Frustrations with Financing

Well, today we mailed off some more of our paperwork, and a care package for little Henry. We sent him some of his clothes that will be a little too small for him by the time that he comes home. :) We also sent a baby album with pictures of our family, a couple of stuffed animals, and some disposable cameras. Hopefully, we'll get lots of pictures back soon.

We did get some distressing news over spring break. It turns out that we owe our adoption agency all of Henry's fees, right now. To date, we've paid in a lot of adoption costs, most of which we have been able to do because of the money we made baking and selling stuff. The problems that we are experiencing with the financing are for two reasons: 1) Because we adopted Henry as a Waiting Child (his medical needs), the process for us has gone much faster than we expected. If we hadn't decided to adopt him, we would probably be waiting a year or more longer, just to get a referral for another baby. So, instead of having another year or so to raise the funds, we owe them all now. 2) The credit markets have frozen up from the problems with the economy. Just a year ago, we had credit offers coming out of our ears. Now, we have applied at 4 banks, and all of them denied us.

So, I called the adoption agency, and they are working out a payment plan for us. Unfortunately, it is only over the next 3 or 4 months. So, we have a lot of money to raise in a very short amount of time. Our house is going on the market, and we are applying for every adoption grant we can find. Hopefully, we will find some help. Everything about this adoption so far has been God-sent, so we have faith that the money will be there when it needs to be. We will just keep praying that everything will work out for the best.

Our chunky monkey by Mary

On Friday we were suprised with these updated photos of Henry. We knew from his Well Baby checkup reports that he was getting chubby. We were amused to see just what a little chunky monkey he really is! Our latest report, which was when he was 6 1/2 months old in February states that he is 20 lbs, and that his nutrition is "good." It will be interesting to see what his March report will show.

Also, we expected that he would have more hair--he seems to have even less than before. When my mom saw his new pictures for the first time, she squealed with delight and said he looks like Buddha.

We love that he seems so happy. He has personality for sure. Just look at those pictures where he is kicked back on the crib--adorable. I have to admit it was a little strange to see his new pictures at first. I had been staring at his first two pictures for so long (ever since early January) that those images of him were all I could imagine. It was slightly difficult to transition to the idea that this is him now. Some adoptive parents never do receive updated photos, so the first time they see their baby in person is probably quite a shock. We are blessed that we have gotten these pictures.

On a funny note, a couple of weeks ago when we went nuts and shopped for Henry at the outlets in San Marcos, we (and the grandmas) had purchased quite a few baby clothes for him despite warnings about "you don't know how big he will be."

Well, very few of those clothes are going to fit our little chunk. We had purchased 12 month clothes for the summer when he first comes home and 18 months for the fall/winter. Yesterday we went to several stores to swap out sizes for what we could. Now we are getting 18 months for the summer and 24 months for the fall/winter. If Henry continues to get "fluffier" then none of the new things will fit either. James and I laughed about imagining going back to the stores again and again to size up.

Baby FEVER!

Last weekend we went to San Antonio to visit James' mom and stepdad. My mom went along too and visited with her dear friend Betty. While we were there, we went to several fabric stores to pick out material for Henry's crib. James' mom Anne bought all of the fabric and is going to sew all of his crib bedding! We are so excited about having fun, custom baby bedding. It's definitely not going to be traditional baby! It's hard to tell in the picture, but the brown and the stripes are corduroy fabric. I know it's going to be super-cute. I'll let exactly what it will look like be a surprise for now.

**I also need to give credit to Brandy Webb, the lovely and talented wife of James' cousin Kevin. She went with us to help us put together the bedding. She creates gorgeous handmade baby/children's items. Check out her website: http://www.simply-adorable.com/.

Also on our trip we spent an afternoon at the awesome San Marcus outlets. James' mom and my mom both went with us as we shopped for baby gear and clothes at stores like Pottery Barn, Gymboree, Carter's, and Baby Gap. We found a lot of great deals on some extremely cute things. It was sweet to see both grandmas getting so excited about Henry. He is going to be one spoiled little guy for sure!

James and I are experiencing some major baby fever. We try not to, but Henry is almost all we think and talk about lately. We are both obsessed with finding the perfect things (on sale, of course!) for him. One of our prized findings lately was a Maclaren stroller at TJ Maxx. We are also trying to find a crib for him, but cannot decide on one. We want it to be affordable, but yet good quality and attractive. I am not exaggerating when I say that we've been to Babies R Us 20 times in the last 2 weeks! My friend Jennifer pointed out that we seem to be nesting, ha ha.

Finally, I want to say that we got a new "well-baby" checkup on Henry from February. He was 6 1/2 months old at the time and was assessed to be developmentally on target. He is starting to crawl and is teething. He is still not too steady at sitting up. I hope that he doesn't start walking before we bring him home. Also, I hope that the March "well-baby" report will include an updated photo.

Meet Henry Jesse

The little boy we previously wrote about is going to be ours! We have been waiting patiently (well, as much as we could) for almost a month to hear if we would get him, and we got a call from Holt this morning. He was born on August 3, 2008, and has a minor medical condition called auricular atresia. Basically, the ear canal on his right side is mostly closed, and that ear is a little misshapen. Later on, he will need a surgery to open the ear canal, and one more to cosmetically fix the outer ear. We think he is perfect and just too cute. Even his little ear is super cute.

We still have a lot of paperwork to complete, so please pray with us that the process will be quick. We expect that he will be home within the next 6 months. We are especially hoping that we have him before his first birthday.

His birth name is Eun-wu (pronounced oon-oo), but we are changing his first name to Henry. We will use at least part of his Korean name as his middle name to honor his cultural heritage.

We are super excited and blessed. We can't wait to bring him home!

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.