We have been Submitted for EP!

We have finally been submitted for our EP! I cannot stop smiling and shaking. Nathaniel is excited too. I think he is more excited about me being off work for a while.Once this is approved we will prepare to travel about four weeks from the approval date. During the four weeks she will need to make an embassy appearance and have a visa physical before they will issue her visa to come to the US. We can finally start counting weeks instead of months.

We are ready! 

Pray they will approve it very quickly!

New Well Baby Check and Picture!

    We received this in an email this evening  just after five. She just opened the care package we sent her for Christmas. By the date, it looks like she got it on December 28th when she went to her doctors visit.  Her checkup was good! She has 2 teeth on top and bottom and she is pulling to a standing position.  She weighs 18.3 lbs and she is 27.8 inches. She is growing!

     We are always excited to get new pictures. However, this wait is becoming unbearable. Today has been the hardest so far. Thank goodness for a new picture tonight to cheer us up a little. We are still waiting to hear about her immigration permit. (EP)  This mama is running out of patience. Please pray for our EP to come quickly!

Happy 10 months Ella!

We are thinking of Ella as she turned 10 months old today . We wish she could be here for Christmas but that is not the perfect plan. She is always in our hearts.The boys were fighting on who was going to hold the stocking. Nathaniel said he would hold the picture. They are both so excited about their sister.

We love you sweet girl! Merry Christmas!

Thankful For Friends

A friend loveth at all times Proverbs 17:17

  Tonight twelve amazing women has blessed me beyond measure. My heart is full of overwhelming joy from the kindness and prayers.

  We had dinner tonight with dear friends Blake, Brittany. and their two boys. She sent me home with a gift bag and made me promise I wouldn't open it until the house was quiet and I could open it with Nat. My very thoughtful friend knew how disappointed we were when we found out we would not get our EP this year. She had an idea to have a doll handmade for Ella and the the idea grew into a prayer chain for our daughter in Korea and our family. This doll traveled all over Bowling Green as each special lady prayed over it asking for safety, health, strength to wait, and God's perfect timing to bring our baby girl home. Reading each card filled me with the hope I need.
                                                                         

 
           
This is a very special doll.  Under her skirt she has her name and scripture.

I am so thankful for all the support from friends for our adoption process. Words cannot thank these ladies enough. I cannot wait to share Ella with each of them. Thank you!                                                                                                                                                    

November WBC!

We received Ella' new well baby check for November today. She is doing great. There are really no changes but it has only been four weeks. She is not pulling up to a standing position yet. Maybe she will be slow to walk so her mommy and daddy can see! She already brings us so much joy!

New picture of my girl!

I opened my email before I left work to find a beautiful picture of our precious girl. Nothing could be better other than holding her in my arms. I can't wait for that day to come. I can't even imagine what it will feel like. I know it will be amazing.

The Lord knew we needed a smile today.

Ella's second care package

We finally mailed Ella's second care package this week. Hopefully she will get it before Christmas. My favorite thing we sent was the recordable story book Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I sure hope her foster parents let her hear it everyday so she will recognize my voice.  It is a bedtime book so maybe they will let her listen to it each night. With the incident that happened this week between North and South Korea we pray that war does not break out from this. It adds more worry and concern to our journey. Please pray for the safety of South Korea and its people.

Happy 9 Months Ella!

    I wonder what Ella is doing as I write. It is cold and rainy outside. Nolan and I are having a really good mommy day at home. I keep thinking about Ella today and that she is 9 months old. We have been working on her second care package this week. We thought we better ship it soon in hopes she would get it for Christmas. It is hard to decide what to put in it. We found a toy phone that rings and records our voices. My boys always loved anything with buttons and noise. We are also sending pj's, socks, a winter hat, a baby doll, and Christmas cards for both her and her foster family. I hope she enjoys! This wait is so incredibly hard.

I600 Approval!

     We received our I600 approval today in the mail from USCIS. She is now declared as our family member. We are one step closer to our baby girl. Come on Korea we need some more EP's!!! Please pray specifically for our EP to be submitted quickly and approved for the first of the year.

October WBC

  Tonight when I opened my email I had an October well baby check. Ella is still right on track. She is crawling and sitting up very sturdy. She also has two teeth on the bottom. I am so proud of her. We did not get a picture but hopefully in the near future I can see that precious face again.
   Thanks for all the encouraging words. I am better today now that I have had some time to process everything. I know this is on God's time. I am still just so disappointed. To see tears well up in your seven year old sons eyes is tough. It is hard to explain all this to him. Even tonight after tucking him in bed I told him I just opened her October baby check and she is doing great. His response was, " But mom we are missing it all." My Nathaniel thinks about things so much more than he ever lets on to me. However, he tells his teacher and other room moms everything. LOL!  He is my little thinker. As for Nolan I think he asks me everyday when Ella is coming home. When we go to a store he points to girl things and says, "Mom we need this for Ella!"The boys already love her so. She is going to be rotten! I can't wait!!!! It is going on noon in Seoul, Korea right now. I hope she is having a great day!

Disappointing News

    Well there was rumor this week that all the EP's are out for the year from Korea. An EP would give Ella approval to leave the country. We received the official email tonight that we would not be submitted until 2011. We are sooooo disappointed. I never thought we would get caught in this mess. We are to be prepared for this to add a delay up to 2 more months which now puts our time frame for February to April. We will miss our baby girls first Christmas, first birthday, first steps, and first words. This journey is an emotional roller coaster. I was hoping we were close to the end. Please pray that the Lord prepares her heart for our family and change.  The older they are the harder the transition becomes. We are so sad tonight.

Joseph's Hope Foundation - Adoption Message

Help celebrate! November is National Adoption month. Nat and I have had four of these precious girls in this video in our sunday school class. They are precious!

One Less: Celebrate Adoption

These families in the video are on the adoption forum I am addicted to. So many of them give support to others like myself who are going through the process. Help celebrate National adoption month in November.

A new picture!

     My heart leaps today to get to see that precious face! I get butterflies every time I look at her. We already love her so much. The picture was taken with her foster parents and the care package we sent to her. I love that she is holding the baby doll. I cropped the foster parents out for confidentiality reasons but they look so sweet. I wish I could call them and thank them for taking such good care of her. Ella looks so happy and healthy. May God bless this couple for doing such an amazing job of taking care of not only Ella but other babies as well until they get their forever families.                                                                          


                                                                             

New Well Baby Check!

     We were so excited to return home today from our trip to find a new well baby check on our email! She is doing great and is right on target for an 8 month old. She has grown one inch and gained almost 2 pounds. She is creeping, sitting briefly, reaches, transfers objects from hands, prefers foster mom, responds to name, plays peekaboo and patacake, imitates speech,  and uses single syllables. Unfortunately, we did not get a new picture yet. But if lifted our spirits to know she is developing fine.

                                                                         
     Nathaniel has been on fall break this past week and goes back to school on Wednesday. We enjoyed going to Jackson's orchard. It was a beautiful day! We took the boys to Cincinnati for the weekend and visited the zoo and stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge. The boys loved it! We will definitely have to go back sometime. Our dear friends Blake and Brittany went with us with their two boys. We are thankful for great friends to share good times with. Their baby, Luke, is almost 9 months which makes him only 4 weeks or so difference in age from Ella. I enjoyed holding him and thinking about Ella. I hate I am missing such a sweet age but being around another little one the same age is special thinking that she is doing the same things.

                                                                               

                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                           
     We ask for prayers for our EP submission. (Korean paperwork) We have not yet been notified. We really want approval before they run out of EP's for the year. Otherwise we will have to wait to January to be submitted. The wait is painfully hard. We just want her home!

     Happy 8 months this week sweet girl!!!!!!!
   

Happy 7 months Ella!

     It will be a month this week that we received the phone call. Ella turned 7 months last Thursday. I wonder if she is sitting up yet and how much she has changed already since the first picture.
     We finally finished the online adoption coarse we had to take. We are done on our end. Now we have to wait on our government and Korea's to finish the rest.
     This week in Korea they are celebrating Chusok which is the Korean thanksgiving. Families come together for a ceremony of thanksgiving to their ancestors and visit their tombs. Fathers enjoy a relaxing week's holiday and mothers are kept busy cooking special Korean dishes. I love that there is so much respect for family.
      Because it is the week of Chusok, Holt will be closed. There will be no news this week for sure. I can't help but think that she is not with her family. But our thoughts will be with her all week and thankful she will be with us in a couple of months. Keep the prayers coming for our I600 and emigration permit.
   

Legals and mailed I600

     Well it has been over two weeks since we got the phone call about Ella. I had no idea how much harder the wait would get after seeing her picture. We cannot get her here soon enough.
     Shopping has already taken place by multiple family members. We mailed her care package last week. I hope she gets it soon. They are usually good about making sure they get it and a lot of times they will send a picture of them with their gifts. We are definitely hoping to get a new picture.
     We received her legal paperwork from Korea Friday and we mailed I600 Friday as well to declare her as a family member. Everything is out of our hands once again. Everything else is in the hands of Holt Korea.
     We ask for prayers for several things: for her safety and health, for USCIS to issue our I600, for Korea to submit and approve emigration permit very quickly, that she would be able to come home in December, and for us as we wait. Is that too much to ask for? I hope not!
     A friend of mine had posted this post on her facebook page and I thought it was perfect for how we are feeling. " I am not the author of my own story. My narrative is being penned by One who is the definition of all that is wise, loving, pure, true, and good. But since I am in the story, I am often called to wait. So, Lord, once more I ask for the grace to wait not only so that I can get what I'm waiting for, but that I will become what you want me to become while I wait."
                                                                P.D. Tripp
   

Referral! Intoducing Ella Marie

                                                                                  
      How many of us really can recall a specific time that God is visibly working in our life? I don't think he could have been more visible than he was today. We started the morning off at the hospital to welcome our dear friends baby boy into the world. It is always a miracle when a healthy baby is born. We were excited to add joy to the most dreaded day of the year for us which is the day our sweet Cambell Grace was born. .It was such a joy to see his precious newborn face and his proud family.  That was just the beginning of the joy that is yet to come for the day.
      I spoke with my sister-in-law, Kerry, today on the phone and she said, "Call me when you get your referral today." We just laughed. I have had several friends telling me August was going to be our month. Brittany had even said, "Wouldn't it be great if it was the 24th!"
     Nolan and I had lunch with Nat, his sister Lisa, and her husband Doug, at Garcia's. We headed home because Nolan needed a much needed nap before we picked Nathaniel up from school. Shortly after getting him to bed my phone rang. It was the call we have anticipated all year.  Jessica from Holt told me she had a baby girls file in hand and she thought we would be interested. After filling me in on the details the tears started rolling. I knew this was going to be our daughter!!!!!! I called Nat to get home so that we could open her picture together.
     After rushing home we waited anxiously for the email to come through. I called due to my impatience and she said it would be just a few more minutes. Finally the email popped up and I cannot begin to explain the feeling of overwhelming excitement and joy. She was so beautiful and perfect in our eyes. Our first thought was how pretty she was. We read through all her family and medical backgrounds and so thankful that she is healthy. The doctors all described her as alert, fine, cute, and adoptable without any medical problems. We were speechless and overwhelmed by God's perfect timing.
    We are now in the process of acceptance paperwork. We ask for prayers that the next 4 to 6 months goes smoothly and that we can get her home as soon as we can. We hope to have her before her first birthday on February 16th.
     We questioned for a year if adoption was really what God wanted for us. Wow! has He made it visible or what? We are still overwhelmed with all He has done in our life over the past four years. This just really topped it off getting our referral on Cambell's day. Beth Moore stated in one of her studies once, "If you feel like God is calling you to do something and you don't do it, you are the one that misses out." We are so thankful He kept opening the doors for us so we did not have to "miss out." August 24th will always be a sad day for us but now it is blessed also with joy!
    We feel so blessed! Please pray for her and that we continue to get healthy well baby checks and that we can get her home! We are beyond thrilled! Nat's fortune cookie the day before said, "You will be crossing the great waters soon." We hope that is really soon!

   

Summer is coming to an end

We have had a great summer and it is coming to an end very soon. Our vacation in Vero Beach was wonderful. We enjoyed great quality time together and celebrated the Fourth of July with amazing fireworks over the water. Nolan loved the sand. Nathaniel enjoyed the waves and fishing.

Nathaniel started first grade two weeks ago and loves it. He is my social butterfly. I am not so sure he enjoys the academics. He has the teacher he really wanted. He is happy!

My  baby turned three years old on August 10th. He asked me for weeks, "Is it my birthday yet?" Broadway the clown came to help us celebrate along with friends and family.

Many have asked me have we heard any news on the adoption. We are still just waiting for that email to come along with our referral. I am trying to be patient. I feel like we are so close! I check my email and read the forum daily. Pray we receive our referral before Holt meets their quota for the year. Otherwise we will have an even longer wait time.We will keep you posted!

Summer Update

We are becoming very anxious for our referral as we might be closer than we originally thought. We know of three couples who turned in their paperwork just weeks before us has already received their referrals. I found this out last Friday night while everyone in the house was already asleep. I couldn't stand it so I woke Nat up and he said, "Don't get your hopes up." Well it has not worked because my hopes are pretty high these days.


The golf tournament for Joseph's Hope foundation was on Monday. It was a success! We had a half day at Crosswinds with 68 players and donations were also made. We hope to make this an annual event. Plan on coming next year! We are already thinking of other fundraisers. I think the next one might be at Park Mammoth shooting range with a competition.


I finished writing book reviews today and put them in the mail. We are required to read five books and watch a medical DVD for educational purposes. The only thing we have left to do before we would go to Korea is an online adoption class. It is hard to find the time when you have two little boys running around here.


I try to wait patiently. However, I am not very good at that. I know God has already chosen our baby and we just have to wait for her on his timing. Nathaniel is getting very excited too. When I told him about the other families getting their referrals he couldn't stop hugging me. He is going to be crazy about her even though he pretends girls are yuck!


Summer so far has been a blast! We have been swimming and at the lake a lot. We are headed on a family vacation with my in laws to Vero Beach. This will be Nolan's first big trip to the beach. Last time he had just started walking the week before. He is going to love the sand! Nat really dislikes sand on him so I have already made him take an oath that he will not whine about it for the boys sake. If he does one more shopping day for me! Ha Ha!


Nathaniel called Nat today and asked if he could buy me a gift. He said he would use all his money in his bank. He told Nat that I really wanted the just dance wii game , which I did, and that he wanted to go get it for me. I think it might be one of the best gifts I have ever gotten. We danced our hearts out. By the way it is an awesome workout. If you have not tried it you really should.


Keep the prayers coming for our baby girl! Maybe it will be sooner than we thought! We will keep you posted.