Wilson teaching Miller Korean

"The weather is good isn't it?"

At least I think that's what they're saying.  My apologies to anyone reading this who might actually speak Korean if its something obscene.  Incidentally, she helped paint her shirt which says "big sister".

Bye Bye Rosie & Juno

Friday as we were leaving the parking lot of Wilson's school, Miller asked if we could go to the zoo. I said, sure- great idea- let's go to the zoo. We called our best buddies to see if they would like to join us on our last minute excursion to go to the zoo and to say goodbye to our elephants before they move to Nashville. Miller and Caroline had a great time getting to be queens of the zoo. Not only were there almost no other people there- there were no big brothers to dictate what did and saw. When we made it to the elephant exhibit, the zoo keeper, Percy, happened to be walking by. He yelled, "Hey Rosie, hey Juno, comer over here! These people have come to tell you goodbye- get over here!" With that one of them trumpeted, and they both turned and came right over to the fence for us. Percy then said to wait just a second while he got them a treat and he'd take our picture with them. He went and cut some bamboo and laid it across the fence (it's on the left side of the photo) and Rosie & Juno posed with us for a couple of shots! Then the elephants got their treats for indulging us. It was a great way to say goodbye- we're so sad that they have to leave. Best wishes for Nashville!

The Big, Fat, Huge, Amazing, Unbelievable, Never Saw This Coming Adoption Update!

I have a huge update for our friends praying for our adoption journey.

Wednesday ended with me a little stressed over a lot surrounding the adoption- a good bit of it frustration over things completely out of my control and contingent on possible scenarios that haven't even happened yet (I have quite an imagination when things are out of my control :) !  I finally decided I'd stewed enough and didn't want to loose sleep over it.  So, I pulled out a journal and wrote "Lord, these are yours" and listed several things I just couldn't worry about any more. I put the journal away and immediately went to sleep. 

Thursday I went about my regular day of taking kids to school and running errands.  Our friends Jason & Meg Edwards that live in Starkville were in town for the day so we met them for lunch to meet their little girl who has been home from Korea for about a year now.  Such a cutie and it was so reassuring to hear how well she has adjusted and grown.  Miller and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing at a toy store and book store and then we went to pick Wilson up from his friends house.

When I got in the car to head home with Wilson, I saw that I had missed a call on my cell.  There was a message from someone at Holt saying that she had just left a long message at home and to please call her as soon as I had a chance.  When I realized that I had missed calls on both numbers I of course assumed the worse- that Korea had suddenly closed or that Holt had looked over our application again and had decided we weren't eligible for some reason.  I got home and checked the machine.  The message said that . . . are you ready . . . Holt Korea is in IMMEDIATE need of families for the "regular" program (as opposed to special needs).  Apparently domestic adoption has not taken care of all of the healthy children in South Korea and they need families that have a home study or close and are open to boys and normal neonatal conditions (jaundice, low birth weight, etc.).    Never dreamed someone would be calling to say we could be getting a referral in the next month or so.  I'm still a little in shock and wish I still had the skills to do a back handspring!  

We serve an amazing God!  When I was "turning things over" on Wednesday night it, of course, never occurred to me to ask that we'd get a call saying we'd get a referral before the end of the year (this is a round about answer to a lot of the things I was stewing over).  "Wow" is all I can say!  If you would please say a prayer for our social worker.  The success of this new development is completely in her hands right now.  We need our home study ASAP and she is very overworked as she is the only social worker for international adoption in our area.  We want to get our study done quickly, but we want it to be done carefully and correctly.  We also don't want to be in the position of getting in the way of another family who's been waiting for a long time on their study to get delayed.  We rest in the knowledge that the Lord knows when each child He creates is to be joined with the family he has chosen for them!

One more little divine intervention/providence.  Several weeks ago we mailed our fingerprints to the FBI for our background check.  Currently the wait time for this is running almost 3 months.  If you have a deadline you can put that on the envelope, but other than that, there's really not a lot you can do to speed the process along.  At the time, we had no immediate need for the fingerprints.  I've been expecting that we'd get our referral sometime in the spring or summer- we had all the time in the world.  But "for some reason" before I sent the envelope I wrote Wilson's birthday (Oct. 20) on the the outside as a deadline- just to see what happened.  I admittedly felt a little guilty for being such a rule breaker.  But NOW I know I was NOT lying- thank you Lord for guiding my mischievous hand!!

What a great day!  Wilson was so pumped to hear that there is a good chance that our new baby will be a brother- his reaction was priceless.  Phil and I ended the day watching Bizarre Foods- South Korea.  As something crawled back OUT of Anthony's mouth we made a mental note to pack some peanut butter and crackers!

Worn Out

Just went in the playroom to check on Miller. She's watching her new favorite "Chocolate Milk" (aka- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- the old one). She is passed out- Mrs. Feather must have worked them overtime today!

First Days of School

Having lunch and swimming after the first day of school

Wilson with his teacher, Mrs. Maris, getting in the car after a hard day of kindergarten.

Wilson was a little apprehensive about starting school, so there was no way I was going to get a traditional "first day of school" picture- I had to improvise and sneak up on him in carpool line with the camera!  While he wasn't so sure about starting kindergarten, he's loving it now.  He looks so big in his uniform!  The kindergartners get tote bags to decorate instead of using backpacks.  We cut the letters of his name out of spiderman and batman fabrics, ironed them on, and painted around them.  It is a hit!  His first project of the year was to memorize his address and phone number and recite it to his teacher.  When everyone has said their's, they get a pizza party.  He was so proud when he was able to do it!!

Miller after her first day of Preschool.  She's telling me that they played in the gym and that there were basketballs stuck WAAAY up high, and she didn't have a ladder, and a man will have to get them, and . . . .

The basketballs and the gym were the highlight for the first few days of school- so funny what sticks out to a two year old!

She is loving school and has been so excited all summer about starting.  Whenever school would cross her mind she launch into a dissertation on preschool.  "I'm gonna go to school, and Caroline's gonna be there, and I'm gonna paint, and Caroline's gonna color, and I'm gonna sit right here (pointing to a picture of a seesaw in My Preschool by Anne Rockwell), and Caroline's gonna sit right there (pointing to the other end of the seesaw), and . . ."  She loves her teacher Mrs. "Feather" (Mrs. Heather).  It also helps that there is a life size picture of the preschool director dressed like Snow White (Miller's FAVORITE princess) right when you walk in the door.  She thinks Snow White is at her school!  She's going to start Jazz dance class this week- I can't wait to hear all about it!

Update

So here's an update on the last post.  If you look over at the adoption timeline, you'll see that a couple of weeks ago we asked to be considered for a baby girl that was on the waiting child list for South Korea with our agency.  We reviewed her records and filled out a questionnaire for the committee at Holt in Oregon.  This committee takes the questionnaires from the families interested in the child (usually only 2 families) and reviews those answers and the child's profile to select the best match for the child.  Earlier this week someone from the waiting child program called to let us know that there would be four families going to committee for this little girl and that one of those families is Asian- the committee typically likes to match by race if possible.  She then asked if would still like to continue with the committee process knowing this.  I asked if it was now impossible for us to be matched with this baby and she said no, just unlikely.  We decided we would proceed- we wouldn't be the ones to close this door. 

Yesterday at 2:00 the committee met and at about 2:40 we were informed that this sweet baby girl had found a home, just not our's.  I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little disappointing even though we knew it was a long shot.  But we are so happy that this precious one is on the road to a permanent home and that she had so many mammas and daddy's requesting her.  Praise God that He  knew who her parents would be before he even said, "Let there be light"!  What an awesome thought. 

So now we continue working on our home study and waiting for a referral, unless we see another child that calls to us from the waiting child list.  We were also informed yesterday that because we've gone through the committee process, we're now on the list to get a referral even before our home study is completed.  We're one step closer!