Praying and Hoping for our Waiting Child by James

Mary and I met with our family physician on Friday to discuss the medical needs of a few of the little boys on the Waiting Child photolisting. He was very helpful at sorting through the medical records, and pointed out some of the challenges each child might face. We took his advice to heart, and decided to submit to Holt our desire to adopt one of the boys. He has what we would consider to be a minor medical problem, and his little face is just too cute. Its weird to say that we feel spiritually connected to him through just a couple of photos and his medical records, but we both feel like he would be a good fit for our family.

Right now, Holt has stopped taking requests for his records, and the other families who requested his information have two weeks to make their decisions. If either of them also want to adopt him, our applications will go before a committee, there will be a phone interview, and Holt will decide which family will be the best fit for him. So, we are continuing to pray for faith that if it is meant to be, it will be. We are trying not to get our hopes up too much, but it is very hard. So, until we know something, we aren't going to post anything about him. Until then, we will just continue praying and hoping.

Yay! Homestudy is done! by Mary

Good news! Our homestudy is complete and was sent to the Holt USA office on Friday. They will review it and then send it on to Holt Korea. Once that happens, we will officially be "waiting." In the meantime, James and I have to complete the USCIS immigration paperwork. Apparently this can be a lengthy, annoying process. On the Holt discussion boards there have been several postings complaining about the Dallas USCIS office. Hopefully things will go smoothly for us! Another bit of good news is that our Heart and Seoul holiday bake sales earned us enough money to pay to file for the USCIS paperwork, plus more that will go towards paying for our homestudy.

Right now James is in the kitchen making 8 dozen homemade cinnamon rolls that were purchased by my school's PTA president to give to the teachers at my school tomorrow. Have I mentioned that the PTA president, James Atwood, is a really awesome guy? His adorable wife, Michelle, who teaches kindergarten at my school is also really great. Not only have they helped us out by generously supporting our Heart and Seoul baking efforts, but they also are sponsoring our Heart and Seoul website. Plus, they are having us over for dinner tomorrow night, too!

One last thing: I'm trying not to get my hopes up or dwell upon it, but yesterday we spotted a couple of new additions to the Holt waiting child photo listing that we are very interested in. Both are baby boys who have some correctable special needs. I won't go into details at this time about them, but my heart was racing as I studied their profiles yesterday. They are SOOO cute! Since they are on the photo listing and have not been referred to us, the process is a little different. We have to let Holt know that we would like to be considered to adopt them, and then it goes to a committee that selects the couple they think is the best match for the baby. I'm sure there will be many families who are interested in those precious boys (which is good). James and I are praying that if one of them is meant to be ours that it will work out. It's a little funny to think about getting a boy b/c in our minds somehow we have been stuck on adopting a girl. However, one look at the WC photolisting and it's clear that more boys are in need of adoption, so that comforts us.

A New Experience by Mary

On New Year's Eve, James and I decided to try something new and go to "Koreatown" in Dallas. Many of you, like us, have been to part of "Koreatown" by shopping at the awesome store Sam Moon. Sam Moon, however, is a pretty diverse shopping experience. It is a store that is owned by Koreans, but is popular with people of many ethnicities. The part of "Koreatown" that we visited is the opposite. We went to Komart, which is a market/restaurant. Right when we walked in, we noticed that we didn't see anyone who wasn't Asian. It was a pretty strange feeling, and I think at first we were both a little intimidated. We walked around and marveled at all of the unknown grocery products. Some of our favorites were: Wooly Booly apple flavored gum, Chew and Sing gum, honey powder, and shrimp chips. They also had a little area in the back where a lady was cutting up fresh eel and squid for customers.

There is also a small restaurant inside that serves popular Korean dishes. I really wanted to try something because I've never had Korean food. I kind of had to talk James into it, but he was soon glad that I did. I ordered bulgolgi (a kind of barbecued beef), and it came served on a interesting metal tray. It was also served with a broth, some sticky white rice, some marinated seeds/nuts of some kind, and kimchi (a very spicy, marinated cabbage that most Koreans eat at almost every meal as a side dish). It was surprisingly very good. James ate jin man du, which were some very yummy steamed dumplings.

This was a great experience for us to get a small sampling of Korean culture. We are excited to go back and try out other markets and restaurants in the area. We are lucky to live so close to such a large Korean population. I know that one day it will be fun to take our child there.