, not CSI (Crime Scene Investigation...I got that wrong before). So in 4-6 weeks we should be done with this step.

Sean went to Moline last Saturday for his make-up parenting class. We were scheduled to go to our agency's class in March, but he had the flu. I had originally thought about drugging him and propping him up in a chair since it was mandatory that we take the class and we didn't want his absence to delay our paperwork, but they found this make up class for him to take instead. Which was a more humane way to go. He enjoyed the class and got to meet some other couples that are adopting in the Peoria, Monmouth, and Iowa areas. It was fun comparing notes between the two classes. We both got to hear from adoptees who are now adults. They talked about their experiences growing up and their feelings about their families. I think we agreed we enjoyed that part the most.

A couple of questions we recently got were if we specifically requested a boy and if we knew who he was? The answers are yes and no. We specifically requested a boy. It was part of the reason we decided on South Korea as our country. 80% of the children adopted from Korea are boys. That was surprising to us when we were researching because we'd always thought of Asian countries as having girls that were available. But that is particularly China. There have been a couple of reasons given to us as to why there are so many boys up for adoption in South Korea. One is that because the children are up for adoption domestically the girls are usually adopted first. Partly because it is thought girls are easier to raise and because blood lines are important in Korea, by adopting a girl she doesn't affect the blood line as a boy would. As far as knowing who our little guy will be, we have absolutely no idea. When we turned in our initial application to Lifelink we were placed at the bottom of their list for Korean adoptions. Once we are "paper ready", when the agency is made aware of babies ready for adoption they go to their list and the first couple that is requesting that particular sex will get the referral for that child. We are hoping that since we are requesting a boy that our wait will be a little shorter than others on the list. Americans tend to adopt girls. That's why there is an almost four year wait for adopting through China. So it is God/fate/chance, any way you want to look at it, that will bring us together with our little guy.

So I hope this answers your questions, if you have anymore please let us know.

Let's Backtrack a Bit

I have this need to do something towards bringing our little guy home almost everyday. Since it is out of my hands now, I've managed to quell that need from everyday to doing something once a week. So this week its the blog!
I've gotten a few emails asking how we got to this point in the process. We started researching adoption agencies last November. Many people (both personally and on the internet) recommended Lifelink Adoption Agencies. I've worked with Lifelink through my job, only through their teen parenting programs, so that brought some reassurance as well. They happened to have a branch in Rockford, so after Christmas Carol was over (Sean was directing it) we made an appointment to meet with them. We liked the social worker we met with (Laura), so we decided to jump right in. To complete our home study we needed to meet with her for interviews, write our life stories, get physicals (even Amos!) and fill out a pile of paperwork. Two of the interviews would be with the both of us, and then she would meet with us individually. Our final interview would be at our home so that she could interview Cydney and see our home as well. Before the interviews began we had to write our life stories to give her ideas on what to ask and probably show any possible red flags. The outline they gave us was 4 pages long, so we didn't think it was out of the question that our stories turned out to be 25 pages long. But after Laura's reaction when we turned it in, we asked how long they normally are. Ten pages! With pictures! Ha! Well hopefully we got a gold star for divulging everything! Our final interview with Cydney was fun. I say fun, yet I (nor anyone in the house) was not saying that before she arrived. I could not get the house clean enough. Cydney did very well during her interview. During the visit she dug around her toy basket until she found her magnifying glass and used it to check Laura out! I enjoyed the irony of that!
We had to get finger printed by both the state and federal governments. The federal set seemed to be more challenging. Apparently I have almost worn my prints off! Who knew you could do that?? But after a second set were taken I seemed to be clear.
We recently got our license to be a foster home. Since the adoption won't be finalized here in the U.S. until we've been home with the little guy for six months, we will be considered (legally) his foster family during that time. The license slowed our process down slightly because DCFS lost our paperwork. Once we realized it, it had been two weeks, and we had to resend it and wait another two weeks. Although, they said there would be bumps in the road and if that is the biggest bump we get we'll be doing very well.
So that brings you up to date. Our paperwork is with the state government and will hopefully be back to us by the end of April and then we'll send it on to the federal government.
I hope that gives you a thorough, if not TOO thorough look at the Home Study process. Thanks again for checking our blog!

Waiting to be "paper ready"

Ok, so I'm new at this blogging thing, but it seems to be a great way to keep a lot of people informed about our adoption story.
As most of you know, we are planning to adopt a little guy from South Korea. Right now we are waiting for the state government to OK our paper work so that it can be sent on to the federal government. Once that is done (as long as our criminal history that we've both managed to block out doesn't come up), we will be considered "Paper ready" by the agency. We're thinking that it might be June before that happens. At that point we will be waiting for a referral that can take up to six months. Once we get the picture (referral) of our little guy, it will be 3-6 months before we get the OK to go get him! I'm expecting that waiting period will be the hardest. Perhaps blogging will be a good distraction at that point.
We've started getting ready for him, by working on Cydney's big girl room. The little guy will have the nursery, so we need to get her moved into her new room soon, so that she doesn't feel displaced.
Thank you for checking the blog. I hope to update it every couple of weeks (OK, at least once a month).