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Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year Niko!!!

Mum and Dad are coming to get you this year. Hopefully very soon. We love you and hope we get the call to come and get you in the next couple of weeks :)

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Trying to stay encouraged

Well, we still haven't heard anything yet and it is becoming harder and harder to stay encouraged. I know we will eventually get him, but we were told it might be any day, so our hopes got too high. I guess it will be next year before we hear anything. This is definitely the most excruciating time in the whole process, because you know he is only a bit of paperwork and a phone call away. And yet it takes forever!!! My case worker has been so great and the agency we are going through has also been awesome, it's just hard to not know what we are still waiting for. Other agencies are saying that their parents may have to wait until February before they can bring their babies home. I SO hope we don't have to wait that long. I worry that the longer Niko stays there, the more attached he becomes to his Foster Mother and the harder it will be for him to transition with us. I guess there is nothing we can do about it so we shouldn't stress, but it's hard!!!

I wonder if he had a good Christmas day and whether they had a tree. I feel awful because we haven't been able to really send them anything except photos. I hope she doesn't feel that we don't care about her as i haven't even sent photos. My thinking was that we were going to be seeing them soon anyway and i have a bunch of gifts for her. I hate unknowns!!!!! (Please excuse the griping) Every adoptive parent goes through this stage because you are so close and yet you don't know HOW close you are. So if you are planning on ever being an adoptive parent, please be prepared for a LOT of waiting. The reward is worth it, but your patience is definitely tested :)

Keeping my fingers crossed for the call very soon.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Still Waiting!!!

Well it is two days away from Christmas and we still have not heard from Korea. So i am thinking we will definitely not get Niko until January. I'm a little sad, but there's nothing we can do about it so we are going to try and go about business as usual. We will be thinking of him Christmas Day and wondering what he is doing and whether his foster mother has a Christmas tree and what he might have gotten for Christmas. I wish we could have sent him something, but we can't send care packages through this agency. He'll be home soon enough and we will be able to celebrate then :)

*** Sleep tight my little boy. Mummy loves you!!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Christmas Spirit

It's been hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year. Not because we are agonizing, waiting for Niko, but because we are so busy getting everything else ready and working a full time job that i have no energy to put a Christmas tree up and figure out where to put it in our tiny condo. So it is going to be all things as usual at our house I'm afraid. Maybe next year we will finally be able to get a tree and decorations up :)

Monday, December 13, 2010

Happy 8th Month Birthday Niko!!!

Our son turned 8 months old today. Hope he is having a wonderful day with his foster mother.
We love you sweet boy :)

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

My new Converse shoes to celebrate Niko!!!

OK, so if you know me well, you know i am a bit of a Converse freak!!!! I couldn't resist designing my own Converse through Converse.com to celebrate Niko. They turned out awesome and i just HAD to show you :)

Saturday, December 4, 2010

One thing i know for sure...

Is that you always think you are just waiting on THE CALL, and they neglect to tell you that your I600 Approval is only one of about 4 more things that have to happen before you do. So since we got the I600 approval, we have had to be logged into the National Visa Center and then logged out. Then they have to send notification to the U.S. Embassy in Korea so that they can schedule a Visa Physical and a separate Visa Interview. Once those are done, which can take a month, then the findings are sent to another unit and the Travel Certificate is issued... THEN you get the call!!! There's still a ways to go. I'm hoping this will all happen in record breaking speed and Niko will be home with us soon. It's exhausting not knowing when and how things are supposed to happen.

Tim and I went shopping today to buy our gifts for the foster mother and others who will and have worked with us. It is traditional in Korea to give gifts and we have thought long and hard about what to buy. You must buy American products as so many are made in China or Korea. So here is what we bought to represent our home. I have also drawn a picture of a Koi Fish & Lotus flower for the Foster Mother.



Monday, November 29, 2010

Still waiting!!!

Well, we didn't get any calls over the Thanksgiving break OF COURSE!!! But we are keeping our fingers crossed for this week :) You never know when it's going to happen and if you are delusional to think that it might happen soon or if it's not going to happen until January. So we keep plugging away at work and getting things ready and trying not to freak out. Pretty soon this will all be over and we won't know what to do with ourselves and will probably be overwhelmed with having a baby in the house for the first time. It's best to enjoy the quiet moments and sleep-ins because they won't happen for a long time...but it's hard!

Monday, November 22, 2010

UPDATE!!!

I just found out that we are next in line to get the call from our agency. I thought there were a bunch of couples ahead of us, so that was a shock. The agency also said that they have not received word that visas have run out and that there are still families traveling, so we could very well get THE CALL before Christmas!!! Stay tuned :)

Planning for the trip

So now the craziness begins. We have to think small and lite when packing, but also casual but nice for meeting the foster mother and Niko for the first time. We are only taking a backpack each and a diaper bag. So we have to be selective because we have to take gifts with us as well as clothes for about 4-5 days. So much to do and so little time. I will be leaving my job as well so i have to train someone to take my position and they haven't found anyone yet. Getting very nervous about that because my job is so important to this company and takes several months to really learn. I could leave at any point now sooooooooo!!!!! :/
My head is spinning and it's a little overwhelming but we'll make it :) Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and kind words. We really appreciate it!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Finished Niko's desk :)

I finally finished Niko's desk. Thanks to all who helped paint it at my shower (see pictures of them painting it in the Baby Showers blog below). I put all the finishing touches on it as i am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to art LOL!! And here are the results.



Friday, November 19, 2010

We got our I600 approval today!!!!

OK, to most of you this will seem foreign, but Tim just called and told me we received our I600 approval today. This means that American immigration has agreed to allow Niko to come home. Now all we need is a visa from Korea for him to travel to the U.S. This is a the only thing standing in the way of us getting our son. This is huge!!!! We are so excited. We are coming Niko...hold on!!!

The Waiting Game!

As many adoptive parents can relate, these minutes, hours, days, weeks and months that go by as you wait for the next step in the process to clear, are so excruciating. It' s the not knowing when each step is going to be completed. Some parents who started after you have already jumped ahead while others who have waited since last year are still no closer. You know that one day this will all be a distant memory, but when you are going through it, it seems to last forever. I am trying to enjoy the days i have left as a childless couple. I'm sure i will yearn for these days again. Staying busy is always helpful (which i am always busy!!!). Little Niko will be home someday soon. I wish we could get in one last vacation before lock down begins LOL! A trip home would be amazing, especially this time of year. I can't wait to take Niko home and let him experience how awesome New Zealand is :) We are a travel couple, so i'm sure he will get to experience lots of great things.

Baby Showers

I was lucky enough to have 2 separate baby showers put on by three wonderful friends Meredith, Nikki and Andrea and another by my sweet mother :) Here are some of the photos from the showers.