Birthday Weekend

We spent last weekend celebrating several family members birthday, including Mike, his grandmom and dad.  Happy 29th birthday to all!  To celebrate, we traveled up to Mike's brother, whose wife is expecting. God bless her.  She's had a rough couple of weeks and looks ready to deliver a happy, healthy little boy.  In the meantime, she's been tending to their little girl who is so cute and quick as a whip.  It is so amazing to see how fast she is growing and how much she resembles her momma as a child.

Mike's mom made her delicious lasagne and of course, there was cake and ice cream.  We also took the opportunity to tell the two of them of our adoption.  We also shared our name ideas.  Thank goodness, we both hadn't fallen in love with the same name.  They actually made an excellent decision with their son's name.  We are leaning toward Zack, but it still isn't official.  Every time I mention another name, dada says he doesn't like, so I think it will be hard to overturn that name, but you never know.

Today was beautiful.  I went for two long walks with the dogs.  Mike spent the day working on our son's room.  He is finally almost finished with the Wainscoat.  He did an excellent job, it's good to marry an engineer.  We just need to paint the nail holes and seal a few areas.  Almost there.  

Wordless Wednesday: Footprints to my Heart

Legals!!

  

I can't believe it, but our son's legals came on Monday.  We need that information to file the US I600 Form.  The legals are from Korea and serve as notice that our beautiful boy is eligible for adoption.  Dada hustled today to get the required paperwork together and Fed Ex it to Texas.  One step closer.

Last weekend, we yet again worked on his room.  This waincoat thing is taking some time, but it looks amazing.  We also pulled the trigger on getting a convertible crib for him and changing table.  And, I couldn't help myself, I found the cutiest bedding for him from Pottery Barn.  His room is starting to take shape.  Now to clean out his closest---which we use for our storage.  That should be interesting.  Are those wedding invitations?  Really!

After celebrating an absolutely beautiful day last Friday, where we had a 70 degree day, let's just say that old man winter let us know that he isn't finished.  We woke to 5 inches of snow.  Little Mattie took one look outside this morning and decided that she could hold her potty until there was no more snow. After a gentle nudge, out she went and none to happy. It's been a longer winter, but it looks to be a much better summer!

Wordless Wednesday: My Valentine Flowers

And the wait begins

Mike and I have been patiently waiting for our child's legals from Korea.  I've heard that it can take up to a month to receive.  Which leads to the dilemma, we can't start the I600 U.S. process until we receive this information.

So as the time goes bye, we've been preparing in other ways.  Last weekend, we once again worked on his room.  I'm really loving the color selection.  Bedding will be the next issue.  To crib or not to crib--that is the question.  Korean families have a little bit of a different ritual with the sleep situation.  The child sleeps on a mat on the floor in the parent's bedroom.  So yeah, we need to figure out the best method to get our son sleeping in his room, preferably on his own, and in some type of bed or crib.  On our agencies forum site, there have a couple of families working through this transition.  We will be battling two major issues:  time zone change and separation nightmares.  I've tried to prepare dada for this lack of sleep, but something is telling me that it really hasn't sunk in.   Time will tell.  Hopefully, our son will be a good sleeper.

We celebrated Valentine's Day last night.  Mike brought home beautiful red and white roses and we stopped off at our favorite little local chocolate store.  Umm.  On Sunday, we ran down some chocolate to Betty, who is an amazing women even at 90.  Still sharp as a tack.  Crazy to think that next year at this time, little guy will be home and helping us celebrate.  

The Little Guy

   

We had a heck of a time getting his picture on blogger.  So with little other options, I snapped a picture with my phone camera.  Not the best quality but you can still see that he is a cutie.  

Here Comes the Sun

It has been a whirlwind last few days.  Where to begin.  On Friday, our paperwork was forwarded to Korea by our agency.  Saturday began with a renewed energy to get painting done upstairs, including the baby's room.  We decided on a colonial blue with white wainscoat.  We are no where near finished--once we do, I'll post some pictures.  We are in a rush to finish some of these things off sooner rather than later.  I'm still undecided whether I should have surgery for my hip labrum.  As they say, timing is everything.  It takes approximately 2-3 months to get back on your feet after surgery---ugh, which could put us close to travel.  And, I do NOT want to miss out on Korea.

But I digress, Sunday brought family time.  We officially told Mike's grandmom who was so excited for us.  The good news:  we'll have two little boys in the family with the addition of Jason and Toni's little one.  I was so hoping that they would have a boy and they are---yeah!

Today, we came home to more news.  The USCIS sent our visa application to the U.S. Embassy in Korea.  We still need to complete the I600 but need to wait for paperwork from Korea before we can start---that can take up to 2 months (don't you just love these delays).

Can you tell that we are super excited!  Now that we have the referral, Mike emailed that it seems so much more real.  Which leads me to our sunshine:  I'll get Mike to post his pictures

Mounds of Paperwork

Finally, our paperwork was sent to Oregon today.  After talking with the doctor about the additional medical questions, we decided to take the plunge.  How could you not after seeing his beautiful brown eyes, which encourage you on.  Last Friday, we sent our acceptance email to our agency, which started a series of additional paperwork to accept him.  

Mike had planned to have paperwork notarized by a friend at work, only to find that her seal was set to expire in March, no good.  After a few hours of scrambling, he found another colleague to notarize and set off to overnight by Fed Ex.  So, daddy officially passed test #1.  Get the paperwork to Oregon as soon as possible.  The reason: we're a little worried about the EPs running out.  Lately, it seems that a lot of people have been getting referrals.  And with travel now taking 6-8 months.  We might be looking at running into the end of the year EP shortage.  So, timing is everything.  We're keeping our fingers crossed.

The good news continues:  SC just pulled in a stellar recruiting class.  This in the face of unwarranted sanctions.  It really is an embarassment of riches.  Here's to finally getting our revenge on Oregon next year.  Fight On for Old SC!