A Tale of Two Days

What a difference a day makes!  Yesterday when we traveled to the foster family's home we were more than just a little bit anxious and when we arrived it took a little bit for Isaac to warm up to us.  When we finally all relaxed a little we were able to have a lot of fun and have a great visit full of smiles and laughter.  Skipping forward to today, we arrived at the Social Welfare Services building a few minutes early to find Isaac having fun in the play room.  When he saw Bethany walk around the corner I saw a smile break out across his face.  We went in and immediately started playing with our little boy.  He is 100% boy and a firecracker to boot!  He doesn't stick with any one activity more than just a few minutes before he is bounding off to get into something else, a lot like a little girl I know back at home.  Tomorrow is "Gotcha Day" and we can barely contain our excitement.  We've spoken to another family who is here at the same time adopting a little boy as well and found out that they have only met their little boy for about an hour and won't see him again until they pick him up for good on Friday with traveling plans on Saturday.  God has been so good to let us play with our little boy two days straight and to think we get to bring him back to our hotel tomorrow night and spend all day on Friday before traveling home on Saturday is wonderful.

We have moved out of the Renaissance Hotel and moved into the adoption guest house.  The accommodations are not nearly as nice as they were at the Renaissance, but they are perfect for what we need.  This afternoon we are planning to hop in a taxi and take a ride to the N Seoul Tower and spend a little time sight seeing.  Seoul is an amazing city that just seems to go on forever in every direction and as much fun as we are having it will sure be nice to get back to Kentucky and smell a little fresh air and taste some sweet tea... so if somebody wants to bring us a little bit of tea at the air port I won't be disappointed!

Love!

Let me just say right now that I am absolutely in love! You know that feeling you get when you have just gotten home from the most amazing date ever, the way you can't stop thinking about every moment, the way your stomach is in knots, and your eyes dance...that is exactly how I feel right now x 10,000!

We left our adoption agency around 1:30 pm and took about an hour drive to an area outside of Seoul. We went up the elevator and turned to the right and there he stood, the most precious little boy I have ever set my eyes on. We had been told that he was shy so we took it very slowly and kept some distance. I got out the ball I had brought and handed it to him. It took him a little while but he slowly began to warm up to us. While our caseworker talked to the foster mom to find out all the details about feeding, sleeping, likes and dislikes while we played! The first interaction that we had was when I kicked the ball to him (soccer player?). Travis rolled the ball to him on the floor and for the first time I heard his voice and saw a small smile. His voice melted my heart! Once he warmed up to us, wow, he was warm. Many of you remember how active Anna was at an early age (still is) he is definitely going to be able to keep up! I chased him from one thing to another, he took the case workers book and would have no part in letting it go, Travis says he has a Kungfoo grip! The caseworker wanted us to try to feed him some watermelon, he would not eat at first but then I was able to get him to take a few bites in between climbing, running, crawling and dancing. Yes, I said dancing, we learned that he loves music and loves to dance! We had told the caseworker about Anna and how much she likes to sing, she said that Anna could sing and Isaac could dance. My mind is already thinking about how much fun the two of them will have together very soon. I also know that Anna better be ready because this little boy is BUSY! The foster mom said he likes to fight with other children sometimes, and that he always wins! Here we go! I could go on forever describing how he smiled when Travis played peek-a-boo, or how he almost knocked the watermelon tray off of the table, but I will keep all of those memories close to my heart.

There is one more thing that I want to share about our visit today. When it was almost time to go I picked Isaac up and we looked out the window together. Travis put out his hands to hold him and in the cutest way possible he shook his head no. He eventually let Travis hold him for just a few seconds before leaning back for me again. But then the best moment ever, when it was time for us to go and his foster mom reached out to take him, he shook his head no again! I know it was hard for her but for me it was the icing on the cake. She reached out for him again in the elevator and he shook his head no again. Eventually she had to take him from me and I waved to him "see ya later."

We have another play date tomorrow per the foster mother's request since he is a little shy and then Thursday, May 24 will be our official Gotcha Day! We pick him up at 5:00 pm!

Now we have to prepare, I have no idea how we are going to handle that bundle of energy on the plane? We are going to the market later to buy a few things that we will probably need and then probably spend the rest of the night smiling and talking about OUR SON.

We have plenty of pictures but the blog is not completely secure so we do not want to post them at this time. Thanks for all of the prayers I definitely felt them today. Until next time...

While You Were Sleeping

We are finally here! We arrived in Seoul just before 4am Monday morning the 21st (we are 13 hrs ahead of Kentucky).  Our first flight to Atlanta went very well and allowed me to get used to it just a bit. We took off for Seoul at about 12:30 AM Sunday morning.  Wow, it was a very long and tight trip. The plane was absolutely packed, we had little to no leg room, and it was very hot! We suffered through it, looking at each other once in awhile and saying, "It will all be worth it!" I actually did much better than I expected, we watched many movies to pass the time. After landing in Seoul we waited for our luggage and then jumped on a bus to our hotel. We had no trouble finding the right bus, the airport is not very crowded at 4 am.
We were afraid we wouldn't be able to check in right away, but God is so good to us and he had it all worked out so that our room was ready and we checked in immediately. We were even told by the receptionist that he usually doesn't do this.
We quickly freshened up, made a few Skype/FaceTime calls and took a few hours to rest before our day of touring began. We tried to get directions via Subway to the bus stop, but after 5 min. of trying to explain it to us I said, "Should we just take a taxi?" We took a taxi to the north end of the city across the river from our hotel (our first ever taxi ride).
The taxi dropped us off at the bus stop but our attention was immediately diverted to a palace and a mountain landscape to our north. We decided to just take a short walk to begin our tour. Gyeongbokgung Palace was our first stop. The palace was amazing, it was like a city inside a city, seemingly never ending. We also were able to tour the Korean Folk Art Museum that was inside the palace walls.
We continued to walk through Seoul, it is a beautiful city, and very easy to navigate. We realized after several hours of walking that the bus tour didn't run on Mondays. We decided to continue with our one walking tour and took about a 20 min. walk to Namdaemun Market, an outdoor/indoor bargaining market. After our long day of walking and a little Korean KFC we were ready to head back to the hotel. Like the taxi traveling veterans we are, we flagged a taxi, gestured and handed him our hotel business card and we were on our way!
We are having a great time so far, it's hard to believe we just got here this morning. But as great of time as we are having now I can't wait until tomorrow when we finally get to meet our son! It is almost time!

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Look Mom, they have Ice Cream!

Outdoor Market

Preparation

My last Face book post declared, "It is Time!" We received word Wednesday, May 16 that our son was ready to travel. I was at work when I got the email, all I can say is that it was very hard to treat patients after that. I rushed to call Travis and with a little help from Joyce, was able to track him down.
So now we are preparing for travel, we leave tomorrow for the journey of a lifetime. I find myself somewhat nostalgic now. I am thinking about how life will change forever in the next few days. I have tried to take time to enjoy the moment. To realize I have been dreaming about this for what seems like most of my life! To enjoy these last few hours as a family of 3. I have tried to stop and play a little more with my very excited daughter. She has told about everyone she meets that her little brother is coming home tomorrow. We have tried to explain to her that it's not quite tomorrow and have given her a calendar to mark down the days. Today we will run some last minute errands and work on getting everything packed. I have tried to do some research on things we want to see in Seoul but I keep getting overwhelmed by all the options, I think we will have plenty of time on the plane (14+ hrs.) to decide.
We will be using this blog to keep everyone up to date on what we are doing as well as to try to journal our trip for our son. We will try to post pictures of our trip but will still not be able to post pictures of our little guy until we have been home for a while.

Please continue to pray for us, for our safe travels, for our family back home and for the adjustment period for all of us when we get our son!

Dear Isaac

Before your sister was born, your mom and I decided that we were each going to write her a letter.  We wanted to tell her a little about what it was like waiting for her arrival and about all the different things that we did to get ready and also about all the many emotions we were feeling.  This is going to be my letter to you.

We have been waiting for you for what seems like forever.  Truth be told, your mom has been waiting even longer than Anna and me.  Ever since your mom was a little girl she has been dreaming about adoption and you are her dream come true.  She shared that dream with me before we got married and the dream became mine as well.  Now 10 years later we are getting ready to board a plane and bring you home!

I want to tell you a little bit about your name and why it is so special to your mom and me.  Let's start with your first name.  One of the things most married couples do when they start talking about having children is to start thinking of ideas for names.  Your mom and I landed on the name Isaac long before God gave you to us, but the moment we received the envelope with your pictures inside we knew that it was the perfect name.  Isaac means "he laughs" and when we opened up that envelope you were laughing and smiling in each and every picture... and we were laughing through tears of joy as we looked at your beautiful smile!

At the time I am writing this letter I'm not allowed to write your Korean name on the blog because of different rules and regulations but I want to tell you about it anyway.  Your middle name means "house builder" and is further proof that God chose you specifically for our family.  Both of your Papaws were carpenters (house builders).  Not only did they build houses, they turned our houses into homes where we knew we were safe and loved and learned about how Jesus, who was also a carpenter, loved us more than anything in this whole wide world.

Children always inherit something from their parents throughout their lives, character traits, genes, etc.  There are a few things that by the time you're old enough to read this letter you will be pleased that I could not pass along to you; my snoring for example!  There is one thing that I do hope you inherit from me though and that is a love for God.  The greatest gift I have ever been given is a family with parents and grand parents who taught me about God's love for me, and I pray that throughout your life you might see His love for you shining through me.  He knew your name before you were born and he knew that our family would be incomplete without you.

I can't wait to meet you for the very first time and to hold you in my arms.  I can't wait to introduce you to your sister and the wonder dog we call Bacon... they both like to kiss a lot so hopefully you'll keep your mouth closed!  I can't wait to see your grand parents smiling and making goofy faces trying to make you laugh.  Most of all, I can't wait to have you home.  You are about to change our world... and I can't wait!

I love you big guy!

Dad

A Moment of Thanks

I am amazed when I log onto our blog to realize that I haven't written anything since January. I think of it often but have a difficult time making myself sit down and put my feelings onto the screen. Tonight I am sitting down to offer my gratitude to many of my friends and family.

As the time of our travel draws closer (hopefully), Travis and I had began to let ourselves worry some about the expenses that have been adding up as we wait for our little boy. The travel expenses alone will take quite a sum, not to mention the time after he arrives that I will be unable to work. Travis has always been my rock when it came to financial worries, he has a way of just being able to trust God with everything no matter what. One night after a long talk about all that was going on in our lives he admitted to me that he was very worried about us financially if our account was drained with travel expenses. My first reaction was to laugh, really, now you are concerned? His concerns though were heartfelt as he wanted to make sure his family had more than enough when our son was finally home.

It was a few weeks after this conversation that God proved himself to be more than enough for us. When it came time for our yard sale we had a garage filled with donated items. Items that people had given us to sell to help our cause, some large some small but all very important. After our yard sale was over we were amazed to find out we had made well over $600. But that was just part of the story. We have been mailed checks, given cash donations all along our journey. Every time we have began to waver God has shown up through many of you. I assure you that the donations, the cards, the thoughts, the prayers have been incredible and greatly noticed!

When we began this journey almost 2 years ago one of our greatest fears was finances, like we said in one of our first post, we had no idea how we would pay for this adoption. We didn't have to know, all we had to do is trust the one "who owns the cattle on a thousand hills" (Psalms 50:10) and who, "cares for us," ( 1 Peter 5:7).

Right now we continue to wait. Since our last blog post we have received a new set of pictures of our son, we have received all of our travel information, and we have sent a letter and new pictures to Korea. We have absolutely no idea when we will travel to get our son, we could get the call tomorrow or in 6 months. We have been told that we will not know until our agency is told he is ready.  When we get the call we have 2 weeks to travel. We are trying to be ready for anything, which proves very difficult at times. All of our plans are contingent on our traveling to Korea. Please continue to pray for us, for our son and for peace in the circumstance. Some days are very hard.  Like many of you have said, "What is taking so long? If he has a family then why do you both have to wait?' I don't know the answer to those questions but I know the God who does and I know that He has proven Himself very trustworthy so far.

Thanks so much to all of you, I can't wait to share this story of God's love and provision to our son. You have all been a part in building our Forever Family!

It's a BOY!!!

This is the adoption post I have been waiting for, most of you already know, but in case you haven't heard me screaming for joy or seen me floating on Cloud 9 lately, we have a referral! A beautiful little boy! I would love to fill this post with his beautiful face to make all of you OOOoo and AHHH, but I am not allowed to right now.  I would love to tell you all about him but that will have to wait as well. What I can tell you or what I can try to express is the joy we are feeling right now.

We received news of our referral in an email on Dec. 21, one year from the date that our home study was finalized. I can't explain what this year has been like, ups and downs, worries and fears. It was truly a journey of faith for both Travis and I, we learned so much about trusting God and about each other. Our Amazing Race for both of us is not so much abo
ut the race itself but who we are running it with.

Once we received news of our referral we made an appointment with our adoption coordinator in Danville, she expected to receive the referral sometime early Thurs. morning (Dec. 22). Our waiting continued that morning as Fed Ex was running behind and our referral didn't arrive until closer to afternoon. I watched the Fed Ex truck pull up and my excitement reached it's peek, by this time we already knew that it was a little boy but my heart fell completely in love with a first glance. If you have seen the pictures you understand, most of them show his smiling face playing and laughing. I never tire of looking at those pictures and don't believe I ever will. I will always remember that moment and I am blessed to have shared it with such a wonderful husband.

We left fairly quickly eager to leave the office and discuss the future. I placed his pictures in plain view for us to look at during our trek home. Once in a while I would look at his picture and talk to him, other times I would look at Travis and smile, this is going to be our son! I couldn't believe it! I remember looking at Travis and seeing tears in his eyes, this really has been as much of a dream of his the last few years as mine and God has done a truly amazing work in him to get him to that place, to see his son and to be overcome with joy.

Now the real race begins, it really feels like a race now to me. I want to get everything ready, the paperwork sent off, the checks written. Pray for my dear husband that I don't drive him crazy in the next few months. We have been told not to expect to be able to get him for at least 3 months. We have told Anna that it will be in the spring. She is praying every night for spring to come. You may be wondering about Anna's reaction to the news, well lets just say we could win America's Funniest home videos! She wasn't very happy and first because she wanted a little sister but her disappointment has quickly turned to joy and now she simply cannot wait!

We hope that we will travel to Korea sooner than later. Our real prayer is that we can go before the end of June so we don't have to update our home study paperwork. My wish is to go and get him tomorrow! Until then we will prepare our home and our hearts, we will continue to work on the endless mounds of paperwork and we will eagerly await updates. Please continue to pray for us and for our son oceans away!


Jumping for Joy,
Bethany