FREE!

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

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

What's In a Name?

"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?