Garland on our stairs made from pine cones, leaves, white paint, glitter, valentines left over from what the kids took to school, and some heart Christmas ornaments.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
You STILL Don't know when she'll be home?
Nope. Our best guess is still late May early June. But it could be March or September.
What is taking so long? We'll the short answer is it's in God's time- He's big, we're peons and this is really just a blink of an eye in the scheme of eternity. The official answer is we've completed everything on the US side and now it's in Korea's hands. "Overseas process includes Holt [Korea] staff presenting your home study and acceptance papers to the Ministry of Health and Welfare to obtain an Emigration Permit (EP) for the child. Once EP is issued, you will be notified. Also needed, but Holt Eugene is not always notified when completed: blood testing, Visa Physical, Travel certificate (passport), and Holt Korea sets up a Visa interview (our local USCIS office send the I600 approval to Seoul)". We are currently in the first half of that quote- waiting for her to be submitted for her EP. If you click the Adoption Timeline tab at the top of the blog and scroll to the bottom of that page you'll see a copy of the "task list" we were given by Holt. The above was taken from that list. It's also encouraging to look at this list and see how far we've come in such a short time! We've only been at this for a little over 6 months which is really a good time frame if you roam around and look at other adoption blogs.
I haven't seen anything new about your adoption on the blog? Well, there's just not a lot new going on and there won't be for a while, probably. The next thing you'll see me shouting from the blog rooftop is that we've been notified that Eliza Grace has been submitted for her emigration permit. That will narrow down our travel time to sometime within six weeks from that date. However, we will not know our exact travel date until we get THE TRAVEL CALL (it's in all caps because it is THE EVENT we've been WAITING FOR the whole TIME!) When we receive THE TRAVEL CALL we will hear she is READY and we can go pick her up as soon as possible. I will drop everything call all of you to see when you can take which child, pack suitcases for me and and all three children(Phil will do his own packing, maybe ;P), call the travel agent to get tickets and hotel accommodations set up, and then deposit previously mentioned children and head to to the airport. All of that will happen within a few days of getting THE TRAVEL CALL and will probably be pretty fast.
Until then, there's just not a lot to be said about the adoption. We should get an update on her in March and every other month after that until we get her. Hopefully pictures will accompany each of those updates. And I'll definitely share them here!
There are however a few things that I've been able to do:
Put together another care package. Our good friends the O'mara's are waiting for THE TRAVEL CALL for their little girl any day now. They graciously offered us a precious corner of their suitcase to send a few more things to Eliza Grace. They'll deliver them to Holt Korea while they are there (and no (because I know you're asking!) they will not get to meet Eliza Grace :( they will drop our care package off at Holt and Holt will contact our foster family to let them know it's there.) In this package we sent a felt barn with a stuffed cow and pig, a teething toy, baby soap, a new photo album with pictures from her birthday party, a few hair bows, and a little toy phone that plays a recording of us saying our names and that we love her. This time I also stuck a couple of happies in for the foster parents. They are from Smart Mom. We gave mom a copper Teething Bling necklace (that I had a hard time parting with) and dad a Babe Magnet tie. The necklace is a rubberish disk that looks like stone. They are so unbelievably gorgeous but completely made for your baby to grab and gnaw away on. The tie has a squeaker and rattle hidden inside. As I told the dad in the enclosed letter, I don't know how comfortable it would be to have a baby jerking on your tie- but maybe it will bring a laugh! He is very attached to Eliza Grace and takes her walking every afternoon when he gets home from work I wanted him to have something for the two of them to play with.
The next thing I've done is fix a little nursery nook for baby girl. She'll be sharing a room with her big sister. As I've gotten the layout of their room all fixed there just wasn't a good spot to put the rocker. I also wanted to have somewhere to go away from everything to rock in the middle of the night, or the middle of the day, or whenever she'll let me rock her. So, I deconstructed the crib skirt and bumpers we used with Wilson and Miller and made over the dormer at the top of the stairs that is between the girls's room and Wilson's room. It's so cute and cozy (I've just got to get the artwork hung!). I hung their mobile from the ceiling and added Phil's baby quilt on the chair. Miller is loving it and can regularly be found in the chair with a pile of books. She also asked to be rocked for the first time in a long time the other night. She fell right to sleep- it was awesome!!
So what's going on Eliza Grace's bed? Well every summer our church has a fantastic toy exchange. So this summer I bought two sets of bedding (one to match Wilson's room and one to match Miller's room) for a grand total of $20!! Now that we know which one we'll be using, I'll resell the boy set this summer. I just couldn't part with what the first two used yet, though, so I had some fun with the seam ripper and the singer.
Well now you're all caught up on your burning questions! Happy Snow Day!!
What is taking so long? We'll the short answer is it's in God's time- He's big, we're peons and this is really just a blink of an eye in the scheme of eternity. The official answer is we've completed everything on the US side and now it's in Korea's hands. "Overseas process includes Holt [Korea] staff presenting your home study and acceptance papers to the Ministry of Health and Welfare to obtain an Emigration Permit (EP) for the child. Once EP is issued, you will be notified. Also needed, but Holt Eugene is not always notified when completed: blood testing, Visa Physical, Travel certificate (passport), and Holt Korea sets up a Visa interview (our local USCIS office send the I600 approval to Seoul)". We are currently in the first half of that quote- waiting for her to be submitted for her EP. If you click the Adoption Timeline tab at the top of the blog and scroll to the bottom of that page you'll see a copy of the "task list" we were given by Holt. The above was taken from that list. It's also encouraging to look at this list and see how far we've come in such a short time! We've only been at this for a little over 6 months which is really a good time frame if you roam around and look at other adoption blogs.
I haven't seen anything new about your adoption on the blog? Well, there's just not a lot new going on and there won't be for a while, probably. The next thing you'll see me shouting from the blog rooftop is that we've been notified that Eliza Grace has been submitted for her emigration permit. That will narrow down our travel time to sometime within six weeks from that date. However, we will not know our exact travel date until we get THE TRAVEL CALL (it's in all caps because it is THE EVENT we've been WAITING FOR the whole TIME!) When we receive THE TRAVEL CALL we will hear she is READY and we can go pick her up as soon as possible. I will drop everything call all of you to see when you can take which child, pack suitcases for me and and all three children(Phil will do his own packing, maybe ;P), call the travel agent to get tickets and hotel accommodations set up, and then deposit previously mentioned children and head to to the airport. All of that will happen within a few days of getting THE TRAVEL CALL and will probably be pretty fast.
Until then, there's just not a lot to be said about the adoption. We should get an update on her in March and every other month after that until we get her. Hopefully pictures will accompany each of those updates. And I'll definitely share them here!
There are however a few things that I've been able to do:
The next thing I've done is fix a little nursery nook for baby girl. She'll be sharing a room with her big sister. As I've gotten the layout of their room all fixed there just wasn't a good spot to put the rocker. I also wanted to have somewhere to go away from everything to rock in the middle of the night, or the middle of the day, or whenever she'll let me rock her. So, I deconstructed the crib skirt and bumpers we used with Wilson and Miller and made over the dormer at the top of the stairs that is between the girls's room and Wilson's room. It's so cute and cozy (I've just got to get the artwork hung!). I hung their mobile from the ceiling and added Phil's baby quilt on the chair. Miller is loving it and can regularly be found in the chair with a pile of books. She also asked to be rocked for the first time in a long time the other night. She fell right to sleep- it was awesome!!
So what's going on Eliza Grace's bed? Well every summer our church has a fantastic toy exchange. So this summer I bought two sets of bedding (one to match Wilson's room and one to match Miller's room) for a grand total of $20!! Now that we know which one we'll be using, I'll resell the boy set this summer. I just couldn't part with what the first two used yet, though, so I had some fun with the seam ripper and the singer.
Well now you're all caught up on your burning questions! Happy Snow Day!!
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Budding Artist
As most of you know I like to do a little painting. Art and crafting has been an outlet as long as I can remember. It's so fun to watch my kiddos enjoy the same. Wilson in particular is really enjoying drawing lately (something his mamma definitely does NOT enjoy and has never had the patience to work at). But it suites him to a tee. Below are a few of my favorites from the past few months.
One of his first family portraits. It was before we knew Eliza Grace, so he'll have to do another soon. Phil is still dealing with the fact that he is portrayed as a brunette. He still identifies himself as a blond. I won't push it- my driver's license still says I weigh 100 pounds :)
This one is from sometime during Christmas break- I think my favorite part is the sleigh.
This was such a surprise- he came up with all by himself. Miller was sick and he wanted to cheer her up. He asked for a piece of card stock and the bucket of craft stuff- Voila- Rudolf!
A Dragon
Under the sea- LOVE this one. He got a drawing book from the library and sat down and did the WHOLE thing one afternoon. I was completely amazed when he appeared with this whole little sea colony. I was also amazed at how well each little critter turned out. He refuses to draw with a pencil- only a pen or crayon. What a guy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
