Inside out means perfect...

The Violet Ribbon Project/Experiment/Gift

2010-10-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

Please visit our new blog!!!
I'm super excited to start this project!!

Check it out & please participate :) :) :)

www.thevioletribbon.blogspot.com
Love,
Summer

Baby Name!!!! :)

2010-10-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

The pic is the hint :)

We're getting a baby girl!!! For sure. Our social worker let us know today :)

If you read my post from a day or two ago, you know that this information came at the right time for us. We were starting to feel very discouraged and sad. Everything is just so indefinite and up in the air.. nothing is certain. But to know for sure boy or girl! And to be able to give her a name.. it makes her real. Really real. We're going to have a baby! And she will be our daughter :) Awww.. I like those words.. a lot!!

Speaking of words...
Her name will be Violet.

Sweet and lovely and precious. Our little Violet :)

So thankful right now. God is so good indeed.. Thank you, Lord, for building our family.. even as I type this.. life is amazing, isn't it?

Dossier ON THE MOVE...

2010-10-12T20:34:00.000-07:00

Received an amazing email today from our social worker!

Our dossier is enroute to Ethiopia from DC!!

Pretty exciting, huh?? :) :) So they will soon know that we exist!
And we will hopefully have our referral by March!!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers :)

Nursery in progress :)

2010-10-10T13:29:00.000-07:00

Well I only thought that blogging was on hold!

Then I realized that I really want to share our baby's nursery as it is progressing along :) That's pretty harmless information, right?.. haha.
Although Stuart might disagree. He has been over my "should we do this or that?", "what do you think?", "do you like this.. are you sure?", "is this unisex enough?".. and on and on.
I'm actually enjoying the search for what I want and what I like but I think its getting on his nerves a little.
Shopping has never been his thing and looking at squirrels, monsters, and abc's isn't really opening up a new hobby for him!
For me, that's another story! :)

And speaking of "story" that's our quote unquote theme for the nursery.
"STORYBOOK" :)
We didn't really want to do a theme like a lot of nurseries but soon realized that we did need an actual idea for the decor, otherwise it will be a hodge-podge of various, random, albeit cute, crap.

SO we started with birds and cupcakes as the idea, then went to monsters.. yes! monsters!.. but cute ones, kinda Hanna Barbera silly/cute/friendly ones.
We came across a super-cute print and awesome bedding that would be perrrrfect!
Only problem was the cost of the bedding.. $270 for the set.. definitely not the most expensive we've found but still too pricey for us :(

HOWEVER at one online store, we did see another super-cute set of bedding from the exact same line BUT on sale! Woop woop!
It wasn't anything that would even remotely go with the "friendly monster" theme.. but it was still adorable and did I mention ON SALE? ;)

So once I was on that path, my etsy and other internet store searching and browsing continued... and continued..

Finally, we have a set "theme" and more importantly Stuart and I both like it AND equally importantly, it is gender-neutral, which means that we can proceed with it now!..
instead of waiting 5 or 6 more months (hopefully only that long!!) until we receive our referral and know whether its a boy or girl. SO we're very excited about this!

It makes us feel like we're actually doing this! I mean its one thing having an empty crib and shell of a nursery.. but having the personality and character and warmth of a real baby's room.. Awwww :)

So happy.. warm fuzzies.. which I needed, I'll be honest.

I know no less than 6 pregnant people right now and I'm so incredibly happy for them but seeing their bellies grow and hearing about their doctor visits and watching their lives visibly change in front of my eyes.. well, its hard to not feel a little self-pity for what we're missing.
Boo hoo, right?
I know its part of the process but this waiting is just so... removed. Its like something is happening but not really.. not like it is for them anyway.

Until we get that actual photo with a real face and we can give them a real name, its still like its a story or fantasy.. kind of ironic, I guess that we chose "storybook" for our nursery then.
Ha.. never put the two together, maybe my subconscious thinks we're nuts and still making stuff up! Oh well, won't it be surprised in a few months :)

SO that's the deal-io!

Now I'm going to attempt to post pics of the stuff! Haven't received it yet but as soon as we have it in and up, we'll post pics of that too!
So here goes....
......
......
......

Ack! I can't figure out how to post random pics from websites! I've done my own from our computer or camera or flickr pics before but this is difficult.. Hmmpft!
Any help??

Dossier, Direction, and Dreams

2010-10-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

Ok so I guess there's no need to mention my lack of blogging and all around absence of updates..
Why speak of the obvious, right? ;)

I honestly made a conscious decision to stop blogging during this time..

One of the many, many, many requirements and requests by the Ethiopian government in our dossier packet was to be extremely mindful of anything and everything that we post on blogs.
Apparently its not entirely unlikely for officials to check up on families.. not that I'm posting all sorts of inappropriate and rude things! lol. But things can be easily misinterpreted, especially when sarcasm is involved. And not that I'm a complete hooch, always posting photos of myself in revealing clothing but they told us to really be aware that clothing is very different there and they want to see that we are modest and respectful individuals. Like I said, interpretation is all in the eye of the beholder..

In the rules and requirements of blogging, the section also states that you must not mention fund raising of any sort (no JustLoveCoffee, no yard sales, no gifts, nothing) because they expect you to be able to afford the adoption costs on your own. They don't want people that will struggle financially to parent.. understandably..

It also states that you must not mention details or post any pics of your referral once you receive it.. really? What's the fun in that? :-P It will be difficult enough to contain my excitement but not being able to post anything except.. "we are very excited to be matched with our new baby (girl) (boy) and (she) (he) is beautiful." It doesn't quite sum it up, does it?

Lastly, you must be aware of all that you post because things can sound quite critical very easily.. they require that you not mention anything negative about the country of Ethiopia.
We cannot mention the poverty, the crime, the lack of resources, AIDS, the fact that they have 5 million orphans and that the previously mentioned reasons are precisely the reason why there are 5 million orphans.. and yet we should remember to only focus on the positive.
But you know, I totally get that, really.
Positive is good.

And from what we have read and learned, Ethiopia is an incredible country with a vibrant, spiritual culture and beautiful people with unfaltering joy and happiness that is both inspiring and humbling.
These are some of the many things that we are extremely eager to witness and participate in when we visit twice next year.

However we cannot simply deny the existence of those other facts.. The fact of the matter is that we would not be going there if there was not a need.
That need is not something that the country should be ashamed of or in denial about but that we should all be trying to find ways of helping to make a difference.

We are fully expecting our trips to change us, wholly and forever..
To be witness to the extreme poverty, lack of resources, AIDS, orphans, and yet the sheer joy and spirit of people that relish the beauty of life and love and family and community..
But at the same time, being fully aware of how blessed we are and how much we have here.. Knowing how much money and resources we spend and waste.. Knowing how blessed we are as individuals and as a country and yet how depressed and disappointed and medicated and angry and empty and searching and isolated and confused and lacking we all feel..
First of all, how is this even possible? Even in typing this, I am baffled by the fact that we are clearly missing something huuuuuuge here! For us to have seemingly everything and them to have what we see as nothing and yet the happiness factor is completely backward. They are missing something enormous but we are missing something enormous too.. If we could somehow learn from both... if that makes sense..

But once we witness the lack of physical blessings and yet the immense blessings of the heart there, how can we possibly remain unchanged?

Right now, God is doing something big in our lives and in our hearts.. I don't know why or even how this is all going to play out.. But I do know that Stuart and I are not simply bringing our child from Ethiopia to make them American. That I do know...
That would be entirely too easy and lazy and selfish.
Its precisely what WE would have picked for our lives! But not what God picked for our lives. And that makes all the difference, doesn't it?

Our prayer is that we will have an impact in Ethiopia once we leave and that we will be Christ's heart to them. We fully expect to experience them being Christ's heart to us as well.. And it will be amazing, I know it. This is life changing, crazy stuff.. I'm equally terrified, excited, and humbled..

I don't know if we'll find the answers we're seeking but I feel deeply in my heart that we are on our life's journey, in our purpose, in more ways than we even realize..

God has bigger dreams for each of our lives than we can possibly even imagine on our own. We are simple and present and immediate but God is eternal and infinite. How then can we question when He says, "Go"?

So anywho, loooooong story short. I'm paranoid about blogging something that could be misconstrued because its totally not worth it to us.

So right now, here's the latest in minimal detail :)....
Our dossier is complete and on its way to Washington DC for National Authentication. Hopefully that will only take a week (or less!!) and then it will be mailed to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! And once there, they will begin the process of authenticating and translating the documents and checking us out..
We are praying and believing that we will receive our referral in less than 5 months and that we'll be home with our little one by the end of next year! Please God!! :)

I will keep you posted on anything big but will probably not go into a lot of detail, please forgive me for that.
Bigger and better posts once we're legally parents!! :) Woop woop!

Until then, I'm on facebook if you want to have more contact, which I would love! :) Summer Moore, Nashville TN.

I love you all and will continue to read your blogs as you continue on your own paths!

Love,
Summer

We're officially on The Grid..

2010-07-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

We finally have our I-600A in the mail!!

For the past month, we've been waiting for a random document from a little, bitty town in Texas. It FINALLY came in the mail Saturday and this morning we Express Mailed our packet to USCIS.
Now we just wait to hear back from them with (hopefully!!) our approval (aka 171-H) and our "invitation" to be fingerprinted for the FBI. Niiice!
When Stuart heard that part he said- Well, I guess we are officially on the grid now :) ...I guess we are!

There are so many documents that we are still working on, trying to pull together all of the random jazz for our Dossier to Ethiopia..

Passports should be en route to us.
Went to the police station this morning to get our background checks and get that
notarized.
Waiting for my doctor's letter.. already have Stuart's.
Waiting for both of our employers' letters.
Waiting for our non-relative reference letters.
Already have our "Authenticated" birth and marriage certificates back from the Secretary of State of Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Have one bank statement.. supposed to wait til the last minute for the other one.
Have most of the photos we'll send of our house and us.. still need to take one of the nursery and the outside of the house since it looks so cute and happy with our summer flowers and stuff.
Still have a bazillion things to get notarized but that can wait til we have everything.. might as well only go once, right?

There are so many other documents that I'm certainly forgetting to mention at this moment but we do have progress and we're not there yet..
but we're closer than we've ever been before!
Thank you, God!!! :)

Passports, Paperwork, and Penny-Pinching

2010-07-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

The amount of loose paper in our house is at a ridiculously high level.. At this very moment, the desk, dining room table, coffee table, and guest bed are completely covered with stacks and piles of forms for our I-600A, our Ethiopia Dossier, US Passport applications, and just a ton of other random stuff from our adoption agency.
It seriously is getting a little crazy in here.. and if things don't start coming together soon, or at least looking like they're coming together, I may possibly have a minor freak-out.
The clutter is wee-bit claustrophobic, especially in our (cute but..) tiny house!
Although this could all be some really good practice for having a toddler someday?? :)

In other news, on Sunday we had an incredible evening with our local 'families of African adoption group'. It was absolutely amazing!!!!!
Stuart and I couldn't have imagined it being better.
The wonderful people there were super-nice and open about their lives and experiences. It was a blessing to get to know some of them.
And it was a big group.. I would guess 60+ people. Tons of kids, tons of parents, future parents, hopeful parents, and even some just interested in possibly becoming parents someday..
Hopefully we didn't scare anyone with our bazillion-questions! ;) We are looking forward to the next event!

And now to the "penny-pinching"/cheap-skate part of my post title...
so clearly this whole adoption thing is not for the faint of heart... or wallet ;) Thus, our quest to live on as little as possible for the next 12 months. We'll see how it goes!
First on the agenda: Cancel Cable TV ASAP!!
Stuart says he'll be fine but I am aware that this will be an adjustment... Let's just say that as I'm typing this, he's downstairs soaking in Spike TV and History Channel like they're oxygen.
Anywho.. trying to crunch the ol' budget down in many other ways too.
If anyone has any interesting or obvious money-saving tips, do tell!!
I'm discovering the greatness of coupons! ;) It is a whole world, isn't it?? The coupon-junkie weirdos! I love it. I aspire to be one of them!! haha.

So that's it.. Just all of that jazz. Oh and I'm also attempting to journal. It couldn't hurt in a time of so much emotional craziness and also it might be something nice for a child to read someday.. how exactly our adventure to meet them unfolded day to day. I don't know, when I put it that way, it sounds pretty boring and annoying ;)
I'll give it a shot though. But sheesh, between facebook status updates, blogging, journaling, saving money, and somehow finding time to work full-time, something is bound to suffer... (this is my way of saying- don't expect another blog for awhile ;) Sorry but I'm nothing if not honest!

Love to you all!!!!! I'm grateful for your continued interest in our lives and I keep up with yours as well.. even though I totally flake on commenting most of the time!

Home Study Home Visit Friday!!!

2010-06-10T19:44:00.000-07:00

Not much to write and yet so much to write..
What an amazing moment this is!

I'm so incredibly nervous and stressed, mostly about the stupid stuff right now.
Trying to clean everything in our entire house like its never been cleaned before, decorating like we might actually have some taste and style ;), bathing and grooming dogs, planting and landscaping, organizing.. Whirlwind nesting, I think! That or I'm losing my mind ;)

So tomorrow is the big day.. I cannot believe we've finally made it to this point. What a looooong time coming.. sheesh! But this means that we are officially headed somewhere! And maybe we might just get there... someday? haha. Really, our social worker told us that she would be very surprised if we were not HOME with our baby next summer!!!!!! Yes, you read that right! Woohoo! Can you imagine?!? I'm actually starting to.. I will post pics soon of the cute little finds I've recently purchased from Etsy..
oh! and we have a baby name picked!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Another topic for another day and another post, though...
For now, off to do a little last minute dusting!

PS Thank you, God, for this amazing moment in my life.. I cannot quite put into words how it feels to have something I've dreamed of, prayed for, weeped over for so long.. to actually be happening in front of my eyes. To actually be coming true, for me? Its surreal and beyond emotions at this point. I'm just grateful for this moment.. Please help me to enjoy this journey and to never take for granted the family that you are giving me.
*sigh*

lots and lots and lots...

2010-05-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

Lots of stuff going on right now.. Sorry for such a brief blog today but I'll do a longer post in the next couple days.
Parents visited this weekend.. helped immensely with house and yard stuff! Had a great visit, lots of fun and laughs and great meals :)
Had a car accident on Sunday.. no one hurt, thank God.. a car forced me into another lane, hitting another car.. it was a stupid thing but it could have been a lot worse.. still waiting to hear from insurance.

Annnnnd today (in 2 hours actually) is our first homestudy appointment!! We meet with our social worker at the agency office for a couples meeting. Then we schedule for individual meetings, lastly will be our meeting at our house. Soooo excited! Not much time to type.. gotta go get ready! But wanted to jot this down!! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers this morning! Thanks!!! :)
Love,
Summer and Stu

Token of Promise

2010-04-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

If you didn't already know this, my older sister, Dawanna, is an amaaaaazingly talented jewelry designer. (And she is also incredibly generous!)

Her company, Peaces of Indigo, has designed a special piece in honor of and as a fund-raiser for our adoption.

The necklace is called Token of Promise..

It is so named because of a book that I recently read.... the book mentioned that there are basically two different types of relationships in our lives, those which we have no control over and are based on genetics, such as with our biological parents, siblings, etc.
And those which we do have control over and choose for ourselves, such as in marriage and adoption. These are referred to as relationships of promise.

So in both relationships, neither genetics nor promises are stronger than the other.. they're just different.
Quite simply,
Love is love is love.

So anyway, back to the necklace!

Peaces of Indigo is donating a generous portion of each sale of the Token of Promise necklace to our adoption fund! :) :) :) :) :)

Not only is this a beautiful piece of artisan, handcrafted jewelery, but it is also a great way of possibly commemorating adoption in your own life, or in a loved one's life..
or perhaps just a way of enjoying a unique necklace for yourself and blessing someone else along the way!

Please check out Peaces of Indigo and the Token of Promise necklaces!!

Thank you!!!!!

Love,
Summer and Stuart

Ethiopia meets Nashville meets the Moores' :)

2010-04-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

Seriously... 2 posts in 2 days! *gasp!* ;)
Actually, I just wanted to do a little continuation blog from yesterday's minuscule posting ..
And to answer Annie's question and thank her and Christine for their awesome encouragement :)

We are adopting from Ethiopia! And we are absolutely thrilled about it!
Since making that decision in December, our lives have been continuously evolving and we are running to catch up! This world is becoming bigger and yet smaller every day..

For starters, all of the adoption agency paperwork is finally behind us instead of sitting in a mountain of "somedays" and "if onlys".. What a relief! Now we get through the internet certification this week and we'll be off!! That paperwork was a beast though, but what an encouragement to have our home study within the next month!! Of course after that, we'll have to compile the dreaded dossier (dum dum duuuuuum!) but you know what.. we'll get there when we get there. And right now, I'm just going to bask in the sunshine and happiness of no more paperwork for a while! Woop woop! ;) Sweet!

Other than that, we've been attempting to experience the plethora of Nashville's Ethiopian culture. We've been eating at the restaurants and even recently visited an Ethiopian Christian Orthodox Church. Let me tell you... that was an experience!

We walked up to the church at 7am (yes, apparently some people do go to church that crazy-early!) and immediately realized that we first needed to remove our shoes and leave them outside. So then, we continued barefoot into the building, which appeared to possibly be on fire, due to the wafts of incense smoke barreling out the door.
As a side note, if you live in Middle Tennessee, you may be able to sympathize with my immediate concern of an uncontrollable allergy attack. I admit, there was a little fear for a minute or two!
But instead of hacking and sneezing as I had anticipated, I only ended up having to squirt eye drops (like a complete stoner!) through the entire service. (Although, considering that we ended up at IHOP afterward... I suppose the red eyes were only fitting.. teehee)

Anywho, back to the service... so we scooted into the back pew, attempting to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible (yeah-right).
The church was in a small building with a large stone cross outside. The inside was divided into 2 sides. The women were on the right side, the men and any small children (boys or girls) were on the left. Being that we were total visitors and were clearly unaware of all the customs of this church, we remained on the men's side in the last pew... closest to the door. Not for an easy exit but rather, to try to slip in as quietly as possible. Even though we arrived at the supposed start time of 7am, the service had already begun. So we didn't really have an opportunity to chat or introduce ourselves prior to our conspicuous arrival.

The church "service" and I use that term not in the sense of the services I'm used to but just because that's the word I guess I'm supposed to use when referring to a church gathering.. but anyway, it wasn't really the typical stand and sing for a few minutes then sit and preach for a few minutes type of thing.
Oh, no, no no.... this was stand and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing.....
you get my drift..
And, it was absolutely one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

So there we were.. standing barefoot, with what grew to be maybe a hundred people, who were all singing/almost chanting in Amharic (Ethiopia's native language).. And this went on and on for an entire hour and continued for another hour, I'm sure. We di only stay for the first hour because we'd gone with a coworker of Stuart's (who happened to live in Ethiopia at one time) and his 15 y/o daughter. After an hour, his daughter was done.

Oh but the amazing details of the service.... the beautifully robed and crowned "priest" and "bishop" (I'm assuming those would be their "titles?"..) They stood, almost regal, in their white and gold embellished robes, continuously initiated the chanting that would then, move into and through the congregation.
The sound was extraordinary. Almost monk-like but with a Middle-Eastern tone and melody.
It wasn't the African sound I had expected.
I know that Ethiopia is actually right on the upper North-Eastern horn of Africa, near to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the Arabian Sea, but I guess what I was seeing and hearing didn't quite fit the mold of the typical "Africa" that we imagine as Americans. It was eye-opening, for sure.

Another amazing part was the little curtained "room" at the back of the where the priest and bishop stood.
It held what I later learned was a wooden box draped with crimson-red velvet. It represented their holy book and also the ark of the covenant, which they and many others believe to be hidden in Ethiopia to this day.
The religion and culture of Ethiopia and their ties to the ark of the covenant is definitely a different post for a different day.. but it is important to mention because during the service, another bishop or maybe a "deacon?" carried the velvet clothed box around the room, while another "deacon?" covered the box and themselves with a beautifully embellished umbrella.
It was a sight to see, like a grown-up parasol. Stuart said that he believed that it was to shield themselves from the holyness of God or maybe to protect the holyness of the box?
I need to check into that a little more....
But they brought to box up to each person, who kissed it and then touched their head to it and then repeated it twice. Even the little, bitty girls did it.. it was so cute and special to see such reverence in a small child.
When they came to us, I assumed that they would pass us by, but nope! They came right up to us and we each touched our heads to it. The gentleman then said the first and only English we heard the entire time, he smiled and said "God bless you." It was cool. Maybe it sounds simple and obvious but it was special somehow.

Before I forget, I wanted to also mention the white robes or coverings that the men and women wore. Almost everyone there had a white cloth wrapped around their body and the women had their heads covered with it as well.

(This pic is from flickr.com BoazImages)

But the image of that crowd of people in white robes and then the billows of incense smoke, topped off with the Amharic chanting reverberating through the building was indescribable.
I would never have believed that we were still in Nashville, Tennessee! It was surreal and beautiful.
It also gave me a respect and admiration for this new world that we are embracing as our family grows.

We understand that the Ethiopian culture cannot possibly be understood by simply sitting in on an hour long church service or eating at a restaurant..
But we are beginning to reach out within our community to the people that will be able and willing to show our child a piece of her culture that we will not be able to do ourselves. And that is turning out to be a growing experience for Stuart and I as well.

What an amazing adventure we are on.. We are so thankful for our eyes to be opened, for our hearts to be touched, and for our worlds to be expanded.
As God brings Africa into our lives, I fully expect life to never be the same for us and you know what?.... I'm absolutely ecstatic about it! ;) lol

This is the way life is meant to be lived, isn't it?

Next Sunday, we are excited to join a local Adoption Group for a little family fellowship! It will incredible to meet other people like us with families like ours will be :)
Their blog called 686 Fellowship and they are a group of Nashvillians who have or are in the process of adopting from Africa.. Did I mention that I'm sooo excited!?!

new news...

2010-04-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

its funny how as things have finally been progressing for us, i've been blogging less and less!
i guess maybe the reality that "someday" is actually happening right in front of my eyes... well, its a little overwhelming. and we are so excited and thankful for it! our social worker has been absolutely amazing. (we looooove lisa at bethany christian services in nashville!!)

so we are completely finished with all of our paperwork for our agency. our psych evaluations came through. (there was only a moment of doubt.. lol!) our drug and HIV tests came back negative... sweet! and our incredible references were completed and mailed..
seriously, a huge THANK YOU to stuart's mom, delores; my sister, dawanna; my boss, tami; and our fabulous friends... ivonne and brian, kim, and jeff!

and now we are signed up for our online NCFA training which is an 8-10 hour requirement with the national council for adoption. we are hoping to stab away at that over the next week or two. and then!.... we will finally be ready for our homestudy! woop woop! its about freaking time, eh? holy crap.. what a journey! ;) lol.
totally, 100% worth it, but still.... wow!

i will do better to keep everything posted once we get through the online course. because i think things are going to get a little exciting after that! it will be official!

thanks for continuing to check in... i realize that i totally suck at this blogging stuff ;)

mother teresa and paperwork

2010-02-21T16:28:00.000-08:00

I have found the paradox....
that if you love until it hurts,
there can be no more hurt,
only more love.

Mother Teresa



How incredible is that quote??
I heard it today at church and it touched my heart, deeply..
Maybe its because of us adopting.. But maybe its simply from being suddenly more aware
of the enormous number of children that live in sadness & hopelessness, believing that
they have been forgotten by the world.. wondering who will love them..
It breaks my heart..
But what can we do??....

As usual, I'm just trying to figure it all out! :)

Meanwhile, our paperwork fiasco is still progressing.
Stu is downstairs as I type this, chipping away
at his autobiography.
And I have my psychological evaluation tomorrow.. Yikes! ;) Its not really
the sort of test you can study for though. I mean, either I'm crazy or I'm not, right? ha.
So, anywho, keep me in your prayers tomorrow from 11-3. I have a one hour session,
followed by a 2 hour test.
Sounds grueling! For a good cause though :)

Coffee + Love = Adoption!! :)

2010-02-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

Coffee + Love = Adoption
That's the premise of our adoption fund-raiser..

An amazing friend a coworker has encouraged me to open an online store to help fund our adoption. So we did!!
www.justlovecoffee.com/StuartandSummer
Please visit it!!! :)

An amazing company called "Just Love Coffee" allows families to have online coffee stores to raise funds for their adoptions. The idea is.. Organic, Fair-Trade Coffees and helping orphans and their forever families. Incredible :)

Thanks so much for your help and support!!

and thanks again, Melissa :)

paperwork hysteria!

2010-02-13T17:33:00.000-08:00

our formal application has been submitted...
:) woohoo!!!!!

we're spending this weekend signing many, many, many papers, filling out forms, and writing our new autobiographies for Bethany... the questions are different than with HSC.. bummer!
anywho, that's our weekend...
putting that pen to paper! yeah, its kind of a pain in the *** but its for a really good cause!...
our baby :)
yay!

the scoop??

2010-02-03T09:34:00.000-08:00

tomorrow is our next meeting with the adoption agency!
we are set to discuss the official-filling-out-of-the-formal-application (sounds like a big build-up for a lot of paper signing ;) but its an enormous decision to do it because that means we are in route to our homestudy and in contract (financially and emotionally) to this agency. but we have done a lot of praying through this and believe that bethany is the agency for us :)

and so, the next part (also to be discussed tomorrow) is the homestudy process... i've read a lot of books and blogs and i feel like i have a good idea of what the "homestudy" entails but still... i'm scared! ;)

any advice from those of you that have been there?? pleeeeeeease!!!

snow!!

2010-01-31T08:55:00.000-08:00

what-what??

2010-01-28T19:35:00.000-08:00

Holy moley!! Could we actually be moving forward?!?!?!?

Yes, it appears to be so....

woop woop!! :)

We had our official "Informal Meeting" on Monday with Bethany (aka Adoption Agency).

All went amazingly well. I didn't spazz out or embarrass myself once, although I did tear up at one point but that's because I'm just too darn emotional when it comes to all of this baby jazz! :)

Stuart and I have been around the world and back again with our hearts leading the way, trying to find the country our baby is pulling us to.. Honestly, we still don't know where God is taking us but we have the utmost Faith that He knows better than us. And He will bring our family together, if we have to travel to the ends of the earth to find them..

Our hearts are pulling us in one specific direction, one that is so different than where we started but that's part of the adventure, I suppose! You never know where life will take you.

For us, we started in China and who knows?... maybe China still, only God knows, right?.. then we were led to Korea and now after all of this time and energy and love that we've developed for that country... well now our hearts have moved us toward Africa, specifically Ethiopia.

I know... what??!?

Honestly, I don't know where this came from any more than you. We do support a little girl in an S.O.S. Children's Village in Zambia. But other than that, we have no ties to Africa... and yet, how immense is the love that we suddenly and overwhelmingly have for a place we never dreamed of even traveling to.. Its crazy and unplanned, and yet unexpectedly perfect.

We don't know if Ethiopia is where our baby will be born but in this journey of building our family, as we've set out on a somewhat selfish endeavor.. well, our lives have forever changed.. truly. The world has suddenly become so much bigger and yet so much smaller..

I believe, wholeheartedly, that there is a reason and a purpose for everything.

Stuart and I have always thought that this adventure was simply a quest for our baby... now it seems as though God has additional plans for our family. Whatever that may be, I don't know. The research that I've done on the different countries we've been led to for adoption has opened a world of need and questions that I simply cannot forget about once we have our baby in our arms.. We will have that moment but then what?... Everything that we've learned and the deep places of my heart that have been touched cannot have only been for us. There just has to be something more...

What is that scripture??

"...once our eyes are opened,

we can't pretend we don't know what to do.

God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls,

knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act."
(Proverbs 24:12)

And I guess, we will do our best.. wherever that leads..

As we stand right now, we are meeting with Bethany again next Thursday, the 4th. This meeting is really to prep us for the formal application process and the homestudy-extravaganza.. haha. After Thursday, I guess we'll officially have the ball rolling!

We'll keep you posted on any happenings as they occur!!

Thanks so much for checking in and for still caring! ;) lol

cute finds from etsy!!

2010-01-18T19:58:00.000-08:00

so this will be the new wall art in our bathroom... cute, huh??
i found this awesome artist called matte art... click on http://www.etsy.com/shop/matteart
to see all of his super cool stuff! i loooove it. everything is so sort of retro and quirky, its perfect!

anywho, that's about it from here.... not really doing much else except waiting and wishing and hoping and praying ;) oh, and playing on the internet, clearly!
another cool find is this:

kinda neat to have a "waiting" announcement to explain and celebrate your process.. this one is by j queenan and she has lots of artwork as well. her site is @ http://www.etsy.com/shop/jqueenan

Still waiting for our big day next Monday... our official meet and greet with the new agency! Happy thoughts and prayers, pleeeeeeease!! :)

blogger! boo!!!!!!

2010-01-13T09:56:00.001-08:00

so clearly i have been a complete slacker in the blogging department... sorry :(
i've not really had much to say on the adoption front, so i haven't really been babbling on nonsensically as usual.
i do plan to continue with my typical rants and craziness after we have our formal meeting in a week and a half with the bethany christian services adoption agency.
our appointment is on monday, the 25th. if you could please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that day, that would be awesome!!! :)

but just because i haven't been posting lately, doesn't mean that i haven't been checking on all of my fellow bloggers' progress and updates!!
which leads me to the problem i am having...
for some reason, "blogger" has deleted all of the blogs that i was following!!!!!! so now i have no way of checking on any of you and keeping in touch! boo.
if you would please send me your web address, that would be awesome. i know some of you are in the crucial times of your journey and i am devastated that i might miss some of it!!

love,
summer

**literally 2 seconds after posting this, all of my "followed blogs" popped back up on my dashboard...
so i have no idea what happened but since its been so long since i've posted, i'm leaving the post as is!! its better than nothing, right?!
yeah, probably not but its all i have time for today. sorry!! :)

you only have one life...

2009-12-20T21:30:00.000-08:00

Our trip :)

2009-11-05T19:13:00.000-08:00

So... we're back!
And we had a fabulous time!! :)
I finally downloaded our photos and here they are..
New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and Boston... well, what we saw of them anyway.

Our reflection on the sand.. Wells Beach, Maine.

Looking very excited to be at the beach, even with sweaters and vests on!

Wells Beach, Maine.

Lighthouse near Kittery Point, Maine.

Amazing fall foliage within walking distance of our resort on Mt Sunapee..
Lake Sunapee, NH.

Had to see a historical thing or two in Boston... Quincy Market.

Historic cemetery.. part of Boston Freedom Trail.

Quechee, Vermont.

Stuart drooling over a pretty cool (expensive) car in Portsmouth, NH.

The most beautiful tree I have ever seen, outside Strawberry Banke Museum...
Portsmouth, NH.

Hampton Beach, NH.

A quick pose on the beach :)

Nice pile of lobster buoys we saw piled inside of a random boat.

Another beautiful view of the beach.. I think this one is Rye Beach, NH.

There are many, many more pics.
We'll post a few more in a later post. Hopefully you enjoy seeing them!

Favorite purchase from our trip!!! the new Beirut cd :) enjoy!

2009-11-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

****Pause the Mixpod music on the bottom of our page to enjoy the video.

More pics and trip/life details to come when I get a chance to be online for more than 2 minutes!

Note to self.....

2009-10-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

"I tell you the truth,

if you have faith as small as a mustard seed,

you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,'

and it will move.

Nothing will be impossible for you”

(Matthew 17:20).

non-blogging blog

2009-10-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

To the three of you that are still checking our blog..... ;)

Sorry for this lame and completely un-updated "blog"...
And I use that term very loosely since the actual purpose of a "blog" is to post things on a somewhat regular basis so that people can, oh.. I don't know.. read your written thoughts!
Of course, that's assuming that I have any! ;)
Ha.

Truthfully, my problem has never been NOT having thoughts.. its actually the opposite.
I have to physically and consciously slow my brain down and stop long enough to sit at the computer and gather a cohesive stream that's worthy of recording into a posting.
And that's my other problem...
I think that I put waaaaay too much relevance on this blogging thing. Like what I say has to be of some enormous amount of importance or something?
I mean, "worthy of recording into a posting"... did I just write that?.... Twice?

I spend way too much time in my head (if that makes sense?). I need to just relax and get over myself. Taking life way too seriously is my biggest fault.
I have issues with living in the moment and being present. I'm working on it though!
Hey, I'm typing something right now!

I'm actually blogging on my "blog"??? Holy crap, what a concept!

So anywho..

What have we been up to?

Well, we decided after the long-awaited mailing of our adoption application to the smaller, local agency in Murfreesboro, that we may have made a mistake.

We were soo freaking excited, thrilled actually, to finally be mailing that packet in!
And then, we waited, and waited, and waited... Finally after over 2 weeks of waiting, I called and called and called... and apparently no one ever answers the phone there??
So we started having second thoughts about that agency.
I mean, if we are already having communication problems and difficulty in their returning phone calls, and this is at the beginning? Well, it doesn't look good for the remainder of our relationship and we still have a very very long way to go.

We didn't make any hasty decisions though. I called a national agency that had also sent us a paperwork packet and info several months ago. They had continued to send us emails since then as well, which is kind of cool to be updated on the goings-on at the agency and all of that jazz. Its important!
So after a very long chat with two super-nice ladies at the other agency, we made the decision to fill out their preliminary application online and see what happens!

The VERY next day, we received an email from the local (first) agency's case worker director regarding moving forward with our process... the only problem besides it taking nearly 3 weeks to contact us, is that the person assigned to us only works 1 1/2 days per week.
Don't get me wrong! That's a pretty sweet schedule for her. But not so good for us.
A lot of adoption stuff is time-sensitive and 1 1/2 days a week is not going to be enough, especially since I'm certain that we wouldn't be her only case.

So needless to say, we have decided to pursue the second agency, "Bethany Christian Services". And so far, so good.
They have kept us very informed and updated. All of the people I've spoken to have been amazingly informative. And they put me at ease. It just feels right.

Maybe I sound like a total nut to you, overreacting about the 3 weeks and the 1 1/2 days...
But this is a very strange process to begin with!
I mean, the whole thing is very.... "removed"?
I'm not sure if that's the proper word for what I'm trying to say but you just feel like you're 'on the outside looking in' through this. At least that's how I feel.

And like you're completely at someone else's mercy.
The agency has the ability to approve or deny you.
Another country can approve or deny you.
Birth parents can approve or deny you.
Your entire life (history, finances, careers, health, past health, childhood, friends, family, potential-future-parenting-style...) will either work for or against you.

Maybe its just because we're in that "approval" phase right now. But I'm really feeling like I'm under the microscope. And I'm filled with self-doubt.. Like maybe I'm not good enough, or we're not enough somehow as a couple?
Its all very emotional and psychological.
Someone else is deciding if your life is worthy of a child...
deciding if you can have a family or not..
and that's tough.
Really really tough.

I accept it 100%. I mean, what else can I do... its how this process works. But its still very difficult for me.
Stuart is great through all of this. He believes that everything will be great and we're on our way! Nothing can stop us! Faith, Summer, Faith!
I know. I know!
I'm still trying to keep my focus and I do have Faith. But I can't stop that knot in my throat from forming as I sit here thinking (all in my head again... dammit!) about the "what-if's"...

So the point of all of this ranting is that we are still around. Just not blogging as much anymore because I feel like we don't have much to say.
Its hard to be inspired to post on your "adoption blog" when you have no news and you're worried that someone at the adoption agency is going to stamp"Denied" on your packet any second, and then what?

(In case you're wondering, I do realized what a complete spazz I am being. And that most likely all of this will work out fine but I am naturally a worry-wart and all-around doubter of everything.. )
And I'm also just getting over being sick, so my cynicism and self-pity monitor go through the roof when I don't feel good and I've been at home too long.... thinking about my life and its direction.. Too much self-analysis and reflection. Pooey.

But other than that, things are just peachy! ;)
ha!

Really, I am not a depressed, suicidal nutcase, I swear! This is why I don't blog very often.. my dark humor and cynical views sound much less charming written down.. ;)

My next blog will be joyful, positive and full of daffodil-like delighfulness, I promise! Bunnies and violets, you'll see!

Okay, I just reread my posting to proofread, (I'm ridiculous, I know..) but seriously, just so you know, I'm a very happy person.. No, really!
;)

Maybe I shouldn't blog anymore because this one is pretty bad.. Sorry, to the 3 of you!

Ok, kids. Time for another random Korean language lesson.

2009-09-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

안녕하세요
hello

나는 당신을 사랑합니다
I love you

화장실이 어디 있어요
Where is the bathroom?

어떻게 지내세요
How are you?

내가 잠들기 오전
I am falling asleep

안녕히 가세요
goodbye

난 네가 좋은 밤시길 바래요
I hope you have a good night

이름이 무엇입니까
What is your name?

뭘 잘못이다 그래 내가 아내를 원하는 폴란드어
What is wrong with you? Yes I want a Polish wife

이걸 다 이해합니다
Are you understanding all of this?

어디 카르멘 샌디에고입니다
Where is Carmen San Diego?

행복한 일주일
Have a happy week

혹시 종이 타올 있어요
Do you have any paper towels?

난 그녀가 나한테주는 우유와 치즈를위한 나의 사랑 암소
I love my cow for she gives me milk and cheese
:)

안녕, 내 이상한 친구
Hello my weird friend

삶이 좋아
Life is good

Korean Adoption in the Headlines

2009-09-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

KATHERINE HEIGL AND JOSH KELLEY ADOPT BABY

Beverly Hills, CA; September 17, 2009…

Katherine Heigl (Grey's Anatomy) and Josh Kelley (singer) have adopted a 10 month old, special needs baby girl from Korea.

Katherine and Josh have named their daughter Nancy Leigh and she will go by the nickname Naleigh. She is named after Katherine’s mother Nancy and Katherine's sister Margaret Leigh. . Heigl's sister, Meg, was adopted from Korea.

Katherine, Josh and Naleigh are together and doing well

"We started talking about adoption even before we were engaged because it's really important to me," Heigl said. "It's been a big part of my life and my family. My sister is Korean and my parents adopted her back in the '70s
and so I just always knew that this is something I wanted to do."

What a sweet family!

I hope and pray that publicity like this will cause other families to open their hearts and their lives to adoption...

beautiful

2009-09-15T21:16:00.000-07:00

i found this gorgeous pic on flickr by LadyExpat
"rural korea springtime"

flickr...... by Derekwin

Kyeongbokgung guard Seoul South Korea

from flickr by Derekwin

lantern festival, seoul, south korea

flickr... by kwang-chual
korean maisan landscape

Wild elephants in Seoul!! ;)

2009-09-15T21:03:00.000-07:00

The Korea Times

Pair of Elephants Investigated for Throwing Rocks at Woman

Gwangjin Police Station in eastern Seoul began an investigation Tuesday into a report from a 48-year-old woman, identified as a Kim, alleging she sustained a head injury after being hit by a rock thrown by an elephant.

According to police officers, Kim went to the zoo in the Children’s Grand Park Monday afternoon and was hit by a rock she claimed an elephant threw at her using its trunk.

However, she admitted that she didn’t see the rock being thrown by the elephant.

“I was passing the lion’s den and heading toward the elephant enclosure,” she was quoted as saying. “Then, I passed out after being hit on the back of my head.”

When she came to, she found two rocks the size of an adult’s fist nearby. All she remembered was that two elephants had coiled their trunks and stared at her.

Police said that Kim went to the zoo office and reported it before going home, believing her pain would go away. When the pain came back, she checked into a hospital and reported the incident to the police.

She blamed the park office for the elephants’ behavior but police didn’t say whether she was seeking damages.

Police were at a loss what to do at first but decided to investigate whether her account was true.

“This is the first case I have heard of an elephant throwing a rock at a person and injuring him or her,” said a veteran detective assigned to the case.

Police have secured a surveillance video from near the elephant enclosure.

foolsdie@koreatimes.co.kr

looking forward to autumn.

2009-09-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

found a few pics on flickr of the areas we will be visiting next month....
new hampshire, vermont, and maine.

good, lord!
i feel like a 90 year old woman.... excited to see trees change color. ;)
but it is going to be amazing, i know it!

lake sunapee, new hampshire... by brentdanley

woodstock, vermont.... by Stefan Mendelsohn

Quechee Gorge, Vermont... by NearDC

Vermont Covered Bridge... by Art-

Nubble lighthouse, York, Maine... by joep373526

Kennebunkport, Maine... by msummerchick(Deja-Vu photography)
ok... so most likely there will not be snow on the ground in maine but i loved this pic anyway!

we cannot wait for our little getaway!
thanks again to my sister, dawanna, for letting us use her timeshare! :)

best anniversary EVER!!

2009-09-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

yesterday, 9-9-09, was our 9 year wedding anniversary!
and it was awesome! start to finish!

since wednesdays are a shorter day for me at work, i decided -what the heck- i'm staying home! and stuart did too.
woohoo!

so we got to sleep in, which i LOVE-LOVE-LOVE!
there is probably something seriously wrong with the amount of sleep i need/want/LOVE.
most mornings, i wake up and my first thought is "boo!" because i don't want to get up from my soft, comfy organic cotton sheets (they were on sale) and the super-duper cushyness of my plush, pillowtop mattress :)
ahhhh..
now that's happiness!

and although i have such a difficult time pulling my lazy butt out of bed in the mornings, at night, i always find myself trying to squeeze out every last second of awake-time, practically fighting sleep like a freaking 2 year old. i have to write just one more email, read one more page in my book, write one more blog...
it makes no sense at all but i do it every single day..

my friend, veronica, from texas, once told me that the definition of insanity is doing something over and over, expecting a different result each time...
hmmmm... that's not very comforting at all.
stupid, veronica. ;)
just kidding!!...
maybe.

anyway, back to the anniversary!
we started our day (post sleeping in) by FINALLY notarizing and sending in our big, fat, 10 pages of autobiography-stuffed application to our adoption agency!!!!
YAY!!
it was awesome.. an absolutely amazing feeling to finally be on our way!
our hearts are overjoyed and flooded with emotion and gratitude.... what a blessing!
what a perfect anniversary gift! something we've waited for, saved for, prayed for, believed for... finally after so many years... wow.
and on our anniversary, it somehow made it even more special.

speaking of...
we were thinking about the significance of the date and everything.
9-9-09 and our 9th anniversary... kinda cool and a little bizarre.
so i went online and tried to find the meaning of that particular number. (my dad is usually really good at that type of thing)

besides all of the completely uninteresting mathematical facts that popped up, there were a few very cool little tidbits about the number 9......

biblically speaking, apparently the number 9 is a very rarely used number, mainly used when describing or referring to something that is almost complete or almost perfect.
so how fitting and special is it that we sent off our application on that day....
awwwww.... precious :)

seriously, that's pretty cool.. you have to admit.

and what else...
oh! we went to our new FAVORITE restaurant in nashville and the only one with edible mexican food, cantina laredo.
so yummy! the frozen margaritas with sangria swirled in are super-delish! and the fire-roasted salsa is amazingly nostalgic for us and the food..... mmmmmmm.
we really really really miss texas!

after gorging ourselves in spicy, cheesy decadence, we went to see the musical, wicked, which i have been looking forward to for months.
and it was fabulous!
i loved it and stuart actually enjoyed it too. really! he did!
the music was incredible.
the only downside at all was the length.. it was 3 hours, which is pretty long. i didn't mind but stuart said his butt was hurting after the first 2 hours. his constant shifting in the last half of the performance was a little pitiful. poor guy... the things we do for love, huh? ;)

so all in all, it was a great day...
eventful, entertaining, and life-changing, all rolled into one big fat package.

now as far as the adoption stuff, we're just waiting to hear back from them.. i think the next step is either more paperwork or the homestudy...
but we'll keep you posted on whatever happens next!

as always, thanks for caring! :)

now i'm off to my cushy, comfy bed!
nighty-night!

sorry.. new to this..

2009-09-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

to whomever was offended that i posted baby pics in one of my blogs several months ago, i sincerely apologize.

i certainly never meant any harm in doing so.

my family and friends are in this process with us (they're my only readers) and it is a blessing and an encouragement to all of us to see the many families currently being united through adoption. it was never my intention to cause anyone distress.

so i have deleted the "offensive" posting.

i'm new at this.... blogging, adopting, sharing... this is all completely new to us, we're still getting our bearings and that was really the only point in blogging about this whole experience to begin with... to somehow try to figure out our lives in the process .

anyway. who knew?

eh, you live and learn.

Secret discount airfare for those adopting overseas!!

2009-09-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

CHICAGO SUN TIMES

It's been drilled into our heads that the best way to get a cheap airline ticket is to buy it well in advance of your travel date.

But parents adopting children from overseas often have no idea when that date might be. And once their adoption agency gives them the go-ahead to bring home their child, they typically have only a matter of days to make all the arrangements.

Irina and Andy Prutch of Yorkville traveled to Russia last year to adopt their daughter, Anastasia. They were surprised that a one-way ticket for Anastasia would cost more than a round-trip.
(Keith Hale/Sun-Times)

TIPS:
• If you're adopting an infant, ask your travel agent or the airline reservation clerk to seat you in the bulkhead section with a bassinet (provided on a first-come, first-serve basis at no additional cost). Bassinets will hold infants up to 20 pounds and 26 inches. Also, ask if they offer baby meals on the flight. Some airlines will provide jars of baby food.
• Don't forget about buying your child's one-way ticket. Infants under the age of 2 years will need a lap ticket (generally about 10 percent of an adult fare) to sit on parents' laps. Older children will need their own seats and will be charged the same fare as adults.

Rather than get stuck paying a premium for last-minute tickets, parents can benefit from adoption airfare discounts. For example, Northwest Airlines "Special Delivery" program has benefits that include 65 percent off the price of full-fare coach tickets, open returns and no penalties for cancellations or changes. (Parents must show proof of U.S. residency and provide legal documentation of the adoption.) Details at Nwa.com/features/adopt.

Some 17,438 overseas adoptions by U.S. parents took place this fiscal year, according to U.S. State Department statistics.

Not all airlines are eager to publicize news about these special adoption fares. The media relations spokespeople for other major airlines either ignored our queries about discounted air fares for adoptive families or point blank said they didn't offer any. However, when we called the reservation lines for Delta, United and Cathay Pacific and questioned the customer service reps, they all said they offer discounted fares.

"Airlines are very secretive about specialty air fares," says Ed Perkins, contributing editor for Smartertravel.com. "They don't advertise them and they're just not going to tell you about them unless you specifically ask. So ask."

Perkins cautioned that consumers need to know the ramifications of their discounted tickets if they can't leave or return on the dates they booked. For instance, will the airline charge a premium to change a ticket if your child is too sick to fly on the date you've planned or if bureaucratic red tape is holding up your departure?

"Given how complex some of the airline policies can be, the best bet in some of these situations is to pay a travel agent to handle this for you," Perkins said. "He or she will have access to consolidator deals and will know which airline is offering the best fare. This is one case where it makes sense to pay someone to deal with the hassles for you."

Portland, Ore.,'s Azumano Travel American Express has been in business for 60 years working with corporate and leisure clients. For the past 15 years, they've also become one of the go-to travel agencies for adoptive parents booking flights overseas. Azumano has adoption fare contracts with a number of airlines, including Cathay Pacific, United, Delta and Northwest.

"A lot of our parents do their research and already have a general idea of what these flights should cost with a few weeks notice," says Erle D'Penha, an Azumano travel consultant. "They could probably do it themselves, but what they're paying us for is our knowledge, relationships and ability to get them seats when the online sites say they're all booked. Sometimes people will look online and won't see options to leave from the cities they want to, but we'll be able to find other hubs. The travel Web sites won't always look for all of those flights. We can help find more options."

Indeed, we gave Azumano dates for a hypothetical trip to Seoul, South Korea. We came up with a $3,000 economy fare with two days advance notice. Azumano came up with a nonstop flight on the same carrier for less than half that price.

Not all carriers offer discounted fares, but there are other ways to get around paying full price. Check to see if you have enough airline miles to use toward a ticket. When Yorkville's Andy and Irina Prutch traveled to Russia last year to bring home their adopted daughter, they were surprised to find that a one-way ticket for their child would cost more than a round-trip ticket. But they weren't allowed to purchase a round-trip ticket for her.

"It would've cost us almost $3,000 for a one-way ticket for our daughter," says Andy Prutch. "We ended up using my miles on American Airlines for her seat. My company's travel agent didn't charge us any fees, so we only paid $52.70 for her total airfare. It was definitely the way to go for us."

Also, it never hurts to be nice to the reservation clerks.

While Shannon Mogilinski of St. Charles didn't get any discounts, she did get an upgrade.

"When my husband and I traveled to Russia to adopt our daughter in 2003, we mentioned to the reservations clerk at British Airways that we were adopting a child and that we were carrying humanitarian aid to several orphanages," Mogilinski said. "She gave us a complimentary upgrade to business class. If we hadn't said anything, we would've been sitting in coach."

Jae-Ha Kim is a Chicago based free-lance writer.

Chicago Sun Times article......

special needs?? is anyone out there??

2009-09-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

so, we're sending off our application this week...
Drumroll, please ;)

and now all of our research is coming to good use, hopefully.

but our main problem right now is finding other families (in TN or elsewhere) that have adopted or are adopting from Korea since they made policy changes in their adoption program in '06, basically allowing only a handful of US states to adopt "healthy" infants from Korea..

TN residents, by not being one of those few states, are only allowed to adopt infants with minor, moderate, or severe special needs.
most other states are in the same situation but we're having difficulty finding people who have adopted children from Korea with minor or moderate special needs...

we totally understand and respect the privacy of families and their children! but we're searching blogs and websites endlessly for information and help... the only people that we've found have been from those states that adopt "healthy" Korean children or those that have adopted severe special needs.

so with our own Korean adoption being minor/correctable special needs, we're just wondering if there is anyone else out there?????
this is a new frontier for us!
parenthood, adoption, and special needs, oh my! :)

so share with us if you can, pleeeeeease!!!!!

thanks!

Learning random Korean.. Lesson 8

2009-09-06T08:22:00.001-07:00

Endless Summer in Korea??

2009-09-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

Winterless Korea Becoming Reality

By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter

The advancement of global warming may result in a "subtropical" Korean Peninsula, making the country winterless by the end of the century and more susceptible to super hurricanes.

A state weather agency projected Sunday that "most of South Korea may be categorized as a subtropical region, with partial exceptions in some of the inland mountainous areas between 2071 and 2100."

"This would mean that most of our major cities, including Seoul, Suwon, Daejeon, Gwangju, Daegu and Ulsan, will no longer be subject to sub-zero temperatures by the end of the 21st century," said Park Gwan-young, head of the Climate Change Information Center (CCIC).

Park is to present the findings at an environment forum in South Chungcheong Province on Sept. 8, organized by the Korea Meteorological Administration.

Park based his research on Korea's temperature changes from 1971 to 2000. It reveals that some parts of the southern Jeolla region from Mopo to the eastern metropolis of Busan are already showing subtropical tendencies.

The CCIC also projected that Korea will continue to see extended summers and shorter winters.

"Since the 1990s, our winters have become shorter by one month compared to the 1920s. But our summers are longer by 20 days and spring blossoms are occurring earlier," Park said.

By the end of the century, the Korean Peninsula will have experienced more scorching summers, but less severe winters. The northern part of the peninsula will have a greater increase in precipitation than the southern region, the CCIC official added.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently estimated that the world's average temperature will increase by 6.4 degrees Celsius by 2090, lifting sea levels by 59 centimeters.

Also expected from an advancement of tropical weather are the frequent super hurricanes, equaling the devastating 2005 Katrina that claimed more than 1,600 lives in New Orleans.

Such possibilities are based on an increase of 2 to 4 degrees Celsius in ocean temperatures witnessed around Korean shores in the last few decades.

"The deciding factor in the magnitude of a hurricane is ocean temperature. As such, the frequency of super hurricanes on the peninsula is likely to increase," Park added.

Recently, a state-run research center said that the pace of climate change has been faster here than the rest of the world over the last decade.

"The density of carbon dioxide and other major greenhouse gases was higher here than elsewhere between 1999 and 2008" the Korea Global Atmosphere Watch Center (KGAWC) said.

"Rising greenhouse gases emitted at industrial complexes here and on the east coast of China are the main factors behind the increase," a KGAWC official said. "The situation is likely to worsen as more greenhouse gases could be generated not only internally but, from neighboring countries."

jhdo@koreatimes.co.kr

warm fuzzies :)

2009-09-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

There was a man who was walking along a sandy beach where thousands of starfish had been washed up on the shore.

As he looked down the beach he noticed a boy picking up the starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean.

He got closer and called out "Good morning! What are you doing?"

The boy paused, looked up and replied, "Throwing starfish in the ocean. If I don't throw them back in they will die."

The man said, "Don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it? You can't possibly make a difference."

The boy listened politely. Then he bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves.

He looked at the man and said, "It made a difference for that one."

And that is "why"...

Those warm fuzzies aren't so bad either.

a bunch of hooey

2009-08-26T20:22:00.000-07:00

nothing new here on the adoption front. but what else is new?

just hanging out here in big ol' TN, trying to figure out what the crap we're going to do with our new back yard... we're being super- ambitious! wanting to make it an amazing swirl of functional yet peaceful oasis-ness with kid-friendly, botanical wonderland juicyness. sounds good, huh? and yet (as you can imagine) we're having just a smidge of difficulty attempting to meld those things together. shocking, i know! maybe we should just send a pic and a letter to one of those hgtv shows instead! ;) actually, maybe we will! hmmmm, not a bad idea.

i'll post a pic soon of our ground zero back yard oasis... its truly as wonderful as it sounds. ;)

adoption-wise: we're about two days from being ready to send our application into the agency! hurray! stu is downstairs as i type this, finishing up his autobiography. i swear, it really should not be that difficult to write your own story! sheesh! but i am, after all, married to one of the world's biggest procrastinators. so this is all to be expected at this point.

speaking of... we're celebrating our 9 yr wedding anniversary in 2 wks! can't believe it! goes by so fast, really.. its totally cliche to say that but its so true. i'm waaaay to young to be saying crap like that though! i take it all back, every word!

ugh, we're way to young to be this old. :) 9 years! woohoo!

obviously i've been in a non-blogging mood lately since we don't really have a whole lot going on in our lives.. that's never actually stopped me before though!

so, at least this is a start.. i'm back in it!

and this blog is probably just as boring as my usual but at least you know we're still alive ;)

He's still punk-rock on the inside...

2009-08-06T20:03:00.000-07:00

Remember punk-rock baby, Gabe??

Well, a new pic has recently arrived from S Korea and what a difference a few months makes!!! Soooooo cute!!!!!
I foresee some serious cheek-pinching in his future :)

Learning Random Korean.. Lesson 7 aka What happens when a TX pig marries an OK sheep?

2009-08-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

I don't know if that's the beginning of a weird joke or a lame nursery rhyme... But either way, I've always found all of this Chinese Zodiac crap kind of entertaining.
A large percentage is probably because its a lot nicer to be called something nice... like a "Sheep" or a "ram" rather than a "Cancer" or a "crab"!
I mean, really. No one likes to be labeled crabby! Especially if it hits a little too close to home...

So Stu's a pig (teehee).. he probably likes "Scorpio" better but oh well! Its Yin and Yang, right? All about balance! :)

And most likely, our baby will be born sometime next year, which would make them a Tiger. We did some research and the main characteristics of Tiger are.....

"Bravery, competitiveness and unpredictability. Tigers love to be challenged and will accept any challenge if it means protecting a loved one or protecting their honor. They don’t worry about the outcome because they know they’ll always land on their feet. Don’t let their calm appearance fool you though; Tigers will pounce when they feel it’s necessary.

Born to lead, Tigers can be stubborn if they realize they’re not in charge. They have a slight tendency to be selfish but overall, Tigers are extremely generous. They’re very intelligent and they’re always on alert. Tigers are very charming and are well-liked by others. They are not motivated by money or power."

Doesn't sound too bad for us! Its all in good fun and its cool to see how true some of the characteristics are for yourself and the people you know.

I guess time will tell with our own little Tiger :)

Anyway, here's the language lesson.....

WARNING: Therapy Session

2009-08-01T17:08:00.000-07:00

The following blog is copied from "fratmom" @ http://www.in-gender.com

This posting, from 7/29/09, is titled

"It appears to no longer be just a Rumor - Korea is Closing 12/2012"...

"It is now being reported on many websites and agency sites that Korea will be closing to International Adoption as of December 2012. I would strongly suggest if you are interested in adopting from Korea to make the leap.
The below is from an agency website. I have removed the agencies (US&SK) names but these are reputable agencies reporting this information.
W***** H**** received a recent communication from President Min, the head of **** C******** S******* in Korea, reiterating the Korean Ministry's commitment to increase domestic adoption and to stop inter-country adoption. The current federal Ministry in Korea will leave office in 2013, and we have received confirmation from **** and from **** affiliates in the United States, that Korea will officially close to international adoption at the end of 2012."

.............

So what exactly does that mean for us??

Well..

Stuart and I are filling out our paperwork this weekend! Yes, sooner than expected but now is better than never. And we don't want to miss out again.

We know without a doubt that we were meant for this.. China didn't happen because by the time I was old enough (age requirement of 30) and it could actually be financially possible for us, well.. they decided to close their adoption program. And that's totally ok! No regrets from us because there's really nothing we could have done differently.

But Korea is something else entirely.

We are at the age requirements. Hell, we even bought a house! And we're getting closer in the savings department. I mean, its actually feasible for us.. for real this time.

There are always fears though.. and doubts. "The unknown".. ooooh, spooky.

It totally is though.

And I'm a big, fat, ridiculous worry-wart from waaaaay back. A huge, practically-professional planner/analyzer, too, which makes it all/me even more annoying! I can't help it! It must be hereditary.

But I'm not sure if my parents were as worrysome as me.. They do have more Faith than me. That probably plays a huge part in the worry-department. I am trying but its just so hard! I forget and take it all on myself, piling it on.. life/worries/what-if's/you name it.. Boom boom boom. Piling it on, baby! Then, finally, when I'm standing there, freaking out like a complete lunatic, suffocating and strangled from my burden and tangle of stresses and craziness (most of which are hypothetical and not even literal.. you know, maybe this might possibly happen..) Well, at that point, I usually become aware of my own insanity (that's a good sign, right?) And I start to get on my own nerves, so I'm forced to evaluate the situation. What is wrong with me?!? So after initially trying my best to work myself out of this mangled, tangle I've gotten myself into (it never works btw), I realize that I need help. I pray and ask for help in my decisions and forgiveness for not having greater Faith to begin with.. I typically feel relieved and comforted and all is well with the world again. And then, I freaking do it all over again! And again and again and again..

Why?

Where is my Faith? Seriously...

I don't know.

Its real and its here.. but I'm just so crazy sometimes. I'm so wacky & controlling that I want to know that its all going to work out. I need to know! I mean, I do know in my heart, deep down that it will be fine, but I can't see it and that always kinda freaks me out a little. I want a guarantee! :) Is that so much to ask?

What's my problem now? I'm so glad you asked! ;) Why, let me tell you!

Ahem...

The main issues presently are the fact that we've been married nearly 9 years. That's not a preoblem in itself. We're actually very happy and in love and giddy and.. ;) That's actually the problem.. We've really, really, really gotten used to life being "just the two of us". And we like it! We are finally at a place financially where we are no longer struggling and we can actually afford to go out to dinner, go on vacation, go shopping.. you know, actually enjoy our lives without all of the budgeting and scrimping and saving and worrying. And just so you know, I do realize how totally selfish that sounds but its the truth.

Thats the problem with waiting this long to have a family..we actually know what we'll be missing! ;)

BUT truly, we're ready and we're willing to make that sacrifice.. Our baby is totally worth it. However, I have to be honest, its still a present thought in our minds.

The other concern is Stuart's job situation. Oh, yes.. his glorious job!

We moved way the heck out here in the big, middle of nowhere Tennessee (truthfully we love it and are happy to be here, but still!) for his stupid job and a potentially amazing, life-changing career opportunity, blah blah blah. Thennnnn the stock market crashed and one super giant of a company (we won't mention any names) became Satan overnight and his future with the company and in this industry suddenly went *Poof*!

And to tell you the truth, he's been unhappy and unchallenged in this job since we moved here. But he stuck with it. He's not one to give up and he would never want to let me down... So he's suffered through all of the crap and mental-torture just to give us stability and financial certainty. I love my husband.. he's such a good man. He deserves something better, I know. Therefore with life, ever-changing as it is, we are at a fork in the road..

Does he stay in an industry with fewer and fewer jobs & less and less opportunities to advance.. that he also happens to despise?? OR do we take a MAJOR (seriously, major) leap of Faith at this time of trying to adopt and start our family, when stability and financial certainty are so important?

If he goes down this path he is leaning toward, his income will be cut in half for the next two years and then for 2 years after that, it will slowly creep back up to what he earns now. So in 4 years, he'll be making the same amount that he makes now. Eventually, he will earn more, of course. Initially though, it will be much, much less.... BUT he'll be happy and fulfilled and actually excited about his future.

When I put it like that, how could we possibly say "no", right?

The only problem is the financial part. His income dropping would mean that mine would need to remain stable.. that's no problem except the whole "baby" part.

I mean, will we be able to afford for me to go down to working 4 days a week so I can enjoy having the family we've waited 10 years to have? Yes. BUT what about daycare for those 4 days? That's something extra that we don't currently budget for that is really expensive..

Being the planner and over-analyzer that I am, I've crunched the numbers (shocker, I know) and the problem is that we would once again be struggling. Well, not struggling-struggling but we would certainly not be living like we are now! Annnnd there we are back to #1.. I'm selfish. Boo!! Ah well, the truth is the truth, I guess.

So there it is.. Our issues lined up. Raw, honest, unattractive as they may be.. We're working through them. Trying anyway..

Growing.. Becoming.. Believing..

This is all just a part of our journey.. "Stuart and Summer's". It doesn't change anything, really. It just makes our life more interesting.. and aggravating! ;) I think in the end, we'll be better people for all of this and better parents, too. Hopefully!

Trusting in Someone outside of myself is still my biggest struggle in life.

Not that I think that I'm super-amazing or anything. That's actually the problem! I know without a doubt that I'm not! I am 100% positive that I don't know what the crap I'm doing. I'm lost, confused, and I know that I do not have all of the answers. BUT at the same time, I know myself and I know what I will and won't do.

I guess when you get down to it, I simply know myself better than I know God.. and unless and until that changes, my struggle will always remain the same...

Torturing myself, fighting for control of something that is completely uncontrollable..

I really need to change that.. because I really want Peace in my heart.

Wow.. what a tangent! Sorry!

Clearly, I'm long-winded tonight.

Sooooo back to the point....

Basically we're filling out the paperwork this weekend. Getting it out ASAP! Filing it with the agency.. bring on that homestudy! Let's get this thing started, baby!!

No more procrastinating, worrying, doubting, over-analyzing-planning.. (at least I'll try not to anyway).

This dream was placed on our hearts a very long time ago.. It right and its real.

But its a scary thing to know that I'm in total control of changing my life for better or for worse in one single decision.. To know that giving in to my fears and doubts could actually prevent us from experiencing the greatest blessings and purest joys of our lives...

Knowing all of that... and yet, I still hesitate.

Boo again!

Clearly I have issues! haha. Just trying to figure it all out..

Anyway, thanks for listening/reading/giving a crap ;)

Wow! That's it, just "wow"..

2009-07-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

Well, we survived our first ever yard sale!

It was a very, very, very loooong weekend.

No one ever told us exactly how much work a yard sale is... and a fund-raiser one with donations from lots and lots of people (even up until the night before) is even crazier. Its the labeling and the sorting and the displaying and the pricing... sooo time-consuming and confusing. I mean, how do you decide what something is worth? It always looks better and more valuable than you can charge.. So you don't want to overprice but you also don't want to give it away. You have to leave room for haggling but you don't want to scare people away. Its like a balancing act of simultaneously pleasing and tricking a bunch of cheap-ass yard salers!! ;)

Whew! What a job! We survived it though!

We are so incredibly grateful for all of the donations; the many, many shoppers; and for Stu's dad and my incredible friend, Kim, for helping us on the Big Day! I tried to take pictures of all the hoopla but my camera pooped out just as I attempted to take my first pic of the day! Boo.

We had made and posted two large posterboard signs announcing our "Adoption Fund-Raiser Yard Sale" and "Thank you for helping us bring our baby home". People asked about our story and several shoppers gave more than the asking price to help us out even more! It was really sweet to have complete strangers care about our future family. It touched our hearts so deeply.

And it impacted our Adoption Fund because the Yard Sale Grand Total...

Drumroll, please.......

$1,375.00!!

Is that incredible or what?!?

Wow.

In this process, we occasionally feel like we're on a treadmill.. constantly moving but never actually getting anywhere.

But this experience sent our feet and our hearts and our hopes and our faith into gear!

I mean, its happening, isn't it? It really and truly is...

Yard Sale Mania!!!!

2009-07-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

So we're nearing our BIG DAY of Yard Sale/Adoption Fund Raiser.

Its this Saturday... Finally!

Let me tell you, it cannot get here fast enough.

I guess its like anything.. you plan and plan and prepare for days, weeks, months... and by the time it gets here, you're just ready to get it behind you already!

Hopefully we will have a nice turn-out of customers! Because we have soooo much stuff!

I had NO idea how generous people would be... especially my insanely, amazing coworkers. Its been an incredible experience to see and feel how much people care about our story and our family. Kinda makes me all warm and fuzzy inside :)

In case you or anyone you know might possibly live in the Nashville area, let me know and I'll send you the address! We have TONS of everything! CDs galore, home decor, clothes out the wazoo, toys, furniture, renovation stuff, Christmas decorations.. its crazy the amount and the variety of styles and tastes since so many different people donated.

Thank God all the junk is at our old place. I don't think I could handle living in the middle of those piles and piles and piles.. Hopefully we can organize it all and make it look somewhat attractive..

Stu's dad is coming to help, too.. We're hoping that he has some sort of previous yard-sale-experience, since we clearly don't know what the crap we're doing!

Our Very First Yard Sale... awwwwwww.

(Note: Stuart has made me vow that this will be our first and LAST Yard Sale.. for the rest of our lives..)

Learning random Korean.. Lesson 7

2009-07-09T19:49:00.001-07:00

Adoption friendly online baby boutique!!!!!

2009-07-08T20:39:00.000-07:00

For all of you future-adoptive parents out there, I know that you are online and in baby stores shopping like crazy-people right now...
#1- because its insanely fun and
#2- because it kind of makes this whole process seem more "real".
There actually IS a baby on the way!

And if you're like me, then you're also reading tons of books and magazines about adoption and you're worried about future attachment issues with your new baby.
Most adoption books and articles urge new parents to do a plethora of things in order to achieve bonding and attachment with your new baby.
Thankfully there is an incredible online store that wraps most of those things into one sweet package!
Niiiice, huh?

So check it out!
You'll loooooove it! Beautiful, quality things, lots of organic stuff too, but their main focus is attachment and bonding, which is super-important for us adoptive parents!!!

Oh, and its a really sweet, small company started by an amazingly fabulous coworker of mine... she's trying to spend more time with her new baby by helping us bond with ours. Kinda cool.

I've copied and pasted their philosophy and clicking on the "Nourish" button below will take you directly to their online store....

And since it is an Adoption-Friendly business, if you would post a blog/link to it, that would be awesome!!!... for my friend's business AND for your reader's babies.
Spread the love!! :)

Philosophy:

Nourish came to fruition from a mother's love of parenting, a desire to share healthy natural alternatives with other parents and a calling to give back. We support the Attachment Parenting lifestyle and offer products that encourage mothers to bond with their babies and to give them the most natural choices available, ensuring healthy development physically, mentally and emotionally. We have a wide selection of baby carriers, cloth diapers, organic skin care and lots of other fabulous all natural baby products.

When you shop at Nourish you are also helping to nourish hungry children in Africa. A portion of all sales go to Project Peanut Butter which is an organization that saves the lives of malnourished children in Malawi and Sierra Leone. Nourish isn't just a baby store...it's a way of life.

~I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Psalm 139:13-15

total tourists....

2009-07-08T10:12:00.001-07:00

Waiting for our friends at the airport.....

Could we BE bigger tourists??

Stuart looooved his new hat..
the look was a bit dapper with just a smidge of Castro.
It was awesome.

Apparently he thought we were going to Miami and not Dallas!! ;)

Ah, I love my husband.
:)

30th birthday

2009-07-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

Just thought posting a few pics would be fun! (Below)

We had such an amazing time this weekend!!!! It could not have been better.. really!
Although the 4th was pretty freaking hot.. disgusting actually. Ugh, over 100 degree weather should not be allowed!!!
We survived it though! Fans were used to cool many places.. some photos were not appropriate to post.....
Ahem (mainly the ones of me).
I forgot how blazing HOT Texas gets in July!!! Sheesh!

Our incredible friends, Brian and Ivonne, took such good care of us! We stayed with them for 4 days and 3 nights. It zoooooomed by so quickly but every single day was full of fun, great laughs, lots of conversation, late-night chats... it was perfect.
FYI: We fixed ALL of the world's problems in those 4 days ;)

My birthday morning, yesterday, was so awesome. Brian and Ivonne came into our room with hot, fresh, Mexican cocoa, singing "Happy Birthday". We were all still in our pj's and just hung out on the bed talking and being silly for nearly two hours. They took such care in making everything so special for me all weekend. It was unbelievable.
Stuart and I are so blessed to have such friends in our lives... Without a doubt, we will be always be in each other's lives. The word "friend" isn't nearly enough..
In another posting, I'll post pics of the cool gifts they brought me back from Scotland.... a beautiful wool scarf with our family's colors and the prettiest compact I've ever seen!

At Sunday night's dinner, we saw our awesome friends, Geoff and Stacie (who also came to the picnic and fireworks.. they are amazing friends that we were thrilled to see twice! Catching up in such a short time is so hard but somehow, with them, we always seem to pick up right where we left off.. Great friends! The best.. Can't wait for their visit to Nashville... soon???)
We saw Aaron, Debbie, and their 2 wonderful kids, Sam and Jacob (saw them twice, actually. Lunch the next day at Byblo's Lebanese restaurant. Had tons of fun with them, as always! So sweet and thoughtful.. and Crazy! ;)
Also saw Veronica and her fiance, Jeff (was awesome to see her and to finally meet the lucky guy! Wish a lifetime of happiness to them!)
Saw Glynda and Charlie (my previous client/fabulous friend and her sweet hubby.. Time goes by too fast and yet she looks the same as 3 yrs ago!)
And Gary and Jim (miss them so much! The dinner was quick, hugs even quicker... not nearly enough time but we will keep in touch.. Texting is a GREAT invention!)

At dinner, I was surprised me with a princess tiara, balloons, and a wacky-light-up necklace. Oh yes... I was the main attraction at Uncle Julio's that night! ;) And that doesn't even take into account my Godzilla heels that I was encouraged to buy earlier that afternoon... (Ivonne) Apparently heels are for grown-ups and I needed to begin my collection since I've officially entered that group! They are pretty cool shoes.
Although I do need a little practice walking in them to avoid sounding like a herd of cattle... :) Even in Texas, that's kinda frowned upon..

So far so good with 30! It was an absolutely perfect weekend! Thanks to my amazing husband and our friends!
It is a blessing in life to have one or even two great friends but to have so many people that care about us and that wanted to see us.... multiple times!
Wow.
We are so thankful..... Life is good, isn't it?

The Big 3-0

2009-07-03T20:19:00.000-07:00

I'm finishing up my 20's this weekend in a blaze of fireworks and Mexican food! Woohoo!! Could there be a better way to ring in a new decade?? No way! :)

We're headed to TX to do some much needed R & R and catching up with friends we haven't seen for over 2 years... Skyping and Facebook are only good for so long! Much delayed hugs are in order from some super-amazing, insanely fabulous people ;) you know who you are..

Although, turning 30 hasn't traumatized me as much as I had expected. I gotta say, 29 was little rough for me.. I guess I could sense the impending doom! Bam! Only one more year, Summer... your 20's are behind you, Granny... Boohoo! (Okay.. maybe it wasn't quite that bad but it still hurt a little)

I quickly got over it.. It really helps to be married to someone 8 years older than you! I'll always be younger and that feels sooo good! ;) Its evil, I know. But I've vowed to be more honest in this fresh, new decade of my life..

sooooo, God help us all! haha

I have heard that the 30's should be my best decade yet!

And I'm actually a little excited. What a cool thing! Those insecure, self-doubting, 'am I pretty enough'.. 'skinny enough'.. 'perfect enough' years behind me.... those stoopid 20's ;)

Yessss! I cannot wait!!! Bring it on!! Pleeeez!

To be comfortable in your own skin...

Now that's a perfect Birthday gift. I hope I can give that to myself on Tuesday....... Well that and a new handbag :)

There's a super-cute one at Anthropologie that would make me very, very comfortable!

Ahem, Stuart.. That's your cue :)

Clearly I got a little carried away with Flickr... too excited about our trip to sleep!

Learning random Korean.. Lesson 6

2009-07-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

Thought this was appropriate for us.....

Finally.... ta da!!

2009-07-02T18:06:00.000-07:00

Guest/eventually baby's room on far left...
Our bedroom, haven't found a headboard yet..
Living room and dining rooms are finished, except need to get a matching lamp for other side of couch. Kitchen is still ridiculous... no storage means messy counters until we figure out what to do.. Lastly our office which is still BOXES!! It will eventually be the office/guest room...

Moving Day!!!

2009-06-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Thank God we only have one more day of living like this.... well in this house anyway!

I'm sure it will take quite a while to get everything unpacked at the new house...

OUR house :)

Ah well, that's the way moving works right?

There will be plenty of time to get things in their perfect place.

OR we can just shove it all in the basement! Better not start that already though...

We need to at least start off by being organized... or try to anyway.

That's why Mom came to help! ;) ha.

Anyway, we'll be off-line without internet service until Tuesday. Moving, moving, moving... So no blogging until then.

But we'll post pics of our new digs early next week!!

Our sweet little yellow house.... awwwww.

Learning random Korean.. Lesson 6

2009-06-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

Our OWN little Adoption Fundraiser..

2009-06-16T20:36:00.000-07:00

So we just printed our 1st Adoption Fundraiser fliers!!

We're posting a few at each of our jobs, hoping for generosity and pack-rat behavior from our coworkers..
Basically we have a bunch of our own crap that we won't have room for in our new, little, storage-challenged house. So we have a garage of stuff that HAS to go... and soon!
So why not have a big, fat, fundraising yard sale?

And we might as well see if any of our coworkers and friends have any junk that they want to unload.. ahem, I mean "donate" to our cause.
Everyone has a stash at the bottom of a closet or in a corner of their garage that they've been "meaning" to take to Goodwill.
Hopefully they'll give it to us instead. And then maybe someone will want to give us a few bucks for it and we'll be even closer to bringing our baby home!

Every little bit helps.

Summer Giveaway!!! :)

2009-06-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

Wow!
An amazing giveaway is currently happening in Blog-World!!

Fellow adopter/blogger/Summer... seriously, her name is also "Summer". Crazy, huh?
There are so few of us, especially adopting from Korea! We have to stick together.

So anyway, I'm letting anyone and everyone that might possibly be reading my silly, little, recently lame blog (sorry for my lack of postings lately) know that you could win a super-cool Mac Book Computer... AND be helping an incredible family as they get closer to their baby. Its a great computer and only 5 bucks to enter.

Everyone likes to help but no one ever knows how...
Well this is how, people! And every little bit really does help!

So do it!!!!
You'll be changing lots of lives and maybe even your own...
Mmmm, Apple ;)

We did it!!!

2009-06-05T19:56:00.001-07:00

Just moments after signing our lives away... ;)

Here we are with our amazing realtor, Gina Waters.

What a day!!!

We're sooo excited!

And tired.. spending all of that money is incredibly exhausting.. haha

Closing Day. Signing.. signing.... signing

2009-06-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

Well.
We are closing on our house today at 1:00.
Wow.
Getting a little nervous now.. I guess that's pretty normal...

Our real estate agent said that we should do some hand exercises this morning so our fingers don't cramp while we are signing our names a bazillion times!

We plan to go to our house (yay!) after the paper-signing-extravaganza to measure for a refrigerator. We've already picked our washer and dryer but choosing a refrigerator is a little more difficult for some reason.... too many choices.

While we're out and about, we'll probably stop at Home Depot (our first of many, many trips, I'm sure) to check out their ceiling fans. I must, must, must have a ceiling fan at night.
My body seriously turns into a furnace around 3am, but for hours before that, my feet and hands are popsicles... What's the deal?
Hormones, no doubt.
Annnnnd I'm turning into my mother! :)

Anywho, that's the story from here.

Big day. Big step. Kinda cool.

cardboard house... option to skip the country

2009-05-31T19:45:00.000-07:00

we have officially started packing.

right now, our entire dining room looks like a warehouse with a huge wall of cardboard. its completely hideous but a very nice reminder that we are soon 'outta here'!!

we close on the house this friday.. can't believe how fast this all happened! i guess when its right, its right.. we're getting really excited about finally taking this official "i'm a grown-up now" step.

although the money part kinda scares me. you know... the whole commitment part.

this will mean that we no longer have the option of dropping everything at any given moment and skipping the country! seriously, that's always an option for the un-mortgaged and its actually kinda sad for it to be off the table for us! whether or not we would have ever done it, options are good. and i always like to have as many as possible!

paperwork and biological clocks... bah!

2009-05-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

we just finished signing a bazillion pages for our mortgage loan. i know it was merely a fraction of what we'll be signing on the actual closing date. but it seemed like pages and pages forever.

this is probably great practice for all of the hoopla we will soon be going through with the adoption paperwork. and now we have everything nicely filed and organized. so the adoption stuff should be a breeze, right??

ha.

i popped over to the sweet, little, yellow house yesterday and it is even cuter than i remembered! yay!

its actually bigger than i remembered, too!!! thank God ;)

i can really imagine little feet padding around the place someday soon.

i must really be ready for this mom-stuff because i saw a couple of my soon-to-be-neighbors out for an afternoon walk with their strollers and it looked....... nice. i thought to myself, "i want to do that!!!"

wow, i must be hormonal!! that stupid "tick-tock"!

boo.

shut up, biological clock! ;) when did that start, by the way??

crap, i'm getting old.

The stork has gone bonkers!!!!

2009-05-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, can I just say how exciting it is to see soooo many families getting their referrals right now?

I think that 10 families that I follow have either brought their babies home or received their referral in the past 6 wks... And 4 or 5 referrals have been in the past 2 weeks! Wow!

Stuart and I are really enjoying watching their journeys unfold. Its pretty cool.

But seriously what the heck is going on with all of these babies all of a sudden??? One family just received their referral after waiting for only 4 months! Another family had the same experience in February and I thought that was a fluke... but apparently its not.

I was reading in the new edition of "Adoptive Family" magazine that there is a speeding-up of the referral process due, in part, to the economy. I guess a lot of families are having to drop out of line due to poor economic circumstances. So other families are moving through the line much, much quicker to fill those spaces. Its kind of sad, really. But everything happens for a reason and every adoptive family is joined with their child at the right time. It has to be absolutely heartbreaking to be that close...

I just pray that the economy will get better very, very soon and that the people that are needing and wanting and persuing jobs will be rewarded for their perseverance and determination.

Annnnd back to happier stuff...

lalala

bunnies, daffodils, chocolate sundaes, yellow houses...

Meanwhile, that wacky stork has gone bonkers all over the blog-world and babies are everywhere!!! I can't wait to see who the next little mama is!! Congrats to all of you guys!!!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

2009-05-14T20:01:00.000-07:00

Yessss!

We are one step closer to owning our sweet, little, yellow house!!

The seller has agreed to fix everything we asked.. (does that ever happen??) All week, we've been praying that God would close this door entirely, without a single doubt in our minds, if it is the wrong move for us. And then this happens...

Soooo, we're just going with the flow, baby!

Apparently this door has opened wide for us! Welcome home, Stuart and Summer!!!

So needless to say, our excitement level has definitely accelerated with that news today!! I think we weren't quite allowing ourselves to feel the thrill yet. But we are getting closer... This really seems to be happening.

Tomorrow morning we will lock in our loan rate and make that part official. And then we just have to wait for all of the repairs to be finalized next week. We are hiring an electrician on our own to reinspect the repairs the seller's electrician is making... just in case. Its our first house, so we want to be as smart/paranoid as we can.

This evening when we were taking the dogs for a walk, I was thinking just how nice it will be to have our own little piece of nature to enjoy very soon. To sit in our own backyard and hear the birds, frogs, and crickets... Ahhhh! I can't wait.

Living in apartments and townhomes for 10 years will definitely make you appreciate peace and quiet... and greeen!

Nashville is so beautiful and green. And I can't wait to have some of my own! Green nature and my sweet yellow house :) :) :) :)

Happy happy joy joy

We are very very thankful.

what house?

2009-05-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

we don't really know what's going on..

our inspection for the house wasn't very good... lots of electrical problems and some plumbing. stuart and i are freaked out about the level and number of issues. we just sent in our list of requests to be addressed/fixed by the seller. hopefully they will do it all.. you never know!!

if not, we're definitely 100% comfortable with walking away. we want a house but not bad enough to want to put every single penny we own into it... and then some.

we'll see what happens.

we have another really great option.. i'll keep you posted because i'm tired of posting stuff that i have to take back later.

i never thought this would all be so time-consuming and stressful! big decision, i know.. so its understandable.

$8000

2009-05-07T19:57:00.000-07:00

Federalhousingtaxcredit.com

Just thought I'd slip that little link in for anyone that may have read my blog a few days ago in which I mistakenly said that the $8000 tax credit for first time home buyers was crap...

Turns out its not crap after all. I just happen to be really, really bad at math!! ;) Seriously, anyone that read my statement that 10% of 800,000 is 8,000.... uh, oops! The correct answer would be 80,000. So yeah, I was wrong and actually almost everyone does get that $8,000 tax credit, including me!! Yay!

Other Stuff...

We are in the financing stages of our house-buying venture. We have 2 lenders trying to match each others rates right now... niiice. Hopefully that will all be settled tomorrow.

And our house inspection is tomorrow morning, too. I think Stuart is going to be there for the last part to at least have some idea what's what and where's where. We are praying that the plumbing is not original to the house... 100 years old. Yikes.

We're trying to figure out how much of our junk we're going to get rid of in the next few weeks. A garage sale is most definitely in our near-future. Clutter is a drag, especially since we don't want to bother with moving it and won't really have room for it in the new place anyway.

I love our new house but looking at the pictures again tonight, I noticed the bathroom's lack of storage space.... uh-oh. What the crap am I going to do with my many, many, many necessary products and makeup??? Its so sad to actually have that as a real issue.. but I loooove my products!

And we'll have to figure out the non-pantry situation... Storage in the kitchen is at a minimum as well. Although it will be much easier to lose weight if we don't have room for food, right?? This keeps getting better and better!

Adoption News...

Clearly forking out the cash to get into a house this summer has altered our plans a tad. We will have to push our application time to later this year, probably Nov/Dec... so 6 months back. Not too bad. What's 6 months in the big picture?

It does hurt my heart to wait longer but it feels awesome to know that we'll have a sweet, little house to bring our baby home to!

Its official...

2009-05-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

We are one step closer to being homeowners... our offer was accepted today!
Yay!

Now we have to get though the inspection and all of that jazz. But if all goes well, we're set to close on June 5th.
This is soooo exciting!!! One month away!

Now we will officially have a room for the baby instead of squeezing him into the guest/computer/workout room.. that probably wouldn't have earned very high marks from the social worker! ;)

Another Starbuck's sign-off...

2009-05-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

Apparently this "buyer's market" thing that we are supposedly going through right now does not apply to the neighborhood we like... and possibly the price range we're in too.

Because we have another multiple offer situation on the yellow house.

So last night we met our agent at Starbuck's and put in an offer of our own. Yikes! The anticipation.....

According to our agent and our loan officer, this is really unheard of right now. Sellers are lucky to get 1 offer after many weeks of being on the market. These 2 houses are receiving multiple offers after only days on the market. That was the norm 3 years ago, but definitely not now.

So I guess we're just really lucky, huh?? ;)' ha! (Sarcasm doesn't quite come across the same in print, does it?)

Now we're just waiting to see what happens. We'll hear from them by noon today.

But we're thinking that if this one doesn't work out, we may stop looking for awhile.

This potential-rejection stuff is emotionally exhausting!!!

What a difference a week makes!!

2009-05-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

Wow.
Its been a craaaaazy week!

It all started last Monday....
Everything was completely normal, same old-same old.
And then....
I checked my email and our lives kind of changed..

Back story-
Since we moved to Nashville 2 1/2 yrs ago, we've rented a house. No big deal.
Its a great house, just not ours..
We always had plans to buy a house someday but the time was never right.
Interest rates were too high or we weren't sure which area we wanted to live..
So over the past 2 years or so, we've kind of figured out the city and its surroundings. We know where we like and don't like and more importantly, where we can afford and cannot afford! ;)

Life is good here in Nashville. Its a beautiful, little city. Sooo incredibly green it
could possibly blind you. The people are great. The food is... eh, it could be better. We do miss our super-yummy Tex-Mex! Mmmm, Uncle Julio's...

Our plan has remained to continue saving for the adoption and to wait on buying a house until we have the baby... Why exactly we had that plan, I don't really know. It just always made sense to us.
Or so we thought.
Turns out, interest rates are freaking amazing right now!

Which leads me to last Monday's email...
We've been on a local real estate agent's mailing list for the past 2 yrs after meeting her at a random open house and telling her how much we looove a particular neighborhood east of Nashville. Its about 20 minutes east of downtown. All late-1920's Bungalows with Dutch and Colonial Revival influence, built by DuPont back in the day for managers and workers of the country's first gunpowder plant..
There's a lot of random history that I won't bore you with but it basically has a sort of quirky, Mayberry-ish feel and we love it!

Anywho, usually I check the emails and the houses are okay but last week I saw this little cutie!

Seriously, what an adorable little house right?

We fell in love on Monday, saw it on Wednesday, and put in an offer on Thursday.
It was so perfect!
It even has a gorgeous little Japanese garden in the back! I mean, who has a Japanese garden in Nashville, Tennessee?? Wow.

But, long story short, our offer went in the same time as another one.... And even though we offered the same amount.... to the penny, the other guy offered cash. Boo. And so the seller accepted their offer.

It was really disappointing. Our first experience with that sort of thing...
It totally sucked to lose!!
But in retrospect, the house was pretty small... most likely too small for a family, better for a couple or a single.
So it all worked out for the best.

And it did make us realize that our time to buy a home could be now.

Between interest rates being so low, this being a buyer's market, and Obama's first time home-buyer's thing... (which, by the way, is up to $8000 not a straight $8000.. Its basically a tax credit of 10% of the purchase price of your house. So you'd have to buy an $800,000 house to get the full credit.. But hey, every little bit helps, right?)

So we're still looking in that cute neighborhood. Its next to the lake. Tons and tons of trees and birds. You can hear the frogs and crickets. And see the stars at night....
Ah... so nice :)

Our agent took us to see 3 other houses today.

One was a total bust... no central AC. Yikes! And it was a major project, top to bottom. We're okay with a few projects, just not a house that is a project.
The second one was nice. It needs some TLC on the front porch and exterior paint, etc. Nothing major. But it will also need a bit of help in the kitchen. That's usually a pretty large and expensive undertaking..
Its also on a busier, main street. Trust me, though, in this neighborhood, there isn't really any traffic but the only "traffic" is on that street.

The last house was the best!
Super cute. They kept the old character and personality of the house but updated the kitchen and bathrooms. Its on a beautiful street that is insanely quiet. There are huge windows everywhere and trees out every one of them!
The only down side is out the back door.
Its just old, 1928 concrete stairs to the back yard.
I guess that's no too big of a project. And not really an emergency thing either. It has a tiny fenced area on one side of the house that would suffice temporarily for the dogs to play and potty. Eventually we would need to put up a real fence though.
And one other random thing is that the owners (for some reason) replaced all of the old, heavy, awesome doors with new, hollow, cheesy ones. Boo.
Our agent is checking to see if they (hopefully) kept them!

We'll see!!! :) No big rush or anything.

It does feel really great to be making a home for our family.
That somehow makes this all feel more "right" and real. We want to have a home to bring our child home to...
Plus if we can get a mortgage for less than we pay right now in rent, then why not??
Its crazy for us to keep throwing $$ toward someone else's mortgage!!

Although, I'm not going to get as attached yet to this property because the last one was completely heart-wrenching to lose. That sounds stupid, I know.
But I guess I could just imagine (really clearly) our life there... the 3 of us.
And it was nice.

We'll keep you posted!! :) :) :) :)

and this one too...

2009-04-26T09:45:00.001-07:00

Do I hear a collective "Awwwww.."??

Stuart loves this one..

cute patootie

2009-04-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

Sweeeet cheeks!

We LOVE this pic..

Nothing new on the adoption front for us.. just playing around on the blog.

Someday we'll actually be posting a happy-baby picture of our own child.. instead of other random people's children ;)

Learning random Korean.. Lesson 5

2009-04-21T18:52:00.000-07:00

I looooove this stuff! :)

oh happy day!

2009-04-21T06:01:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday was my boo-hoo day as you may have read in my posting...
I must have just needed a therapeutic purging through blogging. Sorry to those of you that had to suffer through it! :)

But now I just may be over it... cuz I saw a pic of my blogging buddy's baby, Gabe!!
JoJo got her referral yesterday and as you can see, he is crazy-cute!!
Kinda punk-rock, actually ;) I can't wait for Stuart too see this pic!

So anyway, thanks for listening yesterday... and I guess I was wrong...
Because this encouraged me soo much today!! I am so happy for their family.. And I actually do feel a little closer to our own little guy :)
Yay!

risking everything.

2009-04-20T14:03:00.000-07:00

Obviously its been awhile since my last blog...
Sorry.

Things have been busy.. sort of.. Just the normal daily stuff, though.
Its been time-consuming but in an annoying way..
I just feel like we're kind of living in robot-mode...
go to work, go to work. save, save. blah blah blah.

Don't get me wrong, I'm totally in this, but I'm still feeling frustrated and impatient.
(story of my life.. impatience)

We went to Target yesterday and walked past the sweet little baby summer clothes.. I couldn't help but feel sad.. Its seems that my mantra is still "not yet, not yet ".
Boo.
When then?? When?

Yesterday, we also checked the blogs that I follow and one family just brought their little girl home!!
The photos are so cute but the video made me cry like a baby.
I had no control. The tears just came and the self-pity soon followed.

Stuart was really sweet. He understands that I'm completely thrilled for their family but for some reason, it still made me sad.
Watching these new families unite isn't as encouraging to me as you would think.. And its not making me feel closer to our baby either.
Watching that video made me feel farther away than EVER.
I feel my heart yanking (not tugging) toward that.. that moment.
I'm ready for our moment.

We are still planning to turn-in our applications in May. Even though we just found out last week that there is a 50% chance that Stuart will lose his job by July.
He has been giving resumes since December to no avail. Clearly the job market isn't looking too promising for anyone.
We're trying soooo hard not to get discouraged.
It just that we're so close and to have an obstacle THAT big...

You know, so what if there is a 50% chance of his job loss, there is a 100% guarantee that things will be okay. God is in control.
And we have faith that He is moving mountains in our lives that we have no idea about.

So, our plan remains the same... We're still planning for May. We will see what happens after that.
Our hearts are in the right place. What else can we do?
Trust, faith, hope..
Believe.

I feel like our life is on the backside of a huge wave that's just about to crest... we're freaking out because its speeding up but not fast enough and yet too fast because we're totally worrying that we're not ready for it.. whatever it is...
I anticipate that the view from the top will be amazing and breathtaking and thrilling.. completely life-changing...
But since I'm a planner and a control-freak spazz, I'm stressed about what happens after the crest... I mean, there's a fall, isn't there??
Holy crap!
I don't want everything to come crashing down around me! I don't know what that will feel like but I can imagine.. and its not good.
So maybe we'll just panic (as usual) and try to jump off of this wave...
You know, maybe we really should wait for the next one.. we'll probably be ready then.
Yeah, we'll definitely be ready then...

Wow. Am I really willing to miss out on my life's most incredible experiences because I'm..... scared?
Of the unknown?
Give me a break! That's just life, right?!
Unknown.. bah!

And its called Faith.

I recently read that "Faith is a decision of your heart, demonstrated by repentance. To repent means to stop going in one direction, to turn around completely, and to go the opposite way."

We need to stop.
Just stop.
And then we'll turn around and go in the opposite direction.

Stop trying to figure everything out. Stop trying to plan it all perfectly, detail by detail. Making a fool-proof plan with a Plan B and Plan C (just in case).
If I have those, who needs faith, right? Seriously.
I've got it covered, God! No need to worry your pretty little head about little ol' me.
No. No.
We're set.

And thennnnn, it happens.
It always happens.
Every freaking time.
Ugh. Clearly a message is being sent to me. But I still don't want to hear it.
Sooo I ignore it and wait for the next time, and the next time, and the next time, and...

So Faith, huh?
Yep. That's where we are...
Because I'm so tired of living but not living.

I think we have to be willing and even eager to risk EVERYTHING for that chance to live..
to truly live.

I believe and know with my whole heart that I am ready and willing...
I'm so tired of allowing fear and doubt and discouragement and obstacles to alter the course of my life.
I guess, we've continually accepted a life of mediocrity simply out of convenience..
Its more "convenient" because having Faith is hard.. really, really hard.
And it requires time, for soul-searching and actively pursuing God. For prioritizing someone, something over me and my wants, my needs...
Its almost stupid how hard it is!

Stuart and I are in that process of beginning to live the lives we were meant to live.
This is going to be a life-long process but then again, it should be..

God knows what will happen next... :)

he's enjoying so much!!!

Cute Cute Cute!!!

2009-04-07T15:20:00.000-07:00

I looove my fellow bloggers and I guess I loove etsy, too.

Because these cutie-patooties are made by a very talented etsy artist...
Super cute handmade dolls wearing their snazzy, little, traditional Korean hanboks.

Of course they also have other designs wearing more American attire, including Easter outfits and Bride & Groom.
Awww!

You can link directly to the artist's page by clicking below:
Yu Yu Art

Did I mention CUTE CUTE CUTE?!?

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

why we do what we do...

2009-04-06T16:58:00.000-07:00

"...once our eyes are opened,we can't pretend we don't know what to do...
God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know....
and holds us responsible to act."
Proverbs 24:12

simple and yet enormous.

Learning random Korean.. Lesson 4

2009-04-06T10:37:00.000-07:00

I wonder if the "e" is silent in "eomma"?

Is it "oh-ma" or "ee-oh-ma"?

"Appa" is pretty easy to figure out.

But don't babies always say "Da" before "Ma" anyway??

Jeez, so in every language, dad gets the easiest name?

Boo.

Did you read the bit in yellow, too? What a respectful and formal culture!

Its so beautiful, isn't it?

Hmm... then booing your husband would probably be frowned on..

I think I can deal with that.

honestly random crap... I mean, scrap..

2009-04-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

A sweet blogger sent this award to me!

Craziest thing- her name is also Summer aka Sunny Mom, and they are adopting from Korea, as well! :)
She's also full of it!! ha.
Weird coincidence, huh?

Anywho, I guess the point of this prestigious award is to list 7 random things about myself and then to pass it along to 7 people so they can do the same... as if you guys give a scrap! ;)

So here goes:

1- We still haven't filed our taxes.. Total procrastinators/slackers.

2- I screen all phone calls.. Caller ID is the best invention EVER!

3- My circulation is similar to that of a lizard.. right now my fingers and toes are complete popsicles.

4- And when they are really, really icy, I enjoy surprising my husband with them. The lower back is the best! He screams like a little school girl!! ;)

5- I can never spend a lot of money on my cell phone or sunglasses because I am accident prone with major dropsies.

6- I loooove cheese but I don't eat any other dairy.

7- Grocery shopping is more fun to me than going to the mall. (And I wonder why I'm forced to do an exercise boot-camp!)

Well, pass it on, you random, scrappers, you!!

And check out their cool blogs... people from all over the country blogging about all sorts of stuff, not just Korea or adoption, I promise!!

JoJo @ littlebitoseoul.blogspot.com/
Jen @ jmbraun.blogspot.com/
Chris and Sheacy @ babykate.sheacy.com
Christine @ kinleysandkimchi.blogspot.com/
Kelly @ chrisandkelly.blogspot.com/
Dawanna @ ouradventuresathome.blogspot.com/
Colleen @ paperlanternkorea.blogspot.com/

Blurbalicious

2009-04-05T18:34:00.000-07:00

Recently I heard about a cool little website called, "Blurb"... and I think it may possibly change my life.
Fellow blogger and future parent, JoJo, is using "Blurb" to make a hardcover of her blog for their baby.
Sooo cute and clever!!
Thanks, JoJo, for my new hobby/time vortex! :)

Apparently book self-publishing websites are all the rage.. Clearly, I'm not very informed because I had no clue.

How cool is that "Blurb", though??
You can make your own book, in amazing quality, with photos, drawings, artwork, text.. whatever floats your boat.
They will even sell copies for you (depending on the subject) to your family, friends, or the random general public.

I've actually been toying with writing a children's book for years.
Hmmm... maybe, just maybe "Blurb" is exactly what I've needed!
Ooooo, I can't wait to get started!

My dad has many, many thoughts and ideas... This would be a great thing for him to do as well. I know you're reading this, Dad... Do it, do it!

Learning random Korean.. Lesson 3

2009-04-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

No further explanation needed.....
Important stuff.

Back off, Kim Jong-il!!!

2009-04-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

For those of you that may not have heard.... there's a bit of a missile issue going on in North Korea.

And of course, South Korea, will be greatly affected... a country that has been war-free since the 1950's, despite never truly declaring peace with North Korea.
They are basically being forced to make decisions that could very well provoke war with their hostile, northern neighbor.

Clearly this is a terrible thing for the entire country and Asia, but also for the world.. and for Peace.
It would also be devastating for South Korea's adoption program, which would most certainly cease to be until long after a war is over....

So all we can do is pray that Kim Jong-il will back off and grow a freaking heart!!!

I know its in God's hands... Faith is just so hard sometimes. I mean, its real and I definitely feel it.. But my doubt is just as real... and I feel it too, sometimes painfully.

This dream of ours is soooo much bigger though... And we believe this will happen.
Period.

God placed this dream in our hearts... not so it could simply fade away, be discouraged, overwhelmed, wasted, or traded for something else... something easier.

No.

Stuart and I are meant to do this... just as we are meant to breathe, to laugh.. to be together.

Its like we're two pieces of something really great, but we're still missing a piece...
of us.

Butt-burning, baby-naming, cattle-prodding....

2009-04-02T18:53:00.000-07:00

Just a quick little "thank you" to all of you fabulous and attractive people that are still checking and reading our blog.

Stuart and I are completely boring people and yet, you weirdos seem to somehow find that entertaining..
There's something seriously wrong with ALL of you!

And that's exactly why we LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!
Mmmmwah!!
Thank you again for caring and following along in our super-exciting journey!!

As for our latest amazing and life-changing tidbits of interest....
Yeah, uh...
I've got nothing.

Sorry for the "super-exciting" part.. I totally lied. ;)

Anyway, Stuart is still being a complete slacker on finishing his autobiography. I'm going to have to cattle-prod him or something. Our tentative application deadline is in May. So he technically has a few weeks left to finish his Amazing, Page-Turning, Epic Story of Stu. (Sorry, I did it again..)
He's putting waaay too much thought into this thing. I mean, just put the pen to the paper and do it already, man!
Its for a social worker, not a publisher! I don't think she's going to deduct points for unoriginality.. hopefully.

What else?
Oh.. people have already started asking me if we have a name picked for the baby.. That's kinda weird, I guess. Especially since we're still like a year and a half away!
It is sweet, though. I think people want to treat us like any other "expectant parents"... Actually, its really nice that people care that much!

Back to baby names.....
okay, well, we have been married for nearly a decade. So of course, we have a few that we like. And thankfully our tastes have changed a bit over the years.
If we'd had a baby in 2002, we'd have a little Patrick or Plum running around :)
I don't know... I still kinda like Plum.

Clearly we have a lot of time left to ponder this subject. We'll probably keep in mind 3 names that we like and then choose the right one when we see his little face.
Or her face.. You never know, we could have a Plum yet!! ha.

In other news, Stu and I have realized what completely out of shape chunkers we are!
So today is DAY #4 of our 'Total Body Makeover'. I did it a few years ago, in Texas, and it was awesome... 12 weeks of butt-burning, quad-cramping, ab-twisting torture.
But its amazing.
I've already started to crave the exercise.. its completely disturbing. Oh, I hope it lasts!!

That's my problem.. I start a program and have great results..
And then, I get lazy.
Its true. We're trying to change that, though. If we can make it a habit now and keep it up for the next year and a half...
Then it should be easy to keep it as part of our normal, daily routine when Junior enters the picture.
Makes sense, right?

Now we just have to stay motivated.. Bring on DAY #5, baby! Woohoo!

So that's it for now.
Not much going on...
pretty random, definitely dorky, a little uneventful, and a tad strange...

Yep... life is good :)

Its Korean poetry time, kids.

2009-03-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

크나큰 잠

한 자리 본 것처럼
깜빡 한 여기를 놓으며
신호등에 선 목이 꽃대궁처럼 꺾일 때
사르르 눈꺼풀이 읽던 행간을 다시 읽을 때

봄을 놓고 가을을 놓고 저녁마저 놓은 채
갓 구운 빵의 벼랑으로 뛰어들곤 해
먹어도 먹어도 줄지 않는 사과 냄새 따스한
소파의 속살 혹은 호밀빵의 향기
출구처럼 다른 계절과 다른 바람과 노래

매일 아침 길에서 길을 들어설 때
매일 저녁 사랑에서 사랑을 떠나보낼 때
하품도 없이 썰물 지듯
깜빡깜빡 빠져나가는 늘 오늘

깜빡 한 소식처럼
한 지금을 깜빡 놓을 때마다
한 입씩 베어먹는 저 큰 잠을 향해
얼마나 자주 둥근 입술을 벌리고만 싶은가

벼락 치듯 덮치는 잠이 삶을 살게 하나니
부드러워라 두 입술이 불고 있는 아침의 기적
영혼의 발끝까지 들어올리는 달콤한 숨결
내겐 늘 한 밤이 있으니
한 밤에는 저리 푹신한 늘 오늘이 있으니

Magnificent Sleep

As if seeing a spot,
Letting go of here momentarily forgotten
When the neck standing at the traffic light bends like a flower stalk,
When drooping eyelids reread spaces between the lines,

Letting go of spring and fall and even the evening,
I jump at times into the precipice of freshly baked bread.
The smell of apples that I eat and eat but never wanes, and warm
Inner skin of sofa or the aroma of rye bread,
Like an exit, different seasons and different winds and songs,

When every morning I enter a path on the street,
When every evening I bid farewell to love from love,
Like a tide that falls without a yawn,
Today always flickers and ebbs away.

Like a forgotten flickering thought,
Every time a now is momentarily forgotten,
Toward that big sleep that slices it in mouthfuls
How often I desire to open my rounded lips.

Sleep descends like thunder and lets life go on.
Soft the morning's miracle the two lips are blowing,
Sweet breath that uplifts the spirit even to its toes,
I always have the deep night,
In the night there's always a soft today.

___________________________________

Just so you know... this poet received a
"Commendation Award"...
The Grand Prize poem, by a different person, was
only translated into English.
I thought it was more fun to see the Korean version,
too :)

Holy Gochujang!!!!

2009-03-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

Temptation of Hot Pepper Paste

`Gochujang,'' or hot pepper paste, along with soy sauce and soybean are representative slow foods that can take as
long as several years before they can be eaten.

By Shim Hyun-chul
Staff Reporter

The temptation of red: not lipstick, but a well-matured ``gochujang,''
or sauteed hot pepper paste.

First, the deep red color strikes the eyes, and memories
of its spicy taste teases the mouth to water. You try to
resist, but succumb every time to that red gojchujang.

To make gochujang, rice, made with barley, is grounded
and then mixed with ground fermented beans and hot
peppers. Sweet rice taffy oil, water and salt is added to complete
the paste, which can take months or years to
ferment before people can get their hands on it.

Along with soy sauce and soybean paste, gochujang is
one of the three main sauces used in Korean cooking.
Different from the Western idea of hot, its taste runs
from spicy hot to sweet, and Koreans add gochujang to
just about every dish-gochujang bulgogi,
``tteokbokki,'' red-hot fish soup
and ``bibimbap.'' Koreans religiously
believe that the paste determines the palatability of any
Korean cuisine.

The paste is also nutritious, with protein, fat and
vitamins. It also has capsaicin, which has anti-carcinogenic
and dieting effects.

Recently, the Korea Food Research Institute and Academy
of Korean Studies have come forth with documents dating
back several hundred years,
all the way to the Imjin Wars (1592-1598) with Japan,
to refute the claim that hot peppers entered Korea via
other foreign countries. Their feat has provided the
platform for hot pepper paste-based Korean dishes to
be recognized globally as genuine native Korean cuisine.

Shim@koreatimes.co.kr

Obviously, I cut and pasted this from The Korea Times
website...
Check out more interesting stuff at
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/index.asp

Preston is home!!!

2009-03-26T16:32:00.000-07:00

Seriously... could this baby be more adorable??

Uh.. No.
Its not possible.

Fellow bloggers, Mark and Jen, are finally home with baby Preston. You can view more pics on their blog by clicking their names above..

It is so amazing to see their sweet, little family together.
It makes me happy and sad at the same time. Weird, huh?

No! I'm not feeling sorry for myself right now.
Okay, maybe a little.. Although, I've yet to completely wallow in self-pity..
Oh but be assured.. that day will undoubtedly come...
I am nothing if not honest and I am well aware of the ridiculous whiny-baby that I am capable of becoming...
Trust me, its not sweet or attractive... Poor Stuart.

But the wait is just part of this whole adoption-experience.
Mark and Jen had to wait, as did many, many other families..

And so do Stuart and Summer....
Dammit. And to think I've always thought I was special!? ;)
Boo.

Adoptees you may know..

2009-03-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

For some people, adoption may seem kind of unusual, uncomfortable... or just not the "norm".

However, I think we all known more adoptees than we even realize... both famous and in our own lives..

Below is a list of some well-known adoptees... who knew so many? Pretty cool.

Entertainers

Halle Berry -- actress
Ingrid Bergman -- actress
Richard Burton -- actor
Charlotte Church -- singer
Nat King Cole -- singer
Ella Fitzgerald -- singer
Melissa Gilbert -- actress
Deborah Harry -- singer
Faith Hill -- singer
John Lennon -- musician
Ray Liotta -- actor
Sarah McLachlan -- singer
Marilyn Monroe -- actress
Priscilla Presley -- actress
Shania Twain -- singer

Writers

Louisa May Alcott
Maya Angelou
Charles Dickens
James Michener
Edgar Allen Poe
Leo Tolstoy

Political leaders

Alexander the Great
President William Clinton
President Gerald Ford
President Herbert Hoover
Nelson Mandela -- former president of South Africa

Business leaders

Larry Ellison -- chairman and CEO of Oracle Corporation
Steve Jobs -- cofounder of Apple Computer
Tom Monaghan -- founder and CEO of Domino's Pizza
Dave Thomas -- founder of Wendy's International

Others

Aristotle
John J. Audubon -- naturalist
Les Brown -- motivational speaker
George Washington Carver -- inventor
Crazy Horse -- Lakota chief
Jesse Jackson -- political activist
Malcolm X -- civil rights leader
Moses -- Hebrew prophet

Learning random Korean.. Lesson 2

2009-03-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

Good stuff, huh? Actually "sweater" in Korean sounds a lot like
"sweater" in English. Verrrry interesting...

PS Hopefully no one reading this is wearing a 'chuyurining'...
Seriously, you need to change clothes immediately!

Oh! How cultured we're all becoming now! :)

big dorks

2009-03-23T07:17:00.000-07:00

maybe we're just very, very, very ready to be parents...
OR
we could just be really big dorks?

yesterday was our first trek to the movie theater in a looong time... and what did we see?
something action packed? perhaps taken? nah.
maybe a romantic comedy.. duplicity? not a chance.

no, we sat there like two complete goobers in our weirdo, 3-d glasses and watched coraline...
a cartoon.

oh yes. its a child's movie... BUT it was a super-cool one!!
we loved it.
(although its not for the really young kiddos.. prob 10 and up?)

surprisingly we weren't the only non-kid-toting adults there.... at least 3 other couples.
so i gotta say, it feels good to know that we may be dorks..
but at least we're not alone :)
ha!
you other weirdos know who you are..

oh and to further tell on myself...
i recently purchased the pinocchio and peter pan dvds.
but you know how disney threatens that they are 'limited time release'? blah blah blah.

clearly, i totally bought into the hype. and now we have a movie collection any 4 year old would be proud of...
its sad and yet somehow exciting!

wow.. having a baby is weird, isn't it?
or maybe its just making us even more weird?

our poor kid doesn't have a chance!

Learning random Korean.. Lesson 1

2009-03-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

Isn't this cute?? And cool?

Well, "Annyeonghi Gyeseyo!"
Uh, I think...

Must be a Southern thing...

2009-03-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

The Cherry Blossoms are officially in bloom!
And not just in Macon, Georgia.

It seems that South Korea has a few things in common with
our own South...

This pic is from the Jinhae Gunhang (Naval Port) Festival in South Korea. Soo pretty!!
It is the largest cherry blossom festival in the country and attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists, eager to catch a glimpse of the delicate flowers.

The Gwangyang Maehwa Festival opened last weekend, the first in a string of flower festivals around the country this season.
Imagine... over 83 acres of blooming "maehwa'' (Japanese apricot) trees!
When in bloom, the apricot trees are filled with white flowers called "ume". The entire Maehwa Village and the Baegun Mountain are blanketed with pure white ume that create a picture perfect landscape.

The trees also produce the small green Japanese apricot called "maesil",
which has a tangy flavor. Many shops sell maesil, as well as maesil drinks
and preserves.
I bet its pretty tasty... mmmm, apricots :)

The Hwagae Cherry Blossoms Festival, which runs from April 3-5 in Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province, may be smaller than Jinhae's festival but offers no fewer pretty blossoms.

Couples should take note while walking along the "10-ri cherry blossom street"... also known as marriage street.
According to an urban legend, couples who walk while holding hands along that street will get married and live happily ever after.

Awww..
We'll have to check that one out for sure when we get there!! ;)
Its not too late for us, hopefully!! ha.

Seriously... don't you just love Spring??

(Pics and some script courtesy of Korea Times.com)

NOW in Korea

2009-03-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

Fellow bloggers, Mark and Jen, are currently in Korea at this very moment, meeting and bringing home their baby.
Their blog was actually the first one I read when we made the decision to adopt from Korea.. and then the decision to do our own blog.

Anyway, they have some cool pics and a sweet, little video of their first meeting with their baby, Preston, a few days ago. Soo cute!

Thought you might like to see what it may be like someday soon for us! :)

(Just click on "Mark and Jen" above, and that should take you to their blog)

rice cake envy?

2009-03-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today I had an uneasy feeling..

It all started when my manager at work asked me how the adoption process is coming. I told her it was good, still trying to get all of our paperwork together and forms filled out for the application. Then she said that she has a really strong feeling that we'll have our baby a lot faster than we think.. "a LOT faster.."
Ok..

It may sound crazy, but I actually started panicking a little bit. What does she mean "a LOT faster"??
Don't get me wrong, we're ready for our family to be together. But we're not ready-ready..
you know, $-wise...
Let's just say, we're ready in our hearts but not in our bank account! Ha.

I worried about it for a while at work, then I had a few appointments and got over it.
Until I checked my blogs tonight and saw that someone just received their referral. Yay!!!
Except they only applied in January... as in 2 months ago!
What the? How is that even possible, when I have other people on my blog list that applied last June, August, etc. and they are still waiting for their referrals?
Hmmm.. I wonder...
Seems kinda weird that it would be so fast for them... Maybe its their agency? I don't know.

I freaked again though because that means they'll probably have their baby home by July! That's less time than a pregnancy.. 7 months! Nice.
Well, good for them. Truly, I'm very happy for their quick process and hope a speedy trip to Seoul for them!

But I really, really, really hope it doesn't move that quickly for us!
Seriously, I'm totally ok with the good ol' 18 month plan! Oh, yes.

___________________________

Found an awesome Korean proverb...

남의 떡이 더 커 보인다
Someone else's rice cake always looks bigger.

Ah... So true, so true.
Aaaand that just about sums it up from here ;)

So what now??

2009-03-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well, the adoption seminar went great!
It was super informative, 2 hours packed with all sorts of adoption Q & A. It wasn't a very big group... two other couples, one single woman, one woman without her husband, and us. One of the social workers has personally adopted from Korea and Guatamala.
Talk about great inside knowledge, right?!

We learned lots of interesting stuff. One of the other couples asked where the biggest need is.. domestic or international? They said that domestically, the only "need" is for children over the age of 12. Stuart and I are definitely not prepared for that!

As far as babies and children under the age of 4... they said that in the foster system, those children are usually adopted by their foster parents, should they become available for adoption. Its super rare for the foster parent to not choose to adopt a child that young. And in the U.S., adopting through a birth mother, Juno-style, is common. But they stressed, there isn't what they would classify as a "need". That's a "want"... as in, 'I want a newborn baby'. Not that there's anything wrong with that. There simply isn't the same need for adopting babies domestically as there is internationally.
"Need" is a relative term, though. All children need to be loved... I guess this is just a topic when you simply need to follow your heart..

And that leads us to Korea, where our heart and our baby is..

Since China was our focus for so long, we knew that a girl was pretty much a definite.
I guess we thought it would be the same in Korea..... well, maybe not..
It turns out that most people want to adopt girls, regardless of the country. Everyone simply wants a girl.
So, the need is actually for adopting baby boys.

The current wait time for adopting a Korean baby boy is 18 months... for girls, its 24-30 mos. Obviously, the longer wait time is a big consideration for us but its not a deal-breaker. If we truly had our hearts set on a girl, we would do it, without question.

You wouldn't think that it would be so hard to make that decision though... Boy or Girl?? Just shut up and pick one, right? No, its not that easy..
Its just not "normal" to get to pick, you know?? You don't get pregnant and think, "Hey, God! Hook me up with a little girl this time, would ya?"
I mean, you don't usually have a choice...
But we do... and that's a huge responsibility.

So, how do you pick? How do you say "Yes. I want a girl..." and know that by making that decision, we're passing up a sweet, baby boy? That's one of the main reasons we chose to adopt to begin with! Baby girls in China are continually discarded and disregarded simply because of their gender...

We had to ask ourselves... are we adopting a "picture" in our heads or are we adopting the baby who truly needs us?
So there it is...

We will place ourselves on the list for "no gender preference" but according to the case worker, she's 99% certain that we'll get a boy by not specifically requesting a girl.

So..... I guess, we're having a BOY! :)

Our focus, as of now, is our application. I'm working like crazy to finish my autobiography. Stuart is still struggling with his own. Then we have a lot more paperwork and document-collecting to do. We also want a certain amount of savings before we officially pass 'Go' on this adventure.
So we'll be sending our official application around the end of May.

That means, we'll hopefully have our baby before the end of next year... maybe by Christmas!!!

Wow, huh?
Wow...

Did I mention a baby boy?? :)
Yeah, wow.

This is it!

2009-03-10T06:29:00.000-07:00

100% excited and nervous. That's pretty much it.

I'll update as soon as possible, most likely tomorrow morning... to let you know how the seminar goes! It is supposed to go from 6:30 to 8:30. Its in Murfreesboro, about 40 minutes away. Shouldn't be home too late... but we'll have lots to talk & think about, I'm sure.
A big evening for The Moore's! :)

Oh and the food last night was fantastic! Definitely recommend Watanabe in East Nashville.
Its an Asian fusion restaurant, so lots of choices. They actually have Chinese, Thai, Japanese, and Korean chefs. So all of the dishes are delicious and authentic.
I went with the Ten Don Bowl (sp?), which was Japanese tempura veg and shrimp over rice. Stuart had a Korean original, Bibim Bap. It was a big bowl with rice, veg, beef, chili paste, and a fried egg on top. The photo from our "Rumors of Kimchi" blog is of that dish.
Anyway, our review is very, very good... So if you're around Riverside and McGavock Pike, check it out!

Until next time....

Tonight and Tomorrow

2009-03-09T16:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight~
We have the perfect evening planned for our last supper before officially jumping into the adoption world.

Tonight, we're meeting our friends, Kim and Juan at Watanabe Sushi & Asian Cuisine in East Nashville. The restaurant is new but has great reviews. We are very excited! And hungry!

Only in Nashville could you find a banjo-playing sushi-chef, right?? ;)
That's awesome.

And of course... tomorrow.
Tomorrow is our very first meeting at the adoption agency.. at any adoption agency ever. Our first time to talk to REAL people that could actually be the ones that point us in the direction that our little baby is going to come from... Kinda cool, huh?

Holy crap! Are we really doing this? Wow.

So keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We're on a big venture and this is obviously just the beginning.. But its sooo exciting!!! I can't believe we actually have an appointment to do something... after gabbing for a decade. Better late than never!

We were busy developing... uh, character. Yeah, that's it. Just think how much MORE character we'll have after waiting another 2 years! Ha! Hopefully it will just be a year and a half, though.
And that Wait will be okay, I think. Because we'll know what's waiting for us at the end...
our family.

Now News

2009-02-26T20:21:00.000-08:00

Our first meeting with the adoption agency is coming up in a week and a half!! Yay!

We're really getting excited. Between that and the blog.. its all becoming more real to us. Although, it still seems a little like a fantasy or wishful thinking.. not like real-reality yet.
I guess it will become more so after we sign the application, write our 5 page autobiographies, and prepare for our home-studies.
For those of you wondering... WHAT? Oh, Yes... It is true..

One of the many steps in the adoption process is writing our autobiographies. (One for Stuart and another one for me.) Each one must be from 2-5 pages long and include information from early childhood, school years, employment history, courtship and marriage, lifestyle, extended family, and why we want to adopt.
We actually have an outline from the agency that gives us more detailed questions to make the process a bit easier... yeah, right ;)
There will be a ton of reflecting and self-analysis.. Definitely good stuff to know and understand about ourselves, especially as we become parents.

A home-study is basically what it sounds like.. A social worker from the agency will thoroughly read our autobiographies, reference letters, applications, etc. And then come to our home to ask questions regarding what she has already learned/read and any other questions or concerns she may have..
Of course, our home, itself, will be "inspected", as well, to make certain it is child-safe.
Note to self: Clean out garage ASAP.. it isn't even human-safe right now ;)
Overall, there will be 2-3 preapproval home-studies and 3 post-placement home-studies.
Sooo in other words, we will need to keep things tidy for a very, very long time!

Another journey to Korea

2009-02-23T18:54:00.000-08:00

Obviously, adoption is a very draining process, both emotionally and financially. A fellow blogger, also adopting from South Korea, has a great fund raiser happening right now featuring several Prize Package Drawings.
If Stuart and I can help someone else to bring their baby home sooner....
well, that's a blessing to our family too!

So, if you're interested, the button posted below leads to their blog.
And maybe you'll win something really cool!?

Maybe one of these days/months/years ;), we'll do some sort of amazing fundraiser, ourselves!
Stu and I have a couple of random, fabulous ideas...

Rumors of Kimchi

2009-02-23T14:19:00.000-08:00

So we're thinking that we really need to trek into the world of
Korean cuisine.
Its sad to say but we've probably only had it.... once.

Don't get me wrong! We absolutely loooove Asian food!
Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese...
Sushi is a favorite, especially the super-yummy stuff in San
Francisco's China town. Seriously, Floating Sushi Boat
restaurant in SF is a must!

So anyway, we are trying to become more acquainted with
Korean food.

Unfortunately, Nashville isn't exactly the BEST place for food diversity.
In other words, not everything needs to be topped
with gravy! I'm just saying...

But it does look like there are a few restaurants to enjoy..
hopefully! 5 actually.
Who would have thought? And in Nashville!
The plan is to do Seoul Garden on Edmondson Pike this week.
Maybe it will be a life changing experience??
Of course, we'll post our review. There's never a shortage of
opinions in this house.

We're thinking that we should probably try our hand at
cooking Korean, as well.
Any advice on great cookbooks to try?
Since we enjoy being in the kitchen so much, seems like we
should at least give it a shot.
Although, I have heard horror stories of the smell that blossoms
from a jar of kimchi..
"Like a strong briny pickle, kimchi is an assault in the taste
senses of the uninitiated eater, and is meant to accompany
blander foods.
It is traditionally prepared with Chinese cabbage, red pepper,
garlic, salted fish, ginger and other natural ingredients.
Then, it is stored underground for at least 4 weeks."
So, its very, very, very ripe!
Kimchi is also credited with being a possible cancer fighter..
Not too shabby.

Guess we'll have to just hold our breath and go for it!

Won't it be so cool (someday soon :) to prepare a nice meal for
our little family... perhaps the traditional Korean meal of white
rice, bulgogi, kimchi, chop chae, and melon popsicles??
Ooooo... very diverse indeed.
And the following night, we'll revisit the South...
with something chicken-fried and smothered in gravy..

Its all about balance, baby! ;)

I'm being stalked by Patience...

2009-02-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

Is it possible to look at this face and not be happy?? Wish I could pinch those chubby cheeks right now! Sooo cute!!

So here's the deal..
Its kinda weird to know that something is so right.. but to also know that there is such a loooong wait ahead of us.. That part kinda sucks! A lot.
So basically, we just have to get over it and relax.

"Patience is a virtue." Right, Mom? :)
No. Patience is a drag.
Its stupid & boring... and often times, tormenting.
Its all in God's timing though. Thankfully He is in control and not us, because we really don't know what we are doing 99.9% of the time... or is that just us?

Stuart and I were just chatting tonight about how quickly all of this seems to be happening now. Truly, we've been hoping and praying for this for years... like 7, probably more like 8.. okay maybe 9...
And. Nothing. Ever. Happened.
So we thought, whatever.. It was a nice dream, coulda been great! Just apparently not for us.
Or so we thought...
As soon as we changed our focus from what we wanted (China) to what God wants for us (Korea)... BAM! The pieces are suddenly zooming together in such a hurry that we are a little freaked out! We're not used to life actually working out! ;) Ha!
Seriously though. What the crap is going on?
Except that for the first time, we are trying (I repeat, trying) to let God lead us to our baby... instead of us telling Him what to do. (That has to be the ultimate in bossiness)
Its almost like when we quit forcing the wrong key into the door & pulled our heads out of our asses, we finally saw that we were breaking into the wrong, stupid house to begin with!
Does that make sense??
Oh but it didn't end there! When we could clearly see that our key wasn't working.. Well, then we tried to break the door down. And when that was a 'no-go', we attempted to squeeze our big ol' behinds through a tiny 3-inch gap under a window. (not a pretty sight)
Yeah, it was ridiculous.
We just didn't trust that God wanted this as much as we do.. We were determined! But He was dragging His feet! C'mon, God!
So we had to figure out a way, with or without His help. Obviously that worked out well.
Ah, yes... and my dear friend, Patience, showed up along the way, of course. Hmmm, seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life..

Funny how we could have possibly thought that our hearts were hurting more than His for the orphaned and abandoned children of the world... wow.
Okay... Clearly rambling on... Sorry... Its late.

Anyway, that's how things are going as of this moment. Still counting down the days til our 1st adoption meeting in less than 3 weeks! Yay!
We'll continue to update you with blogs and posts of random photos & Korean factoids with minimal rambling, when possible. :)
Thanks for sticking around and checking in!

Lotus Lantern Festival

2009-02-16T19:38:00.000-08:00

So maybe I'm getting a little carried away with "cut" and "paste"...
But admit it, this is pretty.

Lotus lantern festival
Seoul, South Korea

Ooooooo......
I think I might have to do that in my house!
Fire hazard??

jujube

2009-02-16T07:28:00.000-08:00

I know you must be wondering about the aforementioned "jujube"!!
Well, here it is!
Fruit.
Red dates.
Fresh ones.
Yum.

And I was on and off Google in less than 5 minutes.. it was awesome :)

Googling and the Godfather..

2009-02-15T21:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry for being a little behind on blogging. I've been sidetracked with the ever-hypnotizing power of Google.
Is it just me or does the computer, namely Google, tend to make time disappear?? What the..?
I swear I sat down to check my email really quick this afternoon and four hours later....
Seriously, the Google time-warp drew me in before I even knew what was happening!
So what have I been doing for hours upon hours?? Basically all things Korean and adoption. We've learned a lot. And there are actually a few pretty cool sites.
One of my favs:
http://littleseouls.mybisi.com/
Its a Korean culture and educational boutique with super cute stuff. They have beautiful hanboks (the traditional Korean dress) and cute books, toys, pjs.

Two little cuties sporting hanboks.... apparently its a bit chilly, too!

Also found today in our Googlefest Time Vortex...
The Dol and its mondo-importance. Who knew??? Not me.
Dols are apparently a pretty important celebration. And by important, I mean, it had better be a good one because its the best party you'll have for the next 6 decades!
The big birthday celebrations in Korean culture.... the Dol (1st birthday) and the Hwangap (60th birthday). Like I said, livin' it up in diapers to.. living it up in diapers! ;)
Just kidding, Dad! I know 60 is NOT OLD!!
Anyway, the history and process of the Dol party is interesting....
In the past, the death rate for children was extremely high for babies in Korea. Many died before their first birthday. After the age of one year, the survival rate steeply increased, making this milestone a very happy one for the child’s parents. It has also been a custom to celebrate a child’s 100 day birthday (baek-il) , but in most areas this birthday is less important than the Dol and any celebrations are smaller in scale.
Doljabee is a Korean 1st birthday tradition where the baby goes around the table and picks up items that attract her. The baby’s future is predicted according to the what she grabs. The first and second items the baby grabs are considered the most important. Usually Korean parents place the items that they want the child to choose near to the edge of the table. The baby’s future is predicted according to the items:

thread: the baby will have a long life
jujube: the baby will have many descendants
book, pencil, or related items: the baby will become a successful scholar
money, rice, or rice cake: the baby will have great wealth

So, thanks to the miracle of Google, we've all been educated on just a wee bit of Korean culture today. Aren't you wondering what the heck "jujube" is now? Guess I'll have to Google it..
Dammit! See?
Just when you think you're out, they drag you back in. ;)
Now, Stuart will probably get excited about a blog... if we're quoting the Godfather, well, that changes everything! Men are so weird.

Conversion cribs, blogs, and future paperchasing..

2009-02-03T20:17:00.000-08:00

We are officially signed up for the "All About Adoption" seminar!!
At "Heaven Sent Children" Adoption Agency in Murfreesboro, TN... March 10, 2009

Its stupid that we're getting a little antsy already. We actually moseyed our happy/crazy butts into Pottery Barn Kids this weekend and looked at a crib... seriously.
Okay, we aren't obsessed yet or anything! It was just so cute! :) And they totally have these cool conversion things that switch the cribs into toddler beds and then into a twin bed. Who knew?? Well, apparently the PB lady knew because she looked at me like I was psychotic when I asked how long a baby is in a crib... like how old usually when they get to use that cool conversion thingy ? She said 2 or 3. I had no idea! 3... really??
I don't think my nephews were in their cribs for 3 years. That's pretty old, isn't it? And big.
Hmmmmm.... Maybe the PB Kids clerk isn't the baby-guru she thinks she is...

On another note, I've been stalking other blogs. I am so thankful for the info people have written about their own current and past adoption experiences. Hopefully at some point, mine can serve as inspiration for someone else.
As we continue our pre-paperchasing extravaganza! :) You adoption peeps, know what I'm talking about!