We begin again...

I sent off our preliminary application last week to our agency.  We are now working on our formal application.  I am feeling quite calm about this process.  I am taking my time doing the formal application and will get it in when we get it in.  It does help I am waiting back from 2 friends to see if they would be a reference for us.  I am eternally grateful to my friends who have taken the time to write down how they feel about us as people and parents.  Words cannot express my gratitude for their kindness. 

This morning JT announced he decided he wants a brother.  We prayed that God would grant us a child that he knows is the perfect fit for our family.

I ask that you all keep us in your prayers as we start the journey again for a child to add to our musical family.

Conversations with JT

Lucky you! You get two posts from me tonight.

Last night TC and I were getting JT ready for bed.  Our normal routine starts with pj's, brushing of teeth and then a devotion and prayers.  TC read his devotion which was about Anna who met baby Jesus at the temple.

 At the end of each devotion are a few questions to start a converstaion. 

TC asked JT; 'What would you say to Jesus when you see him.'
JT: When am I going to get a brother or sister?

TC and I had no idea how to respond to that without me bursting into tears.  So we prayed. 

Please pray with us as we start the journey...again.

For the Heart

I should be writing my paper on Organizational Architecture for my economics class... 

I realized this week that this January will be 3 years since my last cardiologist appointment.  I have being seeing my (Pediatric) cardiologist every 2 years since I was 14.  Three years ago he told me he wanted me wait 3 years.  That will be this January.  Today it hit me.  This September it will be 31 years since my open heart surgery.  Why am I writing about 31 years and not 30? 

When I was little I would dream about being 31, married with 4 kids (as we can see the 4 kids part is taking awhile) and I wondered what my scar would look like.  I never had to worry about my heart.  (My mom did that for me.  Oy!)  I heard of children going in for their second, third...fifth or even tenth surgery.  I only needed one to fix the hole in my heart.  I am very lucky.  A few days ago my friend had to take her 4 year old in for angioplasty to clear away some scar tissue. 

Again, I never needed to go back.  Every year I got the stamp of approval from my cardiologist that I had no restrictions (shh...don't tell my husband...I need a reason to get out of mowing the yard).  I ran track, played the trumpet, and did vigorous work at my job throughout college. 

Here I am 31 years later with a heart that is still ticking away.  I pray I continue to get a good report from my cardiologist.  A blessing I do not take for granted.  It is my heart that I carry on my sleeve.  A heart that has gone through more than open heart surgery.

To my heart, let's make it another 31+ years.

Remember me?

Wow, it has been a year.  A long year.  I started school last September and it has been a complete whirlwind.  I made it through a year and am finishing up my second summer class.  In two weeks I start my second and final year and will graduate with my B. A. in Business Management in 2013.  Truth be told I am exhausted.  I am ready to be done with schoolwork; the reading, writing papers, journal entries, and presentations.  My family is also ready for me to be done. 

Nothing new on the adoption front.  We did not like how the new adoption agency was handling our file and decided to back out of the adoption before we put more money down the drain.  TC and I decided to go back to our former agency and start again in the next couple months.  Praying for some funding to come our way to cover the homestudy and then we are hoping we are approved for grants to cover the remaining costs.  We will still be going overseas but are hearts are leading us towards the Philippines.  It's amazing what happens in year, huh?

JT is getting big.  He had a huge growth spurt this summer and is already 45 inches tall.  He will be starting first grade in less than 2 weeks.  He is learning how to tie his shoelaces and loves to play with his cars and build things with his Lego's.  I love listening to him read and if he asks for a book it is hard to say No.  I rather have him read than sit in front of the TV. 

That is the past year in a nutshell.  Hopefully I update more often than once a year. :)

Hello routine...

I am still working on my self study questions. TC on the other hand hasn't started yet. Very frustrating! Especially when I would like us to have these done by the time I start school again in a few weeks.

JT started kindergarten today. He was so excited....and VERY mad when I picked him up. He was not happy they learned so much all day (he told me he couldn't tell me what they did today because he was very tired) AND the worst part of it (according to him) he didn't get a nap. I don't know why he thought he would nap. He didn't when he went to preschool and I told him they aren't going to be taking naps. We even had him not take his naps the past couple weeks so he could be prepared on what to expect. I guess either way he was shocked. He said he didn't want to go back. He did learn to read a small little book (nothing major, it had a picture of a boy reading and he read 'I read' and another boy eating and he read 'I eat'). He was excited about that.

He is also excited for his glasses. He keeps asking when we can go get them. I hope we can pick them up tomorrow and he can have them for school on Wed.

Although, I do have to say even though I got to sleep in this morning and only worked 4 hours (I took JT to school and picked him up) I am exhausted. I have my registration stuff coming in for me going back to school in Sept and with the papers coming in for David's school it's a bit overwhelming trying to keep track of everything. We haven't even gotten into the full school schedule yet (handbells and choir for TC and I on Monday nights, JT will start piano lessons in a couple weeks, which means he'll need to practice every day. I'll have school every Wed night. TC and JT are going to do Pioneers through our church and all our PTC meetings and everything in between.) And adoption #2. We know God will help us get through all this but after looking at what is on my plate it's tempting to dump it to the side to see what falls off.

I am an Eomeoni

That is mother in Korean. :)

We had the pre-adoption classes this past Thursday and Friday. It was very overwhelming with all the information and tools our agency gave us. I have never been so tired in my life. A lot of information was repeat as we've been through the adoption process before. But what is new to us is inter-national and inter-racial adoption. I have friends who have adopted inter-racially and inter-nationally and have seen the joys and hurts that come along with it but learning how to raise a child in this isn't going to be easy.

We have not told our family that we are adopting from Korea yet. Most of our friends already know. Our family on the other hand may have issues. We already have experienced racism when we adopted JT. We had many family members express they hope we don't adopt a black baby. When we called and said we were placed the first question asked was not if it was a boy or a girl but if it was white.

A few of these family members are no longer in our lives because of these comments and other comments made after JT was brought home so I am not concerned with how they will react when they find out we are adopting internationally.

Back to the classes. We got a lot more paperwork we need to fill out before we can complete our homestudy. We need to fill out a self study of ourselves. We have about 16 questions we need to answer and it will equate to about 10 pages after it is all completed. Eep! It it my goal to get this done before I start school so I can concentrate on schoolwork.

I am going to be open and say we are planning on adopting a daughter. In our adoption classes they expressed the need for people to adopt boys as it seems everyone is requesting a girl. For our family, and JT's prayers for a sister, we feel a daughter will be a perfect fit.

I am eagerly searching the web for Korean pictures, figurines, recipes, and I am also looking for website that have the Korean language so we can start speaking a little Korean.

I also need to get a passport and soon. I am hoping to be able to do that in the next couple weeks.

Now back to searching the web!

Moving along

We are approved to go to the pre-adoption classes in 2 weeks. I'm so excited! With the drama of the information they needed it all worked out.

I got my finger prints done today at the government center. It took a few trips. I accidentally signed the card (whoops!). Instead of driving an hour to our agency I went down the street to the Human Service center and thankfully they have some. Drove back to the government center and found out the fee went up. I didn't have enough cash, or my checkbook and they don't take credit cards. So I drove 20 minutes home and 20 minutes back with my checkbook. For a visit that should have taken 30 minutes it took me almost 2 hours. Yuck. But it's done.

Now I have to do my back ground stuff online. I think I'll do that tomorrow.

We are moving along and these 2 hiccups are just the beginning of the stress that I know will come.