one year later…

I can't believe it has been ONE YEAR since I first saw this precious little face staring at me from an email.

And soon after, finding out we were pregnant…overcoming one of the biggest adoption obstacles ever…buying and selling a house…moving…giving birth to Max…right, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined all that. And it's hard to believe after all of this we are still waiting to bring Zoey home. But, God's timing is perfect. Looking at the bright side, it has given us more time to research adoption issues and learn what is best for her when she comes home. I just hope we can celebrate her second birthday together as a family!

room to grow and other news

Our journey to Zoey has been an exciting event-filled one and it feels like it has been forever since we first saw her sweet face in our referral package. Our "fight" to adopt her after we became pregnant was very stressful and time consuming but it was worth it in the end - not only because Zoey will officially be our daughter soon but because we were able to offer insite to another adoptive family who ended up in the same situation! We offered our personal experience to help them petition for the continued adoption of their child - and they succeeded! It made me so thrilled to know our trial helped another couple and their future child - another double miracle!

And today I shipped off what are hopefully the last two care packages for Zoey before she comes home - one to Korea and the other to a friend who is traveling for her son very soon and offered to deliver a package for us. Thanks a ton, Jen!

Zoey's room is almost complete except for a few finishing touches, so I thought I'd share what she has waiting for her. It's my favorite room in the house! And yes, I applied those vinyl wall decals when I was 7 months pregnant…while balancing on a ladder. #motherlybrag (btw, I'm instigating the use of hash tags in blog posts - starting NOW) #Idon'tevenusetwitteranddon'treallygiveatwit

I hope she likes it as much as I do…

thank you, Craigslist

Max's Moses basket now doubles as a toy box

 

get the ball rolling

Something (or someone) has been butting into my blogging time these days. *enter Max*

Our little package, big surprise entered our lives 2.5 weeks before "schedule". I guess he ran out of room in there. Thankfully. Or maybe he wanted to hurry up and meet his big sister Zoey. But don't we all feel that way...

Thankfully Korea has started issuing EPs for these sweet babies who are now "toddlers" so they can be united with their forever families. We are hopeful that we will be able to travel for Zoey by early summer. She continues to do well on her PKU medication and is growing like a weed according to her latest well baby check report. Unfortunately we haven't received any updated photos of her in months and it's driving me nuts. I may be overcompensating by taking ridiculous amounts of photos of Max.

The timing is ultimately in God's hands. But please continue to pray for the many families who are still waiting to bring their children home and for the transition time after that. It will be challenging but so rewarding in the end.

our 15 minutes of fame…

This past September we were photographed and interviewed for an article in Business Black Box magazine. Each issue they feature a "What Matters" human interest story about someone in the community. 

It all started when Geoff Wasserman, CEO at Showcase Marketing, along with his son, came to support us during our adoption fundraiser back in August. We shared our adoption stories with each other and as he was leaving, asked us if we would be interested in sharing our story with the community. Needless to say, it was one of the highlights of my day. *understatement* 

I am so geared up about it and hopefully it will be a great tool to encourage other families to adopt!

Click here to view the full magazine content including our article (scroll to pg 96).

happy Korean Lunar New Year!

Today officially marks the year of the dragon! Although I'm not much of a superstitious person, after doing a little research of my own and finding that "Dragons seem to be a change year, and usually from bad to good," I can only feel optimistic about Zoey's homecoming - THIS YEAR! I definitely wouldn't say that last year was a "bad" year though – after all, it was the year we started our adoption process, Zoey became our baby girl and we also received the unexpected gift of her baby bro.

So, in celebration of the lunar new year, we sent a care package to Zoey and the foster family. Hopefully we will get another group of pictures with her and the gifts! I think it was a pretty awesome package…new PJ's for Zoey, cute cat hat and mittens, an adorable Asian ballerina doll, a lullaby CD, a recordable story book that Brad and I were able to "read" to Zoey (hopefully she'll listen to it A LOT and get to know our voices), and a hard cardboard toddler book I customized with our photos, family pictures and Zoey's photos showing how she will become part of our family (my favorite part)! And as a suggestion from a friend who lives in Seoul, we sent the foster family a Yankee Candle - apparently they are hot ticket items over there and very pricey. Yay for after-Christmas sales. :)

Zoey's progress!

This week we unexpectedly received a "progress report" on Zoey from our agency! It included an entire page of info describing her development and personality, living environment and foster family and some encouraging (but also confusing) details regarding her diet and PKU diagnosis. 

I already knew it, but it sounds like Zoey is going to be the PERFECT FIT for our family. She likes watching commercials and cartoons and shows interest in computers by sneaking into the foster brother's room to turn his on. She loves toys with sound and "insists" on being handed the phone when it rings. *smile* It is clear her foster family is doing a GREAT job with her and they all LOVE her very much. It is going to be bittersweet when the day comes for us to actually travel to Korea and bring her home. WE will be the strangers/bad guys who are taking Zoey away from the family she has come to love and attach herself to over the last year of her life. Unfortunately the longer we wait and the older she becomes, the harder this transition will be. So until then, we are doing our research to prepare for this transition and learning the best ways to bond and attach with her as her FOREVER family. It's not going to be an easy process but it will all be worth it. We're up for the challenge of becoming a family of 4 with God's help!

We set up an appointment with our metabolic specialists in February to review her medical records and set up a plan for when Zoey is home with us. The confusing yet optimistic part of her "progress report" described her diet which is NO LONGER low protein as a toddler with PKU would be expected to eat. We know she was put on a medication for PKU that has the ability to allow some patients to breakdown protein more efficiently. It will be interesting to see what our specialists here have to say about putting a young toddler on this drug…even though it may make our life easier, I'm definitely not a drug pusher and realize that every drug has the potential for adverse side effects, etc. *and now stepping off my soap box* So again, time will tell…we are waiting on some clarification from Korea on her medical records and current PKU diagnosis. We are just thanking God that she is happy, above average developmentally and healthy. We love you, Zoey!

To me, this Bible verse reads more like a fortune cookie, but I love it…

As cold water 

to a weary soul, 

so is good news 

from a far country.

Proverbs 25:25 

ok, who's up for dim sum? :)

one year closer to Zoey!

Hard to believe it was a year ago that we started out on our adoption journey. 

December 25, 2011…

Hard to believe it was almost 8 months ago that we saw 

our Zoey's face for the first time.  

May 10, 2011…

Hard to believe only 7 weeks later we found out I was pregnant.

June 30, 2011…

  

Hard to believe we had to petition and wait 7 more weeks to find out we would be allowed to continue with Zoey's adoption!

August 15, 2011

Here's to a NEW YEAR and hopefully more good news soon while we

(im)patiently wait to bring Zoey and her baby brother home.

And I thought last year was busy…

that's the way we keep things exciting around here.

Zoey, Zoey, Zoey!

I was so ecstatic this week when we received NEW pictures with Zoey's well baby check report from our agency. Seriously, I can't even explain how much I love this girl! Adoption is such an amazing ride. I know I keep saying this, but I wish everyone could experience it first hand.

When we received Zoey's referral almost 7 months ago, I never would have believed all of the amazing changes and turn of events that ahead for us. First off, I never would have thought we'd still be waiting to bring our daughter home from Korea. ok, I never would have believed we would be pregnant and still waiting to bring Zoey home from Korea. I never would have believed we would sell our adorable little home in 12 days and move into a family home "fixer-upper" 3 weeks later. What can I say, God has a sense of humor…and is way better to me than I deserve.

The latest on Zoey's homecoming…don't ask, we don't know! What we DO know is that S. Korea will begin issuing EP's again in January and they will be processing families who submitted their acceptance paperwork last March. We submitted our paperwork towards the end of May, so assuming the submissions are chronological, we COULD receive Zoey's EP in March! There are a few steps that have to happen even after that, so I'm really praying the timing works out for me to get through this pregnancy, bring the li'l bro home, recover and be able to fly to Seoul with Brad to bring her home. That's my prayer and I'm sticking to it! "For nothing is impossible with God." - Luke 1:37

This face - I can't stop staring at her new pictures! But it's time to get back to Zoey's Lunar New Year/late Christmas care package. This is going to be a GOOD ONE – if I could just figure out a gift to include for her foster family. Any suggestions…? 

t-shirts and coffee for the cause of adoption!

Get a head start on your Christmas shopping and visit  

Zoey's Just Love Coffee fund raising site.

A portion of every sale through our site will be directly applied to BRINGING ZOEY HOME as well as supporting clean water projects in developing countries through the organization charity: water.

We are now saving for our travel funds to S. Korea - we can't wait to bring our Zoey girl home! (Hopefully by next spring) Thank you for helping us!

And as a side note, we are considering starting a t-shirt fundraiser…If anyone would be interested in purchasing one of our "Seoul" t-shirts, (or possibly other adoption-related t-shirts) please email me!

 

Celebrate National Adoption Month!

We never could have anticipated the huge changes coming for our family last year this time. I feel very blessed that God has chosen us to be the parents of our dear Zoey, her baby brother, and another sibling from China in the future! It's an amazing ride and I wish everyone could experience the miracle of adoption. Please consider making a difference in the life of a child!