Bring on 2012...Bring on a Referral

Oh I have never been so happy to enter a new year...bring on 2012 because I know great things are to come!  Referrals have been so slow the last few months, and we can only hope that they will pick up come January when new exit permits are granted and families start to travel again.  These are families who have been waiting since fall 2010 to go and pick up their little ones.  I had the pleasure this week of finally meeting up with 2 other moms from our agency both at different points in the adoption process.  One has her little one home and the other is waiting to travel in early 2012....she's one of those who received a referral in fall 2010.  This was totally what I needed right now to get me all pumped up for our referral and start preparing for what is to come.  So after this lunch date, I decided to have everything ready on January 1, 2012 to accept our referral.

I spent yesterday gathering up 10 pictures of our house.  These pictures are given to our agency to share with Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS) when we accept our referral.  As you can see, these pictures had to be mounted on paper with our family name and a description of who is in them.  Tried to hit the highlights with Grandma, Grandpa, Grammy, Pops, Aunts, Uncles, Nieces, Nephews, front of house, back of house, and a few of our rooms.  We were informed to not have any pets visible.  Families in S. Korea tend not to have pets, so better just to leave them out.  I do wish we could have included Ollie in there so our little one could have met him.  Along with these pictures we also need to have a few other pieces of paperwork on job status and finances which are all ready to go as well.  With this project complete, we're all ready to say YES and welcome a little one into our family when the time comes.

So today I moved on to preparing our first care package to our little one.  The families (moms) at our agency have taken it upon themselves to set up an online group to stay in touch, share ideas and pictures, provide support, and post who is traveling when.  Another one of those things I just learned about recently and am so excited to connect with them, it makes it so real!  As families travel, if you can get them a ONE GALLON Ziploc of stuff, they will take it with them and leave it with ESWS who in turn holds it until your little ones next monthly check up.  ONLY ONE GALLON...OMG!  Really hoping we can connect with a few families along the way and send a few care packages during our wait.  I'm sure there will be so much we want to share.

Okay so this first care package thing may seem a little odd as we don't even have a little one to shop for yet meaning no gender or sizes.  Well yes that is a challenge, but I used my best guess as to when we might get a referral (March) and when this care package might arrive (April) and what age our little one might be (8-9 mo) and the gender (boy).  That's a lot of guessing, but does make the heart feel good to think about it.  This was my first time shopping for a little one of my own, and man I didn't want to mess it up.  It was more difficult than I thought because I wanted everything to be just right...the right first outfit, right first toy, right first blanket, right first book and all in ONE GALLON!  I hit up all the hot spots I could think of - Kohls, Target, Macy's, Bergner's, Gap, and Gymboree - and here are the results...

• Small blanket square with English letters and numbers
• J & J lavender baby wash & lotion
• Burt's Bees diaper cream
• 12 mo long sleeve shirt (can surely grow into this)
• 12 mo shorts romper (seemed so small didn't want to go any smaller)
• Socks
• Bib
• Flash drive (ask the family to save pics for us)
• Bath toys 
• Beautiful little bird necklace (small gift for foster mom)

I was pleasantly surprised after I placed everything in our ONE GALLON Ziploc, we still have room to spare.  Hmm, may need to pick up a few teeny tiny items to fill the gaps.  There will be no space left behind.

We do have 2 more planned items to add.  First, we went online and created a picture board book of us and family which we titled "We Love You So Much."  Second, we hope to work with one of the Korean students at the U of I to translate a letter to the foster mom explaining all of the items we packed and thanking her for the love and care she is providing to out little one while we're not there.  This little ONE GALLON package will wait anxiously for it's long trip to S. Korea to meet up soon with our little package.

Happy New Year...Here's To A Fantastic 2012

Children reinvent your world for you.

This Little Piggy

I couldn't wait and now can't resist sharing my favorite Christmas gift we gave this year. My mom had requested a piggy bank to collect all of her change and share it with her new grandchild. So I visited our local paint your own pottery store and created this little piggy... 

 

 


The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away. - M. Aurelius

Christmas Eve

Got up this morning at 5:00 to have breakfast with Fred before he works both Christmas Eve and Day.  Hopefully this is one of the last times he'll volunteer to do this.  Now I'm spending the morning preparing to travel up North to share time with family.  I've also recently joined an adoption forum that has a strong Korean adoption following from the midwest (Illinois in particular).  So I took a few minutes this morning to do some reading of blogs by fellow families that traveled through the adoption experience and have their little ones at home with them for the holidays.  So looking forward to this and the new family holiday traditions that will come!  


The first tradition has started with the annual Christmas ornament from Grandma (and Grandpa).  She has decided to collect train ornaments for our little one (since we're still banking 99% it will be a little guy). This first train is so super cute, and I can't wait to hang it on our tree!  

Happy Holidays to our little one and all of our family & friends.
Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas. - P. Bracken