A GREAT Day!!!

Today has been a great day in our adoption process!! :)

First, our director is in Korea right now. We knew she was going to take Mary Kenzie's care package to the agency, but we didn't know if she'd actually see her or not. Well, the director emailed me this morning and had this to say,

"I saw your sweet pea today and she is a delight. Her foster mom thinks she is the smartest, prettiest baby around and is very proud of her, I will be back next week with photos and a brief update. thanks"

We cannot wait to see her latest pictures!!!

Next, we found out today that all of our paperwork has been approved on the US side (our I-600 approval!!). We are THRILLED!!! So, now all we are waiting on is for all of the approvals on the Korea side. Both of these processes happen simultaneously and are not dependent upon the other, but they both have to be completed before Mary Kenzie can come home. There are a few more checkpoints along the way that will help us know that we are getting closer. So, next week I will begin calling and checking in with the various government agencies to check our progress.

But, this was a huge milestone and we are SO excited to be this much closer!!!! (When we were in process for Riley, he came home about a month after our I-600 approval.)

Thinking of Seoul...

Our program director was heading to Korea on Saturday and in her suitcase was Mary Kenzie's package! Right now it is Monday night in Korea, so I am dreaming and hoping that our stuff is now at the agency and that Mary Kenzie's foster mother will be getting it soon! I am also dreaming and hoping that maybe, just maybe our director will bring back a picture of our baby girl...something to tide us over until we are together!

It's Tuesday...

...and I have a lot to do! :)

Tomorrow I am going with my mom and one of her friends to visit my sister Meredith in Seattle! I have never been to Seattle, so it will be an adventure being in a new place. Hopefully, I will not be sleepless (haha)!

We got good news last week that the director of our agency is traveling to Korea this Saturday and in her suitcase will be Mary Kenzie's care package!! We are SO excited to know that our gifts for our baby girl will actually make it to her before we do!

Friday we had our homestudy visit; today Michael has his physical; hopefully, our homestudy will be completed soon and on its way to Korea!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to our sweet little Valentine halfway across the world. Mommy and Daddy and your big brother Riley send our love and hugs and kisses. We wish we could be with you today to love on you...and I would definitely dress you in pink and red with a big red bow! All of our love to you, sweet girl. May Jesus wrap you in His arms and keep you safe and healthy, comfortable and secure in every way.

Homestudy Visit

Tomorrow morning our social worker comes for our homestudy update visit. She has been so nice to try to help us as quickly as possible so that we can get this homestudy completed and off to Korea.

I had my physical with my doctor on Monday; Riley's doctor just had to complete a form since he's been in for an appointment less than a year ago; Michael's physical is scheduled for this Wednesday.

On Friday when we found out from Korea that we had to update our homestudy we also got a small update on Mary Kenzie. At her 6 month check up she weighed 16 pounds. She isn't crawling yet but she rolls across the floor and she's eating sweet potatoes and mashed apples.

These updates are so bittersweet because it is so wonderful to hear that she is doing great and is healthy and developing but at the same time it makes it so hard because we just want to be with her so badly. We are praying that we will be together very soon!

Surprise!!!!

On Saturday night we were blessed and surprised by some of our friends from church with a "Matching Party!" It was so much fun! My sister-in-law Beth (Michael's sister) and her husband John had asked us right after we were matched with Mary Kenzie if they could take us out to eat to celebrate being matched. That sounded like so much fun, so we hired two of my sisters to come and watch Riley and their boys Austin and Jacob. The date that worked the best for us was this past Saturday night.

Beth called me right before she and John were supposed to be at our house saying that John had been dropping off their preschool application for Jacob at our friends Amber and Jason's house because Amber was going to turn it in for her on Monday and John's car wouldn't start. And, Jason and Amber didn't have jumper cables. The restaurant we were supposed to be going to was near their house, so she said that she was going to bring the boys by our house and then she, Michael, and I were going to go pickup John and jump his car.

This sounded a little bit suspicious to me, and I wondered if there was some kind of surprise going on. When we got to Amber and Jason's house though there were no cars there or anywhere near their cul-de-sac so I was COMPLETELY surprised when the garage door opened and some of our friends yelled "SURPRISE!"

Michael and I were (and still are) overwhelmed by our friends' thoughtfulness. Evidently this had been "in the works" since the summer when we originally thought we were going to be matched. My friend Jennifer came up with the idea of having a "Matching Party" when we were matched and each spouse dressed to match their spouse! It was so thoughtful! Everyone brought a dish to share, so we were treated to a delicious dinner! The spread was amazing!

After we ate, our friends took some time to pray for us and Mary Kenzie and we were able to share where we are in our process. Then, we were showered with gifts! So many fun gifts...so much PINK...and so many beautiful hair bows (my favorite!!)!! It was so much fun!

I didn't have my camera because I didn't know the party was happening but as soon as I get pictures from others, I will post them!

It Can't Ever Be Easy...

Huge SIGH....

Our homestudy (which went with our paperwork to Korea) will expire according to Korean standards sometime in March. It will not expire in our state until the end of the summer. So, our agency was hopeful that we could send it on to Korea and it wouldn't be a problem. Well, evidently they got word last night that we need to update our homestudy.

This isn't THAT big of a deal...there are certainly much worse things. But, it is aggravating because now we all have to have physicals by our doctors, there's another stack of paperwork to repeat, criminal record checks to pick up at the courthouse, meeting with our social worker, not to mention another big chunk of change to drop. SIGH.

Supposedly, Mary Kenzie's paperwork will continue to be processed on the Korean side, so as long as our homestudy is completed fairly quickly it shouldn't hold things up too much. It could end up being the difference of a few weeks which is disappointing.

So, yet another reminder that we are not in control and that while all of "this" is frustrating it is so worth it! Mary Kenzie is SO worth it!

What Happens Next?

Now we wait. And wait. And wait some more. Everything on our end has been completed. All of our papers have been signed, notarized, and delivered.

Right now we have paperwork being processed by the American government (specifically Immigration and Citizenship Services) and paperwork being processed by the Korean government. In order for Mary Kenzie to be able to come home we have to have our approvals by both governments.

Once we are approved on both sides we will get the telephone call letting us know that she is ready! Since the theme of our lives is "You are not in control" we should not be surprised by the latest "reminder" of this message. Last week we found out that we have to travel to Korea to get Mary Kenzie. We had planned to have her escorted just like we had Riley escorted, but we found out that this is not an option. At least one of us has to go to Korea to pick her up. So, once we get that phone call saying that she's ready, Michael and I will make plans immediately to go to Korea to get our daughter!! We have to be to Korea within the week. Since we don't know when our call will come we can't schedule a flight ahead of time. We will probably book whatever flight ends up being the most inexpensive, so that could mean we leave the day we get our call or a few days later...just depending on pricing.

Now that we have had a little bit of time to find out more about traveling to Korea and what's involved, we are very excited about going! We had always planned to go to Korea when our kids were old enough to remember being there. We will definitely plan to go back with our kids, but it will be exciting to actually see Korea for ourselves now and to be able to meet Mary Kenzie's foster family! We just hope that that day comes SOON!!!

Care Package

Our agency allows us to send one care package to Mary Kenzie. Pretty much we can send whatever we can cram into a gallon sized Ziplock bag. There is no guarantee that the package will get to her before it's time for her to come home, but we still wanted to send one to our agency just in case. Local families (local to our agency) who travel to get their babies take the care packages and hand deliver them to the agency in Korea. We are hoping that ours will make it to Mary Kenzie before she comes home!

Here are the contents of the bag:
1) a lovey (Riley LOVES his little blankie that he calls "B." We're hoping Mary Kenzie will like hers, too! I bought two, so I am sending her one and keeping the other one just in case it doesn't make it home.)
2) 2 pacifiers
3) 2 outfits
4) 2 pretty hairbows made by my friend Lara (check out her website! She makes the BEST bows!)
5) a disposable camera (in hopes that Mary Kenzie's foster parents will take lots of pictures of her over these next few weeks)
6) a photo album book (with pictures of me, Michael, and Riley so that Mary Kenzie will be able to start learning our faces and hopefully we will be at least a little bit familiar to her when she meets us for the first time)
7) a toy (that Riley picked out himself many months ago for his "baby sister")

Before:


After:


Big Brother: