All sunshine and LOTS of Showers...

It's not a weather report...Two weeks ago we were very lucky to have several people throw us Baby Showers!  We had two in just a few days.

The First:

Mark's Co-workers threw us a shower on Monday 11-8 during our lunch break.  We only work a few minutes from each other, I was invited to join everyone for the shower and they served lunch and had a beautiful cake.  We were blessed with many gifts from some individuals and some gifts from the group.

Here are some pictures from the shower and the gifts we received.  Everyone was very generous and we are very thankful for their kindness.

The Second Shower:   My Mom and Sisters threw me a Shower on Saturday 11-13. 

It was a lot of family and several of my friends as well.  We had an early dinner, were definitely showered with many wonderful gifts and some very tasty cake! We do typically not play games at showers, we are more of a chatting and drinking wine kind of group.  I did have one request...we passed out blank world maps and itty bitty pictures of Max.  It was a one question game "Where in the world is Max?"  Everyone had to put his picture where they thought he was.  Everyone seemed to know he was in South Korea, and most everyone got the continent right.  My niece Megan went around and showed everyone where it was!  She had done her homework and had a bit of an advantage;)

Part of the decorations were little Korean Flags.  I had to get a picture with both the South Korean and American Flags.

Here are some pictures from the Shower as well.  We got gifts from near and far.  I even got a surprise package from another AP in waiting Amy!  Thank you, Amy.  When I explained how I knew her, from meeting online, no one seemed to follow, so I said it is kind of like online dating for adoptive moms!

We were very blessed by the generousity of both of these groups and are very thankful we have them in our lives!  Thank you everyone for the wonderful things for Max! We cannot wait until he is able to use everything!

Legals!

We found out yesterday that our legals arrived in Wisconsin on Friday November 12th.  The state will send the legals and a letter to the Federal government and we will start the steps to be able to bring home Max.  The US side is officially underway! 

Care Package sent to Max.

On Friday we mailed our care package to Max.  When I went to the post office to get the box to send it in the lady kept telling me they did NOT ship to Korea, Period.  We went several rounds of...this is going to South Korea, NOT North Korea.  She still did not believe me and kept looking in their database...I of course did not have the address with me, I was just picking up the box.  Then she found something in he database that said we could mail drop it to the country.  Which means to put it in a big bag with a bunch of other peoples packages and they throw it out of a plane.  This option was going to cost several hundred dollars.  Ummmm, no, we would not be doing this.  The she found 2 different Korea entries, but it did not differentiate North or South, she kept interchanging Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North) and Republic of Korea (South) and telling me we could send it to the North but not South and asked if I wanted to do that instead, Huh...no I don't want to send it to North Korea.  Finally, I told her I would check the website when I got home and if it says I can send it to South Korea, I would come back with the address.  Well just in case you were wondering...we can ship a package to South Korea!  Thank goodness, because we had some cute things to send to Max!

We sent some outfits, PJ's, a blanket, toy, mittens, pictures, a book with our voices reading it and a baby toothbrush (kind of a teether with a toothbrush on the end)  since he has 2 teeth at 7 months! We also sent some candy corn and kitchen towels for the foster family.

The mittens we sent, I actually made them!  I did not knit them, I sewed them.  One of the first things I actually completed with my developing sewing skills.  I actually made them from some fleece I had bought for another project and used one of Mark's old shirts for the fabric for the cuffs!

They are not perfect, but they were made with love for my Son! Not bad for a beginner.

The package should make it there in 5 to 10 business days and he should get it when he goes in the last week of November for his monthly well baby check.  Many times adoptive parents get new photos of their children with the contents of the care package, sometimes they are photographed with their foster mothers.  This would be a precious picture to have.  If we get new picture we will share them with everyone.
 

Timeline added...

If you would like to follow along as we check steps off of the list to bring home Max, I started the timeline on the side.  As we get things completed ( if we know they have been completed we will mark the dates they were done)  Once all of the steps are done, We will get our travel call, which means Max is ready to come home and we have 7-10 days to get to Korea and bring home our son!  We will be there 5 to 7 days depending on the timeframe we have and will bring him home.  We only have to go to Korea once and we will come home with him then.  We have been told that it will take about 4 to 5 months for all of the paperwork to be complete, we expect to travel sometime in February.  But it could be sooner...or it could be later.  There is no "due date" with adoption.

"You're not supposed to buy baby clothes...you'll get gifts!"

I have heard this from several people, and practically scolded.  The first time, I was like, yes but I have been WAITING to be able to finally buy clothes for MY baby for years!  It is not as if we will spend a ton of money or that we need alot.  We got 17 garbage bags FULL of clothes from my sister that my nephew has grown out of.  Some were too small, but there are still lots and lots (thanks A) Max will get a ton of use out of.  I am totally grateful for these clothes my nephew wore and any gifts we will get...but what is wrong with wanting to buy a few things that we I like and picked out ourselves myself?

Am I completely out of line here? The way I see it is, this is the fun part!  Why should only other people get to do the fun part?!?

Coincidence? I think not.

There are several reasons why we believe Max was matched with our family.  So many reasons in fact, one might think it was meant to be...

• Max was born on March 31, 2010.  Mark's brother and his late Grandmother also share a March 31st Birthday!
• Months ago, I told several family members that I was going to predict when our child had been born, I stood in my Kitchen and told my Mother in Law, Mark's Aunt and Mark that I was "calling it" that our child was born on the day my Grandmother died....I was really close, he was being born in Korea when we were at my Grandmothers funeral.  I would like to think she told him he would like us!
• Mark's birthday is February 20th, mine is May 9th.  March 31st is exactly 39 days after Mark's Birthday and 39 days before mine! (except when it is a leap year!) 

I think it was fate that we were chosen to be our little boy's parents.  I hope he has a few grandma angels in heaven watching over him and helping him and us on the rest of this journey to become a family.  

The rest of the story...

Of course, the call we have been waiting years for, I missed it.  After making sure my social worker has all of my numbers correct and letting her know she can call me at work, and checking my cell phone all of the time...I missed the call. 

The morning of "the call"  I was working in the office, I had started to work from home, though Mondays are my in the office day.  At 9:15 the power went out and they thought it would take until noon to come back up.  Mark and I had car pooled that day and we have a 40 minute commute one way.  I could not reach him on his cell or at work.  Some of my coworkers suggested that we go for brunch somewhere, so we all left the office and went to a nearby place.  After we got our orders and we were done, excused myself to go to the bathroom.  I checked my phone, there was a text from the office manager that the power was back on and a missed call from our Social Worker...20 minutes before, I apparently had not heard my phone ring.  I ran outside and called her back.  She was on the phone with someone else, I asked to be put on hold, the person who answered said...I will see how long she will be...I blurted out my name and said "tell her it's me!"  She said "excuse me?"  I was worried I sounded rude, and just said I am returning her call she is expecting me to call back...I wasn't sure I didnt even bother to listen to the voice mail she left!

I waited on hold for what seemed like 20 minutes...it was more like 2.  I paced and paced and paced she came on the line and said..."you've been matched!"  I almost passed out...immediately started to cry and I am not sure what I said, she told me she should have asked if I was sitting down.  I said "But I wasn't!!" 

I called Mark right away, he was shocked to say the least. 

A call you wait years for and we were both surprised...at some point your mind doesn't let you beleive it will actually happen.  I am so glad it did!  It is slowly sinking in that this is real and we cannot wait to bring Max home to his forever family.