Check out our timeline on the right--we're nearly to the end!!

We had 2 fantastic pieces of news this week. #1-Henry's Emigration Permit was approved (this is a big step in the coming-home process #2-the NVC (National Visa Center) has electronically sent his documents to Korea so that he can have a visa. Now that both of those are done, we only have a couple of things left before he will be travelling. I asked the wonderful adoptive parents on the Holt discussion board, who by the way, have been EXTREMELY helpful with this process, approximately how much longer do they think it will be until he comes home? Almost all responses indicated that sometime in May is the most likely time. I can hardly believe it! I've been telling myself July (and hoping for June) this whole time. I might need a substitute to finish out the school year...oh, how I hope!! He might be here for my baby shower May 27!!! Everyone please help us pray that our sweet boy's remaining steps will continue to be speedy. I can't wait to kiss those sweet little cheeks.

The Waiting Game

It's a question I get asked on a near daily basis:
"How long until Henry comes home?"

I always put on a brave face and say, "Sometime this summer. Hopefully before his 1st birthday in August." I really, really hope that this is the case. If things go as planned, then he should be, but keep in mind that the GOVERNMENT (US and Korea) is controlling everything at this point. Very terrifying when you think of it that way, huh? Some of my prayers for the USCIS office were answered last when when we received approval on his I-600a form. That's a biggie that we've been waiting a couple of months on. Now they just need to approve his I-600 (not to be confused with the other one...sigh) and then the US government will have done it's job, and we'll be waiting on the Korean government to finish the process.
It has been an interesting few months since we decided we wanted to pursue adopting Henry. He's been ours officially since Feb. 23, but we've been in love with him since early January. There have been rough patches in our wait, such as the development of anxiety induced insomnia, which has mostly gotten better, but I still struggle with sometimes. Here are some of the little distractions I've had to find to help me deal with the day to day longing for my son to be in my arms:

• The Twilight book series. Don't laugh. I know it's for teenagers, but those books have been tremendously helpful in giving me something to do during all of those looong sleepless nights that I've been having. I added up the pages from all four books and figured out that I've read 2,444 pages in the last 2 months.
• Gathering things for Henry. This is hands down the most fun thing I've been doing during the wait. Those of you who know me know that I love nothing more than to shop, and that I also am very talented at finding bargains. Yes, the photo below looks like a lot of stuff (and it is) but keep in mind that it was all on SALE!

• Searching for a new place to live. James and I have decided that we need to sell our lovely historic house and move to a more family-friendly one. I am extremely sad to leave, but I think it's so much fun to look at houses on the market. Each time I see one with a lot of storage I get really excited. Can you tell that we have no closet space here?? One thing that is going to be a big job is getting our house ready to put on the market. I'm not looking forward to it.
• PUPPIES! Our miniature poodles, Fifi and Rocky, have had their 3rd litter of puppies. The puppies, two dashing boys named Bruce Lee and Rambo, are 5 weeks old and have been greatly entertaining to us. They both have talents (much like their father) in barking, giving kisses, playing with toys, and peeing on the floor. Snuggling with them has made our wait for Henry infinitely easier. They are so cute that they make me cry. I don't even want to think about how soon they will have to go live with their new families.
  

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.

Our Fundraiser

Lately we've been working on completing all of our homestudy paperwork. There was A LOT of it, but thankfully we are pretty much done. We will be mailing it off this week in a giant envelope! There are some expenses coming up that we have been nervous about. One thing is that we will have to pay around $3,000 for the homestudy fee, and another is that we have to pay over $800 to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), which is a crucial step that will get the ball rolling on the citizenship for our baby.

Since we felt called to adopt so suddenly, we really had nothing saved up ahead of time. So, we were brainstorming ways that we could earn some extra cash to help pay for this early portion of money due (oh believe me there will be MUCH more coming up!). James loves to bake and has been making cakes and cookies our coworkers ever since we started working. He's talented at it, partially because he loves sweets so much, and also because he's a PERFECTIONIST! And since I am also a perfectionist and have always been very entrepreneurial myself, I had the idea to start the Heart and Seoul bakery fundraiser. We have a menu of some really yummy treats perfect for Thanksgiving, and we are taking holiday orders from people we know. If it goes well, then we'll do a different menu for Christmas. So far we've had a great response! We are going to be extremely busy getting all of these orders ready, but we aren't afraid of a little hard work. I am so excited that we have a way to show off our talents and earn money to help with the adoption at the same time!

Q and A about adoption

There are so many kids who need to be adopted here in the US, so why not adopt one of them?
We chose to pursue international adoption because almost all domestic adoptions are "open" or "semi-open," which is referring to the level of contact with the birth parents. Also, in domestic adoptions the birth parents have up to 6 months after placement to change their mind. We just decided we weren't ready to face that heartache.

Why adopt from Korea instead of another country?

We did a lot of research about this.

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  Korean orphans live in loving, stable foster homes instead of orphanages.
  
  
  
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  Korea has excellent medical care--comparable to that of the US. We can expect regular medical updates about our baby once we are matched with one.
  
  
  
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  Unlike most international adoptions, Korea accepts the US homestudy as documentation enough, which means much less terrifying paperwork for us!
  
  
  
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  Travel is optional. Several countries require lengthy stays abroad, which would be difficult for us considering the nature of our jobs. Korea, on the the other hand, has optional escorts for babies to the US. If we chose to travel to Korea, (we'd love to!) then the stay is only 3-5 days.
  
  
  
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  Korea is a stable country to adopt from. Korean adoptions first began in the 1950s with Harry and Bertha Holt. We have selected their agency, Holt International, to represent us in this process.
  
  
  
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  Mostly, it just feels right to us!
  
  
  

How long until your baby comes home?

That's difficult to answer because it depends on so many factors. A lot of those factors are out of our control, such as processing time from our agency and the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services). However, some of it is in our control--how fast we complete and send off paperwork, etc. Also, if we chose to adopt a "waiting child," our wait could be shorter. Our wait will approximately be 21-24 months from application until the baby comes home.

Do you want a boy or a girl?

We would be blessed and thrilled beyond belief with either one, but as of right now we are leaning more toward wanting a girl. In Korea, however, there are more boys for adoption than girls, due to Korean families wishing to adopt girls (opposite, I know, from China). So, our agency will not allow us to request a girl unless we go through the "waiting child" program. We could just see what we got, but odds are high that we would be matched with a boy. Right now, we are praying about the WC (waiting child) program, and if it is right for us. WC means that the babies have some level of medical need, which can vary from very mild and/or correctable, such as crossed eyes, premature birth, cleft lip/palate....all the way up to some very severe lifelong disabilities. We will be looking further into this program to see if it's right for us.

How will you afford it?

Good thing we have thousands of dollars in savings, huh? Seriously, we aren't too sure about that still. Right now we are brainstorming a few fundraising ideas that make good use of our talents.

Are you giving up on having your own baby?

Of course not! We will continue to have hope of our own child if God deems that it is right for us. What we are giving up on is the heartbreaking, roller coaster of fertility treatments. I am not regretful of going through that process, though, because I think it took that for us to be ready to open our hearts to the idea of adopting.

You know you'll get pregnant as soon as you adopt. It happens all the time!

I can honestly say that I'm already getting tired of hearing this one. Maybe we will and maybe we won't. We're leaving that in God's hands. And, we are NOT adopting out of some hope of a "magic" pregnancy. Also, I want it to be known that we aren't adopting as a last ditch effort to have a child. We decided to stop our infertility treatments without pursuing all options because we felt it wasn't what was meant for us.

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.” Isaiah 43:5