Dear God,

I know our son will come home in your perfect time and only you know exactly when that is, but please let that time be soon.  We're so ready for our son and we are praying hard that we get our call next week and can leave next weekend to hold him.

Please hear our prayer.

(Lois, thanks for lighting the candle.)

Lisa

Whine Whine Whine

Maybe I need a glass.  :0 )  Seriously...may soon.

I know we haven't been waiting long.  Not long at all in the world of waiting for a travel call for adoption, but now that everything's ready for Jaemin, I'm done and want him home.  It wouldn't be so bad if there were other travel calls going on, but there really aren't.  None that are close to ours to give us the idea ours might be coming soon.  Back in April when our I600 was approved the agency said Social Welfare Services (SWS) have been running about 3-5 weeks for travel.  This is week 4.  At this point, I don't even foresee next week getting a call.

Alright.  I give up!

Lisa

Happy Birthday Chase!!

Chase is 9 today.  He was my Mother's Day gift 9 years ago today.  I didn't give birth on Mother's Day, but we brought him home from the hospital that day.  He was pretty happy on his birthday.  I made him a breakfast casserole last Saturday.  He's been aching for that.  Then, last night I baked the cake and put green icing on like he wanted.  And luckily the store had strawberries on sale, so he got strawberry shakes for dinner plus strawberries with the ice cream and cake.

Happy birthday baby!
Mom

Happy Mother's Day

to all the mothers out there and to-be.

I'm getting to sit and finish a movie I started....."No Reservations".  Good movie.  Brian is out with the kids so I can finish in peace.   He's going to get the garage cleaned up and lawn mowed today.  That's my present, which is fine with me.  He got a card for the kids to give me.  It's the sweetest card.  Not what the card came printed with, but what was written in no so easy to read handwriting.  Chelsi signed her name, as did Kaelin.  Cole and Chase each wrote their own message.   Brian said he did not tell them a thing.  They had to just sign it and they wrote something.  Chase simply wrote for me to have a good Mother's Day.  He and I have almost always shared this weekend since I brought him home from the hospital on this day.  I love that about this day.  Cole wrote the sweetest thing any mother could read from her son.  He wrote "Mom thank you for being there when I need you and making things fun."

This is why having 5 kids doesn't scare me so much.  I know with a lot of hard work they might get it from time-to-time.  They might get just how much we love them.

Lisa

New Rooms Done!

Both rooms are done.  We still need some little things for Jaemin's room, but what's necessary to live is there.  The boys room is complete.  They've moved in and hung all their stuff back up.  KOREA, WE'RE READY FOR OUR BABY NOW!!!





Here's what I painted on the bulletin board attached to the mirror on the dresser.



And the big boys' room.

Another step down/P3

In the adoption world P3 means Packet 3.  It's a packet that gets sent from the embassy to the agency.  This packet contains what the agency needs to get a child's immigration visa.  So, now, everything is done on the US side.  There is nothing left.  Now we wait for the agency to get the visa and passport in order and he's ready.  Some people get a call two days after P3 and some wait up to 3 weeks.  It depends.  The agency can basically do what they want now.  If you're escorting and they don't have an escort lined up they don't need to be in a hurry to return it and schedule the visa interview.  If the passport isn't done yet they can't apply for the visa anyways.  Since we're not waiting on an escort, that will not be a problem.  We're probably waiting on passport though.  It's too early in the wait not to be.  So my guess, is we'll be somewhere in the middle to later end of the P3 wait to travel call.  I'm still hoping for the week of the 18th, but who knows.

Then, when we get the call we can leave anytime we want.  We must be at the agency on a Monday and cannot leave until at least Thursday that same week.  We hope to leave on a Saturday, but we'll see what fares are like and what day of the week the call comes.  No one knows.

Lisa

Finally, the girls have passports!

After a full month, they have their passports.  I've made copies and packed them in our bags.  Now, I can say we're READY!  No, the boys haven't moved into their new room, but should this weekend.  We did manage to get both rooms painted and Brian's busting his %$$ to get the trim and closets complete before carpet Friday.  It will be so awesome to go get the baby bed, move the boys into their new room and get Jaemin's really set up.  I can't wait!  Funny thing from the weekend too.  Brian and I were in the boys' new room painting when I hear voices and turn to see Chase and neighbor boy Hayden's faces plastered to the screen of the open window.  I keep painting and then I hear Chase tell Hayden that for a whole week the girls are allowed downstairs.  You should have heard the happiness in his voice.  :)  Pure evil.  :)  Truth is, we moved the boys AND all their furniture into the living room down.  It's so crowded now that we just don't want to worry about things getting worse, so for a few days they're staying upstairs to play, etc.  Not as bad as it sounds, but it sure makes the boys happy.

And, Korea?  Well, they can go ahead and send the Visa packet to SWS so we can get that travel call this month.
Hey a girl can hope!
Lisa