Wordless Wednesday

Just being real.... lol. Exiting our exciting zoo trip from last week. Anderson did "not" want to leave and Jack was upset as well. Lollipops came next. :)
I am so happy my hubby snapped this excellent shot of me.

A little more info...

(this is mostly for my benefit, so I can remember my phone conversation, but if you are interested in why my approval is so slow, read on!)
I spoke with Barker, our adoption agency and they gave me a little more info on what is going on with our offices. Apparently, I got stuck in a hold up. Tomorrow everything is going to start being routed to texas in an effort to streamline this process. The woman I spoke to at Barker told me that if I do not have my approval in 3 weeks to call her back and we will do something about it. She said alot of Va families are caught in this hold up. I do know some of my adoption friends are caught up on the side of the 1-600 filed after acceptance of referral. For the good news, she said my 1-600 should come very fast, as in they are promising 15 day turn arounds. SO even though I got caught up on this end for this approval, it does give me hope after referral things may sail faster. It is just nice to get answers. And have some sympathy. lol. She did say some Va families were holding at over 12 weeks for 1-600A approval and they were really upset at Barker about that. It feels nice to know someone is on my side and will help me get this approval.

Heard back

Well the good news is I actually heard back from my email to see where my 1_600A approval was. The bad news:

And quote: The file has not been reviewed yet. Please note that processing of form I-600A may be up to 9 weeks from date of the fingerprint appt.

BUMMER. Promise my next post will be happier.

Here's wishing!

Well after an hour of phone calls and emails to my social worker and Barker, our international adoption agency, I finally figured out that Fairfax, Va is who is sending us our 1-600A approval. There are 2 offices in D.C. and we could not figure out which one was the right one. I got their email and emailed them for a "status" on our approval.
Sadly, our social worker told me they have been told to expect a 90 day wait. As in, 12 weeks for approval. UNBELIEVABLE! We are at week 6. I am so mad. Are my offices the slowest in the nation or what? I live where laws are made, signed into action and umm, hello, the President of the United States is a short drive away. Why are our offices the slowest? Not fair.
Sorry about the whine. Really I am.
I hope my email produces some faster results!

6 months

We are at 6 months today waiting for Leah to come home. I am a bit discouraged, as I really thought at this point our paperwork would be in South Korea. I actually can't really think about it I get so down. I feel like a member of our family is missing, and she is. I have heard from people that a pregnancy is 9 months, and I just need to be patient. BUT, the thing is I have been pregnant twice. At the 6 month mark in a pregnany you have the knowledge that in 3 months you will meet your baby. You feel the baby move. You have visible proof there is a baby growing in you. You have constant congrats from all you meet. With adoption, no one really has any idea from looking at you that your baby is growing in your heart, half a world away. I really believe in my heart the little girl the Lord has for our family is out there. Her heart beats the same as mine. And every day when I sit down to dinner with my family we pray for her. And although there are no visible reminders that I am pregnant. I am. This little girl is alive in all our hearts. After 6 months of paper chasing we are just ready. I know I have a long journey ahead. I know we have many mountains to cross until I hold her. I can only imagine if I love her like this after 6 months of knowing our baby will be born in South Korea, when I travel to pick her up it will be one of the greatest experiences of my life. Lord, keep my baby girl safe and hold her close. Bless those that care for our daughter until we can.

Still waiting

Let's just have a peek into my days, shall we? I begin by shuffling, err walking to the coffee pot. Pray it perks fast, faster would be nice I think as I shuffle to put on Jack his video. (rewind = awoken by Jack every morning) Walk back to kitchen, make Jack his drink of choice, either juice or milk. Take that to Jack. Go stand in front of coffee pot and watch it drip. Decide to put sugar and milk into coffee so it is all ready to go. Stand some more. Do I have the slowest coffee maker in America? Decide tomorrow will time coffee then google how long a pot should take to brew......... Finally get coffee and start to wake up. Go get Anderson and play with boys. THEN start stalking our mail box until the mail arrives. See the mail truck. Grab the mail. Sigh. No 1-600A approval. AGAIN. Go cheer myself up with a hug from one of the boys and pray it comes tomorrow. Story of my days.
For those of you not sure what I am talking about, my 1-600A approval is the one thing I need for all of our paperwork to go to South Korea, and for us to officially be on the list and waiting for our baby girl's referral. We were printed 39 days ago for this approval. Some people get it relatively fast, like in 3 weeks, while others it seems to be slower. I have heard Washington is very slow and lucky lucky me lives in that branch. Now I know, all things lead to Leah, but I would really really love to have our paperwork in Korea.
Any prayers you have you want to send our way for our approval we would really appreciate.
In the meantime, see that cool tree on the side of my blog with adoption is about love on it? I ordered it from Cafe Press and am going to be wearing it everywhere! Love it!

Wordless Wednesday

Happiness is only a lollipop away!

Passport, check!

Passport, check! I took the boys today to the post office to order my passport. I have gotten my photo taken twice in the past week at CVS because the first one was terrible, as in, horrible, and I could not live with customs laughing when they saw it. So, happily, I have a decent photo now coming to me in my passport. whew!
Guess who was in line in front of us for our passport? An adorable Korean baby girl who looked to be about 9 months old. The family was all there applying for their own passports. Her grandparents were holding her. It so looked like the images of foster mothers and fathers I have seen with the Korean babies. (the foster parents in Korea seem to be grandparent age) It was ALL I could do to not ask to hold her and bombard them with our adoption story. I managed to keep quiet, but believe me, it was hard! Her and Anderson stared at each other for quite a while. A little awesome, huh? :)

And the number one great thing about this passport: It will take me to South Korea to get my baby girl.!! Now that is amazing!

The first day of Spring at the ZOO!

We had a great time today with the boys at the zoo. They loved it!

Laptop demise

My sweet little 19 month old Anderson threw, errr..... set down my laptop and I think it has met its demise. So that is why I have been mia on my usual blog crazy stalking. I will try to catch up this weekend - have been reading, just not many comments from my direction this week.....

Moving!

Here are some pictures from inside the home we will be renting starting May 1st, or June 1st, depending on when we get a contract on our home. We have had lots of viewings on our home...... hoping for a buyer soon! We just love this house we are going to rent and hope to buy it from the owners in a few years. 4 bedrooms so lots of room for our boys and our Leah. I feel so blessed this is all working out so well. Here is the first one: kitchen!

This cute little "nook" with the built in seating for a table with storage under the little benches

Main large living room (This one will be the play room!)

Back living room where we will put out sofas. To the right is a deck and the left is a screaned in porch.




One of the bedrooms

Hall bathroom upstairs



On the adoption front, STILL waiting on our 1-600A. I am praying it is at least here sometime in April.

Time and Miles

We witness a miracle every time a child enters into life.
But those who make their journey home across time & miles,
growing within the hearts of those who wait to love them,
are carried on the wings of destiny and placed among us
by God's very own hands.
--- Kristi Larson

Hunny Bunny

I bought this sweet little hunny bunny today for Leah. The little doll goes inside the little bunny pod. It is just so sweet I could not help myself. I am going to put it in her care package to send over to Korea once we get our referral. :)

Blogging about our coffee fundraiser!

Kristie, a dear sweet adoptive parent over at Home with Lucy Lane blogged about our coffee fundraiser today! I am so excited. Her blog is just amazing, and I have actually seen her find homes for the orphans by her blogging about different ones in Africa. She has a precious daughter from Africa, Lucy Lane. I watched her video of getting Lucy Lane at the beginning stages of our adoption and it just put my fears at ease. You have to go watch it if you have not! Anyway, I wrote her asking her if I could send her a bag of our coffee and she could blog about it. She was so so kind to actually order two bags herself before I could send her one. !!! I was blown away by her kindness and generosity. Thank you Kristi! God bless you!
Here is the link to her blog about us:
http://weloveourlucy.blogspot.com/2010/03/teddy-bears-coffee-video-prayers-and.html

Maybe this will help us get some orders! What a neat blessing to start my day with!!

http://weloveourlucy.blogspot.com/

If you would like to order yourself a yummy bag, link is at the top left of my blog - they ship fast, too!

Tell it like it is..... on a Thursday

I have to be honest. Lately I am worried about how I am going to manage with three kids. Like yesterday when I was at the Library with Jack and Anderson, and Anderson took off screaming in one direction, and Jack off to find a book in the other. Or at preschool when I pick up both the boys and can barely carry out all their stuff and carry Anderson and hold Jack's hand. Or at the grocery store, when I come out half crazed and with two car toys, some candy, and forgot the one thing I went to the store for - milk. Or when it is 5pm, both the boys have not napped and I have had them single handedly since 7am and I feel like I may cry. Or when I look in the mirror at the end of a day like that and look so bad I should cry. (lol)
I don't even feel like I can complain about how hard it can be to care for two active boys with a husband who works alot to my friends. I feel like they will just be thinking "and she is adopting another?" Don't get me wrong, I am completely in love with my boys, and some days are like Heaven, but some days by the end of the day I am JUST SPENT. And I worry, how will I mangage when I add one more to the mix? How will Anderson feel to not be the baby anymore?
So that is how it really is for me on this Thursday.
Oddly enough, with all this worrying about adding another baby, I so desperately want my paperwork to go to Korea, I could cry. Please hurry i-600A approval. I just want to see her face. You know?

My big boy

18 months and we are done with our highchair. :(





On to other news, we are just still waiting on our official approval in the mail so everything can go to South Korea. It has been 3 weeks. I am hoping it does not take much longer, but have been told to expect 12.
And our house has been on the market for one week yesterday. We have had quite a few showings, no offers yet, though. We have an open house this Sunday, so hopefully someone will fall in love with our house.
We have been really enjoying this warm weather. Spring is here - hooray!!!

Happy Birthday to my sweetie!

Happy Birthday Daniel! I am so lucky to have you in my life. March 7, 1979 was a good day! :)

Wordless Wednesday

Whew...

Our house in on the market and I am tired!!! You know how when you are having company come over you clean like mad and throw toys in bins? Think that every day for the past week. Tiring! Today we have a showing - yea! Please buy my house people so I can stop it with the cleaning every day. :)
Still waiting on my 1-600A notification. It has only been 2 weeks, and I think we may be in for a wait. Our adoption agency said Virginia is the slowest state at getting these out. Awesome. I am praying for someone in the offices to hurry our prints along and send them out with record speed. We will actually be in a bit of a pickle if we get a contract on our house and have to be out in 30 days and have not gotten that approval. USCIS does not forward mail. So this may explain why I am so tired, stress!!
We have the house we LOVE all waiting for us to rent. We are considering buying it in a few years...... and everyone will have their own bedroom. Heaven! Any good tips on selling a house fast? We have it priced right, spotlessly clean and I am going to put some cinnamon apples in the crockpot for the showing today.
And one thing I have GOT to do this week: PASSPORT!
Have a great day everyone!