A video try...

trying new video:

We took Baby J for a walk outside the agency prior to the blessing from Dr. Kim.





Chris giving J his first meal on Gotcha Day.





J and Lexi getting along.

Overview of our week in Korea

Monday had been our first day to meet Baby J and then we did some sight-seeing with friends we met in Korea who were there to pick up their son as well.

Eating at an American pub in Seoul!  The guys said the burgers were frozen patties warmed up.  :(

The four of us and another adoptive father friend that was there picking up his daughter...on his own, brave guy!!!

Our meeting and luncheon with the director of the Korean adoption agency was cancelled on Thursday, so we were just going to go early and rock the babies that are waiting to be placed in foster homes.  Well, as we were walking near the agency, we happened to see our son with his foster mother coming in for a quick doctor check-up as he started with a cough and sneezing since our first meeting...poor little guy.  They gave him some medicine for the flight until we were able to see our pediatrician (who was on call Saturday morning and we just went to see her briefly; he is fine, she took him off the meds, and said to keep him well-hydrated...she suggested a humidifier, which we now have to find time to go get!).  We met with J and his foster mother for about an hour, during which she gave us a bunch more stuff that we had sent, some food to get him through the night, snacks that he likes, and other gifts for him, including a whole case of CDs/DVDs that we haven't even had time to open yet.  What a great foster family we had!!  Dr. Kim was available to do the blessing over the babies when it was time to leave and their driver took us and the S. family back to our hotels.

MAY 27 = GOTCHA DAY!!!!!!!!!

In the van going back to the hotel.

He did great on the plane!!  Mom and Dad, on the other hand, had to figure out at 30000 feet that he was finally hungry about halfway through the flight when everyone else was sleeping!!  But what a little trooper.  Here is when it finally hit us that he really is ours; the plane door was closed and we were moving away from the gate:

doesn't Chris look so proud and happy?!?!

Both of my boys getting some zz's.

Our family of three!!!!!!!

Our arrival in Chicago where we had to part ways from the S. family.  Can't wait to meet again!!!

We arrived home Friday evening to some super-excited people at the airport waiting to meet our son!  Not going to go into how tired we all were, but I. have. never. been. that. tired. before.  All of our body clocks are messed up and we're trying to get on a schedule, so wish us luck.  But we are happy to be home finally and ready to really get to know each other.  I am still working on trying to get video up; believe me, I have a ton that I would love to share, but right now it's only on my computer and camera!!  Here is a last picture of me and J.  When he finally gives himself over to sleep, he just goes completely limp...I love it...I LOVE HIM!!!!!

First Meeting with Baby J

He takes after his appa (daddy) in liking fish.

Here are a few pictures of our first meeting with baby J. The foster mother handed him right over to Chris and he did great ... he was all smiles and giggles. I still cannot get the video uploaded to the blog, but here are some pictures!!! He still has a LOT of hair.

We've met up with another couple who are picking up their child.  Their schedule is the same as ours; we pick up our children at the same time on Thursday and actually have the exact same flight back to Chicago on Friday!!!  I think we have made some lifelong friends.  Their son is 10 days older than ours.

And our new lives begin!

The flight is booked, the hotel is (finally!) booked, and the bags are packed, ready to go!!  We will meet Baby J at 10am on Monday in Seoul, which is 8pm Sunday night back here.  It's really here, we're really going, and he's really going to be ours!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I probably won't be on the computer much while we're there, but I will try to give a couple of updates throughout our stay.  My heart is pounding...I think it's finally sinking in.  :-)

TRAVEL CALL!!!!

We are going to Korea!!!  We will be back home next week with our baby J!!!  I don't know what else to write, other than that we are deliriously happy, excited, and, oh yeah, nervous.  We're gonna be parents!!  Wow, we're gonna be parents.  Ho-ly cow.

Could it really be?!?!

So I broke down and called the State Department today, even though I wasn't going to, since last Friday they had no news for me.  The reason I decided to call was because someone from our agency who has a referral at the end of October (ours was October 2) had called and received some good news, so I thought, what the heck, the worst I could get would be another negative.  Anyway, I called and waited 24 minutes listening to that ringing phone (nope, they don't even play elevator music!).  Finally, a woman with a very heavy accent answered the phone and looked up our paperwork and informed me that our son would have his interview on May 18 at 1pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So that actually took place May 17 and 11pm our time!!!  I had to ask her to repeat herself because I wasn't sure what I was hearing; I was thinking she had to be wrong, but she said it again for me and mentioned how cute my baby is...as if I didn't know that already!!!!!!!  So we could be traveling soon, soon, soon!  I am totally freaking out and need to make sure I have everything packed.  I will probably go through it all again, knowing me.  I. cannot. wait. to finally get on that plane...it's about dang time!!!  YIPPEE!!

Ugh...another weekend

Call me naive, but I really thought we were going to receive our travel call today.  And now that we haven't, I feel completely depressed.  We have to wait through another weekend before anything can happen...who knew I would come to absolutely hate weekends!?  Because there's no possibility of news on the weekend.  I have actually come to anticipate Mondays because the agency is open and it's the beginning of another week where we could hear something.  This weekend is also because it feels like we are starting to wait longer than a few others before us and people after us seem to be catching up; not that I wouldn't love to meet them on our trip over there, but why isn't J's paperwork going through?  Why haven't we gotten the call yet?  I am starting to get nervous that something's wrong; logically, I know I should not think this way, but I can't help it.  I was also hoping we would get some birthday pictures, but after receiving pictures for a few months in a row (which was great!), we didn't get anything from his big day.  :(  I know we'll probably get them when we travel to get him, but I feel like I'm floating down a stream without anything to anchor me or steer with.  I have no control over any of this, which I hate, and what if we get lost in the system?  I'm a hands-on person and like to be able to stay on top of things, but with this, I have to trust others to do everything for me.  And I've heard enough stories that that trust is not quite there 100%.  I know these people do this all the time, but mistakes can be made...I mean, they're only human, right?  This weekend I am going to try to let go of all of it and have a good time with Chris; maybe it will be our last weekend together at home with just the two of us?  Here's hoping...

13 months old

Our son is 13 months old today.  Wouldn't it be a great gift to get that coveted travel call to celebrate?!?!  Keep praying!!

An aunt once again!

My newest nephew was born this morning!!  Yes, my parent's three girls have now given them four grandsons within a 2 1/2 year span...we're going for a basketball team!  ha!!  New mama and baby are doing well.  Congratulations, big sis.  Happy belated Mother's Day!

Trees, trees, and more trees!

Chris and I spent this past weekend up at our land and, as the title of this post suggest, we had a lot going on with our trees. We Chris cut down a large tree at the edge of our clearing so that we can now get the truck and pop-up circled around without having to do a lot of back and forth maneuvering to get the camper straightened out. We're so excited about this because it's going to make getting the camper set up that much easier!! And as he was getting the tree chopped up into pieces, I was hauling it into the woods and dumping it away from our campsite. Talk about a workout!

this is the tree we had to cut down. It was tall!  Chris is there at the base, getting ready to make his first cut.

That sucker was supposed to fall completely the other way, but it was so windy this day that it was just going to go whichever way it wanted...and it came straight at me!!! I was hoping to get video of it falling, but as soon as I saw the top coming my way, I stopped looking and ran!! It ended up falling across our driveway. Good thing we'd moved the truck before cutting the tree. :)

Chris got it cut up and I had it cleared away so we could get the truck back up to the clearing.

Chris got to use a "toy", this bobcat, to move some gravel we had delivered. We used the gravel to expand the clearing and shore up thin spots along the drive. You can't tell from this picture, but he had a huge grin on his face the whole time he was using this.

This is a picture of 100 white pine trees that we bought from the DNR to plant on our land. We actually got about 50 of them planted. The sun was out both days and really fried me...no, I have no pictures and even if I did, would not show them, but believe me, I'm red!!

This is Jason's tree, that we planted in a perfect spot and marked with pink marking tape on a tent stake, so that we can show him in the years to come that this one was planted just for him. Grow, baby, grow!

Finally, one more tree story...this one includes a black bear. Yep, Chris (and I) finally got to see a bear up near our land. He has wanted to see one since we bought the property a few years ago. This guy was trying to get across a road about a mile from our place and we couldn't believe what we were seeing. I'm so glad I had the camera in the front of the truck and could get to it in time before we passed him. He had run back to the edge of the woods when the car ahead of us passed him and we were able to slow down enough to get a good picture of him standing by the tree at the side of the road.

He was so cute, but I'm also saying that from the relative safety of the confines of the truck! I think I would have very different thoughts if he had come walking up to our campsite!!!