Just wanted to take a moment and show our little guy to you all.
He is so sweet and actually gave us a couple of smiles today.
He played a little ball with his daddy too.
Will blog more later.
Right now we need a little nap.
We are exhausted.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sleepless in Seoul
So, if anyone made bets about us sleeping, well
at 4:00am we both were wide awake!
Got up and skyped with the girls, our parents, and some friends.
I have been weepy since I woke up.
I just stood and looked out the window of our room and thought about this beautiful city.
How this is where our son is from and all his heritage lies.
This is it. I never want to forget that and always for him to know about his heritage, culture and whatever else he wants to know.
As I looked out the window I just sobbed!
I know I say it often but so many emotions.
Andrew has been blessed with an amazing foster mama to care for him.
He loses that soon.
Everything familiar to him will be lost so quickly.
This is the plan that God has had for him since before he was created.
Jeremiah 1:5 says,"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I pointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Right after we had accepted Andrew's referral I was driving one day and God showed me Andrew in many years to come.
He showed me him as an evangelist spreading the word about Himself.
I remember at that moment I just cried.
Andrew is going to do mighty things for Christ.
We are going to train him up in the way of the Lord
and pray for him to lead many people to Christ.
Plans for us to be his forever family.
The day is here and we are ready to meet our sweet boy.
I can't even completely put into words without drooling all over this computer what I am experiencing right now.
I do know we are right in the middle of God's plan for us and we are ready to embrace our boy.
Oh, I am pumped!!!!!!!!
Gotta go shower and get ready for the day.
For sure be watching later....
Picture overload will be here!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Hello...from Seoul!!
We are here!!
It truly feels so surreal!
We have walked the streets today and it rained and rained on us.
Try to picture wet, jet lagged and tired.
We are staying up until tonight to try to adjust us better to be on their time.
It is 2:30 in the afternoon now.
We couldn't check in our hotel when we got here at 8:30am
because there was no room available yet so we decided to venture out.
The flight was great....long but wow, Asiana is a great airline!
The food was so good and the flight attendants were just amazing.
We are not extremely experience travelers so maybe that is how all airlines are
but I was thankful that it made our flight so much more pleasant.
We were so blessed that our exchange student's parents were at the airport in Seoul
to take us to our hotel.
They had prepared a goody bag of strawberries, tomatoes, tangerines, bottles of yummy black tea, and these beautiful cookies.
We are staying at the Somerset Palace.
It is a beautiful hotel.
We went to Itaewon and did some shopping in the street shops.
It is very quiet in Seoul today because it is Sunday and it is just a rainy cold day.
We didn't let that keep us in though.....I mean where else could we go since our room wasn't ready for us! :)
We checked in a little bit ago and are trying to get the gifts arranged to take to the agency tomorrow when we meet Andrew.
It is still like a dream that we are HERE
and MEET our son tomorrow.
We are also delivering a care package to another adoption agency in Seoul for
an adoptive friend.
Our exchange student's parents are taking us out for dinner on Monday night too.
Gonna go now. Will write more later.
Super tired! Going to try and have an early dinner and go to bed by 7:00.
Check out the pictures we have taken so far.
Thank you to all who have been praying for us and continue to do so.
We can so feel them!!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Travel Call Y'all!!!!!!!
Yes, I can officially say that we GOT THE CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOW!
We are headed to Korea!!!
My head has been spinning in a million directions but just in the last
15 minutes I have calmed down a little.
Note....a little.
We are leaving from Chicago at midnight tonight.
Landing in Seoul at 6:00am Sunday.
(so that is 3:00 in the afternoon on Saturday at home)
We are so thankful for our family who will be staying
at our house with the kids.
It gives them some "normalcy" in the midst of all this excitement.
They are super excited
yet just like us a little sad to see us leave.
I will be updating our blog as much as I can.
We will meet this adorable little guy on Monday morning at 10:00.
What are the bets??
Do you think I will be able to sleep well the night before?
If not...
y'all may be hearing from me here!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Little Owl, Little Owl What Do You See?
So we have almost all the finishing touches on Andrew's room.
Wanted to share just a snippet of it with you.
A dear friend of ours that adopted from Korea
6 years ago gave us these flags.
I love them and feel they are great to have in Andrew's room.
We want him always to remember his Korean heritage.
Friday, February 11, 2011
One Year Ago Today
One year ago today we first saw this sweet face.
The girls thought he had a little bit of crazy hair.
Is he super sweet or what?
We had been in the adoption process since May 2009.
When we started our journey we were waiting to be matched with a child.
We were open to children that may have some special needs.
From May 2009 to February 2010
there were several children that we thought were to be ours
but were not who God had planned for us.
Either we were open to their needs, then we weren't chosen as their forever parents
or we had their files reviewed by an international doctor and we didn't feel we could meet their particular needs the best.
It was so hard at times.
Just like when you are pregnant and then that miscarriage happens.
There is truly a grieving process.
It really was/is a roller coaster ride.
So many highs....waiting for the phone to ring to hear if we were selected and we had already seen a picture and began "picturing" a child in our home.....only to get the low
of "another family has been selected".
Then on February 11th,2010 I was looking at the website
It is a site that I frequently looked at.
So many children just waiting to have a mama and daddy to love them and meet their needs.
Oh, so many.
Check it out and see if you feel that tug to bring one into your family....
You never know.
On that particular day as I looked through all the little ones,
I saw who is now our son, Andrew.
He was so sweet. So little. So lovable. So available!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I immediately contacted the agency that was listed and said we would love to review his file.
We took his file and had our international doctor review it and tell us all that she could about his extreme prematurity and other things that we have chosen to keep private for his sake.
She painted a very honest and to the point
picture of what taking care of this little guy would be like.
Now the decision was up to us.....
Did we feel we could provide this sweet boy with all he needed?
Were we ready to be his mama and daddy?
Were we ready to teach this little guy all about Jesus
and how to love the Lord with all that he had in him?
On February 17th we contacted our agency and said,
"YES, we would like to continue the adoption process for this little guy".
It was a whirlwind from that point on.
Trying to get all we needed together for our home study.
All the paperwork.
Working as quickly as we could so this could speed up the process.
Signing, compiling so many legal documents, answering many many questions....many very personal and thought provoking, notarizing papers, overnighting, home study interviews with our social worker, physicals for all family members, home inspections, fingerprinting, and the list goes on.
We stayed very busy.
It was a good busy though because we knew what the end result was.
What we had no idea of was that we would still be here waiting one year later.
Yet, we have tried to keep our eye on God and steadfast to him knowing this is all in His timing NOT ours or MINE.
That has really been the challenge at times.
Then at other times I am completely fine.
We have shared before but we have claimed a song "ours"
during this adoption journey.
I am posting the link for you to listen to it.
It is so awesome!
When it comes on in the car we are all singin' with all our heart.
Standing on this!
We are getting so close and it feels so good!
Just as the words of that song says,
"Faithfully we are waiting.
Moving ahead bold and confident.
Taking every step in obedience.
I will serve You while I'm waiting,
I will worship while I'm waiting"
Stay tuned.... the family that is adopting a little girl in the same foster home as Andrew, is in Korea right now!
She is going to meet our BOY!
Yep! You heard me right!
She is meeting him on Monday so I will be up waiting to get an updated picture from her.
She is such a blessing at this time of waiting for us to get one last glimpse before we travel.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Family is Everything
As I am getting the gifts ready to take to the foster family
I wanted something meaningful and special.
I think it is really neat when someone has something
that is from another language on display in their home.
It is a conversation piece and has significance.
Like I would like to have Andrew's name in Hangul
displayed in his room or the word "family" somewhere in our house too.
So I was talking to my sweet friend who is wonderful with creating meaningful and thoughtful gifts
I told her I wanted the word "family" to put on something.
As she was looking to see if she had that for me she showed me this tile she had already made.
I LOVED IT!
It truly says it all.
Family is Everything
We all have different families that are important to us...our everything.
For some it may be their closest friends.
For others it may be their siblings, parents, grandparents, etc.
Then for others it may be their church family.
All of the above we consider family.
Whoever it is or maybe all of the above,
those people are critical and vital to our being here on earth.
They make us who we are and how we think and act.
As I began to think on this phrase more I thought about our Heavenly Father
and how being a part of His family and spending eternity with Him in heaven truly is
EVERYTHING!
That is why we are here.
To ultimately grow in a relationship with Him and make Him our
EVERYTHING!
As I think about the importance this has with Andrew,
I think about his foster family and how they have been his everything.
We are so thankful for them.
They have given Andrew the gift of family for his 1st 2 years of life.
They will forever be family to us.
Each time I see the foster mom's face I just truly see how much I love her already and haven't even met her. I feel an amazing bond with her.
Yep, to some that may sound so cheesy, but hey, that is just the truth!
She has loved on our sweet boy for so long by
cuddling him, feeding him, soothing him when he is sad or sick, and meeting all his needs.
We want them to know really their love and dedication to fostering meanings
everything to us.
Now I am ready to be his forever "Omma"!
Steve is ready to be his forever "Appa"!
The girls are ready to be his forever "Noonas"!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)