A Little Bit of This and That...

This blog entry is full of random information. Each paragraph isn't really connected (except that it is about our family). :)

Busch Gardens: Easter weekend we went to Virginia to visit with my mom's extended family. My mom's brother and my mom's sister live outside Williamsburg. Her other brother who lives in California flew in for the weekend with his daughter. Everyone in my family came up except for my sister Meredith who had to work. We had a great time! We enjoyed catching up with everyone and we especially enjoyed our time at Busch Gardens on Saturday! Riley loved the rides! He kept begging to ride the roller coasters--it was hilarious!

Here's a picture of Riley with his Aunt Mega (Meghan) when they were enjoying one of the rides. Riley looks very stoic as he rides each ride but as he was waiting in line he would say "excited" and then when he was finished he would beg to ride again.



NCAA Tournament: We LOVE basketball in this house! Michael and I always fill out NCAA brackets and "compete" against one another seeing who picks the most games right. Well, this year, we have both done great but I have done AWESOME!! :) On ESPN.com you could enter a NCAA tournament challenge and fill out a bracket and the person who has the most correct bracket at the end of the tournament wins $10,000. Michael and I both entered this contest and we are members of his NC State message board group bracket. I am currently in FIRST PLACE of the State group (out of about 100 people)! Woo-hoo! Not only that, but I am in 179th place (out of 3-4 MILLION) for the entire ESPN challenge! So, while I have no chance of winning the grand prize, it has been a lot of fun!

Riley's first concert: Last night we went to the Casting Crowns concert in Raleigh. We decided to go at sort of the last minute, and we took Riley with us. It was such a great concert! I love their music. They are so talented and their lyrics are so well written and inspiring. It was fun to have a "family" outing. Riley did so well last night--he seemed to enjoy the music and the lights. Today, is a little bit of a different story--very cranky toddler! But, it was worth it!

Still waiting: Tomorrow will be one month down since officially waiting for our referral! We are trying to come up with a name for this baby, but so far haven't agreed on anything. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to share with us! :)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Riley!!!
Happy birthday to our sweet son! We had a wonderful day celebrating Riley. He is really into birthdays--we've had 6 birthdays in our immediate family in the last 8 weeks, so he has seen a lot of people being sung to and blowing out their b'day candles. Riley has been practicing all week--we asked him what did he want to do on his birthday and he said "sing Happy Day and blow out the candles!" We had family over for a basketball party (to watch the ACC b'ball tournament) with pizza and basketball cakes. Riley loves basketball! We are so blessed to be this sweet boy's Mommy and Daddy. He has added so much joy and laughter to our home. Here are some pictures of the birthday boy and a short video clip.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Our Family Is Growing!!

That's right! We are expecting another baby from Korea! WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!

We actually started the process back in June. We sent in our initial application to the agency we worked with last time. Unlike last time, they had a pretty long waiting list. But, we still needed to finalize Riley's adoption and update our homestudy so we weren't too concerned about having a longer wait.

In September we finalized Riley's adoption; in November we updated our homestudy and had our physicals completed; in January we were fingerprinted again. Now we were definitely ready and starting to get a little anxious because we still hadn't even be able to fill out the official application. In February we got a letter from our agency that said that things had really slowed down and there were about 23 families whose documents were in Korea waiting to be matched and there were about 23 families (like us) who were still on the waiting list just to apply. The letter was very upfront about the fact that they have no idea when we'll be able to apply but that it really could potentially take a much longer time. We were pretty discouraged at this point.

On one of my online Korean adoption forums I posted that we were in this situation of limbo and several families suggested we look into another agency. I emailed the director and explained our situation and asked if they would work with our local homestudy agency since our homestudy was ready to go (and this was the only part of our process to this point that we had put in a lot of money). The director emailed me back and said that they would be glad to work with our agency and that we needed to start with our application. Within a week we had completed the two applications, taken an online course, and mailed everything in.

This past Tuesday the last piece of paperwork was approved!!!! So, what this means is that now we are on "the list" and can be matched with a baby at any time!! We did not choose gender--even though we could this time--we will be thrilled with a boy or a girl. There is still about a 99% chance that we will be matched with a boy. The estimated wait (again this is always changing) for a boy is about 0-5 months. So, we are hopeful that by the end of the summer we will be matched and our baby would be home about 3-4 months later!

We are so thrilled to have the opportunity to adopt again! It is such a hard process with so many emotional ups and downs but it is so worth it in the end. Riley is definitely proof of that!

Our 6th Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday Michael and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! In so many ways it really is hard to believe we've already been married for six years. We were talking yesterday about how we definitely knew each other well before we got engaged and then married, but it really is amazing to compare how well we know each other now--six years later--than when we were first married. On Saturday Michael was in a meeting at church and someone was speaking about intimacy and how intimacy with your spouse or with God is really about peeling back all of the layers until you really get to know someone at the very essence of who they are--the most vulnerable places of ourselves.

Six years ago, we never would have known the struggles nor the deep joy that were in store for us. We never dreamed that we would have problems getting pregnant. We never imagined that we would miscarry our first child. We would never have thought that we would struggle with infertility and that no doctor would be able to tell us what the cause of our infertility struggle was. I dreamed of one day adopting but never knew that through adoption I would have a son who would be the first to call me "Mommy." We never could have planned our lives more perfectly than what God has blessed us with.

Through our struggles we are able to say that we really do have faith in a God who loves us. Not a love for someone because all we have experienced has been good, but a love for Someone who has been good to us even when things are hard and we are filled with grief and with confusion. For Michael and I it was always easy to love God--we knew He was real and for the most part our entire lives had been easy and full of good things. It was a lot harder to say that we love God when our dreams were crashing down and when things didn't seem fair or just. But, that was truly the point that our faith was tested and the point at which we knew our faith was real--we could trust God even when our circumstances seemed otherwise.

"In Christ alone my hope is found;He is my light, my strength, my song...
From life's first cry to final breath,Jesus commands my destiny."