little itty bitty c

1.1.2010

2010-01-01T06:27:00.001-08:00

-Happy New Year!

Today is the start of a brand new year...there are going to be a lot of changes made this year...changes in our lives, our home and hearts!

One of those changes will be right here on this blog. Some thing that I have been pondering for some time. As most of you know, I have another blog...one that I have had for 4 years now. I post something about me, our home, our family or my business almost every day except the weekends. It's something that I love to do...it's my connection to family and friends. I am not sure why I decided to start a new blog and have it focus on just our adoption. To me this aspect of our lives should have always remained on my first blog. It should not have been separate because this is a huge celebration and something that I want to share with everyone. So after much thought...I will no longer be posting anything on this blog. Eventually this blog will be deleted. If you would like to stay in touch and follow our adoption journey with us...and of course the other aspects of our life...come on over to our first (home) blog....

you are more then welcome!!

picture via ali design

12.11.09

2009-12-11T05:57:00.000-08:00

-we are still around...busy with all sorts of activities...getting ready for the Christmas season...excited to be spending it at home for the first time ever...but will miss our families desperately! thank goodness for skype! we will still be able to see one another

on Christmas Day!

we've been picking up some small items for baby along the way...one of the items was this globe ornament. i could not resist it. we found it at crate and barrel and for some reason i just felt we needed to get it. i hope to start a collection of meaningful ornaments for baby and have a small Christmas tree in his or her bedroom each year. so i guess this is the first of many ornaments to come.

hope you all are having a wonderful December! we'll try to add some more posts before the end of the year...it's hard to post on nothing. hopefully next year will bring many wonderful and exciting posts to share! we are hoping and praying that we will not have to wait longer then june for our referral...but we know that it's all up in the air and could change any minute. so we'll see! thank you all for walking along with us on our journey to become three. the wonderful thing about this Christmas is knowing that next year...

there will be three of us as a family!

12.2.09

2009-12-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

-totally unexpected...

-While we were in Nashville over Thanksgiving break...my friend Julie and I went shopping with her mom and their long time family friend, Brenda. Little did I know that while we were shopping...Brenda was picking out a very special gift for Ben and I. Julie gave me the gift as we were leaving to come back home. She told me that Brenda had bought it and she wanted us to open it in the car. So that is what we did...inside the box was this Willow Tree figurine called "Our Gift".

This part of what the Willow Tree site says about our figurine...

Our Gift
Our bright, joyful gift!
When you bring a new baby home, all of a sudden you understand the excitement of being a family – this, now, is your family. It’s the start of something wonderful and new, and that, in and of itself, is a joyful gift.

Could this be any more perfect? We LOVE it Brenda!! Thank you so much for thinking of us!!!

XO!

12.1.09

2009-12-01T04:17:00.001-08:00

-it's December! can you believe it?

Okay...so I haven't been posting much on this blog...I really don't have much to share. We are

just waiting. We've been super busy with projects, work, holidays and plum.tree.studio....so that is good..at least we are passing the time away until our referral. I do have some things to share with you though! On Black Friday, I bought something very special for our baby...wanna see?

check it out here.

Hopefully more updates soon!

p.s. aren't these cute? check out martha's site for instructions!

11.20.09

2009-11-20T04:37:00.000-08:00

-seriously love these pants....the price is a little more then what i'd pay for these...but they are adorable!!

11.19.09

2009-11-19T02:03:00.000-08:00

-November's Little Itty Bitty C's Support Member is my Aunt Sue (Uncle Kevin and Brian)!

Aunt Sue (i mean they...) put together this sweet sweet...sweet package for us! It's funny...the whole time I could not believe we were already getting another package...where has time gone? Ok...back to the package. The desk top calender (secretly been wanting one of these for years now!) was wrapped in the beautiful paper you see behind it...the calender was packaged along with one fantastic gift card to Starbucks...a "portion controlled" package of Nana Bits (um...seriously it's good the package is small...these are so yummy you can't stop eating them!) and an adorable stuffed bird ornament! This package couldn't have come at a better time...we love it all!

Thank you so much Aunt Sue (UK & Bri!)!!!!
xoxoxo!

-hopefully this is a GREAT month....wink...wink...

-Isn't this card beautiful? I love it! If our little one is a girl...this will be framed for room art!

11.17.09

2009-11-17T04:09:00.000-08:00

-loving this sweet and simple nursery. my friend who was due on december 8th just had her baby on my sister's birthday (november 14th)....she had a precious little boy! it made me start to think more about our little one and the possibilities...wouldn't it be nice to get a surprise saying we were getting our little one sooner then what we thought. we are just so happy to know that our little one now has a friend who will be close to their age!

11.14.09

2009-11-14T05:44:00.000-08:00

{today is my sister's birthday....happy birthday cara!! hopefully this time next year...we can say aunt cara from our little c!! have a wonderful day! love you!}

10.6.09

2009-11-06T02:12:00.000-08:00

-we all love giveaways...and Grosgrain always gives us the best giveaways....but i thought this one was extra special...here's why...(via groisgrain's site)...Aunty Ollie came to exist after creator, Jodie Hampshire, adopted three beautiful children in 2007. You can imagine how much children’s bedding and clothing she and her husband had to buy! Most of what she found left her wanting: no to superheroes! No to clothes that made a child look like she was about to go clubbing. (amen to that!) Quickly she moved from bedding into clothing, as these beautiful prints were just begging to be used in children’s clothes! Friends started asking for clothes for their kids (and themselves!), and Aunty Ollie was born in 2009. here are some pieces from Aunty Ollie...

what's the giveaway? click here for more information....

Aunty Ollie $100 Gift Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

11.5.09

2009-11-03T05:53:00.000-08:00

-love the idea of multiple pieces of artwork framed...there are so many amazing prints that i love on etsy. it will be hard to choose which ones NOT to buy.

- i also really love this wallpaper!

but i also love the idea of wall decals...easy to remove when they outgrown the design...

there is a long wall in the baby's room that we will have to address when we start decorating the room. i love the idea of putting something visual on this long wall but there are so many wonderful ideas...choices...

11.2.09

2009-11-02T04:24:00.000-08:00

-I'M DONE!!

I finished my 8 hours of online Hague training!

It wasn't bad. I felt there were parts that we didn't need training on since we were so far into our adoption process. Some of the areas were about choosing the right country...obviously we have already done this. I have to admit that I was disappointed...South Korea was mentioned very little through out the whole training. There were parts through out the training that had videos of parents who had adopted. They were telling their experiences...and none of the parents had adopted from South Korea...most of them were from either Russia, China or Guatemala. The training did go pretty fast though. Ben still needs to finish his but he's close to being done (**update Ben has finished his!!). So this is our last step until our referral...

YEAH!!!

11.1.09

2009-11-01T05:27:00.000-08:00

-HAPPY NOVEMBER!

if the referral time still stays at 12 months from the date of our homestudy date...then we have 8 months until we see our child for the first time.....keep praying it stays this way or the wait gets shorter! :)

photo by mfayrephotography

10.30.09

2009-10-30T04:59:00.000-07:00

-HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Have a safe Trick or Treat night!

-hopefully this time next year...we will have our little one!

10.29.09

2009-10-28T20:17:00.000-07:00

-anniversary gifts

ben and i celebrated our anniversary on friday....and we exchanged gifts...well i had given him his a week before...i couldn't wait...wanna know what it was? check it out here...here are two items ben gave me that i thought were so sweet!

this print from dazey chic named: you dropped from heaven ....so sweet!

and this book...look at the title! the patterns in this book are so so sweet! i loved every item in the book! i don't knit that well but i am so hoping that this book will be easy enough for me to make some of these adorable items! i will have some down time in january and february...so i'm hoping i'll be able to make some of these! :) ben also got me some lip gloss and chapstick which he knows i'm addicted too and there is another gift that is still making it's way to atlanta...so i'll have more to show soon!

10.23.09

2009-10-23T01:23:00.000-07:00

-16 years ago today...Ben and I were with some friends swinging on some swings at a elementary school in our home town. It was dark out with just a little light from the near by parking lot and of course the moon overhead. there on those swings...Ben asked me to go out with him and I said yes...little did I know that I was saying yes to my future husband...the keeper of my heart.

Happy Anniversary B!!!

i love you!

10.22.09

2009-10-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

-October's Little Itty Bitty C's Support Member is my cousin Ally!

She handmade this adorable "C" pillow for us!! Isn't it the sweetest pillow? I can not wait to put this in the rocking chair! The colors are perfect and I love the stars...

Thank you so much Ally!!!

xoxoxo!

10.19.09

2009-10-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

-this week plum tree studio is participating in a giveaway...all you have to do is go to this site and enter your name in the comments section...you'll have a chance to win one of my hand appliqued shirts...24 of these very yummy looking cupcakes...OR 8 other prizes from other shops....so check it out here....good luck!!

10.14.09

2009-10-14T04:43:00.000-07:00

-Parent's 2009 Baby Names

here are some baby names that my parent's magazine suggested...

they actually categorized them...

Field Guide:

Boys: Ash, Aspen, Birch, Reed, Leaf

Girls: Iris, Calla, Ivy, Dahlia, Fern

The Color Wheel:

Boys: Navy, Indigo, Red, Sterling, Rust, Moss, Royal

Girls: Teal, Azure, Blue, Auburn, Jade, Sienna, Silver

The Working World:

Boys: Archer, Mason, Gunner, Ranger, Sawyer, Tanner, Gardner

Girls: Collier, Mercer, Parker, Baker, Reeve, Sumner, Turner

AND

The "Future" Winners for 2019:

Boys: Miles, Rowan, Lincoln, Eli, Jude, Cooper, Wyatt, Ryder, Lucas, Henry

Girls: Lila, Peyton, Lucy, Violet, Aubrey, Amelia, Piper, Ruby, Juliet, Harper

there were a lot more categories to choose from...but we found it all interesting while reading the names. so what do you think? see a name you like or one that you have already used?

10.13.09

2009-10-13T04:08:00.000-07:00

-a nesting doll for V...

I created this nesting doll pant set for V last Christmas. V and my sister were going through V's fall and winter clothes to see what still fit and lucky me...V still fits into her pant set! V has been growing and growing each year...it's hard to predict if she's going to be able to wear any thing for long...so I'm super happy she can wear it again this year!

10.12.09

2009-10-12T02:48:00.000-07:00

-GREAT NEWS!

Our I600 form was APPROVED!! YAY!

It's okay if you don't know what that is...it's our paperwork that we filled to be able to bring our baby into the states. "Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative". Our homeland security had to look over our homestudy that was submitted by our agency and our fingerprints so that they could determine if we were eligible....which it shows now...we were! Oh and the fingerprints were run by the FBI to make sure we were not felons.

The other half of the news is that we also got our

I-797 Notice of Action

in the mail on Saturday!!!

The I-797 basically says that the US determined that we were able to furnish proper care to an orphan.

It's great to have those all done...it's just one step closer!

10.10.09

2009-10-10T04:18:00.000-07:00

- i know there are some family members who think that we will be matched with a little girl...and i know that i have been showing more boy inspirations then girlie ones...so i wanted to show those members that i am keeping my eye out for girlie items too. ;)

-the sweetness of the floral wallpaper...loving the blues & pinks

-i love the "dream" banner with the bird decals holding it up...

i've had this picture for a long time. i love the combination of the yellow and green. i really love those curtains with the big pom poms...

-i adore this pretty pink armoire

so see...i'm thinking about the possibility of a girlie room too. ;)

10.9.09

2009-10-09T04:13:00.000-07:00

- i can not wait to find out our little one's birthday...i found this necklace on etsy and thought it would be perfect to customize once we found out the special day....i don't think i would keep the chain...i would add it to this necklace.

10.8.09

2009-10-08T03:29:00.000-07:00

-The night we arrived at Disney, our friend, Julie gave us a special gift. While they were at the Magic Kingdom's Not So Scary Event there was a Disney employee who was creating Happy Birthday buttons. It was just random...Julie's daughters received birthday buttons from the employee...who she later found out was named Kyle. She noticed the buttons were written in a different language and asked Kyle where he was from...he said Korea. She asked Kyle to do a special birthday button for Little C! She even videotaped him telling us what the button said. I love watching it! Isn't this the sweetest button ever! The button reads (I believe)

"We love you very much. Happy Birthday!".

When she showed me the video...my eyes teared up...our Little C now has a birthday button to wear on their first birthday!

10.7.09

2009-10-07T03:24:00.000-07:00

-Waiting

We are actually doing really well with our waiting time...AND we know that the next three months will fly by with all the activities that are planned and of course all the upcoming Holidays!

We met a couple named Raleigh and Bridgette last month at our Waiting Families Dinner that our Adoption Agency had put together. We were so excited to learn that they too were adopting from South Korea and that our time lines were so similar. We also exchanged blog addresses and after getting back from Disney......I was catching up on my blog reading and read Raleigh and Bridgette's newest posting.

Well after reading their recent post...it made me realize something we really had not thought of.

Currently our agency's referral time (this is the time we wait until we get a picture of the child we are matched with) is 12 months...(praying it stays this way).

So what this means...12 months is currently the amount of time that families are waiting from the time their Home Study was approved until the time they are introduced to their baby (via picture/information)...make sense?

Our Home Study was approved on June 26th. That means that if the wait time stays the same...we should be matched with our baby....in 9 MONTHS!

9 months...you know how fast just 9 months goes right? We honestly never looked at it this way until we read Raleigh and Bridgette's post.

10.6.09

2009-10-06T03:14:00.000-07:00

-We are back! We had a GREAT time at Disney with our friends and we can not wait to go back with our little one! The picture above is Ben and I with our fan-tabulous A Bug's Life 3d glasses. Don't be jealous... ;)

10.1.09

2009-10-01T04:57:00.000-07:00

-Seoul Forest in the Fall

Happy October!

9.28.09

2009-09-28T04:56:00.000-07:00

-just wanted to let you know...no postings this week...we are here....

9.25.09

2009-09-25T04:15:00.000-07:00

love this sweet shop called pixie dust decor. i never thought i'd like red and blue together...but it's growing on me. the crib bedding is super cute..but i love the tuffets (top pic.) and the poufs (last pic.)...these would be wonderful to have a couple for sitting on the floor..maybe more for me and ben rather the baby. ;)

9.24.09

2009-09-24T04:56:00.000-07:00

-icky bags

{i just found these bags on etsy...they are called "icky bags". they are wet proof zipper bags. after trying to make one for my sister and not being so lucky with the water proof fabric selections...i'm so glad i found this shop. i know we (and probably my sister too) will be getting a couple of these. they will be perfect to put in the future diaper bag for those unexpected messes or for the wet bathing suits. they come in three sizes...small...large and extra large...

9.17.09

2009-09-17T04:46:00.000-07:00

-custom

we decided that we really needed to get some custom cards made. cards that we could use for thanking the members of the Little Itty Bitty C's Support Committee. so we asked Julie over at UpUp to help us create something that was simple, modern and full of color. that's exactly what she did. i know the words that we used on the front of the card is a little premature...but both ben and i felt it was exactly what we wanted it to say. so those of you that have sent us a very special "waiting" gift already...your thank you card is in the mail...sorry it took longer for some of you to receive one...but i'm sure you understand now...

it was in the works. ;) xo!

9.16.09

2009-09-16T05:17:00.000-07:00

*those green parts...they are green beans.*

this past weekend i happened to find a bakery. after doing some research i found out it was Korean owned. the bakery had wonderful online reviews and the description of the bakery was Korean baked goods. so i told ben about it and on monday while i was was at the beehive, ben went to Mozart Bakery. i told him to bring back samples for us and something for our Waiting Families Dinner. i knew that if it was in fact a good bakery...ben would have no problem picking things out. oh and that is just what he did. he brought back a bag full of amazing goodies for us to try. he also brought back a fruit cake for our dinner that night (i wish i got a picture of it, it's not the type of fruit cake you get during Christmas time....super yummy!!). we were eager to try something so we decided on a bagel shaped sample called "red bean bread". we cut it in half and was surprised to see there was a reddish filling in the bagel part of the bread. i had no idea that the bread we were about to try was going to be SO good. we both thought it was delicious! we tasted the beans but there was a sweetness to it...yum!

we feel so lucky to have found this bakery and to have it right here in Atlanta. we know that we will be going back and when our little one comes home...he or she will become familiar with Mozart Bakery as well.

up next...we are going to try out the "Mart".

9.15.09

2009-09-15T06:40:00.000-07:00

-absent

there has been a lack of posts for almost two weeks...sorry but the good thing is..we've been super duper busy. one of the biggest events if you are not familiar with my other blog is that plum.tree.studio had it's first photo shoot over labor day weekend. it was a blast!! we had the photo shoot in nashville and my very good friend julie is responsible for it all. she found the location for me and she found a number of beautiful children to model plum.tree creations. it was an amazing feeling to see all these children with my creations on. i can't really describe how i felt..just full of joy and a little bit of shock. the above picture is of the "models" resting after a long day of smiling and being silly. they are munching on butter free popcorn and capri suns! lol.

a couple shots of the girls hanging together with their good friends.

a couple of the actual pictures used for plum.tree....

oh and this one? this is probably the closest picture ben and i have to a professional picture since our wedding...9 years ago. sad huh? lori (my friend julie's aunt) was the photographer. she did such an amazing job...we couldn't resist asking her to take a couple pictures of us.

so that is just one aspect of what we've been doing in the past week and a half. ben has had to travel quite a bit for work (Tampa, Birmingham and Nashville). we have so much more to share this week...we've got custom cards...a new korean bakery (yummy!)...and our waiting families dinner.

so stay tuned...we promise more for this week. ;)

xo!

9.3.09

2009-09-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

-amazing friends

September Little Itty Bitty Support Committee member is

my good friend from college, Stacy.

Her gifts were chosen based on her experience as a mother of three beautiful boys. There are no spill sipper cups, take & toss bowls & lids, take & toss spoons & forks, snack trap cups, divided dishes, shapes & color cards and a phone for the car.

These gifts only help to make us feel that our journey to becoming parents is so much closer and so much more of a reality then a dream.

Thank you Stacy, we love them all and will get so much use out of each and every item! xo!!

8.28.09

2009-08-28T04:56:00.000-07:00

{from a new favorite blog called adventures in south korea...}

happy friday!

8.26.09

2009-08-26T17:05:00.000-07:00

-fingerprinted...again

Today was our appointment at the Immigration Office. Both Ben and I had to go get our fingerprints done (again). It wasn't a big deal. Actually we got in and got out in less then a half an hour. We can now cross that off the list...yay!

Up next...our online training. That will start this weekend. :)

8.25.09

2009-08-25T02:10:00.000-07:00

-little itty bitty c's support committee month of august member....

sent these gifts...this book which is amazing and i love it! it's about our flag and why we fly it. perfect and so cute (see second pic for inside of book)! oh and we got this gift card to sheridan's...mine and ben's favorite custard place...one day it will be our little one's favorite place too!

who's the committee member that sent these precious gifts? it's rachel...my friend from cREaTe. a gal who came into my life at just the right time. she is the one who actually came up with the idea for the support committee. she has had this idea tucked away for 2 1/2 years. she originally put together a support committee for her sister who adopted from russia but the committee never got to "support" her sister because they got their referral so fast. so she tucked it away not knowing that one day in the near future she'd be using that idea on an internet friend. you see...rachel and i have been friends for over a year now and we've never met in person. we've only ever talked via e-mail. it's funny, we share so many pictures from present and past that it feels like i have met her in person...and that i've known her for so long. oh and we have SO much in common..that it's kind of scary..in a great way! but hopefully one day, rachel and i will be able to meet up. that...will be such a wonderful day!

**thank you rachel and family. we are so blessed to have you in our lives.**

to all those that are apart of the support committee, we can't thank you enough. each month has been amazing so far and we can't tell you how much it's filled our hearts with love. we appreciate it all. thank you so much!

8.24.09

2009-08-24T05:20:00.000-07:00

-a chest for little one. we picked it up on saturday at a warehouse sale that happens once a month. it caught ben's eye first and after looking at it with two other choices...we both felt it was perfect. it's simple..something we loved about it and the size was just right for the room. i think we might paint it later down the road. it's a really light green and i'm thinking we might want to give it some color....but that's for us to decide in the future. for now..it's going to sit under this window and look lovely.

8.24.09

2009-08-24T04:54:00.000-07:00

{thought this cupcake-cake was way too adorable not to share....i found it on designing moms blog...a blog that i've been asked to contribute to. so about once a month i will share a craft for children to create or something i've created that mothers/aunts/grandmas can recreate.}

8.20.09

2009-08-20T05:31:00.001-07:00

-a book-

we picked up many many years ago...i'd say at least 7 years ago...after going through some drawers in the guest bedroom the other day..i came across this baby book. b and i hadn't even started trying for a baby when we bought this book (back in st. louis)...we just knew that we had to have it....with its amazing watercolored illustrations...it was so unique..we were afraid that we'd never find something like it again...years later...now waiting for our baby...i'm so glad we decided to purchase it...everything about the book feels perfect for us. now i'm eager to start filling it out....let me show you some of the pages inside...they really are what made us buy the book...

don't you just love all of the illustrations? the mix of watercolors and pencil drawings...it's unique..it's perfect. one day soon there will be information put into this special book...

8.19.09

2009-08-19T01:53:00.000-07:00

-ollie graphic

-mommy calling cards

-birthday invites- love this one because it has ben's name on it and for some reason...the little boy looks like what ben did when he was younger. ;)

-stationary- with your kids names on it.

-some of the options you are given in order to customize...

i found this etsy shop off of a blog that for some reason...i can't remember the name of the blog now..that stinks! i LOVE all the illustrations and after looking through this shop...i knew i'd have to add it to my favorites. i will be going back to that shop for some things...but i also knew that my sisters would get a kick out of these customizable options.

might be good for Christmas gifts...hmmmm.

8.18.09

2009-08-18T04:27:00.000-07:00

i was so excited to see this as a new item in little seouls shop!

flash cards with korean spelling and pronunciation. i love it!

yup...these are going on the list...;)

8.17.09

2009-08-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

-GIVEAWAY

i posted about this on my other blog...but i thought i'd pass it along here too! there are 9-10 giveaways a day!!

check out the post here....

8.17.09

2009-08-17T03:56:00.000-07:00

-diaper bag

i've had this very bag on our list for a long time...i'm so glad it's still available...

i love skip hop bags.

8.14.09

2009-08-14T01:39:00.000-07:00

-nesting phase

so i think i'm going through my nesting phase of adoption...hey if pregnant women get it...so do adopting women. ;)

we are currently in the transition of moving all my plum.tree equipment and supplies out of the guest room and into the office/laundry room. this is so that we can start focusing on changing the guest room into the baby's room. because of this i've started emptying the office closet and i'm realizing how much stuff we have! i have taken many trips to the garbage can but still the dining room table is full (from just one closet). i'm feeling a very strong urge to have a nice big garage sale and get ride of 50% of the things we have. okay so that may be a little too much..let's say 25%. i think i will feel much better if we can minimize the amount and have some extra room to "grow" back into the house. i keep feeling that i want the house to be organized before the baby comes so that we can focus on the baby and not worry about clutter or feeling we are already outgrowing our home...so was i right?? it's the nesting phase?? lol.

8.13.09

2009-08-13T01:45:00.000-07:00

-so sweet

.. just found this blanket that looks uber soft...putting it on the list.

8.12.09

2009-08-12T13:51:00.000-07:00

-Happy Birthday!!!

one day soon...this will be one of little c's grandpas! :)

8.11.09

2009-08-11T06:19:00.001-07:00

-end of july's little itty bitty c's support committee member

yesterday afternoon...we were surprised to see a gift sitting in our mailbox for us! of course we quickly opened it the envelope and pulled out this decorated tin and inside the tin was a beautiful green pendent tucked neatly into some tissue paper! the pendent was hand picked especially for us by my older sister Cara. she picked this specific pendent because in Korean it means "love". isn't it perfect? oh and as a bonus...we got this key chain...i'm not sure what is says but i'll have to do some research to figure it out.

our first "Korean" gift! we love it cara!! thank you..xxoo!!

8.10.09

2009-08-10T02:39:00.000-07:00

-I600

we just got back from our week long trip home (pictures to follow)! in our mailbox was our letters waiting for us with the dates of our fingerprint appointments for the I600 forms. it's at the end of the month but we are happy that they are scheduled and that's moving along!

8.5.09

2009-08-05T01:44:00.000-07:00

-birthday cakes by cake girl

i first noticed these cakes on little seouls blog...then i did a google search for her and found her flickr site...just look at these amazing cakes designed and created by a woman in korea....called cake girl...wow!

8.1.09

2009-08-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

-happy first day of august!

a favorite of mine for quite some time...sarah jane

7.29.09

2009-07-29T05:55:00.000-07:00

-protecting the little toes

i've always loved baby shoes...with so many of our friends having babies soon...i just might have an excuse to purchase a precious pair...

7.28.09

2009-07-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

-a highchair that does it all...

do you remember our babys r us adventure i wrote about earlier? how the pregnant lady noticed us looking at this highchair (pictured above) and told us how she uses it for her soon to be three children....ben and i are still wondering if this is a good buy...will we get good use out of it or will we feel like we spent money in the wrong place? it's $175.00...i'm wondering...if our little one comes home around 8-12 months of age...do you really need a highchair and if so...for how long? i remember my older sister using one for a short amount of time...but this highchair grows with your child...see the pictures above...infant booster seat...then toddler booster seat...and last the youth seat....what are your thoughts?

7.27.09

2009-07-27T09:22:00.001-07:00

-love it! this quilt is beautiful and almost perfect for our baby's room...i just don't want to jump the gun...so i will add it to my favorites...

7.23.09

2009-07-23T01:32:00.000-07:00

-inspirational pictures.

i've had these for quite some time...there are different reasons why i kept each one...i'm hoping that we'll be able to use some of these ideas while decorating the baby's room.

-i loved how the white was so crisp and then there were pops of color. i loved how modern the orange looked yet there was the unexpected traditional feel with the blue punches of color...one of them being the table-it softened everything.

-our walls are currently similar to this color and i loved how the red frames popped off the wall. made me think of using pops of red...like a candy apple red...i thought about doing this color scheme with white if it's a boy.

-again it was the white that i loved, the bedding was beautiful and the window treatments were whimsical. i loved the combination of the green and yellow.

7.20.09

2009-07-20T07:19:00.001-07:00

-maria and me

b and i lived in st. louis for the first 4 years of our marriage...we have so many wonderful memories of st. louis..one of them being our friends, mike and maria.

this weekend we were able to spend saturday and sunday with them as well as our friends, cory and julie. we all met up in nashville to take part in the celebration of cory and julie's daughter's birthday bash (more on that later). mike and maria surprised us with a gift for this months little itty bitty c's support committee...something we were not expecting! they chose the perfect gift for our little one....you see...while living in st. louis....b and i were big cardinals fans (pretty much everyone who lives there becomes one!)....we went to soooo many games and always had a blast at every one!

maria and mike surprised us with a little tee that says" my first cardinals tee" and the cutest little ball cap with st. louis cardinals colors. i told maria these were absolutely perfect because now we will be able to give our little one a piece of our history!

**thank you so so much maria and mike!! you have touched our hearts and we thank you for your support in our journey!**

7.9.09

2009-07-09T02:14:00.000-07:00

-who gives a hoot?

my little itty bitty c support committee! i just got "oliver the owl" in the mail today...another gift from my younger sister who had the month of june. this was supposed to come to me last month but she had some complications with getting oliver...but now that he's here...it was so worth the wait!! he's perfect..fits in the palm of my hand and will go on a shelf in the baby's room (once we start putting it together). i'm feeling the love of our support committee! their desire to help us through this time of waiting for our child to come home is working...we will be saying this each month and i won't get sick of it...THANK YOU!!! xoxoxox!

7.8.09

2009-07-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

-seven ate nine

ben informed me this morning that it was 7.8.09...get it...seven ate nine (you have to drop the zero in order for this to make sense)? he was trying to help me with a post on my other blog...but i decided to use his idea here...

okay so that really is not the reason of my post...here's some good news! i love being able to give good news...our agency is currently working on referrals for families who have been waiting since July 08. do you know what that means? most families from July of last year have only had to wait 12 months for their referral...that's great news!!

ben and i are hoping that it either:

a. stays this way for us

b. the waiting decreases even more

either one would be soooo lovely!

the other good news...

we just got our I600 paperwork today. On to the next step...filling this form out and getting more finger prints. yay!!

i love being able to cross things off the list!

i hope you all are having a great day...

7.7.09

2009-07-07T11:20:00.000-07:00

-posting pictures

something that i didn't mention in my previous post was what our agency told us at our meeting last week. it was about posting referral pictures. i'm not sure how many people know about this because i see it all the time on the blogs that i frequent. our agency told us that there are specific countries who have hired "readers". they warned us of putting any information about our referral on our blog (unless it's a private blog). they said that these "readers" are paid to find public blogs/sites who post birth information or referral pictures....and if a "reader" does find a referral picture or birth information then they will inform the country and that country can pull your referral. they told us that this has happened to three families from a different agency they know of. a "reader" found their blogs and found that they had posted their referral picture/birth information...and these three different families lost their referral. i had never heard about this or read about this before. i informed our agency that almost all the blogs that i read have never mentioned this and felt it was very common to see a referral picture on an adoption blog. i asked if this is so dangerous to post the referral picture or any birth information...then why doesn't other agencies tell their clients? i believe they said it was fairly new?

so i'm wondering...has anyone heard about this?

7.3.09

2009-07-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

-first purchase for baby

it's early...we know. but we could not resist. the other day i featured this little ecofriendly guy on my other blog and both ben and i thought he was way too cute. so the sweet lady over at stitchface is creating us one...this is our first purchase for little c....so exciting.

the good thing...it's gender neutral so that if it's a girl or boy...won't matter.

7.2.09

2009-07-02T06:48:00.000-07:00

-perfect timing...

yesterday was the meeting we set up with our agency. we were able to sit down with our specialist and the director and discuss the issues we had been dealing with. we spoke of our frustrations and worries about the future of our adoption journey. ben and i talked about it the whole ride up to their office and felt that we just wanted to point out the obvious issue...lack of communication. we were able to discuss this matter with them and in the end...we both felt very good with the outcome of the meeting. the good news..our homestudy was completed and the next step will be the I600. this won't happen for a couple weeks but at least we know what's next.

the perfect timing part...well that was the gift we received in the mail (yesterday after our meeting) from one of the members of the little itty bitty c support committee....my younger sister jen. she sent us these amazing inspirational magnets! they are absolutely perfect for our journey and a wonderful reminder for our day to day thoughts. i've already placed them on the front of the fridge for both myself and ben to read every day.

thanks jen!! we love you!

7.1.09

2009-07-01T10:43:00.001-07:00

-happy july!

{artwork by laura george}

6.26.09

2009-06-26T05:05:00.000-07:00

-long overdue

i should have written this a while back but i guess i've been just mentally and emotionally exhausted by it all. you all are probably wondering what the heck i'm talking about.

ben and i have had a rough two weeks with our agency. the bad news: our home study still has not gone out. it's a month and a week since our specialist was here. our agency has been dropping the ball a lot lately.

before all this began, ben and i were talking about two weekends ago and realized that the one month mark was coming up. so on that sunday night we wrote our specialist to ask her how our home study was coming along and if it was going to be going out that week like she had stated it would.

we received an e-mail on that monday stating that she was still working on it and that she would let us know as soon as it was completed. she also mentioned that they were understaffed (which we had already known for quite some time) and that they are not able to operate at full capacity. we didn't like this excuse. we knew from our phone call with the director that they had hired temporary full time help (weeks ago) and to us this should not had been used as an excuse.

she then proceeded to tell us that in order for her to send our hs, she would need pictures from us. something we were not aware of. she gave us a list of the type of pictures needed and i feeling the panic...made sure to pick the ones needed and sent them to her that following day.

a day after this e-mail, she called me at home. she apologized but told me that the references (both personal and employer) had not gone out. my heart dropped. i could not believe this one step wasn't completed a month ago. this was last wednesday. so our poor friends and family...and employers had to scramble to put their words onto paper.

**to all those that were apart of this:**
Thank You!!! We so appreciate your speediness!!

we didn't receive the actual hs report for our review until tuesday of this week. the home study is a 9 page report about myself and ben. these 9 pages are put together using all the information that we gave our specialist a month ago...whether it be the 16 pages of questions we both had to fill out on various subjects of our lives or notes that the specialist took when meeting with us. this 9 page home study is the document that will be sent to south korea. so as you've probably figured out...it's very important information.

ben and i sat down to review the 9 pages and were really upset (tears were shed...by me) to see so many mistakes, items not filled in and sentences thrown into paragraphs with no rhythm or rhyme. we were so upset to see that we waited over a month for this report and it looks like it was thrown together in a couple days. ben and i have spent hours reviewing it and fixing the areas that don't make sense and the areas where information was missing.

ben and i will be meeting with our agency (next wednesday). we've called for an appointment to meet with both our specialist and the director. we really want to sit down with them and have a heart to heart. we are not feeling that they are giving us 100% and this process so far has been unbelievably stressful and emotional....and we haven't even started dealing with international paperwork yet.

we both feel that things need to be said in order for us to feel better about our agency and our specialist. things need to change....otherwise....this is going to be the longest and most draining journey of our lives. we hope and pray that this meeting will be the end of the ball dropping and hopefully they will be willing to give us their 100%.

sorry this is so long, like i mentioned...it was overdue. i hope you all are well and have a wonderful weekend!! xo.

6.24.09

2009-06-24T04:03:00.001-07:00

{the years go by so fast when you are truly in love with the person you are with.
for me...nine years were a blink of an eye.}
{happy 9th anniversary b.}
{xoxo}

6.16.09

2009-06-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

-you'll never know...

....how much just reading the words "support committee" mean to me. tears of joy stream down my face as i write this. don't get me wrong, i'm very curious to see what's to come. ;) thank you....it's made my day....my week...so much brighter and it's lifted my

this card was sent to me by three very special people...two of them being my amazing sisters and the other a friend who i have never meant in person but share a strong bond through the internet. having people like this in my life has helped me to stay strong and have kept me positive. they've been my outlet...and now they have gathered to do something special for me. i'm so touched. so appreciative.

thank you cara, jen and rachel!
i sooo look forward to what's to come. xo

6.11.09

2009-06-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

{loving ideas from this nursery}

6.8.09

2009-06-08T04:19:00.000-07:00

-update

we have now finally accepted that our agency kind of works at a snail pace when getting back to us on information. friday night ben received a call on his cell phone from the director of our agency. after talking with her for a while...he asked me if there were any questions that i'd like to ask her and i said yes!!! **referral time**.

we still had not heard back from our specialist on the estimated waiting time for a referral.

the director told ben that as of now it is 12-16 months. sigh...MUCH MUCH better then 18-20 months! she informed him that a couple recently received their referral only 12 months to the date of their completed home study! AND she mentioned that they only had to wait 2 weeks compared to the 3-4 months for immigration paperwork! she said that currently they are moving really quickly. let's keep our fingers crossed that this keeps up for us!!

ben also mentioned to her that our home study should be in progress and is supposed to be completed this month so that it can be sent to Korea by the end of the month. the director told him that she knew it was being worked on but she would definitely check in with our specialist to make sure that it goes out as soon as possible.

it's nice to get good information. so nice.

6.3.09

2009-06-03T05:11:00.000-07:00

-announcements & birthday invitations

one of my new favorite sites...paper culture.

it's bookmarked for the future!

look at some of the announcements and birthday invitations they offer.

there are a couple things that i love about them...

one: they created adorable announcements for pictures or ones without (got to love that!)

two: amazing graphics...unique for sure!

three: colors...love all the colors!

6.2.09

2009-06-02T05:39:00.000-07:00

-briar.claire

briar.claire is a sweet little etsy shop that was put together by two women who met and and became fast friends while adopting from South Korea. all proceeds go to help raise funds for their adoption. some great news to share...this past week...one of them received a referral for a new baby girl!

6.1.09

2009-06-01T05:58:00.000-07:00

evesimone

-Happy June!

so there's not a whole lot to report. we are waiting to hear from our agency on the I600 forms, ben and i have to start our online training sessions and get our passports. the good thing is this month our paperwork should be sent to South Korea! yay!!

5.29.09

2009-05-29T05:39:00.000-07:00

-little seouls

i bookmarked this shop a while ago while researching the web...it's my favorite online South Korean baby shop! i found it to be such a great resource. the shop is here in the us, so it is so easy to be able to purchase traditional South Korean items.

one of the items that i was very happy to see they offered was the hanbok...they have them for both boys and girls.

this hanbok is traditionally worn on the child's first birthday

(something i learned was that birthdays are called dols in South Korean)...here are pictures of hanboks....

they also offer rentals if you don't want to buy one...

little seouls also has their own blog which again is a favorite of mine...you can check the blog out here..

5.28.09

2009-05-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

-update...but really no update...

so we are still trying to get the accurate waiting time for a referral...on friday, i wrote our specialist and told her my findings and how i was still confused....she wrote me later that day and said that the wait "had" been 18-20 months and that she found an updated summary (probably the one i had referred to) and noticed it said 12-16 months. she thought this might be a typo and said she would talk to corporate about it and get the correct waiting period for us.

well i didn't hear back from her so i wrote her yesterday to find out if there was any update. she said she spoke with corporate and they had received some referrals and they were working on getting those out. then they would update the list to make it more accurate. she told me she'd let me know when she heard something. so i guess that is kind of an update? hopefully we'll know something by the end of this week...wait that is tomorrow...uh...probably next week?

5.28.09

2009-05-28T03:00:00.000-07:00

-sugar and spice

i found the sweetest dolls...they come in so many variations...

even pink and "petal" hair...

sugar and spice's shop

5.27.09

2009-05-27T02:20:00.000-07:00

-to get from the library

i first read about this book on a blog i have been following called korean-adoption. after a day or so i decided to look into it...so i did...here is a quick summary...the story is about a little girl who counts down the days until her mother comes home from korea with her new baby sister.

another book to add to "the books to get" list...

5.26.09

2009-05-26T05:07:00.000-07:00

-artist admiration...

i was looking through an art site called l'affiche moderne and came across this artist called marion billet...i loved her work immediately...after looking them over..i realized why i was so fascinated with them...most of them reminded me of the great richard scarry...remember his books??..take a look and let me know what you think...oh and check out her website...there is even more examples of her work!

5.25.09

2009-05-25T05:10:00.000-07:00

-sign up for forum and referral time frame

this past week i decided to get involved with bethany's adoption forum. i was interested in finging out more information from others. so i posted with a title called "we are the newbies here." the first comment i got was from a gal named "danac". i did a double take. that wasn't me...she of course welcomed us and said she was glad that she wasn't at the bottom of the list anymore. which meant we were. how weird for her to be one step ahead of us and have the same first name and last initial. her homestudy was done just one month prior to ours. ironic?

well after looking through the forum...i came across a post that gave updated travel calls for a number of members. it was nice to see because it also listed their homestudy date and referral date...this gave me an idea as to how long they waited for their referral...which was nice because most of them waited between 14-16 months...much less then what we were told.

now i know that referral lengths vary but after being told from our specialist that our wait would be 18-20 months for our referral..i was not happy with this. during our first initial meeting she told us that at the earliest we would have our child home at the end of next year (2010). we were okay with this. we also had received a packet in the mail from bethany. in the packet there was a summary sheet of all the countries they worked with. south korea's referral wait time was listed as 12-16 months (summary sheet was updated 2/09). weeks later...during our orientation we received another packet with another summary sheet that said the same time frame (again updated 2009). so can you see why i was not happy with 18-20 months? so i questioned it. our specialist told us that they had mentioned this time frame in our orientation...we didn't remember that. so we questioned why all our summary sheets say 12-16 months. she wrote back that she was checking with corporate to make sure that wasn't a mistake and that the 18-20 months was what it has been for quite some time....

i have to admit that i'm feeling that it's closer to the 12-16 months rather then the 18-20 months...of course this is based on what i've seen in the forums for the 2008 families who are getting their referrals this year..

we'll see....

5.21.09

2009-05-21T05:27:00.000-07:00

-too much fun...on modern lola...a site i just found! look at these...

personalized art that you get to create...

you can pick your own graphic...

then the color combo, font and color of font....i love it! oh and then there was this option....

-more personalized art...but not just with the name...

you can customize the hair color and skin tone as well. oh and there are a bunch to choose from for both boys and girls..

5.20.09

2009-05-20T05:48:00.000-07:00

-searching

i've seen this tee before a couple times....i'm not sure where i've seen it...but i've been trying to find it for some time and for some reason i just happened to find it today...

it's the "chosen" tee...created by tiny revolution...

they also have these...which i love!!

"ill change the world someday"

i know we'll be ordering these in the future...

5.19.09

2009-05-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

-IT'S DONE!!!

our homestudy that is! we had it today at 4:00 and it went really well...she, our adoption specialist, was here for an hour and a half. she met the dogs....noah sniffed her and then came over to ben and i to lay by our feet....but arden who is typically the shy one...latched on to her right away. arden sat on her feet...she kept nudging her elbow for more petting and then she would sit right in front of her and look back at her while she spoke to us....so not like her! it was comical.

we sat through a series of questions about our house and our neighborhood. i'm not sure why some questions were asked like if our heat was gas or not. but we answered them very easily and then gave her the grand tour....that took all but 5 minutes. lol. we showed her the room that will be turned into a baby's room and showed her items that i had completed for plum.tree. she liked the elephant onesie. ;)

after the tour, we gave her our big check and all the (completed) forms and paperwork that was needed for our homestudy packet. i asked her what was next and she said the I600 form for Immigration. she said that she would go back and in the next month would start inputting our information in the packet that will go to South Korea. this will take at least a month to do so she guesstimated it would be completed by the end of June. once it's completed...it will be sent to South Korea.

before she left i asked her the two questions that i had been thinking about all day...

1. how long will we wait for a referral picture?

2. is it typical for first time parents to be referred a boy...or has it been a mix?

her answers:

1. "between 18-20 months" would be our waiting time for a picture/referral of our child. that means between December of 2010 to February of 2011 we will find out if we are having a boy or girl. of course this is a guesstimate...so it could be shorter or longer. after we receive our referral then we will wait between 3-6 months before our child can come home. this could be any where from march 2011 to august 2011 before our little one comes home...of course this could all change based on the referral.

2. this was a tough question for her...she didn't really have a good estimate to give us. she said "maybe 60% boys and 40% girls"...based on what i have been noticing on my research parents who are first "timers" tend to get a boy referral...so we will see. :)

sorry for such a long post...but we have finished the last of our extensive paperwork so we are very happy!! up next...the I600 paperwork, passports and the online classes.

5.18.09

2009-05-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

-hope you had a good weekend!!...

our visitors (aka dad and dawn) just left today...we had such a good visit...you can go to my other blog to see some pictures..

tomorrow is the big day...our home study...

so today i started to make sure all the papers were filled out and all the documents needed were in their place. of course i had to recheck the pile of papers like four times...the first time i noticed a couple things missing and then found them and stuck them in the pile...then i decided to put them in order based on the "checklist" that bethany gave us...and of course..while putting them in order...on my lap...i spilled them all over the floor...back to square one. they are finally in their correct order. phew.

i'll finish up sweeping the house and cleaning the bathroom tomorrow before our meeting...just to make sure everything is fresh and clean.

more details tomorrow...after the meeting of course. ;)

5.13.09

2009-05-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

-good news!!

...our home study is set up for next Tuesday the 19th.

which means when our guests leave on monday...i will be cleaning the house...making sure it is tip-top shape for the homestudy the following day...no problem. ;)

we are so excited to finally get this on the calender and know that we are getting closer to getting this first part done.

we hope you all are having a good week...it's been really nice here for the past couple days...but now it's all overcast and grey. hopefully it breaks up today so that when my dad and stepmom come tonight...they will be able to enjoy the nice weather that we've been having.

have a good week!!

5.11.09

2009-05-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

-wouldn't these make the best adoption cards??

they were created by lovely design...she put these cards together to help create a playgroup in her neighborhood. i love all the different faces, hair styles and outfits that her and her partner came up with. the first time i looked at these...i thought wow...what great adoption cards these characters would make!

5.10.09

2009-05-10T03:57:00.000-07:00

-HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!-

5.8.09

2009-05-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

-"OUCH"

ben and i had our physicals this morning...bright and early...back to back. we had the usual...temperature...blood pressure...blood work...xray for tb and an updated tetanus shot....our arms are still throbbing. feels like someone punched my arm really hard. ouch. but we are done with that part of the paperwork...now it's up to our doctor to send it to bethany.

we will be getting our house ready both inside and out for our visitors next week. we were hoping that we'd be able to squeeze in our first homestudy either monday or tuesday...but we didn't hear back from our specialist. so hopefully we'll still be able to get on the schedule for tuesday or wednesday at the latest. this way our house is in tip top condition. ;)

oh and we wanted to thank those who gave us ideas for the adoption cards! it was sweet of you all to take the time to send us links! i think we are going to have to make them ourselves. it's hard when you have an idea in your mind and nothing matches up to it...i'll post the cards...once they are all completed!!

have a great weekend! oh and HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to our mothers, sisters and grandmothers and all of you other mothers out there!!

5.6.09

2009-05-06T19:40:00.000-07:00

-okay really...there are no good adoption cards out there....from our searches...they are all cheesy...cheap looking and man are they slim pickings.

seriously...if anyone knows of a good site to look at that i may not have found...please forward it on. i had some time at work today to look and it made me so sad to see the results. i'm thinking of talking to some of my favorite etsy sellers to see if they'd be interested in starting a special line of adoption cards...we'll see how that goes...

the reason why we are looking for cards now is that ben mentioned sending out some cards to those family members of ours who are not computer savvy...to let them know of our adoption. you know how they have cards out there for people who are expecting...

typically the front of the card will say:

we're expecting!

well we were thinking of a card that says...we are adopting!!

but we've hit a road block. from our searches...there are no such cards.

so we've asked our good friend who is very talented graphically to help us create a special card...we'll see if he's up for the challenge. in the mean time...if you know of any such site that has modern adoption cards...send us the link. ;)

5.5.09

2009-05-05T07:09:00.000-07:00

-fingerprints are done!

ben and i went on saturday to our local ups store to have them done. if you haven't had them done since elementary...it's much different now! no more ink mess..it's all computerized...surprise! i just hope they all scanned correctly.

i have been reading on some people's blogs that they've had to have them done twice because their first set got rejected...i'm praying ours go through with no kinks. :)

next up on the list...let's get -a- physical...our doctor's appointments are friday morning.

wish us luck!

5.4.09

2009-05-04T06:34:00.000-07:00

-birth country maps

i found these as i was researching south korea. this is north/south korea map is hand painted in water colors. all maps are always hand painted and never a print. you can get them personalized by the artist with your child's name, arrival date, and the city or village of where he/she was born.

this artist has a wide selection of countries to choose from to...like russia, china, kazakhstan and more.

you can get them here.

this is on the list of something ben and i talked about getting for our child.

i have to say that i would frame it differently...white mat with white frame...help the painting pop more and lighten it for our child's room...that's just me.

5.1.09

2009-05-01T03:41:00.000-07:00

- Happy May!

pictorialboom

this weekend we are doing a bunch of activities....first off....

getting our fingerprinting done....can you believe we get them done at a ups store? me either...

then the rest of the weekend is all about ben...

it's his birthday on sunday

so we are going to be celebrating all weekend long...hope you have a good weekend!

4.29.09

2009-04-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

-ben is done with his self study! yay!!

after his meeting, we compared questions and answers and found out that we said a lot of the same answers...pretty good huh? i guess that means we know our relationship pretty well after

oh about 15.5 years.

....on to the next step...getting physicals, fingerprints (hopefully this weekend) and our passports completed plus a couple more forms to fill out..then on to our home study!!

4.27.09

2009-04-27T14:29:00.001-07:00

-i'm done with my individual study! yipee...one step down...

it lasted about an hour and a half. we talked about some of the questions that were on the questionnaire and some random other questions that she asked me to go into detail. it was not hard in any way. lol. over all i think it went really really well. we talked a lot about the korean communities here in atlanta and how they will be such an amazing resource for us when our child comes home. our adoption specialist is korean and suggested maybe having a "field trip" to one of the local korean food markets. this way she could show us around and give us tips on how to shop for specific foods. i of course said yeah let's go!

so up next...ben's individual study which is tomorrow. then on to the home study...we've been working away on all of the paperwork and medical records and such. we still need some other things done like our passports, fingerprints and blood work....but it's coming together!

4.24.09

2009-04-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

christin haiti

-I'M DONE!!!

i finished my 11 page questionnaire! i go on monday to to have my individual meeting then b goes on tuesday for his....

one step almost down...next up home study...gulp.

4.21.09

2009-04-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

-NAME-

have any ideas? i'm sure there are people who do..one of them being a 4 year old that i know...she's been brainstorming. so here we go...got some good names for a boy or girl? remember our last name...like i mentioned in my last post...it's not as easy....lol.

4.20.09

2009-04-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

anatol poiata

- 11 pages

that is how many we each have to fill out for our individual study. yes...11 pages of questions. there are questions galore on this study and i'm finding it hard to write my answers. i know what i want to say but you'll be surprised when i say it's been hard for me to think of the exact words to use.

maybe i'm thinking to much on each question...maybe i'm trying to hard to make each answer be perfect..maybe i've got writers block? hopefully all my words come out in time for thursday's deadline! my individual study is next monday and i have to give her my questionnaire by friday morning.

wish me luck....

oh and maybe later this week we'll have you guys give us ideas on names...we have some in mind...no we are not going to tell...but i think it would be fun to hear your ideas...they have to sound good with our last name...trust me...it's harder then it seems. what do you think? up for it?

;)

4.16.09

2009-04-16T17:55:00.001-07:00

-we are back from our meetings with the agency...

our first meeting was with the adoption specialist who we found out will be our person through out the journey. we sat down with her and discussed the home study packet that she gave us. it's basically a large sum of forms to fill out with information on us like our medical background, financial background and more. while we were talking to her, we found out that she will actually be the one doing our homestudy. she was very informative and after talking for over an hour with her...we felt better about the whole process. we now have some one's name, number and e-mail address who will know our process and we'll be able to contact with questions.

we even set up an appointment for our individual studies for two weeks from now. we have to finish all the forms she gave us, get our birth and marriage certificates...get the dog's vaccination paperwork from the vet and have our blood work from the fertility doctor transferred over to paperwork by that next appointment...but we can do it!

what was great that we found out was she is actually from korea and her husband and her will be adopting from there as well. so she is going to be going through the same steps as us...probably sooner then us but this will really benefit us in the long run. she will be able to tell us first hand what to expect. she also loves dogs...another plus since she is the one who will be doing our homestudy...yay for noah and arden!

after the meeting with her we went to dinner because we had an hour to kill before the introduction meeting. this meeting basically was about the agency and how they work..the different countries that they deal with...which is amazing how many they do deal with...and the steps of adoption. ben and i felt a lot more knowledgeable about the process after both of these meetings and feel very anxious to get everything done and ready for our individual studies!

so thank you for all the prayers, the positive thoughts and the long distance hugs!

we needed them all and they all worked!!

4.14.09

2009-04-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

-FRUSTRATION-

i haven't written anything because my growing frustration would only have meant a negative post. but it's time to finally let it all out.

as you know ben and i sent in our formal application almost three weeks ago. since then we have been trying to find out if it's been approved and/or to get any information on how long the process takes. we have e-mailed and called our agency only to get no answer. this of course d-r-i-v-e-s me CRAZY!

so finally this morning some news! ben told me that our check had been cashed by the agency on Saturday. i was actually relieved to have this information but this of course made me wonder why no one had contacted us on Monday to let us know any information. after my doctor's appointment this morning i came home hoping that we had a phone message or an e-mail explaining that our check had been cashed etc. but nothing was waiting for me. so i called and got a lady on the phone. after describing my situation and the reason for my call she was able to tell me that our formal application had been approved. she said that we should have been contacted by her or the director letting us know this but she was out all last week. i asked what the next step was and she said a formal meeting...

okay...let's set this up...let's get this moving was my thoughts!

so we set up an appointment for this Thursday.

then i asked her about the waiting list. we were told by the director that their Korea program has a waiting list and that there was one last spot open for this year. she informed us that in order to keep this spot we would need to send in all of our appropriate forms. this of course is the formal application, check and picture which they received three weeks ago. so the lady on the phone told me that in their program there are only SEVEN families per year that are put on this list...only SEVEN. we got on the list for this year which means....(keep in mind we did not know any of this...we just knew a list)...that we are able to have our home study done this year and that at the Earliest we would bring our baby home by the END OF 2010.

gulp...lots of tears...gulp....

so come this Thursday we are sitting down with them and discussing the rest of the process and supposed to get our home study packet. we also will be going to an Orientation Meeting after the Formal Meeting on Thursday. so we will see how we feel after all the meetings. I am truly praying that this agency will step up their game. we have NOT been happy with the way they have been in the communication department. i only hope that it's been because of Easter and Spring Break....i'm praying that this will all work out. another gulp and more tears.

it has been a touch couple years for us in this aspect of our lives and i pray that it only gets easier and not harder.

so there's the big update...

please do pray for us and our journey. we appreciate it all.

xxo.

4.1.09

2009-04-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

{calobee}

-it's a new month...happy april!

this blog so far is very hard to keep flowing...you know my other blog typically has something new posted every day..it kills me not to have anything really to write and tell you all.

hopefully in the near future it will start flowing!

we did however get a call from the agency...our first phone call...i of course was not home. boo. but the lady said that they did receive all of our forms and our packet in the mail...i was wondering...she also said that everything looks good so far...once they are done reviewing our application and other items...they will call us to set up our first meeting....yay!

3.29.09

2009-03-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

-sorry for not updating you all on everything...well actually there's not much to tell.

oh...one thing that i didn't tell you in the last update was that we were told we should get our applications in immediately because the day after we got word there was only one spot left on the korea list...another couple came into the agency that next day and they were very interested in korea too. so of course we kicked butt and sent everything in as fast as we could....we didn't want to risk losing the spot that was being temporally held for us.

during this waiting period...a visit of two special people couldn't have come at a better time. jenny and shiloh are here and have been since last tuesday. they are visiting us for a whole week and we are LOVING IT! it has been wonderful spending time with them both and it's helped us take our mind off the anticipation of the formal application approval.

i am hoping that we'll find something out this coming week...if we do..you'll be the first to know. ;)

hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

3.25.09

2009-03-25T04:09:00.000-07:00

-an update-

we got an e-mail back from the "lovely" lady at bethany...saying there WAS one last spot left on the Korea Wait List.....

oh and WE GOT IT!

thank you lord for listening to our prayers.

so last night we submitted our formal application. phew.

i will hopefully take the rest of our forms and information with our first check to their

office tomorrow.

next step...approval of formal application and a social worker is assigned to our case...

3.24.09

2009-03-24T03:04:00.000-07:00

-good news...

we've made contact with someone at bethany!

we are in the process of filling out the formal application and the many other forms.

the nice lady who e-mailed us said that with Korea they have a waiting list. tomorrow she is going to check and see if there is an open space on the list for us. of course we wrote her back saying please please please have a space for us! we really don't know what the whole list means for our waiting time but we are praying that we get on this year's waiting list!!

she also told us that with Korea we can not specify gender (no problem...girl/boy..either way we would just love to have a child) and that all of the children are close to 12 months when they are brought home to the US. (this to me was a little hard, i have imagined we would bring a child under the age of one home...sort of in the baby stage still.) we will see.

for now, we are happy...the ball is rolling...our forms are almost complete and well...we are moving forward! yay.

hopefully we'll have more information to share soon. hopefully good information. ;)

~side note: hopefully spelling the lady's name wrong on a return e-mail doesn't give us deductions...??

3.23.09

2009-03-23T03:28:00.000-07:00

-a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step-

-oh it's so true Lao - Tzu! we received a card in the mail this weekend from my friend rachel...receiving this card makes the journey oh so much sweeter! thanks rachel!

3.20.09

2009-03-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

~tom b~

- i had a huge order that needed to be shipped today so i picked up the passport forms at the post office. the great thing about our post office is that we can get it all done there...picture, pp book etc. yay!

-in other news...we are just waiting for the social worker to call us. our special page on bethany.org said they would be in contact with in two business days...it's day 3. so we may call...but for now...we are waiting...