Today is the day!

We got home from the beach yesterday and are leaving for Korea this afternoon! Crazy! But oh so exciting!!!

And guess who is 11 months old TODAY??!!

We got an update from Korea yesterday and she is 16 pounds and 26 inches tall! Yay!

***Just wanted to update quickly with our itinerary for those family and friends who were wondering...

We leave our house at 4:00pm today and drive to LAX, stopping for dinner on the way.
12:10AM Flight leaves (Korean Air.)
4:30AM SATURDAY: Arrive in South Korea! Go through customs, drive an hour to hotel, leave luggage at desk and kill time until check-in at 3:00pm.
SUNDAY: Explore Seoul!
MONDAY: 10:00 AM: We meet Elliana and her foster mom at the Holt-Korea office!
TUESDAY: City Tour of Seoul
WEDNESDAY: 3:00PM: Forever Family Day- Elliana is ours!
THURSDAY & FRIDAY: Bonding as a family with our new baby and experiencing more of Korean culture.
SATURDAY July 25th: 11:15AM (Korea Time) Leave Seoul.
SATURDAY July 25th: 9:10AM (CA Time) Arrive in L.A. (I know weird huh?!)
Get through customs/immigration and drive to home sweet home!
Arrive home around 5 or 6?

Well, there you have it! This will be the last post until we are in Seoul and settled in the hotel.
So check back here on Friday night or Saturday morning for the first post from Korea!

Can you tell we are SO excited? We have SO much to do still, but I am excited that it is so close now!

We covet your prayers while we are away. Will you pray for us?
*Safety as we travel.
*That we would be able to sleep most of the flight there- especially the boys.
*No sickness!
*That the Lord would give us a sense of peace and calmness, as Randy and I have been anxious and a little stressed about getting it all done.
*That God would already be preparing our little girl's heart to receive us and that she would bond and attach to us.
*That she would be able to look me in the eyes.
*That us and the boys will have an unforgettable experience connecting to Elliana's culture.
*For the Foster family, especially the foster mother, who just loves on our baby and will experience a significant loss after Wednesday. I can't imagine how hard that will be.
*And for Elliana. That she would accept our comforting as she grieves her omma. And would begin the process of learning to trust us as her family who is never going to leave or abandon her.

THANK YOU!
We love you all so very much!

WE ARE GOING TO KOREA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YES, you read that right- we are going to KOREA!!!!!!

I am still in complete SHOCK as obviously it was a total suprise! I am shaking as I type this!

The boys and I were all packed up this morning and ready to go to the beach for a week with cousins and Grandma.
I figured it would be fun and a good distraction from the waiting. I was hopeful that we would get that class b waiver this week, get it signed, and then get a call in maybe 2 more weeks...

Well, can I just say that God is good ALL THE TIME and ALL THE TIME God is good!!!!!!

We obviously didn't need that waiver and she is ready to come HOME!

We were just about to leave for the beach and the phone rang and it was Holt telling me that our baby was ready to travel. I thought she was joking! I kept saying are you serious, are you totally serious? And I just cried because I was so happy.

Then we told the boys the BIG SUPRISE..... That they are coming with us to KOREA!!!

They were very very excited and they had no clue!

So since we were all packed up, we are actually still heading to the beach right now but only for 2 days instead...

Because we are leaving Thursday night from L.A. to fly across the world to FINALLY meet our baby girl! We will arrive in Seoul very early Saturday morning and meet Elliana for the first time on Monday. We are hoping to have her forever on Wednesday the 22nd, but that is up to the Korean agency. We will leave Seoul on Saturday July 25th and be home in the U.S. that same day!

WOW!!! I still can't believe that I will be holding my beautiful baby girl in less than a week!

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers... I am overwhelmed by His goodness and faithfulness to us!

We love you all so much and know that you are celebrating this part of the journey with us!

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."


P.S. Since we will be at the beach and then leaving soon after that, I won't be able to respond to or call everyone that I normally would have wanted to. I am sorry in advance for that. For any new updates, I will be posting to the blog or facebook, so be sure to check in frequently. And of course, while we are in Korea, I will be posting daily I'm sure! Love to all of you!

P.P.S>
This is hilarious- I totally wrote up this whole blog and in my scatteredness I posted it to the photography site instead of this one~! So sorry to those who have been checking all day! Here it is on the right site! lol!

She's almost 11 months old

And oh how I long to hold her.


It has been 4 months and 1 week since first seeing our Elliana Sa-Rang.
4 months and 1 week since God revealed this little sister whom He had chosen for our family.

Next week our baby girl will be 11 months old. The most recent pictures we have of her are now 3 months old and I am getting anxious to see what she looks like now! I'm sure she has changed a lot in 3 months and I hope we will get some updated pictures soon.

Speaking of updates, we got an update from Korea about how Elliana is doing in her foster home and more about the foster family that she is with now. It was written up by her social worker after he visited their home in May. She is still very delayed for her age and we now have some concerns about some more things, but I am thankful that it seems as if the Lord is preparing us during this seemingly long wait for what may be to come. I refuse to live in fear over what could be, but admit that it has been a little scary at times. We will continue to trust Him with the future.

According to the report, here are a few fun tidbits about our girl:

*Turns over well and pushes on her tummy.

*Spins around and pushes up and down.

*Gathers both hands and regards them.

* Looks up when the foster mother calls her name.

*Babbles well and laughs loudly and giggles when she feels good. (I loved reading this- as I was worried she didn't smile or laugh!)

*Likes to take baths. (just like her brothers!)

*Is shy with strangers and frets when they try to play with her. (uh oh.)

*Takes 200cc of milk based formula every 4 hours and finishes up the bottle at a time. Puts hands on the bottle while feeding and feeds slowly while playing with the bottle.

*Takes some Gerber baby food, fruit, yogurt, cookies, bread, gruel and rice for weaning food. (she seems like a good eater!)

*Sleeps from 2:00am until 4:00am and takes 3 naps a day for an hour each. (Uh, we are going to HAVE to work on the sleeping habits. That sounds a little crazy!)

*Enjoys sleeps in a quiet environment with a dim light turned on. Moves much in her sleeps looking for cooler place.

*Sleeps on the floor with the foster mother.



And this was in the conclusion of the report. It made me cry with joy to hear how she is so loved and well taken care of. It is going to be hard for them to let her go when the time comes and hard for us to take her away and watch her grieve as well...

"Sa-ra is a bright little girl who is doing comfortably at the foster home. She is a cute and lovely little girl with fine skin and round face. She babbles loudly and likes when she is played by the foster mother. She likes when the foster mother holds her or tries to kiss on cheek. She welcomes family members with screaming when they return home from outside. The foster families become real happy when they watch such a lovely little child. She seems somewhat slow in overall development but is doing comfortably at this foster home. We hope that she will join her adoptive parents soon and continue to grow up as a healthy and happy little girl. "

I pray that she will join our family soon as we miss her so very much. But oh how we praise God for such a wonderful foster home for her to grow up in while we are waiting!
We know without a doubt that this precious girl was meant to be a part of our family and we cling to the hope that God hears and answers our prayers and He will use each part of this journey for His glory.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is FAITHFUL."
Hebrews 10:23

Adoption Update: Not even sure what to title this one...

I debated about whether to write this because in light of what our friends are going through right now, it is trivial. Their story really does put everything into perspective. But I do know that our Lord does care about the small things as well as the big. And right now my heart is aching for a baby girl that once again is just beyond our reach...

This week has certainly not been without trials. It started off very promising and I was thrilled to be doing the mission project for VBS and all of the unexpected blessings that came with that. I jumped right in and was suprisingly distracted from adoption talk or thoughts. (I'll share more about the mission project later-as it deserves its own post! It really was amazing!)

If you remember from my post exactly 3 weeks ago, we were so upset to hear that Elliana was not going to have her visa physical for another 2 weeks from then. I was discouraged no doubt, but then began to keep myself busy with projects, photos, vbs planning, a trip to the beach, and special prayer walks with my dear friend who had also been waiting a very long time for travel approval to bring home their son.

The 3 weeks really did fly by. Of course I thought about her and we prayed for her everyday. But we knew nothing was going to happen for at least 4 weeks and so we just kept on living life.
We were not trying to get our hopes too high, but we started to wonder if we might be close to getting our travel call next week or the week after. That would be 2-3 weeks from Visa Physical and a little over 4 months from our referral. It definitely seemed possible. After all, MOST families from our agency travel between 3 and 4 months from referral. So we were only going to be a little behind that, right?


OR SO WE THOUGHT...

Well, the news this week was again a huge blow to us and we are still not sure how to process it.

We found out that Elliana has not only NOT had her physical (which again was supposedly "scheduled" last week) but that there isn't even one scheduled.

They are waiting for an eye-exam which is supposed to happen on Monday.
Let me explain why this is so so frustrating:

She has been seen by a doctor in Seoul every month for the 7 months that she has been there. EVERY month there has been a note on the medical report that says she has "crossed-eyes." And EVERY month there is a note that says "needs eye-exam."
Well, when we got the check-up report in mid-May and we saw that still noted on there, we called our agency and asked if they could relay the message that we DID NOT want her to have that eye-exam anymore because it could possibly delay her being ready to travel. After all, we are prepared to see a pediatric opthamologist as soon as she is home and have her fully checked out there. We are prepared to hear that she may need surgery or glasses as well.

Well, apparently the message never got relayed and now she will be having the appointment and obviously it is delaying travel. (insert rolling eyes here)

After the report comes back then they will process all her papers together, then will schedule visa physical, then more processing, then we know now FOR SURE that we will need a class b waiver signed and notarized, then more processing, then they issue the visa, then Travel Call, THEN WE GO. Each of these things cannot happen before the next and they do not go in order of who is waiting the longest. So, if the physical appointments at the visa office are filled up for one month, she waits until the next available appointment, even if it is a month or more away.

We never dreamed that the cute little 6 1/2 month old baby we first saw at referral, would be twice that age when she came home. At this point there is no use even trying to guess when it will be now. After talking to our agency, we may be getting our hopes up to even see her by her 1st Birthday on August 16th. (Just writing this makes me cry) And September just seems so far away... :-(

Remember that video I made when we had been waiting 3 months? Well, it is more true today and in another few months even more! While I'm waiting I will serve Him and trust Him.

I will confess too, that it has been hard for me to watch other families who go through the entire process relatively smoothly and their babies are home when expected. Families that had referral a month or more after us are traveling and I am having to constantly give my bitterness over to the Lord.

I really do trust that He has a plan and purpose for us during this wait. It can be so exhausting sometimes though.

Please pray for our family. I am trying to let go of the fears that I have right now, especially the ones about Elliana's eyes. I am fearful that they have gotten much worse and that she will not be able to look us in the eyes when we finally do have her.

Our family is beginning to wonder if this is ever going to happen. It is like all of our lives have been put on hold. We have had many things planned for this summer that we hoped she would be here for, including our annual family trip to the beach with extended family in August. Looks like that's not happening. The boys have started to become cynical and bitter as well. We have been praying that all of this would bring us closer to eachother as a family and closer to the Lord as well.

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

Ephesians 3:20-21

Adoption Update: Not the news I wanted to hear

For the past 2 weeks or so, we have been anticipating "the call" that brings us the news that our baby is ready to travel. Both Randy and I were so sure we would be on our way to Korea this weekend. In fact we have 3 suitcases sitting on our bedroom floor half-way packed. I have washed all the bottles and made sure the diaper bag has everything we could possibly need for when we bring Elliana home. I even know what the weather forecast is and how much plane tickets cost for the next week and a half. Just about everything on our "to-do" list has been DONE.

But sadly it is not meant to be. Yesterday I called our agency to see if there was any news, since we were expecting to hear something soon. They emailed the agency in Korea to make sure things were moving along as they should be.

Well, this morning I had an email and it was not the news I wanted to hear.

Elliana will not even have her visa physical for 2 more weeks. Which means, as far as timeframes go, we are looking at traveling mid-July at the VERY earliest and if she needs that class b waiver (see earlier post) it won't even be until end of July or sometime in August. Hopefully before her first birthday on the 16th.
This is beyond frustrating considering they can have that physical at any point from our acceptance papers going to Korea- which was 3 MONTHS ago. :-(

This has definitely been the hardest point of this adoption journey thus far. I had myself a good long cry about it and have been struggling just to get through the day. I never even imagined that I would feel this way about a child I have never even met. But this is OUR BABY. Our little Elliana who is growing up and all we can do is read about it in the latest medical update we receive. Our baby who I just knew was going to be home with her forever family by the time she was 10 months old. I know it sounds crazy, but she is already a part of me and to find out that we are still another month or two away from holding her was like a punch in the stomach. It was like she was so close and now it feels like she will never be home. I have been so so sad.

I can't even count how many times in the past few weeks I have been asked when Elliana is coming home. And I know it is because everyone is anxious to meet her as well. How ridiculous it seems now, when I think of how many people I have told "oh it could be any day in the next few weeks." How last Sunday at church I really thought it would be our last time without our girl. And honestly it should have been. But I will quit my whining now. The good thing is that atleast we won't be expecting to get the call anyday for the next month or two and be disappointed. At least we know to not expect anything for awhile.
I guess I will make a new "to-do" list.

But one more thing. Please don't respond and tell me that in the grand scheme of things a few months is not going to make a difference, because I already know that and yet it is still painful. I also do not need to hear for the thousandth time how this part of the adoption is like going into labor and giving birth, because actually I have been there and it is not like that. When you are pregnant, even though you don't know the exact day you will go into labor, you do know that your Dr will never let you go more than 2 weeks over your due-date. (most of the time it's only 1 week.) You also can be assured that no matter how long it took for that baby to come, he/she will always come out brand new- not even a day old. Our baby is getting older each day and we are missing it all. And even though I know that she will come home eventually- the unknown of when that will be is almost unbearable at times. For those who have not been through the adoption journey, it is difficult to understand.

I have chosen to be transparent as I write this blog and I know that most people would maybe not be as open with the world. But I want others who read this to know that even though I am struggling and feeling so very discouraged right now, I still trust in the One who is faithful and unchanging. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is sovereign and I know that He will use even this to work together for His good purpose, even though I can't see or understand what that purpose would be.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may become mature and complete, not lacking in anything." James 1:2-4

Waiting...

Ask anyone who has adopted or been in the process, and they will tell you that waiting is one of the hardest parts. Our wait has been relatively short compared to some, but even so- we are longing to hold our baby girl soon. It is harder for me than Randy and the boys, but now we are all at the point of being ready for her to join our family-like NOW! This week has been a turning point for me though and I am no longer going to try and "predict" when she will come home, but rather enjoy each day to the fullest that I can and trust that the Lord will bring our girl home in His perfect timing!
This video I made kind of sums up this past year while we've been waiting for our Little Elliana.

An update of sorts...

Wow- I can't believe it has been almost 3 weeks since I updated. A lot has been going on and we are finally starting to wind down from all the busyness of the past month. Warning:this might end up being a long one!

First, since I know this is what most everyone wants to hear about anyway, I'll start with the adoption news.
Yeah well that would work if there actually was news to talk about. Hmmmm.

Basically since I posted last about our I600 being finally at the Korean embassy, we have not heard anything else. For some odd reason we seem to be the only family who did not receive a tracking # for our paperwork. This means that we cannot call the visa-info line in DC to check and see if she's had VI scheduled. This is both good and bad. Bad because it is frustrating trying to anticipate when we'll get that travel call (usually anywhere from 1 to 10 days after VI), but good because I am not calling every single day just to get the same negative answer that it has not been scheduled. Right now our agency has had a huge slow down with families getting VI's and very few travel calls this month as well.
Also, another factor that we weren't really anticipating is that after she has had her visa physical the doctor may require us to sign something called a class-b waiver that basically states any special need that he thinks we need to be made aware of. We obviously know her special needs based on her check-ups and nothing he finds would change our minds about adopting our precious girl. The agency has no idea whether or not she will need one and said it all depends on the doctor who examines her. Please pray that we will not need to sign that waiver as it could potentially add up to another month to this wait. Only a few weeks ago I was hopeful that we could see a May travel call... now I am praying that we will hold our baby before July. :-(

There are so many ups and downs on this journey and I am thankful that no matter what our God does not change. I am clinging to that right now. And I know that He will bring our beautiful answer to prayer home in His perfect timing.

Speaking of our baby girl...
We received an updated medical report a few days ago and she is doing so well! She is now 9 months old and 15.3 lbs and 25 inches- still growing steadily at about one pound and one inch per month! The report says that she is a cute and small sized baby. (we knew that already!) She is rolling over, creeping, grasping large objects, responds to name, imitates sounds, babbling mama and dada, prefers mother, and is shy of strangers. She is now only 2 months delayed (pretty normal for a preemie born 2 months early) compared to the last months when she was 3 months behind- so she is catching up!
I have been praying that we would travel before she turns 10 months, but I'm not so sure about that now. Sigh.

On to other news!
Our Jensen has joined the track team at school and WOW he is good! It has been awesome to watch him run and work so hard at his meets- he does not give up!
The first meet he got 1st place in the 800 meter out of all the 4th graders.


He also got 3rd place in the long jump- he jumped over 11 feet!




Last Friday was his second meet that qualified him to run in this week's area championships.
He got 2nd place out of 24 4th grade boys, and it was 100 degrees outside! He amazed me that he could run a half mile in three minutes and 4 seconds. We prayed beforehand that he would be like Eric Liddel and that he would "feel God's pleasure when he ran." I think it worked!




Last week Austin, Nathan and I joined some families from our homeschool group and got to go on a little service trip to Gleanings for The Hungry .

They are a division of YWAM and have an awesome ministry! Basically there is so much wasted food here in America so they "glean" the leftovers to distribute to people in other countries without food. For instance all the fruit we see in the store has to look perfect or else it won't sell right? Well what do you think the packing houses do with all of that perfectly good fruit that just doesn't look as perfect, but tastes the same? Instead of throwing it away, some of them donate it to Gleanings and then they have volunteers working to dry it and package the dried fruit all summer long to send to hungry people in over 40 different countries- pretty awesome huh! And that is only one part of the ministry.

In the off-season they put together a dried soup mix with vegetables and beans and send that off as well. This is what we participated in- and it was fun! The cool thing is that they are working with YWAM missionaries all over the world and giving them an access to share the gospel with these other countries by meeting a felt-need.
And they are right in our backyard- only an hour away!

I defnitely want to go back with Randy and maybe try to make it a regular service opportunity for our family to participate in. What a great way to keep our family involved in world-missions while we can't physically GO somewhere at the moment.







Ok so that's all I have time for now. Be back later with more pictures of course!

Didn't want to leave you hanging...

Just in case any of you were wondering about the whole ordeal with our I600 and hadn't heard...

It is at the embassy in SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA!!!

It was such a rough few weeks filled with ups and downs, and at one point the NVC telling us that we may have to go back to square one with our immigration office and re-send it yet again. Neither Randy or I were happy campers at that point and he decided to call our agency to get them involved. Within 2 days we had word that they had received it last Friday and it is now being processed at the embassy.... FINALLY- after almost 4 weeks of not knowing where it was!!!

We also heard that she got her EP (Emigration Permit) on April 24th, so that is awesome because now there should be no more hold ups! Now that takes a little while to process and they send a packet (P3) to our agency and then after they send it back to Korea, then we should be hearing when her VI (visa interview or issuance) is scheduled! This is the last step. That is so exciting because once that is scheduled, we could be getting that Travel Call anywhere from a day to a week later!!! Korea here we come!

There is a real possibility that we could be in Korea sometime in May. We don't want to get too excited too quickly, but wow it finally feels real. We are actually going to have our baby very soon!!!

Look at that timeline on the right... only a few more steps until we are with our baby girl!!!

Sort of like a roller coaster...

Today marks 3 weeks since the all-important I600 was approved and still no sign of NVC in. :-(

Each day that goes by, it gets harder and harder to hold back the tears and to remember that the Lord is in control and that someday this will all be a distant memory.

For those who don't have a clue as to what I'm talking about, I'll attempt to explain. After the I600 was approved it was "supposed" to be sent to the National Visa Center (NVC) and get logged into the system. Then within a day or two it is logged out and sent to the embassy in Seoul. Then things can really start happening on the Korea side. In MOST cases this takes about a week and sometimes up to 2 weeks to happen.

Well, since we can call the NVC to check on things and see if our papers were logged in I started calling about a week after approval. After 2 weeks, I really started to panic and started attempting to contact our local immigration officer. He is well-known for being very slow and impossible to reach. You call his extension and the message says to email. You email him and he never responds. You go down to the immigration office and are not allowed to speak to anyone, especially him, without an appointment. We already had an issue earlier with him sending our things back to us unneccesarily. Dealing with our local immigration is like hitting a brick wall sometimes.

This week I eventually got the extension of someone who doesn't even deal with adoption cases, but was very helpful in continuing to nudge the adoption guy to finally respond to me. All I wanted was for him to re-send the I600 approval, and I question whether or not it even got sent the first time. It seems to have gotten lost or something, who knows.
Finally on Wednesday he said he re-sent it via email (why he couldn't have emailed it in the first place is beyond me!) and the NVC said to allow 24 hours for it to be processed.

So, now 48 hours later... NOTHING. It is still not logged in and I was told to call back in another week! What??!! What happened to 24 hours? UGH to the government!!!

So yes, the adoption process is similiar to being on a roller-coaster. There are SO many ups and downs and even times when you are going to be sick (like now) but I know that God will work it all together and there WILL be great joy at the end of it all.

It has been a hard few weeks and I know we still have a ways to go, but I am continuing to study Phillipians and trying not to focus on my circumstances (which is really hard) and instead looking to the Source of true joy... Christ alone.

Praying for good news this coming week!

Visa Approval!!! Oh, and pink walls too!

We got the all important letter from the USCIS in the mail a week ago saying that our I600 has been aproved... in other words: Elliana is approved to get a visa! WHOO HOO!!!



We have been slightly shocked at the speediness of our process thus far. In most cases this seems to happen about 2 months from referral, but in our case it had only been one month! Now there are still a bunch of other things that still need to happen on the Korea side, but from other Korean adoptions I've seen, unless something goes wrong, we could be traveling in 3 to 6 weeks! YIKES!!! Now we shouldn't get our hopes up, but we are going to try to be as prepared as possible to travel in 4 weeks and if it takes longer then at least we won't be running around at the last minute trying to finish things up. And believe me we have PLENTY to do! I am sure that no matter what we will still be running around at the last minute!



Speaking of things to do, we got one thing checked off of the list: painting her room! Allyson came over to help and we had fun painting it a pretty soft pink color. Oh, and we did have some other helpers as well... it was starting to get a little crowded in that little room after while. But oh how special it was to have everyone over to celebrate and prepare for little Elliana! She has no idea how much she is loved already!!! Now on to the rest of the room!

<
Oh the memories!!!

The care package

We finally got everything ready and mailed off a little care package for Elliana today. As you can see from the picture we sent some clothes (size 3 months because she is so small!), socks, a cute hairbow, jammies, a blanket, a baby friendly photo album, a few toys, and disposable cameras.

We had a lot of fun the other night as we went to BabiesRUs together as a family, looking and testing out all of the baby gear. Wow, it has been a long time since we have needed any if that stuff and the boys were hillarious as they pushed the strollers around and sat in every rocking chair and played with the baby toys! They really wanted to buy her this toy vacuum that she could push around but we decided maybe they could get it for her for a Christmas present when she could play with it more! They are very excited about their Little Sister and I know they will be good big brothers to her.

Along with the package we sent a brief note to the foster family who is taking care of our little girl. We know that words cannot express how grateful we are to these special people, but wanted to atleast write and acknowledge our thankfulness and let them know that we are coming to meet them soon- we can't wait!!!



Dear Foster Family,

Hello from California!
We are so very excited to be writing this letter to you. We wanted to let you know how extremely grateful and thankful we are for your excellent care of our daughter, Won Sa-Ra. We received her picture and information only a few weeks ago, and fell in love immediately. She is so precious and we are very anxious to meet her! After all of the necessary paperwork is completed, in a few months we will be traveling to Seoul to meet you and to bring her home.

We have 3 boys, ages 12, 10, and 8 and are very excited to be bringing a little girl into our family. Some of the things we like to do together are missions, going to the beach, being involved in our church, reading, sports, riding bikes, and just being with our family. We also are enjoying learning more about Korean culture and food. We can’t wait for little Sa-Ra to join us in these activities! It will be so much fun to have a girl!

We pray for this precious baby daily and are so thankful for all that you have done to care for her. You have played such an important role in our daughter’s young life. Each day that goes by we wonder about her- what she is doing and what she looks and sounds like. We know how hard it will be to take her from everything she has ever known as well. Take lots of pictures if you can! We are really looking forward to meeting you and experiencing beautiful Korea while we are there. May God richly bless you and your family.
Please give our baby lots of hugs and kisses for us! We are coming soon!

With Love and Many Blessings,
Adoptive Family of Won, Sa-Ra

Legals!!!

Our agency called today to tell us they had received Elliana's legal documents and they would be sending them to us right away. This was very exciting news, because it was something we were told could take a month or even longer especially because she was born in an area not even close to Seoul. So imagine my surprise to find out they had arrived today, only a few days after we submitted our acceptance papers! One more step complete!

These papers are similiar to a birth-certificate. They are her family record and absolutley critical for her to be able to leave the country to be adopted. So now that we will have these by the end of the weekend, we can submit our I600 to the USCIS on Monday and get the ball rolling for things to be processed. The I600 takes anywhere from 2-6 weeks to be processed and then we might start getting a glimpse of when we could possibly travel. There are many many other things that will still need to happen both in the U.S. and in Korea after that, but from what I hear- this approval is the hardest in terms of not knowing how long it could take.
We are really hoping to be traveling near the end of June, but only time will tell how long it will actually be...
We'll keep you posted :-)

Updated Pictures of Elliana!!!!

We got updated pictures of our girl already! Isn't she cute? :-)



These were taken at her last well baby checkup at almost 6 months old.
She was 12.5 lbs and 23" long, about the 3rd percentile in both height and weight.
She is small, but steadily growing! She looks so chubby, but I think all the clothes she has on and the way they have her sitting make her look bigger than she really is!
Even though the little hat is super cute, I was really hoping to see if she had any more hair!!!

She is still very delayed, as expected for a preemie, and there are still a lot of unknowns but we are certain that God has brought us to bring this precious girl into our family.

And no matter what the future holds we will trust that His plans are far better than anything we could ever dream up on our own.

I was just telling a friend yesterday who had adopted a special needs child that I finally get it. She and many others had told me that once you know that it is your child, the one that is meant for your family- you look at everything differently.

There is a very real possibility that Elliana could have some special needs that awhile back I would have said no way to. Or it could all turn out to be nothing. Honestly she is much too young to diagnose anything. Only time will tell. But Randy and I are absolutely convinced that she is our daughter. That all along God was preparing us for this certain child. And that means that we will do whatever it takes to get her the help she needs if it is needed and we will love her unconditionally.

We can't wait to hold this beautiful gift in our arms and tell her : "sa-rang hae yo" (I love you)

Referral Day

Many of you have asked for the rest of the story about our referral day and of course this being the second biggest day apart from Gotcha Day in the adoption process, I am happy to oblige. :-)

Monday, March 2nd 2009

It was just an ordinary day to begin with. Randy had already gone to work. I actually got up and was excited because my online photography class was starting that day and I was anxious to open up and take a look at the first lesson after I finished school with the 2 boys. I remember actually thinking to myself that morning that this will be a good distraction for the next 6 weeks to keep my mind off of not having a referral. funny.

The boys and I had started school at about 9:30 (Mondays are always hard to start on time) and were dragging a little. I was in the middle of a chapter of the book I was reading aloud and the phone rang a little after 10:00. Most of the time I just let it ring and call the person back after school, especially since the phone is downstairs and we do school in the loft upstairs. One ring, two rings, I hesitated about whether or not I wanted to run downstairs to answer it. I decided to go for it on the third ring and as soon as I saw on the caller ID: Holt International, my heart started racing. This is it, I thought, this is the call.

It was Jessica from the Waiting Child program and she was wondering if this was an ok time to talk? Um, yeah! As she started to tell me about this precious tiny little girl, my heart was beating so fast and I just knew. She asked if we wanted to see her file to review and it took about everything in me not to scream YES! OF COURSE! AND NOW PLEASE! I calmly said yes, she could email me her file and we would get back to her. I couldn't stop shaking.

I hung up the phone and just sat there for a minute, in a state of shock. The boys were restless because they wanted me to finish the chapter that I was reading in the book, so that we could move on with school. I said, "hey guys that was the call- we have a little sister!" I told them what little information I knew about her including that she was only 3 pounds when she was born. Austin heard this and said, "Oh great, a midget baby!" (we can pray for his heart and attitude)Nathan said "Yay now we can take the day off of school and celebrate!"

Austin just wanted me to finish the chapter. So, I grabbed the laptop and brought it upstairs so that the minute I finished reading I could check to see if that super important email had come. Let me tell you, I have no idea what I read during those 10 minutes! Something came out of my mouth, but my mind was totally someplace else! As soon as I was done I opened my email, opened the first picture and the tears came. There she was, this chubby little thing staring at me with the cutest smirk on her face. As I studied her I was thinking, "so, you are the one we have been praying for, dreaming about, and aching for so long? Oh, you are so worth it." Austin saw her picture and remarked, "Aw man, she's a FAT baby!" :-/

Nathan abruptly woke me up from my daydreaming and said we have to call daddy. Daddy!!! Yikes, I hadn't even called him yet! And here I had just seen our daughter's face for the first time and hadn't even shared it with my husband. I know, what a great wife I am huh? At the time I really could not think clearly so that is my excuse! So, I called him at work to tell him the news that he had a daughter and he was pretty shocked. As I blabbered on about her he was so amazingly calm. He said he wasn't going to be able to come home early so I asked if I should email him her picture atleast. He said no, he would just wait until he got home. What??? I could have never done it, but he is different and he managed to wait the entire day. I love how patient he is- so opposite of me sometimes!

I managed to call my in-laws and tell them the news. They are out of town until next week, otherwise we would have told them in person- it's more fun that way! The rest of the day was very surreal feeling. I went over to my sister-in-law's and showed off her picture and had fun just talking about our little girl. The kids were so cute and I loved each of their reactions. Noah (age 4) looked at her picture and asked "who's dat baby? I don't know her. Is she from the baby home?" (the orphanage in Russia where he was from) Samuel (age 3) Just looked at her and smiled with his adorable grin. Taylor and Makenna were happy, but Lauren (9) was the cutest. She sat down right in the middle of Allyson and I as we were talking and paid close attnation to every word. At different times she would say cute things like "Auntie, now we will have to go shopping huh?!" and "oh I can finally get her that baby." (she has noticed that we don't have a single baby doll at our house and that is a problem since we will be having a girl. She told me a long time ago that she wanted to buy our little sister a baby when she came home! SO CUTE) She was very excited!

Because Jensen was at school, I had to wait until I picked him up to tell him the news. I knew how much he wanted a little sister, so this would be a big deal for him. As he got into the car and I asked him about his day, he said "Mom, today was a great day!" I smiled and was trying not to burst as I asked him why it was such a great day. He said he had a surprise for me and he pulled out a bumper sticker from his bag that said something like My Child was awarded the Character Counts award. After only being at the school less than 2 months, he had already got an award for great character! I told him how proud I was of him and I said "You're right Jens, today is a GREAT day! I have a surprise for you too!" He looked at me with the biggest, most excited eyes and said, "Little Sister????" I nodded trying to hold back the tears, and his eyes started welling up. I showed him the picture and he just started crying. As he stared at her he said "she's just how I thought she would be. She's SO cute!"

This mommie's heart was full!

The rest of the day was a whirlwind of activity as I realized life must go on. Homework, baseball practice, Perspectives class- it was all still going on that day. Randy came home and we shared a sweet moment as he saw his daughter's face for the first time and he even got teary as I told him about Jensen's reaction. We celebrated by going to dinner at our family's favorite place: Red Robin.

It was such a sweet day and one I will never forget.

It was the day we "met" our little Elliana Sa-Rang and she will forever be a part of our lives. In a few months we will hold her in our arms and meet her for real, and bring her home to be a part of our family forever, but for now we will stare at her cute face and keep on praying for our little girl!

Jensen on referral day

One more thing: Because she is special needs, we needed to have an IAP(international adoption pediatritian) look at her file and go over it with us to make sure we knew what we were dealing with. Because of this we weren't really supposed to share the news until we heard back and then were officially matched. This actually took a whole extra day, that is why you didn't hear about it until Wednesday!

More about Elliana coming soon!

9 Months

Today marks 9 months since we officially started our journey to bring a daughter into our family.
And guess how I am feeling?
To be honest, I am feeling about how I did at 9 months pregnant!
Tired, anxious, emotional, and ready to see this baby's face! The only difference is that I can't tell myself that there are only a few more weeks left, because I have no idea how many weeks and months we have left! I know I have nothing to complain about at all. I have friends that have been waiting much longer than I have, 2 friends in particular that have had their child's picture for a very long time and yet don't have their children home with them yet!
It has been a rough couple of weeks with some changes for our family (more on that later) and I am constantly being reminded that God's timing is perfect.

We are still trying to raise the funds needed to make this adoption happen, and trust that He will provide when it is needed. February is a new month and my prayer is that we will see her face this month. I am starting to take pictures again, so if you are interested in having your pictures done for a donation to our adoption, please let me know!

Dreaming of a Daughter...

I found this poem quite awhile ago and fell in love with it. It expresses my feelings about our little girl so well. My dreams are so different now than they once were. How is it that I can love someone so much that I have never even seen or met? I do dream about her, just like when I was pregnant with the boys & I dreamed about what they would look like and what kind of personality they would have- I dream about the day when we will be able to hold her and hear her sweet voice and welcome her into our family. For now, we keep praying for her.

As a girl I had a common dream, to be a mom someday.

My baby would have eyes of blue and hair the hue of hay.

But now my dreams have been transformed, new visions fill my head;

Now the tresses that I long to stroke are raven black instead.

And in my dreams those eyes are not so big or blue or round;

Now in my dreams they're almond shaped and colored cocoa brown.

And in my dreams my arms can stretch across enormous seas.

They reach half-way around the world and hold you close to me.

As you grow in your mother's womb, carefully knit together,

you're also growing in my heart, where you will stay forever.

And in my dreams the moment that your mother says good-bye;

I'll be right there to comfort you and hold you as you cry.

Our features may not look alike; we're different as can be;

But still I know the Father has created you for me.

And though I've not yet kissed your face, or held your tiny hands,

and though we're half a world apart in very different lands;

I'll be right there to get you just as soon as God allows.

But 'till He says the time is right I give to you this vow.

I'll pray for your protection every night on bended knee.

For God will hold you in His arms, until you're here with me.

-Gayle Leubecker

5 months

Today marks the 5 month anniversary since the official start of our adoption process. I say "official start" because although we submitted our first application to Holt on May 1st of this year, it has been years of waiting before that. 5 years actually. I am so grateful that the Lord led us to the Korea program, or we would still be almost 2 years away from even starting paperwork for China! The actual time frame for Korea right now is about 12 months from when our homestudy was approved which was July 18th. I am thrilled that we are actually in process and Lord willing, may even have our little girl home close to this time next year! There has not been a day that has gone by that I have not thought or prayed for this daughter of ours and I am constantly praying that the Lord would calm my anxious heart as well!

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD,

my strength and my Redeemer.

Psalm 19:14

The ever-growing list

One of the things that always makes waiting for anything easier is to keep busy to make the time go by faster. Well, technically we aren't needing or even wanting one more thing to be busy with right now, but as you all know I am just so excited to be having a baby! It's like a long long pregnancy, without the sickness. Our adoption books and other people have given suggestions of things to do while you are in this waiting stage, I think especially when it is your first child and it seems like forever, you need to keep busy. But for us, having 3 active boys and many responsibilites as well- it makes time fly by almost too fast and we must make a point to slow down sometimes! (see my post on seizing the day)

But, ask anyone who knows me- I am a list maker. I make lists for LOTS of things. I don't know why but just writing things down so that someday I can cross them off again helps me live a little easier. Now, I must confess that a lot of the time I won't ever check things off my lists, or i may even lose the list- but for some reason, just having had it written down motivates me. Call me crazy.

Ok, so my whole point is that I, of course, have made a list.
It's not so much a list of things to keep us busy while we wait for Little Sister, as it is a motivation to get some things done before our life changes dramatically! Things are going to be VERY different around here!
Some things may be a little lofty, while others are lame and are on there because I happened to be thinking about it at that moment (like cleaning out our closets). Anyway, I am posting (most of) the list and plan to come back to check off anything that is completed before she comes home! Knowing me, I will probably keep adding to it as well! Be sure to ask how it's going.
It really is an ever-growing list...

Things To Do Before Little Sister Comes Home:
*Save $$$
*Clean out hall closets
*Organize our closet
*Clean out garage (yikes!)
*Take a photography class
*Paint Jensen & Nathan's room
*Make a gated area for Biscuit (our wild dog)
*Learn how to make a Korean dish
*Learn more about Korean culture and language (We were just matched with a Korean int. student- maybe she can help me with these two!)
*Go on another short-term mission trip
*Run a 5k and then a 10k
*Volunteer for an inner-city mission org.
*Organize pictures (what a task!)
*Paint our bedroom
*Set up my desk in kitchen
*Plan and take the boys on at least 2 field trips
*Have an adoption fundraising event (not sure what yet- yard sale, bake cookies, raffle, etc?)
*Learn how to sew
*Mobilize more people to be a part of missions and adoption.
*Start a life-book for our little girl

AFTER REFERRAL:
***Paint and Decorate A GIRLY ROOM!
***Go shopping! :-) (Do I really need to put this on the list??!!)

That's all for now!

Another adoption update: just waiting.

So, I have been told by a few that I have not been posting enough on the blog and especially not enough about the adoption. Well, to tell the truth as far as our adoption goes there's not anything super huge happening at the moment and as far as everything else goes, there's ALWAYS a lot going on at any given moment!

One exciting thing that happened this week was that we had our fingerprints done for USCIS (immigration)! We waited a little over a month to get the letter to come in for this appointment and now we wait another month or two or three to get the approval back, which is the I171h. This is a huge thing when you are adopting from other countries that require it to be done before you can send your dossier, but for us since we are already on "the list" for Korea it doesn't make a big difference in our waiting time unless we were to get a refferal in the next month or two.

Which brings me to the next piece of information that everyone wants to know: "When will she come home?"

Well, to be honest I don't really know. It all happens in God's timing. We have been told to expect a wait from 10-12 months from the time our homestudy is approved for a refferal. Our homestudy was approved on July 18th so according to Holt's timeframe we should be seeing our little girl's sweet face sometime in early summer of next year.

But we are also on a waiting list for a little one with some special needs, and we are told that depending on what we are open to, we could get a call as early as the beginning of the year. Either way, after the referral we will still have another 3-5 month wait until everything is processed for her to be able to come home. Keep checking the sidebar on the right for more of the timeline as well.

And so we wait. For whoever God has for us. We know that the Lord has the perfect little sister for our family already chosen- what a day that will be when He reveals who that special one will be!

Checking things off

After our social worker was here for a little over 4 hours last Saturday, we survived the marathon home visit! Now our part is done for awhile as we wait for him to take all of our life story and make us look good on paper! Only a little bit longer until we can be officially waiting!