"What's in a name?"

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet." - Juliet

 

Violet Rachel? Violet Caroline? Violet Evelyn? Violet June? Violet Maxine? Violet Miriam? Violet Blair? Violet Nadine?

 

So we still have not decided on our sweet daughter's middle name. For some reason Clay and I cannot decide. We feel like the name "Violet" was meant to be. It is the English version of the name given to her by her birth mother. So we want to be able to give her a middle name from us. Why is it so hard to decide? We love her so much, we just want it to be perfect I guess. Also, Clay has his favorites, and I have mine. I also want to keep her Korean name as a second middle name. But do I spell it "Bo Ra" or "BoRa" or "Bora"?  I really would like for us to make a decision before she comes home because her name will most likely be announced at church and I want to make "birth" announcements to mail out. I am not even sure when her name needs to be decided on for a birth certificate/social security card, etc. 

We love old names and I have spent hours looking through baby names of the 20's, 30's, 40's, etc.  We also love family names or a name after someone special to us.  Violet was also Clay's paternal grandmother's name, so its a good name. I love the name Rachel after reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin", I grew up knowing a sweet lady at church we all called "Miss Nadine" or "grandma Nadine" who never had biological children of her own but had more "children" than anyone I know. Maxine was both mine and Clay's grandmother's names. I have a great-great grandmother named Caroline and we also have a good friend named Caroline - and we just think its pretty. The others are just some we like also. It is so hard to decide. We also love the name Charlotte, but it does not sound good with Violet unfortunately. Faith always calls her Violet Paige because that is my mother-in-law's favorite name and they have decided that is what her name shall be, haha! So that will most likely be a nickname! After much debate over Faith's name when I was pregnant with her, her nickname is now affectionately "Faith Amy Maxine Louise James Wayne." You had to be there. 

We will keep going through names trying to decide. I just hope Violet likes her name we choose.  Who am I kidding? I think all kids wish they had a different name at some point right? LOL

Happy Seollal!

Violet is celebrating Seollal, the Korean New Year, this week! From what I have read it is the most important of the traditional Korean holidays. It is a 3 day holiday and most people travel to visit family, dress in their hanboks,  pay respects to their elders (Sebae), give gifts, play traditional folk games, and eat lots of food.

Sebae

 I wish I knew if Violet was traveling or meeting new people, learning cultural customs, or trying new foods. I wonder if she has a hanbok or if she will receive any gifts. I know she should be getting our gifts we sent right around this time! That is exciting to think about! We sure love her and think about her every second of everyday.

새해 복 많이 받으세요! 

Happy New Year, Violet! 

This year is going to bring some amazing changes in all our lives!

More Birthday Moments

Well the birthday post was short...it was just a very painful time being without Violet and we all just tried to get through it. But now I would like to write some more. First of all, I was (and have been) thinking of Violet's birth mother. I wondered if she was thinking of her tiny baby she last saw one year ago. I believe she loved her little Bo Ra very much and that making an adoption plan for her must have been very hard and painful. I am so proud that she was able to give my daughter her birth name. I hope some day I can meet her and thank her for the gift she gave and tell her she is forever a part of our family. Violet just has no idea how many people all around the world were thinking of her on her birthday.
We did have our own little celebrations to commemorate Violet's special day. Clay took Aidan and Faith out for dinner. Then the next day I took them to Fun City (Clay was out of town). When he got back we all shared some cake and took some pictures so hopefully one day she will know we were all thinking of her although she was far away.

 

Having pizza at Fun City

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also sent off Violet's birthday package. I took this picture, but the "sun" toy did not make it in, and I also added 2 Gymboree outfits and a small blanket that matches. I forgot to take pictures of them before I packed them :(. I sent a Burt's Bees "starter kit" and some baby shampoo and diaper rash cream - and spent hours trying to translate all the items into Korean Hangul and printing them off and taping them on each bottle. They are probably all wrong and make no sense, but hopefully the foster mom can figure out what they are! I also sent the foster mother some Red Door perfume, body butter from Bath & Body Works, a Valentines bag with chocolates, a heart hand towel & V-day card, and about 100 pictures of our family (most terrible quality - boo Snapfish). For the birthday girl we sent a birthday card that sings "Happy Birthday", a book that let Clay and I record ourselves reading, 2 pairs of shoes (size 4 - I have no idea if they will fit!), a cream colored with a black floral print baby Gap dress (size 12 mos), a toy phone, Desitin, baby shampoo, & the outfits & blanket I mentioned (I will post some pics I found online).

Here is what the blanket I sent looks like - I found this pic online

Here is a picture I found online of the shirt & pants I sent

 Good news - we are seeing some movement now with EPs! Some other families have already been submitted and approved and they are waiting on passports and travel clearance! That means we could very well be next! It may not be a Valentine surprise like I had hoped, but very soon!

Faith also had her "show day" at gymnastics last week! She is such a great gymnast ;) Aidan also made ALL A's this semester!!! WOOHOO! I have GREAT kids!!!

SNOW DAY!!

Happy First Birthday sweet Violet!!

Today you are one! I am thinking of you and missing you and wishing I could see your face at your tol! I hope you are having a good time! I know you are getting lots of kisses and hugs and prayers on your birthday! I bet you are having your picture taken wearing a beautiful hanbok! Eating rice cakes and fruit! I wonder what items you picked at your Toljabee! I hope I get pictures soon! We love you so much Violet!

Waiting 7 months and some backtracking

June 14th-January 14th...we have been waiting 7 months today...

Back in December we had the opportunity to send Violet a Christmas package. Here are some pictures of what we sent her.

Lets see - there's a musical toy, soft reindeer socks, cashmere booties, teething tablets, a cloth diaper, "Guess How Much I Love You" in Hangul, and a stuffed black cat for Violet. Some soft scented (peppermint I think) Christmas socks, a violet heart necklace (Bo Ra means violet - I prefer to say violet since purple is a word made up by the Crayola company *wink*), and 2 Ghiradelli chocolate bars for the foster mother; and a necktie for the foster dad. I also got a cute reversible tote bag from the farmer's market to put everything in.

I am currently working on sending Violet her birthday package, and will post pictures soon of all that stuff. I am very late on this, but I am WAITING for Snapfish to send me my pictures I ordered in the mail. They are taking forever. They also took forever to send me my pictures for my Christmas cards, and that paired with the fact that we ALL got the flu over Christmas, I never sent out Christmas cards :(.  Here are the pictures we would have put in our Christmas cards had we done Christmas cards! :)

We also ordered a Boba baby carrier (woke up at 5am to get the Black Friday deal!) and tried it out on Faith when it arrived ;)

 Even though we were all sick and had fevers, we still woke up on Christmas morning to open presents!  We did not, however, get to enjoy our traditional Christmas morning Waffle House breakfast :(

More waiting!!! I AM MAD!!!!

So  - if I have this correct - earlier this month, Emigration Permissions were submitted for April referrals. We got our referral in June. It is supposed to take 4-6 weeks for those families to receive E.P. approval...UGH!!!! And then 2-4 weeks after that for a visa, then 2-4 weeks for travel. I am so ANGRY! I cannot believe this!!! February will mark 8 months of waiting for us. I am going to go INSANE if they only submit E.P.s for MAY referrals next and I have to wait another 2-4 MONTHS!!! This just cannot be happening. I am so mad. 

GIVE ME MY BABY!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE: Clay called and talked to our agency to get a a time estimate since I was going nuts and we were told now that it we will most likely get travel call in April. APRIL. GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

Violet is 11 months and New Pictures!

One more month until your 1st birthday!!!

December 8th we got an email from our agency with an update and 4 new pictures Violet! We just think she is so beautiful! I love her little fingers! I can't wait to hold them! Our update tells us she was 16.5 lbs in late November and she has 6 teeth already! She is starting to crawl too! Last week we also received our video! I wish I knew how to upload videos! It is of her and the foster mother opening the gifts we sent. They all laughed at the Spam, lol. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea?


The whole family is currently sick (except me) and it is 2 days til Christmas! I hope they feel better! I was sick with strep throat over Thanksgiving and stayed home. Luckily my family pretty much celebrates Christmas the whole month of December so we have already gone to Little Rock for the family party with my grandma, and the party at Clay's grandparents, and Faith had a church party and Clay & I have been to a church party. Unfortunately, Aidan's church party was a couple days ago and he was too sick to go :(. We are supposed to have Christmas at home and then at my parents on Christmas day. Then the next day we are supposed to go to my granddad's and then Clay's parents. That's a whole lotta Christmas! I hope everyone feels better soon! And I hope I don't catch it!

I sure have enjoyed the Christmas music (thanks to Pandora!), the decorations, the lights (can't wait to be able to go to Silver Dollar City next year thanks to tickets from my in-laws!), and the shopping - but BOY will I be glad when December is over! That means another month closer to getting my baby girl!! This is usually the fastest month of the year but it has really been draaagging on and on! Then I have to make it through January and February...I really hope I don't have to make it through March...but it is possible. I realized that the process starts up again on the Korean New Year, not January 1st so it will be even longer than I thought. Then it is typically a couple weeks to get Visa, then a couple weeks to get EP submission, then a couple more for EP approval, then a COUPLE MORE weeks for travel call...those weeks add up!!

In other news, it is time for me to begin packing up Violet's birthday package! We did send her Christmas package a few weeks ago,  I will post pics later! For now, please enjoy this picture of a cute yellow-haired girl and 2 black cats.