The fastest adoption from absolute start to absolute finish, in history

I honestly can't imagine that there is an international adoption that's gone any fast than ours has.  It's seriously wild to think about.  Literally, from the second we found out we were adopting (sibling referral call) all the way to Certificate of Citizenship (the absolute last thing you should get) was just under 1 year.

3/12/09 - Our surprise, shocking call that our daughter had a baby brother born just under 6 months earlier.
3/16/09 - Made the decision to proceed after much praying and financial planning.
3/17/09 - Finally found out his name and basic information.
3/24/09 - Mailed application to US agency.
3/29/09 - First home study visit.
4/06/09 - Official referral received and saw his picture.
4/13/09 - Rushed and got our acceptance completed and sent to Korea.
4/15/09 - Legals arrived in the US.
4/17/09 - Filing for I600 (immigration petition and fingerprinting).
4/20/09 - I600 approved.
4/27/09 - Approval arrived at the National Visa Center in the US.
4/29/09 - Approval sent by NVC to Korean embassy in Seoul.
5/07/09 - Visa info packet sent from Korean embassy to Korean agency.
5/22/09 - Travel call!!!
5/23/09 - The girls and I left for Korea with Lois (my friend from work).
5/28/09 - Received Jaemin in Seoul.
5/29/09 - Arrived back in the US and became an family of 7.
6/2009 - First post placement visit.
8/2009 - Second post placement visit.
10/2009 - Third post placement visit.
12/22/2009 - Finalized adoption in US county court.
01/2010 - Applied for Certificate of Citizenship
02/19/2010 - Certificate of Citizenship approved.

The certificate is, as of right now, on it's way to our house!!!  We are completely and ever lovin' done with paperwork!!!!!!  Wahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lisa

Password Potential

Yes, I am still looking at password protecting the blog, which is why I moved it here. If I see that people reading are joining as "FOLLOWERS" and I can 'know' our audience, I may not password protect it. We'll have to see

So if you're reading, come out and introduce yourself; join as a follower on our webpage.

Lisa

New Home

This is our new home. In a bit, I plan to lock this and password protect so I can know who's checking us out. Just send me a message and I'll be happy to get you the password once I complete this. BTW, the title was thought of by Brian, so talk to him about it. :)

Give me a chance to work on this one a bit and get my links back in it, etc. I've got some clean up to do for sure.

Lisa

CMT ADDICTS!

This describes my two youngest.  At only 4 and 1, they LOVE CMT!  They are HUGE music lovers anyways, but it's funny how much they love CMT and how much they know what's coming on.  Chelsi, of course, can read the name of the song for the video coming up next.  Jaemin can here a chord of a song (for songs he likes) and he knows what's coming.  Right now, Chelsi is anything Taylor Swift (of course), Zac Brown Band, Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban and Darius Rucker.  While they are not her favorite singers, Chelsi AND Jaemin LOVE the Hillbilly Bone and the "dance song" as Chelsi calls it.
Jaemin heard just a couple of notes to Hillbilly Bone this morning and came running to the living room to watch the videos with his hands in the air to do the same motions as Trace Atkins.  My kids don't watch a lot of Dora and Jaemin could care less about Diego or Handy Manny.  He's a music man all the way.  At just under 18 months he tries to sing Hillbilly Bone...and yes you can actually understand him.  One of his first words...  :)

These two live for music.  Chelsi can hear an artist with a new song and if it's one of her faves she can tell you by their voice who is singing it.  She doesn't have a voice, but she has an ear for sure.  Jaemin could just dance 24/7.  He loves to dance and sing.  Nothing makes him happier.

These two have a lot in common!

The littles

Kae was being good (and quiet for once) downstairs, even after the littles woke from their nap.  The big boys were playing in the snow.  So J and Chelsi played with me.

Uh, no, you can't go out.



Girls play with trucks too.



This is what Chels thinks is the peace sign.  :)



Jae and Chels' cute little faces.

They're always throwing something new at me

....my kids that is.

I was home with the 3 older ones Monday.  I heard fighting in the rec room, so when I went to find out what was going on Cole tells me that Kaelin is arguing with him that the rules didn't apply to her because I didn't say so that day.  Where's the eye rolling emoticon when you need it?  I have told her at least twice in the past month that whether or not we remind her every day of the rules they indeed apply, every day!  I don't know why she tried that one....again.

Then, this morning I was trying to get my stuff together and J got ahold of my cell phone.  I saw him press a button, but he managed to get to my phonebook in it.  He called our friend Jay, but I hit end before he picked up.  I took away the phone and finished getting my lunch together when I saw him get into it again, but this time he dialed 911!  I hit end pretty quickly, but he's really strong and managed to get it out of my hand before I hit it too quickly.  Within seconds they called us back to find out what our emergency was.  Oh my!

I apologized for the 1 year old call and she said it happens often and asked for my name for the report.  About 20 minutes after we left the house Jay called to see what I needed.  Had Chase explain to him (since I was driving) that Jae had called him.

Learning Korean withJaemin

Jaemin decided to play with mommy's Korean translation stickers for her keyboard.    We even got the J right on the nose.