Mission for Annalee

Bedtime Prayers and an Update

2011-06-18T23:47:00.000-05:00

Our Sweet Girl is active, super smart, and a whole bunch of Sassy!

We are amazed at how much she has grown and adapted since arriving home...she has a 40+ word vocabulary and for the past week has been going potty 3-4 times a day on her big girl seat! She loves to get into her brother's toys, the cabinets...pretty much anything new that pulls at her curiosity.

We went to the zoo and she loved the "animals", she didn't want to learn the word zoo or lion...instead she learned to say giraffe and animals. I think she thinks she is just as grown up as her brothers!

For months she would scream when I tried to take pictures, but now she smiles and poses for the camera. She loves the water and runs straight into the pool in over her head and when we at arms length grab her and tell her to kick, she just laughs and claps....let's just say I am a bundle of nerves when we head to the pool. My boys were terrified to get water on their head and she just wants to dive right under!

We had a fun adventure at the airport welcoming buddy Miles home and meeting Bates & Aiden. Of course our sweet girl just wanted "downnnnn" so she could explore and run around!

She has quickly learned to say no and has went from eating everything in sight to taking the lead from her big brother and if she doesn't like something will shake her head "no" followed by a "yuck". She will put on Momma's shoes, jackets, socks, whatever she can find. It is not uncommon to see her packing around Hotwheels or a Nerf gun...in hot pursuit of her big brothers.

She loves for me to sing "Rock a bye Baby" and will laugh and giggle..she runs to get her babies and sings "rock a bye" to them and rocks them...such a loving girl. She likes to sing and dance and now runs to the Nursery at church...during puppets she always jumps up to sing and dance!

Life is crazy busy with three littles in the house...especially with two under five that love Mommy's attention. However, no matter how hectic life becomes, we absolutely wouldn't trade these moments with our kiddos for anything in the world! We are so blessed!

Attempting Pig Tails :)

2011-01-22T22:18:00.001-06:00

Christmas Gift

2010-12-30T11:26:00.000-06:00

When adding a child to your family you work hard to bond and build attachment with your child. Each day brings progress as you see hints of their personality emerge. Often your child will initially be solemn and guarded in their interactions.

Many friends have spoken of the "light switch" moment, when their child finally let go of their hesitance and smiles, giggles, and laughter emerge...well you could say our greatest Christmas present this year was our "light switch" moment.

It was something as simple as a pair of socks from her Korean grandma to bring on the best belly laughter we've heard from her...

We hope you all had a holiday season full of laughter and joy!

Return from my blogging vacation!

2010-12-23T01:30:00.000-06:00

Hello to all my fellow bloggers...sorry for the break with no updates. There are several reasons...one being how much I loved my last post...it was just right for the time. The other reason surrounds going from a family of two kids to three kids...life is crazy busy and we have had a sick clan on and off for a month now...we are all now mostly on the mend and hoping to be healthy going into the new year.

Updates on our girl:

She now has 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on bottom
She loves to eat and only cries tears when she can't have another cookie or has to wait til lunch or dinner instead of snacking away
She loves her brothers and likes to be in the middle of everything they're doing
Sadly she is no longer using Korean words, but is now using many English words

Momma
Dada
Butter (Brother)
I-yah (Isaiah)
Bottle or baba
Ball
Puppy
Pup (Cup)
Juice
Hello
Hi-ya
and her newest word tonight - Jesus

She can have quite a temper and melt your heart all at the same time
She melts into us when we pick her up for a hug
She loves Patty-cake, itsy-bitsy spider, and ride-a-horsey
We see more smiles and giggles as the weeks pass at home
She still hugs her FF picture when we show it to her and listens closely when we play the recorded message from them
Our girl now loves a pacifier...especially at bedtime
She has completed our family and we are so blessed to have her home

Our two boys have also been busy, growing and changing...

Ethan just finished up the first half of fourth grade and is doing great! He is such a smart boy and loves to read! He also just submitted a book through a publishing program with the school to publish his story on "My Trip to Korea". He did such a wonderful job documenting our trip and I can't wait to share it once we have a copy home!

Isaiah has transitioned from baby to boy before our eyes. He has finally lost his baby fat and this is the stage that just breaks my heart. Don't get me wrong...I love to see my kids grow and thrive..but I don't cry the day they start school, instead for me it is the time I see that change to growing out of "Mommy's Baby".

I have returned to work, which is going well, however, this time it was hard to return. Not because I don't want to work, because I need to be busy and like to be out accomplishing things, but I have been in my current job 5 years and I am having a hard time finding the zeal I had 5 years ago. I am hoping the 11 day break that starts tomorrow will be enough time to put some inspiration into my worklife!

We have our 2nd post placement visit on January 11th. It is hard to believe we have been home for almost three months! Life is finally beginning to settle into our new normal and we enjoy each day learning about each other and growing closer as a family.

Now for what you are really waiting for...PICTURES:

The First Month Home:

Our First Placement Visit:

Birthdays:

Baby Dedication at Church:

Christmas Time:

Our Traditional Christmas Tree:

The Tree We Won at the Festival of Trees:

Annalee's Tree:

Ethan & Isaiah's Tree:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

A Wish...

2010-11-01T23:53:00.001-05:00

One day our family had a dream...a wish...

....we are so blessed that it came true...

An Amazing God Thing!!!

2010-10-28T23:43:00.000-05:00

On this adoption journey we have embraced we have met so many wonderful people and familie that are now our friends and our adoption family! We are truly so blessed and my friends, my sisters have been so loving and supportive!

One of my friends started the adoption process after us and she has been so supportive, encouraging, and interested in our process. We have had such a good time sharing our journeys. Well, yesterday and today we have found that our journeys will forever be entertwined!

My friend and I talked yesterday and I asked about if they had received a referral or heard from her agency and she said no, not a word, but hopefully she would get some anticipated paperwork in the mail that day. Well, I got a call later and in fact she received the mail she was waiting on and guess what...a referral call too!

Now I can't give details, because it is still in the very early stages and if you by chance know this person...please do not post any responses that identify her or the family...I want their referral anouncement to be identified by them with all of the details!!!

Anyway, today I received a call...not only is this the perfect child for their family...here is the GOD thing...when Ethan and I were in Korea, we are 99.9999% sure we held her baby and played with the baby and took lots of pictures...so GOD led us to this child, before any of us knew and allowed us to love on this sweet child. How awesome is that?!?!?!?!?!?

God is just too awesome for words sometimes...I keep wondering how much more amazing this journey can be and God keeps showing up and saying, I'll show you!

As for an update on our family...Ethan is back to school and has just continued life as normal, no issues transitioning to an older brother of two now...Isaiah is doing better but still is crying for me alot...naptime and bedtime are the worst, although tonight is the first night since I got home that he did not have an all out fit!

However, he loves his sister and is always by her side:

Annalee continues to adjust and is soooo smart and learning sooo much.

She was taking 5-10 steps without holding on when we received her, now she is walking all through the house and will stop, squat & pick up a toy, then stand and continue walking!
She has a hot temper when she doesn't get what she wants and has learned how to take the outlet covers out if we look away for a few seconds, so we have to really keep an eye on her.
We also have learned that if she needs to have a BM she will go to her pack-n-play and put her arms up to be put in....too funny that she likes her privacy of the pack-n-play to do her business!
Yesterday she had a really hard grieving spell...I don't think I can ever see her grieve without grieving with her. We had been to the Korean market and my work, both places people spoke to her in Korean, we had walked with her in the carrier for the first time in a few days, and we fixed her rice for dinner...I'm not sure what triggered it, but it carried a bit into today. We kept things pretty secure/calm today to try to help soothe her.
She is cutting at least one new tooth, maybe more.
We went through her items from Korea today and found that the recorded book we sent for her was retaped by the Foster Family! They say..."Hello Mommy, Hello Daddy, I love you! Thank you Mommy! Bye!" They also say several things in Korean...what a treasure for her and us...I am thankful we recorded the original with my cell phone and will record this too, so she can always have both recordings!

Now for some cute pictures

Family Bonding

2010-10-23T01:09:00.001-05:00

Baby boy, well, actually almost four year old boy, has had a hard transition from being an attention getting Mamma's boy to sharing the lap with baby sister! Not only has his spot on the lap been replaced, but he missed me so much while I was in Korea!

Don't get me wrong he is very good to his sister and very protective, but the whiny..."Momma hold me, Momma I love you" chorus has been a repetitive sound since we came home. My bet is these two will be thick as theives before too long at all!

So, yesterday I decided we needed some one-on-one time...we went shoe shopping for him and to get ice cream cones at his favorite place:

Showing off his new shoes!

Annalee had her first doctor visit...she is healthy and wonderful! She is above the 95th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference, which puts her on target to be a 5' 9" beauty when she grows up!

The Dr. advised to go to three meals a day with bottles between since she is wanting to munch on our table food everytime we eat!

He also agreed that there is no biologic reason for her to not be sleeping through the night, and if she did wake up to make night time wakings super boring, so she wouldn't want to wake up every night for play time!

She can really make some moves and sing with her Pororo microphone!

Of course, it is so cute she even cracks up her own little self!

Every night since we arrived home our sweet girl has been waking up and 1am - 2am and continue to want to play with Mommy for a few hours!

Of course by about 5 am Annalee & Mommy are wiped out and ready to sleep 'til noon!

Well mommy had already decided that day that we were sleeping the days away, so drastic changes were in order. Let's just say there was a ton of prayer that our plan would work with minimal damage to our bonding that was going great!!!

So the plan was this...no more than two 1 hour naps during the day, keep her up until 10pm and up no later than 8am. Well, the first day she took about an hour and a half nap and by 8:45pm was done, finished, not enjoying our plan and ready for sleep. Well, although there was much crying involved she stayed awake until 9:30pm and then down for the night...

However, she was awake at 2:30am...UGH! Mommy was not happy...baby was not happy, so we got a bottle and hit the mattress in her room. She refused the bottle, but did sleep next to me on and off, until she took the bottle sometime in the wee hours of the morning...another sleep til noon day for mom.

Daddy woke her before 8am and the next day of sleep training began. Day two...1.5 hours in naps, great feedings, very cranky baby...leading to an all out cry fest again before bedtime...at which time I totally began to wonder if I was destroying every bit of bonding and attachment we had built and feeling a bit like the meanest mommy in the world!

However, the next morning when we all woke at 7:00 am after 9.5 hours of sleep and a happy, not crying girl...I was soooo happy! Today has been wonderful...we are all well rested...Annalee has been a joy. In fact while Dad and little Oppa took a nap, we were having mom & daughter play time. I will kiss her chubby little cheeks and say, "Oh, I love kisses from my girl." I said give Mommay a kiss and she planted a big, sloppy baby drool kiss on me!!! Be still my heart! I actually woke up the boys in my woohoos of excitement!!!!

So today we had a mini photo shoot of our rested and happy kids before heading to the school's fall harvest festival...they are just too adorable! You can see the thrill of the photo shoot on their various facial expressions!

(If you haven't noticed yet - little girl loves electronics and is always reaching for them - cell phone, camera, remote...doesn't matter..and boy is she fast!)

By the way, did I mention our girl loves to ride in the car...in her car seat...of course she always has her little big brother beside her for entertainment!

All are in bed and I am praying and hoping we have another super night of sleep. We are so thankful that the structure we are providing seems to be facilitating the bonding and attachment versus damaging it! God sure has blessed us beyond measure!

Settling In

2010-10-19T21:35:00.001-05:00

We have been home for a few days now, Ethan is back in school and life is somewhat returning to normal. Annalee is not grieving much at all, but she is on Korea time. We are taking her outside to play, which she absolutely loves and trying to keep her up as much as we can during the day.

Thankfully, hubby and I are both home, so I take the night shift, then he gets up around 6:45 to get Ethan ready for school. After he returns he takes over with Annalee and I transfer from the mattress in her bedroom floor to my bed. She is napping and sleeping in the crib, however, by 2:30am I am tired, so we just play then sleep on the mattress once she tires out. We figure it will take a couple of weeks to get over the jet lag.

The boys are also settling in...Sunday was the culmination of mayhem!!! We teach Sunday School, so hubby had to leave ahead of us. Isaiah had missed me while I was gone and is a huge mamma's boy, so he spent most of the day hanging on my leg or in my lap whining hold me mamma. Annalee was fussing to be held. We were trying to go to church and this was my panic moment of "oh three kids are so much more demanding than two self-sufficient boys...what was I thinking!"

I think the emotional exhaustion of this entire journey was finally soaking in. It is so much to process that happened in a 4-5 day period and so many moments that you are still trying to devour in your memory so as not to forget. Monday and Tuesday have been so much smoother and I have realized it will take time for us all to adjust and really there is no hurry we have the rest of our lives!

Tomorrow we will go see Dr. Toms our family doctor and hope she doesn't scream at the sight of him. She screamed in Korea when we walked into the Dr.'s office! With Isaiah, he had to take the RSV prevention shots (Synagus), so our Dr. would take off his Dr.'s coat and try to sneak in, but Isaiah still went ballistic! Oh well, that may take time too, but hopefully she will like him and she seems perfectly healthy, so we are praying for an uneventful visit! :)

Annalee is having fun getting to know daddy and the boys....crawling through the house and playing with her toys...one of her favorites is a little doll. Also, she wants to eat what we eat, so tonight we put her up to the table for her first "meal" with the family! She enjoyed the green beans, peas, and potatoes. Of course at the end of the day, she loves a bottle with daddy! Enjoy the pictures!

First Moments with Our Girl

2010-10-14T23:20:00.000-05:00

Annalee was wonderful on the plane, she slept half of the flight home from Korea and only cried for about 15 minutes on the flight to Louisville. She was amazing, such an easy going baby. Also, our amazing family came to the airport at midnight to greet us! As soon as we caught sight of them at the security gate, tears started flowing..it was a beautiful and sweet reunion!

The first night was really tough. She cried for her foster mother...knowing how much she was loved just overwhelmed my heart. Annalee, Ethan, and I all just had a great big cry that first night. She has had several moments since then, mainly during the times that would be reserved for her foster mother...bedtime, bottle at night, etc. She calls me O-mma (very sternly said) and when she cries for her foster mother it is a very soft (u-mma-mma). Precious little girl!
The foster family has blessed us so much. They sent five albums of pictures, a picture of the entire family with Annalee at the daughter's wedding, hospital pictures of her, handprints, footprints, and after receiving the care package everyday they would play our recorded book with our voices and she would show her our picture album and say, "Omma (momma), Appa (daddy), and Oppa (older brother) as she would point to our pictures.

She is very shy and when people on the plane would speak to her in Korean and try to see if she would come to them, she would say "O-mma" and snuggle her face into my chest. Several were amazed that she was calling me O-mma and commented on how smart she was to already know her Omma.

To look into her eyes is the most amazing feeling, she just gazes with this look of curiousity trying to view my soul and all that my heart holds for her. She loves her Oppas...she crawls behind them in the house and when she doesn't see them she calls for them. Isaiah is such a trooper, he is such a mamma's boy, and missed me so much, then I can't hold him when holding her and he has patiently waited for moments when we can snuggle. I think he will be as thick as theives with his little sister and although she is three years younger, she is already almost to his shoulders tall! This experience has made me so proud of my children and the love and bravery they have through change.

Annalee has taken her time getting to know her daddy. This morning I had to shower and she screamed. Daddy had to bring her to the bathroom and stand by the shower, so that she could see me and still she cried for O-mma until I was dressed and could put her in the "pouch". However, later in the day she went to him for a few minutes at first, to staying with him at the van, while I took a break at the rest-stop, no tears after this morning. She still wants Omma to feed her, but she has taken to him quickly. Tonight when we got home he was carrying her through the house and she said..."Appa, appa, appa". It will be no time until she is a complete Daddy's girl! Be still my heart!

Right now my entire family are in their respective beds sleeping. Annalee is in her crib and went down with no tears. She slept many hours today, so we will see if she sleeps through the night or not.

Thank you all for your prayers, loving comments, encouragement, and support! We are so blessed and thankful that God has chosen this path for our lives!

Now for what you have all been waiting for:

Our Sweet Annalee

2010-10-12T01:20:00.000-05:00

Our daughter has the most amazing Foster Mother, she cried when we left. Annalee is precious, but scared and sad right now. She has stranger anxiety, so it may take a few weeks to adjust to us. She is sleeping in my arms now.

Picture Update #4 from Seoul - City Tour

2010-10-11T05:37:00.000-05:00

We figured out that our toilet is one of those fancy ones that has a "rinse" cycle...so of course one of us had to try it out...let's just say the spray will wake you up...it was ice cold!

Snacks and room pics

Starting the day: Ethan & Mom

Visit to the bank to exchange dollars for wons:

We figured out our hotel does not have a 13th & 14th floor:

Our visit to the palace:

The Korean Folk Museum

Insadong Shopping District

Lunch at McDonalds - I had a Bulgolgi Burger - Yum!

Ms. Kim our wonderful tour guide!

Holt Reception Center:

We visited the reception center and played with two amazing babies and was able to see 3 more that were napping or eating. If we get permission then I will share some of these photos as well, but until them let me just say they were too cute!

Ethan is snoozing on the couch and I am homesick and exhausted, so I think we will crash for tonight. We have a huge day tomorrow!

Picture Update #3 from Seoul - Nite Life

2010-10-10T11:12:00.000-05:00

Tonight we took some pictures of a few of our goodies from shopping today and then went out for dinner...these pictures are from around 11:30pm...

Here is Ethan's watch and flashlight...less than $6 US dollars for both...sweet!

My airplane necklace...thought it was perfect as reminder of this trip.

Trying to do a self portait of us...we'll have to work on that skill! ;)

Ethan's pick of mom in her airplane necklace...in background our big suitcase with goodies arrived! Yeah!!!!

Dinner at KFC...looks normal, right? Not! The chicken had been soaked in hot sauce under the breading, so it was super spicy and was very greasy! They also had Bugolgi burgers! We haven't been brave enough yet to try the very ethnic cuisine options...like fried squid and various other dishes!

Street vender at night, they have these great socks everywhere for about $1.75 a pair...I have to get some, mostly cartoon characters...so we found the next picture funny, you can draw your own conclusions...

Our president on the display of cartoon socks!

Honey, look orange marmalade! Yummm!

This is the same street as the market with the Elvis head from earlier today...almost empty, except for a few stragglers and the trash is piled up everywhere again! Don't worry we were right by the hotel...very safe!

Korean Flag - an older lady behind us stopped and soluted the flag as she passed.

More motorcycles on the sidewalk...Ethan loves seeing all of the great bikes here!

Of course there are also lots of regular bicycles too!

Of course cars also park on the sidewalks!

Ethan at our hotel entrance welcome desk

Another shot as you enter the hotel

A rock garden under the stairs in the hotel

Restrooms - Men & Women...notice the braille markers on the floor.

The elevators have them as well.

Police van with sirens and and lights

Korean railcar and plane vehicle that build together

Brother we bought these at a Family Market...which one do you want?

Another view of the business center

That's all folks!!! Goodnight!!!

Picture Update #2 from Seoul

2010-10-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

Here are the pictures of our day today...enjoy!

Dad these pictures are for you!

They have a whole store of buddy shoes here...lots of people wearing them!

Bubby we took this Robot picture for you!

Seoul at about 7:30 am on a Sunday morning

Lots of Sunday morning traffic

Yongik University entrance

Four story coffee shop...there are lots of coffee shops, mimi marts, & cell phone stores

Motorcycles are parked on the sidewalks

Bubby, look at this cool bike!

Disney Store- it is very tiny inside & expensive

See Buzz Lightyear and Woody!

Dad...we found a bug, but it's in the store!

Sunday morning 7:30 am trash was everywhere...we thought from Saturday night parties, but this is where the street market is, by 1pm trash was all gone & streets were clean!

Pizza delivery bike

Picture of the street corner our hotel is on, so if we got lost :)

Good thing we did not have to use! ;)

The main street to Dunkin Donuts and KFC...same street as last pic just in opposite direction.

Trees on the buildings..you could also see clothes lines on the buildings below from our room window.

(dirty window)

Pics from our room and the hall windows by our room on the 15th floor!

The best burgers in the world by Uncle Joe!

He was so nice & told us that they could not get dill pickles here, so the burgers have sweet pickles.

We told him we had lots of burgers, but the best two we've ever had were the freedom burger at Ms. Elaines and The Joe at Joes! He was very happy with the compliment and very fluent in English...it was such a nice time. Ethan told him we would have to eat lunch there everyday and he said no...burgers are good, but you can't eat them everyday it wouldn't be healthy, but please come back 1 more time before you leave!

The open market behind our hotel. We walked many, many blocks...cars drive right down the middle, so you have to be careful. We found a few neat things and may have to go back for a few things tomorrow!

Ethan bought a really nice watch (although a bit big on his arm) for 5,000 won, that is less than $5 US dollars as $1 exchanged for $1, 038 won. He also got a tiny LED blue keychain light, so he was really happy!

Ethan carrying the rest of his Joe's Bacon Burger and eating Turkish ice cream. It was really weird it tasted chocolate and vanilla, but when you bit into it, it was stringy kind of like gum or taffy, but cold and melty like ice cream. They guy would do a show and when he handed it to you would flip the cone around, then when you would try to grab it he would drop and catch it before handing it to you. He was wearing a vest like you see on circus monkeys playing the accordian in pictures, if you know what we mean!

We spotted Elvis in Seoul!!! There were two men wearing Elvis heads and then the guy behind him had grafitti like on his shirt (there were 4-5 of them) they were handing out flyers for a promote peace event.

Seoul at about 9:30pm from our hotel windows after talking to Daddy & Bubby on the phone!

We love you guys!!!!

Ethan's pics of the hotel business center taken from the computer side of the room.

Also, good news - while napping I heard a bell sound in the room. After a couple of times I heard someone at our door. The hotel person had our big suitcase!!!! Yeah...now I can wear makeup and we have the gifts and donations we brought with us for Holt! Very relieved!

We took about a 4-5 hour nap...now we are going to eat dinner and then sleep tonight. Tomorrow morning we go on the City Tour of the Palaces in Seoul and then we are going to try to find one of the markets to do some shopping.

Please pray for me...we are both doing great with our allergies and my back, but my feet/ankles and hands staying swollen. There must be alot of salt in the food and staying on my feet for about 48 hours has not helped. Pray that the swelling will subside overnight, because the city tour tomorrow is mostly walking!!!

Everyone have a wonderful Sunday!

Our Trip to Seoul

2010-10-09T18:19:00.001-05:00

We arrived in Seoul at about 5am Sunday (Seoul Time) the trip was wonderful, and other than our large bag not getting here with us, they say it will be here tomorrow. We are doing wonderful! I have written about 5 pages on our trip and will add these journals as time allows, but for now here is some photos of our trip so far...

Family of four soon to be family of five

See ya'll later

Okay, a small wave at least!

Getting ready for his first flight!

Our sweet Isaiah...always with a smile

D.D. and the boys

Me and my mom

Waiting for our first leg of the flight

The plane we rode on to Chicago

Ethan on the plane - he really loved flying

On the way to Chicago...can you tell I only had 1.5 hours of sleep?

Ethan took this picture from his window

Another photo by Ethan

Inside of the US Airlines flight to Chicago

Ethan's picture of our plane

Picture of a plane like we rode on to Chicago

Plane display in the Chicago Airport

Ethan with the plane display

Clock in Chicago Airport showing time in Seoul

We found a playground in the airport

Still at the playground

Flight tower at the playground

Airplane pictures we took for Isaiah

Lincoln statue in Chicago airport

Honest Abe

At the end of our 9 hour layover...

Ethan on the Boeing 777

Two hours into our flight

Ethan playing video game.

The man next to my seat was going to Bejing for vacation.

Ethan had everything figured out.

The man next to me had to show me how to get out my dinner tray!

This is the Boeing777 we rode on...Isaiah buddy here is the big picture of the plane!

We are now in Korea!

Going through immigrations

Our cab driver. He went 128 miles per hour on the way to the hotel and laughed when Ethan and I commented on this very strong smell..."Kimchi" he said. We were driving past a Kimchi factory!

We are so happy to have made it to Seoul, the place of our daughter's birth.

We can't wait to meet her Tuesday!

KOREA BOUND 2

2010-10-09T11:28:00.000-05:00

This is Nate posting for Ellen because she and Ethan are 37,000 ft flying fast on a Boeing 777 to Korea right now! I'm at home wondering if they are sleeping or looking out the window playing I spy? I would if I was there. I am so happy for them both to have this experience of a life time. I told Ellen that I was fine without going but you I'm a little jealous, maybe! I just want to meet our little girl Gods had in his plans for so long....
Knowing that all this is about to happen I wonder if God breaths a sigh of relief for us...cause he's known for ever, man that's DEEP! Thanks for listening to me rant, keep the prayers coming, Thanks

KOREA BOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-10-06T21:18:00.000-05:00

This morning I was determined to not call DC to check on the status of Annalee's Visa. As I prepared to leave for work, I decided to check my email and saw that another family also waiting for Visa had their son's issued today...so I just had to call.

Eric in DC answered the phone and after less than a minute he said her issue was issued today!!!! Woohoo!!! I told him he had just made a mommy very happy and he said, well I guess I should congratulate you, huh, Well Congratulations! In the most laid back tone ever!

So, I decided to head to work since my friend Rachel had Visa issued last Wednesday and received her Travel Call on Friday. I was in my second of three meetings and it had just started when I received a text from my husband to call him right away...I sent a text back saying "Lisa called didn't she, what did she say?"

He indicated yes, but it was way too much to text. Let me just tell you that meeting went on forever!!! An hour or more later the meeting finally started to break up and I told them I had to go....my hubby let me know that Lisa needed my travel booked today if we wanted to leave within 48 hours!

Last night there were no hotels in our price range that we could find and flights were higher than last week...so I had actually emailed to see what it would entail to switch from travel to escort. However, they gave us the name of this awesome guy named Erle that is a legend in booking adoption travel.

Between meetings I called Erle just to see what it would entail to use their services. He asked where we lived. I told him I wanted to fly out of Airport A and was planning to take my 10 year old son, but with what I had seen it would probably just be me. Well, Airport A was booked...no flights on the 8th or 9th. So, he asked for another airport. I told him our family is near Airport B and would love to have us fly in there.

Within less than 30 minutes not only did he have tickets for me, our son, and our girl to fly out of & into Airport B, but also a hotel within walking distance of our agency and at a great discounted rate. Needless to say his service were well worth the minimal fee they charged! We are leaving for Seoul Friday and after a long 9 hour lay-over in Chicago, we should arrive in Seoul Sunday morning. We are still waiting tomorrow to find out if we will meet Annalee on Monday or Tuesday before returning home on Wednesday night.

I can't believe this day is finally here! Now I have to go pack and start getting all my documentation done to wrap up my last day of work tomorrow before adoption leave!!!! Yeah!!!! Praise the Lord for guiding us and making clear our path on this journey!!!!

WE HAVE VISA!!!!!

2010-10-06T08:11:00.002-05:00

Annalee's Visa was issued today!!!!! Now all we need is out Travel Call!!!!

Please pray we can find a hotel or book our trip to stay at the guest house...last night looking for hotels I wasn't finding much. We want our girl home ASAP!!!!

If you missed the previous post...check it out...we received a new picture of our sweet girl yesterday!

New Picture!!!!!

2010-10-05T21:34:00.000-05:00

Today we received two updated medical reports...she is healthy and doing well...we also received a long awaited updated picture!!! She is such a sweet girl!!!!

Please continue to pray for us as we wait for her Visa to be issued. We know it is in process and once it is issued we will receive our Travel Call within a few days after.

Another prayer request is...we originally had planned to have Annalee escorted to us, then our agency had a policy change requiring travel. Now due to unexpected circumstances we may end up having to escort, so please pray as we plan for our Travel Call that we will make a wise decision on what we should do and that we will have peace with that decision.

Thanks!!!! Have a blessed week!

Visa Physical

2010-09-29T00:17:00.000-05:00

Tonight is Wednesday in Korea, so our girl is preparing to go or returning from her Visa Physical. Since we have everything else done I am predicting we may get "The Call" next week, however, I know it could be another two or three weeks if things run long.

So tomorrow I will throw open the suitcase in her room and begin to pack and make lists of everything we need to take. I need to finish knitting the scarf for the Foster Father. Then there are the letters to the Birth Mother and Foster Mother that I need to write....the list goes on and on and I am so thankful because this will keep me busy!

Have a blessed Wednesday!!!!

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

2010-09-20T20:51:00.000-05:00

Last night was the first night of revival at our church. Since I usually work in the nursery on Sunday nights I volunteered to stay and help out the parents and teen girls from other churches that had volunteered to come and work the nursery for us during revival.

Well, I moved from room to room, helping out and specifically holding the inconsolable ones that just wanted a familiar face. The first child cried and gagged herself until she puked, luckily this probably wasn't the first time, because she leaned over the sink and neither of us ended up wearing it! I can't tell you how happy this made me...I do not do puke at my house...thankfully I have a hubby that jumps in and takes care of the awful task!

The next little one I have never seen cry. She is a sweet little girl that was adopted just this past year, along with her brother...they are 5 months apart, both domestic adoptions. She just melted on my shoulder and wanted to hold the plastic and woolly lambs on the counter...our nursery ministry is called, "little flock"...or something lamby like that. She was just a doll, but if I put her down the tears would flow!

In between this and the other children, my 3, almost 4 year old had decided he is now the baby again until Sissy comes home and would howl and cry if I walked out of eyesight! Good times!

About twenty minutes before the service was over there was a baby screeching at the top of her lungs! Poor thing, she was inconsolable. So, I offered to take her and see what I could do...I traded the sweet girl melted onto my shoulder for this little baby under a year old. Her bib was wet, she was crying so hard her face to her feet were red, and nothing was calming her.

I walked to a rocker, took of the bib, and began to fan her with a book while singing/croaking out "Twinkle, twinkle little star"... I have had a sinus infection for a week, so my voice had that in and out quality and a slight crack and croak...poor people that were helping and had to listen! Agh! She slowly began to calm, however, if I tried to sing anything else "Jesus Loves Me", etc. she would begin to get upset again.

So I sang "Twinkle, Twinkle" over and over again until she fell asleep. I looked at my friend and said, "Oh my what am I going to do?"

She was completely confused and asked what I had her asleep. I urgently said, "What if Annalee does this all the way home from Korea, 16 hours or so?" "What do I do?"

She smiled and asked if I had started praying for a calm child....well, not that specifically, so I guess I should get right on that, huh! I know if need be I can handle a puking, screeching child for a while...God's grace will be sufficient, however, I will admit I am definitely praying for a happy, sleeping baby for most of the trip home!

Time for Rest

2010-09-14T14:38:00.000-05:00

We survived!!! Not without our battle wounds, but we did survive the week!
The appraiser came today to look at the house and we should know the results of his report tomorrow. It took all of 15 minutes for him to glance around and take some measurements. I think we were both kind of like, "is that it?"...after 3+ days of intense house projects.

I will have to post some pictures, but basically we built handrails for our basement steps, painted the living room ceiling, installed door frames into three interior doorways, installed baseboards and quarter round, cleaned out the gutters, mowed and trimmed the yard, etc. Needless to say we spent every waking minute working, but it was so worth it. The steps were definitely the biggest project and they turned out great.

The good thing was to see how well we worked together. It is amazing 11 years into our marriage at how easily we worked together. I am sure 10 or even 5 years ago we would have probably gotten on each other's nerves and instead of discussing the ways to renovate, we probably would have battled out to get our way. I am so thankful for the growth in our marriage and that I have a wonderful partner to work with!

Our oldest turned in his bug project for school and earned his 5 points that were needed for his AR (Advanced Reading) course! We are so glad to have these complete and look forward to meeting with his teacher next week for parent teacher conferences! I can't believe we are almost finished with the first semester of school. His interim grades were really good....we are so proud of him!

Now regarding the adoption:

We were notified last week that Annalee's Visa Physical will be on 09/29. (Korea offices are closed next week for a holiday to celebrate families and the ancestor's of each family. I love learning the heritage of the Korean culture...it is so rich and full of respect!) After her Visa Physical, then she will be ready to have her Visa issued. I am still thinking we will travel to Korea the week of fall break (Oct. 11th)

Also, we received a new Well Baby Check today. Our girl is now 25 lbs at 10 months old (Cute and Big Baby) and has 1 top tooth in addition to two bottom teeth. She is standing alone, waves Bye-Bye, and plays ball. She is doing so well and we can't wait to see her and hold her in our arms!!! Very soon!!

Have a very blessed week!

EP Approval!!!!

2010-09-09T22:12:00.000-05:00

Today we received one of the emails we have been waiting for a few weeks now. We received the news that the Emigration Permit (EP) has been approved, which is one more step in the process.

So what exactly does EP approval mean?

Well, it is a huge step to our girl coming home and many families receive their Travel Call (TC) within 30 days or less from EP approval. This means in one month, which would be my sister's birthday, I could be getting that wonderful call. Although I sure won't complain if it arrives sooner!

You may be wondering why we have to still wait another 30 days to go get our girl. Well, first I have to say that we are extremely blessed and have been zooming right along on this way to TC. Also, a very good on-line friend of mine, received her referral just days from ours, our girls were born the same day, and our timelines match almost perfect now, so we could be in Korea together. Lastly, if we actually do travel in one month, it will be the beginning of our oldest son's fall break from school, so he will not have to miss as much time away as he would if we received the call earlier or later!

Isn't God amazing in how He orchestrates all of these little details!

So back to why we may need to wait 30 more days. After EP approval, the Korean Government must issue the Travel Certificate (est. time 1 week), then she will have her Visa Physical, then the Packet 3 (P3) with all of the important approvals will be sent to the US Embassy in Korea for approval (est. time 1 week). After all of these things are done, then they will schedule the Visa Interview and Annalee's Foster Mother will take her to the interview...I wonder if she (Annalee) will have much to say?

After the Visa Interview the Visa will be issued and we will receive our TRAVEL CALL!

That is 30 days full of approvals and papers...so I must begin to write my checklists...what to ask her Foster Mother, what to pack, figure out what to write in the letters to Annalee's Birth Mother and Foster Parents...it will be a very busy 30 days!

Have a blessed weekend!

Passing the Time

2010-09-08T00:50:00.000-05:00

At least once a day I get asked when our girl is coming home, are the boys excited about getting a new sister, and am I so excited in anticipation of "the call"...the answers are:

"As soon as possible I hope"

"They can't wait...my youngest asks everyday when I return from work, Mommy, did you go get Annalee today?"

"Words cannot describe the feeling you have anticipating that call and the moment our girl will be in our arms!"

Today there was a discussion regarding the Emigration Permit (EP) and the process wait time for approval. Our friend, who is waiting for her sweet boy Charlie, just received her approval at 9 weeks waiting, so I calculated where we are and on Thursday we will be 8 weeks into our wait for EP approval. So now I am very hopeful we will receive an email notice this week or next letting us know we have approval.

The significance of this approval is that most people travel within 30 days or less after their EP approval! We are getting ever so close to that call!

Meanwhile, we can never just wait twiddling our thumbs, so as if life wasn't eventful enough we talked to our bank a few weeks ago and learned now was the perfect time to refinance our mortgage. We have been checking into a refinance for a couple of years now and the rate was just too great to pass up. However, we have many "mini" renovations started, part of the reason we had put off refinancing until now.

So, my sweet hubby has an ever-growing honey-do list and we are becoming premier customers at our local Lowe's. Now for the fun part...the bank would like to do the appraisal ASAP, so we can close on the loan before our trip to Korea, so our goal is to have all of these projects complete by Monday morning. Well, one blessing is I now have something else to obsess about, rather than whether or not I have updated pics of our girl or if we have EP approval!

So this leads to a couple of prayer requests:

Please pray we will have the endurance and time management to complete all of the tasks needed before the appraisal.
Pray that the house will appraise for the target amount, so that we can have the PLI removed from the loan.

God has so richly blessed us with the ability to work and with opportunities to stretch each dollar He provides and we are so grateful. We are also very thankful for the distraction during what could be a very trying time in the wait.

Have a great week!

HAPPY LABOR DAY!!!!

2010-09-04T08:26:00.000-05:00

We hope that each of you will have a very blessed weekend whether it is leisure time with family and friends or laboring over home projects. Enjoy the beautiful weather and be a blessing to someone!

This morning my flip calendar held the following blessing for us:

Isaiah 30:18 (NKJV)

"Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be graciousto you; And therefore He will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him."

It is amazing when you are waiting for something, praying daily for the ability to continue faithfully, that He sends just wait you need for grace sufficient!

Adoption: Calling or Just a Choice?

2010-09-02T23:35:00.000-05:00

Today I was involved in an on-line discussion of sorts regarding the things that people say to adoptive parents that indicate they just don't get it....the person that started the conversation had posted the following quote to FB:

""Natural Child: Any child who is not artificial. ...Real Parent: Any parent who is not imaginary. Your Own Child: Any child who is not someone else's child. Adopted Child: A natural child, with a real parent, who is all my own.--- Rita Laws, PhD"

A person that read the quote left her a response that they admire adoptive parents for taking in someone else's kid!

Various people chimed in, but the following comments led to my blog-post title above:

Person 1:

"At this point in the process, what I find annoying (well-intended, I realize, but still annoying) are comments like, "Charlie is so lucky" or "It's so nice of you guys to do this." Things like that. He is not lucky; WE are. He is the one losing something, not us. We are NOT adopting to be NICE!! We are adopting because we WANT a child. Ugh."

Person 2

"I absolutely agree. However, and unfortunately, I think a lot of adoptive parents propagate this type of thought when they themselves cite their reasons for adoption as religious obligations to orphans: adoption because of charity. Yes, they WANT this child badly, but they also use additional reasons to describe their adoption choices, and unfortunately, I believe that puts a negative spin on adoptees, like they were some charity project. Put yourself in the child's shoes. I don't want my kids thinking that it would have to take an act of charity to adopt them, as if they were unworthy of love otherwise. Obviously adoptive parents don't believe that, but many of them spread around the very ideas that later offend them and demean their children. When my child asks me one day why we adopted her, I'm going to tell her it's because we wanted her so badly and loved her so much. Not because it was my Christian obligation. Not because God told me to. Not because it was charitable. Not because she was needy. Because I loved her. The same reason I tell others, and nothing more. Any other motive demeans her, in my opinion."

Person 3:

"Thank you for adding this. I am a Christian but I am not that Christian who adopted because God told me to or to bring another child to the Great Commission. Please don't get your knickers in a twist if the reason you adopted is for the reasons I didn't though. "

I added some of my personal viewpoints, which led to the below response:

Person 2:

"People rarely have to justify themselves when they become pregnant. Nobody asks "What made you decide to become pregnant?" The answer is obvious - they wanted kids. But people ask all the time "What made you decide to adopt?" because it's outside of the norm. When the answer is "Because God called me to adopt," you open the door for people to view the motive to adopt as something very separate than the motive to become pregnant. My bio kids will not grow up hearing what a wonderful person I am for raising them. My adopted kids, on the other hand, will hear this often, and they will internalize how this casts them as a burden in my life rather than a joy. I don't want them thinking that, and while I will tell them constantly that I love them, the world will tell them that I love them differently. What a sad thing. I turned to adoption for the same reason I turned to pregnancy. I wanted children. Did I have God's stamp of approval on both? Yes. Now, why would I advertise our motives for adopting as anything different than our motives for pregnancy? Or should I create a blog all about our "call to become pregnant" and ask for donations? I don't read many blogs like that. I wonder how many people would chip in...

I maintain that a portion of the adoption community digs their own holes when it comes to what annoying things people say to them. If you find it annoying when people say, "You're such a good person for adopting and your child is SO lucky," then never advertise your child as a charity case. You'd be a hypocrite to do so. (Or you can advertise that you're doing this great thing for an orphan, and then gloat when people pat you on the back for it. There's no hypocrisy in that. It's just a little disgusting.) People don't advertise pregnancy as a cause for charity, and nobody treats bio kids that way...."

So what do you think...

Is adoption a calling or just a choice?

Does creating a blog about adoption negatively impact an adopted child?

What is your view on fund-raising for adoption?

I am very interested to hear what your thoughts are on this topic, so please chime in..

Reflections

2010-08-31T23:42:00.000-05:00

Recently I have found myself in a highly reflective state and taking each moment one at a time!

My reflections have been on the end stages of my pregnancies, which were both pretty traumatic and with our youngest a very raw and unsettling emotion if I reflect too deeply. You see my body saw pregnancy as an invasion by a foriegn body, literally. The entire pregnancies I was careful to take my vitamins, rest, and follow all of the rules, but still they were riddled with small complications.

With both pregnancies by 7-8 months I was physically exhausted from fighting my body to continue to remain in a pregnant state, emotionally ready for my babies to be in my arms, but knowing I had to resolve to keep the babies in as long as possible for their health...including medications, shots, etc. At these points in my pregnancy although I knew and fought to keep from an early delivery, I would have given about anything on my delivery days to have those boys out of my belly and into my arms.

Our first son was born 4 weeks early, he had a low tempature, but was healthy, however, I sustained significant damage from his birth. We were unsure we could have another child, then almost five years laters, I became with child, only to catch the flu and miscarry. We were hopeful, and just a couple months later I was pregnant with our second son, who was born six weeks early.

Our sweet boy was premature and unable to breathe on his own. I don't remember seeing him, although from pictures I know I did, until he was two days old and I could be discharged and travel to the hospital they had transferred him to. Thankfully, through the difficulty with the birth of our oldest, they decide to do a C-section, and it was an act of God, because our youngest had the cord twice around his neck and would have died in childbirth if I had tried to deliver him.

Our youngest spent almost two weeks in the NICU and as amazing the miracles are that we expereinced there, it is very hard for me to "go there". It is the most helpless I have ever felt in my life and the emotion of having my child on the brink of life and death for days is still overwhelming to consider.

Back to the present, the promptings for my reflection has been this gnawing need to have my baby girl home. It is really very hard to put into words how at times my heart physically aches. Friday was one of those days. I think I hit refresh on my email at least several hundred times via my phone...if we could just get a picture, just hear that our EP is approved...anything!!!!

I know that the Department of State indicated to wait 2-4 weeks to call and check. Last Wednesday I verified the name correction in their system, so did not feel justified in calling Friday on the 2 week mark. I thought at times I would literally have to sit on my hands to keep from dialing the number!

It is that end of pregnancy madness I experienced with both boys...in the form of end of adoption wait madness!

I know all things are in God's perfect timing. I know that if we receive a picture it will only make the wait more difficult. I know that calling and bugging them will only keep them from working on the paperwork! All of these things are very clear in my rational, logical state of mind. In my emotionally exhausted frame of reference I want to call anyone that can give me news, I want to know that Holt received our care package and gave it to our girl...I want my email to surprise me with EP approval...anything at this point would be so wonderful!

As I take each day lately moment by moment, I find myself looking for work to keep me busy, praying much more than usual, and when I become really tempted to email our case worker or call DC, then I will pick up my Bible to read. These coping mechanisms are wonderful, because I am getting my work ready for my leave and spending more time in the Word and in prayer! However, I must admit these crazy emotions, bordering on an obsession with my cell phone refresh could take a vacation and I would be oh so happy!

So tonight as I turn in for sleep I will dream of my boys and their sweet infant years, reliving the maternal desire I felt to see and hold them for the first time and dream of our girl and her sweet face and all the joys we have to come when we do have her in our arms forever! Tomorrow it will be back to reality and I am sure each moment will be progress toward Friday, when I have okay'd myself to call again and check status on our progress, until then I am sure I will be praying often, working hard, and seeking the words of resolve and comfort in the Scriptures.

Have a wonderful week and God bless each of you in a special way!

Donations for Holt Korea

2010-08-24T00:40:00.000-05:00

When we travel to Korea to pick up Annalee we will take donations to Holt for the many children in their care. There are some items that are really expensive or hard to obtain in Korea.

If you would like to donate some items for me to take, please let me know. Here is a list of their needs as of July 2010:

TOP PRIORITIES

*** 1. Gerber rice cereal - *** There are a lot of premature babies in care. These babies cannot tolerate the multigrain cereal that is available here, and single grain rice cereal is not available. "YES, STILL WE NEED LOTS of GERBER RICE CEREALS."

2. Diaper rash cream as like Desitin and aloe gel.
"During the Summer season, we need those."

3. Moisturizing Baby Lotion or Cream for dry skin is still first priority. Examples include:
"We need this more during the Winter time... for a while, we will be ok without it."

* Aveeno baby lotion - Many of the babies get very dry skin (dermatitis), especially in the winter and this lotion is extremely expensive in Korea.
* Cetaphil moisturizing lotion
* Johnson & Johnson baby lotion
* Vaseline will be also good.

4. Sometimes they have older children over 3 or 4. Coloring books, crayons, toys, etc are very helpful.

5. Baby & toddler Clothing - 0-36, 48 months clothing are always welcomed. "We would love to receive these for Donation."

SPECIAL NEEDS

** Neutamigen Formula by Enfamil is still needed. **

BIRTH MOTHER NEEDS

1. Stretch mark lotion/cocoa butter- used for relieving the itchy skin of expecting mothers due to their skin stretching to accomodate the baby. This is the top priority for the birth mothers.

"Recently one adoptive family brought this but they were only able to give it to one maternity shelter in Seoul though they have 5 maternity shelters. Young teenager moms need these."

2. Maternity clothes- Assume XS, S, or M size. (maternity clothes are expensive in Korea). New maternity clothing only please (i.e. no hand-me-downs).

3. Aloe vera

OTHER ITEMS

* Multi-vitamin with iron - polyvisol (for babies)

* Cleft-lip/palate bottles and spoons

* Baby toys (rattles and teething toys)

* Preemie baby clothes (unavailable in Korea)

Her Name is Fixed!!!!

2010-08-20T00:11:00.002-05:00

Tonight I was headed to bed and received the following in an email from the US Emabassy in Seoul...

"Thank you for your email. We contacted USCIS through CIS, Seoul to fix the problem. FYI, we have received corrected I-171, Visa37, and I-604 with a baby’s name corrected. We also notified local adoption agency regarding this issue. It doesn’t look like there is more action from your side for this matter for now."

WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!

For good stress relieving measure over the weekend we finally found "the rug" and "the chair" for Annalee's room:

We found both in Madisonville, KY at the Carpet Barn (rug) and Todd's Furniture (chair). The furniture place is a scratch and dent furniture store. The chair has two pencil erasor size marks on one of the arms....we only paid $80 for the chair. You probably can't tell, but it is a 360 swivel and a glider/rocker and has some neat geometrical shapes very similar to the curtains embossed in it!

Our luggage is falling apart and our camera takes black pictures, even with new batteries, so we ordered a new camera...Nikon CoolPix L110 with a great discount, we ordered an autographed photo book of KY from a photographer in Crestwood, KY as a gift for the Foster Family, and we bought an Ergo baby carrier from a lady on the Holt Forum we participate in at 1/3 of the original cost! Check, check, and check on my list of must buy items for the trip!

I can't wait for all of these goodies to arrive!

We found luggage at an awesome deal. It is Samsonite Litespeed with a 10 year warranty. The two pieces that we purchased were $143 including tax, however, they originally were $398 + tax! I love a great bargain and quite stunning I think!

So you could say my USCIS debacle came with a nice little stress relieving price tag or that it pushed me to finish up much of the "necessity shopping for the trip"! Now I am knitting scarves as gifts for the Foster Family and have a few more gifts to purchase...then I might actually start packing these blue bags!

As if life has not been crazy enough in the past week...the mail came yesterday and brought with it a summons for Jury Duty for me! Can you believe it? I have always thought that it would be a cool thing to do, with all the Perry Mason and Matlock episodes I watched growing up, but the timing could not be more horrific! Needless to say I dropped by my form today with a request to be excused from this session...please pray the judge will be merciful and allow me a waive on this session!

Have a great week and thank you for all of your prayers!!!!!

Prayers Please!!!!!

2010-08-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

This week has been the most trying week I have had in a while and I could really use some prayers!

Last Friday we received our I600 approval, which is also sent to the National Visa Center (NVC) to be entered and sent on to the US Embassy in Korea to have our daughter's Visa issued for travel. I made a mistake on the form and instead of listing her Korean name for her birth name and current name, I listed our name for her as her current name. BIG PROBLEM!

The I600 was issued in the wrong name. When I called Monday it was indicated no problem they could fix it and went to verify the Korean name...they had that spelled wrong with the first letter of the last name incorrect. I refaxed our Legal documents to prove her Korean name and they were going to update it.

Tuesday I called for status on the correction and just received voicemail.

Wednesday morning I called the National Visa Center to check what name they had on file and was told the incorrect name and our documents had already processed to the Embassy with the wrong name...Not Good. I called back to the USCIS office and the office indicated she had already fixed the name and sent it to us, but as of today we still haven't received the corrected approval.

Also, everyone up until today has indicated no problem, once the correction was submitted they would just pass it on to the NVC and the Embassy. Well, today we received the letter that our file was sent to the Embassy. I called the NVC again and this time they indicated I needed to call the Department of State because this would either have to be fixed there or at the Embassy and this was a big issue.

Needless to say it just went downhill from there. So our agency has provided me the phone number to the Embassy, I have a calling card for Korea, and Sunday night here (Monday morning in Korea) I will be on the phone first thing trying to get this worked out. We need the corrected I600 approval in the mail tomorrow or Monday at the latest to get this to them timely.

Needless to say I just broke down and cried today. I also had a really rough week at work and although I didn't let that get me down...this issue with our paperwork really has pounded on my spirit! I know God is in control and this is all in His perfect timing, and I am really trying to learn from this, but I feel so defeated and since part of the mess up is my fault it just weighs very heavily on me.

Bottom line if we don't get this fixed the Visa could be issued in the wrong name causing a huge NIGHTMARE! We are so ready to have our girl home and knowing we are so close is hard!

Thanks for listening...I know this is not my normal upbeat post, but I needed to just be real and need your prayers and God's mercy in this in a BIG WAY!

Have a very blessed weekend!

E.

School Starts, Schedules Change, I600 Debacle, & EP Submitted...Whew!

2010-08-11T01:30:00.002-05:00

This has already been quite an eventful week in our house!

Our oldest started 4th grade on Monday. We can't believe how much our son has grown up...he is such a kind-hearted kid, we can't wait to see God's plan unfold in his life!

While school was off to a start our youngest and his Daddy were getting into their new routine and adding some finishing touches to our girl's room. Other than picking up something in Korea to put in the wall space over her bed the decorating is complete!

We refurbished a mirror that was willed to me by my grandparents...it is the perfect addition to her room!

We received our I600 approval on Friday, only to learn later in the day that I had filled out Annalee's name on the form as the name we will give her versus her Korean name. The approval must have her Korean name, so first thing Monday morning I called to have it corrected. Our file had already been sent to the National Visa Center (NVC) and the officer on our case had her Korean last name spelled incorrectly, so I had to refax our legal documents.

Today I called the NVC and we are considered NVC in and out...another big step in obtaining her Visa, however, it is with the wrong name, so those steps will have to be recompleted after her name is corrected. Needless to say I will be calling USCIS first thing tomorrow morning!

In addition we received notice today that we were submitted for EP, her Emigration Permit, on July 15th! This is wonderful news as all of the timelines I'm tracking show an average travel time of around 30-35 days after EP approval! We went from hoping to travel in October to now possibly going to travel in September, maybe even mid to early September!

This reality has been absorbing ever so slowly! The good thing is ticket prices for Delta drop in half as of Sept 1st, so that is a relief, the room is about ready, I have 5 weeks in PTO accrued. Then the to do and to get lists just bring on mental block! Ahhh! I am shopped out with the room, so I will just have to make a list until I can recover and am renewed to search for some really good bargains!

Things I am pretty sure we will need:

Carseat to bring her home from the airport...
Baby carrier for the flight home. I really want the Babyhawk Oh Snap, but they are really pricey...well worth the money if she is used to being carried and it will help my back, plus it will work up to 45 lbs!
Luggage. We bought our current luggage about five years ago and it is great for local travel, but has not held up to well when I have flown domestically...I need to check with some International travelers to find a durable travel set.
Gifts for Foster Parents - I found a photo book of Kentucky on-line and think it would be wonderful, but not sure what to include with it. How do you pick something for people that have done so much for your child?
Then there are all those little things...diapers, bottles, wipes, formula, pajamas, socks, sheets, etc.
Hand rails for our basment steps - have to get that done before she arrives!

Wish List

*wants vs. needs*:

Camera - ours quit workiing a few months ago and we use our cell phones, but it will top my list of buys!
Rocker for the babies room - we just haven't been able to find the
"one"
Rug - same as above...would be nice, but haven't found the right color/style
Stroller - need to do some research, but thinking this will be a birthday/christmas purchase after she arrives!

We are going to have to do some shopping!

I know there is no need to fret...God has provided and guided each step of the way and I know he will continue to do so! We may have another yard sale and we will take it a day at a time getting things ready!

Thank you all for your prayers, please pray we will get this I600 issue fixed soon and that it won't cause any problems as we wrap up this process to travel. Praise God for His wonderful grace and promises!

Annalee's Room

2010-08-04T22:12:00.004-05:00

(I updated our post on our care package with more pictures and a video of the Hallmark Recordable book...if you want to check it out here is the link: Annalee's Care Package)

The past week hubby has been super busy preparing the room for Annalee. It's not quite done yet, we still need a rug, cozy chair, and to decorate the walls, but we are very pleased with the progress thus far.

We have lots of 24 months to 4T clothes, since that is what I bought while waiting for referral. I can't wait to fill her dresser with 12 - 18 month clothes for when she arrives home!

This is how the work began...putting putty on all the nicks and dents in the wall:

Removing all of the glow-in-the-dark stars and planets from the ceiling:

The inspiration for our color scheme:

The ceiling painted and walls trimmed out:

Our little family...baby in my arms...

Lighting for a princess:

Beautiful pink walls:

Closet before the dresses and clothes are added:

The closet filled with her clothes:

Dresser & Bed:

For those of you that are shocked to see a baby bed...we had planned to put a trundle in the room...we could not find a trundle in the wood stain color and price range that we wanted...this crib is convertible to daybed and full size bed...so we changed our minds and went ahead with a crib!

We still have lots of things to get before she arrives...diapers, wipes, sheets, bottles, all the infante medications, creams, lotions, bath stuff, etc...however, at least now our girl has a place to rest her sweet head.

We have butterflys to paint and arrange on a wall, a lamp to paint for the dresser...once we add the finishing touches I will post an updated photo!

I have decided that fall break would be a wonderful date to travel to pick up our girl, so please pray with me that the paperwork will align just right for us to be in Korea October 11th - 15th....this way Ethan would not have to miss school to travel with me and ticket prices should be much more reasonable!

We hope you are having a great week!!!!

Blessings during the Wait

2010-07-27T00:48:00.000-05:00

This week ended up being a wonderful break from the norm and full of adoption fun!

Early in the week we received a Well Baby Check (WBC) on our little girl! It was a hectic day and I had not checked my email once until that evening...I had not expected one so soon so I was thrilled! Annalee is now 22 lbs, 28 inches long, and has her bottom two front teeth! Oh, how that got me as much as I have not been concerned with pining away during this wait (due to the busy work schedule) I was ready to throw all caution to the wind and jump on a plane immediately to go get my girl!

Work has been absolutely crazy for me, so I went to bed early Thursday, slept in late Saturday, and took a nap Sunday! Crazy I know! For any of you that know me I am a night owl and take pride in the minimal amount of sleep I usually require. However, between work and going to the gym several days a week, I have found that I am in need of a few more hours than before!

So rested up and ready to go we had lunch at Yamatos on Friday for hubby's birthday. We had Bugolgi, Yakatori, Teraki Chicken, and a Maki roll platter. I can't wait to taste Bugolgi in Korea! Friday night we headed to the pool for some relief from the heat and relaxation. There was only a handful of other people there so we had plenty of room to play and swim...and we ran into some friends and got to show of pictures of our girl :)

Saturday hubby took the boys to Lowe's kids workshop and built UFOs letting me sleep in until, not quite noon :) Aaaah! I love to sleep late on a Saturday! Then we decided to head to town and hit a few yardsales and furniture stores in search of items for Annalee's room....we hit the jackpot!

We stopped at a yardsale and you could see the pink from a block away!!! I went straight for the rack of dresses and for $55 we bought 2 coats, 12 boutique dresses, 6 pairs of shoes, and 20 items (shirts, pajamas, towel, pants, etc.) Then we stopped by another sale and for $2.75 bought a gingerbread and bunny costume and 3 shirts. If that were not enough we headed to Lowes to look at a chandalier for Annalee's room.

At Lowes we found some acccessory items and curtains that we liked, so our trip ended up with...paint for the walls, curtains, fabric storage boxes 2 large, 6 small, a chandalier, and a lamp for the dresser (which we bought for 1/2 price)! Hubby has been super busy getting the room ready..ceiling de-starred, painted, base boards taped off, walls painted with first coat of paint...pink of course!

I have been taking before/after pictures of the room and can't wait to share the progress! Now I am searching for a trundle bed, rocker, and rug for her room! Today I was trying to make a mental list of all the "baby" things we will need...it is amazing how easily you forget when your kids grow out of that stage!

Saturday evening we went to our friend's house, Rick & Janet, and our friend Christy (who was just approved for the Korea program with Holt) also came. We had a wonderful meal, wonderful fellowship, and the kids played until they were tuckered out and ready for bed! Both of these families have been such a blessing in our lives through their testimonies and adoption journeys!

Both ladies had the sweetest outfits they gave me for Annalee and I can't wait to see her in them! As soon as hubby finishes the room I am going to have to get her closet in order. I think she has a full 24 month/2T wardrobe at this point minus socks and pajamas! It has been so much fun buying frilly little dresses and shoes...even the boys are getting in on the act picking out stuff for Sissy!

Today we received confirmation that our I600 application has been logged with USCIS. Hopefully in the next 10-20 days we will receive our I600 approval. We are also waiting for the Korean agency to submit us for the Emigration Permit (EP) for Annalee to come to the United States...once EP is received travel tends to happen in around 30 days, so we are praying for quick processing and approval!

Have a blessed week!

The Ragsdales!

Do you believe in Miracles? (Updated)

2010-07-13T20:34:00.004-05:00

If you have experienced or witnessed the birth or pregnancy of a child and/or the adoption of a child...you have definitely witnessed probably not just one, but many miracles along those journeys!

As many of you know not only were we matched with our little girl the week of my birthday/father's day, but also we were able to obtain the large fee from accessing our 401K funds. Needless to say these were nothing less than miracles in our books and made this year amazing. However, what I haven't shared with you yet is what I would call the icing on the birthday cake.

The night of my birthday it had been a long day and I had struggle the entire day with a pretty bad headache. I took meds, took naps, and finally that night when all were in bed was wide awake and decided to check my email....

If you have been following this blog throughout our adoption journey you may remember in January when we reviewed the very first file of a little girl....click this link to read more:

Tears of Peace, Tears for Sunshine

...bottom line we were head over heels for this little girl and we were broken hearted and confused on the process, how God could allow a child to have such a grim possible prognosis, with the decision we knew that He was leading us to in not accepting the file. The few weeks when we reviewed the first two files were the toughest part to this process so far.

A few weeks later we noted that Sunshine had been matched with one of the families of several that had decided to proceed with her file. We were so happy when we knew this, but I still wondered about her - would she be okay? did we make the right decision? who were her parents?

I never saw a post about her on the forum am I on and we knew quite frankly that it was not our right or even a very big chance that God will allow us to know her journey. What we knew is that God had placed in our paths to pray to her family and to pray for her life and I was at peace in knowing that.

Now fast forward to the night of my birthday. I opened my email and this is what I read:

"I have been meaning to pm (message) you for a while now, I've just been waiting for the right moment, and now seems to be the perfect time!...I happened to read your blog, and I believe that our baby girl's file is one that your family was inquiring about...I remember reading your blog and how hard you & your beautiful family prayed for her, and I want you to know that I am so touched and so incredibly thankful for your prayers, and how genuinely happy you were that your "sunshine" found a family...us !!! I have prayed so hard for a child, and Baby Sunshine came to us just when we needed her. Already, she has changed me and NEVER in my life have I been happier....We have named her *******and I know that you would be over the moon to hear that ****** is HEALTHY, happy, growing and thriving. She is no longer thought to have mito disease...It's truly amazing how God has a plan for everyone...everything is in His time. I am SO SO SO very happy for you, your family, SO happy for Annalee, and hope that we will be lifelong friends What an exciting time for you, for me, for us !!!"

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?

It was one of the most precious gifts I have ever received...it was a balm on my heart and brought our journey full circle in amazing peace!

Needless to say I sat and cried to my hearts content to know that this little girl who we had prayed for, who the ladies in our church had laid hands on me and prayed for our decision for this little girl, for her health, for her family, for God's will! God is so gracious and amazing, His timing is perfect, and He loves us so far beyond what we can imagine!

Now I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive to see pictures of "Sunshine". I wondered how I would feel when I saw her picture, I love Annalee and we have the perfect daughter, but I wondered if their would still be a tug on our hearts. God again is amazing...when I saw her picture what we had was peace, happiness, joy for her and her family, and praise and awe that she is healthy! She is a beautiful little girl, just like her momma and I am so happy God placed them together.

I have one more request for "Sunshine" and her family...the last step to get your travel call is VI, the Visa Interview, which she had last week. Usually your Travel Call (TC) is within 48 hours...as of yesterday her momma still had not received travel call! Please pray that they will be travelling to Korea soon and her momma will get the call she is desparately waiting for. I cannot even begin to imagine how hard it must be at this point to be waiting for the phone to ring! Please pray for safe travels and for a smooth transition!

Thank you my prayer warrior friends, not only for your prayers before, but for the prayers I know you will send up now!

Do you believe in Miracles?

****Update****

The day after this post I found out that "Sunshine" will be coming home in less than two weeks...her mommy received Travel Call!!!! Awesome!!!!

...it's hard not to when you see such amazing orchestration from above!

More Pictures of our Girl!!!

2010-07-06T22:15:00.001-05:00

Here is the newborn picture we received of our baby girl...it is so funny that the Well Baby Checks for the first four months note her "yellow" hair! We think it is just darling!

Kodak has a great offer for 20 free photo cards and 50 free mommy cards...only cost...postage for $6.88! A great deal to share your sweet baby with the family and friends!

Above the picture is the front of the card (vertical)

and the back of the card is the writing (horizontal)

Our boys have bunkbeds in their room. I slipped one mommy card between the slats of the top bunk, so my little one can see her picture from the bottom bunk and them mounted one to the rail on the top bunk for our oldest son....their faces were priceless when they saw their own pictures of Sissy!

For all of you out there that are preparing or will be preparing care packages for your babies...stay tuned...we bought a recordable story book from Hallmark and will try to post a video clip of it once it is complete...it is pricey, but well worth it for our baby to hear our voices everyday until we arrive!

Have a blessed week and be a blessing!

Package for Our Girl (Updated 08.04.2010)

2010-07-04T00:13:00.002-05:00

Today I had a very important task to complete! We are gathering items to send to our sweet girl in a care package...our ideas:

A couple of outfits
Disposable camera
Picture Album
Stuffed Animal or Blanket

The biggest decision has been to decide what size of clothes to send. Our girl is 21 lbs at 7 months old. I was concerned that 18 months would be way to long, but then 12 months may be to small. I think I was at the store an hour or so picking up this and that, putting it down, looking at something else...well, here is what we ended up with for the outfits:

12 month outfit
12 month shorts
18 month shirt
18 month shirt

We think they are just so cute!!! We are hoping her Foster Mother will take pictures of her in the outfits to send to us!

Tomorrow we will work on the photo album. We were hoping to "Build-A-Bear" with the recordable squeeze buttons, so that we could each say something to her and put one in each hand and foot, but since Opry Mills flooded out, we will look for another option, I have heard Hallmark has books that you can record reading the pages, I think I will check these out!

We are just so happy to have our little girl and pray our journey to pick her up is very soon!

Happy 4th of July!

Update:

Here is a glimpse of our completed care package and the wonderful Recordable Storybooks that Hallmark have in stock. We are just waiting anxiously to hear that our girl has received her package!

Sweet little stuffed giraffe....we bought a twin to keep at home for when she comes!

Soft photo album with slots for pictures of dad with brothers, mom with brothers, and her grandparents.

A photo album with 20+ pictures of us...mommy, daddy, and brothers:

We also included two single use cameras, two Johnson & Johnson travel kits, and a translated letter to the foster parents....

We enjoyed specially picking out each item for our girl and prepared the package with such love. We hope to receive pictures of her soon enjoying the items we sent! This is a great way to endure this long wait...I highly recommend to waiting families.

Our Sweet Annalee

2010-06-29T17:32:00.000-05:00

The Best Birthday Gift Ever!!!

2010-06-26T01:07:00.000-05:00

Last Friday when hubby returned from camp he asked me what I wanted for my birthday...it is a bit funny, because it drives my hubby crazy...I always ask for needs (practical things) for my birthday...he wants me to ask for "fun" stuff. What I want for my birthday is always a loaded question that we laugh about now, but no so much when we were first married and learning each other's preferences.

So, what did I tell him I wanted for my birthday?

A referral for our little girl.

To which he rolled his eyes and said, "Really honey, like I have control over that?"

The money to pay for our referral?

To which he laughed and said, "Oh, I see you're trying to be funny, huh!"

Okay, a wallet...how's that?

To which he responded, "Great! Practical, since yours is broken, but hey, I can do that!"

Saturday I ran to the mall to get hubby some 1/2 price jeans for Father's Day and to return a tie that wasn't going to work for him. I had been eyeing the Mundi leather fat wallets for a couple of years, but my tight-wad tendencies prevented me from paying $30 for a wallet...crazy!

Well, I saw that the wallets were 40% off, I had a 15% off coupon and the tie was $6. So my birthday wallet only cost us $9.86! Woohoo! A great wallet and it was 1/3 of the original cost...my kind of birthday present!

Okay, so I bet I have a few of you laughing at this point, thinking are you kidding me a wallet is your best birthday present ever...wow it doesn't take much to keep you happy!

Well, this is where the story gets interesting...

Monday, June 21st I was at Ft. Knox for work and hubby took the boys to the Patton Museum before we would head to the hotel. Everything was crazy with work that day and I was ready to chuck my computer out the window, but nothing was going to get me down, because Monday night I got to meet my sweet new niece, Rachel Ellen, and hold her for the first time. Yeah!

So, was meeting my namesake the best birthday present ever, well, it was fabulous, but keep reading...

We are in the car driving and I am checking email on my phone, since it doesn't work in the office, and I opened the email to see one from the Waiting Child coordinator with Holt, titled "New Referral". At first glance I thought they had just posted the new list of waiting children, until I opened and started reading...

IT WAS OUR REFERRAL!!!!!!

So frantically I read out loud, multiple times what was written...baby girl, 7 months old, do you want to review the file, you will be the only family....

Wow! I cannot even begin to explain to you the chaos that ensued...

Hubby said, "What, are you kidding, because if so that's not funny!"

I am squealing, "NO! I got my birthday present!!!!"

Oldest Son, "We got a sister!?! I want to see! What is her name!"

Youngest Son, "I want my Sissy!"

Needless to say the conversation continued and we immediately decided that we would review the file, so I emailed and called to request they send the file immediately! Then I called my sister...she was also shocked, giddy...we couldn't believe it since we had been told just weeks before that we would probably be waiting 6 to 12 more months!

When we arrived at the hotel, pulled up the computer, and within minutes there it was...the boys pushed in their territory to get the best view...

"Oh, she's beautiful!"

"Call them now tell them she's ours!"

"I want my Sissy!"

"I want to hug her!"

"That's our little girl!"

And she is the most perfect little girl! It is amazing how God works to match us with the child He has planned to join our family! I am in awe at how He has brought us into this journey and continues to guide us each step of the way!

So, without further delay...here is a small glimpse of our beautiful little girl!

Once we have completed all of our "official" acceptance paperwork we will post a full picture of our sweet girl!

So what does this all mean, well we have verbally accepted our referral. We will complete the official documents and hopefully oldest son and I will fly to Korea to pick up our sweet girl in less than 6 months!

God gave me my birthday wish! Our sweet Annalee!

Thank you God for your wonderful blessings! We are so unworthy, yet You grace us with such wondrous gifts!

Summer Fun!!!

2010-06-22T22:21:00.002-05:00

Our household becomes busy with activity in the summer months and this year has been no exception.

Here is a glimpse into our summer fun!

Oldest Son is playing Machine-Pitch Baseball:

(Playing the Catcher position)

Youngest Son playing T-Ball:

While Hubby was at Kentucky Changers the boys and I attended our Agency Family Adoption Day. We rode with our adoption friends/mentors and had the best time!

We decided also to do a few projects to surprise Daddy while he was gone to KY Changers:

Old to New

From beige and dingy to bright and green:

After:

Hand-print trays:

We are so proud of our boys and have had lots of fun cheering them on. I also have such a respect now for single and military parents, that are raising their kids from months to years alone. I dearly love my boys, but am so happy hubby was only gone for one week. The boys and I missed him dearly!

This was my first time to paint a room and by myself, so I was just so please at how well it turned out. We still have to switch out the black switches and outlets from black to white, put up new trim and crown molding, but overall it is such a boost and we really like the green!

We were able to meet our new niece last night...she is my namesake...Rachel Ellen! I was able to hold her quite a bit, since hubby caught poison ivy at camp he couldn't hold her...bad for him, but more snuggle time for me :) She is a doll baby and I was even thrilled when I got the chance to change her stinky diaper! Can you tell I am in baby love right now?

I Want My Sissy

2010-06-20T00:15:00.000-05:00

Tonight as I put the boys to bed we were listening to Pandora Radio. Our youngest was restless and I was trying to get him to settle in to sleep...this is a glimpse of our bedtime conversation:

Youngest Son: "Mommy, I want my Sissy."

Mom: "What do you want?"

Youngest Son: "My Sissy!"

Mom: "Me too. I want Annalee too. God will bring her to us when it is the right time"

Youngest Son: "Oh. God?"

Mom: "Yes God will bring us Annalee."

Youngest Son: "Where is God?"

Mom: "God is in heaven."

Youngest Son: "Mommy, you'll go on the plane and get Annalee?"

Mom: "Yes. I will go on the plane and get your Sissy."

Youngest Son: "Is the plane this big?" (Holding hands about six inches apart)

Mom: "No. In a great big plane."

Youngest Son: "This big?" (Holding hands two inches apart)

Mom: "No as big as the house."

Youngest Son: "Oh. This big." (Holding hands as far as he can spread them)

Oldest Son: "The plane will be bigger than our house."

Youngest Son: "You'll bring Annalee on the plane."

Mom: "Yes, I will bring her home to you and Daddy."

Youngest Son: "Oh. Okay." As he snuggles under the covers next to me. Pandora Radio begins to play Beautiful One..."Beautiful One I love, Beautiful One I adore...Beautiful One my soul longs for..."

Tears trickle slowly...

"Annalee, Our sweet Annalee. We do not know if you have been born, we don't know the struggles you have or may face. All we know if that God has placed us so deeply in our hearts and souls and we long to have you come be a part of our family. We ray for you every day, many times a day for God to keep you safe, to hold you when we can't, to place you with a foster family that loves God and will teach you about Him until you come to us. Sweet Annalee, you are our beautiful little girl, our Sissy, we love you!"

Human understanding of a God size plan

2010-06-02T00:37:00.000-05:00

Today I am trying to look at this world, people, hurts, unknown, illness, challenges...all within my capacity for understanding, my limited realm of knowledge when God's plan is infinite, beyond my human ability to understand the grand design, the master plan.

A very wise friend told me today that we can go through life asking the "why" and miss living all He has for us. I was cut down to size. Today I complained about a sunburn, wondered how many more phone calls I would have to answer and stood at the baseball field thinking how quickly I wish it would pass so I could return to the air conditioning.

Who am I to complain, to wish the time away that I can't get back. Shame on me. There are mothers that would stand through any heat to see their kids play ball, but never can/will. There are some people that would be happy to have a job, even if the phone never seems to stop ringing. There are some people that have pain daily that won't get better in a few days with some aloe and TLC.

So tonight I sit and ponder how our God could use us with our limited capacity for gratitude and often need for adjustmet of attitude. Tonight I pray and cannot even begin to understand His infinite plan. I hope that somehow I will be the wife, mom, daughter, sister, and friend that I need to be for those in my life that are in need, that are facing challenges that I cannot fix and cannot erase from their lives.

Tonight I am so thankful that although that even when we so often do not understand, God is there beside us willing to guide, willing to use us, willing to help us take each step in faith.

My family, my friends, those that God may have brought into my path but for a moment, but laid you on my heart to pray....know that although often I do not understand, may not have the right words or any words to say that can make it better...I am here, I am praying, but better yet He is here and He is listening and He will be faithful through it all.

There are four people heavy on my heart tonight....although you do not know their names or stories, they all face challenges for which I do not know if I could bear, they face many unknowns in their future, and some are at a critical crossroad in their life and faith. I ask that you lift them in prayer that God will be apparent to them in a special way this week and in the days to come in their lives!

Have a blessed week!

The Ragsdale Family

Family in Great Need of Prayer - Will you pray for Eden?

2010-05-27T22:31:00.002-05:00

At the beginning of our adoption journey I came across the story of a family that was so unique and impressive to me. As many of you know my sister is getting ready to have baby number eleven in a couple of weeks, which in today's society is a unique family size, but we love her little ones everyone and they are such a great mom and dad. Well, the family that caught my attention started with three children, adopted a sibling group of three, and were on their way back to Ethiopia to adopt another sibling group of three.

I was amazed by this families faith in God as he covered all of the fees they needed to adopt all six children and their persistent faith in proclaiming, "Our life is not our own!" How true this is, as Christians we know that our life is to be lived to the glory of God and to reach others for His kingdom. The last post I had read on the family, they had just arrived home with their second set of three and were now a family of eleven.

In getting wrapped up in our adoption and the many Korean adoptee blogs that I follow, I had not visited their site for many months, but last night on facebook, I saw through the Just Love Coffee site a fundraiser for this family, titled, "Finding Eden". I immediately recognized the last name and it struck terror in my heart to think that something had happened with one of their children and that they were needing to raise funds for their medical care. For some reason, I immediately thought cancer, but after bouncing from site to site (and learning baby #10 is on the way soon for them) I landed to their note on facebook as to what has transpired in their lives over the past 10 months.

Thankfully, I can say that none of their kids have cancer, however, I have been deeply sorrowed and saddened in the past 24 hours with their desperate plea for the people of God to uplift their daughter in prayer. I think partly a situation in our lives with one of my family members impacted the compassion I have for this family, but also as a future adoptive parent my heart just breaks for them.

Finding Eden - This is a link to their story (it will link you to her Notes in Facebook titled Finding Eden), I will warn you it will break your heart, but their faith and hope is inspiring.

If you can or would like to help this family in their time of need, there is a link on my site to be able to give to help their daughter Eden with the care she needs. As they say to have redemptive grace abound in her life and that she may return to them healthy and healed.

If you would like to read about their adoption journies, you can visit their blog at: Blessings from Ethiopia

Thank you for taking the time to pray for this family as they seek God's direction for their family. I pray you will be blessed and if are led perhaps can be a blessing for this family!

(If you have trouble with either of the above links, email me at missionforannalee@gmail.com and I will send it to you via email.)

Have a wonderful weekend.

The Ragsdales

Five Months

2010-05-23T14:36:00.000-05:00

Today we hit the five month mark in waiting for our referral. The time has passed so quickly, school is out for our son, June is upon us soon, and still we wait.

Waiting for this adoption has helped us to grow. Although we did not specifically pray and ask God to teach us to be patient. I think anyone going into adoption will be blessed with a journey to learn patience.

Not just waiting, but to learn grace in times of waiting.

Not just waiting, but to be fruitful in time of waiting.

Not just waiting, but living your life to the fullest in times of waiting.

Not just waiting, but to bless others, to be a blessing in times of waiting.

Not just waiting, but prayerfully listening in times of waiting.

Psalm 27:14 (NKJV) "Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, And he shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say on the LORD!"

Psalm 39:7 (NKJV) "And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You."

Psalm 40:1 (NKJV) " I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry."

Psalm 130:5 (N KJV) "I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope."

Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV) "But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint."

Romans 8:25 (NKJV) "But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perserverance."

Do you have something you are waiting for? How are you spending your time in waiting?

Have a blessed week!

The Ragsdale Family

Dream a little dream...

2010-05-21T23:53:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday we were at my in-laws we looked at pictures of the family with hubby's grandma. There is a really cute picture of hubby, his brother, and his sister...hubby is sporting this cute little bowl cut, that was so the style in the early 80s. :) She keeps this picture in the dining room, so we see it every time we are there.

I share this as I think it was the inspiration to a very interesting or you might say bizarre dream I had that night....

Sunday morning I woke up startled and a little shook up! My hubby asked me what was the matter...so I shared the dream I had with him...I think by the time I as done, he would have rather not known!

I was in Korea with our oldest son and a group of parents also picking up their babies. They gave me a child that snuggled against me so sweetly. As we walked out another mother asked me why I was so upset when I had my baby, I should be happy. I turned and told her, "I was here to get my Annalee, but they gave me Johnathan. I'm not upset I just don't understand."

At that point the Korean Agency worker told me, "You have to take Johnathan first, then you can come back and get Annalee, she's not ready yet." All the while this sweet tall, lanky four year old boy, with a shiny black bowl cut hair and round big brown eyes (not the typical Korean eyes), hugged me and looked up at me as I held him. The other adoptive mother, said "...and see he loves you so much already. He hasn't even cried a bit."

At this point my hubby woke me to get ready for church. So, the thing that initially had me startled when I woke up was, who is Johnathan? Not a typical Korean name and we have never picked the name Johnathan as a name we would use. Our alternative boy names were Samuel Godfrey or Daniel Zellar. The other thing that was startling was how vivid the dream was...I could picture this child, it was so detailed!

So to add to the weirdness of this whole thing, at church that morning. The pastor spoke on Johnathan and David and how David took Johnathan's relative in his home as his own. The message was on goodness and kindness, he ended the sermon asking if God was drawing anyone to act in kindness, to take a step of faith...maybe adopt a child...

So, needless to say my hubby did not find my dream amusing or think it was funny when I underlined, Johnathan, in my sermon notes. Of course we are longing for a daughter to be added to our family...but it does make one think!

Of course I shared my dream with the adoption forum and found that bizarre dreams are just par for the course. I think one mom indicated she dreamed she picked up her daughter to only find it was an elderly man! So, waiting can do strange things to your dream world...as can adorable pictures of bowl cuts (of course my hubby is a red head, so not sure how that translated)!

Sweet dreams!

Celebrating a Beautiful Life

2010-05-19T23:44:00.000-05:00

The past five days we have spent with my husband's family processing the loss of the foundation of the family and celebrating the 90 wonderful years his grandmother was on this earth!

It is never easy to have a loved ones life end here on earth, but what a glorious day when that person meets their Savior! We spoke of how she was reunited with her husband, parents, and all of the grandbabies that we longed to hold, but they went onto heaven before we could hold them. She has left a godly heritage with her family and as my husband said, "she probably was with grandpa now, dancing an Irish jig!"

Granny Ragsdale welcomed me into the family from the day I met her. I enjoyed the many visits when we just chatted, since all of my grandparents have been deceased for many years, my hubby's grandma's have been so special to me. I think when we have family visits I would enjoy visiting with them and learning about the family, their lives, and just visiting in general as much if not more than anyone else! There is something so wonderful about talking with someone who has lived through so many changes our world has seen in the past 75-100 years and still have such a strong moral fiber and godly perspective to share.

I hope you all have someone in your life that can share these lifelong lessons and values. If you do, take a moment today to let them know how much you care!

The Ragsdales

Amazing Blessings

2010-05-10T01:50:00.000-05:00

There is so much to share regarding the blessings God has bestowed upon us in the past days!

If you read our last post you know that we received our I600A approval, which is a huge step in the paperwork process of adopting our daughter!

Thursday a friend and I went for lunch at a little Korean diner, Tinytown Carryout. It was such a delightful surprise. The menus were in Korean & English. I ordered Bulgolgi, which was wonderful. They also served the food in the traditional Korean style with the eight dishes of kimchi. I tried seven of the dishes with two being my favorites.

However, the highlight of the lunch is when a soldier and his party sat at the table next to us to dine. He told his friends that he was adopted from Korea when he was eight years old and his parents let him choose his name. He chose to keep his Korean name, however, he retained very little of his native language. He loved growing up in Middle Tennessee and his adoptive family. I hung on his every word, while still not trying to appear as eavesdropping!

I told the waitress that I would be visiting Korea that we were adopting a daughter. As we went to leave, she met me at the register and said, "Next time you bring her, you show me your girl." She continued to ask me to bring my daughter and show her as she walked with me to the door with her hand on my arm. It was so nice, even my friend commented on how nice to see her so interested in our sweet Korean daughter!

Friday brought another pleasant surprise, less than a month after applying for our passports that came in the mail! Now we are ready to go to Korea to bring our girl home!

Saturday was the culmination of many weeks of blessings as our families and friends donated items for our yard sale, prayed for us, lent us tables & clothes racks, and helped us along the way! As one friend was dropping off items they jokingly told me if they didn't know we were having a yard sale, then they would nominate us for the show about hording stuff!

Here are some pictures of the house and stuff we collected for the sale:

We started our day bright and early at about 4:30 am and finally had everything out of the house in the driveway and yard by 8:30-9am. We are so thankful my parents came to help...I don't think we could have done it without them! The crowd was steady and we sold, sold, sold!

At the end of the sale, we raised $735 and we donated two truckloads of items to the members of the Jamaica mission team at our church, gifted several boxes of clothes to friends & family members, donated three boxes of items to a group that reads to those in need at the Salvation Army and plays with the kids. We also saved back some of the nice household items for families that lost all they had in the recent flooding.

We were so thrilled to raise so much toward our adoption, but were equally glad that the donations and items we cleaned out of our house can continue to bless others. It is amazing to see God work and multiply the generosity of the many people that blessed us!

At the end of the day we were al exhausted, sore, and decided to find a spot to just lounge for a while! Needless to say we all slept very well Saturday evening!

Have a very blessed week and remember to be a blessing to someone this week!

I600A Approved!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-04-28T16:12:00.000-05:00

Today we received our I600A approval in the mail - our advanced approval by the US government to adopt a child overseas!

God continues to bless our journey!!!!

Prayers for Sunny Weather Saturday

2010-04-27T02:13:00.000-05:00

First, I have to take a moment to say THANK YOU to our family and friends. We have had so many "Spring Clean" items out of their house and donated to our yard sale that there is a path through my dining room only. I have also still been getting calls daily with new donations. We are so humbled by the love and support that everyone has shown to us. We pray that God will richly bless each family that has so richly blessed us with their love and support!

I aslo want to say THANK YOU to all our prayer warriors. We know that the peace we have had throughout this process is largely due to the prayers and petitions being sent up by so many prayer warriors. Even when the waiting gets a bit tough we are reminded of how many of you are praying for us and we are just overwhelmed that we know so many people that are so caring.

To all of our prayer warriors we are asking you to step in the gap for us! We have been planning a fundraising yardsale for about a month now for this Saturday, May 1st. Well, as of this afternoon there is a 40%-60% chance of rain that day, depending on what station you watch! We do not have a garage, so this is largely dependent on dry weather! One of the meteorologists said on tonight's news that "We're still five days out from the weekend, so we could see the rain predictions have some movement in the timeline."

I was thinking - "Yes, time for God to just push that rain off until Saturday!" So the deal is that we have to put the add in the newspaper Wednesday, so we will have to make the decision then whether to go for it or if the % of chance of rain increases to just postpone until May 15th. Either way, we know that God has a plan for when and how this should happen, so if your will just pray that the weather will align with His will for this weekend and we will patiently follow in preparing or waiting.

Thank you again dear friends! We can't wait to introduce you to our dear girl who you all have such a large part in her life already!

Have a happy Teusday!

No News...Extremely Blessed!

2010-04-23T01:08:00.000-05:00

Well, my mailbox stalking has been completely without result this week! I have resisted the urge to send an email off to the USCIS office as well...very tough, since I have this urge to remind them it has been three weeks and no news, but I figure it would be good to wait just one more week :)

Tomorrow marks four months of waiting for a referral for our Annalee. The time has passed so quickly and we have been able to prepare in so many ways.

Last night at church my dear adoption friends surprised me with a gift in a "baby" bag...it was so sweet I could have cried on the spot. Since they know how much I love to read and prepare for our lives as adoptive parents, they gave me a great book! You will have to stay tuned for a future book review!

Monday we were blessed with a huge donation to our yardsale. Our friends Stephanie and Darrell were so generous in their "Spring Cleaning" items. The highlight was getting to have dinner with Stephanie "just the girls" to chat and share about our lives in general lately. I am so thankful that God continues to bless our lives with Christian friends!

Supporting a Good Cause:

Tonight I came across a blog in which an adoptive family is raising money through a very nifty craft idea...country themed hairbows. If you have adopted from Ethiopia or Korea or know someone who has or will be, then head over to their site & check them out...just adorable!

http://www.texastoethiopia.blogspot.com/

If you live in Hopkinsville, KY and will be looking for some entertainment tomorrow evening (04/23/2010), then stop by the youth building at Hillcrest Baptist Church at 7:00pm for a free concert and guest speaker, Kelly Putty from Ordinary Hero http://www.ordinaryhero.org/. They will be taking up a love offering to raise money for the Wilson family, currently adopting from Ethiopia.