Richardson Happenings

Can't believe it's already February...

2011-02-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

It's all official, June has legally joined our family forever. It feels so great to have everything behind us. Now all that's left is receiving her birth certificate and having her SSN issued which we hope to have within the weeks!

Can't you see the excitement and relief on our faces? The day was so special and the judge was wonderful...he was so personal and casual with us, after he asked a couple of questions and handed us the official paperwork, he asked to take June up behind his desk and let her sit and hold/play with the gavel. Then he asked us all to come up there and take pictures.

It's February now, we just received some snow and super cold weather. The girls are gearing up now for Valentine's Day.

June is still so petite (still 20 lbs)...she is a pretty picky eater...its funny because in the beginning she wasn't, she ate everything, but now its hit and miss every day. Now she will try more to eat when I ask her to, I can ask her to take another sip of milk or bite of X and she will...which is good...we keep working to get more fat on her bones but she's healthy, happy and thriving every day. The other day at her preschool I had the joy of witnessing her first little social situation at school where she was so excited to see her little girl friend, she hugged her, talked to her in baby talk then stuck her foot out said "shoe" as she pointed to her 3 day old new shoes she was clearly so proud of! So sweet...

Ava is having fun at school, she's definitely more into the Valentines Day and her daddy's upcoming birthday. We've got some fun valentine crafts and card making ideas we plan to make together. She is really enjoying her extra Art classes we've put her in and I think is quite talented. My absolute favorite piece she made was a self-portrait...which I think is pretty incredible.

I feel so blessed to have two extraordinary, beautiful, smart, sweet, special little girls!!

Well, back to the craft table I go...

Tomorrow is the big day!

2010-12-13T21:54:00.003-07:00

It's been a really long time since I last posted...I took a little hiatus.

Things have been going well and tomorrow is THE BIG DAY! We appear in court to finally finalize our adoption with June.

It's such a special day for our family and extended family. Grandparents have flown in and we, along with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Grandparents will be attending the court proceedings together...to finally call June ours forever!

My heart beams with love and joy for her and our family. She is the sweetest, funniest, cutest, smartest and most adventurous little girl. She adores and looks up to her big sister, coos over her daddy and longs for her mommy to comfort and hold her tight at night. Looking at Ava and June together, takes my breath away...Ava is the most beautiful girl, inside and out and truly loves and cares for her sister June.

Tomorrow afternoon, it will all be behind us, all the paperwork, legal and technical work out of the way...it's surreal to think this day is finally here.

Thank you God. Thank you friends and family for all of your love and support...we are so grateful!

"Sister" and Finalization of Adoption

2010-09-23T19:17:00.000-06:00

Life is in full swing with our family of four and dog. It has been 4-1/2 months since we've grown from a family of 3 to 4. Things are more adjusted, routines are established and growth on all sides continues.

Ava loves loves loves kindergarten...she is so organized and thrives on learning. Every night she lays out her clothes, hair accessories, shoes, socks (placed in her shoes), backpack (with her school materials placed just so in each section in the backpack) and her water bottled pre-filled. She did this on her own so that "she is running around crazy looking for things". She loves order which I love. Although the education is a little behind what she already knows, we are having to continue supplementing so that she can stay challenged and continue to learn. She also is in soccer and is enjoying that as well, boy she is a super fast runner. She has also looking forward to Halloween and her upcoming 6 year old birthday. For halloween she has asked to be Cleopatra.

As for June, every day she talks more and more. I've lost count of how many words she is saying. The sweetest new word today was "Sister". Her daddy was holding her looking at pictures of Ava in the hall and June said "Sister" very clearly. She also says Hi, Bye bye, Night-night, All Done, More, Wawa (water), Apple, Doggie, Up, Down, Off, Chocolate, Bottle, Sister, Dada, Mama, Vava, Volvo, June, Eye, Nose, Mouth, Shoe, Sock, Love, You, Ouch, Wow, Moo, Quack, Roar, Baubles (still the word for stuffed animals and blanket), Baby, Ball, Cracker, Bebo (belly button). She will pretty much try to repeat any word you ask which is great and brave. She knows where her eyes, mouth, nose, ears, head, hair, belly button, toes are. She tells us (points to her diaper or brings it to us) when she needs her diaper changed, she points to her bed and says "night night" when she wants to go to bed.

Then we received super exciting news last week about a court date in December to finalize our adoption with June. At that point we will no longer be considered "foster parents" but legally in the court of law considered her parents. It just finalizes things on paper and puts this other chapter behind us as we continue looking ahead as a happy, loving, complete family of four plus our dog.

Rice gruel and kindergarten...

2010-08-25T22:00:00.004-06:00

When June came home with us, she started off eating everything under the sun...almost 4 months later she still eats most things but is a tad pickier...and when she isn't feeling well (we had our first projectile vomit/virus bug a couple of weeks ago) its difficult to get her to eat much else besides milk.

So after a few days of not eating much I thought I'd pull out the old tried and true dish...rice gruel...and she gobbled it up! She loves loves loves this stuff and would probably eat it for every meal. Rice gruel is essentially rice in broth. In Korea she ate this all the time except hers had meat in it...since we don't eat a lot of meat I decided to include some seaweed, which is an alternate source of protein. She can eat bowls and bowls of this and loves to slurp up the broth.

Rice gruel

June continues to do well...every day she says a new word. Other than da-da (her favorite word which she says with so much passion) she says bye-bye, night-night, hi, up, more, baby, ball, baubles (this is the name of one of our girls stuffed animals, so now she calls all dolls and stuffed animals this), milk, doggie, chocolate, here...then just today, when we said "I love you" she said made a "lauv" sound :-) which we think was her trying to say love!

In the car being silly

She also loves loves to draw...I think she'd be happy for hours with a pen and piece of paper scribbling away. She also likes to dance, sing (she hums when I sing or Ava sings), try hats or other clothes on as hats, play and hold baby dolls, and walk around with purses on her shoulders. She's a happy camper.

As for Ava, she just started kindergarten last week! It was a big day and I'm so proud and excited for her as she starts this new chapter in her life. She loves kindergarten, is enjoying having homework, making new friends and being a big girl. Her first day she was all business...as soon as the bell rang, she immediately ran to her chair, sat down then realized she still had her backpack on, stood up to take it off, put it away then sat back down patiently waiting with a serious look on her face. It was so sweet...our little girl is growing up!

This week we discovered she has one of her back molars coming in...I was surprised they came in so early but again, another sign she keeps growing up.

It goes by so fast...grab your kids, record every moment, time is so precious, especially when they are young.

Ava's 1st day at kindergarten

Milestones!

2010-08-08T20:52:00.000-06:00

Things continue to be busy which makes it difficult to post as often as I'd like. Everything is going just great here...it feels like the summer is almost gone and it just got here. I still hate how fast the stores bring in and out seasons...I just received an email from pottery barn kids letting me know about their Halloween costumes.

Time goes by so fast and it just goes by faster and faster. I remember when I was a teenager and I told my dad how fast time went by...he told me to "just wait, until I got older...this is nothing like what you'll experience later in life, it will really go by fast then"...and it has!

I've had a lot happen in my life along with difficult losses while I was a teenager, young adult and older adult...all of which have impressed in me how fleeting life is and the importance of 'living in the moment'. At a young age, I adopted the mentality that I can't live to please others, life is too short to worry about what other people think about me and my "energy" is limited and should be spent on the things that matter and not on worrying about things I have no control over or interest in. I remember when I was younger and began to have this "shift" in the way I lived and approached each day. I take each day a step at a time, I try not to dwell on the past or "what could have been" moments nor do I live in the future. I try to live in the now. I find, I'm sure like many people, that I don't have enough time in the day to do all the things I want. It's difficult being a working mom, raising two busy girls, being a wife, mother, sister, friend, daughter...trying to fill all those roles plus tend to the things I'm personally interested in pursuing outside of work (publishing children books, painting, cooking, etc). Sometimes I get overwhelmed because I'm not able to excel in all the areas mentioned above. So when the year is over half way over and I haven't accomplished the things I set out to do this year...it's hard not to feel bummed.

But, I also can reflect back and note some significant and proud milestones we've experienced as a family this year :

Ava began to lose her baby teeth (four to-date, two on the bottom and two on the top);
Ava had her first road-trip w/out her mommy and daddy (don't think we'll do that again, that was really hard on her mommy!!);
Our family finally grew from 3 to 4 with baby June's longly anticipated arrival;
Ava had her 2nd ballet recital;
June gives Ava, Daddy, and Mommy kisses;
Ava played soccer the first time; June no longer has restless nights nor sucks her thumbs/fingers;
Ava had her first major injury by smashing her thumb in the car door;
June picks up new words every day (Hi, Bye Bye, Night night, More, Milk, Vava, Da da, Ma ma, Baby, Shoe, Mooo, Quack, Woof, Up);
June had her first road trip with her family to see her grandparents and great-grand parents;
Mommy and daddy survived their first long road trip with two kids who were anxious to not be in the car;
Ava rode her bicycle for the first time w/out training wheels;
Ava said 'good-bye' to her preschool and is getting ready to say 'hello' to kindergarten;
June said 'hello' to her preschool part-time;

There are still so many things I want to accomplish and go after this year with our family and personally...hopefully I'll continue to motivate myself so I can rise above the challenge!!

We are off to the Dragon Boat Festival...

2010-07-25T08:27:00.000-06:00

Every year, they hold a Dragon Boat Festival here in Denver where it's essentially a celebration of the various Asian cultures. They have these fun dragon boat races on the lake, fun activities for the kids, lovely performance art events and delicious food to choose from. We are planning to head out there today to watch the races and a traditional Korean dance performance. I plan to post pictures from the day, it should be fun!

"Hi Da-da!"

2010-07-19T22:36:00.001-06:00

So it's no surprise or news how crazy June is about her "da-da". She squeals and flaps her arms when Scott walks in the room and she loves to be held in his arms and rest her head on his shoulder. She says "da-da" all the time. This evening, I was putting her to bed, reading quietly in her room, rocking with her bottle and blanket...Scott peeks his head through the door only to find June say loudly and clearly "Hi Da-da"...my jaw dropped open and I of course smiled. It was so sweet...now if only she could do that for me ;-)

We also had another funny thing happen tonight. I gave June her bath first then took her back to her room to get her ready for bed, put lotion on, clean diaper, pjs, etc. Ava was in the bathtub so I left June with her for a sec while I ran downstairs to let our dog in...2 seconds later I heard Ava calling for me so I ran back upstairs only to find June fully clothed in the bathtub with Ava splashing around! I laughed so hard...needless to say when I reached over to get June out she weighed an additional 50 lbs due to all the water she soaked up from her diaper and wet pjs!

Our first 'out of town' trip together as a new family...

2010-07-15T15:40:00.001-06:00

Well we went out of town (state) for the first time with June and were gone for 10 days! Which was a pretty long time for her. We went back home primarily to introduce June to our parents and her great-grandmothers...and secondary for my 20 year high school reunion. We had a nice time visiting with our families and catching up with old friends.

The drive took us around 9-10 hours each way...which is a really really long time to be in the car with a baby who isn't thrilled to be in the car. She fussed/cried A LOT in the car and slept about 45 minutes. Ava did great, she was able to keep herself entertained with movies and the iPad. On the way back, she was a little better, but only slept 45 min in the car...she's kinda like her mommy :-) I can't sleep in the car or plane either.

Poor June was out of sorts the first half of the trip, all but the last three nights she had major restless nights and Scott and I had little sleep. Due to lack of sleep and allergies I ended up getting sick and losing my voice and am slowly getting it back.

It took June a while to warm up to our family but in the end, they all got to see her happy, fun personality. In the end she did remarkably well given the situation...I imagine it must have been pretty scary for her...another long road trip and unfamiliar places/faces. We tried to hold her a lot, reassure her that we were and still would be her mommy and daddy and that we were just visiting grand-parents. Everyone was very sensitive to her and were not pushing to get close, etc...they let her come to them on her own.

She soon became comfortable enough to laugh, twirl around and "show-off" some of her words (wow, ouh, up vava, dada, etc), gestures (nods her head for yes, shakes for no, signs for more) and sounds (she can moo like a cow and quack like a duck). One of the first nights she woke up early and we were still so sleepy...so I said and signed "June more sleep" and then she proceeded to point to herself for "June" and then sign "more" but she didn't sleep :-)

Ava had a lot of fun...she went to the 4th of July parade with her Mimi and Papi, went to have tea with her Mimi, played in the toy room at her great "Grandmas", went fishing with her Papa, watched movies with her Nana and ate watermelon with her great "Mema". She also had a sleep over with her friend Harper...she had an action-packed week.

Some of the pictures below include "bingo" my dads dog and one of his many cats. Ava came running up to me to let me know that bingo was "smiling" so I took a picture of him doing so. I've also included the fish Ava proudly caught (catch and release)...she caught four that day and was so proud...I even held it up and June tried to grab it.

We had a nice time seeing everyone. It was great though to be back in our home and June was so happy...she was running around in the house, rolling around all over the floor, you could almost see how relieved she was to be back in her home...safe and secure...and oh so happy to see our dog Maggie. It might be a while before we take another road trip!

Well we are off to pick up our Veggie and Fruit farm share this evening...I'm looking forward to a week filled with local/organic cherries, apricots, spinach and greens.

Multi-topic - long post

2010-06-25T11:07:00.009-06:00

This will be a multi-topic post today...

First topic - Food!
Last week I was challenged with finding recipes where "Lettuce" was the main theme. Thank you to two of you that shared some ideas and recipes... We ended up doing several lettuce wraps (I can't believe I had forgotten that we could do this with lettuce...just substitute bread with lettuce - duh) they were yummy. We also had several salads - Brittany, I'm looking forward to trying yours soon. I also used the bunch of Cilantro and made Cilantro Rice, Spinach Tacos and then Spinach Cheese Enchiladas.

Second topic - Recipes!
Here's my easy Spinach Cheese Enchiladas. (I don't have precise measurements but I'll try to give some):

Sauce (I didn't have a bunch of free tomatoes to make it from scratch which is tastier, so I used some from cans)

Pour small can of tomato paste into small pot
Add water to get it to a puree thick soupy consistency
Add some diced up onions
Add some canned or diced up green chilies
Add some diced up garlic or garlic powder (1-2 tsp)
Add some chili powder (2-3 tsp)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Simmer for 15-20 minutes

Enchiladas

Corn tortillas (enough to fill whatever pan you plan to use - I had around 10)
Fresh spinach - sauté this lightly with some fresh onion and garlic and a little olive oil
Cheese (whatever cheese you want, I used some mozzarella)

Once the sauce is ready and spinach is ready, take the corn tortillas and warm them up so they are pliable but not hard/crispy (you can do this by steaming a bit in the oven, warming in the microwave, stove, etc). Dip the tortilla in the sauce, cover on both sides, place the cheese and spinach in the middle, roll up and place in the pan. Continue to do this until all tortillas are in the pan. Then pour the sauce on top, sprinkle with more cheese. Bake in a preheated oven, covered, at 350 degrees for approx 20 minutes.

The next thing I made this past week was Raw/Vegan Ice Cream. It was so good, here's what I did:

1 cup of raw (unroasted) Cashews
1/2 to 1 banana
2 mangos (or other fruit if you want)
1-1/2 cup to 1-3/4 cup of water (I ended up adding a little bit more than 1-1/2 cup to thin it up when it was in the blender
Scrapings from vanilla bean pod or 1 tsp of vanilla
8-10 Dates for a sweetner. If you don't have Dates you can use Agave or pure Maple syrup (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup of Coconut oil (you can buy this at a Sunflower, Sprouts or Whole Foods market - also, coconut oil isn't liquid oil, the name always threw me off...it's really a solid oil if that makes sense)
2 tsp of lemon juice

Blend all of it up in a blender (that can blend nuts) - you don't want it runny or too thick...kinda creamy...that's why I ended up having to add a bit more water than 1-1/2 cup. Place the ice cream mixture in your ice cream machine and whirling/freeze away. If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can also place this in a container an put in your freezer.

Third Topic - Next week's Food/Recipe Theme!

Ok, so that brings me to later this week - on Wednesday we picked up our 2nd Veggie share. Again, lots of lettuce, lots of fresh Dill and Cilantro and a TON of Spinach. So, this weeks food/recipe theme is SPINACH! If you have any great spinach recipes, please post them, I'm running low on ideas already!

Fourth Topic - Ava Updates!

Ava just joined soccer last week and is doing great and loving it! This is the first "team" sport she's done and she's getting the hang of it and really goes after the ball!

She also seems to have gotten some skin rash/hives early last week...so we are planning to take her to an allergist next week to do all the testing to figure out what's going on...I've been wanting to have this done anyway to see if any food or environmental allergy is what is/has triggered some "Tics" (eye winking) she started developing in February. I'm interested to see if she is allergic to anything and if we can eliminate those from her environment or diet if that helps matters...so more to come. I would like to write another post about Tics and Tourettes Syndrome as I've learned so much.

Fifth Topic - June Updates!

As for June, things are continuing to go pretty well. We've noticed that when she's around other people a lot or spends time with them, we have more restless nights (Note to future or new adoptive parents - watch your kiddos reactions and signs of stress the night and days after you have visitors, or go to someone's house - we've noticed small signs from June but the are getting less and less).

The other thing I'm still baffled and honestly still get upset about (it's hard not to take it personally even though I know I shouldn't) is that she is not comfortable sleeping with me. The other night she woke up crying/screaming so my husband brought her in to bed with me, she laid there quietly for a few minutes (so I thought she would finally sleep with me ok) and then when I tried to hold/snuggle with her...she proceeding to kick her legs, cry and scream. Everything I tried did not work and after nearly 30-45 minutes I eventually ended up putting her back in her crib. She's not nearly that bad with Scott when she lays down with him. It's hard not to think that behavior is attachment/bonding related, right? If anyone has any insight or advice, I'd love to hear.

On a fun note, last night at Ava's soccer we noticed June was really interested into the soccer ball...she ran over to pick it up and then when Scott asked June if she could kick it, she started to kick the ball! It was so great and cute. We were really surprised she was able to kick and keep kicking the ball especially since she's still not 100% solid when she walks, she still wobbles a bit. So June seems like a natural at soccer too...I think we might have to get two soccer balls at home, one for each girl.

Sixth Topic - Father's Day

Last weekend we celebrated Father's day and had a nice time with our family. We skyped that day with the grand-parents, then we got together with our family here in Denver for a great brunch at a place called "Root Down", that serves a lot of wonderful organic food. Here are some pictures of that morning. The day before, Scott wanted to go hiking up near Grand Lake (our favorite spot), we went hiking up this steep trail in the forest which was nice. Ava did great, we took many pictures of bugs and flowers.

Well I could keep writing forever, so much to say, but that's probably plenty for this long marathon post.

Happy Friday!

Our first Veggie crop, weekly food theme...and some other Adoption updates...

2010-06-17T21:02:00.003-06:00

You might recall in an earlier post that we were going to purchase a share in a CSA (community supported agriculture) this year. Well, we received our first Veggie crop on Wednesday!! (I was so excited)

Every week, we go to a location that's within a few miles of our house to pickup our weekly share of Veggies. Then in July, we'll start to receive a Fruit share that we purchased. I was really curious about how much we'd receive this week and I have to say...I was pleasantly surprised to find we received a lot! My sister and I are splitting a "couples portion" for the Veggie share. You can purchase either a single portion, couples portion or family portion...I had heard two others splitting a couples portion so figured we'd start there to see if it was enough. And it's more than enough

I'm excited to be supporting our local organic farmers here in Colorado, and would encourage others to do so in your area (www.grantfarms.com). The other thing that's fun about this, is it's kind of like "Iron Chef", each week we will essentially have a surprise theme that I'll have to plan my menu around and get creative with recipes.

If you are food adventurous, like us, you can make this into something fun. So, this weeks food theme is "LETTUCE"...we received bags and bags of different kind of lettuce, parsley and cilantro. Now I'm tasked with finding recipes to eat this week that consist or include lots of lettuce.

Question for anyone reading this, I would love to hear any "lettuce" recipes you'd recommend. If you have a favorite salad, lettuce wrap or anything else, I'd appreciate hearing...it will certainly challenge me this week. I thought I'd have fun with this and report each week what the "theme" is and what recipes I ended up being challenged to find/make.

Adoption Update:
As for other news, things continue to go well. Some days are better than others. We've had some small set backs or days where June is fussy and crying throughout the day or wakes up several times throughout the night crying...but then other days where she's happy as a clam and sleeping through the night. It's difficult trying to diagnose what's wrong...you question whether her fussiness is adoption/attachment/grieving related? Or is it because she's teething or some other non-adoption normal toddler thing. I've learned that when you adopt, you certainly add on another layer of things to try to sort through when your kiddos are fussy and seem unhappy.

We have noticed that she seems pretty at ease with us, she rarely seeks out her thumbs, pinky, or other fingers to suck on like she did in the beginning, she's putting weight on and smiles alot. She also finds comfort in her blanket (which we introduced on purpose due to suggested adoption reading about helping them also attach to a blanket or stuffed animal for security reasons)...we have a ritual we follow pretty much every day around nap and bedtime which includes grabbing her blanket and placing it near her so she can hold, touch or feel...rocking in the chair (if she's fussy that day I'll wrap her in the blanket tightly while rocking her), drinking her bottle of milk, listening to some classical music and me singing her a few songs. She now expects this routine and I know that it helps soothe and relax her before she lays down. So for any adoptive parent to-be...I would STRONGLY encourage you to establish routine(s), especially around bedtime...it really helps bring some type of stability, consistency to their lives which I believe is needed and does wonders for them and you.

Life is good...

2010-06-08T22:11:00.003-06:00

Things are going well (knock on wood...)

Ava's thumb is healing nicely, June's adjustment is continuing to go nicely, we are scheduled to begin receiving our first Community Shared Agriculture crop next week, we safely had three large trees removed from our back yard, Ava had a great ballet recital and is looking forward to taking soccer and golf lessons next, Scott and I are getting back in the groove of being working parents now over two children, etc.

Below are a couple of pics from Ava's last ballet recital and Ava and June together.

June has now been home with us for a month. She is doing great. She smiles pretty much all the time. During the day she seems pretty happy. She walks everywhere and is into everything. She loves to eat and will eat everything...she hasn't turned anything down...she will eat swiss chard, kale, cucumbers, tomatoes, LOVES pickles, beets, mushrooms, all fruits, anything you put in front of her she will essentially eat. We had corn on the cob the other day and she ate 2 ears of corn...just walking around with the cob in her hand.

She LOVES to dance and sing...if we sing then she will start to sing (hum)...and she sways her body anytime there's music. She is already learning to climb the stairs (we try to keep her away from them). She LOVES taking baths, is happy in her high chair, stroller or car seat (she never cried when put in these...we thought she would as we heard other families report their kiddos cry or hate being put in them once they were brought home from Korea).

She LOVES her big sister, daddy and I think she is liking me more. A few days ago I finally received my first free kisses from June. In the beginning, she gave Ava kisses and hugs first. Then after a week or two she gave Scott kisses. When asked if she would give mama or umma a kiss sometimes she would look the other way, shake her head no or hit my chest with her hand. But finally, a few days ago I finally received my first free kisses from June. One day she leaned over to me and gave me several kisses on her own...that melted my heart! It took almost a month but I figured it would eventually happen on her own time. Over the past month, I have also grown to love June. In the beginning, if I'm being honest it was tough...not being able to comfort her or know how to soothe her which became very frustrating...but with each day, small/tiny progress was made, some days we took steps back, but now, a month later and after some up and down weeks...things feel good.

She is sleeping well (mostly restless/crying/kicking-free nights), she's eating well, I can rock her to sleep while she rests and relaxes in my arms, I can hold her hand, I can touch her face, she hands me toys or objects all are small continued signs of trust that she's developing with her new family.

Our first small injury with Ava...

2010-06-06T08:17:00.005-06:00

WARNING - Not so pretty photo below!!

So yesterday Ava had an activity filled day...in the morning she had her ballet recital (I will post pics later) then she went to a b-day party and then later that evening she went with her daddy to look for cars. Well...they didn't get very far...the first car they went to look at (the one Scott wanted to test drive) Ava shut her thumb and forefinger in the door!! Poor Ava. He went ahead and took her to the emergency room, while there he took this photo for me so I could see what happened. It looks so painful. The injury was made just at the bottom of her thumbnail. They said there would be a 1/3 of a chance that her thumbnail would grow back. They confirmed she would most likely lose it then they weren't sure if it would grow back normal or if it would be loose and wiggly (gross) the rest of her life or if she would have no thumbnail forever...that's the bummer.

Other than that she has to wear a splint for 3 weeks to keep her thumb stable and keep other things from bumping into it. Her forefinger is fine...it will just be bruised for a while. For pain management, they suggested we alternate motrin and tylenol so she has something in her body every 4 hours to help. She says the splint helps her thumb feel better...which is good.

****

Bears, First Words and Teeth oh my!

2010-06-01T23:14:00.000-06:00

On Monday, I was getting ready and June walked (waddled) over to me, held her hands up and said "mama up!"... I was shocked and thrilled to hear these clear words come out of her mouth. She also says Hi, Da-da, Va-va or Ah-va and Up...and she has signed "more". It's been almost a month now since we've had her home with us and each day I'm amazed with how much she knows what we are saying. The other day I said to her, "Can you give Ava a kiss?"...and then she walked over to Ava and gave her the signature "open mouth" kiss...it was that moment that I realized how much she is understanding/learning English. She's just a little sponge soaking everything up and we are parents beaming with joy.

We had another "first" the other day. For memorial day we finally had our families over so that June could begin meeting her Aunts, Uncles and cousins. We were sitting outside and June was in her high-chair...eating away...when all of a sudden, she fell asleep in mid-chew! It was so funny and cute! The other pic is of all the cousins together.

Earlier during the weekend, we went up to Beaver Creek in the mountains to get away...it's so beautiful up there. We went hiking, swimming and just enjoyed being together.

During our hike we saw fresh bear prints...we heard an earlier report that brown and black bears had been coming down the mountain and to be on alert. As soon as we saw the prints, Scott said he heard a snort type of sound...Ava was spoked so we decided to head back down.

Ava practiced swimming in the pool while June enjoyed floating around with us. One of the best photo moments captured was in the morning where June was sitting on Ava in a chair...and they were eating yogurt together...I came out of the kitchen and saw them covered in yogurt...feeding each other...it was very sweet!

Oh...and Ava has recently lost her first big tooth! She had a visit from the tooth fairy and was very excited as usual. She was so brave...one day while we were eating lunch she took her napkin and pulled out her tooth!

Transition Update...

2010-05-23T14:58:00.001-06:00

We have had June home now for 17 days. When I see and say 17 days, it really doesn't seem like we've had her that long. We've taken things pretty slow for her...to ease her into her new home and our lives. We have pretty much kept to our house and to ourselves...just to continue to get accustomed to her new family. We haven't yet had our family over and gotten together with them outside of the airport...this was intentional in order to help us bond and adjust as a new family. We are starting to finally feel that we can begin to have our family over in small pieces so that June can finally get to know her Aunts, Uncles and cousins...I'm looking forward to these moments, but we still plan to take it slow and watch for any signs of stress on her side. We still plan to only allow myself, my husband and Ava to hold her...our social worker recommended waiting at least 6 weeks before anyone to hold her.

Within the 17 days, outside of keeping her in our house the majority of time, she has really come out of her shell and we are getting to know her. There are still two areas we are working on, eating and sleep.

Eating-wise, we seem to be having some difficulty helping her gain weight. When I brought her home, she was around 17.1 lbs which was several lbs less than what she weighed at her 11 mth checkup. When we took her to the Dr., she weighed 16.3 lbs...now they aren't sure if she lost that weight or if there's a difference in scales (scales can be off a lb or two). We are scheduled to bring her in next week to be weighed again to see if she's gaining weight. The first week, she didn't drink a lot but wanted to eat more. She loves food! She can eat a lot and never seems to tire of eating...and she likes anything we put in front of her even tomatoes, kale, spinach which a lot of kids don't like. We have started slowly transitioning her from formula to milk...and she really seems to like milk, which is great. Now she has a bit of a cold and isn't drinking as much...but hopefully, when we bring her in, she'll be putting weight back on.

Sleep-wise, things have improved a bit. For the first 2-5 days she was VERY restless...she would wake up often crying and shaking her head no...but most often could be settled back down or comforted with a pat on her back or had to be rocked back to sleep. The first few nights we didn'g much sleep at all. The 2nd and 3rd nights she woke up at 1-2am, wide awake and started rolling around, standing up, jumping and just wanted to play for the first time. She was talking and very much alive. By night 5, we started working with her when she woke up to go back to sleep. Then she started sleeping from 8/9pm to 6/7am...with a night-time feed (her foster mother did this)...throughout the night she still would stir and cry occasionally. Now, 17 days later...the schedule is still holding, except the past few nights she started becoming restless again. Last night, she woke up around midnight and cried and cried for two hours...I had a hard time getting her to calm down or trying to soothe her...finally it worked. We were feeling so good until last night...I wish I knew what that was...I haven't seen big signs of "grieving" other than restlessness when she sleeps...was this one of her grieving moments? It's hard not knowing yet, how to soothe or comfort her...I try and do my best...I know one of these days I'll figure it out and she will be comforted by me...but it's hard when I see her in pain and I can't seem to help during moments like that.

Also, related to the sleeping topic...I wanted to share what we are doing. We weren't sure if we were going to co-sleep with June in the beginning or start her out in the crib. After 3-4 months of age, we put Ava in the crib and now sleep with her several times a month...we wanted an independent sleeper...and Ava is that. With June, we would like the same thing, but after reading the "Parenting an Internationally Adopted Child" book, we decided to limit the amount of change on June in the beginning and co-sleep with her...which is what her foster family did. They would put a mat on their living room floor and sleep together. Although we aren't sleeping on the floor, we did start to sleep in our bed together. With Ava in the beginning, we all slept together or took turns. Now, Ava is back in her bed and June still sleeps with my husband and I. The book has 4-5 stages the author encourages reaching sleep-wise to move them from your bed to their own bed. These stages are actually very similar to the stages we used with Ava. We have started to move to one of the next stages and June is now taking naps in her crib...she seems to sleep very well on her own and at times prefers to be undisturbed or "touched' while she sleeps.

We have made many more baby steps together, and she continues to do better and better every day. Next post, I'll share some other milestones and observations from the social worker and Dr. on how well she seems to be doing with the adjustment.

Semi-wordless Friday...

2010-05-21T14:20:00.002-06:00

Our 1st dinner together ----- She passed out in daddy's arms

Mother's day at the park ----- Ava spinning around, I love this photo...the sheer joy on her face is lovely!

Mother's day, our 1st outing outside of the house together as a family

My girls... ----- June LOVES her daddy's phone, remote control or any type of electronics

Sound asleep...so cute that Ava has her arm on June

We found out June loves pickles! ------ Last weekend we went to Dinosaur ridge for a hike

A hike at dinosaur ridge, our 2nd big outing with June. Ava climbing up wall of shale...

June asleep...she comforts herself by sucking any of her fingers, here she has chosen her thumb

Update on our transition...

2010-05-17T19:32:00.000-06:00

It's been over a week since we brought June home and into our lives forever. I'll rewind things and take you back to when she came home.

We came straight home from the airport to our house. When we had Ava and brought her home from the hospital, we walked her through our house introducing her to everything and to her new room. With June, we did the same thing...Scott took June in his arms and we quietly walked her through the house in her new home and to see her new room. We got settled and then had our first dinner (pizza) together.

We had a plan to keep June in our house and not go anywhere or have any visitors for a while...our goal was for June to become comfortable with us and her new house. Once she began to show signs of being comfortable and coming out her shell, we would gradually take her out. The first few days were pretty tough as she only wanted to be held...anytime we'd try to set her down on the floor or in a chair by us she would cry. After a few days locked up in our house, I'd sit down on the floor next to toys and moved her next to them and she finally seemed comfortable...she scooted over to play for a second. The next day she walked a little and played with Ava at her doll house...then the next day she walked more, played more, smiled more and cried less. Each day things get better and better.

Finally, on mother's day we went to a park but we held her close and never really let her down...helping her feel secure and with us. We had this small outing then went back to the comfort of our house...we didn't venture out again for several more days, and again in small pockets. She seems to be fine during these small outings.

I'll post again about how our transition is going as it relates to eating and sleeping. Sounds simple but I'd like to share at least what we've encountered more from a lessons learned perspective for those getting ready to go through this on their own...and I'll post more pictures.

Details on our last two days in Seoul

2010-05-12T22:20:00.005-06:00

As mentioned before, Wednesday, May 5, was Children's day in Korea...so Eastern and some other places were closed...which meant we were left on our own to yet again explore the city. We decided to visit one of the palaces, tour the secret garden (like a 2 hour easy hike), take in the experience of Lotte and then grab a few other goodies back at Namdaemun market.

We used the subway the whole time we were there, and thanks to our handy map...we were able to venture away and still find our way back to the subway to get home. The Changgyeonggung palace was beautiful. The "secret garden" is a separate tour that is 2 hours in length. On every day but Thursday, if you want to see the garden you must take the tour...they have tours by language...since the English tour was 3 hours away, we asked to join the Chinese tour. I really just wanted to take in the sights and enjoy the hike and could read about it later. I already knew that the garden was where the Queen and King and their entourage would go and write poetry, practice archery, sing, walk around or boat on the areas of water. Here are some pictures of the palace.

Next on our list was experiencing the large Lotte department store. This required a longer subway ride over the river...as soon as we got out...the subway was pretty much Lotte...every where you looked there were people and vendors selling their goods...it was sensory overload. People were at "sale" tables fighting over $300 purses...crazy but fun to see.

After that, I was beat, and wanted to get a massage before our flight home. My body was so stiff from the flight over to Seoul...and I figured with the little sleep I was getting and the ton of walking it would be worse if I didn't seek help. So we went to this great massage place near Namdaemun market. Our feet were killing me, as soon as we got there and negotiated our rate, the relaxation began. They rinsed and immersed our sore feet into ice water, then placed immediately after into hot wax, put them in a bag then we laid on a table where they worked my shoulders and back. Then 30 min later they worked on the feet with some stick working on the pressure points on my feet...it was pure heaven! I HIGHLY recommend seeking something like this out on your trip...it helped me relax, helped me be able to get back to the hotel and survive the flight home.

I packed my bags that night, and went to bed hoping for some sleep in preparation for the big day. I woke up on Thursday feeling unexpectedly sick to my stomach with nerves. I was so anxious and nervous...it was hard for me to keep anything down, had no appetite and was very emotional...all of this caught me by surprise. At 11:30 we were to meet with Dr. Kim, have lunch and then soon after have June say good bye to her foster parents.

Our meeting with Dr. Kim was nice, we met in her office with another couple and she gave us a nice history of Korea and background on Eastern. Then we watched a video and had lunch in their cafeteria...I was sick to my stomach with nerves so didn't eat much. After that, we had about an hour to kill...I went back to my room and basically paced back and forth until 2:30. Once 2:30 came, we went to the lobby with our bags, the driver loaded the van up and we went down there to meet June and her foster parents. I was surprised that her foster father was there...they said he normally does not come...so I was pleased to have met him and be able to take some pictures of June with him...he looked like a loving grandfather...they both care so much for June. Once Dr. Kim came down, we all stood and she prayed over us for a while...I was pretty emotional during this prayer even though I had no idea what she was saying...it was just the moment of it all.

Then the time came, the van pulled up to the front, we stood out and they asked me to get into the van. As soon as I sat in, her foster parents said their goodbyes and placed June in the van...her foster mom grabbed June one last time to give her a big kiss and hug...then we were off. It was very emotional, no words can describe the moment. I held on to June tightly as the van speed off to the airport and she cried and cried and cried. All I could do was hold her and pat her back...

Once we got to the airport, I put June in the carrier and we checked in and headed to our gate. She was no longer crying...she was pretty quite and taking it all in. The flight was pretty good...she only slept about 4 hours of the 10 hour flight...she didn't cry the whole time but she was pretty restless and cried/whined a bit...but we made it through together. I tried to comfort and hold her as much as I could...if I tried to put her down she would cry. Due to customs and immigration in San Francisco taking forever, we came so close to missing our connection. But luckily we barely made it and returned safely into the arms of our waiting family! My husband received permission from the airport to meet us at the gate with my other daughter Ava! So the second I stepped off the plane, I saw Scott and Ava's beautiful smiling faces...tears came rolling out of my eyes as I carried his new daughter and Ava's new sister to them. June was so sweet...(being shy and scared of other people) she graciously went into Scott's arms and smiled for him without a peep or cry...it was so natural and meant to be. She did great when the rest of our families met us at baggage claim. It feels great to finally be able to start this new chapter in our lives!

Travel Tip #3 - Negotiate on prices and street food is great! I heard that you should try to negotiate on prices for goods...I tried this and ended up getting great bargains!! The Hanbok's for example are cheapest at Namaedun market...I purchased one for $35...other places where asking as high has $70. So ask away...worse they will say is no. Also, don't be afraid to try to street vendor food...not only is it cheap it's great! We found this one guy who had these waffle treats...he had waffles with apply syrup and cream folded up...they were so good and it was only a $1! If you stay away from the "american" or catered to american restaurants, you will have great food and not spend a lot of money.

My second meeting and more exploring of Seoul...

2010-05-09T22:08:00.001-06:00

Tuesday in Seoul and my second visit with June was much better. I was scheduled to meet with her again at 9am. The next day, Wednesday was Children's Day in Seoul, which is a national holiday...so the agency and many other places would be closed that day. And then Thursday, 5/06 would be the big day I bring home June to meet her daddy and big sister.

I woke up Tuesday feeling more optimistic about the visit. We came in and she saw us, again shaking her head "no" when they pointed to me saying "mommy". We sat near each other playing...then her foster mother gave me a little album she put together of some other pictures of June and pictures from her 1 year old birthday celebration. I took this opportunity to pull June on my lap and look through the photos together, figured if she was looking at photos of herself, it would be hard to cry while I held her. She did well and got through most of the photos...she then pulled her self down to the floor and my friend Sara started taking more pictures of her...I then discovered what a ham she is in front of the camera...every time the camera went up she put on the biggest smile with her eyes squinted...it was so cute.

Her foster mother also brought some of the things we previously sent her along with the beautiful Hanbok she wore for her birthday.

I used the opportunity to ask the foster mom (through the interpretation of the social worker) more questions about June. Later in the visit I asked if I could take June back to my room for a few minutes just to be alone with her. I think they hesitantly said yes, the foster mom didn't seem too excited...but we left and she did great. No crying and it was nice just to be alone with her for brief moment...then I brought her back to the room and she was happy to see her foster mom and return to her arms.

After the visit, we decided to go and explore the city some more. One of the areas I wanted to visit was Insadong. I wanted to bring back some Korean masks (I collect masks) and some homemade Korean paper (they are known for beautiful paper they make from the Mulberry tree). I loved this area, it was so beautiful and different, it's also by the three main palaces.

In Insadong, there were so many neat vendors and shops in the his area...so much to see and do. We also ate at this cool traditional korean restautrant that had some of the japanese style rooms where you eat on the floor with your shoes off. The food at this one place was yummy...I had some traditional Korean soup that ended up being extremely hot...also, everything is served hot temperature-wise, so beware.

If you are visiting Seoul, I would recommend going to this area...you can easily get to it on the subways from just about anywhere.

Travel Tip - Where comfortable shoes and secure a good map of Seoul. I would recommend seeking out the sights you want to visit ahead of time, check which ones are closed on Monday or Tuesday and mark things ahead on the map so when you are traveling around you've got things organized easily for quick reference. As for the shoes, everyone says you will walk everywhere...well let me tell you, you will do some serious walking and climbing up and down stairs. I lived in New York for a couple of years and I thought I walked a lot there...we walked all day long...I think I lost some weight when I got home. So comfy shoes are important...and because of the major walking you'll do, I actually sought out a massage place, which was incredible. I'll list out the place I'd recommend going to, it was well worth it!! I'm amazed at the people who live there...most of the Korean women walk around wearing 5 inch heels everywhere they go...and the streets aren't all even...I'm not sure how they do it.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T15:22:00.001-06:00

I just wanted to wish every mother or mother-to-be "Happy Mother's Day"! I hope you all have a wonderful day...

The details...Day 1 in Seoul and my first meeting

2010-05-08T00:55:00.004-06:00

Sorry for the delay. As I mentioned earlier, I found it difficult to post while in Seoul due to technology issues at the guest house and little sleep. So, now that I'm at home, I can provide the details of the trip. Due to so much to tell, I may end up breaking these up over a couple of days.

Rewind, back to Monday, May 3rd.

We flew into Seoul on Sunday, having only booked one night at a hotel near the airport. (photo is of me and my friend Sara on the Singapore Air flight)

My plan was to call Eastern first thing Monday morning to tell them I was here and hopefully seek their help to stay at their Guest house or stay at the hotel nearest to them. So, Monday morning, we woke early (5-6) in our very basic hotel waiting for the clock to speed up at get to 9am...as Eastern doesn't open until 9am.

A little after 9 (I gave them a few minutes to receive the fax that AAC said they would send them over the weekend giving them a heads up that I would be there in Seoul and seeking help by contacting them directly) I called Eastern, asked if someone spoke English and then to speak to my social worker. (If any of you attempt this on your trip, you'll want the name of your social worker or to reach out to the director or manager there...which I ended up doing both). My two contacts weren't available so they asked me to call back in an hour...ugh!

To kill an hour, we walked around the neighborhood and I saw this hotel...how funny that the name of it was called "Tourist Hotel June"! That must be the only hotel called June!!

We also ran across several restaurants that had aquariums outside holding all sorts of things that their menu must carry...one of which looked like big worms...not sure about those!

At 10, we were back in our room for my second call...it took me a couple of attempts and being transfered but I finally spoke to our social worker. By then, she told me she booked us in their guest house Mon - Wed and they were trying to contact the foster mother to determine when I would be able to see June for the 1st time. I asked them if there was any way they could pick us up at our hotel and bring us there (the airport is an hour away and a taxi would have been expensive and bus tricky to maneuver), luckily she said yes and they'd send a driver pronto. So, 50 minutes later, they were there to pick us up in their "love mobile". Yes, that's really what the van is called...I have a photo to prove it.

I've heard there are two drivers at Eastern, one that's fast and the other slow...we had the super fast one. We speed towards Seoul and finally arrived at Eastern

Our driver helped us into the guest house, while we were waiting in the lobby, I met our social worker who came out to welcome us and let me know that I'd be meeting June for the first time in 4 hours!!! I was shocked and thrilled...my eyes welled up as I learned the news. I really wasn't expecting to see her until Tuesday but was so gracious that they made it work. When I had called them and spoke to our agency, I did request to see June as many times as possible prior to our departure on Thursday, and if I could see her every day that would be great...

We settled into our room, met a lovely Australian family who returned with their older kids to visit Seoul. She told me her best advice is to "stay busy" in between visits...so we did. With 4 hours to kill and my stomach already turning...we decided to venture out and brave the subways for the first time and jump head first into the Namdaemun Market. I've heard the subways are pretty easy and sure enough, we mastered it pretty quickly. We went to the market, had lunch at one of the places in the alley way (I had a great noodle clam soup), then we looked around for a while and came back to the room to freshen up and prepare for my first meeting.

At 4pm, I went down to meet with the social worker and sign the papers, she also gave me June's big immigration "do not open" package that I was instructed to provide US customs in SFO, as well as her passport. Then it was time, we went into the playroom where June and her foster mother were. I brought my gift for the foster family. June wasn't sure about us, I sat on the floor and scooted close to her. She just stared a little and played with her toys. I asked the social workers some of the questions I had for the foster mother. I learned that she's walking, eating food and likes to suck her thumb or pinky or really any of her fingers and she loves phones (see pic below). She walked to me and I got to pick her up...then she wanted back to her foster mother. I didn't talk much to June as I was nervous about scaring her too much and I didn't try to pick her up or touch her too much either...if I'm being honest it was a bit awkward but still nice just to see her. Every time the foster mother and social worker talked to June and then pointed to me saying "mother" in Korean...June would shake her head no and make a little noise. They asked if they could leave me with June for a few minutes and step out, I said of course. I then slowly went to get June and walk with her, then pick her up...she was fine for a few minutes but then started crying...the instant she started crying her foster mother came in to get June...she is very protective for her and you can tell how much she loves and cares for her. I left feeling ok, not great, but just ok...it was wonderful to see her though...and I was looking forward to the next meeting.

Here are some photos...

After the visit, we went to grab a bite to eat in the neighborhood and then came back to go to sleep.

A little about the technology at Eastern and what your options are if you stay at the guest house. There is no wi-fi at the guest house, I was able to pick up some neighboring signals but they were all secure or too weak. The next option is to use their computers, I tried hooking up the cable to mine and that didn't work...so I used theirs to skype (via text message) with my family. I also ended up downloading the"Chrome" browser as it has a "translate" feature when visiting other websites...Eastern's computer is set on the Korean language so all sites pulled up and window pop ups are in Korean text...which can make it difficult when trying to navigate around the computer. The other tid bit...is if you use their computer, and bring your own portable web cam and headphones...you can skype via video and voice with your families. I saw another couple do this while we where there and wished I had known that. Instead, I saw and heard my family but I was mute...they couldn't see or here me instead I texted my responses to their questions. And finally, I did find a great little coffee shop right around the corner that has free wifi. If you go out the front doors of Eastern and turn right...within the next block or two you'll see Dunkin Donuts on the corner, turn right again and you'll see a little coffee shop on your right called something like "Abbidas A..." can't remember the exact name but its two words in English both starting with an A. You go in there, ask if they have wifi and he will give you the "password" to connect. I brought my laptop and then happily skyped with my family while I drank a lovely pot of hot tea.

That's my tip for the day and the details from day one. I'll write again about day 2 and my second visit and more "tips" while traveling to Seoul.

I met June, held her, kissed her...but more to come later

2010-05-04T07:28:00.000-06:00

Seoul is great! There is so much to share and say and unfortunately I won't be able to do so until tomorrow. But I wanted to share that all is well. Eastern was great and once they heard we were here Monday morning, they secured a room at their guest house for us M-W, then immediately sent a driver to our airport hotel to bring us back to the agency. Once we arrived I was surprised to learn they had also arranged for me to be able to meet June for the first time that afternoon on Monday. Needless to say I wasn't mentally prepared as I was sure I wouldn't be able to see her until Tue or Wed, but quickly pulled myself together, gathered my list of questions, camera and video camera for this memorable visit. I was able to meet with her again Tuesday morning (today)...the 2nd visit was great, much better than the first :-)

I'll fill in with all the details tomorrow (along with a few photos), after I've had some sleep and can keep my eyes open longer.

We are in Seoul!

2010-05-02T15:43:00.003-06:00

Let's see, this time difference change is a bit challenging. Right now as I type this it's Monday, 5/03 at 6:23 am. I don't have much news to report, it's still too early for me to call Eastern, I need to wait another couple of hours before I can do so.

In the meantime, I thought I would describe our experience so far. We ending up flying Singapore Air and took a connection through San Francisco. I think since we left on Sunday, our flight was 100% packed...very full. My friend and I barely had seats together but luckily we did. The plane ride from SFO to Seoul was almost 13 hours...let me stress how very long that ride over is. Luckily though, they have an extensive entertainment unit at your fingerprints. The chairs in economy are the same size-wise on our domestic flights, they aren't as roomy as other international flights we've had in the past with China Air. But you've got a nice foot rest. Back to the entertainment center...you have access to 100s of current movies, tv shows, music, video games, educational material which is included in your cost of your ticket. They had a pretty cool Korean language Berlitz course I took...as well as lots of music, instead of listening to my own iPod, I could essential create a new "Playlist" from their selection of music...or you can hook up your iPod to it and maybe merge music. Needless to say, this was the only saving grace to passing the time. While you are busying playing with these toys or reading your own books, or doing work (which is what I ended up doing, I was able to plug in my laptop in my seat which was great) you are fed well. We were provided with two meals and lots of snacks, fresh drinks, etc. If you aren't a meat eater, I would suggest ordering a special vegetarian meal. In addition to all of the above, you are given a cozy blanket, special socks and a little tooth brush and tooth paste to freshen up prior to landing...I loved the tooth brush bit and the warm towels they pass out prior to each meal.

Once we landed, we found our way to customs...the airport was not busy at all and neither was customs (we landed at 6pm Sunday night). Went through in a snap, found our bags and then had to find our shuttle to the airport hotel we decided to stay at Sunday night while we wait on Eastern to help us book the rest of our hotel...so right now, we are kind of flying w/out a net as we have no other hotel reservations for us...but I'm confident we will soon.

The hotel had a van pick us up and took us to the hotel. I had my first encounter with a driver (barely speaking english) ask me why I was here...and then when he finally understood he began questioning why I couldn't just adopt one of our own babies from Colorado or America and why I had to come to Korea to adopt one of theirs. It was a bit uncomfortable to have this conversation as I know he feels the same way many Koreans feel. I know this isn't something that everyone feels favorably about, even Americans. But I know in my heart this is the right thing. We are aching for another child and this child needs a family to love, care and nurture her for the rest of her life. Even though we may not be of the same ethnicity or culture, we still need each other and can love each other and be a family. That's why I love the quote at the top of my site...a family is not defined just by blood, it's made up of the love and respect you have for each other.

Well I'm going to start getting ready. I'll provide another post as soon as we know what our "next steps" will be. It's funny, while I'm writing this, we've been watching some show on TV where for hours people have comparing their garlic slicing/peeling techniques and how fast they can do it...so funny!

Here's the plan

2010-04-30T20:38:00.001-06:00

So as I mentioned in the earlier post, since Eastern is closed for the weekend, our agency recommended we wait to travel until Tuesday. Well...I've been waiting for almost 4 years to have a second child and 2 years to adopt this little girl...I've run out of patience. So as Karen mentioned below, thank you Karen and everyone else for your support, I'm going to swing it on my own and "go get our girl". (I pray you will be doing that very soon...)

Unfortunately, due to work commitments, I won't be able to travel with my sister...so will be going with my dear friend Sara, who is the best for offering to come with me on this trip to help me out. My heart is sad that my sister or husband won't be here during this special time...but they, along with other family members and friends will be anxiously awaiting our return and will have many special moments with June in the future.

We are planning to leave Denver tomorrow morning, connect through SFO and arrive into Seoul Sunday evening on Singapore Air. We plan to call Eastern in the morning on Monday to make the rest of our plans for our trip (hotel arrangements and the visits I'm dying for...to see and hold June for the first time with my own two eyes and arms)...then we'll fly home into the arms of our family and friends on Thursday.

I'm already exhausted...today I've been so excited, overwhelmed and nervous all at the same time...I've felt like throwing up, doing cart wheels and had my hard beat fast all day. My bag is almost packed and to-do's are almost marked off. My husband and daughter and I had a special lunch and our last dinner as a family of three tonight which consisted of homemade blueberry waffels (Ava's choice). Tonight, I don't expect to get much sleep...then early morning we'll gather our bags, meet my friend and head off to the airport for our journey West! Yeehaw!!

THE CALL, THE CALL, THE CALL!!!!

2010-04-30T10:28:00.000-06:00

"Hello?"
Agency - "Hi, is this Scott?"
"Yes!"
"And this is Christy too, I'm on the phone!" (we both ran to our phones as fast as we could)
Agency - "Great, well then it's nice to have you both on the phone. Obviously since I'm calling you in the morning that means we received travel approval from Korea last night!"
"Oh my!! That's so great!! We are so excited!!!!"

Then the conversation moved into options for travel. Since it's now the weekend and evening there, Eastern would not be able to help us with our travel arrangments if we left prior to Tuesday...so we are trying to figure out if we will go early and do it on our own or wait. More to come once I get my head straight.

I'm excited and panicked at the same time!! :-)

No call, but new style...

2010-04-29T16:32:00.003-06:00

My husband told me I needed a "fresh" look for the blog...so here it is.

No call today, but that just gives me another day to get things ready. :-) I'm not sure I have all the kinks worked out so if you see or run across anything funky, please let me know.

**Updated - Kara, here's the place I found the template at. It's great, they have all sorts of styles to choose from. - http://btemplates.com/

We are so close...now we are just waiting on a fax and a call...

2010-04-28T22:56:00.004-06:00

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for their prayers that the Visa would take place...our prayers were answered and I'm relieved to report that the Visa Interview took place with our little girl in Korea while we were sleeping (4/28 at 1pm Seoul time). During this meeting they supposedly "stamped" her passport and issued her visa!!! She is now cleared to travel here.

Now, all that's left is for Eastern to "fax" a travel approval notice to our agency and then our agency to pick up the phone and call us...sounds simple right? I have no idea if this will take place tomorrow, Friday, next Monday or next week? Our agency said they typically receive these faxes in the morning. How incredible would it be to get a call tomorrow on June's birthday, especially since we can't be there with her on that special milestone...we are keeping our fingers crossed, the next few days I know I will be "jumping" everytime the phone rings or my husband IM's at work. Come on fax and come on phone!!

While I'm writing this, since it's technically 4/29 in Seoul, our little girl is now 1 year old...so, Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear June JooHee...Happy birthday to you!! Even though we aren't together on her special day, I know her foster family will be celebrating it with her in grand fashion with traditional Korean dol ceremony. This ceremony blesses the child with a properous future. Girls wear a beautiful colorful dress called a hanbok. The highlight of the dol is a ritual where the child is placed in front of a table of foods and objects such as string, books, brushes, ink and money. The child is then urged to pick up an object from the table, where it is believed the one selected will foretell the child's future. For example, if the child picks up a brush or book, she is destined to be a scholar. If she picks up money or rice, she will be wealthy. If the child picks up the thread, it is believed he will live a long life. This is followed by feasting, singing and playing with the child. Most often, guests will present gifts of money, clothes, or gold rings to the parents for the child at this time. Anyway...I would think she may be given a celebration like that on her special day!

Let's see...what do I have left to do for the trip. I've got the gift for her foster family, small gift for the social worker, small gift for Eastern, small gift for the driver, travel guides, diaper bag with a few diapers/bottles/formula/wipes, etc, baby carrier, a couple of books and toys in case she's up on the flight back and not sleeping, pillow in case we stay at Eastern (someone on our agency blog said their pillows are rock hard), computer, video, camera, couple of books to read on the flight, list of questions to ask the agency and foster family, comfy tennis shoes...oh and a new cute outfit for June when she comes off the flight to meet her daddy, big sister and extended family...we thought it would be fun to find a matching outfit for both June and Ava for that special day as we walk off the plane and her daddy and big sister see June for the first time and June sees them for the first time. Our other family members and friends may also be there to welcome us home. So much to do and think about... :-)

I better try to get some sleep tonight, even though it will be tough... I'll keep you updated and don't worry, when I finally do get the call, I plan to blog about the whole experience/trip to Korea to help those still waiting, know what to expect. I know that for me, reading other blogs about the experience was very helpful for me...and hopefully it will be for you too.

Her Visa Interview is Tomorrow!!!

2010-04-27T07:59:00.001-06:00

I am so excited!! I had to share this morning as soon as I hung up the phone. I called the embassy this morning just checking in on our case status to see if the P3 arrived. I really expected to be told again, no, it hasn't, we are still waiting. But no!! The nice lady said, congratulations, her interview is scheduled tomorrow 4/28 at 1pm. At that time, she will be seen again and have her little passport stamped and will then be ready to come home!!!!!!!! I had tears in my eyes with the news! It's so close! I sure hope she shows up tomorrow, we've heard of other families that had no-shows...not sure why that happens but I pray all will work out and pray for our friends that their VI gets rescheduled today or tomorrow as well. I would love your prayers. We are so close, although I won't have her in my arms on her actual birthday (4/29) which is in two days, I will have her soon after.

Still waiting...

2010-04-22T19:13:00.000-06:00

Well...she's had an "appearance" at the Embassy last week, which we thought was the interview but it wasn't. We've called the Embassy every day and they are just waiting on this last packet of information from the Korean adoption agency (Eastern). Once they have that packet, the Visa interview (VI) will be held. There's another family that we've been neck and neck with the whole time...their child's EP and Appearance were on the same days as ours and I learned today they found out the Embassy received their information yesterday and had the VI today...which is super exciting that all that's left is that call for them...which should be any day now. I'm so happy for them (K you are soooo close)! I'm hopeful that ours will be next. I'm still praying I will have her in my arms for her 1st birthday, which will be next Thursday.

My passports ready, I have our "gifts" secure for the trip, my bag is half-packed...come on Eastern, please send the needed packet into the Embassy so I can bring our baby home!

Parenting your internationally adopted child...

2010-04-14T20:01:00.003-06:00

As I sit by the phone waiting for the "travel call", I've been putting in some more reading about adoption and Korea. I ran across a book, that I'm really enjoying called "Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child", by Patty Cogen. It's written from the psychological/phsiological perspective of what internationally adopted children experience and how we "their new parents" can help them adjust in the beginning and nurture them through their lives. The book helps explain how and why to:

Help a child cope with grief over the loss of everything and everyone familiar
Tell the child's adoption story from the child's rather than the parents' point of view
Understand the ways in which a child's development may begin at adoption
Handle sleep-time, mealtime and discipline problems
Foster identify and independence in pre-teens and teens

During this post, I thought I would share a couple of things I learned and plan to do with our family. The following are excerpts from the book:

The Three-Photo Story - once you are settled at home, the simplest way to tell your child's story is with a sequence of three photographs. The first photo is of your child before adoption. The second photo is of the "handover", showing you receiving your child from the orphanage, foster parent, etc. The third photo is of your child with her present family. If you don't have a handover photo, you can create a collage that combines your child, a caregiver and yourself in a single picture. All three photos should be in equal size, together on a page. The first photo opens the door to the past. "First you lived with ...in..." The second photo explains the big change, the handover: "This picture was taken when you joined our family". The third photo is obviously the present, "Now we are a family: parent and child". The book talks about ways to use this in communicating and connecting with your child, especially as you work together to build their story, identity and connection to their new family.
Use family age, not chronological age to select parenting strategies that match your child's behaviors.
Eating and Connection - for a child raised by parents from birth or from the first month or two of life, eating is all about connection and nurturing. An infant takes in affection, all kinds of communications, early conversations, and a sense of being loved. When it is time for you to feed your adopted child, you may run into resistance, especially if your child has been force-fed in an orphanage. To counter this kind of behavior, explore food together in a cozy chair or on the kitchen floor, sitting on a big, soft towel for a picnic. Find as many opportunities as possible to make eye-contact with your child during feeding. This can be done through game-playing, placing stickers near your eyes while feeding your child, telling her food tastes better when we look into each others eyes, etc. The book has a lot of material on the importance of eye contact and steps parents can take to help their child comfortably build it up over time.

That's it for now. I'll put up another post Thursday or Friday with more excerpts of things I learned from this book that I thought would be worthwhile to share.

As I wind down for tonight, I continue to grow more and more excited, and of course if I'm being honest a little overwhelmed at how close we are to this big, but wonderful, change in our lives that will be taking place. It's funny that we've been waiting for years and years to have a 2nd child...and now that I'm weeks away, I'm almost panicked with the little time thats left to prepare. You might think...well golly, you've had all these years to plan...well during that time it just seemed so far away and often I would try not to plan too much or prepare too much so that should something happen, I wouldn't have too far to fall in disappointment. Just like with being a new parent for the first time, you can only plan so much...I know the same will be true for being a parent for the 2nd time and adopted parent for the 1st time. I am truly looking forward to this new chapter in our lives!!

EP Approved & New Easter Photos!

2010-04-09T19:58:00.002-06:00

We received more good news on the adoption front. We found out today Korea approved our EP! So now all that's left is for them to schedule her Visa interview with the Embassy! Once the appointment occurs, she will receive her travel papers and we'll get the final travel call to go pick her up! I'm still in shock that we are finally at the end! It's just a matter of weeks now...

We also just received new photos of June, this is the third set we received since her referral. I love that I have some great spring and Easter pictures of our two girls. Ava had a fun Easter. Each year we create paper Easter eggs and birds and decorate them for our Easter tree. I posted some examples up here that we made last Easter. Then for Easter, we attended a great service and spent the rest of the day with her Aunt and cousins. The afternoon was so warm we ended spending it outside on their new patio. The kids of course had an Easter egg hunt and had fun running around. Ava look so sweet in her pretty Easter dress and hat that her Mimi and Papi gave her...and she loved the "woodland" bunny that her Papa and Nana gave her.

The weather here is finally warming up and it feels great to be outside! I'm looking forward to working in the yard and finishing up some of our to-dos in the house before we bring June home. Now that we are so close, we've been working on our list of things we need. For example, I realized my baby bjorn carrier that I had with Ava is too small for June. In Korea, they carry the children around quite a bit, even when they are older...so when we bring her home, we will both be carrying her around to help with the attachment. Since she will be 1, we aren't sure how much she will weigh, so we need to purchase a carrier to hold 24 lbs plus. I also realized I needed a new diaper bag so grabbed one.

I've also been doing some additional cram reading around international adoption, what to expect or really how we can help her transition, grieve and connect with us. I found this great book and plan to share some excerpts out of the book on my blog for any parents out there...I found some really helpful information so more to come on this.

So much to do...so much excitement...that's it for now...

Korea submitted our EP yesterday!!!

2010-04-01T17:19:00.002-06:00

I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited and relieved to report news that the Korean agency we are working with submitted June's Exit Paper or Emigration Papers (I've heard EP referred both ways) yesterday (3/31). The agency submits this for approval which allows June to leave Korea and travel to the U.S. so that we can bring her home and complete the adoption here.

We were told to expect the "travel call" within a month or less!! So that means, in 3 - 5 weeks, we could receive a call telling us June is immediately ready to come home!!!!!! Just the thought of finally having her here in our arms and home with her new family that soon is blissful and hard to believe.

Tomorrow I will be going to get my passport renewed. As for travel plans, as soon as we receive "the travel call" it will just be a matter of booking/scheduling our flights and hotel. My dear husband will be staying here with our daughter while I hopefully go with my sister (Wendy) and dear friend (Sara). It means the world to have them with me during this memorable, emotional, and happy time.

This couldn't be at a better time as June will turn 1 on April 29th...so there is still hope we could have her home by then...if not it's close enough.

I'm still in shock...now we just to begin getting things in order for the big day.... :-)

"Clean" eating...

2010-03-21T09:18:00.001-06:00

Did you know that in the United States alone, more than one billion pounds of pesticides are released into the environment each year as a result of non-organic practices? You hear people talk about how organic is better than conventional/non-organic...and it's true, it's better in so many ways.

I remember before I started eating organic, I thought that as long as I was eating "produce" instead of pre-packaged food, I was still eating food that was good for my body. Of course, when comparing produce to pre-packaged food...yes it has more nutrients...but you may not necessarily be escaping the toxins. It's disturbing to think about how big the "food industry" is and what control on our food they have and yet they seem to have little to no interest in providing healthy/safe/clean choices. All they seem to care about is how they can produce their food (meat/produce) faster and bigger...and if it means using growth hormones/antibiotics on meat or genetically modifying produce or using toxic chemicals on produce...they don't care, as long as they continue to make money. It's also upsetting that because big business controls a large majority of the food industry, the conventional/non-organic food ends up being cheaper than organic/healthier choices...which is what the majority of people can afford.

That's one of the big reasons why we are planning to participate in a local community agriculture share this year (see an earlier post for information on what that is and how you can try to locate on in your state).

My sister sent me this list that I thought I'd share regarding produce that contains the highest and lowest levels of pesticide residue. Although the better choice would be to go organic, but if you are in an area that doesn't provide any organic choices and you aren't able to grow your own...at least you can buy with your eyes open.

http://www.eartheasy.com/eat_pesticides_produce.htm

I'm starting to go stir crazy and get cabin fever...

2010-03-14T20:05:00.001-06:00

It's so quite out there in the adoption world...and it feels like I can hear nothing but crickets. Of course saying that brings me back to fond memories growing up in Oklahoma where during cool nights during the summer we'd have our windows open, with a slight breeze coming through the window and being lulled asleep by the sounds of the crickets singing their songs by rubbing their wings together. Anyway...back to why I'm getting cabin fever...

I'm starting to go stir crazy with no new news. Well, we have a little news but not much. I learned that the Korean EPs were just approved for families that received adoption referrals last August - these are families that worked with our agency and/or Korean's "Eastern" adoption agency. I learned that Eastern is doing the EP (emigration paper) approvals in batches...based on the month the child referrals (match with a child) were made. The reason why this is good news (besides other families being once step closer to bringing their children home) is because the process is moving again and we could be in the next September batch...since that was the date of our first referral and the date they received the rest of our payment. If we do end up in the September referral batch, then we could receive our EP approval sometime in March or April...and then receive the official travel call in April or May.

Of course we really have no idea how much longer this last piece will take...which is why I'm starting to pull my hair out. It seems like forever since we last received any news or photos of June...that would have certainly helped pass the time. However, I am relieved we are finally at the very end not at the beginning of the process. In July we will have been going through the Korean adoption process for 2 years...and of course the process of trying to expand our family to a 2nd child for 3-4 years. I'm also going stir crazy because I'm ready to have this all behind us and moving on with our lives instead of having conception/adoption consume our lives like it has for such a long time.

So in the mean time, I'm trying to stay busy with our daughter's ballet, swimming and other activities, working on a couple of children books that I'm trying to get published and exploring more "raw" snack recipes...

I woke up this morning...feeling great!

2010-03-11T17:02:00.001-07:00

So through this whole adoption time-line/process, I have had very very few dreams about the process and our daughter. However, last night was the first time in a while where I dreamed about things.

You know those dreams that you have when you wake up and everything seemed so real? Well this was one of those dreams...I mean I woke up feeling the best I've felt in a while...I was SO Excited, Elated, Relieved, Happy...I was ready to jump out of bed and get moving with the day.

I had a dream that my husband called and found out Korea sent June's Emigration Papers out for approval. I'm telling you, that was the best feeling! Now I know how great I will feel when that really does happen. I would love it if I had some premonition that it's either happened or will soon happen. Here's to wishful thinking ;-) ...

Barbie dolls...need one?

2010-03-09T18:24:00.001-07:00

The other day my daughter was in her loft playing. I came up to see the "party" she was having with her dolls and saw the gathering above. I laughed so hard...first at how cute everything was and the "party hat" one of her barbies had and then sadly at the ridiculous number of barbie dolls she has.

I will note for the record, that only one of the barbies in the picture is one that we bought several years ago. All of the others, she has accumulated over the years through birthday or christmas gifts. So, if you are reading this and are a family member or friend...please no more Barbies...or if you want one...I may be able to help out :-) Oh, and we do even out the girly stuff...in the big blue container in the background...contains all of her daddy's old Star Wars toys...which she also loves to play with.

June is 10 months old...my thoughts

2010-03-01T19:36:00.000-07:00

I can't believe June is now 10 months old!! I long so much for her...I wonder what she's doing now. My thoughts always wonder to her in her life on the other side of the world. I think about what joy and love she must have in her life right now...and worry about the pain she will go through the day she is separated from what she knows as her family and her stability and we bring her home into our house, lives and arms forever. It amazes me that I already love this little girl so much...a little girl I've yet to meet and that I've gotten to know a little through pictures, translated text and dreams. Sometimes I worry that I'm being too optimistic and naive...and I've certainly learned that the adoption process is extremely unpredicable and I really try not to get my hopes up...but I can't deny my feelings and excitement the future holds in store for our family. Please please please...may the time left that keeps us apart grow shorter and shorter...

Have you ever heard of Community Supported Agriculture?

2010-02-26T21:08:00.000-07:00

Since we don't have any updates or news on the adoption front (we are still waiting for her Emigration Papers), I figured I would share some information about another food-related topic.

This year, we plan to participate in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)...we are so excited and can't wait for it to begin!!

If you aren't familiar, CSA is a partnership of mutual commitment between a farm and a community of supporters (like us)...the CSA provides a direct link between the production and consumption of food.

As a supporter, you help cover a farm's yearly operating budget by purchasing a share of the season's harvest. CSA members make a commitment to support the farm throughout the season, and assume the costs, risks and bounty of growing food along with the farmer or grower. Members help pay for seeds, fertilizer, water, equipment maintenance, labor, etc. In return, the farm provides, to the best of its ability, a healthy supply of seasonal fresh produce throughout the growing season.

We have tried to grow a garden unsuccesfully (we seem to have too much shade in our yard) but we still yern for fresh, local organic produce that's affordable. So...we heard about the CSA and are planning to participate in this years crops by splitting it with our both of our sisters' family. Not only will we be helping our local farms out, but it will be very convenient and inexpensive for us.

If you haven't looked into, I would strongly recommend it. Several families I know participated the last few years and loved it. A family of three for example participated in a "single family" crop and had plenty of produce each week and it cost approx $10-13 each week...so each week, they drove to a convenient pickup location in a neighborhood near their zipcode and grabbed their weekly "basket" of produce. If there were items that they didn't like, they could exchange it with items in a "community basket".

If produce isn't your thing, many offer fresh eggs, artisan breads, free range chickens/meat, etc.

Here's the CSA (Grant Organic Farms) that we plan to participate in this year.
http://www.grantfarms.com/home.php

Healthy "Raw" Snacks

2010-02-21T08:46:00.003-07:00

Here are some of the recent "raw" recipes I've tried.

"RAW" CITRUS MAPLE GRANOLA
This granola is so good...you can easily just eat it by the handful as a snack, or eat it for breakfast with milk (I prefer either homemade nut milk or almond milk).

To make this, it's recommended you have either a food processor or blender. If you don't have either...you'll just have to do a lot of chopping and stirring. It's also recommended you have a dehydrator...but if you don't have that I'll give you a few options below.

3/4 cp maple syrup
1 apple, cored and chopped
2 1/4 tsp vanilla (or scraps from vanilla bean pod)
2 1/4 tsp cinnamon
Sprinkle of salt
2 tbsp fresh juice from orange (just cut off a piece and hand squeeze it into spoon)
1 tbsp orange zest
1 tbsp lemon zest (I made it once w/out this which was fine)
1 1/2 cps raw (unroasted) almonds (pre-soak for 6-8 hrs)
1 1/2 cps raw (unroasted) walnuts (pre-soak for 6-8 hrs)
1 1/2 cps raw (unroasted) pecans (pre-soak for 6-8 hrs)
1 cp raw (unroasted) pumpkin seeds
1 cp raisins
1 cp dried cranberries

In a food processor, mix the maple syrup, apple, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, orange juice, orange/lemon zest until chunky. (If you don't have a food processor, you could use a blender instead on a low setting). When done mixing, set aside. Next, grind nuts in a food processor (or blender or chop finely) until chunky. Add the nuts to the maple/apple mixture. Stir the remaining ingredients (pumpkin seeds, cranberries and raisins) and mix together well.

This is where the dehydrator comes in. If you have one, spread the granola mixture on one of your trays (I lined my tray with a non-stick sheet), and dehydrate until crunchy (approx 36 hrs) at 115 degrees.

Now if you don't have a dehydrator and you live in a sunny place, you could go back to nature and spread this out on a tray or baking sheet and place in the sun (cover so critters don't get to it). Or you can use your oven at the lowest setting with the door propped open.

This is the best granola...the serving size above could fill a freezer ziplock back and lasts for weeks...unless you eat all of it up sooner, which is likely to happen. Here's a picture of the granola once it was done...nice and crunchy but still has all the "raw" nutrition.

"RAW" FRUIT LEATHER OR ROLLS

My daughter loves the fruit leather/strips/rolls you can buy at the store. So I was trying to find a way to provide these for her that was cheaper and more nutritious...so I decided to take advantage of our dehydrator and make some ourselves. These really are the easiest thing you can make...and super cheap.

You can make these with any type of fruit (apple, banana, kiwi, mango, strawberry, peaches, apricot, cherry, grape, etc.) with the use of a blender or food processor. Here are a few combinations I like, but feel free to use what you have, mix and match and experiment:

Apple/Banana (this is also good with strawberry or other fruits):

1-2 apples

1 banana

Sprinkle of cinnamon

- Mix these up until it's pureed, then spread out on lined tray or two and dehydrate for 4 hrs at 115 degrees. Once it's finished, you can cut the fruit into strips either with kitchen shears, a pizza cutter or knife. You can leave them as strips, or my sister likes to roll or fold hers up for her kids. These will store for 3 weeks, unrefrigerated.

Kiwi/Mango (this is our favorite, it's tangy and sweet...and I love the texture...it's sooooo good)

4 kiwi

1 mango

- Mix these up until it's pureed, then spread out on line one tray and dehydrate for 4 hrs at 115 degrees. (If you don't have a dehydrator, refer to the recipe above for dehydrator alternatives) Once it's finished, you can cut the fruit into strips either with kitchen shears, a pizza cutter or knife. These will store for 3 weeks, unrefrigerated.

Feel free to increase the quantity of fruits or add more...the more you use, the more trays or sheets of fruit you'll have to eat.

Next week, I'll post some other snack food recipes I love to make - homemade "raw" Tortilla chips and homemade "raw" Chocolate chip cookies...both are soooo good.

Three more days...

2010-02-17T20:29:00.000-07:00

My 5 year old daughter has been with her grandparents for 11 days...finally in three days she will be back home. I am so excited and can't wait to hold her, see her sweet face, and just be with her...I have a feeling I won't want her to leave my side for several days. She has had a wonderful time being with her Mimi, Papi, Great Grandma and seeing other relatives...her Daddy just flew out there today and they will drive back here on Saturday. My husband said she hasn't left his side since he's been there. I knew the time away was going to be hard...but it was much harder than I expected. I have had many nights crying just missing her.

I have some new raw recipes (homemade granola, homemade fruit leather and chocolate cookies) that I will try to post on Saturday. Now my sister has incorporated raw foods into her diet and between her, and our dad/step mom we've developed a nice support network to exchange healthy food ideas and recipes.

Finally, we received some optimistic news on the adoption front. We have been trying to figure out where we are "in line" with Korea, especially now that we are in the final stage waiting to receive her Visa and EP. We weren't sure if they would go off of the first referral date back in September when they originally received our paperwork and adoption check...or if we had to start over with our second referral date (Nov)...which would have meant we'd have to wait much longer to get June home. Thankfully, we learned they will go off of our original date from September...which means we should get June home sooner. We still aren't sure how fast they will issue her Visa or EP...but I've been told it could take another month or two...but hopefully not longer than that. I'm still praying we'll have her home before her 1 year old birthday, which is the end of April. Either way, I'm still grateful that we have made it this far and long for the moment that we have June in our arms...as she is already deep in our hearts!

More progress...NVC In/Out and Paperwork with Embassy!

2010-02-12T16:03:00.000-07:00

I learned today that our paperwork was officially checked "out" of the National Visa Center today and sent to the Embassy today electronically! Next, the US Embassy in Seoul will send our paperwork to the Korean agency there and we'll move one more step closer to bringing our girl home! Now if we can just have an idea how long the very last steps will take...

We Are Officially Approved for a Visa Petition

2010-02-09T18:12:00.001-07:00

I AM SOOOOO EXCITED!!!! We finally received our letter from the Department of Homeland security (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) that last Friday (2/05) our "petition (I-600) to classify the beneficiary (June) as an immediate relative of a United States citizen (us) has been forwarded to the National Visa Center".

Yippee!! What a huge relief...now we move into the final stages of the process...which mainly involves getting a Visa for June and permission for her to travel to her future home here with us.

Since we've been asked again... now "what's next"? Here's what's left:

Our petition or paperwork was sent to the National Visa Center (NVC) by USCIS. NVC "in" is noted when they have received our paperwork.
Once the NVC receives it, they will send our information to the US embassy in Korea. NVC "out" is when it's been send off to Korea
The US Embassy will then send our packet of information (P3) to the Korean agency.
The Korean agency will then complete the packet and send it back to the US embassy for a travel visa and Emigration Permit (EP).
EP is issued by Korea to give our child permission to leave Korea for the purpose of emigrating into the US
Finally, Visa interview will be scheduled and then we should receive a "Travel Call" to finally either fly out to pick her up or have her escorted her

It's unknown how long the rest of the process will take to get her Visa. In another state, I saw it take one family from receiving their USCIS I-600 approval to getting their "travel call" 3 weeks! But I don't think that we will be that luckily. It really could be anywhere from March to June...we have no idea. But believe me, we are READY...so ready have her in our arms forever. We just plan to check in with other families that are a head of us and see how fast things go for them.

Another lost tooth and a tough two weeks ahead...

2010-02-07T18:33:00.001-07:00

Well my 5 year old sweet girl lost her 2nd tooth the other day at school! She was sooooo excited and couldn't wait for the tooth fairy to visit her again. Now her two bottom teeth are gone and her top two teeth are loose. She lost it at school chewing on a gummy worm that one of her classmates brought to school for their birthday celebration. Her teachers said she was "beaming" as soon as it came out and couldn't wait to tell us all about it. I love how proud she is...so sweet. While we talked about the tooth fairy she shared how she thinks the tooth fairy and the sand man live in the same "village" together. I'll have to write about that story...

Here are some pictures:

The last one was funny as she wanted to poise with this little doll she had.

The next two weeks will be the longest and toughest weeks for me as my daughter went with her aunt to visit her "Mimi" and "Papi" for 14 days. My husband will be joining her in 10 days and then driving back here with his sister and her two sons. I've never been away from my little girl this long. When my sister and I were young, we would spend the summers with our grandmother in another state...I always thought or agreed that as Ava got older, it would be fun for her to do this as well...now I'm second guessing my decision :-) I selfishly want her here...but I know this will be a special time for her as she establishes these fun memories with her grandparents. I can't wait for her to hurry home...

Never thought I'd be SO EXCITED to be fingerprinted!!

2010-01-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

Yes! We finally received our fingerprint letter today...and then we both rushed to the nearest office to be fingerprinted. It was fast and easy...we were in and out in no time.

You have no idea what a huge relief that was for me. I have been stressing over the past few weeks that something was going wrong...as I tried to contact the USCIS with our official "receipt ID" on the form they sent us acknowledging their receipt of our I-600...only to be told that our number was not a "valid" number. So of course I started to panic and then fear something happened again and another set back was soon to occur. With my proven track record of bad luck...I was now having doubt that we'd get the fingerprint letter anytime soon.

I know all of this sounds dramatic...but I guess when you've been trying to have another child for so long and then moved into the long adoption journey...it's difficult to feel "secure" that things will go right. I do feel relief and excited that we are reaching the end and pray that the rest will continue to progress smoothly and quickly.

I'm hopeful that the I-600 approval could occur sooner than expected. We were originally told the whole process could take 6 weeks to 90 days. Now it looks like we could receive the final I-600 approval within two weeks! So by 2/12...we may have the approval and then really move into the final stages...which I need to revisit that timeline as I'm not sure how long the rest of the process will take. If any of you has any insight, I'd love to be reminded again.

We also received some new photos of June...oh, how I can't wait to have her in my arms. I love these photos as these are the few we have of her smiling...she just looks so happy! The bottom photo cracks me up because she's wearing this hat/wig...too cute!

Yippee!! We have an I-797C!

2010-01-15T14:56:00.000-07:00

First of all, thanks everyone for your shared experiences on this process...it has been helpful to keep a watchful eye on what to expect and maybe when to worry when things aren't moving. Without this support network...we would be going through this blindly...

I'm excited to share we finally received USCIS's I-797C "Notice of Action" for our submitted I-600 application!! Yippee!! They received our app on 1/07 and we received their receipt today. It's funny that I'm so excited about this one little thing...but every step counts and helps. Now we wait for the fingerprint invitation...who knows how long that will take.

Beware...I-600 Process...

2010-01-14T17:41:00.001-07:00

So like many others, we have experienced some sort of issue with the I-600 process. Our application/form was submitted on 12/17...and after many weeks of not hearing anything...which I know has happened to others...I began to get nervous and contacted our agency multiple times requesting they look into it...especially since other families that submitted within the same week had already received a "receipt" acknowledgement from the US Consulate and Immigration Services (USCIS). So, we sadly learned last week that our application was mailed to the wrong address :-( which meant it was never received or processed...really? It just goes to show, the whole process is unpredictable and anything can happen at any time...which has happened often. They resubmitted our form to the right address last week...although we haven't received their formal "receipt" acknowledgement from the USCIS...we did see that they cashed our check we sent them...so that's a good sign I hope. Now our USCIS I-600 approval waits again...there goes 4 weeks of no progress. At this stage...seems like every second helps so it hurts to potentially be set back another 4 weeks.

On a positive note, many families with our agency that received their referrals and matches with their future little ones back in May and June...are finally seeing movement on the Korean - Emmigration Paper side...this was what was causing the big holdup in 2009...so those families have been waiting since May of 2009 to bring their children home...and finally within the next couple of weeks they will be able to hopefully hold their children in their arms...I'm so happy for them and can't wait for that moment for our family. One of the families was so kind to offer to take a care package for our June with them...so I'm looking forward to sending a little something to June and her foster mom. Thank you S.

We received a birth certificate!

2010-01-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

We received a package in the mail from our agency today...had no clue what they could be sending us. We were so surprised and delighted to find June's birth certificate and documentation from Korea stating their consent for June's overseas adoption. :-) This was a nice surprise to tie us over while we continue to wait to receive any news or updates from our I-600 submission to the USCIS.

Hooray!! - State approved - Petition submitted to USCIS

2009-12-28T11:58:00.001-07:00

I'm so excited. I just learned that we received our state approval and our agency recently submitted our "petition to classify orphan as an immediate relative" (a form otherwise known as I-600) was submitted to the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services on December 17. This is the next big step towards moving us closer to bringing June home. The purpose of this step is to receive approval from the U.S to "classify an alien orphan who either is, or will be, adopted by a U.S. citizen as an immediate relative of the U.S. citizen to allow the child to enter the United States.". We should receive notice in the next couple of weeks to be fingerprinted at the federal level for another background check. The background check and work to determine we are suitable can take a while...my worse case scenario would be to hopefully receive approval sometime in February.

Once approval is received by the USCIS, we can then apply to the U.S. Embassy or consulate for a visa for June. The Department of State officer will determine whether your child is “inadmissible” under any provision in section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

It feels good taking another step forward. :-) I'm also waiting to hear back if Korea has starting issuing EP's again for all of the waiting families ahead of us...I sure hope they have.

Raw food...cooking...shared recipes...

2009-12-15T23:21:00.009-07:00

For those who know me or are now getting to know me, I love to cook. I'm not much of a "baker" but I really enjoy cooking or discovering/making new recipes. I get bored pretty quickly and I'm always looking for something new to try. I love all different kinds of foods and there's not a cuisine I don't enjoy. Over the past year we have incorporated Raw foods into our lifestyle...although we aren't strict about having every meal be Raw, we still have one or two meals each day that are Raw.

If you aren't familiar with Raw food, I'll describe what it is. It really just goes back to the basics, it's not about counting calories or carbs or protein, etc...it's just eating food in it's raw form. It's almost as if you went back in time when there was no electricity, stoves, etc...and you ate from the earth, uncooked with no processed foods. It consists of eating vegetables, fruits, nuts, etc in their natural raw state...it does not, however, include meat. When you cook food, it not only destroys nutrition and enzymes that are so good for us, but it chemically changes the substances that are in our food needed for health. There are many many people who's physical and mental well-beings were greatly improved by this lifestyle change...I've witnessed it with my father...and now my family is seeing benefits with it as well.

Anyway, today, I wanted to share three recipes. One is a Raw recipe - I make a variation to it EVERY morning for my breakfast. The second recipe is a vegetarian recipe that is yummy...and the third recipe is a healthy Candy recipe, if there is such a thing. Also, I don't use a lot of precise measurements in my recipes...so just go with it and experiment.

Recipe #1 - RAW - NUT MILK BANANA SHAKE:

For this recipe, you'll need a high-powered blender. But if you don't have one, then you can substitute the Raw nuts with Raw Almond Butter. You can have the nut milk by itself, when served cold it's similar to drinking milk and it looks like milk too, except it doesn't have the cholesterol or fat.

Handful of RAW Brazil nuts or Almonds or Macadamia or Pecan (my favorite are Brazil or Almonds)
2 cups or more of filtered cold water
1 frozen or fresh banana (I prefer frozen)
(Sweetener) - 1/2 handful of piteless dates or swirl or two of Agave Nectar (if you are new to Agave, it tastes similar to honey and can often be found next to it in stores)
A few scrapes of vanilla bean or drop or two of vanilla extract
Couple shakes of cinnamon
Additional optional items - flax seed or oil, hemp seed, other fruits, coconut water, carob powder - you can experiment by adding some of these or other items into your shake
Blend it up for several minutes until all the nuts are smooth. This will make 2 large glasses of shake. You can store this in the fridge for up to two days

Recipe #2 - SPINACH QUESADILLA

Organic spinach - lightly chopped
Small onion - diced (red preferred)
Oregano (dried is fine)
Flour Tortilla (make sure it's as natural as possible, meaning without any hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, most flour tortillas in stores have trans fat or traces of trans fat which is the presence of any partial or hydrogenated oils in your ingredient list - don't be fooled even if the trans fat says 0 - I've found that most tortillas in health food stores like Sunflower market or Whole foods or Vitamin cottage have natural tortillas)
1 Green chile or jalapeno - diced (OPTIONAL)
Mozzarella or Soy Cheese - shredded
Grapeseed or Olive oil
In your skillet, lightly coat the pan with oil, when the pan is warm add your onions and cook for a couple of minutes until they are translucent. Then add the chile/jalapeno and oregano and cook for another minute. Then add the spinach with a little bit of salt and pepper and cook for another minute...if the spinach or pan becomes dry, add a little bit of water to make things moist. Once the spinach is wilted, remove from the pan. Then heat up your tortillas in the pan, sprinkle a little cheese on one tortilla, add some of the spinach mixture, then a little more cheese and top with the other tortilla, heat until the cheese is melted on both sides. That's it, yummy, healthy quesadillas.

Recipe #3 - HEALTHY VERSION OF PEANUT BUTTER HAYSTACK CANDY

1/2 cup - Organic peanut butter
1 cup - semi-sweet chocolate chips or white chocolate (check the ingredients to make sure they don't contain hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils - butterscotch chips do so you might stay clear of these)
2 cups of All Bran cereal (the original Peanut Butter haystack recipe calls for Chow mien noodles - but these are loaded with trans fat, so I decided to substitute these with the healthier Bran cereal which look almost the same but taste much better)
Sprinkle of peanuts (OPTIONAL)
In a double boiler - melt the peanut butter and choc chips together until creamy. Then stir in the cereal and peanuts. Place teaspoon full of mixture out on wax paper and place in fridge to set for an hour. Then you are done, they look great and taste great and you don't have to feel too guilty when you eat them. :-)

Approx timeline for next steps of process...

2009-12-08T20:00:00.001-07:00

To help me keep track of where we are at in the process for bringing June home, I thought I'd list out the next steps of the process:

(COMPLETE) Once the child assignment is received and assignment paperwork is signed, it's returned, along with all other documentation we've provided to-date including several photos of our house and family to the Korean agency. This is needed first, in order to receive legals from Korea.
(COMPLETE) Korea will mail our local agency the legal documents of our assigned child (June). This took around 2 weeks for us.
(In process - Approx 12/24 or 12/30?) Once legals are received (we received these 12/04), our local agency will submit paper work to the State of Colorado requesting an approval letter for INS. This could take approx 2-3 weeks.
Once approval is received from the State of Colorado, then the paperwork moves to USCIS (U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services). USCIS is responsible for determining the elgibility and suitability of the prospective adoptive parents and determining the eligibility of the child to immigrate to the United States. The process and approval can take 6 weeks to 90 days. (Anywhere from 2/08 - 3/19)
Once approval is received from the USCIS, it will be sent to the national visa center who then gives approval to the American Embassy in Seoul, Korea.
The American and Korean paperwork are matched up and the Korean agency (Eastern) will visit the American Embassy to obtain the child's entrance visa to enter the U.S.
The Korean agency will then work to arrange the child's emigration permit (EP) and travel to the U.S.
The final travel call (when our child is finally ready to come home) typically occurs 2-5 days in advance.

Rolling Over at OneTrueMedia.com

2009-12-04T21:51:00.001-07:00

This ones nice, as we get to see June smile...as she's pulled up, you can tell either how proud she is of herself or how much she likes it...or maybe she's smiling for both reasons :-)

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

June Talking at OneTrueMedia.com

2009-12-04T21:49:00.001-07:00

I love this one, as it's the only time we can "hear" her squeal...every time we listen it, it leaves us with a big smile!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

June Crawling at OneTrueMedia.com

2009-12-04T21:48:00.001-07:00

Here June is crawling a little...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

June Richardson November 2009 at OneTrueMedia.com

2009-12-04T21:46:00.001-07:00

Here's a video of June looking at the photo album we sent her...we are already so much in love with her!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Yippee - New Photos of our June!

2009-12-04T17:00:00.005-07:00

We are so excited, we finally received new photos of June...and a day early! I just think she's so sweet and beautiful...I can't wait to hold her in my arms and kiss her cute chubby little cheeks.

They made note to us that "she likes to sing a lot". She's 7 months old now and is already crawling. We received video of her, which was so wonderful to watch. We are trying to figure out how to take clips of the video to post on the blog...the video they sent us is large in file size. Oh, and I love that we have a picture of her looking at the photo album we sent of us to her with captions below. I can even hear the foster mom in the video pointing to the picture of Ava and her saying sister in Korean. I'm just so grateful for everything and thankful to the family that's nurturing and loving her while we wait to be united forever.

So excited, new photos and video to come...

2009-11-30T20:25:00.002-07:00

I called our agency today to check if they were back from their trip to Korea and whether they were able to take any photos or videos of our little girl...I received a yes for both!! Yippee...I can't wait to have them in our hands and see new photos and video of her moving around. They are taking the photos to get developed and they said they would bring them to the holiday party this weekend. I don't think I've ever been so excited in anticipation...this will be a long week and again test my skill of being patient. I hope the other families that are waiting along with us to meet their little ones will also receive new photos or videos...it will be a happy and exciting moment for us all...and in my opinion helps a little with the wait. Come on Saturday...please get here fast!

A heart to heart with my daughter...

2009-11-15T09:23:00.004-07:00

I had to record this conversation down for the books...as I didn't expect this from a days old 5 year old.

Every night since Ava was born, we have followed the same night-time ritual...unless she's away from me. After she's cleaned up, she's in her pjs, we get the lights low, snuggle up in a chair or bed and read several books. Then we turn off the lights, turn her night-time music on and I lay with her in bed, rubbing her back, arms, legs, neck, hair, talking some or singing until she falls asleep or I'm about to fall asleep and then I leave.

Well last night, we did the same ritual...and during our late-night talk Ava said "Mommy, I want to stay with you forever". I told her I agreed, I want to stay with her forever too and that we would always be together. She then said "Now mommy, you know that we won't be able to stay together forever because I will be an adult one day and you'll have to let me go..." Tears welled up in my eyes...then Ava started crying!! I can't believe I'm having this talk and having to think about this already with a 5 year old!! I gave her a big hug, wiped her tears and told her that we will always be together...even though far far in the future we may not be together physically in the same house, or maybe we could (I would love that), I would forever be in her heart and she in mine...plus that was a very very long ways away so no need to worry about that now.

It's moments like this which remind me just how precious every second with our loved ones and children are...and how important it is to truly live in the moment. Our time is fleeting...so our love, laugh and living must be strong.

We have a new referral!

2009-11-13T21:34:00.009-07:00

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who has sent prayers and kind thoughts our way...I really appreciate the support and helpful words many of you have provided throughout this journey and especially over the past few weeks. This whole process to have a family and then expand our family with a 2nd child has been quite an emotional roller coaster of ups and downs.

Although we are still raw from the loss of Sohn or "Lila" as we called her, we do have some new exciting news. On Wednesday, we received a call for another referral of a little girl. She was born on April 29 and is so beautiful and sweet. We reviewed her file with several doctors and made the decision today to move ahead with bringing her into to our family.

As we try to look forward to this new hopeful future with her, I have to admit I am a little nervous of now being too excited and getting my hopes up to only be let down again...as has happened so many times. I do know that with a little more time...I will continue to heal and feel more secure that everything will work out...it just has to!!

We sent a care package to our agency who will be making a trip to Korea next week...with that visit, we are looking forward to receiving updated photos and video of her.

Now the wait begins again...

A birthday and our first lost tooth!

2009-11-11T21:10:00.009-07:00

We have had an exciting last few days. Over the past weekend we had an "outer space" themed birthday party for Ava on Saturday. She invited her friends and family over for a "moon walk", anti-gravity bouncing and yummy cake. Ava was dressed as princess lea. Ava's Mimi and Papi (Scotts parents) drove in for Oklahoma for a special surprise birthday visit for Ava. Then on Sunday, we all went to the local aquarium to see fish, sharks and eels...then to a local pizza/salad joint for great food.

On Monday, 11/09, we celebrated Ava's official 5th birthday as a family. Ava got out of school early to receive her new bicycle...she went riding around the neighborhood...then for dinner I made her whatever she wanted. So we had home-made crepes...with some berries and bananas or bananas and chocolate. I still can't believe my little baby girl is now 5! Seems just like yesterday that I held her in my arms for the first time.

Then finally today, Ava lost her first tooth! She has had a loose tooth for several weeks...we knew it was going to come out any day. For breakfast I gave her a piece of an apply to much on...I was secretly hoping it might do the trick as I was afraid she might lose it while at school. Then sure enough...one bite...seconds later poor Ava was crying...she had a little blood around her bottom tooth. Scott came down, I held her hand and he pulled the tooth that was hanging on by a thread out.

Here's a pic of Ava moments later after the tooth was out...I'm so happy we were there for the special moment. We have this cute little silver antique tooth fairy holder that I found with my dad years and years ago when I was teenager at an antique store. I always thought it was so neat...and figured one day when I had a child...I would put their tooth in the holder...and tonight is that special night! Can you tell how excited I am of this silly moment? As we were getting ready for bed tonight, Ava was asking me all sorts of tooth fairy questions. For example..."How does the tooth fairy know I lost my tooth?" "What happens if I see her?" "What will she do with the tooth?"...all great questions...it's so fun to see their minds work.

Sad news regarding our adoption journey...

2009-10-31T09:54:00.004-06:00

I was reading another local families blog who received their referral the same day we received ours. She has been through a long journey of adoption ups and downs and mentioned that with adoption, nothing is predictable...and she's right...it has sadly turned that way for us.

Scott and I had to make the toughest decision this week regarding Lila, the little girl we were so looking forward to bringing home from Korea. I won't go into all the details but will just say that sadly we've learned of some severe medical issues which just presented themselves medically at 6 months of age. We consulted with 4 doctors, one set from the Children's Hospital International Adoption Clinic, on her files and ultimately determined we would not be able to provide the long-term care she would now need. We are at a loss, feel numb and heart broken...I never imagined I'd experience loss again like this through adoption...but have learned that it is unpredictable and clearly out of my hands.

We will continue to have faith and patience through this. It's hard for us to even think about another referral...since we still feel numb. I know that with time we will heal again. In terms of what's next...we will go back to waiting for a new referral. Our agency stopped our file with the state, and will be resubmitted in the future with the next referral. We have told Korea that we are open to a boy or girl, should that speed up the process. They will fast-track matching us up with another child, but again we aren't sure when that will be...which I'm ok with.

Next steps in the process...

2009-10-09T21:31:00.011-06:00

Now that we are past the child "referral" or "assignment" phase with Korea, I thought I'd list out the next steps of the process:

Once the child assignment is received and assignment paperwork is signed, it's returned, along with all other documentation we've provided to-date including several photos of our house and family to the Korean agency. This is needed first, in order to receive legals from Korea. - (We've completed this step)
Korea will mail our local agency the legal documents of our assigned child (Lila). This took around 2 weeks for us. - (We've completed this step)
Once legals are received, our local agency will submit paper work to the State of Colorado requesting an approval letter for INS. This could take approx 2-3 weeks - (Approx 10/23?)
Once approval is received from the State of Colorado, then the paperwork moves to USCIS (U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services). USCIS is responsible for determining the elgibility and suitability of the prospective adoptive parents and determining the eligibility of the child to immigrate to the United States. The process and approval can take 6 weeks to 90 days. (Anywhere from 12/04 - 01/15)
Once approval is received from the USCIS, it will be sent to the national visa center who then gives approval to the American Embassy in Seoul, Korea.
The American and Korean paperwork are matched up and the Korean agency (Eastern) will visit the American Embassy to obtain the child's entrance visa to enter the U.S.
The Korean agency will then work to arrange the child's emigration permit (EP) and travel to the U.S.
The final travel call (when our child is finally ready to come home) typically occurs 2-5 days in advance.

We still have a ways to go...but it's nice to at least be on our way.

Our first loose tooth!!!

2009-10-06T15:35:00.002-06:00

Last night I came home from work to find my husband sitting with our daughter on the couch...she was bawling, tears streaming down her now wet checks. I asked what the matter was and she told me she had a loose tooth! I told her that was very exciting but why was she crying? Did she hit her mouth on something? She said no, she was crying because she thought it was going to hurt...she thought having a loose tooth that would soon fall out would hurt her, so she was crying in advance and I'm sure out of fear since this was a new phenomena.

It's her bottom middle tooth...I still can't believe my baby girl has her first loose tooth! She turns 5 in November and soon she will have a little gap in her mouth...she's growing up so fast!! A little later my husband talked to her about what a big girl she was and that he wished she'd not grow up anymore. She proceeded to tell him that "...she has been waiting for this for 16 years!" Too funny.

For any of you reading this, do you have any fun tooth fairy traditions or things you've done if your child lost their first tooth?

We've selected a name...

2009-09-23T22:12:00.004-06:00

After much deliberation, we've settled on her name: Lila June Wolhee Richardson

Here's the story behind her name...

'Lila' - we thought was such a sweet name which also means dark beauty...to go with her beautiful face and dark hair
'June' - our daughter Ava first selected this name for her baby sister, we have always loved the name and wanted to include it somehow
'Wolhee' - was part of her Korean name

For those of you searching for baby names, we found the best site which was fun to browse through: http://www.babynamewizard.com

We have rain!!! Beautiful rain...

2009-09-21T16:37:00.007-06:00

The drought has ended for us and we finally received what's called a "referral" for a beautiful baby girl in Korea!

I had resigned myself to the fact that we might not receive a referral for the rest of September. This past week, my father came into town on his way to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. This was his third year to go out there and race on his motorcycle at high speeds. He's in his early 60s and was aiming to reach 175mph this year. Since my sister and I weren't able to go out there the last two years we decided this would be the year we'd suck up our fear and be there to support him.

On Thursday, September 17th, we were out in the Salt Flats...and if you've never been there, it's like you are on another planet. The ground is like a solid sheet of salt...white and sparkly...the bare mountains are in the backdrop with the bright sun beating down on the salt and reflecting back onto everything. It's beautiful yet brutal out there.

It was such an emotional day for us...watching our dad get closer and closer to his race and the danger from high speeds that he could soon encounter...one slip on his bike or the ground or over compensating, etc and it he could be seriously injured or in fact die...which is what has happened to other folks who have raced out there. Lots of prayers were said that day. I was nauseous, my hands were shaking, I was taking deep breaths all along as he moved from 10 spots away from #1 to #7 spots... and then beep on my phone. I look down on my blackberry and see my husband has IM'd me. He says "We have a referral!"...it took me a second to process what he was saying...and then I immediately started shaking and crying. My bonus mom was with me, I told her what I just read and we hugged. I called Scott to find out the details...all the while, my dad is moving closer to the front of the line. This is insane...to have been faced with two huge bouts of emotion at the same time was a little overwhelming.

Over the phone, Scott began to fill me in with the details of this beautiful little girl. When he told me her birth date, I froze...March 30th? That can't be...that's the same date my mother died several years ago. As soon as I heard that, I knew we were meant to be together...I cried some more and just couldn't believe what I was hearing. Someone told me during our long wait that the reason why we hadn't received our referral yet was because God hadn't chosen our baby. It was this moment when I heard her birth date that I realized God and my mother had a hand in selecting her and bringing our two lives together. Now March 30th would forever be a day of celebration instead of mourning.

By this time, my dad came over as he approached the front of the line and saw that something was going on since I was crying, I went ahead and told him and he too was overjoyed. A few minutes later he was at the start of the line on his bike and racing down the salt flats. That week, he reached 166 mph within a 3 mile window. Although he didn't reach 175, we were all still happy and proud of him for this big accomplishment.

I will never forget that day...full of raw emotions, joy and love. I never imagined the feeling I would have when I received "the call"...there are no words to describe it. Although Scott and I were miles away at that moment, and it was in the middle of this crazy race, we were still able to have an intimate talk as we cried together over this new blessing...and as we cried together reading the details of this little girls story, reading her birth parents story and what brought her into the world and now into our lives. Things couldn't have happened more perfectly.

Flash forward to today. After consulting with our physicians, we went up to ACC today to accept the referral and sign all the paperwork. We love her already and long to have her in our arms forever. We have a long wait ahead, unfortunately due to the number of Visas they issue a year, we won't have her home until 1st quarter of 2010. They said to expect a 5-6 month wait...and having her home by March may be tight. I pray that we have her home before her birth date.

The second phase of this involves additional sequential paperwork and approvals with the state, USCIS and Korea. We are now working on putting together a "care" package to send to her and her foster family. I know the next 6 months will be the toughest...I only hope that with the holidays coming, it will help the time move by quickly.

More boys...but still no girls...

2009-09-10T20:38:00.007-06:00

The drought continues...at least for the girl list. It has officially been 3 months since we've moved to the top of the girls list. I was hopeful we might hear something this week as our executive director went to Korea just recently and inquired about whether they had any new girls? Well I called the agency today to see if there was any news and maybe anything to share on the drought...and not too surprisingly they had no further explanation or news on girls. They did give her another little boy referral to bring back...so at least another family will receive joyous news. The boy list has picked up lately as they've at least had 3 boys the past three weeks...but still no girls.

So we continue to sit and wait...which really does get more difficult to do each day. It just doesn't seem likely that it can continue this much longer...but it does.

Update...

2009-09-01T17:58:00.002-06:00

Well still no girl referral but there may be hope soon.

I called our agency today and asked if they have inquired about the delay with the Korean agency and whether they have any new news. They told me the executive director was in Korea right now to attend an opening of another unwed mother facility, which is great. She is also there to gently ask for more girls as it's been almost three months. They did just get two boys in the other day...so hopefully the list will be moving again soon. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed!

AAC Picnic -

2009-08-23T10:06:00.005-06:00

On August 15th, we attended our adoption agencies annual picnic. This year they had special guests from the National Classical Music Institute of Korea who joined and shared the spirit of Korean art, dance & music.

We had a great time...and for me the highlight was watching them perform and my daughter and nephew participate in the fun. They also taught the children some of their dances which was quite fun to watch. I've included some photos from the day...and will try to include a few videos in another post.

The stall...and me just talking things through...

2009-08-18T21:22:00.006-06:00

Well the end of August is quickly approaching and still no movement with the girls list. We are still #1 on the list jumping every second the phone rings. It's hard to believe that come September, we will have been waiting for 3 months in the #1 spot. There's another family in 2nd position who has also been waiting for the moment to adopt for a long time. They have had difficulty in the past and are feeling a little nervous about jinxing things with the list halting as they sit at the top of the list. I too feel that way with our journey and desire to have a 2nd child.

We are truly blessed with Ava, she's the sunshine of our lives. Prior to Ava we had a very long road filled with loss and in the end ultimate joy when Ava came into our lives. Words can never describe the amount of love you have being a parent and holding your sweet child in your arms. Knowing that it's the most incredible, special, pure feeling...we so badly wanted to share that love with another child and to give Ava a sister or brother.

I was optimistic that we'd be able to have another child with the medical help we sought before...but I guess god had something else in mind. After more than a year or more ups and downs, hopes and loss we came to the conclusion that it must not be meant for us to have another child...or I came to the conclusion that I just could not go through more attempts/loss both mentally and medically. In the end, we grieved five losses, one of which almost took my life...it's still difficult to talk through. But, the reality that I may not have another child broke my heart and ended up being too much for me to accept so we started to look into adoption. I was a little nervous and wasn't sure where to start...so we began, I imagine like most people, doing our own research. In the beginning, I was scared with some of the things I read and started to second guess adoption. I kept wondering what god wanted us to do... was the loss and pain we went through signs that we should just be content with our family of three? Or should we push ahead and try to expand our family? I know which way my heart was leaning...

Then, my sister told me about an Adoption Forum at this church that a couple started organizing many years ago as a way for people to gather information and resources. My husband and I decided to go but we both had low expectations. We sat down along side many other families or individuals seeking information. In front of us stood a strong couple who began sharing their story and journey to parenthood...the struggles they had with infertility and their experience with adoption. Listening to them speak was very emotional for us, it was a similar story to ours...they also had a child of their own, a little girl much like ours...and finally searched for a second child and were blessed with a little girl from China. Watching the two sisters stand up there, side by side, holding hands was so beautiful. They were their own sisters and you could see the love in their eyes for one another. At that moment, we each decided in our minds this was the path we would take...it felt right and sure. After that night we were touched with what we saw and learned and began our journey to adopt.

Now here we are, it's been almost 13 months since we started our adoption journey with Korea. We finally reach the first spot and relief settles in that it will happen at any moment...and then days, weeks and months pass with nothing. Again I find myself doubting and thinking...am I pushing it? Did I jinx things with my desire to want a second child? I know this all sounds ridiculous but I can't help the way I feel.

I know how the family below us feels...you aren't alone. It's difficult to stay positive...but I keep thinking we've gone this far and the end feels like it's within reach. I do have faith that all will work out in the end...I have to keep telling myself and believing it will all happen when it's meant to happen. Well, that's enough of my thoughts...

Still waiting...

2009-07-25T13:37:00.002-06:00

We'll we've been waiting patiently at the #1 spot for well over a month! I was really hoping we'd get a referral and be able to bring her home in times for the holidays...but with the long wait now and sure to be long wait again after, I'm not sure that's going to happen. Once we receive our referral, which is essentially a small packet of information about an available girl, her medical background and potential information on her biological family and a few photos...as soon as we accept, we will then have to wait an additional 3-6 months...and I've heard it's now leaning on the long side :-( All I can do is continue to pray for patience and know that when the time comes it will be right and good. It's just hard to go through everything we've gone through and to want another child so badly and to continue having to wait. It will all work out I know...

Ava's Ballet Recital

2009-06-23T20:51:00.005-06:00

June 6th was Ava's big day...her first ballet recital. She was a flower and performed in front of a large crowd. She was blessed to have her Mimi (Scott's mom), Papa and Nana (my parents) travel from Oklahoma to be here for her big day. It was so special and Ava did great! She enjoyed being on the stage and looked beautiful, as always. Her aunt Wendy was there along with cousins Cale, Brayden and Aadi.

More pictures from Father's Day...

2009-06-23T20:46:00.002-06:00

Here are a few more pictures from our trip up to the mountains...

Father's Day in the Park

2009-06-23T20:27:00.004-06:00

We celebrated father's day this past weekend with a trip up to Grand Lake and small hike in Rocky Mountain National park. We started the day off by making Scott his favorite omelet and crepes...yum. Then we gave him is gifts. Ava made him the cutest visor, see picture below...Scott wore it proudly all day!! After Ava had her swim lessons, which by the way she absolutely loooooooves, we then packed up the cooler and drove up to Grand Lake for the day. We had a picnic lunch on the beach then walked over and took a tour of a local house that's been there since the 1800s. One of the daughters that grew up in the house lived there in her late 90s and passed away several years ago. It was neat to see the house, much in it's original condition. After the tour, we drove around and then up into the park. There we went on a little hike and saw wildlife along the way. The park was so green...there was moss hangy from the trees and everything was bursting with green...it really was beautiful. After the hike, we stopped at winter park on our way home. They had a free lift ride to their village that we took...then walked around some more. The day was very relaxing and a much needed, appreciated break for us...we always enjoy making it up into the mountains and the Grand Lake area...we'd love to do that more often.

THREE!

2009-05-08T22:05:00.002-06:00

Need I say more? Ok...well I will. We just heard news that the couple at the #1 spot on the girls list just received a referral...which means we have/will move up to #3! Very exciting and I'm beginning to get butterflies in my stomach as we move closer to the top of soon knowing who our future daughter will be and then later bringing her home. My gut tells me it might be June/July before we get our referral...and then Sept/Oct/Nov before we'll have her home.

We also completed our homestudy with our social worker. We met with her four times in our house...it provided us with an opportunity to ask questions about the process and for her to get to know us as individuals, parents and a couple. She is making the recommendation of approval and is seeking one last signature for the document. It feels great to have that behind us. Now we just have to submit a few more additional documents, 12 photos of our family and house and then continue to patiently wait.

Ava's Podcast about the Easter Bunny

2009-04-23T21:07:00.004-06:00

Following is one video of Ava sharing what the Easter Bunny brought her on Easter... She was really excited about her first large Chocolate Bunny. Her mommy is a little crazy when it comes to sweets and I kept her from eating these the past few Easters...but this year she told me that she hoped the Easter Bunny would bring her a chocolate bunny to eat because she's never had one before. I figured it was time I got over myself and let her indulge a little in a lot of chocolate, Scott did a nice job :-)

Next, I'm working on getting our 2nd video smaller so that I can post it for viewing too...

Recap of April...

2009-04-23T20:49:00.006-06:00

I'm long overdue to provide updates, photos and a video for April. It has certainly been a busy month for us. Work has been crazy for both Scott and I, Ava continues to grow before our eyes and we moved up two spots this month on the adoption list, we are now number 4!!!

We have had several bouts of snow this month, but hopefully we'll get rain here on out...we are ready for spring, warm breezy and sunny weather. I've been itching to finally get out into the yard and start cleaning up the flowerbeds, trimming the bushes and figuring out where we will plant our new garden this year...Ava and I are very excited about that and the fresh produce we plan to grow...I am a little worried about the active squirrels...in the past they have eaten up my herbs and gerber daisies so I hope they leave the other veggies I plant alone...we will see.

As for Easter, we had a great time. Ava and I made the cutest little Easter tree and decorated it with homemade paper eggs, bunnies and birds. I cut out he shapes and then Ava glued things on and colored some items...it really turned out beautiful. I think we've found a fun homemade tradition for us to do every Easter going forward. Here are some pictures of the tree and some of my favorite creations by Ava.

Drama of a Splinter!

2009-04-09T19:20:00.002-06:00

This afternoon I received a call from Ava's school informing us that she received a splinter in her "tush". Splinters that they aren't able to pull out with their fingers are considered "surgical procedures"...they said Ava was very upset and wondered if Scott or I could come pick her up. Scott brought her home then called me...Ava was hysterical on the phone...crying and crying...poor little girl. I came home early to see if I could get the splinter out...no luck. I now wish I would have video-taped her...she was so dramatic when I tried to get close to look at it and if I touched it, goodness you would have thought I broke her arm. The tears, screams, wails, body thrusts, kicking, screaming...needless to say after many many attempts, trying to hold her down, bribe her with ice cream or anything else she still has a splinter in her tush.

There were several points when Scott and I cracked up and rolled on the floor with laughter due to her outbursts...I know that sounds mean but if you had been there to witness it you'd have been laughing too. I plan to give it a go again tomorrow maybe after soaking her bum in soapy water for 15-30 minutes to see if that softens things up. We'll be sure to get the video tape out to try capturing some of the things she says...it was too funny.

No new news on the adoption front. We have our 3rd meeting with our social worker in two weeks and this Saturday there's a family get together with our adoption agency and other family members at the zoo...we hope to be able to go to meet up with some other families. Then Sunday is of course Easter which we plan to spend with family and celebrate our nephew Brayden's 3rd birthday, it should be a fun action packed weekend. But I'm most looking forward to watching Ava wake up on Easter morning and learning that the Easter Bunny will have visited her a 4th year. She gets a kick out of seeing his footprints all over the house that lead outside to the hidden easter eggs...it should be fun. :-)

And the number is...6!

2009-03-31T20:25:00.002-06:00

I called our agency today to clarify paperwork that's needed and learned they just got a little girl in, so that moves us up the list now to position #6! Yeah...

As for updates on other things...we have our 2nd visit with our social worker this Friday, we are looking forward to that. Ava is also recovering from strep and early stages of pneumonia! She's on heavy antibiotics and we pray she gets well soon...I could tell she felt loads better today as her energy level was much higher...I think she's gotten a little bit of cabin fever, I don't blame her. Last weekend we had fun making an Easter egg tree, it turned out great...I'll post a picture of it soon. Ava is very excited about the Easter bunny and she talks about how much she hopes he likes our tree...so cute.

Well, off to go work some more...I'll be back soon.

Finally some snow

2009-03-27T19:42:00.003-06:00

Yes, we finally got some snow! We have hardly had a real "winter" with little to no snow and within the first week of spring we received a nice amount of snow. Our grass and plants will be happy. As you can see from the photo we created a snow man...and placed bird seed on top of the snow mans hat...Ava's idea which is a good one. We also did a little sledding today.

Ava is feeling a little under the weather, she is fighting another infection and picked up a little fever yesterday again. She just recovered from the flu a week or so ago so I hope she isn't going to get it again. The doctors said this year kids are getting the flu more than once or will have two version at the same time.

As for adoption updates, we unfortunately have had no movement since February as they haven't received any new girls the whole month. I can't believe it's been 8 months plus and to know we may have a good 8 more months before we bring our future little girl home is hard to imagine. We are scheduled to have our 2nd meeting with our social worker next Friday. Our first meeting went well, she's great and will be a wonderful contact, support and resource throughout this process and beyond for us. She was so sweet, she brought a little Korean boy baby doll for Ava to borrow...the past week Ava has carried this doll everywhere. We were planning to get a little doll like this before and after her affection towards it we definitely will.

Attended our 1st Req'd Adoption Training

2009-03-14T22:03:00.002-06:00

Today Scott and I attended our first round of adoption training. The state of Colorado requires all parents going through the adoption process to attend or have a certain number of hours towards adoption training or education. We attended a class today along with 7 other couples. We have one more class next Saturday and then we'll need to conduct an additional 12 or so hours of reading or viewing adoption or parented related material to complete our requirements. The training so far has been very helpful. The instructor has two girls adopted from Korea...so listening to her experience and talking through topics of inter-cultural adoption has been insightful. Next week we'll talk more about things related to post-placement, bonding, adjustment, etc and will have a few families come talk with us about their recent adoption experience.

It was interesting though today talking through the issues they are faced with in Korea that result in having to put their children up for adoption. In their culture, if a woman is pregnant and is not married, she will not be able to get/keep a job, get married and often times her family will disown her...thus resulting in her having to place her child up for adoption since she has no means to care or raise the child. They have several unwed mother places or homes for these women to go to during the majority of their pregnancy where they will receive the care and shelter of anonymity. It's interesting, you'd think their rate of pregnancy for unwed mothers would be lower there than it is here, but it's actually a similar high rate as we have in the states. It breaks my heart to think about the difficult situations these woman are faced with and can't imagine living where you feel you have little to no choice especially when it comes to your child...my heart goes out to them.

Now we are 7 - Inch by inch...

2009-02-25T20:31:00.002-07:00

I called this week and learned they received another girl referral for a family in front of us...so we are now 7 with the possibility of being 6 since we think a family is on hold in front of us. I'm getting so excited...it's hard to believe that in possibly 2-3 months we could know who our little daughter will be.

Starting next Friday, we start our "homestudy" process...where we begin meeting with our assigned social worker. We'll meet with her three times and then take two full days of adoption training per the state of Colorado's requirement when adopting. So March will be all about adoption for us. I'm also planning to work on the baby's room this weekend. Assuming I make good progress, I'll post some pictures of the room.

Have I told you how excited we are? Ava is equally excited, she has already picked out a name for her little sister. She wants to call her "June"...which is actually a sweet old-fashioned name...one that's starting to stick with me. I think once we see photo's of her, we'll pick a name that seems to fit...of course how ironic would it be if we found out about her in the month of June...hee hee.

Now number 8 or 9 or 7?

2009-02-17T20:22:00.002-07:00

Well, we think we might now be number 8, but could still be 9 or also likely 7 due to a family just being placed on hold that's in front of us. I called our agency yesterday to ask some questions about paperwork and she said she thought we might be 8 but their systems were down...and then she told me a family ahead of us on the list went on hold...so we are 9, 8 or 7 :-). I plan to call later this week to double check again. Also, our social worker made contact with us again and we are scheduled to begin what's called a "home study" the month of March. During March we also plan to take our required adoption training courses as well...so it should be a busy month for us as we prepare and move even closer to the top of the list.

In a couple of weeks I plan to finish working on the baby's room and setting the crib back up, it will be great to have that behind us. Once that's done, we'll begin focusing on the small preparations and hopefully start to learn Korean. Ava has a friend at school who has taught her a word or two...we plan to learn some of the language so that when we go over there, we can understand some and hopefully speak a few encouraging words to our new little girl to help make her feel a little more comfortable or at home with us. So many things to do and think about...we are certainly getting very excited...waiting is the hardest part.

Holy Cow! We are now #10!

2009-01-09T11:08:00.003-07:00

I can't believe it, we are already number 10! I just found out earlier this week we moved up to #12 but then just called today for another question and found out we are now #10. Very exciting...we are now in a position where we have to get all the rest of documentation in...so I will start to work on that and start work on the baby's room. We anticipate having our homestudy begin either this month or next month and will post when we know more. Can't believe we are so much closer now!

Updates

2008-12-06T21:26:00.002-07:00

I can't believe it's already December and next Monday I'll be another year older and in a few weeks it will be Christmas. November was a busy month, Ava turned 4!! Can't believe she's already 4, time is going by too fast, she's the sweetest thing and we adore and love her so much. She loves to make art projects, loves to sing and create her own songs and stories, she loves to read, dance, play with her dolls, loves puzzles, loves to collect and arrange things, and she loves to cook for us in her kitchen...she even has her own menu that we can order from...so sweet.

For Thanksgiving, we went to dad and Cheri's and had a wonderful reunion with our families. It was so great to see everyone, especially Ava's cousins as this was the first time we were able to meet some of them. After the long road trip, we are back for a couple of weeks, then we will prepare for the long drive back to Oklahoma for Christmas which we plan to spend with Scott's family.

As for baby news, we did finally move up last week to #14 on the list. Over the past several months they have only received one girl and 6-8 boys...so the boy list has been moving a little faster than the girls but the agency said this tends to happen...they will go a stretch and get either a bunch of girls or boys but in the end, it evens out. I wish they would let us be on both lists, but they won't, we had to choose and at the time,we chose the girls list as it was shorter than the boys...still, 14 isn't too far down. We did hear some bad news though...the Korean agency increased their fees by another 10% which is hard to digest especially in this tough economy.

That's it for now, not a whole lot of time to finish getting ready for Christmas. Next post, we'll share a story about "Mickey" the elf.

Inch by Inch - #15

2008-10-22T20:56:00.002-06:00

Called the agency yesterday and found out we moved up one spot to #15. We found out there are approx 3 people on hold in front of us so we really might be 12. We think because of that, we already received a call from our assigned social worker. With international adoptions you are assigned a social worker for our case who is responsible for meeting with us on several occasions and assessing us and our home for the child and essentially "approving" our ability to adopt. She advised that if we keep moving quickly, she might be meeting with us later this year...otherwise it won't be until the beginning of next year. We will have 3 meetings with her. The first meeting she will come to our house, look it over and meet with all three of us together to get to know us and ask some general questions. The second meeting will involve meeting with each of us individually, including Ava. The third meeting I can't remember what that one will be...

We have some additional exciting news, we began working on decorating the rooms. We moved Ava from her old baby room into a new "big girl" room. Wendy came over last weekend to help paint and arrange furniture...Ava now is sleeping in my old day bed that I had as a teenager so she's pretty excited. We still have some finishing touches to apply like window coverings, wall hangings and railing on the wall but it's been fun so far. I don't plan to start on redocorating the baby's room until later this year.

Wow...we are now 16!

2008-10-02T18:34:00.002-06:00

Exciting news, we've moved up two more spots to #16! When we talked with the agency and told them were were pleasantly surprised with how quick we've been moving up and if we should expect the rest of the process to be this quick...and they said no...it could still take some time it all just depends from day to day. Although we are moving up, there is still quite a bit ahead of us. The next step of us will be to get our state fingerprinting done...then at some point we'll have to take a certain number of required state adoption training...then we'll go through a lengthy social worker evaluation and approval process...then take care of more paper work...then wait for a referral from Korea...and then more waiting with federal fingerprinting with immigration, approvals from them, visa and travel paperwork for the baby, etc. But it's still nice to know we are moving and look forward to the work ahead...especially knowing the wonderful result we will have.

On a separate note, we are taking off to the mountains this weekend to stay at a friends remote cabin, with no TV...little to no phone reception. We plan to do a lot of R&R, some fishing and I plan to take my watercolors so I can paint while outside...it should be beautiful with all of the trees turning for fall...we are really looking forward to the little break.

We've moved again...

2008-09-28T09:08:00.002-06:00

We learned last Monday, 9/22, that we've moved up to 18! It's always nice and feels good to make forward progress.

On other news, we just had two nice visits the past couple of weeks, one from Donna, Ava's "Mimi" and the other from my Dad and Cheri, Ava's "Papa and Nana". Donna was here for almost a week to see her two sweet grandchildren. During her visit, we took Ava to get her ear's pierced...which was a special girl bonding for the three of us on this milestone. I always remembered when I was little and my mom took me with my sister to get my ears pierced and how special it felt. Ava has been so proud of her new "sparkles" and during the first week or so she'd walk up to people, turn sideways, pull back her hair and stand there quietly with her head leaning a little waiting for them to notice. It was funny to watch people, because most stood there with a bewildered look on their face not realizing at first that Ava was trying to show them her new earrings...so cute and funny!

Then after Donna, my Dad and Cheri came through on their way back from the Salt Flats for the second year. As you may recall, last year dad went out there to race his bike and get into the "130 mph" club...well that wasn't enough speed for him them...so this year he went back to go for the "150 mph" club, which he easily accomplished. We are so proud of him...there's not a lot of 61 year olds who have gone 162 mph.

Good news and sad news...

2008-09-09T11:45:00.005-06:00

Good news, we are officially 19 on the list! Progress is good. It's so hard to wait, but we know it will be well worth it.

The sad news is that today will be a tough day for us, especially me...as we are putting Theo to sleep. He is around 15 years and has been sadly going down hill the past 4 months. I will miss him dearly. I remember the first day when we got him...Scott surprised me with him when he was just a baby kitten. He came home and asked me to help him with the groceries...I came out and saw this tiny orange kitten in the front seat...he was so cute. He's been part of our family for so long, through all of our moves in Oklahoma to New York back to Oklahoma and various places in Denver. He will be laid to rest in a nice spot in the yard...which is were he loved to gaze and play in occasionally. We will miss!

We've moved up to 20...soon 19!

2008-08-28T22:20:00.002-06:00

Yippee...Scott called today to check in to see if we've moved up on the list and we are now 20! Wahoo...one more spot up. They also just received another girl assignment so we'll soon be 19...and they said several people ahead of us on the list are on hold...so we could be even a little higher? So keep praying and crossing your fingers that we'll continue to move up the list and closer to meeting our future daughter and Ava's future little sis.

I believe once we move up the list to #15 to #10...we'll start the home study process and required Colorado adoption training. I don't know all the details yet but for the home study process they will assign a social worker who will come to our house to meet with us on several occasions and essentially determine our official "approval" to adopt. Once that's done, we wait until we move further up the list and until we are #1 and wait for what's called a "referral" or "assignment" or "match" of a little girl. We will review her paperwork at that time, consult with a physician and make a decision. Although I'd love for this to happen tomorrow, we anticipate the process to take up to 10-12 mths for a match...mainly due to the increased demand of the Korean program since China is taking 3-4 years. But who knows, maybe God will bless us with an earlier match.

Attended Annual Adoption Picnic

2008-08-10T11:16:00.002-06:00

Every year our adoption agency has numerous events to allow families an opportunity to meet one another. One of the events is a picnic that we attended this weekend. We had a nice time and exchanged information with a couple who have a little boy and girl, both of which they adopted separately from Korea. It was great to hear their experience in the journey to bring their child home.

With Korean adoption, you can either travel to Korea to pick your child up and fly home with them, or you can have an escort fly home with the child and then you'd meet them at the airport. If you travel, you can only see the child for a short time at the Korean adoption facility and are not allowed to take them outside the building. Once you are ready to fly back, they will bring the child to the airport for you to take on the plane...which could make for an awfully long flight. We aren't sure which we will do yet, but are leaning towards traveling out there.

Number 21!

2008-07-30T20:59:00.000-06:00

I checked in this morning with the agency to see if we've moved up on the list, and we have. We are now 21 on the list...very exciting! We are also going to go ahead and get our finger printing done for the state this weekend, just to get that out of the way and behind us.

I've been looking into Korean baby traditions to see what their culture is like around pregnancies and raising infants. There are some interesting traditions they have. I'll find those and post them up on our next blog. We've also started thinking about the living arrangements for the little one when she arrives. We plan to move Ava over to the other guest room and turn Ava's current room into the babies new room. Then we'll move the guest room downstairs into the front room. So we'll have some fun decorating and rearranging to do the rest of this year...it's a good thing we've got that extra time to do it all in. The change will be fun and nice.

Number 23 and our budding artist...

2008-07-21T20:34:00.001-06:00

Well, we are officially number 23 on the girls list! They are waiting to hear back on another couple that might drop out so we could be bumped up to 22. We also recently learned that, due to Korea's new program this year to drive up domestic adoption, most children are approx 9-12 months of age by the time they are brought home. This was a bit unexpected, but we will be grateful none the less.

As for Ava she is of course our little artist. She brought home several drawings of people that she drew today...they are sooo great! It almost brought me to tears that she's now able to draw people. We'll have to try to scan the pictures in to share, but she drew one picture of her daddy, one of me, one of her...then a family portrait of her Aunt Wendy, Uncle Troy, Aadison and Cale and then one of her Papi. I've already put in my request for her to draw a picture of the three of us. She's just so talented! :o) We are quite enjoying watching her grow in her artistic abilities and of course all other areas.

We will be adopting a girl...

2008-07-15T17:44:00.002-06:00

Well we finally have resolution. Since we've submitted all of our information and application we've been working with the agency to decide whether to get on the boy or girl list. Originally we wanted a girl, but because that list was longer months ago we had decided to get on the shorter boy list. But by the time we submitted everything, the boy and girl list ended up being the same. Long story short, we were added to the girl list today. The agency is going through some reshuffling with their list to have some folks who were previously squatting either recommit or move them to hold list. From the sounds of it, we are currently at 25, but with two families soon to move off the list due to recent adoptions and around five others who might be put on hold...we might move up to 18...so keep your fingers crossed.

Agency Links

2008-07-10T23:08:00.000-06:00

If you are curious about the agency here are their links to their sites:

AAC which is who we are working with here in Colorado - http://www.aacadoption.com/

They work with Eastern Social Welfare in Korea - http://www.eastern.or.kr/ (make sure and select English in the top right hand corner).

The journey begins...

2008-07-10T21:19:00.000-06:00

Our adoption journey officially begins! We just submitted our application today to adopt a baby boy or girl from Korea. We went in expecting to go on their boy list because typically the wait has been shorter, but their boy list is now as long as their girl list. We seem to be further ahead, document-readiness wise, than other families which should demonstrate our seriousness to adopt. We are now waiting to learn if we can be put on both the girl and boy list or if they are going to put us on one list...we will find out next Monday the news and what number we are.

We are so excited about this journey and cannot wait for things to progress further. More to come next week...

Our first blog and post

2008-06-24T20:56:00.000-06:00

We have decided to start a blog to provide updates with what's going on with our family and share the steps toward our decision to adopt a child, which we are very excited about.