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."