It's a boy!

I was reading Ryan a book on Thursday evening and got a surprising phone call! It was the director of our agency calling to see if we wanted to hear about a little boy she had met on her trip to Korea. Of course we said "yes". After telling us a little about him the director said she would email us the picture and the information she had about him. It is hard to describe the feelings of opening your email to see your child for the first time...and on a throne! We think he is darling and can't wait for him to join our family. Our information is pretty limited, but his growth is on target and he is doing age appropriate things. He is six months old as of yesterday. The director said he has a very sweet personality and was very friendly.

When we went to meet the agency in February we were told that they usually have a referral for you within six months after getting all of the paperwork finished and in. Since we have a couple more things to send in, we were very surprised and happy to hear so soon. I may have to give Harvey an extension on his 'list'.

Now we have another pile of papers to take care of and have notarized. We have been told it is usually 3-4 months to get everything done and have the baby come home. We'll hope it's even a little sooner!

We are still working on his name. We will keep part of his Korean name.

We'll put up a few more pictures that we have gotten soon.

Thanks for all of your love and support! We appreciate all of your prayers for Seo Jin while he is still in Korea and that God will prepare him and us for our new life together.

"The List"

So I prefaced the conversation with, "I don't want to stress you out..." (Harvey always pauses a moment before answering when I do this). "but can we make a list of the things we need to get done before the baby comes?" Of course he played along. Mind you this is an ongoing list (Harvey already knows this):

1). Closet in Baby's room needs shelves/hanging rod (H)

2.) Laundry room needs shelves (H)

3.) Build sandbox in the backyard (H)

4.) Garage needs to be organized/move things into shed (H)

5.) Get a shed (H)

6.) Bathroom needs ceiling, floors, plumbing, lighting, tub, toilet, a handmade vanity, sinks and a few other odds and ends (H)

7.) Buy fun towels and bath mat for bathroom (J)

8.) Finish Ryan's baby books (J)

9.)Get caught up on all of Ryan's photo albums (J)

Harvey better get moving on his list!! I can't finish my jobs until he's done!!

Pray for Harvey!

Dreams!

When I was pregnant with Ryan I dreamt that I gave birth to a large Tongan woman. (Not an easy delivery!) Not surprisingly, last night I dreamt that we got a picture of a little boy and when we went to pick him up he was a grown blind man. It's probably better if we don't analyze these!

Yesterday we did our CPR/First Aid training. The CPR man came to our house. Okay, if you need to take one of these, this is the way to do it! One of the couples we met in Arizona joined us. It's always unnerving to go over all of the horrible things that can happen to your children, but the information was helpful and we're glad to have done it (and to be done with it). We wrapped up the evening with a trip to a Korean restaurant.

Ryan is starting to get the idea of a baby coming to our house. Every time I have brought it up until now he always starts down the trail of his having eight babies and a minivan with magic doors. I think he had given up on having a sibling and was just looking forward to having a lot of his own (John and Kate are much to blame)! He said we should move back to our old house because we had a crib there. He then said the baby could sleep with him. I don't think that's going to last very long. At some point we should probably get this guest room in order. Our poor bathroom is going to have to wait again. (Plus I want a sandbox in the backyard...poor Harvey!)

Fingerprinted!

We got 'The Letter' in the mail to get fingerprinted. They don't make appointments, you just go down during the open hours and get it done. Weren't we happy to walk in and see no one in line! We got in and out of there pronto. Now if they could just process them as quickly! Today I bought a little photo book to send to the baby in Korea. It's hard to not get ahead of things, but it is starting to feel so real.

Another step closer!

We had a great weekend in Arizona. We feel that the agency is a perfect fit for us and that we learned a lot from our two days of meetings. We especially enjoyed our time with the panel of Korean adoptees. They had great insights to share with us. It made everything seem so real. About ten couples attended. Two of the couples live within a few miles of us. I think we may have a playgroup already! We were happy and surprised to have our application accepted so quickly and to have a contract handed to us. We'll get that sent back asap. They have to go through our references and then hopefully we'll be ready to wait! We don't know how long 'the wait' will be. I am hoping we can have a Christmas photo with our new little one, but of course we know it could be longer as well. We have lots of projects to start on now that we are almost done with all of the paperwork.

"Growing Pains"

The Pre-Application

The USCIS Papers

The Application

Harvey wonders about my sense of humor, but humors me enough to put the pictures up! This has been more work then Ryan was so I thought our next child deserved photos too. It feels great to have all these papers off the dining room table and headed to the agency. It took 7 trips to the doctors, a trip to the CPA, and many hours to get through all the paperwork, but we did it! We are off tomorrow for Arizona to meet the adoption agency. Ryan gets to stay with Gramma and Grandpa Hackel for two days. He got Frank the Combine so he barely noticed the door hitting my back.

Fun in the snow!

Makes the long trip, packing,..all worth it!



Loved the bump in the road!

Ryan, always the gentleman, gives his girl a ride through the snow!

We had a great time up in Tahoe with some family friends. Ryan loved sledding. He especially liked 'catching some air' on the little slope we found near our rental house.