Happy 9 months & Happy Halloween!

You are nine months old now my sweet girl!  Are you walking yet?!
I know I said a few posts back that our EP quotas were met and then turned out it was a false alarm and all was right with the world again...WELL...EP quotas have been met for real this time. UUUGH. All I could think at first was "NOOOOOOO!!!!!" But now I am trying to stay calm by telling myself the wait will start up again in late January and hopefully we will still travel around February, which was always the guesstimated time anyway. So I think we will all survive this. The process had begun progressing so quickly up until this point, there was the thought in the back of my head that we could travel in December, but that will not be possible now.  To be positive - #1. I guess I can "relax" knowing there will be no traveling abroad until at least late January (if one can relax when their child is overseas). I am TeRRiFieD of flying and traveling to a foreign country (which I have never done).  Sometimes I wonder if I can even do it. There is the option of having Violet flown to us. But more than the fear I want to see her home country and I know the foster mother loves for the families to come meet them. It is the least I can do for her. #2. There are only about 3 or 4 families (at least what I can tell from the forum) who are still ahead of us. So there is the exciting possibility that Korea will get all our paperwork done in the meantime and we can all go at once when the new year comes! #3 We were given the estimated wait time of 8-12 months which would be February-June. So anything will be better than June and we may only have to wait until February!
God knows the right time to send our children to us when we leave it up to Him and let Him take control of the situation.

Tonight, Faith had a Halloween party with her playgroup and Aidan went too. All those little kids LOVE him, he was the hit of the party! Those kids climbed on him, and jumped on him, and hung from all over, and he LOVED it! I love that I have such a sweet, kind son who loves little kids and is so good with them! Faith had a good time, she dressed up as Sleeping Beauty. I had bought her a plush butterfly costume (with fleece pants) and it was 80 degrees outside! So last minute I found a $7 blonde wig (it was actually a High School Musical "Sharpay" - yes I had to google that - wig with a crown already attached!) and she already had the dress and shoes! Of course this wig only stayed on about 10 minutes. Aidan just wanted to wear all black and be scary. I found this awesome black mask at a Halloween store and a black "Scream" robe from Target. Halloween is so much fun! We have our "Fall adoptive families get-together" tomorrow afternoon at the Corn Maze in Cave Springs. Other families in our area who have adopted from Korea get together about every 6 months and plan an event. I planned this one, which did feel a little odd/sad since I don't have my child home yet. But I can't wait to see everyone and ask them lots of questions!
Next weekend my parents are having a Halloween party for our church family. We will roast marshmallows and hot dogs and take scary walks through the woods! WoooOOOooo! And we will possibly go trick-or-treating Sunday evening after worship. Gonna be a fun holiday!
Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.

Faith loving on her "Bubby" at the party

Two Years . . . Just Sayin'

While the super cute cats help with the wait, our son and daughter are great too. They are usually the only distraction I need from thinking about the interminable adoption process. Ironically, one of the reasons we chose the Korea program and Dillon was because the time line was shorter than some other programs. Ultimately, I have faith in God regarding His control over this process. We feel as though we have been blessed circumstantially and financially throughout the process.
Good night, Violet. I love you!
-CLAY

Hello October 2010...

We began our adoption process by attending an informational meeting in October 2008. We immediately went home and began filling out application #1. So we have always considered this date the beginning of our process. So it has now officially been 2 years. We are STILL WAITING. I have had friends and family who have gotten pregnant, have had their babies, and they are now walking and talking during this process! I am happy for them, I am just trying to give an idea of how long this wait has been! I really hope we get an updated picture and video soon. Hopefully November. I would just really like to know what size Violet is wearing. Moms care about that stuff.

But I do have some super cute cats to entertain me during my wait! ;)

Miss V is 8 months! And no more EPs...

Happy 8 months my sweet girl! What are you wearing today? What size do you wear? What time did you wake up? Did you have a nap? Maybe 2? What did you eat? Did you have a bath? Did you like it? Are you crawling? Are you pulling up? Did you laugh today? Did you give anyone a kiss? Did you get a hug today? I know you did! How long is your hair? How much do you weigh? Are you ticklish? I miss you...
Well, we got some bad news today...Eastern has submitted Emigration Permissions through February. I just felt like we would travel around that time, but now it will be longer. They will start issuing EPs again in February, but we are not at the top of the list. So now it looks like maybe March or April? This is very sad. *sigh*
Tonight Clay and I are going to a Kiwanis Installation Dinner. Clay is being installed as president elect. So, we are dressed up and grandma and papa are watching the kids and - uh oh! we are late! Gotta go!

Education Requirements

We are working through the education requirements. We have had a slow start on that. Amanda and I are both reading a book and we have completed one online class.
-CLAY

Someone else is holding my child . . .

I also find it hard to blog about this. I feel very certain that I have three children now. However, I do not get to hold/hear/hug/kiss/see one of them. It's pretty much emotionally crippling, so I avoid this blog. I did attempt to post for her 7 month milestone, but I see that it is not here. We're almost to the next 21st by this time. On Tuesday, Violet will be 8 months old. I wonder what she smells like. I also wonder what her little hands and toes look like.
-CLAY

7 months old and hard to write it...

My baby girl is 7 months old!!
So, apparently Clay and I had a breakdown of communication. I thought he had written a post about Violet turning 7 months and so I did not! I think about my precious daughter on the 21st of every month. I have also ignored my blog because it is just too painful sometimes. My way of coping during this agonizing waiting process has been to simply not think about it. Posting on my blog is emotional for me and it takes me a long time because I just cry and cry like a big baby and I typically have a 4 year old hanging on me every second of the day and there just isn't much time. But good ol' grandma wanted the little monkey to sleep over this weekend so I have time to write! Yay!
I have not seen a picture nor an update on Violet since June, and I am not even sure how old she was in those pictures/video. SO I wrote to my caseworker and she told me that a staff member was going to Korea in NOVEMBER! So I should be getting pictures, a video, and an update then! And that should also mean that I will be able to send another care package! I am so excited! I wish it was sooner! I have been keeping up with as many other Korean adoptive families in my agency that I know of and so far I have been noticing a pattern I am quite anxious and excited about! I don't want to get my hopes up, but speculation has lead me to believe that 3-4 families have been traveling EVERY month this year! And we are now #10 down the list (on the UNofficial waiting list on the forum) which could possibly mean we would be traveling in NOVEMBER! But I don't want to get my hopes up...really...Our 8-12 month wait would put us between February-June 2011. But if we travel in 3 months, I have soooo much to do! I have not gotten any of my education requirements completed! We have to complete a CPR class and lots of online classes and read lots of books! Oh boy, I am getting nervous!

In other news, my other baby girl had a fun Saturday the 4th! First, in the morning she was in our town's parade with her square dancing group!

Then later, her group danced at the annual Clothesline fair! And boy was she and her little group just the cutest EVER!
!
Here are my 2 oldest in the car waiting to go to the parade! Aren't they cute?!