New Henry pictures...same orange hoodie...

Today, we got new pictures of Henry from our adoption agency. We were hoping that he would be wearing some of the new clothes we sent him, but apparently his foster mom loves that orange hoodie...and some pink socks. :) We think he's super cute anyway.

We also requested an updated picture of his cute little ear. So many of our friends and family have been asking about it that we thought it was the right time for it to make its blog debut. Henry has auricular (ear) atresia, which means that his ear canal is partially closed. His outer ear is also misshapen...a bit. We are going to consult with specialists, and later on he will have surgery to open up his ear canal and reshape his ear. From what we know, there will be two surgeries starting when he is about 5 years old.

He seems to have slimmed down a bit also, which makes us hopeful that he will at least be able to wear some of the clothes we have for him. We'll have to wait for his next checkup to see how he is progressing. We also just want to thank everyone for their kindness and concern for us as we go through this process. Everyone has been very supportive of our adoption, and it is comforting for us to know that Henry has been welcomed and loved by so many even before he has arrived.

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.
  

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.