A video of our little girl! We are all in love:)

This is part of the video we received from Korea of our little Jia. It was taken in December. I edited the video with my iMovie feature on the laptop (very amateur, but fun:). I also added this little Korean Children's song. The name of it is "In our Hearts". Although we can't understand the language, the title seemed appropriate. A little taste for us of what she might feel when she comes home. I have downloaded a whole children's album in Korean and I'm in the process of finding children cartoons in Korean as well, in hopes that she may have a little comfort in listening to them when she is with us. I don't expect to receive another video before we meet her, although we should be receiving a WBC (well baby check) next week. It will give us some information like how tall she is, how much she weighs, if she has been sick etc. I hope it also has some fun info like her interest and a little glimpse into her personality. We just received our Korean/English dictionary......Keep us in your prayers as we try to learn a few key Korean words and phrases! At least TJ knows how to count up to 10 from his Hap Ki Do days!! I just wish he would have learned important phrases like...."gotta potty?"

Has it been awhile???

(Jia with her dear foster Mother)

OK....OK.....so we have taken a little time from posting anything on our blog. The last post documented Miles' 2nd birthday....well, in a couple of weeks he will be 4! Where did the time go? As you know, we are now in the process of bringing home our sweet little Jia. She is 2-1/2 and we couldn't imagine a better way to complete our family. She is from South Korea and we are guessing that we will be traveling somewhere around April to bring her home (although we can not be sure when). We love to talk about and tell anyone who will listen about our journey to bring her home. Many have asked why it takes so long to bring her home once we have a referral. I have copied and pasted this information from another's adoption journey and I hope this helps explain all the details in the paperwork.

Acceptance paperwork is filled out notarized signed and turned in.

Then the wait for legals.

Then once you have legals you can file for I600

Then you wait for I 600 approval.

At the same time you are waiting at anytime you could end up with a "EP" Immigration Permit. (that is on the Korea side)You have to have EP for a Visa Interview.

Once you have I 600 approval you can start calling NVC (National Visa Center) where you will be logged in ( your info is logged into the system) and logged out (your info is sent to the embassy in Korea). (they can give you your case number)

Once you are logged out you can call DC and give them the case number you got from NVC, but it usually takes a day or two before any info shows up. DC can tell you if the US Embassy in Korea has sent out P3 which is a packet of information that the agency in Korea needs to fill out and return to the US Embassy in Seoul.

While you are waiting for DC to tell you that VI is scheduled they may also inform you that your child has made their Embassy Appearance. They can usually see your child's picture in their system from that point on.

Once P3 is filled out and returned to the US Embassy, the US Embassy schedules your child's VI (visa Interview) Once DC tells you this date you know your P3 has been returned from the agency to the embassy.

Usually within 24 hours after your child's visa Interview, DC can tell you your child's visa has been issued and from that point on, sometimes before because it has happened, you can get the CALL!

This is a lot of info and I'm sure once you start reading (or just take one glance at it) it, your eyes will start glazing over. There are a lot of steps and "terms". I enjoy following our timeline and I can do that with peace because we have such a great agency that takes care of all the details.

So where are we in the midst of the paperwork journey?? We are waiting for our EP (Emigration Permit) approval. We were just informed that we were submitted for the EP approval on 2/17. We should receive this within 3-4 weeks. We could get our travel call anywhere from 1-2 months once this is received (because all of the other details listed above are being taken care of). Once we get the travel call we have less than 2 weeks to get ourselves to Korea. We will probably stay there for around a week. We are so blessed to have Tom and Sue coming to our home to stay with our kiddos during this trip!

Miles is two!!

Miles is Two!!!

Happy Birthday Miles!! We love you!

Ethan and TJ just tested for their black belts Saturday. They both did a great job. Ethan has broken boards before, although this was the first time he broke a "big" board....and he did it twice...once with his foot and once with his hand.

I was in my girlfriend's wedding last weekend and so Gracie and I got to dress up for the rehearsal dinner. She is still taking dance and will be in her first dance recital this summer.

Miles is busy being two, learning English, sleeping in his big boy bed and playing with any truck/tractor/car/train he can.

Our next big undertaking........potty training 2008!!

More post on that subject coming soon...

Life before Miles....

It has been a "few" months" since our last post ;v) ...and I finally have a few moments to catch up and update our post....things are very busy and I am trying to remember what life was like before Miles came home. As Miles has had time to settle in we are getting to see his little personality shine through. He is a sweet, happy, laid back and funny little guy. He is also a little monkey and a couple of weeks ago realized that he could crawl out of his pack-n-play AND crib! So my "baby" is now in his big boy bed, in his "big boy" room. From Sept until his new revelation he was sleeping in our room in a pack-n-play...our plan was to move him into his crib after the first of the year....but he beat us to it...!

I will post more later...everyone just realized I was missing and now I am being paged!