Better pictures - Kind Of

Here are more room pictures since I've been getting some requests. I don't know why I have so much trouble getting a good shot. Maybe because the room is the size of a my car.

Can't. Sit. Still.

I think we have everything done but then again I don't know if you ever have everything done. I think of little things here and there. I just want that &^*$# phone to ring, or that email to arrive saying it's time to get on a plane. This waiting is going to kill me, I'm sure of it.

We are waiting for the National Visa Center to approve his visa, for him to get a final physical in Korea and for a few other documents to go through in Korea and then we get the go ahead to travel. Apparantly this should take 3 weeks. THREE WEEKS.

I was looking at Henry's first medical info, the first packet we received back in December. He was 6 months old in that write-up, could barely put any weight on his legs, weighed 17 lbs (woah!) and was 26 inches. Now at 9 months he's 20 pounds and 28 inches. Still sounds like a big kid to me. Now he laughs but he's shy with strangers and waves bye-bye. He sits alone, walks a few strides alone, he says mama in Korean (heart breaking for the moment he has to leave his foster mom) and he picks up objects. All in all he's pretty much brilliant.

As for us, we are just waiting for our call. We have put together our strollers, we are waiting for the delivery of our car seat which should be any day now, his room is in order (no we're not painting it) but we've managed to hang some colorful and whimsical mobiles. I need to photgraph those. Here are some bad blackberry pictures while our camera is still being repaired.

This is a beautiful tapestry from India from my friend Elise. I know you can't see it but it's perfect for the room. It has animals and kids on it and also I can hang it on the wall and if the closet door hits it, no problem!


This is a terrible picture before we added the mobiles for some life to the room. Too much white, no sheets in the crib, Tim's computer bag(?). I need to get a better picture on here.

The stroller from my mum. This took about 3 seconds to put together. I love it.


I just like this picture. Murphy spends 90% of the weekend here and I don't know how much of the weekday while we're not home.



Poor little Murphy, he will no longer be the little man of the house.

Waiting For The Next Steps

There have been things happening behind the scenes both on the US and Korea side to get Henry home. We found a more baby friendly place to live in South Pasadena. It's a great little neighborhood with a park nearby and lots of kids. We're setting up Henry's room and meanwhile we got our homestudy updated and sent in our newest forms including the all important I-600 which in adoption world is huge. Henry got his Emmigration Approval or (EP approval as it's called) so we are now waiting for approval of the I-600 from the US, Korean immigration approval and for the final call for us to get travel approval and go.In short we're hoping within 6 weeks we'll be able to go to Korea to get him.

What's happening with Henry? The latest is that he's walking while holding on for support he imitates sounds and is starting on solid foods. I have a feeling we'll be surprised by all the things he can do.

Thanks to everyone who has gone out of their way to offer their support, amazing gifts, words of wisdom, you name it, we are thankful and overwhelmed by the joy and excitement everyone has shown in our journey to becoming a family through adoption. It We hope you're all still as excited when we're looking for babysitters!

It's Time

As pretty much everyone has heard, the time we've been waiting for came totally out of the blue. Ilana, our social worker, rang us early last week. She had news that a baby boy, Min-wu was waiting for us in Korea. He's 6 months old, just newly eligible for adoption and he's ours! He also has a half sister in Long Beach which is just icing on the cake. His sister's family wanted to be sure we'd be open to having a relationship with them, which of course we are and we're anxious to get to know them. Unfortunately that part can't happen until we finish a mound of paperwork which we are diligently working on at the moment.

So Henry Min-wu McKeon will hopefully be home within 4-6 months, as quickly as we can push through his visa paperwork. In the meantime he is with a foster family in Korea. We are so thankful for the love they are giving him while we are working hard to bring him home and thinking of him every moment.

There's a lot to do between now and then of course but we're thankful to all our friends and family for their support, well wishes, advice and everything in between. It truly does take a village.

Parenting Class

We went to a "parenting" class this weekend but it wasn't your typical how to change a diaper or swaddle or whatever most parents learn to do in their hospital parenting classes. Instead, this was on the 30th floor of a high-rise in downtown LA, in the conference room of a fancy-shamancy law firm. We were one of 3 couples meeting over fresh bagels and coffee to discuss raising adopted children of interracial families. Most interestingly was the make-up of the group: we were coincidentally all adopting from Korea, Tim and I were the only white couple, another was half white (Australian) half Korean (she moved to the US when she was 11) and the third couple was Korean-American.
Mostly we talked about the delicate balance of attempting to provide information about Korean culture without, at least in the case of Tim and me, feeling like a bit of a fraud, since it's not as though we'd typically dress in hanbok. We want to provide a gateway while realizing we're very much learning ourselves. I was a bit relived to find the Korean-American couple didn't do all the "traditonal" Korean fare for their first son like the big first birthday celebration. "http://www.lifeinkorea.com/culture/tol/tol.cfm"Granted, every family finds their own way but seeing as this couple is surrounded by grandparents who I would expect would insist upon Korean tradition and yet don't it made the pressure to figure out what I do an don't need to blend into our American cutlture seem a little less intimidating. I certainly want to intruduce Korean culture to our child but it seems more for the adults than the baby to do it at such a young age. I have this feeling no mattter what we do, a family vacation to Korean, Korean BBQ nights and weekends with our adoptive family network I hope I can just do a good job of helping my child figure out who they are, not as a Korean, or as an American but just as themselves. However, having said that, it may be easy, living in a white society and being white, to not realize how much race and culture do play a factor. So that's where my job, our job, as parents come in.

Korea

It's finally official. It's been a long time since there's been an update because there's been a big change to our adoption plans and it's not something to just casually discuss. After much consideration we have switched our adoption from China to Korea due to the extensive wait in China. What had begun as a year and a half to potentially 2 year time line has now stretched to an unpredictable amount of time. So that being said we began to explore other options and moving our adoption to the Korea program once we as a family qualified for it, made sense.

The Korean guidelines differed from China in that we needed to be married for 3 years versus the 2 years required by China. For us we hit this milestone on September 4th. We met with our social worker this past week to update our home study and officially switched our paperwork over to begin again. Although we're very excited there is of course an element of sadness and frustration. But parenthood demands flexibility and this is just the beginning on our road of the unexpected.

Now that we have officially begun the process with our agency of participation with the Korean adoption program we are as eager as all of you to know when we will be matched with our child. According to Holt, our agency, it will take approximately 11 months once our home study is completed to be matched. Once we are matched with a baby it will take approximately 4-6 months for our paper work and the baby's paperwork to be processed for us to fly to Korea and bring the baby home.

The baby will be approximately 5 months old at family match. All children are fostered by a family and therefore are not in orphanage care which is excellent for early child development.

So now we wait for our home study to be submitted, we finish a few forms ourselves and wait...

The Earthquake in Sichuan

On the afternoon of Monday, May 12, 2008, a massive earthquake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter Scale, rocked China. The epicenter was Wenchuan County, Sichuan, northwest of Chengdu.

Chengdu - The city's Qingyan Sports Center has become a relief camp. The young mom (red coat) received special assistance from the army to reach the camp with her 16 day-old baby. The baby was born in Yingxiu and lost her father in the earthquake when she was only 11 days old. There are many children living in the Qingyan camp who've not yet been reunited with their parents. Most are teenagers. Children in the primary schools and kindergartens more often did not survive as they were napping when the earthquake struck.



SHIFANG, SICHUAN
As many as 40,000 children are in need of shelter and care. Their schools and homes destroyed, high school-age survivors are trying desperately to study for their all-important school exams, which take place across China in early June. The government and national and international aid organizations are providing tents and basic necessities as much as possible.





CHENGDU CHILDREN'S WELFARE INSTITUTION
The surviving children are all well. They all sleep on the first floor of the children's building and, for their safety, are kept outside during their waking hours. Due to recent severe aftershocks, the Children's Welfare Institute is now preparing to move children to tents.




HANZHONG COUNTY SOCIAL WELFARE INSTITUTION, SHAANXI
Cracked walls and a crumbling foundation forced the children and caregivers of this small orphanage close to the Sichuan border to take shelter in tents. All are reported to be fine.



Today marks three-days of national mourning for the tens of thousands of people killed - may China begin to heal and rebuild.