14 Months old

Today Max is 14 months old.  It is hard to believe that we met him almost 8 weeks ago! He is doing remarkably well.  He has settled into our little family as if he was meant to be here...that's because he is!

He does some of the cutest things.  Here are a few...I may be able to come up with 14!

*Max has the cheesiest little smile when he is happy, he squishes his little face up and shows all his teeth.
*He will never smile for the camera, I have so many pictures of the top of his head and the side of his face or a really close closeup.
* He says "UP" alot, he uses it for wanting to be picked up, put down in the chair out of the chair.  Pretty much whenever he wants to be somewhere else.
* Max has used mama and dada correctly a few times. 
* Max knows that he is Max, when we ask him where Max is he pats his belly.
* He loves to take a bath, he is happiest in the bath, he can splash and play for a long time.
* He is starting to climb on everything.  If I am on the couch he will want up, then he uses me to climb up over the back of the couch onto the counter behind it.
* Max loves to take a big drink out of his sippy cup and open his mouth and let it run down his neck, he thinks it is hilarious.
* When he does manage to actually drink something he will very quietly say, Ahhhhhhh as if he is shy or something.
* Max is a social butterfly.  It may take a few minutes...but he will approach almost anyone. He loves to have company.
* Max will flirt with all the girls. He flashes his cute smile to any girl at any time.  I bought him a shirt that says "lock up your daughters" we will be beating them off with a stick.
*As active as he is, he will snuggle in for a little while anyway. 
* Max will dance to any music, a commercial, a toy you name it.  He actually has a little rhythm too!
* Max is cute and he knows it, he will do something he is not supposed to and just give a cute little smile and a giggle, this must have worked for him in the past, it sometimes works now too.

First Easter

Some pictures of Max on his first Easter, with his Easter Basket.  Also a shot of him giving his cousin Alex a Kiss on Grandma's lap.

 Max is adjusting really well to his new surroundings and parents, better than we expected! Max is sleeping from about 8:30 pm to about 6:30 am now.  We are still working on a consistent nap schedule.  Quite a lot of progress with the sleep in the last week or so.

Here is a picture of Max with his Great Grandma.

More later.

Getting to know you...

We have had Max for 2 weeks.  We are slowly getting to know each other. 

Here are some tidbits:
*He is a funny kid with lots of quirks and tons of personality. 
*He is certainly a cutie and likes to get his way. 
*We are getting on a schedule and he will come to both of us for things now.
* I am pretty sure he said 'No' today
* He likes to have company come over and play.
* He has a real sweet side, when his cousin came over, who is also 1 year old, he walked over and hugged her when they arrived and he fed her a puff later in the day.
* Max.Is.A.Dancer...he will dance to commercials and many of his toys...even if we hum.
* He is a lot of fun and smart as a whip.  He is into everything, and has figured out many things around the house and will wander around like he owns the place!

Of course I could not post without new photos...I would hear it if I didn't

We will post more pictures soon!

We're Home!

We traveled home yesterday.  It was a long day, as it was Saturday for about 38 hours.  Max did amazing on the plane he slept for 10 hours, which of course meant that he did not sleep last night This morning until 6:30.

A few pictures during our journey home.

In Insadong before leaving for the airport:

Helping us Pack...

 

 

At the Airport waiting for the plane.

 

 

 

 

 

 He traveled well and slept most of the way. 

We arrived home and he was happy to discover lots of toys!

Having a snack with Pororo!

Making himself at home.

 We are doing well, he is totally a Daddy's boy, He is getting more comfortable with Momma every day.

Tour of Seoul

On Friday we took a tour of Seoul.  Max did really well in the carrier with Daddy.  He even took a little nap.  He loved to be on the bus and to be outside.  Here are are few pictures of our day.

On the bus: 

At the Palace:

 North Seoul Tower: We added a lock to the fence for Max with his name and family day. 

 Lunch with our beautiful tour guide, she was very nice and so sweet and complimentary to Max.

Max is doing Well

Its about 6 am in Korea on Friday Apr. 8th.   Max took his first bottle at about 10 pm last night.  He slept until about 3 am and took another one then.  Went back to sleep and is still sleeping.  Foster Mom said he usually sleeps till about 7am.  He was finally in a playful mood after he took his first bottle from us last night.  Here is a picture and another video.  He likes to bang on things.

Today we are taking a guided city tour with him at 9:30.  We did get him outside yesterday for a short walk to some bad Burger King food for dinner.  He seemed to be very content while outside in the carrier.  We were told he likes being outside.  He did a lot of waving at people.

We have Max

We met Max for the first time a few hours ago.  We are back at our hotel and he is sleeping.  Here are a few pictures of our first meeting and him sleeping on Kristin's shoulder.

We also have a video of Max wondering through the Holt office just before his final medical check.  The lady in the black and white blouse is his foster Mommy.

Love Mark & Kristin

We Made it!

We made it to Seoul, South Korea in the early morning of April 6th.  The flight was fine, no issues.  Just really long. 

We wandered around most of the day since we could not check in to our hotel until the mid afternoon.  We did some shopping and walked a lot. 

Here are a few of our stops along the way.

Our plane once we landed

Airport Terminal

Who knew a glutinous rice donut would be so good! Also banana and some square thing...

 The mix of old and new in this city is amazing. This is the Buddhist Museum near our hotel

 Stopped for some Mandu...very yummy.

 Namdaemun Market...we only went through part of it, it's huge.

 We knew we walked really far when we realized we we coming up on North Seoul Tower...which is on the other side of town from where we are staying...We will certainly go back with Max and his lock...more to come on that.

Next post will involve some cuteness I am sure.  Prayers are welcome!

Travel call!

On Friday April 1st we finally got our Travel Call.  The time since then has flown by.  We have already left and are in Korea already! More to come!

All we need is Max to make the nursery complete

We have finished the nursery a few weeks ago.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out.  We just need to install the new light fixture and I may hang the comforter on the wall, just not sure how to go about it.

On the changing table I put the wall decals that I bought, they were meant for the wall...but they didn't stick, so I put them on the changing table, they were too cute not to use.

Some of my favorite things in the room....

I know there is carpet in the room...but the rug was too cute to pass up, and it makes a little reading area in front of the bookcase.

This does not go with the theme...but I found this cute Pororo table at H-Mart when I went to Atlanta in January... we made it fit in my suitcase so I could bring it home.  For those who don't know, Pororo is a really popular cartoon in Korea,  Maybe like D*ra is here...I had to get this in particular, since Mark is such an ice fisherman.  I hope it helps to make Max more comfortable in our home.  I can just picture my little guy having a snack with his buddy Pororo...soon, very soon.

Visa Physical Scheduled

Max will have his Visa Physical on March 23rd.  Next week Wednesday!  We could get our travel call anytime after that day!

We know for sure we won't get the call until he has  this appointment.  We can relax and take a break for a few days.  The previous batch of physicals were on March 3rd, many of those families got their travel calls yesterday.  So if you apply the same timeline...we would get our travel call on April 4th!

I feel like I did a few weeks before our wedding...you know the time when you just want to run away to Vegas and just get married already...Only this time I want to run to Korea and get Max already!

Hang on Max...we will be there soon!

Close...but no Cigar...YET! (EP Approved!)

We were approved for Max's Emmigration Permit (EP) this was the last major thing we needed.  This is the Korean Governments go ahead that Max may leave Korea and become a permanent resident of the US.  There are a few "housekeeping" items that need to be finished up on the Korea side.

* Visa physical (VP) this is to say Max is healthy enough to fly.
* Visa Interview: Apparently this is where they interview the immigrant as to why they want to leave the country...I wonder what he will say?  In all reality, they need to check to make sure there is a live human attached to all of the paperwork.
*Embassy Appearance:  Fancy way of saying passport photo and issuance of one way passport.
* TRAVEL CALL: This is when they call and say all of the above ducks are finally in a row...and we hop a plane to Korea.

Our best guess and what our agency is predicting is travel call in about 3 weeks!  Whatever information we get we will certainly share.


We are nearing the end of this marathon...we reached mile 25...this is the point that you will make it on adrenaline alone, you can crawl the rest if you must, limping and gimping...we can nearly see the finish line. And we are so ready to go and get our little boy and be a family of 3...that is when the real race starts....especially since Max is walking 100% independently!

Nothing. Nada. No News.

We have fielded many, many questions about Max and his pending arrival:  I will answer them here and summarize at the end.  WARNING: The theme here is...we know nothing. 

When do you go? Don't know yet
What is going on? No news
Have you heard anything yet? Nope
When will he be home? This is the Million Dollar Question
Will he be home by his Birthday? Hope so...no gaurantees
Did you book your tickets yet? Cant until we get "the call"
How much notice do you get? None...we have 10 days to get there one we get "the call"
What is taking so long? I have no idea
How long will you be there? 5-7 days total...we will get him on day 3 or 4 and stay a bit, then come home
Are they speaking English to him? Probably not...though we sent him a book with a recording of us reading the story.

Those are all the questions I can think of right now.  If you have questions, leave a comment or email us.

WHERE ARE WE AT?

Basically, there are 3 big pieces remaining.

Emmigration Permit (EP): We were submitted for the EP on 1-31.  It takes several weeks to be approved...so far we have waited 3 weeks and 3 days. 
Visa Physical (VP): This can be scheduled once we have our EP.  They typically have been taking place about 2-3 weeks after EP approval. 
Travel Call (TC): This is "The Call" that says Max is ready...get on a plane! This takes place about a week after the VP. 

As of right now, once our EP is approved it will take about another month.  Max will turn 1 in 5 weeks.  Please pray, think good thoughts, send good vibes, for us.  Trying to be optimistic but realistic at the same time.

What we have been waiting for...EP was submitted on 1-31

The item that has been holding us up was submitted for Max on 1-31.  His Emigration Permit application was sent to the Korean Ministry yesterday.  So...what does this mean?

* Once it is approved the final steps can take place for us to get Max. 
* It has been taking approximately 2 weeks to be approved.
* Our best guess at this point is being able to go to Korea some time in the first 3 weeks of March...BEFORE his first birthday!

Once we are approved we will likely get our travel call 2-4 weeks later.  Once we get the travel call we will immediately book tickets and get there within a week. 

If our approval comes in 2 weeks and we get our travel call 2 weeks later we could be on our way by the first week in March!

We are so super excited about this...we have to do our final projects so we are ready!

Every day is a day closer...

I have been a crazy analytical lady for the last few weeks...stalking others' timelines and crossing off who has been submitted for their Emmigration Permit.  Last week, on the 19th the 3rd batch of EP's were submitted for Holt, we may or may not have been in that batch...sometimes our agency is a few days behind in notifying familes they were submitted.  We were right at the cut off.  The end of the families that were notified were referrals at the end of September, we got our referral on 10-4-10.  The other people at the top of the list are also with our agency...there is a margin of error here.  So I think I will give it a 50/50 chance we got in the last batch...if not, I am calling it...we are in the next batch!

The next would be submitted after the Lunar New Year which is most of next week.  So, I think the next batch will be the first full week in February.  And I really think we will be in it! Travel timelines once approved have not yet been established...However, people have been quoted 4-6 weeks.  We will likely travel within the next 8 to 10 weeks.  Which is much better than we initially thought.  Please keep us in your prayers...Max needs to be united with his forever family...and we all need to get on with our life as a family. 

Hobbies...some went great! Some not so much!

After I took my blogging break, prior to seeing Max's photo for the first time, I decided I needed a hobby or three.  I signed up for a knitting class, I drafted a fantasy football team and bought a sewing machine. 

KNITTING:

My knitting class took place in October, we got our referral for Max on October 4th, I was so scatterbrained I missed the first class.  I got behind, never really caught up and hated it.  The class was fun, wine was involved but knitting stressed me out! Our project was to make a dishcloth...here is the finished product. 

I know it is terrible...but we do use it.  Mark actually told me I should make more! Well if it gets him to do the dishes,  I may have to think about it?!?

FANTASY FOOTBALL:

I did have some help from Mark but I made all of the final decisions regarding my team.  I did pretty good for a Rookie.  I made it to the playoffs, but lost in the first round.  It at least kept me distracted every Sunday for the last few months!  That was the goal.

SEWING:

This was by far my greatest success!  I actually enjoyed it and made a few things I am really proud of.  I had made some Mittens for Max, that I sent in his care package.  I made myself some flannel PJ pants. And I liked it so much I decided to make all of the Nieces and Nephews pillows for Christmas with their first initial on it.  I got many compliments and was pretty pleased with myself! I plan to make a pillow for Max too with his name on it.

My nephew Connor, who is 5 years old, opened his pillow he excitedly asked me "How did you know my name starts with a C!"...I told him I was really smart ;) 

It was nice to have a few distractions while we wait for Max to come home.  We still have lots of things to do, but progress is being made. 

Busy day on the Adoption front...

Today we received a new well baby check up report, more information on Max's current foster family and word that the National Visa Center sent our approval to the US Embassy in Seoul, South Korea.  I will break it all down for you.

Well Baby Check: 12-27-2010

Max is walking one step independently, he has 8 teeth (3 new ones since last month!) and grew just a little... He is now 27.5 inches tall and weighs 17 pounds 10 oz.

Foster Family Info:

I won't share too much, but we do know that his current foster family in Seoul he has a Foster mom and dad, as well as 2 foster sisters and a foster brother in their teens and early 20's.  Max is their first foster child that they have had.  I am sure they all love him very much.

National Visa Center:

The United States side of the paperwork is completely done, the US Embassy in Korea has a few things to do, but for the most part the US is done.  The US gave us their stamp of approval so to speak and the last major thing is the Emigration Permit(EP)...that is where this whole journey gets really interesting...

Where does that leave us? You may want to skip to "the bottom line"

Well...this is where the possible delay comes in.  I will try to explain it the best I can.  The EP is what we need for Max to get his passport and the Korean governments approval for him to leave the country permanently and get his one way Visa/Passport to come to the US.  This is the last big piece of the puzzle...and the trickiest.

Each calendar year the Korean Government gives each of the agencies a certain number of EP's for the year.  This is their way of trying to limit the number of children that are adopted internationally.  However this has no bearing on how many children are relinquished to each agency in any given year...so basically there are more babies that EP's available.   Because of this, our agency ran out of EP's for 2010 for families matched with a baby in July 2010...We were matched with Max on 10-4-10...so there are many families ahead of us that have been waiting longer.  However, it now 2011! They got a new stock of EP's for the year and they are again starting to process them.  We know we are not in the first group to be submitted...the first group should be submitted this week, it is unclear at this time how many groups will be submitted in the next few weeks, we could be in the second group...or the twelfth group...we won't know until we are notified.  However, I may be able to figure out when we are getting close. 

The Bottom Line:

Once we are in fact submitted for EP, we should be notified, processing takes 2-6 weeks, and typically your travel call would be within the next 3-5 weeks after that.  So once we know we are submitted for EP we will travel 5 to 11 weeks later.  We remain optimistic that we will travel some time in April, maybe a little sooner...maybe a little later.  But once we know we have our EP...I will be letting everyone know.  So if you see a post about EP...it means we are getting much much closer! 



Welcome 2011...glad you are here

We are very glad that 2011 looks to be our best year yet.  Looking back at the last few, there have been some highs and lows.  Some celebration and disappointments.  But 2011 will bring life changing events.  We will become parents for the first time, Max will be coming home.  The timeframe for this is still unclear...but it is really happening.  Now that there is a new year there is a whole new bunch of Emmigration Permits available for the babies that have been matched with families.  This is the step we are not so patiently waiting for, now that it is 2011, we are closer than ever to bringing home our little guy.  We have been getting ready and getting excited.  We cannot wait to be able to post pictures of our entire family together at last in the same place. 

We are so glad it is 2011...big things will be happening...we will be happy to report about all of it.