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.

Max was so blessed on Christmas....

Everyone...including Santa was very generous to Max this Christmas.  I was overwhelmed by the many wonderful gifts we received for Max.  He got lots of neat toys, ornaments and keepsakes. 

For the first time since we have lived in our house Santa paid us a visit!

Both of us took turns opening Santa's gifts and took pictures of everything for Max.  Here are a few...

Mommy with some cars...

Daddy with a Helicopter...

All of Santa's gifts...

Sorry some of the pictures are fuzzy...

I-600 Approved!!!! (this is a good thing)

We got the letter today that our I-600 was approved on 12-22-2010.  Which is the United States side of the paperwork, the timeframe on this document is all over the board anywhere from 1 week to 16 weeks.  We waited a little over 4 weeks once we were logged into the system, which is not so bad.  We were also supposed to be re-fingerprinted since our prints expire on 1-2-11.  So I think we do not have to go back again.   There is one more document that we need in order to get the US side 100% done and we are thinking it may already be done.  This will mean that we will be only waiting on the Korea documents.  We are certainly relieved to have this step done.  Remember to follow the timeline on the side to see what we have left...the list is getting shorter!

Our Christmas was wonderful and I will post some pics and tell you all about it later this week.  This was one of the best gifts we got for Christmas....the gifts just keep coming!

Special Christmas Ornament for Max

A few weeks ago I was shopping at T*rget...looking at the ornaments.  There were a few cute "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments.  I was conflicted.  Yes, it is Max's first Christmas.  But he is not home with us. 

I posted a question on my adoption message board looking for advice and what others in this same situation have done.  I got lots of responses, mostly others  thought that I should buy one this year and one next year. 

Shortly after this I got a message from another Adoptive Mom, Misty.  She wanted to make an ornament for Max!  She was already making one for her daughter that is waiting to come home and offered to make one for Max.  I gladly accepted her offer and sent her our address.  About a week later there was a big envelope in my mailbox, a very beautiful ornament with Max's picture on it.  I did not know what to expect...but it surpassed my expectations.  It was a wonderful gift, at a time of the year I am finding difficult to get through. 

Here is a photo of the ornament on our tree: ( the picture does not do it justice)

It says:

Born in Our Hearts Our Blessing Max

Waiting for us in Korea 2010.

What a wonderful gift from one waiting momma to another.  The Friends I have met during this journey have helped me in so many ways.  I am truely thankful for the blessings of this support system!  Thank you Misty!

New pictures of Max!! and a medical update!

On  Thursday we received two new pictures of Max!

The first is a picture of him with his foster mother and the care package items we sent him.  It is a wonderful yet strange feeling to see your son half way around the world wearing an outfit you picked out for him and send him in the mail.  We had to block out his foster mothers face for privacy reasons, but let me tell you she has the biggest smile on her face.  He is most definitely being well taken care of :)

The other is a picture that was  taken the same day, He had hand surgery (they often send pictures with new medical information)  As many of you know, he was born with an extra thumb on his right hand.  He has surgery to remove the extra thumb on November 23rd.  These pictures were from November 26th.  We did not know he was going to have surgery.  It was just as well that we did not know beforehand, I would have worried for weeks.  His eyes are just as bright and he looks to be doing well.

These new photos made our week Month! I was certainly having a hard time believing it was all real.  This was just what I needed to carry on!

Max is now 8 months old and he currently weighs 17.41 pounds up just a little from last month and is 27.28 inches, he also has 3 new teeth on top! for a total of 5, 2 of them are his bottom teeth.  he can stand on his own, crawl and walk along the furniture!  Wow things are just passing us by.  We will definitely have to chase him by the time we bring him home.  He had gained almost 2 pounds last month and I was a little worried he would be a BIG baby by the time he comes home.  He is a healthy, happy growing boy! We cannot wait to bring this little guy home!!! So far 2 months waiting, hopefully only 3 or 4 to go, we shall see.