A bit about kiddo #3

Wow... It's been a LONG time.  I can't believe it has been 14 months since I last blogged- a lot has happened in the past 14 months!  The last time I blogged, we had still been on our visiting trip to South Korea.

That trip seems like a lifetime ago, but it was simply amazing and really made Allen and I know that we were meant to adopt again.  See, we had started the process for a third child at the end of July 2011 and had even gone to committee (it's sorta like an interview process to see which family is the best fit for a specific child) for a little boy that we had really thought was meant to be ours- but it ended up he wasn't meant to be ours & so we slowed down waiting for God to show us when the right time was for us to be parents again. It ended up that God had placed us on a very specific pathway.  What we didn't know, was that our next child had already been born before we even arrived on our trip to Korea in Nov. 2011!  No, we didn't meet him then- we didn't even find out about him until Spring 2012!  As soon as I saw him for the first time, I was IN LOVE!

It was immediately apparent that this little guy wasn't full Korean... he is actually 1/2 Korean and 1/2 Caucasian. His Korean name is Wu-jin (pronounced like Ooo-jin) and it means "blessing" and "star". He is certainly another one of God's blessings in our family's life! We are choosing to name him Davis (it means "worthy of love" just like Amanda does). His story- like our other kiddos stories- is very unique, and someday, I hope that HE will choose to tell people all about his adoption story and the way that he became a part of our family!

We have been waiting a LONG time to bring this little one home.  His first birthday has come and gone...

You see, South Korea has been trying to do some change in the way things are handled and processed for all adoptions- domestic AND International and we have gotten caught in those changes.  These changes are meant to bring POSITIVES about for adoptees and while the wait has stunk and has gotten more expensive due to the mounds of new paperwork that we are required to submit, we know that these law changes are ultimately meant for the good of the South Korean children...

So, now we continue to pray and wait.  Calen (who is now 5 years old!!!)

and KatieJoy (who is 3.5 years old)

have been patiently waiting for their "baby brother" to come home.  They ask to pray for him each night and talk about sharing (& sometimes NOT sharing- haha) their toys with him.  They are both so excited to be big brother and big sister to baby Davis! 

I haven't shared about Davis super openly on the internet yet for several reasons.  One of the biggest reasons was that I knew this wait was going to be extra long and I guarded my heart from sharing because I didn't want to field all of the "when will he be home" type questions... it was so much easier to just share with our family about our wait- I know it sounds silly, but it really did help my heart to wait.  We finally shared on Facebook back in November and with the craziness of the holiday season, I didn't even contemplate blogging.  But now, we are getting SO close to bringing home our new son and we need your prayers & support more now than ever!  We are actually one of the "pioneer families" for the new adoption process being rolled out in South Korea- we have NO idea how much longer this will take, but would you PLEASE oh please pray with us that the new process is figured out quickly and smoothly?  We could also use your prayers for the final funds needed for this adoption... because of the new laws in Korea, we have had some unexpected paperwork expenses and need to raise a small amount of funds for our travel to Korea.  We will be rolling out a T-shirt fundraiser tonight on the blog (stay tuned if you want a super cute Mickey shirt for your kiddos!) and I am hoping to stay fairly busy with my photography clients before we receive that all amazing Travel Call, as well.  So prayers for that part would be wonderfully appreciated as well!

I promise to update on the rest of us within the next week or so.  The kids have grown so much in height and, by leaps and bounds, in maturity- it really is amazing how quickly time flies when being a parent!

Thank you, friends, for your prayers and thoughts about our growing family.  We are so blessed to have been given the life God has given us.  We certainly treasure our amazing little blessings!

~Mandy~

Korea, Tuesday Nov. 22nd, 2011

On Tuesday, November 22nd we didn't have any important foster family meetings so we decided to go and be busy for the day. It was a cold rainy day but we knew the kids needed to get outside and do some running around so we went to a Korean Folk Village that was suggested to us.

The village wasn't very crowded because it was cold, but it was soooo pretty! It had replicated many different types of buildings and it had different performances that we got to watch. The first performance was a tight rope walker- this guy was really good! He did different types of stunts while up on the rope- all with NO soft landing below, just the regular old ground!

I know this photo of calen is blurry, but he LOVED clapping for the tight rope walker and I thought it was cute!

Calen thought it was pretty neat and while we were watching the guy perform, Calen ran to a nearby bench and pretended to tightrope walk also! He got KatieJoy into the fun as well and as we were watching (of course I was taking pictures) from afar, Calen told KatieJoy to "Jump" and he held out his arms like he would catch her. Well, she didn't hesitate one bit and she jumped right into his open arms… and then they toppled to the ground, as clearly Calen isn't strong enough to catch his sister! I wish I had gotten a photo of all that action, but I was already in process of moving towards them when I saw what was going to happen! Luckily they were both fine and they giggled about it for another 5 minutes with each other. When these two aren't fighting they are SO adorable together. Calen can tell KatieJoy almost anything and she'll do it because she adores him so much. Luckily he hasn't figured out how to abuse this power yet and they were pretty darn cute with each other the entire week we were in Korea.

Right before her big jumping performance- see that sparkle in her eye?!? Yeah- that's her mischievous look!

After the jumping/catching act that my children performed, we walked to another part of the village to watch a traditional Korean wedding. The outfits were beautiful and it was pretty neat to watch the traditions that went along with the ceremony- of course, we couldn't understand a word of what they were saying during the wedding, but that was okay! ;-) (as a side note, the entire time we were in Korea, Calen was so upset that we (mainly HE) couldn't understand Korean. Language has always been my son's biggest strength so I'm thinking I need to possibly find someone to teach him or us a bit of Korean before we go back to Korea...)

Just goofing around, but not at all willing to look at the camera- kinda how the whole week went with my camera in Korea!

We continued to just walk around and admire the grounds of the village. Everything was almost dead for the oncoming winter months, but there was still a bit of color on the trees. I imagine the hills surrounding the grounds to be "on fire" with the full fall colors and someday plan to visit Korea during that time of year!

We left when it was almost dark and headed back to get some pizza and just relax for the rest of the night as the next day was our last full day in Korea and it was packed with shopping and having dinner with Calen's foster family!

~Mandy~

Our day in Korea- Monday Nov. 21st, 2011

On Monday we took it easy in the morning and then left around 10 am to head to Eastern Adoption Agency to drop off some letters for a friend's daughter. I had promised to take the letters and made sure I explained who they were for to the lady that greeted me when I walked in. It was neat to see a different agency and I'm glad that we got to quickly see what Eastern was like. We had the cab driver wait and then we headed to Holt to drop off all the donations that people sent with us and to say hi to KatieJoy's and Calen's social workers (they each have a different one) and then we got to have a meeting/lunch with KatieJoy's foster parents and her social worker, DJ (who translated for us). While we were at Holt we also ran into the foster mom that took us home the day we got KatieJoy- it was so neat to see her and for her to see how well KatieJoy has adjusted to us as she was the one who got to witness KatieJoy grieve so hard the day we took her. We took a few quick photos and parted ways. It was such a nice surprise that she happened to have an appt at Holt that day- God has such awesome divine intervention! We saw a few babies in and out of the office, but none that I recognized since we aren't really in process.

KatieJoy, DJ & I in front of the donations many others helped us gather for the babies in Korea!

KatieJoy's Foster mom and Ji-Yeon (the foster mom who helped us last time we were in Korea) with a super shy KatieJoy & I





We left Holt and had lunch at a place called Bulgogi Brothers with DJ and KatieJoy's foster mom and dad. OHMYGOSH is this food SOOOOO good. We had mandu (we've never tried mandu before this week and I'm officially in love), bulgogi and the kids had dolsat bibimbop.
We also tried plum soda after hearing of several other families trying it and it was so yummy- I didn't think it would be but man was it good! KatieJoy's foster family brought what felt like a million gifts for the kids- the foster mom knew it would help KatieJoy warm up to her and it really did! Her foster mom also handed me one small package and told DJ that it was KatieJoy's umbilical cord…I shook my head yes that I understood but after a few seconds it actually hit me what I was holding. I won't lie- I lost it and was very close to breaking into a sobbing mess. I was holding a piece of my daughter that was attached to her birth mom- how could I possibly be more in awe of a gift. It was the most precious gift I have EVER received- that may seem weird to some of you, but to me it means the world.

KatieJoy was very timid around foster parents for a bit, but as soon as we were done eating her foster mother got on the floor with her and started writing with her crayons on a drawing pad they had given her. I can't remember exactly what the note says- but DJ said it said something along the lines of "I love you and miss you. I'm so happy to see you." I need to have it actually translated! lol Once she drew with her (for those of you who know, my daughter LOVES to color and clearly her foster mom knew that about her) KatieJoy was more open to sitting near her and playing for a few minutes.

KatieJoy held her hand for a few moments and it melted my heart!

She still completely knew the best place to tickle little miss and KatieJoy ate it up!

I had DJ explain to her that KatieJoy had a rough transition at first and that even after four months with us she saw one photo of her foster family (the story is here) and she cried for them for 3 days- that made the foster mom cry a bit but she understood why we took photos down for a while. We talked a bit about what KatieJoy was like and they told us that she used to scream as loud as possible until she got what she wanted…uh- yup that still describes my daughter- hence the plane trip here! It's good to know things like that though- it reminds us that she is being herself and her tantrums are not at all attachment related but more personality related! We're going to have to work hard on that as she ages! haha. After that it was time for a few photos and lunch was done. KatieJoy's foster father is a taxi driver and asked DJ if we would mind if he drove us back to our room so even though we had no translator we got to have a few more minutes with her family and those few moments were of course precious to us. It was so hard for me to let go of the foster mom when we took custody of KatieJoy and Monday was the same way. I am so so so grateful for her and how she and her family took care of KatieJoy- I have absolute adoration for our children's Korean families and feel so blessed to have some connections with them.

After we left the foster family we attempted to get the kids some nap time, but they had other plans. They ran around our room like a bunch of wild animals while allen fell asleep and then later in the day we went out to do some window shopping and as soon as KatieJoy hit the stroller she was out- she took about a 45 minute nap and then we headed to a new place for dinner that was like a 5 course meal! Seriously it started out with soup, went to a salad with some shrimp, then it was some salmon with a potato type side dish; then it was steak with rice and finally dessert (the orange thing is like 5 teas put together into a gel & the other had like bean powder on it and it as super cold on the inside). It was insane- it was very good but there was SO MUCH FOOD- it was also very cheap- we paid less than 100,000 won for our dinner (less than $100 bucks)- no where in the USA could you have a meal like that for that cheap!

After dinner we hit the sack for our adventure the next day! :) And finally, that night, KatieJoy slept all through the night without any wake-ups. We weren't sure what seeing her foster family might do to her (& honestly had people telling us at home that it was a bad idea to come here) but you know what? God is good and he took care of the details- once again we are overjoyed in knowing that being here this week was absolutely God ordained.
~Mandy~