Looking Back At 2010

Since our nephews are almost exactly one year younger than J, we got to see what J was probably doing one year ago at Christmas.  I get a little sad to be reminded of what we have missed out on in J's life, but I also know he was being loved on by his foster family at that time and that he was healthy and happy, which is all that really matters in the long run.  We got to experience this Christmas with him and everything that has happened over the past 7 months.  It has been awesome, tiring, miraculous, at times frustrating, and so many more emotions that I can't list them all.

2010 started with us thinking that we would be traveling to Korea sometime very early in the year to get our son.  My sisters planned a baby shower for me in late January and I remember telling them that I hoped it would have to be postponed because of us being in Korea or having just returned...wow, how naive that seems now!  :-P  Then waiting four more months before finally, finally getting our travel call.  It all seems so long ago.  But that wait was worth it.  At the time, it felt like things were never going to move forward, but now 7 months has passed us by and it's going too quickly!  It was actually the perfect timing for bringing him home: our son absolutely loves to be outside and the end of May was the best time to have brought him home, so that we could take advantage of the hot summer weather.  (It was also nice for Mommy to have the summer off of work!)

I know we felt like our referral to travel call was long (just shy of 8 months), but the families that are waiting now to bring their kids home are looking at even longer wait times, some of them close to a year!  I can only imagine how they're feeling at this time.  Please pray for those families who are waiting for their travel calls, whose babies are going to be even older than J was when he came home.  Pray for them to stay strong during the rest of the wait, pray for that wait to be short, and pray for their children who will be coming home as toddlers and that their transition to their forever families is smooth.  Pray for the foster families as well, who have loved and nurtured these children for 15+ months in some cases.  It cannot be easy to do what these families do, emotionally bonding to these children that are placed in their care, all the while knowing that it is only temporary.  It has to be heartwrenching for them.  We have seen a visitor on our blog from Seoul recently and I can only hope that maybe it's J's foster family looking in on him.  I hope that being able to see him grow and seeing how happy he is with us gives them peace.  I've said this before and I'll say it again because I feel so strongly about it: I think the love J received from his foster family had a lot to do with how very well he adjusted to us once we brought him home.  I hope that we get to meet them again someday and show them in person what a great little boy they helped raise.  Lee Family, if you are reading this: kamsahamnida!