She's a Charlton!

Well, it is finally over! She's ours!!! Did you hear us shout it from the roof tops yesterday? We went to the lovely (sarcasm intended) City-County building downtown yesterday at 3pm for our court hearing. The experience was much different from what we expected. It was very formal and Dave and I each had to take the stand to answer questions and promise under oath to take care of Claire as if she was a birth child to us (obviously, not an problem!). In the end the judge did not play the role of Santa, nor did the clerks play elves. They did clap when it was declared that we were Claire's parents in the eyes of the State of Indiana. We were the last adoption in Marion County for 2008!

So, now Claire is a US citizen and we can apply for her passport and social security number. We will need to take care of this soon so we have time to get her passport before we go to the UK in the spring. We also have to have the passport to apply for her social security number. We need that so we can file our taxes this winter as well. So, we aren't really done with paperwork...

We've had a busy couple of weeks gearing up for Christmas too. Dave and I have both been busy at work. I agreed to work on a project to help out one of the Directors and it has snowballed in to the project from hell. What was thought to be a 1-2 week project has now been estimated to take 6 months! Anyway, it is job security, which is good in the current climate I suppose.

Jack is super excited for Christmas this year. His Christmas concert at pre-school was on Wednesday and it was hilarious. He decided for the second year running to sing his own acappella version of Jingle Bells between two of the songs that were being sung by all the kids. He just belted it out while everyone laughed! Then he played with the curls of the little boy in front of him on the steps for another song. And as a finale he kept sitting down and standing back up on the step he was supposed to be on.

His wish list for Christmas has grown by the day. We keep reminding him he will only get a couple of things and not the toys from every commercial on tv. He's even started telling us what Claire would like too.

We feel really fortunate this holiday season and we are enjoying watching the kids take it all in.

The first picture below is Jack at his preschool concert. The next ones are of us with the Judge after court and Claire eating her noodles when we went to dinner to celebrate!

All I want for Christmas is....

SLEEP! And, I think Dave will agree with me on this one for sure. We are dragging. The kids have been sick on and off since October and not sleeping well. Claire was sleeping pretty well for a few weeks in a row and now she has started getting a lot of separation anxiety and therefore screams several times per night when she wakes and realizes we aren't there next to her. Jack has also been acting out a lot lately and it is wearing on our patience given how tired we are. And if that wasn't enough it is the holiday season and therefore there are a thousand things to do! Ahhhhh

All in all though we are doing alright. Claire is still doing amazingly well with attachment and bonding to us. She is saying mama, dada, something that sounds like ack for Jack, and baba for her baby doll and picture of babies that are on our fridge. She also is really into dancing to any music she hears. She has taken a couple of steps now, but mostly prefers to crawl. We had her one year doctor's appt. today and our pediatrician thinks she is doing wonderfully. She is impressed with how well she is attaching to us and shocked at how verbal she is already given she has only heard English for three months. One minor thing we knew we would likely have to have taken care of, and the dr. confirmed today, is to have Claire's tongue tie corrected. The little flap of skin under her tongue is too far forward near her teeth and therefore she cannot stick her tongue out of her mouth past her teeth. It isn't uncommon and is a quick outpatient procedure. We will be using the same dr. who did Jack's ear tubs a couple of years ago. Not sure yet when we'll get it done, but probably after New Year. It isn't urgent and isn't causing her any problems, but it needs to be done before she starts speaking much more as it may delay certain sounds she needs to make to say some words.

The pictures attached below are of our trip on the Polar Express train ride in Connersville last weekend. We went with my mom, and Dave, Cynth and Andrew. The boys LOVED it! The rest of us enjoyed watching the boys enjoy it :) The other picture is of Jack started to decorate the tree at home with his ornament for the year.

Winter is here...

As I sit and type it is spitting snow outside. Yuck! I love fall, but despise what comes after. The only nice thing is sitting by the fire and having a cup of tea and reading while the kids nap...so forgive me if this isn't real long!

We had a good but rough end to October. We were the walking wounded for a few weeks but we have all recovered now. I won't bore you with details but it involved falls down stairs with baby in tow, burns, cat bites, infections and colds. Thankfully November has been much better so far, though Jack is snotty again. The weather in October and early November was pretty good and we had a wonderful trip down to Brown County on election day. Dave had the day off and the weather and leaves were perfect, so we took a day trip after I went and voted! I'll attach a few shots from the day.

This week Claire turns one! It is hard to believe we have only really known her for a 1/4 of her life so far. She seems like she has been with us forever at this point. She is doing wonderfully and makes us laugh and smile so much. She is nearly walking too. She stands effortlessly and pushes her toys around the room walking behind them. She has also started dancing to music and spends most of the way through the grocery store dancing to the background music. We recently took some birthday pictures in her Hanbok sent from her foster mother in Korea for her first birthday picts. They turned out pretty well for just backyard photos.

Also, both Dave and I are on Facebook now so if you are too and aren't added as one of our friends yet please feel free. I fear FB will waste far more of my time than I have to waste these days.

Finalization in Court

We were very pleased to find out this week that we have been scheduled with the court to finalize Claire's adoption. We finalize on December 18th! This is really great for several reasons. The most important thing is that this officially makes Claire our daughter forever. This is also when her name officially is changed from Mun Ji-na to Claire Ji-na Charlton. Also, she becomes a US citizen that day as well. The second most important thing about that date is that it is the last date the court is hearing adoption cases in 2008 so we barely made the cut off for tax purposes. Since we finalize this year we will be able to claim Claire on our taxes to get the adoption tax credit. The final thing is that the 18th is my birthday and it just makes the day really special to me that Claire is officially ours on my birthday. Some of you may remember that she actually arrived to us in Chicago on my sister's birthday.

We also found at that at the last court date of the year the Judge dresses like Santa and all the court clerks dress like elves. They give the kids gifts and have cookies and hot chocolate. It sounds kind of goofy but sweet too. This is assuming that it doesn't totally freak the kids out! We'll take pictures and let you know.

October Already??

Where have the last few weeks gone? Dave and I were realizing last night that Claire has been home almost eight weeks already. Things are getting better by the week too. She is just sweet as can be. She has even slept through the night for us a few times now. We have all four been sick with a cold Jack brought home from pre-school so sleep has been a good thing as we all try to feel better.

We have been keeping busy with several fall parties the last couple of weekends as well as a couple of trips with the kids to the orchard/pumpkin patch. It has been a beautiful autumn here so far and we are supposed to have a really warm and sunny weekend this weekend too. My college roommates are flying into Indy this week from LA and DC to hang out for the weekend and visit their families. We are having everyone around on Saturday evening for dinner. They will all get to meet Claire for the first time, which will be fun.

Claire and Jack are getting along a bit better too. Jack is still struggling with sharing with Claire, but she is starting to hold her own now and she protests, loudly, when he takes things from her finally. She is also cruising along the furniture faster all the time and becoming more curious around the house. The baby gates are back up now.

Jack is loving pre-school. Today they had a pajama and pizza party since they were learning the letter 'P'. He was very excited to wear his pj's to school. He has had another huge growth spurt and it getting really tall.

Alright, the kids are now quiet in their beds for their naps so I'm going to try to have a quick nap myself to try to get over this cold faster.


Claire's newest obsession!

Pumpkins!

Finding the perfect one was hard for Jack :)

What is next?

A few people have asked recently what happens next as far as paperwork for Claire is concerned, and what her citizenship status is at the moment, so I thought I'd explain for those interested. Right now Claire is here on a visa through her Korean passport. She is considered a resident alien (just like Dave still is). She has a green card which we received in the mail a few weeks ago. Korea requires that we have custody of Claire for at least three months before we may finalize the adoption in Indiana. So, technically we are Claire's foster family/guardians still. We have hired an adoption attorney to begin the proceedings for finalization. We are required to have two visits with our social worker before she can submit her final recommendation to the courts that we be allowed to finalize. We have had our first visit and our second one will be in early November. We hope to get a court date prior to the end of the year so that we can claim Claire on our taxes for this year.

Once we finalize the adoption Claire will be a naturalized US citizen. We have to formally apply for her Certificate of Citizenship but it will be issued once we provide the adoption decree. We then will apply for her social security number and US passport. Once her adoption is finalized our agency will notify the Korean Ministry and they will cancel Claire's Korean citizenship. This part makes me sad, but hopefully someday the laws will change and it will allow her Korean citizenship if she wants it. In Korea there is a law that requires citizens to serve a year of military service when they are 18. If Claire's citizenship wasn't renounced then she would eventually be required to serve. If she didn't serve then if she tried to enter Korea it could pose problems for her. There is a bill trying to be passed in Korea now that would allow Korean adoptees to be exempt from military service and to allow them dual citizenship should they choose to obtain it.

As for us, we are still tired, but some nights are getting better. Jack has gone back to sleeping well again, which helps enormously. Claire is hit and miss. Some nights she doesn't wake up till closer to 5am, but last night she was up from 2-3 and again at 5:30. She is a really sweet little girl though and she has been a lot of fun to have home. I'll try to get some more photos posted soon. We went to Conner Prairie this weekend (living history folk village type place for our UK friends reading) as it was their country fair weekend. Jack had a great time looking at all the tractors, taking a hayride, and just running around taking it all in. It was a beautiful warm day too. I think there are some good photos on the camera I'll upload later.

Pictures and lack of sleep!

Things have been going fine with us. Dave is now back at work which was hard for both me (Emily) and Jack. Jack is struggling with Claire still being here! She is really on the move now and is constantly making a bee-line for his train table. Anyone who knows Jack knows the train table is sacred territory. He still loves the idea of Claire being his little sister, but the reality of it is certainly setting in now. He has a cold too, which hasn't helped. He did have a great week at preschool last week, and he is looking forward to it again. His teachers are great and he has a good time with his friends.

Sleep has been hard to come by at our house for the last week. We thought we were on the up hill swing on that front, but we took a few steps backward. Jack has had a hard time staying in bed and wants lots of attention...at 2am. Claire has been consistently waking at least once in the night and we are trying to strike a healthy balance of soothing her and teaching her to sleep through the night. So, we are usually up 3-4 times per night at the moment and we are both feeling too old for this!

We took a trip to the local orchard for their 80th anniversary celebration. We picked apples, looked at tractors, rode a horse and played in their play area. It was beautiful out and we had a nice time.

Here are a few photos from the last week.


Jack, Claire and Mommy at the Orchard


Jack very confidently riding a horse!



First day of pre-school


Jack checking Claire's diaper status....eewwww!


Claire smiling as usual :)

YouTube Video of Homecoming

Dave and I finished a little video of Claire's arrival at the airport and home. We posted it to YouTube to view if interested. The link is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3KjMFcDUcE

It is best to select the "View in High Quality" option just below the video screen as it is much clearer. We just wanted to put a little keepsake video together to share with friends and family and to share with Claire as she grows up. I still cry each time I watch it and I'm pretty sure I always will!

We are all four doing really well now. We are settling into a schedule and this week will bring us back into a normal routine. Dave goes back to work on Wednesday and Jack begins preschool. Tomorrow we go to his "meet your teacher" morning and then in the afternoon we have our first post placement visit with our social worker. We have to have three visits before we are legally allowed to finalize the adoption and file for Claire's US citizenship. We do one per month for the next three months and then we are finished and will go to court. Honestly, the remaining paperwork will be a pain, but it seems so minor to us now that we actually have Claire home.

Jack is now doing better each day with being a big brother. He has a tendency to 'love' on Claire a bit to much, but he does like having her around now. However, now that she is crawling to his Thomas Train table and pulling up to grab his trains he isn't real happy.

Getting to know each other

We can't believe that Claire has been home with us now for over a week. She has changed so much in a short period of time. She is now crawling and pulling up on things. She isn't very steady yet, but she is persistent! Now that we know she prefers real food to baby food she is also much happier at meal time. Her sleep is getting better each day and she slept from 10pm till 7am last night with only one waking that required a rub on the back for a few minutes. We have noticed that she has become a bit clingy the last few days with Dave and I. She really prefers to be held over playing on the floor. I think this is just part of the bonding process and her trying to figure things out. We aren't complaining as it is nice to cuddle with her.

Jack is struggling with Claire's arrival sadly. We knew he would find it hard at times, but we didn't expect the acting out that we have seen from him. We have made special efforts to spend one on one time with him and take him to some special places. That has helped, but he still has his moments. He is really sweet with Claire, but not so much with mommy and daddy at the moment.

Dave is home from work until next Wednesday which is nice. Jack also begins preschool next Wednesday and Friday. He is going to the same place he went last year and he is getting excited. We are going to an open house "meet your teachers" day next Tuesday. I think it will be good for him to get back into a routine.

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days. The first is of me trying out my new carrier with Claire riding on back. She was held this way a lot in Korea so we figured we would try it. She fell asleep with me doing house work after about five minutes!

The second photo is from our outing yesterday to a new place down the road (literally about 1/2 mile) called 'Snapperz'. It is an indoor kids play center. They have bouncy things and huge place sets to climb on. Jack had a blast!

Doing Great

Day 5 and we are doing great! Claire has settled in to a routine better than we ever expected. Each day more of her personality and abilities emerge. She is really laid back and happy most of the time and really only cries if she is hungry, wet, or can't see one of us nearby. We have started to think that she was fed a lot of table food even though her paperwork said she only had babyfood. She absolutely hates baby food but goes nuts when she sees our food. I gave her some rice from our Chinese food last night and she giggled as she ate it. Almost as if to say, "finally, you get it, I want the real food". We stopped by Dairy Queen for an ice cream last night and she went nuts over that too. Her time clock has been getting better too. She slept most of the night last night and has been happily going down for her morning and afternoon naps for the last couple of days. She is teething pretty badly and that seems to be her biggest problem at the moment. She already has eight teeth and is constantly chewing on things.



Here are a couple of picts from the last two days.

Here she is!

We made it home this afternoon and Claire is doing really well so far. She ended up sleeping around 7 hours last night at the hotel, which we were kind of suprised by. She also did really well in the car on the way home today considering she had never been in a car seat before (her foster family lived in the city and took the subway). We just got both her and Jack to sleep a little bit ago.

Yesterday was amazing. It was a very emotional day from start to finish. Having your child arrive to you in the baggage claim of a huge airport is surreal to say the least. It was amazing though how when we caught sight of her it was as if no one else was there with us. I don't even remember seeing other people around us, and Dave says the same. We were going to try to hold it together when we first saw her, but needless to say we were both a pile of tears when the escort handed her to me. She came straight to me willingly and never fussed or cried. We spent some time talking with the escort and getting photos and then we signed some documents with the agency representative that was there and then we headed back to the hotel. We spent the rest of the evening playing and watching her sleep :)

She is really laid back and happy so far. She really fights going to sleep, but seems to sleep soundly once she gives up. She also likes to eat and we haven't had any problems getting food in her. However, she is teeny tiny. I took 6-9 month clothes with us to Chicago and she is swimming in them. She is happy to be with both Dave and I, which we are pleased with. As long as she can see one of us near her she seems ok to play on the floor too.

I"ll post some pictures from yesterday and no doubt more will follow later this week.

She's home!!!

Well, today has been one of the most emotional days ever. Just quickly I wanted to let everyone know that she arrived safe and sound and on time. She is amazing and even cuter in person than in the pictures. She came to us with smiles and giggles. She is now taking a nap. We are in love and so is Jack. He ran right up to her and gave her a hug and kiss at the airport. We'll post pictures tomorrow. Good night from Chicago!

She's coming home!!!!

We got the call we have been waiting for at noon today. Claire will be arriving home to us on the evening of August 19th in Chicago. We are so relieved and thrilled beyond words. It is amazing to think this time next week we will be a family of four finally! It is also exciting that she is coming home on my sister's birthday.

Still Waiting...

Still waiting for the phone to ring to hear what plane Claire will be on. We are NOT waiting patiently at this point either. Please don't call us unless you want to hear us sound disappointed when we pick up and you are not our social worker calling with good news....just kidding :) We are really hoping to at least hear when she is coming by Thursday as Friday is a Korean holiday and we know if we don't hear by Thursday we won't hear until next week. Please send happy airplane ticket booking vibes/prayers our way as Emily is about to lose her mind!

Last step!

We finally got some good news today. Dave called the visa hotline number in DC this morning and after nearly a month of hearing bad news they told him that Claire's visa interview happened in Korea today! This is great news as it is the last step before she comes home. This also means her visa physical was fine and we don't have to sign anything after all (which would have delayed us another week or two at least). Now we just wait for our phone to ring to let us know what flight she'll be on to the US. I've been watching an online bulletin board for our agency and babies have been travelling in as little as two days after they had their visa interview up to as many as two weeks later. So, we really have no idea when we'll find out. She will almost certainly be flying into Chicago O'Hare.

We also have gotten to know another family from our agency that are in Korea now picking up their new son. They asked if there was any way they could see Claire to take some photos and video for us. They emailed us this morning before they leave Korea today to say that Claire's foster mom brought her to the office and they got to hold her and take some video for us. We can't wait for them to get home so we can see it. They said that she went to them without crying and seemed really happy and content. Hopefully her transition to us will be smooth too :)

Going NUTS!!!

Our adoption agency is making us crazy! After asking them to check on why Claire's paperwork seemed to come to a halt in Korea they came back telling us that they were sure everything was fine. Dave and I suspected they hadn't actually checked with the agency in Korea about our paperwork. So, Dave and I went behind our agency's back and called the US Embassy in Seoul ourselves to check to see what the hold up was. At 2am US time Dave got a very nice lady on the phone at the Embassy that pulled Claire's file and let us know that they have had her paperwork since July 8th and they sent the final piece of paperwork needed for her visa to the Korean agency and the agency hadn't returned it. They were kind enough to call the agency to find out why they hadn't returned it in three weeks. Low and behold, the agency had lost the paperwork (or the mailman did???). So, our suspicions were correct that our US agency hadn't actually checked the status when we asked them to. It also turned out that they hadn't done Claire's visa physical yet (which we thought had already been done) so that was completed on Wednesday.

If your still with me reading, basically we are waiting to make sure that her physical was ok and that it didn't generate any additional paperwork for us to sign. If that is ok then we are just waiting for her visa to be issued.

This journey has turned out to be so much more stressful than we could have expected. It is really hard to sit back and have faith that the people you need to be competent at their job actually are. We have found on numerous occasions that things were not done when they should have been, and when we have told they were done. It feels like we have constantly had to follow up for the last two years to keep our paperwork going through the system. It is a good thing we only want two kids, because this has been so hard that Claire is it!

Time dragging along...

Time is really dragging the closer we get to Claire coming home. We are officially one step away from her being home, but for some unknown reason that last step is taking longer than normal. Our adoption agency is making us irate with their veiled answers to our questions which usually means they don't know and can't be bothered to find the answer to our question. In addition to being super excited and ready to get Claire home, we are also super excited and ready to be done with our adoption agency.

Just when we thought we were going to totally lose it today with being frustrated at the lack of progress in the last two weeks, we came home from work to find a single photo in the mailbox of Claire with her foster mother. They are sitting behind the care package we sent to them last month. We think Claire is precious and we just are dying to get her home. If you are reading this please send positive paperwork thoughts toward the US Embassy in Seoul for us!

Here is our new photo:

Today we found out that our paperwork that was logged out of the National Visa Center last week has arrived at the US Embassy in Seoul. We also found out that they have sent the last packet of information out to the Korean adoption agency that Claire was placed through. The agency has to complete the packet and return it to the Embassy so they can schedule her visa interview. Once her visa interview is done then we should get a call that she is ready to travel. All this could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to another month or so.

I took some pictures over the weekend of Claire's room. It is pretty much done at this point. Here you go...

Another step done!

We found out this week that our paperwork was both logged in and logged out of the National Visa Center. It was forwarded to the US Embassy in Seoul today. We now just wait for the Korean agency to fill out some paperwork and send it back to the Embassy, Claire has her visa physical, and she gets her exit permit to leave Korea! The light at the end of the tunnel is getting even brighter now!!! We think it is likely she'll be home in August at this point! We went and bought some summer clothes this weekend since she will be getting home when it is still really hot here. It was great since all the summer clothes are starting to go on clearance now too. Her nursery is done and Jack is really enjoying showing it off to anyone who comes to visit. I'll try to post some pictures of her room when I get a chance over the long weekend!

Dave and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary tomorrow by having dinner at the Kopper Kettle where we had our wedding reception ten years ago. We are looking forward to it. Dave also turns the big 38 on the 4th! Happy Birthday Dave!!! We are going to celebrate with fireworks.....as always :)

Moving Right Along...

Today's mail brought good news on Claire's paperwork. Today we received approval for our US Immigration I600 petition. Now that this has happened our file is being sent to the National Visa Center in DC. Once they log it in and log it out (I still don't understand why this office exists???) they send it on to the US Embassy in Seoul. We also found out last week that Claire's file has been submitted to the Korean Ministry for her exit permit. Things are really moving along. From watching others who are slightly ahead of us in the process we think that Claire will be home sometime in August, with a slight chance it could be earlier if things go really smoothly!

We also got a copy of her June well baby check last week. She is doing well and growing. She gained two pounds last month and now weighs around 15.5 pounds. She is still a little thing, but getting bigger. She was seven months old this past weekend.

One step closer

Yesterday in the mail we received Claire's 'Legals' from our adoption agency. This batch of papers is the first official step that happens after we turn in all our acceptance and immigration forms. The legals are a series of documents issued by the Korean government confirming that Claire is an orphan and has been officially relinquished by her birth parents. It includes her family registry which is the Korean equivalent of her birth certificate. The other documents include a transfer of her guardianship to our adoption agency until we are able to finalize the adoption once she has been home with us for three months. We were surprised to see them arrive yesterday as most families have been getting theirs in 6-8 weeks. It has only been three weeks for us so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the rest of the stops along the way will move quickly too!

Next we have to wait on US immigration to issue her I600 approval. They need the legals in order to issue this document. Once the Indianapolis Immigration office issues this they will send it to the National Visa Center in DC, and from there it will be sent to the US Embassy in Seoul. Once the paperwork reaches Korea the US Embassy will schedule Claire's visa physical and they will issue her with a US visa to get into the country. While all this is going on the Korean government will be working on more paperwork called an emigration permit. This document allows Claire to leave Korea as an emigrant. Once all this is done we will get a call from our agency letting us know she is ready to travel. Recently the travel notices have been taking anywhere from 2.5 months to 5 months from acceptance of the match. We will pick her up most likely at O'Hare airport in Chicago. However, sometimes they fly into Detroit too. It just depends on where the person escorting them is going. Once she is ready to fly we will get anywhere from a one day notice to a couple of weeks that we have to be at the airport. Obviously, we'll drop whatever we are doing and get there!

And we wait again...

Well, after a crazy busy week we are happy to report that all of Claire's acceptance documents are signed, sealed and delivered. Dave and I spent MANY hours filling out immigration paperwork again. I honestly cannot wait for the day to arrive that we never have to deal with US immigration again! I think they purposefully make the forms complicated. Anyway, everything we have to do for now is done. So, we wait some more. Over the weekend we created a "to do before Claire arrives" list. It includes things to get ready for her as well as projects around that house that we want to get out of the way since we know we'll have our hands full at first. Today during Jack's nap I am tackling Claire's closet since it has become the dumping ground in our house during the last year since Jack moved across the hall.

We are also working on a care/thank you package to send to Claire and her foster family. Picking stuff out for Claire was the easy part. I've been dying to go girly shopping so that part was fun. Buying stuff for the foster family, on the other hand, was a challenge. All we know is that the mother is 63 and that her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson live with her. We roamed around the mall yesterday trying to be inspired. It is hard to buy a gift to say thank you to someone for taking care of your child! In the end we got a selection of things that we hope they will like. We have also included a photo album for Claire so she can start to get used to our faces :) We have written a letter to the family also and Dave is having someone at work translate it into Korean for us today. It is handy that he works at such a multi-national company. He was able to send an email out to the Asia club at work and someone responded immediately who is Korean and said he'd be happy to translate for us!

It's a GIRL!!!!!!

We are super excited to announce that we have received the call we have been waiting 18 long months to hear! While we were out of town last week we got a call from our social worker at the adoption agency letting us know that we have been matched with an adorable six month old baby girl. I, Emily, couldn't talk through the tears so Dave had to get the initial details before passing me the phone. As you can imagine we are on cloud nine!

We have named her:

Claire Ji-na Charlton

Her birthday is November 21, 2007

She was 7lb 7oz at birth and 20.5 inches long

(Ji-na is her Korean name given to her by her birth mother - it is pronounced kind of like Gina but with more emphasis placed on the na than the Ji part of the name.)

Claire is currently living with a foster family in Seoul where she will stay until she is escorted to us in Chicago. The next part of the process involves US Immigration issuing her paperwork for her visa. This takes 3-6 months. Recently it has been taking around 4 months so we hope to have her home early to mid-autumn. And now for her pictures...

Here she is...

We think this was taken in April



This is her newborn picture

Listening for the phone to ring...

I (Emily) have been chatting with another woman adopting through our agency who I met on our agency's online forum. She lives in Michigan and is adopting her second Korean child. Her first child's name is Jack and he was born the same week as our Jack. She and her husband decided to go to Korea to pick up their daughter this time. They were there last week. She has been amazing about asking questions about the slow down for us and emailing me the info from Korea. She emailed this morning to say that she spoke to the director who does the matching for our agency and she told her she was sending "many" referrals to our agency this week. She wouldn't be specific on how many that actually will be, but either way it is movement and we should either hear our phone ring soon, or we will be at the top of the list if all the remaining families in front of us get matched. Finally, some action!

My next concern...and I'm trying not to let myself go there yet is that they don't always match in order of the waiting list. Which means that we could pass families in front of us, or families behind us could get matched before us. So, we'll just wait some more and see what happens.

When we get the call I'll post it here, but you'll likely hear screams of relief coming from our house long before you check our blog!

Ugh...

That is about the only word I can think to describe our current feelings. Well actually there are other words that come to mind but I'll try to keep this clean! Our agency sent out another update to say they haven't received any referrals for over a month and that they aren't sure why exactly. They also stated that this "seems to be a trend across all US agencies working with Korea", which is quite concerning to us. Just when we get close it slows down for no known reason. After the update was sent we immediately sent an email back asking if they are planning to find out the reason or just wait it out. Based on past responses we don't have our hopes up for swift action from our agency. They are a large and reputable agency but they are painfully conservative in how they answer their clients. Please keep us in your thoughts that this process will speed up again and that there really will be a baby for us at the end of this. Some days it sort of feels like it will never happen. I close this entry with, Ugh...

A little more progress...

So far for the month of March we know that there have been four referrals matched ahead of us in line, so we should be around #6 now we think. Hopefully the agency blog will be updated next week to say if there were any other March referrals. We really thought we would have our referral by now, but we should know by now that we can't really plan for anything during the adoption process. Had we stayed in line for China we would still be facing four more years from now possibly. We know we were fortunate to get a spot in the Korea program at the time we did, so we are just trying to be patient. You'd think with all the practice with being patient that we've had that I (Emily) would be getting better at it by now, but sadly, I'm really not. Dave, as you all would guess, is handling it much more easily than I. Jack is pretty impatient too. He talks frequently of his new sibling. We went to welcome some friends home from the airport when they arrived back from adopting their daughter in Ethiopia. As we got ready to leave Jack started crying saying that we couldn't leave yet because we didn't have our baby off the airplane. Needless to say, I got a bit weepy too. Happily, he was easily distracted only moments later as most three year olds are!

Happy Spring!!! (maybe if I type it the weather will eventually warm up here)

Confirmation from Social Worker

I broke down and called our social worker to pry more info out of her today since the agency has been really bad at updating their blog with program info in the last several months. I told her that I suspected that we must either be in the top ten by now or nearing the top ten families waiting, and I wanted to know if she could confirm one or the other for us. She won't tell us the exact spot we are in line, but she did confirm we are in the top ten finally!

She was quick to remind me that they don't always match families in order of approval dates since some families are open to different special needs, ages, family history, etc. We were pretty open to what we would accept for the most part, so I don't think that we'll be passed over for being too picky. However, I have seen people skipped over that claim they were very open. The matching process is a bit of a mystery really. Someone in the agency office in Korea does the matching so our US agency doesn't have any say.

So we are back to waiting impatiently. For perspective our agency got 11 referrals in November and then none in December, a few in January, and a few in February. So, we have no idea when the phone will ring. Could be this month...could be months from now. I thought the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Jack were grueling! This sort of feels the same way with no known end in site. Ugh...

Now Jack has decided that having a little brother might be nice. He is now concerned that a little girl won't want to play toys with him. Jack also moved one step closer to being a big boy this week. He got rid of his pacifiers (dummies for our UK friends). We made it a big celebration so he was proud of himself. We went and bought balloons and tied his pacis to the balloons He then released them. Once they were gone we went out for spaghetti at his favorite restaurant, Fazolis. He then picked out a Thomas train he has had his eye on for awhile now. We are happy to report that there have been no problems sleeping without the paci! Our grand plan worked :)

We really need spring to get here now! We had a little taste of it on Sunday. We spent time outside and I think all three of us were in better moods because of the warmth and sun.

Finally things are moving again...

Well, after nearly two months of very little info coming out of our agency they updated their blog to say that they got three referrals last week. Now the longest families that have been waiting have been waiting since Sept. 2006. Based on info our social worker gave us last fall I think that this has to mean that we are in the top ten finally! Last fall our social worker told us that there were five families in September and around three in July 2007, with no one in the months between as our agency wasn't accepting applications at that point. So, we are feeling a bit relieved now. Hopefully there will be a few more referrals still to come in this month. If so, then I am hoping that we'll get "the call" within the next couple of months. We really thought that we would be closer by now, but if we have learned one thing through this process it is that we are not in control! We are nearing 17 months since we started this journey and it is wearing thin at this point. We just want our referral!!!!! Neither of us has felt particularly patient recently. I think a lot of it has to do with having cabin fever with the yucky weather. The rest of it is just frustration with how long it is taking us to have the two children we had hoped to have for many years now. We know we are getting closer, but that isn't making it any easier to wait...at least not at the moment.

Jack told me on the way home from the museum yesterday that he only wants a little girl and not a little boy brother. He wants a little girl and he is sticking to the name Anna as is first choice. I keep asking him what he will call his new baby and he always says Anna. I tried to explain that we don't have any say in what we get and that we'll be happy with a girl or a boy. He then screamed, "No, I definitely don't want a boy!"

A Baby Step Forward

So we finally got fed up and decided to be the squeeky wheel to our social worker again. We try really hard not to bother her when we don't need to, but I (Emily) usually get impatient and end up phoning or emailing her for an update. The agency blog has not been updated since January 4th, which has been killing me. I kindly asked our social worker if she'd heard of any referrals and she said that she knows another Indiana family is getting a referral this week. She was not sure if that was the only one the agency received or not. Apparently the branch offices only find out of their own referrals. The main office doesn't notify them of referrals for other states. They supposedly find out through the blog like the rest of us (which means they don't know seeing as the blog is hardly updated these days). Anyway, to my knowledge there was only one 2006 Indiana family still waiting. They had an approval date of August 06. I know that there was a May 06 family in Michigan still waiting too, so I am kind of assuming that if the August family has their referral that the May family probably does as well. If so, then things appear to be moving once again! Hurray :)

January has been a hard month of waiting for us. After the holidays it was just sort of a let down to not see any action for the first 25 days of the month. Hopefully everyone will get back to work and get these babies to their new families! Sadly, at least for us, it is the Lunar New Year celebration season in Korea soon, so they will likely be away from the office even more.

We'll get there eventually...

A Step Back...

Well, our agency FINALLY updated their blog with info about December. It turns out that they didn't get any non special needs referrals at all! This is extremely unusual. They did get the four special needs files that we knew about, but I don't think that they all were placed with families that were ahead of us in line. Therefore, after a whole month I don't think we have budged in the line :(

We were really hoping to hear something around February, but now I think it will be more likely March. I can't believe a whole month went by with no action! It really sort of ruined our day yesterday. Here's hoping for a really busy January referral-wise.

Not much else to report...

Here's to 2008! Happy New Year

I hope this update finds everyone off to a good start on their resolutions for the new year! Dave and I have joined a Biggest Loser weight loss contest with some friends. It should be a good laugh. We'll keep you posted if we become the biggest losers!

The month of December seemed to fly by again. We were so busy with holiday stuff that we actually kept our minds off the adoption more than normal. We really tried to just sit back and enjoy our time with each other and Jack. This will likely be the last 'only child' Christmas for Jack (hopefully). We had a really good time. Jack LOVED all things Christmas. He was very into Santa coming, singing carols, making cookies, and having friends and family around a lot. While we had a nice time, Dave and I were ready to get back on track with a schedule this week as Jack was becoming out of sorts from all the holiday stimulation.

Our agency usually updates their blog every week, but with the holidays and likely vacation time being taken, they haven't updated with any referral info since November 30th. We were ok with this while we were super busy last month, but now we (mostly Emily) are back to obsessing and wondering what is going on number-wise. We know there were several special needs referrals that come in during December, and it is unlikely for the agency to get that many special needs files and no non special needs referrals. Therefore, we are hopeful that there were at least a few matches last month that will help us move on up that list!

I'll sign off for now and hope that I have a reason to update you with more news soon! I would like to send out a congrats to our friends the McCarty's on their referral of a beautiful little girl from Ethiopia that they were matched with last week!