Our Adoption Story

Owl

2010-11-04T22:57:00.002-05:00

Halloween

2010-11-04T22:51:00.001-05:00

Library Time

2010-10-27T23:01:00.002-05:00

One of the highlights of Owen's week is going to story time at the public library. Here are some pictures of a recent trip.

2010-10-15T21:23:00.002-05:00

Summer Recap

2010-09-13T22:47:00.006-05:00

Then and Now

2010-05-09T17:23:00.002-05:00

I tried to capture a couple of pictures yesterday to show "Then and Now." These days it is hard to "capture" Owen at all...he is on the go. He is a lot of fun! He's still prefers to push his car rather than drive it and loves to be outside. Ok...one final picture! Here he is "helping" Daddy with the yard work.

Union Pacific Steam Engine 844

2010-04-26T23:05:00.004-05:00

Guess who go to get up close and personal with a real Steam Engine train?

Union Pacific Steam Engine 844 toured through our area this weekend. We took Owen to see the parked engine on Friday night and then on Saturday, we drug him out of bed and took him to the railroad crossing to stand and watch the train go by. The look on his face was priceless. His eyes were huge and his jaw was on the ground as the train whizzed by us in about 16 seconds. When it was gone his phrase was "More train!" He has been telling everyone since that he saw a "BIG TRAIN!" Good times!

Easter Photos

2010-04-07T21:40:00.009-05:00

You think some body had fun on Easter? I don't know if he had too much candy or what, but he sure was happy!

Grammy and Grampy came down for Easter lunch and brought this fabulous Elmo balloon that is bigger than he is!

These are the twins that Grandma watches a couple of days a week. Can you believe that they all three had color coordinated outfits? I promise, we didn't plan it.

Happy 2nd Birthday Owen

2010-04-07T21:40:00.005-05:00

Today our sweet boy turned 2! In this video he is opening a dinosaur train. Video is complete with his best Dino "Roar!" We celebrated at home tonight with a cupcake cake (Elmo and Big Bird), his favorite meal (Meatballs) and presents. We had a great time. Here is a collage of all the fun!

Now...one quick story about how smart he is. Of course I think he's smart...I'm his Mom! I was getting the Easter stuff ready for storage and he asked to play with the colored cups we used for dying eggs. I walked away for a minute and he came and found me to show me what he had done. He put the appropriate color plastic egg in matching plastic cup (green eggs in green cup, blue in blue and so on). I was amazed!

We feel so blessed to be Owen's parents. We never forget what a miracle our family is. My prayer for Owen is that he grows up to be a man who loves God and whom God uses.

Thank you to all of you who love us and support us! We are overwhelmed when we think about how many people support us and love our little boy!

Easter Egg Hunt

2010-04-03T14:08:00.002-05:00

We went to the Mayor's Easter Egg Hunt today and Owen had a blast! Owen hunted eggs. Each kid was given an egg crate and escorted into the hunting area to pick up a dozen eggs. Owen hunted with Hannah and as you can see from the video, he had so much fun, he wanted to throw the eggs back down so he could pick them up again. He got up close and personal with a fire truck. He went down a GIANT inflatable slide that looked fun from the ground than it actually was from the top (when he got to the top, his Daddy said Owen said "Momma").The Easter Bunny made an appearance but Owen wouldn't sit with him, but he gave him a high five and fist bump. Momma and Daddy ate hot dogs and he ate a WHOLE bag of HOT chips. They were too spicy for me, but he loved them! He fell asleep on the way home...he's still there now.

A Few of My Favorite Things

2010-03-29T22:38:00.006-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posting...someone keeps us very busy and we love it!

Here a few "Oldies but Goodies." These are a few of Owen's favorite things. His "night, nights", trains, cars, really soft things, balloons, "my car", snow and "weeee." Owen loves to play and laugh. He is so much fun. He tries to say everything we say (we have to be careful). My favorite things he says are helicopter ("helicopper"), police car ("plice car"), library (can't even start to type how he says this, you have to hear it for yourself). Really, he says the cutest stuff.

One favorite thing that we don't have a picture of is Elmo. I have no idea where he got this, but he has suddenly developed a love of Elmo. He has a small Elmo that goes where ever he goes. He accidentally left Elmo home today and you should have heard him squeal when he saw him at home. So cute...it was like a long lost friend.

I promise to be more faithful with my posting. Watch for more updates soon!

Gotcha Day

2009-12-23T23:24:00.003-06:00

Today marks the one year anniversary of Owen joining our family. We are so in love with this little guy. It is amazing to think about how much he has grown and matured over the last year. We are all forever changed!

We celebrated tonight by spending time at Grandma and Grandpa's with Aunt Amy, Uncle Craig, Turner and Carter. We had cupcakes for dessert along with presents. Those pictures are on the right hand side of the collage.

This week has brought back a flood of memories for us. It is hard to believe that it has been a year already. It is a year that we will we treasure and never forget.

We are truly blessed!

It's Final!

2009-11-07T21:17:00.002-06:00

November 4, 2009

We Have a Winner

2009-11-01T16:01:00.002-06:00

Adoptive Families Magazine
2009 Photo Contest Runner Up
Photographer: LeighAnn Hasley

Thanks LeighAnn for making such wonderful pictures of our family. We have always been so pleased with all the pictures you have made...you are truly very talented!

check our her website
www.stillmomentsbyleighann.com

or check out the magazine website
This photo was chosen as a winner out of more than 5,000 entries. What fun!

Halloween Panda

2009-10-31T21:40:00.002-05:00

SLIDE!

2009-10-31T15:19:00.002-05:00

Happy Fall Y'all

2009-10-05T21:42:00.005-05:00

These are pictures of Owen and his Daddy at the Pumpkin Patch....Momma was the photographer. As you can see...he's learned to walk with his hands behind his back! Isn't that the cutest? I think his favorite part of the day was the riding in the wagon. You can see the excitement on his face. We LOVE fall at our house! I have made plans to go to all the Fall Festivals/Pumpkin Patches we can find. It is a great excuse to get out in this pretty weather.

Ok...one other quick picture. I got Owen dressed this particular day and realized he was dressed just like his Daddy would be for a typical day of work. I tried really hard to get a picture of him and this was the best one I got.

We are so in love with this little guy! It is hard to believe that this week he will be 18 months old. He loves trains, balloons, balls and is a very happy little boy. He is trying to talk, mostly just one word at a time and mostly when you say "Can you say..." he will repeat you. He tells you when something is "All Gone," and he asks for his balloon or points out balloons in a store or wherever he happens to see one. He can identify pictures in a book when you ask "Where is the...," and just yesterday, he out smarted me by showing me it was a sticker on the bottom of his shoe making the noise. I thought I left tissue in the toes of his new shoes! He is very loving and a good snuggler - we love that!

We are so blessed to be his parents!

Celebrations!

2009-09-16T22:28:00.006-05:00

We have done a lot of celebrating lately! Here are a few:

My niece Brittni's Baptisim
We are so proud of her for making the best decision she could ever make, to follow Jesus for the rest of her life!

Grammy's Birthday

These pictures were taken after dinner at her favorite restaurant, P.F. Chang. As you can see, trying to get a picture with all three grandkids...well it's trying. She was thrilled with her "His and Her John Deer tumblers."

Family Reunion in Missouri

We had so much fun on our trip to Missouri. Not only did we spend time with Grandpa's family but we celebrated Grandpa's birthday too. What a great weekend it was!

Finally, can I just say, "Come on Autumn!" We love fall at our house and we are so ready! Here is a picture to get you in the mood for Autumn, if you aren't already.

Owen's Weekend

2009-08-30T22:25:00.004-05:00

Owen attended his first birthday party for a friend this weekend. Actually...friends. His friends, B&B turned 1. After the party, Daddy said "Let's go to the park." We had a blast. Owen loved the slide the best. Sorry that the pictures a bit blurry, it is hard to catch a moving object!

The best thing about the birthday party for Owen...balloons! He went crazy for the balloons and thank goodness he got to bring on home. He's not smiling in this picture, but he loves his balloon! Who knew something so simple could make him so happy.

Hope you all have a great week!

Eight!

2009-08-25T22:17:00.007-05:00

8...# of months Owen has been home! Can you believe it? We sure can't!

8...# of months Owen lived in Korea, in the loving care of his foster family.

8...# of teeth Owen is cutting at one time! Can you believe that? All four one year molars AND all four eye teeth are in various stages of making an appearance.

Owen is doing great! He must have a miserable sore mouth, but most of the time he is happy and bubbly. Finally yesterday his Grandma got a peek in his mouth to see what was going on and much to her surprise, she found a mouth full action! He will soon have a mouth full of teeth!

I told him that when he gets all those teeth in, Momma will take him out for a steak!

Here is one (not so new) picture (didn't want to leave you without one)...it is one of my favorites.

Owen and Friend

2009-08-11T22:50:00.004-05:00

This is Owen and his friend who was also born in Korea. Their Birthdays are actually 4 days apart. This means that they were probably in the nursery together at Eastern. We had the opportunity of meeting Owen's friend and his family recently at Korea camp. We had a wonderful time and we look forward to many more years of fun at Korea camp.

I will post more soon, but I thought you might like to see these quick pictures.

Trip to Grammy and Grampy's

2009-07-13T22:03:00.002-05:00

We celebrated Independence Day with a trip to Grammy and Grampy's. We did all the usual Fourth of July things...swimming, cooking out, fireworks and homemade ice cream. What a fun time!

This was our first overnight trip with Owen. Can I just say, that we felt like we were loading up and moving a small city? I think I made it there with everything we needed, but on the way home I forgot about half of my stuff (including my camera cord). Thanks to Grammy for making a trip to see us for lunch and returning all the stray items.

Thought you might enjoy seeing this picture of Owen on the carousel! He loved it! By the third trip around he was letting go and waving with one hand when he went by us. He cried when the ride was over...how cute is that?

Yankee Doodle Dandy

2009-07-03T10:05:00.002-05:00

What Does Owen Do All Day at Grandma and Grandpa's?

2009-07-01T22:48:00.001-05:00

Owen's First Pool Party

2009-06-28T21:34:00.005-05:00

Tonight we went to a pool party for our Sunday School Class. We had a great time playing and visiting with friends. We had over 35 kids there! Our class name is "Grand Purpose," but Nathan and I joke that it should be "Fruitful and Multiplying!" It is so much fun to share life experiences with these families. God has blessed our class with lots of children. For Nathan, I know that it was pure joy to be able to have his own child there to swim with. As you can see, Owen had a great time. One of the highlights for Owen was splashing his Daddy in the face with the waterfall.

By the way, I didn't post last Sunday on Father's Day, but I do want to tell you what a wonderful father Nathan is. He tells me everyday how much he loves Owen. He is fully hands on when it comes to childcare and housework. He has really "kicked it up a notch" as far as housework goes because he knows keeping up with our busy little one keeps me tied up. I love you and you are a wonderful father to Owen.

I have to show you how cute he looked for church this morning. Remember I told you that he had a couple of personal shoppers? Their names are Grammy, Brooklyn and Brittni, Grandma and Grandpa. Check out these overalls...aren't they the cutest things? Thanks to those personal shoppers, he always looks cuter than either of us on a Sunday morning.

Did you notice his stylish swimsuit? That was picked out by Brittni who frequently finds things and brings them to Grammy saying "Owen has to have this!"

Owen is trying so hard to walk. He grins so big when he walks a long way. I think he will have it mastered by the time this week is over and maybe, I can figure out how to post video!

We are so blessed to be able to call this boy our son. To see him smiling all the time is truly a blessing.

We Really Should Get Out More...

2009-06-14T22:19:00.009-05:00

Check this out...

Maybe we need to get out more if we thought this looked like fun. This is a tree that was knocked down in the storm Thursday night not far from our house. No telling how long that tree had been there. Don't you know Owen wondered what in the world we were doing! I do have to say that he cried when Nathan took him off that log...he wanted to stay and play. I was starting to get a little creeped out at the thought of being locked in the cemetary all night.

Mr. Innocent

2009-06-14T22:06:00.006-05:00

What Owen is doing to be "helpful" when Momma and Daddy aren't paying attention...

Rearranging the kitchen

Reorganizing the baby wipes

Don't you love the innocent look on his face!

First Mother's Day and Baby Dedication

2009-05-11T21:56:00.002-05:00

Sunday we celebrated my first Mother's Day. This day was made extra special because we also celebrated baby dedication. This ceremony is used as a formal time for the parents to present themselves and their children to the church and commit to raise them in a Godly family. This in no way is a means of salvation for Owen, but it is our prayer that one day, as soon as he understands, he will accept Chirst as his personal Savior.

We continued the festivities by having our families over for lunch. It was a wonderful day.

"For this child I prayed, and the Lord had granted me my petition which I asked of Him. So I have also dedicated him to the Lord...as he lives he is dedicated to the Lord." I Samuel 1:27-28

One Year Portraits

2009-04-18T12:34:00.004-05:00

Owen had his one year portraits made this week and we couldn't be more thrilled with how they turned out. My dear friend LeighAnn made his pictures. She is so talented. She makes it very hard for us to pick our favorite. These are just two of many. As you can see, she really captures his personality well. You can check out her work by going to her website http://www.stillmomentsbyleighann.com/

Owen's First Easter

2009-04-18T12:18:00.005-05:00

We had a great Easter! I can't decide if Easter or Chirstmas is my favorite holiday...they are both very special. Like our Pastor said they are two sides of the same coin and you can't have one without the other.

We started the day with a family breakfast for the three of us (bacon, chocolate gravy and biscuts). We then headed to church and to Grandma and Grandpa's for lunch. What do you know? The Easter Bunny visted Owen and home and at Grandma and Gandpa's.

Here's another slide show. Notice how hard it is to get a picture of three kids 5 and under!

Owen's Birthday

2009-04-18T11:38:00.005-05:00

Last Saturday we celebrated Owen's First Birthday. We had a combination of Korean Traditions and American Traditions.

This picture is of Owen choosing an item from his toljabee. This is a Korean tradition for a baby's first birthday. Several elements are laid out in front of the baby and he chooses one and it tells something about his future. We used thread (long life), pencils (scholarly), rice (prosperity) or money (wealth). Owen chose thread for his first choice and pencils for his second. The outfit you see him in is the traditional Korean hanbok and was a gift from his foster mother. We love it!

For the American Traditions we had a cookout (burgers, cheese dip, soft drinks, etc...) and the baby eating his first cake and making a royal mess. Here is a picture of the "royal mess."

Owen shared his birthday celebration with his cousin Brittni who turned 8 on Easter Day. They each had their own cake. Owen's cake had Owen written in Korean and Brittni's cake had happiness written in Chineese.

We had a wonderful time and Owen got lots of great presents. This kid is a bit spoiled, I mean loved. He has had so much fun this week playing with all of his new toys.

Everyday we are more and more in love with this little boy. It is hard to believe he has been with us less than four months.

Good Friday

2009-04-07T22:30:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

2009-04-07T22:15:00.004-05:00

I just can't believe that our sweet boy is a year old today. We love him so much and he has brought so much joy to our lives. Tonight we had a cupcake party with just the three of us. We are looking forward to this weekend when we will have his Birthday party with our family and Easter Sunday all wrapped up in one!

Here are a couple of highlights from our party tonight at home!

"My cake is on FIRE!"

"OH! MMM!" Owen

He LOVED his cup cake!

Just getting warmed up!

We are so thankful that God has chosen us to be Owen's parents.

We love you little guy!

Owen's First Haircut!

2009-03-25T21:47:00.001-05:00

Owen Loves...

2009-03-18T21:46:00.010-05:00

Meal Time...

Playing with his toys...

Reading Books...

Going for Walks on a Pretty Day...

Playing Outside...

Sleeping in his Crib all Night...ummm...Not so Much!!!

Owen is 11 Months Old

2009-03-09T21:59:00.003-05:00

Where does the time go? I know it has been way too long since I updated my blog. Things have been a bit crazy around here. Right now Owen is cutting 6 teeth at once! Needless to say, he is miserable. He is handling it really well! Other than that, he is doing very well!

He is:
Crawling on all fours
Pulling up to standing
Walking holding on to someone's fingers
Blowing kisses
Giving his Momma a ton of kisses
Giving his Daddy five
Playing Patty Cake and Round and Round the Garden
Saying "Momma" (although he doesn't yet know what it means)
Saying "Uh Oh!"
Eating EVERYTHING
Sleeping all through the night most nights (YIPPEE)
Enjoys laughing and making others laugh
Making things bounce (his exersaucer, zebra...whatever)

He LOVES to play with his toys, balls being his very favorite and he has developed a new interest in books. He can sit forever and play on his own. I love to watch him and watch him develop his problem solving skills. Tonight he wanted to crawl while holding on to a book...ok until he decided to crawl under the chair. Then he tried to sit up to read under the chair.

It is hard to believe that our baby will be one in less than a month! I promise to be a better blogger and update with more pictures and possibly even video!

Owen's First Trip to Chuck E. Cheese

2009-02-03T21:26:00.004-06:00

Owen had his first official play date and trip to Chuck E. Cheese. As you can tell from the look on his face, he was a bit over stimulated with the whole Chuck E Cheese experience...we all were!

We had a great time spending time with Brent, Dania, Xavier, Naia and Paxton who met us for a play date at Chuck E Cheese. Brent and Dania were with us in Korea. Owen is only 12 days older than Paxton. We are so thankful to have them close by so that the boys can grow closer as they get older. What a neat bond they will share.

This is Paxton giving Owen a hug...how sweet is that? Then you find out that Owen gave Paxton a "get out of my face 'love pat'." Grandma is working on the "we don't hit our friends" concept this week.

Here is a better picture of the boys side by side. Aren't they adorable? I am talking about the babies!

It was a really fun day and we are looking forward to future play dates!

First Day Back at Work...

2009-01-29T21:24:00.003-06:00

and oh my, how I missed seeing this face all day. He did great at his Grandma's today. Nathan and I both made it by to see him and feed him at lunch.

I have had a great six weeks off work, plus I got a "bonus day" because of bad weather. I have enjoyed every minute spent getting to know Owen better and I found myself watching the clock closely for the minute I could dart out the door to pick him up. We must now move on to our new routine of early to bed and early to rise (reality).

He is learning how to do so much and every day he shows us more of his personality. He is so silly. He can play round and round the garden, he can give you five and clap along with what ever you are doing (or whatever they are clapping for on t.v.). We spend a lot of time at our house laughing at and with him. What did we do before he came along?

Thank you to all of you who prayed for us today!

Home...One Month Today

2009-01-23T12:40:00.002-06:00

One month ago today our long journey from South Korea began for the three of us. It was also the beginning of our journey as a family of three. So much has changed for all of us in the last month, but I can truly say we are all bonding very well.

I got a haircut today and Owen stayed with Grandma (Nathan's Mom). When I came in he gave me a big kiss. It was so sweet! He also knows I am going to smother him with kisses and he puts his cheek to my mouth in anticipation.

When Nathan comes home at night I tell Owen "I hear Daddy!" His eyes light up and he starts to kick his feet. When Nathan walks in he cackles.

Last Saturday night we heard for the first time his all out belly laugh. He has another little squeal that he makes to laugh, but this was a belly laugh.

All around, he is so much more comfortable with us, his home, his grandparents, his toys and our friends. You can see that he trust us with things like feeding, diaper changing, bath time and bed time. It is amazing to see the transformation.

Last night he slept in his bed all night...didn't even wake up for a bottle! We were shocked. We kind of both got worried about 5 something this morning, but we didn't check on him until 7ish. He did great. I think that has to do a lot with his comfort level.

He is working on four teeth! Two are pretty much in a we have two that are very close. Really, he has not been all that fussy about his teeth. He is a very easy baby.

Thanks for all the prayers for my friends who were waiting for their babies to come home...they are all home now. Also, our friend Woody is doing better as is Harper Stamps.

Thanks also for praying for our family. This amazing transition is due to all the prayers that people have offered for us.

2009-01-17T10:21:00.003-06:00

Please pray for Harper Brown Stamps who was born yesterday. She has been transported to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa to be put on a heart lung machine. You can click on the picture above to link to her blog.

Sweet Success!

2009-01-10T12:48:00.004-06:00

Guess where we slept for the last two nights? Yes! Our bed! It was wonderful...I am not quite the boy scout that Nathan is, so I am thrilled to be back in my bed. It seems like so long ago, because we haven't been in our bed for most of the night since we left for Korea.

Guess where Owen slept for the last two nights? You guessed it, his bed.
I know the victory could be short lived, but it is a victory none the less. He woke up both nights for his mid night bottle and then went back to sleep in his bed. In an effort to have full disclosure, the first night was not that easy. He was wound up after his bottle and had a hard time going back to sleep for an hour and a half or so, but he eventually went back to sleep and I put him in his bed and made a mad dash for mine. I am hoping this is a trend that continues.

In other Owen news...he is pulling up (holding my hands) like crazy. I think he would pull holding my hands 24/7 if I let him. We sense that he is feeling a lot more relaxed with us and in our home. We also feel more relaxed with him. Sleep may be the key factor there for all of us.

I have a couple of prayer request.

First, our dear friend Woody is having quadruple bypass on Monday morning. This man is a friend of ours from church. He was our 7th and 8th grade Sunday School teacher. To hear him tell it, we flunked and had to repeat his class. He and his family are very dear to us and we would appreciate your prayers.

Also, would you please pray for three of our friends who are DESPERATE for a travel call? One family received their referral at least two weeks before we did. I know this is very hard for all of them. I am sure they will hear something very soon, but weekends can be very hard, because you usually don't expect any information over the weekend.

You can follow their stories on their blogs:
Donna
Sunny
Melinda

Home for 2 Weeks!

2009-01-07T17:41:00.005-06:00

I can hardly believe it, but we have been home for two weeks. Sometimes it seems like much longer and sometimes I wonder where the time has gone. Today Owen is 9 months old!

Owen is doing great. He has learned so much (and taught us so much) in the last two weeks it is amazing. He can sign for more, he can play patty cake, he can play peek-a-boo, his sleeping habits are much improved and he seems to be attaching to momma and daddy very well. He is still eating well, tolerating his car seat, high chair and stroller well AND he has cut his first tooth. He is also pulling up by holding on to our fingers. We can hardly wait to see what changes will happen in the next two weeks.

As for the sleeping, he now seems to be on US time versus Korea time. The last few nights he wakes up in the middle of the night for a bottle feeding and that is pretty much it. Today I had to wake him up at 9:30 a.m! The sleeping arrangements are interesting! Here is a picture of our camp out that we have every night. We started out several nights ago with all three of us in the floor. We progressed to him in his crib and us on his floor until after his mid night bottle and now we are at us in our bed, Owen in his crib until after his mid night bottle and then all of us on his floor. It is quite comical, but you do what you have to do! On Friday, we are going to try going back to our bed and leaving Owen in his crib after his mid night bottle. I hope (cross your fingers) we are past the point where we had to drive him around for 30-40 minutes at night to get him to sleep - yes, we did that for two nights. We will get it all figured out and we will stop the mid night feeding soon as well. He has had so many adjustments, it is just hard to force one more thing on him.

He is a great baby and we both agree, we never knew how much we could love a child! It is a blessing to have him, God has made the three of us a family! Even though sleeping in the floor is no fun at times, I love waking up and seeing all cuddled up next to his Daddy. There is nothing sweeter.

He continues to learn to trust us, that we will feed him, that if we leave, we will come back and that we are going to take care of him. It is a daily thing for us to whisper words of reassurance to our little guy. Since Sunday, he has been very clingy to us. He is fine to go to other people, but he wants to make sure he still knows where we are. This is nice to see that he is forming attachments, but it makes it hard to get anything done.

Here is one last picture of Owen all dressed up after church in his high chair. He is ready to eat. He did great at church. He let everyone hold him and when we got home, we had a quick visit from Grammy and Grampy.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T21:17:00.003-06:00

Leaving 2008 behind and looking forward to 2009.

The Williams Family wishes you a Happy New Year.

Slide Show

2008-12-28T22:49:00.004-06:00

Whew! When Do Moms Find Time to Post?

2008-12-27T14:41:00.002-06:00

We have been home now for four nights. Things have been a little crazy with the Christmas festivities. I am just now finding the time to post. This may be short because Owen is napping and Momma and Daddy need to nap too. Owen went to bed at 8:00 pm and woke up at 12:00 pm and fell asleep again at 6:00 am. Do you think someone is still on Korea time?

Our plane ride went pretty well. He did cry for about 2 hours (out of 12 that is not bad). What he wanted was to be put down. He had been held too much. He is very good natured and very easy. He smiles easily and loves people. He is very curious and easily distracted which can tough at feeding or sleeping time. It has been a lot of fun to get to know him and for him to get to know us. I think he is starting to learn his name and recognizes us when we come in the room.

We took him to church with us Christmas Eve and he did fantastic. He shouted out two times (not really loud) but he went to everyone that wanted to hold him. It was the same as at the airport where we probably had 60 people to welcome him home (we have the best friends and family). He did great!

We are hoping to make it to church tomorrow! We will have to see how tonight goes. It is a big adjustment for a little boy and he has done well. He has not refused any food we have given him, nor the car seat, nor the highchair...all things that have to be new to him.

Thanks for all of you who prayed for us and continue to pray for us. We felt your prayers. Please pray now that he gets his clock reset FAST!!

Last Day in Korea

2008-12-22T05:32:00.005-06:00

Look at that face...

Today was our last day in Korea. We have had a blast, but we are ready to come home. We met with and had lunch with Dr. Kim the founder of Eastern Social Welfare Society. Come to find out there was another couple from Arkansas (she is from Charleston) here to bring their kids back for a visit. It was wonderful to meet them.

Next we got to spend time with Owen for about an hour in our room. We played with is toys and he did fine for about 30 minutes and then he realized that his foster mom wasn't around. He FREAKED OUT! He cried and cried and cried. I felt so bad for him. When it was finally time to return him to the social worker, she could tell he had been crying. She went to get his foster mom and she came in and was able to console him. She finally got him to go to sleep (I think it was nap time any way). It was heartbreaking and I am worried about out plane trip home. He loves his foster mom very much (so do we). I know the next few days will be hard for him. It was so sweet of her to show me what she does to calm him and to get him to rest. His foster mom is wonderful with him and truly an answer to our prayers. She is wonderful with people, him and us.

Here he is finally sleeping, don't you just love that sweet face? Tomorrow will be a hard day. We love him so much, I just wish he knew that we did and that everything will be ok.

Please pray that we have weather that is good enough for us to get home on time and that we can ALL get there with very few tears!

More Shopping and Site Seeing

2008-12-21T06:48:00.006-06:00

We had a great time today shopping and site seeing. We visited the Korean Was Memorial - the guys loved it. Us girls liked it too, but I think we liked the shopping better. I was able to get Owen some things that I want him to have from his birth country. Lunch was Hard Rock Cafe and dinner was back to the Pizza Hut for bulgogi pizza.

Here are some pictures.

Tomorrow we get to see Owen again and we can't wait. We also have a luncheon with other families with the Eastern staff. It will be a traditional Korean meal.

Thanks for all your comments and keeping up with us. We love to hear from you!

Today in Pictures

2008-12-20T06:08:00.011-06:00

Nathan rocking a baby girl. Don't you love the hair? Do you think they would let us pack her up and bring her home? So sweet! She was crying and all she wanted was to be held. If I remember right, she is about a month old. We love doing this each morning.

We had a traditional Korean meal. You know the kind...no shoes, sit on the floor, eat entirely with chop sticks and vegetarian. It was big on cultural experience and small on yumminess. These are our friends Brent and Dania. They are leaving on Monday with their baby, Paxton. We have met some wonderful families and we are having a great time exploring with them.

These kids were doing a demonstration using a see-saw that they jumped on. It was fun to watch. This was in a cultural / artist area. The picture below is of a guy making candy a kind of nut brittle. I made this picture for my Mom. There was a parade of some sort with people twirling these things on their heads. Very interesting to see.

This is a palace that we visited. It was HUGE! They let us dress up as palace guards. How do we look?

We had a great time! We LOVE Seoul! After our "delicious" lunch, Nathan said that he had to have "massive quantities of 'real' food." We went to TGI Fridays. After that we went to this local bakery that we found that is really great. We had a cream puffs and hot chocolate. I failed to mention that it is freezing here. We walked around all day in about 36 degrees.

Here is the Long Awaited Picture!

2008-12-19T06:03:00.004-06:00

Yes, you ready right...picture! We only have one. We didn't want to freak him out too much so we tried to play with him more than make pictures. We do have some video, but I don't really know how to put that on here. LeighAnn, I could have used you here to make pictures while we played.

This is a picture of us with Owen and his foster mom and her daughter. They are both very sweet and we can tell they love our boy very much. They are able to get him to laugh very easily. He is actually laughing in this picture with his Daddy holding him. I hope that soon we will make him laugh too. Oh!!! Guess who has no teeth yet? They said he does love to eat fruit...tangerines. After this post I am taking bets as to which grandmother can show up the quickest at Christmas with a tangerine for his stocking!

Seoul is incredible and we are having the best time exploring. The people at the Eastern Social Welfare are wonderful (our Korean adoption agency and where we are staying). I spent about half an hour today rocking babies in the nursery! Meeting Owen was the highlight, but the babies were second. We also went to this HUGE bookstore. Seriously makes Barnes and Noble look like a 7-11. We did venture out, not too far out, and tried some Korean food. We have a few pictures that Nathan took and I am not sure what they all are so I will try to get him to post and explain. He wouldn't let me make pictures of our bulgogi pizza, which by the way was awesome! I want to go back to Pizza Hut (yes, Pizza Hut) for more before we leave!

Our Dillon friends, Brent and Dania, are here and we've met two other families, so that is fun to get to meet other couples. Most everyone's meeting with their babies went about like ours. We have been looking at his picture for three months, studying his face and falling in love. He knows nothing of us. This has to be hard for him. Say lots of prayers for Tuesday. It will be a hard day for all three of us!

We are off to bed and then up for a day of shopping and sight seeing tomorrow.

We are Here and We met Owen

2008-12-18T20:40:00.002-06:00

Ok...so this post won't have pictures because I didn't realize we were coming to the computer room to post, but I promise to post pictures very soon.

So...the trip was very long. We both slept very well last night, but if you can believe it, we both ready to get up when the alarm went off. We got to Korea last night about 9pm and through customs and to Eastern (where we are staying) about 11:00 pm. When we got to the airport and made it through customs we saw our driver holding a sign with our name on it...he handed us a note that said we had a meeting with Owen this morning at 10:00 am. I lost it! I knew the emotions would hit me at sometime and that is when they did. Not really the best timing...had to get myself together and prayed like mad that I wouldn't do that when I saw Owen this morning.

We just got finished seeing him for the first time and he is very handsome, just like his pictures. The foster mom also brought her daughter. They have made pictures for us since they have had him in their home, she is going to try to date them and put them in an album. She also has a handbok for him. The foster mom and her daughter are both very sweet and we can tell that they love Owen very much. They told us that the foster dad wants to meet us we will probably meet him on Monday. We get Owen on Tuesday morning. Should be interesting because, unlike his foster mom says, he is unsure of strangers (which would be us). He was ok with us, didn't scream, but kind of whimpered and cried when we would hold him and he couldn't see his foster mom. I gave him his bottle and he studied my face quite a bit...he was mostly interested in the block he was holding.

We are in love with him and can't wait to have him for good.

I promise to post pictures very soon.

Count Down to Korea - Day 1

2008-12-16T15:42:00.004-06:00

Here we are! Today is the last day before we start off on our journey to meet our son. I can hardly believe this day is here. When I left work, it was like it hit me...it is really tomorrow that we leave! After a last minute errand, I came home and I am finishing all those last minute things that have to be done, bags need to be packed, last minute dishes done, work on what is left of the Christmas cards. I don't know how we are going to get everything in the bags that we need to. I sit here typing really nervous about the trip and the journey of motherhood. It will be a new journey and a new adventure...I can't wait!

The next time we post will be from Korea...how exciting is that?

Count Down to Korea - Day 2

2008-12-15T22:08:00.002-06:00

Wow!!! We're getting close. We had dinner tonight with my blogging/Dillon bulletin board friend Dania. They are on their way in the morning to Korea. It was the strangest thing leaving the restaurant saying "See you in Korea!" We had a great time and we are very glad that we will share Korea with them. It was also reassuring to have someone to talk to who is going through all the same things we are and to compare notes. Everyday it is more and more exciting and more and more unbelievable to think that we are or are going to be parents. I know one thing we can't wait to go meet our son. There are so many thoughts going through my head...what to pack, what not to forget, will the weather hold out, how long is that plane ride, what will it feel like to hold him for the first time, will he like us, what will his foster mom think of us and how sad will she be? See why I can't sleep?

Count Down to Korea - Day 3

2008-12-14T19:59:00.002-06:00

Look at that small number! Have we packed? Nope, not a thing! I have an idea of all the things we need to take, but no idea how we are supposed to get it all in one bag each! Did you know the airlines charge to check your bags now? We are determined to only take one bag each. I think we have made our final shopping run and now we just have to get it in bags.

Today was spent going to church and relaxing - well I did. Nathan had a meeting this afternoon at church. Melissa came by and checked out the nursery. I thought you all might like a "virtual tour" also. I am pleased with how it turned out, I hope Owen likes it too - well enough to sleep in there.
Here is his bed. Over his bed we have the airplane picture that Aunt Amy made for him. For right now I hung it on an existing nail. I am going to lower it and we plan to add a piece of Korean art work (probably name art) to go with it. You can also see the brass lamp we painted black and put a new shade on in the right corner as well as a wicker ottoman and a red picture frame. This frame was the very first thing we purchased for Owen's room.

This is his changing table. Excuse the mess, it is currently our catchall for packing. You can see his child size chair holding a panda bear. Not much to say about a changing table. I will say that if you were actually in his room versus taking the virtual tour, you would notice that we have a bit of an Asian theme going on in the room. We like it because it was different and because the color scheme matched the rest of our house.

Here we have his "gentleman's chest." You will notice his Build-A-Bear in a Korean hanbok from Grammy (my Mom) and a white ceramic elephant from Grandpa (Nathan's Dad). You will also see a flag stand. Currently it has a U.S. flag and an Arkansas flag, but we will soon replace the Arkansas flag with a Korean flag that he will be given when he leaves Korea.

Here is his book shelf and his wicker chair (goes with the ottoman). You can also see the other picture painted by Aunt Amy and you can see his curtains. Here is a closer look at the curtains that their fabric. His curtains and bed skirt were custom made by Grandma (Nathan's Mom).

Well it is off to finish about three things before I go to bed. Hope you have a great week.

Count Down to Korea - Day 4

2008-12-13T18:28:00.002-06:00

Saturday - four days to go. We have had a very busy day! We ran errands this morning (found out we only have to be to the airport at 4:15 am versus 4:00 am - yea!), I met my mom for lunch in Alma, Nathan's parents and Grandmom came over to help us with the tree, I wrapped all the presents for Christmas and now we are on our way to Wal Mart and TJ Maxx for last minute items. I am worn out. When we get home, I am going to crash.

Our house is now decorated for Christmas, which is a good thing since we will be having guests. As we were putting it up, I thought to myself, "This should be fun putting all this stuff up with a baby here." I am still not sure how all you Mom's do this...I guess I will learn.

So far, I feel like we have accomplished a lot today. Most of Christmas is done and I am starting to get a mental picture of what we need to take with us. I think we will both sleep well tonight!

Count Down to Korea - Day 5

2008-12-13T08:45:00.002-06:00

TGIF! I am so glad it is Friday. I have so much to do at home and I am glad I will be there to do it. My hairstylist squeezed me in for a haircut. It was so weird to be able to have a flexible schedule for my next appointment since I will be off work. It stuck me that either I will have to have childcare (how weird is that) or Nathan will have to be at home or Owen will have to go with me (doesn't sound like such a good option). Our life is about to change! Did I mention I am OLD! I have had some habits like getting my haircut after work, sleeping in on Saturday and waking up at the last minute on weekdays and Sundays for a long time. All of that is about to change. We are ready (I think...are you ever ready?).

Sleeping last night did me a world of good, but about 9:00 we were both about ready to crash. It was an early night to bed with not much sleep. There is much to be done on Saturday. Nathan estimated that he has about 19 hours of work to do. Crack me up! Please pray for us as we do attempt to conquer the world on Saturday.

Count Down to Korea - Day 6

2008-12-13T08:33:00.004-06:00

Well...I am a little scattered. If you have been checking my blog this week, you can see that I miss counted my days. This is actually an account of day 6 before our trip. This should give you a good insight about how I felt the first two days. No sleep and a little panicked. My co-worker Barbie says "welcome to motherhood." I can say officially that this baby is eating my brain. I have walked off and left my cell phone two places lately. Once was at the beauty shop where I get my nails done. They just laughed and said that I had been so attached to my phone for the last 6 months that now that I don't need it, I just forget it. That couldn't be more true. I have so much on my mind.

On this day we found out that our fellow blogging friends Brent and Dania from Russellville will be our travel buddies. The got their "call" today. They happen to be leaving and returning a day before us, but we are so thrilled that we will be there with them most of the time.

This was also the day I was finally able to get some sleep. Amazing what good sleep can do for your brain! I know "sleep now while you can." Easier said than done.

This was a very busy day, but I finally felt like I was getting some things done. Work is coming together, shopping is coming together, things on my list are getting marked off and I got my car seat installed!

Thank goodness I still have 5 days!

Count Down to Korea - Day 7

2008-12-10T22:40:00.005-06:00

Seriously...I woke up today wondering if the whole thing was a dream! Assuming it was not...off to work I go.

Guess what also happened yesterday? Our roofer called and said they were starting on our roof this week. We are thrilled because it will be done before we leave and before Owen gets home.

Today was full of more well wishes and lists of things that have to be done.

Nathan's parents took us out to dinner as a celebration (Asian food, of course). We had a great time. They came over to answer a few baby room questions and for me to check out the curtains that Grandma (aka - Nathan's Mom - Doris) made for Owen's room. They are too cute! I will post a tour of his room soon (maybe before we leave, but no promises).

After doing this post and folding the "baby things" that I washed in Dreft (doesn't that scent just make you think baby?)...I am off to bed. Hopefully I can sleep better tonight.

Still Amazed!

Count Down to Korea - Day 8

2008-12-10T22:04:00.008-06:00

No doubt the next few days will be "action packed." I thought it might be fun to have documentation of all the fun.

So if you read my previous post you know that we are leaving for Korea next week. We are leaving on Wednesday and returning the following Tuesday. Just in time to celebrate our first Christmas together as a family of three! AMAZING!!!

Yesterday started off with the amazing phone call and the entire day was filled with more screams of laughter and excitement! Mom said that my every sentence ended in "Whoo Hoo."

After hearing the news, I started making phone calls. I tried to call Nathan first...he didn't answer. Ok, fair game, I'm calling the Grandmothers. Everyone was obviously thrilled! Nathan was a little stressed/panicked with all that has to be done. It will all work out, we don't know how, but it will.

Next my mind started turning with all the things that had to be done. We need to book plane tickets, tell the health insurance provider he's on his way, buy last minute Christmas presents, prepare for a visit from Santa, decorate our tree, make a big trip to Target, Wal-Mart and the grocery store...and the list goes on! I needed a notebook, I needed a list and I need to leave work early TODAY! I left work at noon and came home to book tickets.

Mom went to the girls' school to tell them. Brittni (2nd grade) has said ever since we got the referral that all she wants for Christmas is Owen (she even has a song about it). When Mom told her he would be here, she burst into tears. Isn't that the sweetest thing? She is going to be a fantastic cousin. When Mom picked them up from school, they wanted to go to the grocery store to buy Owen some food - I guess they think he is hungry. Brittni must have been waiting for months to go down the baby aisle. They were both picking up two of every kind of baby food and putting them in Grammy's cart (one for Grammy's house and one for Owen's house). I got a call from Brooklyn asking me if I was planning on using organic baby foods - WHAT??? I think they watch too much Jon and Kate!

My plan was to wait and tell all the "girls" at Girl's Night Out, but my husband let the cat out of the bag by changing his facebook status. Did I mention he is a facebook addict? That is another post for another day. It was really ok that he revealed my secret, I was about to bust - I had to tell the good news! Girl's Night Out was still fun...more yelps of laughter! Really, we have the best friends and family two people (soon to be three) could ever ask for!

I finally fell into bed at 10:30 - EXHAUSTED! I finally fell asleep about 1:00 am. So much on my mind!

Overall feeling of the day? I feel thankful to God for this miracle.

Psalm 34:4 I prayed to the Lord and He answered me.

Guess Who's Going to Korea!?!?!

2008-12-09T14:31:00.004-06:00

We are! Pack your bags Owen - Momma and Daddy are on their way!

We are in total shock! I broke down and finally called Jan at Dillon this morning! She said "Emily, I can't believe you called me. I was looking up your number to call you!" I asked what our good news was and she said we were free to travel! I can't believe it! We had given up on a before Christmas date, but God made a way! It is truly a miracle and our prayers have been answered! We received Emmigration Permission, Passport and Travel Clearance all in the same day!

We don't have the full details yet, but we are looking at leaving next week. By a week from Friday, we could be seeing our baby boy! The level of excitement and business at our home is stunning! We almost don't know where to start!

Gotta run...more details later...I must make a to do list!

No News!

2008-12-03T19:44:00.004-06:00

You read it right...no new news! We are still waiting on Emmigration Permission from Korea and for Owen to receive his Korean Passport. Once those things are done, the rest should move very quickly. We are ready to have our boy HOME. This wait is by far much harder than the wait to receive a referral. He is very real to us and we want OUR SON with us. We are hoping to hear good news soon.

In the absence of news about Owen, I thought you might like to see some creative gifts we received. I don't consider myself very "artsy craftsy," so I am always in awe of people who are. One of those people is my Sister-in-Law, Amy. She made these two paintings (on canvas) for Owen's room.
Aren't they wonderful? I am not the best photographer, but I think you can get the point. Both painting have special meaning behind them. First the plane (the plane...ha, ha). If you look very closely, you will see that there are "hidden" messages. For example, on the wing, you can see MOM and my birth date and DAD and Nathan's birth date. There are all kinds of other "hidden" elements too - we are so thrilled. The other painting is a saying that I loved as a kid. Did you ever say the poem "I see the moon, the moon sees me?" LOVED IT as a kid. This picture is going above Owen's book case as a reminder to me to inspire him with reading. Please notice too that she made the font "Asian." Both pictures are treasures to us and we know they will be for Owen too.

I know what you are thinking..."Wow, I would like to have one of those for my kid!" Lucky for you, Amy has opened an ESTY store. Here is the link, look around and see if there is something you would like.

Here is my other creative gift. This one is from Barbie my friend at work. She made this creation for my diaper shower at work. Isn't that the cutest?
I know I should take it apart and use it, but I just haven't been able to do so. Abby, I knew you would love to see it for inspiration.

We have been working hard on Owen's room and I am hoping to finish it this weekend. If I do, I will post pictures for everyone to see. Whew! Babies need a lot of stuff!

Pray hard that we hear news very soon. It is hard to not get discouraged. Thank you to everyone that is already praying and thanks also to all of you who ask about our boy. We feel very loved and we know Owen is too. When we hear news, you will be the first to know - you will hear me shouting!

Give Thanks

2008-11-27T09:18:00.003-06:00

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever.

I Chronicles 16:34

Busy Bee!

2008-11-17T20:15:00.000-06:00

This last week has been so busy, I have not had time to post. So many wonderful things have happened and I have wanted to update you, but I have not always had access to the computer or the extra time needed to tell you everything I want to.

First B - "Breath", take a deep one! No, we don't know any more than we did the last time I posted about when Owen will be home. We do know that things are moving along with immigration and we hope to get some more information this week or next from Korea.

Second B - "Builder." Remember the post about the storm damage? Well...most of it has finally been repaired. Our builder was able to come out and fix our windows, siding and ceilings. Yes, the hail stones packed enough punch to crack our plaster ceilings. You know what that means...we had to have the ceilings plastered, sanded and painted. That equals a big mess. A huge thank you to my in laws who helped a ton moving furniture, covering furniture and giving everything a through washing before putting in back in its place. Kind of felt like nesting.

Third and most fun B - "Baby Showers." Oh my do my friends a church and at work know how to throw fun parties! Both had Asian themes - very cute!

The church shower was about a week ago. 13 ladies from my Sunday School class joined together to throw the most wonderful shower for me. Here is a picture of the cake. None of us speak Korean, but we are told that is the Korean word for son. Isn't that the coolest? Owen received so many wonderful gifts. He is already loved by so many people. We are truly blessed to have such wonderful family and church family.

Today my office threw a shower for me. It was supposed to be a diaper and wipe shower, but several office members "cheated" and gave other gifts too. We are set up with diapers and wipes. My friend Barbie (who is very talented) made a slide show of Owen for the event. I will post that very soon too. I am so thankful for my office, I know God has me right where He wants me. Here is a picture of today's cake.
Three points that all start with the same letter. In the South, we say, "That could preach!"

One final B - "Blessed!"

That's what we are!

I've Been Tagged

2008-11-17T19:37:00.002-06:00

My friend Jennifer aka the "3 Gals and A Guy" has tagged me and this is a different type of tag then normal. Here are the rules:

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the next two to five sentences.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the intellectual one. Pick the closest.
* Tag five people to do the same.

If you know anything about us, you know that Nathan and I have a LARGE book collection. I thought this would be a fun tag. So, I decided to go with the book I am currently reading, "Carried Safely Home, The spiritual legacy of an adoptive family." I have read a lot of parenting and adoption books lately, but this is not my only are of interest when it comes to reading. I haven't made it to page 56, so this should be interesting. So...here is goes

"When it comes to the week of God's promises about prayer, I wonder which one to include. Maybe it should be "whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. But children are so earnestly literal - what if they pray, believing for something that God does not give?"

Good question! I can't wait to get to that part of the book to find out what she has to say on the matter.

So, I think I'm going to tag:
Sunny
Yvonne
Dania
Abby
Amy T

FREE!

2008-10-30T17:36:00.006-05:00

Ok, so who doesn't love free stuff? A friend at work told me about some websites that she knew of that offered free stuff for babies. Now...I've become obsessed! I thought I would let all of you in on the fun!

First, my all time favorite free stuff site is Dolly Parton's Imagination Library .When you register your little one on this website, your child will receive a free hardback book each month from birth to age 5. All books are age appropriate and gender specific. I signed Owen up when we first received his referral and just last Saturday in the mail came his very first book.

This link will give you great information about car seats. It will even let you put in information about your car seat and your car type and it will tell you if they are compatible. How cool is that?

We all ready received a free sippy cup from Juicy Juice by registering on their site.

We also received free Enfamil formula by registering here.

Most baby companies will be glad to send you free stuff, along with monthly emails and coupons. In these tight economic times, any extra savings will help.

Here are a few more of the sites I visited and registered with:

Beech Nut Baby Food
Gerber
Earth's Best Baby Food
Johnson and Johnson Baby
Pampers
Huggies
Luvs

You can also receive a welcome baby letter from the President by going to the White House website and filling out information there too.

So...do you know of any others? I would love to hear your suggestions.

One final thought...would you please to remember to pray for my friend Sunny? She and her husband accepted a referral of a baby boy Jude just a few short days after we accepted Owen's referral. Jude was involved in an accident while in Korea and is now hospitalized. Please pray for them as they not only are ready to have their baby home, but they are concerned about his health as well. Sunny is a wonderfully fun, outgoing and positive person. "Meeting" her has been one of the joys of our adoption journey.

Where We Are and What's Going On Update

2008-10-27T18:03:00.003-05:00

Where we are?
Waiting - big surprise there, huh? Right now we are in the process of waiting on the US government and the Korea government to grant the necessary permissions for Owen to come home. We have completed all necessary paperwork for now and so we just wait.

Big news is that we have finished all the education requirements for the adoption. Even Nathan has finished the two books he agreed to read. He told me last night it was nice to be able to read whatever he wants to without these books hanging over him.

What's Going On?
First, we got a DVD of Owen. He is the cutest thing ever! It shows him basically interacting with his foster mom. They seem to really love each other.

Next, we are:
working on his room and yes, I changed the color scheme.
preparing to travel
making some final home repairs
finishing our Christmas shopping
fine tuning the home organization
So, as you can see, we are very busy and overwhelmed.

We are planning to travel. After seeing more pictures of him I really want to be the one to go pick him up and I want to be able to thank his foster mother in person. We are very excited about our change of plans.

We did receive a bit of good news this week. We received approval on our I600 form. It is just one of the many forms we have to complete in order for Owen to come home. This usually takes about a month to get approved and ours was approved in ONE day. I am thrilled. Please keep up the prayers that the rest of our paperwork goes fast too. We still would love to have him home for Christmas.

Have a great week.

New Pictures of Owen

2008-10-14T21:03:00.001-05:00

What's In a Name?

2008-10-08T18:44:00.005-05:00

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet." Juliet from Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare

We made the decision to change Owen's name from his Korean name to a more American sounding name. Months ago I saw the name Owen in a magazine and asked Nathan what he thought...he immediately loved it. Since then there has been no change in what our son's name would be. We thought it would be nice to keep part of his Korean heritage if it sounded ok, but we had no formal plans to do so.

A few weeks later I pitched the idea of using the middle name of Ross to Nathan. He liked the sound of it. I wanted to use it because it was my Great Grandmother's Married name and the name by which I know her "Grandma Ross." She is very special to me. She lived to be over 100 years old. Every Christmas Eve when I was growing up was spent with my Mom's parents and my Grandpa and Grandma Ross. Their love was a one that lasted. I remember attending their 70th wedding anniversary celebration. She was one of the kindest people I knew. She loved her family and I always knew she loved me. I have several quilts, doilies, tablecloths and other small items around my house that she made or gave to me. She was very progressive in her thinking. I remember one time seeing her talk on my Mom's cell phone. She could remember a time when she didn't even have a telephone and here she was using my Mom's phone to talk to a relative hundreds of miles away. I think she would be thrilled with our decision to adopt and I am so thrilled to be using her name for our son.

Then, guess what happened? Our baby's last name in Korea was Lee. This happens to be Nathan's middle name, his Mom's middle name and his sister's middle name. O.K. I get it, we will keep part of his Korean heritage and we couldn't be more thrilled.

Four names is a lot for our little guy and I can't wait to hear him start to utter all four words of it. Can't you hear it now? It will be adorable.

Several of our Dillon Bulletin Board Friends have received referrals lately. I am so happy for them! It has been so fun to meet these people in the on the internet. I can't wait to meet them all in person. I know if we all lived in the same town, we would be fast friends.

You can read there stories here:
Donna who is waiting for her second baby to come home from Korea - a girl
Sunny who's excitement is contagious this will be her third child (first Korean born)
Dania who will also now be a mom to three (first Korean born)

There have been five referrals in a month! Isn't that amazing?

What's Happening Now!

2008-09-29T22:25:00.008-05:00

The number one question I get asked these days is "When will Owen be home?" The basic answer is 3-6 months. This answer is usually followed by the questioner sucking all the air out of the room and saying "WHY?" The reason is that we still have paperwork to complete to receive permission from both countries to bring Owen to the United States. He must receive both a travel visa and a passport. As you know, these things can take time. Please pray that he will be home by Christmas. Not just because we want him with us for Christmas (which we do) but it is better for all of us the sooner he is home.

So...I am still on Cloud 9! I have been so excited making all the plans. First, I had a visit from "The Stork." Is this what you thought the stork would look like?

Yep, that is him! Our "stork" works for Fed Ex. That package he is carrying...contains the official acceptance paperwork that we had to sign and return to Dillon. We have returned that paperwork back to Dillon and now we are waiting on our "Legal" paperwork. That package should come any day.

We also got to prepare a care package for Owen and his foster mom. We could only send a one gallon bag. It was a challenge, but a fun challenge. Here is a picture of the contents of our care package.
As you can see, we sent a burp cloth (made by Grandma), a photo album for Owen, a photo album for the foster mom, a couple of toys, a teether, a animal/blanket, lotion and chocolates. That bag was full! I also sent a letter to Owen's foster mom thanking her for taking such good care of our son.

Please continue to pray for us. It is the strangest feeling to be parents and have your baby be a world away. Please pray that our documents make it through all the proper channels quickly. We can't wait to have our little guy home with us.

Oh Boy! The Details!

2008-09-19T19:14:00.007-05:00

So, I wanted to post the details, but I liked the last post so much, I couldn't stand to put up another post! We are so thrilled and totally in love with this little guy. We like a lot of you have said, can't wait to kiss those cheeks and legs. Isn't he the cutest?

Last Saturday we had spent the day around the house and Nathan's parents called to ask us to come over and eat pizza. This meant no cooking at my house, so I was all on board. As you know, the phone has been perma-glued to my hand for months now. I had not the slightest thought that we might get a baby call on a Saturday night, it didn't even occur to me that I should take the cell phone. When we got home we had a message from our social worker. I told Nathan who call and he said "Yeah, so!" I said "She doesn't call just to chat!" Nathan's reply was "Then call her back." I am so thrilled that she called when we were home together. We were able to hear all the details about our baby at the same time. She started to tell us about this little guy and he sounded great. We rushed to the email to get all the details that she sent and we poured over the details for a couple of hours together and with our parents. He had a couple of MINOR things for us to consider, but not anything that was a "deal breaker." Just think about it like this...if you looked back on your child's first five months, what would you read? To be very honest, most people would be thankful for the kind of healthy start that Owen has had.

For the next few hours and into Sunday we talked, paced, prayed and thought about what to do. We had such a peace. We knew we need to be prudent and ask for objective medical reviews. Finally, the next day, we were brave and called and asked our social worker for the pictures. We saw the picture of our little guy together for the first time on Sunday right before we went back to church that night. OH MY WORD!!! It was baby love from the minute I saw that sweet face! I knew I was toast and if we had to say "No" now I would be crushed.

We had a close friend who is a nurse, Zoe, review the paperwork and we submitted his information to an International Adoption Physician. After that, we knew we could say "Yes, this is our baby." I called the adoption agency and told them we would be honored to accept this referral.

He was born on April 7 weighing 7.3 pounds at 19 inches long. Now at 5 months, he weighs 18 pounds and is 25 inches long. According to his paperwork, he is babbling, shouts when happy, puts weight on his legs and likes to jump on your lap. He is doing all the age appropriate things. He hasn't rolled over yet, but I think it is a matter of time, they say he is trying really hard to. He lives with his foster mother and her husband. She is a first time foster mother and the paperwork says she has a special love for our baby. From the pictures it appears she is taking very good care of him and that makes us very happy.

Thank you all for you love, prayer, support and kind words - they mean so much to us.

Here are some more pictures of our little guy. The one on the right is with his foster mother.

Oh Boy!

2008-09-17T17:55:00.003-05:00

We are pleased to introduce to you our son, Owen, born April 7, 2008 in South Korea! Please join us in praying for a speedy homecoming!

I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me. Psalm 13:6

Dr. Kim

2008-08-31T20:15:00.004-05:00

Dr. Kim, Duk Whang is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Eastern Social Welfare Society/ESWS. In this video he is shown demonstrating his fatherly devotion and dedication to each child in Eastern's care. He is to praying a special blessing over this child as he does for each child prior to his/her departure to their new adoptive family.

I am always moved when I see this and other videos like it. I am so happy to know that someone cares enough about our baby to lift him/her up to our Heavenly Father. I know many of you pray for our baby. Thank you! We feel your prayers! To my adoptive blogging friends, I am praying for your babies too and praying they all come home safe and soon.

Ring Phone Ring

2008-08-21T17:30:00.002-05:00

Can you will a phone to ring? Is chanting Biblical? Both are questions I asked my dear friend Tasha, in an email today. She thinks perhaps if we put the chant to music, we can call it a praise song and then it would all be o.k..

It is quite comical to see me these days with my cell phone always within ear shot if not in my hand! Waiting for "the phone" call has become a daily ritual. Should the phone be out of my reach and start to ring, you should see me as I begin to scramble, flip flop and whatever else it takes to get the phone before it stops ringing. The other day I noticed that I was taking it with me to the bath room! Come on - what would I do if it rang while I was in there? I gave myself a really good lecture "You know, this is what they have caller ID and voice mail for! Do you really think that they would give your baby to someone else if you couldn't get to the phone?"

My mind does wander frequently to our baby who is in the care of a very capable foster mother half way around the world. This yet to be identified baby captures my attention often. What is he (or possibly she) doing right now? Is he happy, hungry, tired or dirty? Please let him be happy, content and loved in the care of his foster family. I want to know all about him and be the one giving him all good things. I love him so much and I don't even know him! Even though he is not growing in my tummy, he grows in my heart every day.

We will hang in there, we will remain strong, we will keep up the fight. That baby is so worth it. I am inspired by my Heavenly Father who thought I was worth it to. If He hadn't fought for me, I would be destined to remain an orphan.

Ephesians 1:5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

Time to Learn!

2008-08-14T19:44:00.005-05:00

Amazon.com Widgets

One of the reasons we choose our adoption agency, Dillon International, is because they have an office within about a 2.5 hour drive from where we live. This allows us to take advantage of the education opportunities they provide. So far, they have provided us with a wealth of information about raising an adoptive family. Their belief is that adoption education starts when a family who is exploring the possibility of international adoption asks the first question and continues even after the child comes home. Adoptive children have unique needs and challenges. Dillon attempts to equip us for those needs and challenges. We look forward to a lifetime of learning about parenting and adoption. They also offers a wide array of post-adoption services. Their calender is full of opportunities for parents and children understand and appreciate the child's birth heritage.

Admittedly, when it comes to parenting we are "rookies." We have a lot to learn! Here are some of the books that we have picked up along our journey. Some of the book suggestions are from friends, some are suggestions from our agency and others are books we have picked up on our own.

My questions to you are:
"What is your favorite adoption or parenting book?"
"What piece of adoption education have you benefited from the most?"

Blog Award

2008-08-10T16:02:00.003-05:00

Thank you Abby for bestowing this "Brillante Weblog " Award to me for sharing my adoption story.

I would like to pass this award on to a few of my "adoption blog" friends:

Meredith - I am giving you this award for being so open and honest with your blogging and for sharing such beautiful pictures as well.

Sunny - I am giving you this blog award because I love your enthusiasm for following the Lord at every turn and for being willing to give Him the glory and just like Meredith, I love to see your pictures.

Yvonne - I am giving you this award because I don't miss a day reading your blog because it makes me excited to think that one day, we will be in your shoes...so close to picking up our baby. Thanks also for always encouraging me on my blog too.

Pass it on girls...

This Picture Says A Thousand Words!

2008-08-07T12:54:00.005-05:00

Make sure all loose articles are secure, buckle yourself in your seat and hold on! You are about to take a thrilling ride. At least that is the warning I feel like I should have heard for the last few weeks. I have no idea how it is that I seem to have pregnancy emotions with no pregnancy hormones! I can feel ecstatic one day and ready to cry at the drop of the hat the next. Any other waiting Mom's feel like this, or am I just nuts?

We have no adoption news. We have to be getting closer to receiving that "call." The call that will change our lives. We are ready - mentally that is. We have made no progress on the baby's room, in case you are wondering. We think we will leave that task until after we have a referral. As my Mom says, that is when the hard wait begins. I think for a few days we will live on the "high" of having a referral and then it will be hard to know our baby is out there and that it is not home with us. I sure am ready to give that wait a shot.

A couple of quick things I wanted to let you know about. Tonight on Larry King Live, Stephen Curtis Chapman is going to talk about the recent loss of his daughter, Maria and the miracle that came from that. I know you won't want to miss it.

Also, I put a few of my favorite adoption and parenting books in my sidebar. You might be interested in checking them out for your self. I will take some time in a future post to review for you the two I have not already reviewed on this blog.

Thank you so much to my blog friends and my friends in "real" life for all the support, love and encouragement you have shown us over the course or our journey. You keep us going.

Have a great week!

The Decision to Adopt

2008-07-30T18:24:00.006-05:00

I have blogged about this decision before, so you may already know some of this story. For those of you who don't know our story, here it is.

So...you know how it goes for most women, you have your whole life planned out...married by 25, 3.5 kids, a dog and a cottage house with a white picket fence!

I didn't have that much of a detailed plan, but I have for as long as I can remember, wanted to adopt a baby. I remember seeing the plight of the Romanian orphans on 20/20 and begging my parents to adopt a baby. I promised to take care of it. My heart couldn't bear to see those children suffer and not act. My parents, in their wisdom beyond mine, knew that at the age of 15, I was not ready to take care of a baby and further more, they were finished having babies in their house. Mom says that this was not the first time I had mentioned to her that I wanted to adopt, but this is the first time I remember my heart aching for children who didn't have a home of their own.

Life went on for me and I find myself in my late 20's dating Nathan. We talked about how many children we each wanted. I would love to have three, he only wants two and I am o.k. with two. I mentioned to him that I had always wanted to adopt and that frankly I had little desire to carry a child in my womb. I explained to him that I had always envisioned myself raising a child that I did not give birth to. He said he was totally fine with that. So here is where "our plan" comes into play. Our plan was to have a homegrown child and a child through adoption. Sounds like a great plan, right? That would be a great plan, but it was not God's plan.

After about two and a half to three years of being married, we noticed that our arms and laps were lonely. We were ready to start to build our family. Without going into a lot of details, we were not successful. I went to my doctor who did all sorts of tests on both of us, only to say that it was possible, but not probable for us to conceive. We didn't get a lot of definitive answers, but we were told that we could being to go down the path of fertility treatments. I think that in general fertility treatments are a great thing for a lot of people, we just didn't have a high tolerance for such. As you know, these treatments can be very expensive and you have no guarantees. To be quite honest, we didn't have time to waste. I was at least 35 or 36 years old at this point. We tried a couple of rounds of fertility medication with no success and that was it for us, we were ready to pursue adoption.

We talked and prayed things over and we decided that International Adoption from Korea was the best choice for us. You can read more about that decision here. After making that decision, I became ill. That is another blog for another day. After recovering from the illness, we found out that I have a condition that would make it dangerous for me to carry a child. Does God know what He is doing or what? It is no coincidence that God placed the desire in my heart to adopt! It is exactly the plan He had for me for my whole life.

We are thrilled with our decision and we know that God is in our plan. All along our path, we have seen God at work. It is our pleasure to be a part of what He has in store for our sweet baby. On days that I feel discouraged (kind of like today) that we will never get a referral, I try to remember that God is in control of this plan, not me. He knows what He is doing. I know He is working behind the scenes on my behalf.

It has been so much fun for me to write "Our Story." Thanks to all of you who have read along. I can't wait to add to this story as life goes on for us.

Married Life

2008-07-21T17:00:00.002-05:00

So now Nathan has decided that he loves being married. He wants to know why we didn't do it sooner. He also tells me that had he known that when you got married you could have 300 thread count sheets, he would have done it sooner. Very funny N Dub! I tried every trick in the book and all it took was 300 thread count sheets!

As you can see, Nathan has a great sense of humor and he remains my very best friend. We have so much fun together. Often times at night we turn out the lights and have a giggle fest. He often tells me that if we were in third grade, he would pull my pig tails. My favorite thing to do is steal his pillow when he gets out of bed or lifts his head in any way. I lay there and giggle as if he won't know what just happened. Now if he has to get out of bed...the pillow goes with him so that I don't steal it.

We love attending and serving at church together as well as spending time with family and friends. We both love our in laws. We both got great ones! We adore our three nieces and one nephew and take every opportunity we can to spend time with them.

We manage to stay busy, maybe even a little too busy. Both of our Mom's remind us that we "go too much." Weekends are often jam packed with activity and more things to do around the house than what anyone could possibly expect to get done.

After about three years of being married we noticed that our arms and laps were lonely and we decided it was time to start a family. As we usually do, we had a plan. One homegrown and one adoption. No problem, right? Well, God had another plan. Stay tuned...

The Engagement & Wedding

2008-07-14T09:57:00.000-05:00

One day Nathan wakes up and decides he is ready to get married. I am not sure of his entire thought process, but he has told me that one day he came to the realization that he wanted to share his entire life with me. I was the one that if he had good news, he wanted to share it with first, he wanted my opinion on stuff and he thought I was just plain fun. I am all for being fun, but I am not sure why when I read our adoption home study that fun was the one thing he kept saying about me - she's fun. What am I a circus elephant?

I had been giving my Dad plenty of warning that he could be receiving a phone call some time soon. I can't say that I blame him for his "I'll believe it when I get the phone call" attitude. We had been dating 7 years! I just thought that 7 years was time enough for him to adequately prepare for "the call." Nathan had purchased the ring and was trying to get my Dad, who suddenly was unavailable, on the phone. Finally, he reached him, asked his question and my Dad said something similar to "I have a lot of questions for you and I am not prepared, can you call back?" Do you believe that? Seven years and he was not prepared. Of course, Nathan complied. They made a time to talk a few days later. The date March 31. So what is the big deal about March 31? When you have been dating someone for this long the last day on the calendar you want to propose is April 1!

They talked and Dad gave his blessing. Nathan called me at home (about 10:00 at night mind you) and said that he spoke with my Dad and it did not go well, could I please come to his house so we could talk. I made it to his house in record time. He started telling me about their conversation and how, by the way, he was joking, it went well. I knew the proposal was coming, but I didn't expect it that night. There was a gift bag on his dining room table. I asked what it was and he said it was a belated birthday present for me and I could open it if I wanted. Of course, I did. Inside was a giant paper weight shaped like a diamond ring. We were joking about how I could show it to the girls at work and say "Look, he finally got me a diamond ring." Then he said "Or you could show them this" and he pulled out the most beautiful engagement ring I had seen in my entire life! Needless to say I was ecstatic. He got down on one knee right there in his kitchen (now our kitchen) and asked me to marry him. He says this was not what he had planned, but he knew he could not propose on April 1 and that he could not wait any longer.

I guess he thought we could just insta-plan a wedding. I had no idea what I wanted in a wedding (another area that I should have had time enough to plan but I didn't). It all came together and we were married 7 months later. I loved our wedding. It was so "us." We had a fall wedding. Our families helped us tremendously. We loved it that our whole family was involved. My nieces were flower girls, Nathan's niece was our flower baby (she was born in September and our wedding was in November), Nathan's sister did a reading and we carried on a tradition that she had started of having a candle lighting ceremony at our wedding. You know the kind like we have on Christmas Eve where everyone lights each others candles. We had great music hand picked by Nathan and his friend, our Music Pastor, Keith.

The reception was awesome. We decorated with mums, spray painted pumpkins and ferns. On the bride and groom's tables we had a picture of our respective parents on their wedding day cutting their cake and on each of the guests tables their were quotes about love from books, movies and famous people. There was so much food and we had a great time talking with all of our favorite people who came to celebrate with us this long awaited event.

That was the happiest day of my life. I know this sounds sappy, but I love being Nathan's wife. I had someone who tried to get me to sell make up for the company she was selling for. Her line was "You could have the life you always wanted." I looked at her and said "Honey, I didn't date this guy for seven years for nothing, I have the life I always wanted, it has nothing to do with make up." Needless to say, she didn't ask me again.

You know what they say, "After every wedding, there comes a marriage." Stay tuned...

Our Dating Story

2008-07-09T22:25:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know 7 years is a long time. Please note is also the number for perfection! Let's just say that we both had a lot of maturing to do. When we first started dating, Nathan still lived at home. I was coming out of a very bad relationship and needed time for healing. I am thankful that Nathan and I stuck with each other and our relationship long enough for both of us to experience much needed growth. Believe me, at times it was not easy for either one of us.

We did so many different things while dating, but mostly our lives revolved around our singles group at church and the friendships there. Many of those friends are people we are still close to now. I remember my Dad telling me that I needed to put down some roots in my adult life. That is what I did. I asked God for a girl friend and He answered my prayer in abundance. Not only did He provide me with that one special friend, Melissa, but He provided me with a whole slew of other friends that I treasure. Melissa and I spent several nights talking on the phone about where my relationship was going with Nathan. She was always so great to listen. Nathan was thrilled that I had other friends and my life didn't totally revolve around him.

Like I said we did so many things. We saw a lot of movies, spent time with our other single friends, went to Honduras on a mission trip, went to Memphis to see "Phantom of the Opera" and we were in and attended no telling how many weddings for friends.

About that "Phantom of the Opera" trip, here is a picture. Notice we went with two other couples. When we bought the tickets, we were all single and by time to go to Memphis for the play one couple was married and the other engaged!

Literally, before we started dating, I made a list of what I was looking for in a mate. Things like, "Number One - must be a Christian, must be as comfortable at a Razorback game as he is at the symphony, must love my family, and they must love him." I knew that this guy met every one of the criteria on my "list." Not that he is perfect, but he is very good for me. Furthermore, I felt like God had told me that this was the person He had for me. I remember telling Nathan "I don't care if we date for years if we eventually get married, but please don't date me for years and then dump me." I was willing to wait as long as it took as long as it resulted in marriage.

I will never forget the day Nathan called me out of the blue and said he bought a house. Keep in mind that he still lived at home and hadn't really even mentioned to me that he was interested in moving out. His grandparents had seen a house that they thought he would be interested in. It had just gone on the market that day, he saw it and made an offer - then called to tell me about it. I about flipped. Don't get me wrong, I loved the house and was thrilled for him, I was just in shock! He drove me to see the house - from the road, we couldn't go in. He then proceeded to drive around the neighborhood and say, "See, don't you like it better than this house or that house?" How would I know, I haven't seen the inside of either one. We still live in that house to this day and I love it even more than I did the day he bought it. It is perfect for us and will be great for our family too.

I knew one day Nathan would wake up and decide he was ready to get married and he would want to get married immediately. Sure enough one day, he did decide he was ready. He tells me now that he had no idea that it would take so long to pick out a ring and plan a wedding. Stay tuned...

How It All Started

2008-06-26T17:47:00.011-05:00

I love to play the "How did you meet your husband game" with friends that I am trying to get to know. I thought it would be fun to play this with my blogging friends as well. Here is our story...I would love to hear yours!

Nathan and I have know each other since we were about 12 years old. In fact, we grew up right down the street from each other and we attended the same church and youth group. We were friendly but not close friends. We ran with different friends and went to different schools.

After both going away to college and "found" each other again single, in our late 20's at church. Someone recently asked me where I met my husband and my response was "on my church pew." Nathan and I began to become close friends. He loved to give me dating advice and always ended it with "You need to dump him and date me." I would laugh thinking he was kidding me.

One night after being out with friends, Nathan took me home. He walked me to the front door which is kind of strange if we were "just friends," but for those of you who know Nathan, he is a gentleman and always wants to make sure everyone is safe. Much to my surprise, when he told me good bye, he planted a big kiss on me. If he tells this story, who gave who the kiss is mixed up - but I tell the truth. I asked him "Do you kiss all of your friends?" Of course he doesn't! I realized I was falling for him, my mom and friends at work had already picked up on this fact, but I was kind of slow.

By this point, Nathan and I were very close friends. When I told my mom the next morning what had happened her first response was "You know what they say, you should marry your best friend." Who are the theys and how do they know what we should do?

I am not sure whether to say "The rest is history" or "The rest is the beginning of a very long novel." Nathan told me pretty much right off the bat that he expected to date someone for 4-5 years before he would want to get married. Again, I am slow and I laughed. Little did I know, he was serious! We didn't date for 4-5 years, we dated for 7! I know that sounds like a long time and it is! It was both hard on me and good for me, that is another post.

Now it is your turn and I can't wait to hear your story! Make sure to link to this specific post and not just your blog so if someone looks later, they will go right to this post.

Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:25

2008-06-18T19:09:00.001-05:00

That is the verse I found in today's Dillon newsletter! Just what I needed to hear. We are moving up the "waiting for a referral" list at a fast pace, which is both exciting and scary at the same time. I have no idea what number we are on the list, but there have been several referrals this month which jets our names closer to the top of the list. Please pray for us that when we do get "the call" we will be able to make a decision quickly, that we will have perfect peace about our decision.

This last week has been a tough one for our family. Nathan's grandfather went to be with the Lord. We miss him already, but he has left us a Godly heritage and for that we are thankful.

For us, our hope is for a child that the Lord has picked for our family, but for each of you out there, there is something different that is your hope. I want to encourage you as the Psamlist did, Be Strong and Take Heart!

Finally, for those of us in Christ, our ultimate hope is that because of Christ's work on the cross we are forgiven of our sin and we will spend an eternity in heaven. Be Strong and Take Heart!

No Orphans of God

2008-06-02T17:05:00.000-05:00

I Love Links!

2008-05-26T15:19:00.000-05:00

Don't you love blogging? I think it gives us a chance to connect with other people who share similar journeys (adoption, motherhood, Christianity, whatever...) and it gives a chance to "peek in someone else's windows" to see what goes on in there home. My dear friend, Melissa, pointed out to me that we also don't spend time talking over the back fence like we used to and this is a way for us to know what is going on with our "neighbors." Anyway, I love to write my blog and read other's blogs.

I saw this idea on another blog and I thought it was a great one. If you are out "there" let me know. Send a reply with your name, a little bit about you and your blog address. Feel free to link my blog to yours if you want and I will assume it is ok to do the same.

Hope you all are enjoying the extra day of your weekend!

Dreams!

2008-05-21T19:22:00.000-05:00

In an attempt to "enjoy the journey" I am taking advantage of things I know I won't be able to do much of once the baby is here (sleep, watch t.v., surf the net).

In my attempt to enjoy sleep for last time in several years, the strangest thing has been happening to me. I have been having the strangest dreams lately! It has been several years since I have even been able to remember any of my dreams, but here lately, I can even remember dreams from a short nap.

In most of my dreams, there are very familiar people to me (family and close friends) and the situations don't seem terribly odd - they kind of fit with what is going on with that person. I am not one who believes that dreams have a hidden meaning, but I wonder if I just happen to have a lot on my mind. I have heard of pregnant women having weird dreams and I wondered if something similar was happening to me. Any other adoptive or waiting to adopt parents out there had this happen to them?

Hey! If nothing else I did get a great gift idea for two of my friends who are retiring. Seriously, it is a cute idea and I may go with it! Isn't that weird?

Amazed!

2008-05-19T22:15:00.000-05:00

Sunday nights we eat dinner after church with our friends from church. For the most part the group is mainly couples/families from our small group at church. In my opinion, regular fellowship time is something that keeps our group close. Whether it is dinner after church, girls' night out or guys' night, it all plays a big role in group cohesion. We love our Sunday night dinner with friends and look forward to it every week. This Sunday night was our last regular date until after the summer. We will have a couple of fellowships over the summer, but as for "go to church then eat" - this is finished until August when our regular schedule resumes.

Back to the whole point of this post, before I launched into the "How much I love spending time with my friends" ramble.

Here is the scene:
1 Small Pizza Parlour
12 Adults
9 Children under the age of 5
Toddlers with the guys, babies with the girls

Favorite quote of the night, "Dad I want a plate of..." the Dad "I want a big plate of SHHHHH!"

Last night as we sat waiting for our pizzas to be served, I watched my friends in amazement. How do they know to feed their kids noodles? How do they always have a packet of crackers ready to pull out in an instant? How do they manage to eat a single bite of food while wrestling a 15 month old who moves with the agility and speed of a helicopter? How do they manage to have a complete sentence of adult conversation? At one point, one of the Moms looked at me and said "You look deep in thought, what are you thinking about?" Well, now she knows. It was a combination of amazement and fear. Amazement that they all seemed to handle the situation with ease and fear that I have no idea what I am getting myself into.

To all my friends who are moms, you amaze me! I hope to handle the situations we will have with half as much grace as you do.

We will miss our Sunday night dinners until August, but we will look forward to times of good fellowship over the summer. After all our small group won $50 in our game of "Are You Smarter Than the Pastor?" last night. I think I have a just the plan on how to spend that!

Waiting

2008-05-12T21:14:00.000-05:00

As of now, we have been officially waiting since February 25, 2008. In a few short days it will be that we have been officially waiting for three months. Time does fly...some days that is. Other days waiting three to six more months seems like when we were kids and we waited for our birthday, the end of school or for Christmas. My birthday is in March and I can remember as a kid starting to ask my Mom in January what kind of birthday party I would have. "Please Mom, can it be a slumber party? I will only invite a few people!" I couldn't wait! I remember how long long the days between Spring break and Summer break seemed. Sitting in that hot, un-air conditioned class room seemed like torture as I sat there with visions of swimming pools and family vacations floating in my head. Don't even mention the wait until Christmas!

As an adult, I have found myself waiting time and time again. What is it that God is trying to teach me with all this waiting? There must be a point to all the "in between times" in life where I am waiting for this or that big event.

So here we are today, waiting again. This time we wait for our baby. We also have the realization that right now, this baby maybe waiting on us too. God will be faithful in our journey to each other and He will make us a family.

This adoption, for me, will be the realization of a life long dream but this tiny bundle of joy will not be in my arms for probably six months. The other day as I was thinking about that wait, I realized that I have a lot of life to live in the mean time. Next month Amy and kids will come for a visit, I have three friends expecting babies of their own, countless friends whom I wish to celebrate will turn another year older and much more of life will occur. Wouldn't it be a shame for me to miss all that in between stuff? So for now I struggle with the balance of preparing for this baby and celebrating the life that is happening all around me.

As we wait for this baby we pray "Please Lord, let someone love our baby right now while we can't be with him/her. Please protect our precious little one. You know the plans you have for us and we will wait on You."

Making A Difference!

2008-05-05T12:40:00.000-05:00

Lately I have been thinking about people who make a difference. We all know them! People who have a vision on how to make the world around them a better place and then (this is key) they actually follow through with their plans. It is not just a vision, a wish or a dream, but they find a way to make it a reality.

Some of the people I know that come to mind are Dr. Don R. of Chattanooga, TN, Betty K. of Fort Smith and David and Lydia M. of Honduras. These people inspire me.

Dr. R. went with his church on a mission trip to Honduras in the 80's and discovered an orphanage being run by David and Lydia M. When he arrived, the children were almost at the point of starvation and David and Lydia had been praying for days that a dentist would come to help them because the kids were in desperate need of dental work. Dr. R. took on the orphanage as his personal mission and he spends countless hours working to make the orphanage a better place for the children who live there. David and Lydia's story is similar as they gave up everything they owned to make a home for children who were cast aside in Honduras.

I am also inspired by Betty. She is an ordinary woman who through her own personal tragedy saw a need for pediatric physical, occupational and speech therapy in our area. Because of her efforts and the efforts of her family, our area has an outstanding clinic where any child in need of therapy can come and receive treatment at no out of pocket cost.

Last night I heard of Dr. Farmer. A doctor who has moved to Haiti to set up a hospital in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Because of his efforts, people in Haiti receive medical care free of charge.

All of these people have set up something that will make a difference well past their lifetime. It got me to thinking about my life, what am I doing that will make a difference past my lifetime? As Christians, we are called to help those who are helpless (widows, orphans and the poor). I was reminded of one of my favorite poems. Maybe you have heard it before, but I think it is worth reading and thinking about what we do in life and if we are making a difference.

Once upon a time there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his

writing.

He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day he was walking along the shore.

As he looked down the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer.

He smiled to himself to think of someone who would dance to the day.

So he began to walk faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man and the young man wasn't

dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something

and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer he called out, "Good morning! What are you doing?"

The young man paused, looked up and replied, "Throwing starfish in the ocean."

"I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?"

"The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don't throw them in they'll die."

"But, young man, don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!"

The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it

into the ocean, past the breaking waves and said - "It made a difference for that one."

So what does that mean for you? How can you make a difference?

Pregnancy Help Center Walk for Life

2008-04-27T20:26:00.000-05:00

Amy (my favorite sister in law) and I have something in common - previously unknown to me until this last week. We are both participating in a walk for a Pregnancy Help Center.

Mine is this weekend. I have been on the board of the local Pregnancy Help Center for about the last year. Women who find themselves in a position of an unplanned pregnancy is an issue that is close to my heart. I admire anyone who makes the right decision in a time of crisis. It is my opinion that they right decision for these women to either parent their children or place them for adoption with another loving family. I am thankful that in my community there is a place that is equipped to help women work through those decisions.

If you would like to help me out by making a donation, please let me know. The rules are the same as the one Amy is walking in. You don't have to send me money, the Pregnancy Help Center will send you a bill.

I agree with Amy, thank goodness it is a flat donation and not per mile. Unlike Amy, I would never make any money for my distance.

If you or someone you know is facing an unplanned pregnancy, you are not alone! Please contact this website for help.

Adoption Education

2008-04-20T22:32:00.000-05:00

There is not a whole lot to update. We are in a waiting phase. We expect our wait to be anywhere from 5 months to 11 months. I know that is a big range, but that is what we have been told. We are hoping to have the baby home by Christmas.

Right now we are focusing on educating ourselves on parenting and adopting issues. I have been taking internet courses, which have been surprisingly interesting. Nathan is responsible for the required book reading (including a small book report).

So far I have taken a class on attachment and a class on being a "conspicuous family." I wasn't very familiar with either of these concepts prior to our adoption process. Sure, I knew it was important for babies to bond with their parents, but I didn't think a lot about attachment issues. It is just one of those things that you assume that if you love and nurture a baby it will happen automatically. Well, that is not necessarily the case. We will have to work hard to build a trust relationship and make sure the baby knows we are its parents.

A "conspicuous family" is one in which it is obvious that the baby is adopted. How do you handle comments? What do you do to make sure the baby sees other families like yours or sees people of his/her race? I am glad we have had the opportunity to think about theses issues prior to being handed a little bundle of joy. One thing this class has made me think twice about are comments I make both to conspicuous families and to people who ask questions. My answers to people tend to fall on the sarcastic side - not always an appropiate option, but it makes me laugh. I am not sarcastic because I am offended by the question, the sarcastic answer just makes me laugh. For example if someone were to say to us "He must look like his Dad," I would be tempeted to say "I don't know, I never met his Dad." If someone were to say "Are you going to tell her she is adopted?" I would say "No, we think she will never know." You get the point, the sarcastic answer is just more fun for me.

This weekend we are attending a parenting class that our adoption agency is hosting. It is in Tulsa and we are looking forward to a little get away. Along with other things, we will actually learn how to change a diaper! Don't laugh, but I actually am not confident in this area. Nathan bursts out in laughter at the three or four times he has seen me complete this task.

Have a great week!

Storms of Life

2008-04-14T21:37:00.000-05:00

The last year has been a rough one for us. We have both had major job changes, I have had health issues, we have started the adoption process and have had family illnesses just to name the "biggies."

This last week, we experienced a literal storm. Our home and both our cars took hits from hail the size of tennis balls. We are in the process of dealing with insurance, repair companies and trying to stay calm. Frankly right now, we are both so tired, it is hard to focus on one more thing.

All that to say that through it all God has been faithful. During tough times in life, I have tried to look back God's faithfulness to me. Everywhere I look, I see His faithfulness. Two Sunday's ago our choir sang a song that said something like "When darkness hides His face, faithful He remains." That one line stood out to me and I had no idea how much I would need it the very next week.

First and foremost, we are safe. No physical harm came to us, our family or our friends during this recent storm. Our home is standing and we are able to live in it.

I have learned lots of lessons along the way. What it boils down to in each of these situations is my reaction. Do I blame God or do I seek Him, His care and His guidance? Do I trust that He loves me has my best interest at heart? Am I as patient with others as He is with me?

God does love me and want what is best for me. He knows that we will have storms in our life and He is ready and waiting to help us through them. Remember when He was in the boat with His disciples and a storm came up? Jesus was calmly sleeping in the boat while everyone else started to panic. At the right time, He stood and said "Peace be still!" and the waves were forced to obey. It is like that with us too. He is not surprised, He does not panic and He is in charge. I am thankful that our God is like that, it is just what I need.

Small Update

2008-04-07T23:00:00.001-05:00

For those of you who are wondering how quickly Immigration processing is going in our area, we received our I600A approval in the mail today. I thought that was remarkably quick. We had our fingerprinting appointment just last Wednesday.

One More Check Mark on the List!

2008-04-02T22:37:00.000-05:00

There is not a lot to report. We did however get one more item checked off our list today. We had our fingerprints taken at Immigration. It was very CSI. I thought I would be covered in ink by the time we were finished, but it was digital. Nathan sailed right through his, you would have thought he was a pro! Me on the other hand, I couldn't seem to "relax" enough for the poor girl to get a good print. It is just weird to me to have someone in your personal space like that, makes me tense up.

I guess all these "little" things make it seem real - this is really going to happen, we are really going to get a baby, I am really going to be a Mom and Nathan is really going to be a Dad. There is no growing belly, baby inside your belly hiccups, baby inside your belly doing flip flops or any of that to remind me every day that this is real. My friend at work, Barbie said that each little step for us, like fingerprints, is like when someone who is pregnant goes to the doctor...they may only check your blood pressure and send you on your way, but it is still exciting. Oh! And that non growing belly...my friend, Jessica offered to get me one of those fake pregnancy bellies. I think I will have to decline that request!

I have added several blogs of families who are joining us on this adoption journey. For those of you from church, you may remember Eric and Nicole, they met their new daughter Emma on April 1. You can read all about it in their blog here. You may also know Meredith and Matt. They are adopting from Vietnam. You can read all about their adoption and their dog, Dolly here. There are many other touching adoption stories on my side bar, people at all different stages of their journey. I love to read their stories - especially when they are traveling.

Finally, I want to mention Craig (Nathan's brother in law). He is currently serving in Afghanistan. His blog is here. His wife Amy's blog (one of the funniest people I know) is here.

I know that is a lot of blogs, but you should check them out. I think you will like them. They are all thoughtfully written and no one will try to sell you anything.

Have a wonderful week.

Things To Do While We Wait!

2008-03-26T21:58:00.000-05:00

So...the question I get asked the most these days is "What do you do now?" My answer, "Wait." Most people look at me perplexed as if to say "Isn't that what you have been doing." Well, yes and no. Like I said, we are officially on the waiting list. All the stuff we have done so far have gotten us to this point "Officially Waiting."

Sure we still have things to do like reading books about adoption, taking on-line courses, taking a CPR class, attending a child care class, completing more paperwork, getting fingerprinted. As you can see, it is not idle waiting.

Here is Nathan's plan (please note this is a modified version of his plan for the waiting that occurred between the time he "popped the question" and the time we could put a wedding together) - we need to clean an organize. I suppose if it were my idea people would call it nesting. I am not sure of the term used for when a Dad to be does this. His thought (which I have to say is right) is that we have to fit another person, who comes with a lot of stuff into this house, we need to get better organized. So...for the last few weeks, we have been going through every room, drawer by drawer, closet by closet and cleaning and reorganizing. Before I get all kinds of post suggesting this, let me make this clear...we are not coming to your house next.

I have let Nathan take the lead and let me tell you it is going great! I am pleased with our progress. I am also taking full advantage of this time, I know it won't be long until Nathan is spending every free weekend moment in our yard. He has already mowed our lawn once this year! He loves yard work. Good thing because I don't like it.

I do have one question, "How do two people accumulate so much junk?" Needless to say, we are having a huge garage sale the first weekend in May. Sad thing is, it hasn't been that long since we had a garage sale!

Have a great week!

Thank You For the Cross!

2008-03-19T17:24:00.000-05:00

Ephesians 1:5 - God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

Thank you for the cross Lord that makes it possible for us to be adopted into the family of God.

My prayer is that if you don't know the Savior that you will come to know Him very soon. If you do know Him, I pray that you enjoy this Easter weekend as we celebrate His resurrection.

Matthew 28:6 - He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay.

I600a Fingerprinting Appointment

2008-03-15T20:47:00.000-05:00

Today we received notification that we have an appointment with Immigration to have our fingerprints taken. Whew Hew! Just another step in our journey.

We are thrilled that Amy and the kids have come for a visit! They came in tonight and we went for dinner and a short visit. Those kids are too stinkin' cute! We have lots of big plans for the week...cake making, birthday celebrating, playing dinosaurs, book reading...I can hardly wait.

If this is your Spring Break - Enjoy!

John Piper on Adoption

2008-03-08T08:56:00.000-06:00

My husband is a huge John Piper fan. He actually came across this video and suggested I put this on our blog. In this video John Piper states that Adoption is Greater than the Universe. He makes a great case for why as Christians, we should consider adoption. He says it way better than I ever could.

Please watch this video - I think you will enjoy it.

Officially Waiting

2008-03-03T19:03:00.000-06:00

So...we got our good news today! Our home study has been approved and we have received it in the mail. We are on the official waiting list. Wooo Hoo! Needless to say we are thrilled as are our families!

We have been on the waiting list with about 15 other families since February 25. We could wait for up to a year, but we are praying that the wait is about 6-9 months because referrals seem to be coming much faster these days.

We can now complete grant paperwork and immigration paperwork. My Mom asked "Ok, then what do you do?" My response, "We wait." Her response "I thought we were already waiting!" My niece, Brittni, thought that possibly waiting until Christmas seemed like "forever." We don't want to wish our lives away or miss one thing that God has in store for us, but we do look forward to having our baby with us.

Two weekends ago Mom and I went to a lady's conference in Northwest Arkansas. It was over at noon so, this gave us a great opportunity to go baby shopping. I remember thinking that it doesn't even seem real that I am having/getting a baby. I think it is different for adoptive parents versus biological parents since there is no baby growing inside of me, some days, it doesn't seem real.

Well, today it felt real! It was kind of like what I imagine it would be like to go to the doctor to confirm you are pregnant, you know, the time you hear the heart beat? You may have taken a home test, but something about hearing the heart beat makes it seem more real. That is how it felt today, "yes, you have been approved and you are officially waiting" - hit us with both a sense of excitement and awe at the fact we are going to be parents.

Mom and I picked out a baby bed, so Nathan's first question was, "Did your Mom get that bed ordered?" I assured her that yes she did, but we would have plenty of time before the baby got here. It is odd to think that this "baby" will probably be about 8 months old. I think it hit my niece, Brooklyn for the first time while we were shopping. "What do you mean this baby won't need a swing! Don't all babies need a swing?"

I am so happy that are families are excited for us...what a blessing.

Well, I must come down off cloud nine and get some things done around here. I hope you all have a great week.

Baby Boom

2008-02-24T16:30:00.000-06:00

We are so fortunate to have a wonderful group of friends, most of whom we know from church one way or another. This group is very supportive and we feel blessed to be a part of this group. Nathan and I have the privilege of directing our Sunday Small Group Bible Study (whatever we are supposed to call it - we say "Sunday School"). I don't want to sound like I am using flowery words when I say it is our privilege, because it truly is our privilege. We LOVE these people and are so thankful for the love, kindness and encouragement they show to us. We often thank God they are in our life.

When you lead a group of young married people, you know there are going to be a lot of people who are starting their families. I want to tell you about this group. So far, there are way too many kids for me to count out of our 30 - 40 member class. I would estimate there are about 40 children so far. This year already one of the couples in our class had twins and another is expecting twins. If you can believe it, there are 5 couples who are expecting babies sometime this year, rumors of another couple and a couple of more families who would like to add to their family. This means that by the end of the year we could have 6-8 more babies from our class alone! We like to say, "If you don't want a baby, don't eat the refreshments!"

We are thrilled to share this path in life with our friends! For those of you who are praying that God will add to your family - we are praying for you too. We've been there and many days we feel like we are there!

We love you guys and thanks for allowing us to lead our class! You make our job easy!

Wish I Had More to Say

2008-02-16T11:38:00.000-06:00

I have been delaying writing a post because I had hoped to be able to report that our Home Study was finished and approved by today, but I am disappointed to say that it isn't finished yet. We are hoping to receive word on it soon - hopefully in the next two to three weeks. When I get frustrated like this I try to think about the verse at the top of this blog. I know God has this all planned out for us and our baby - He knows the right time, this right baby and the right situation...sometimes I loose sight of that fact.

So...my husband loves lighthouses. I put this picture on here to see if you could guess what this picture has to do with this post. Any guesses?

I am adding a couple of new links to my side bar. These are families who are in the process (one way or another) of International Adoption...they are in the process of adoption or have already adopted. I thought you might enjoy their stories. I have met (through the internet or otherwise) so many interesting people through this process. This has truly been an unexpected blessing of this journey.

Have a great week and please pray that our home study is finished soon!

You know you are an adoptive mother (or you should be!) if:

2008-02-04T21:13:00.001-06:00

1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has ever made you lose sleep.
2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.
3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.
4. The fact that if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child, there would be no orphans in the world is convicting to you.
5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption.
6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about your adopted child's "real"
parents.
7. You have ever been "pregnant" with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth (2 years!)
8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway knowing where God calls you He will provide.
9. You have ever taken a airplane ride half way around the world with a child you just met.
10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.
11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacy's you could ever leave on this earth.
12. You know what the word Dossier means and you can actually pronounce it!
13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.
14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to have them in your life.