Home Study Visit Complete!

I just want to thank everyone so much for your prayers. Bryan and I, once again, were shown God's goodness and that He is behind all of this. As you can imagine, this whole home study process can be quite intimidating. A home study agent has a lot of power (not that they hold this over you or anything), but the fact is that they can have the ability to prevent an adoption from going through if you don't seem fit to be a parent. Now Bryan and I never had a reason to believe that this was ever going to be the case, but if you know anything about me and how bad I am at communicating, you would see how I could be a little nervous. I'm alright with writing and explaining my thoughts as I write, because I have time to think about it, but usually, when people as me questions (especially during interviews) I have a tendency to "go blank" and even say the wrong thing. I always feel later that I could have explained myself better. I was really nervous about our interviews, but honestly, it turned out great. We were interviewed by a sweet and friendly married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Spence. We were very comfortable with them, not only because they were so kind, but because they were believers, and we could be very open about our faith (since that is such a HUGE part of all of this)! They asked us very personal questions, but we were able to freely share our hearts with them honestly and not worry about saying the "right" thing! Mr. Spence also prayed for us at the end and told us that they would continue to pray for us! What amazing people! This whole process was just a blessing and relief, and just more evidence that God has His hand on this whole process. This was a major milestone for us, so we went out to celebrate at Smokey Bones (I had a BOGO entree coupon!) ;) So now we just wait about three more weeks before we can see a draft and once that is approved, we start the dossier (Korean paperwork) process for Barker and then start looking into financial aid options!!! Below is a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Spence, who were kind enough to let us take a photo of them before they left. Thanks again for your prayers!

Diapers!!!

 Okay, so I know this is incredibly cheesy, but I'm sooooooo excited about being able to purchase diapers and other baby items! I always hated going down the baby aisle and would avoid it as much as possible, but now that I am "expecting," surely I could take a peek. ;) Bry and I were at Target the other weekend and decided to look at the baby stuff, since we had never been able to do that before, and I was grinning from ear to ear! What a wonderful aisle of happiness and joy (when you are expecting)! ;) But, anyways, back to the diapers. I have also been skipping over and not looking at the diaper deals in all the coupon blogs I read, but NOW I thought, what better time to stock up on really good deals before our baby gets here! And just recently there have been some really great deals! So, I just went ahead and got a bunch of different sizes, because I'm not sure exactly what size he/she will be when he gets here, but I figured I can exchange the ones that don't work if I keep the receipt. :) Below is what I got for $4 and some change!!! I love coupons!!! 

Can you guess which one is my favorite??? :)

Adoption Interview

Hey guys! First of all, I just wanted to thank everyone for your prayers today. We just back from our first adoption interview in North Carolina. This was basically a requirement for Barker Foundation to meet all their adoptive parents face to face and to go over the entire adoption process from Korea. It was more informative than it was an interview. One of the MAJOR things we learned was that there was a change in Korea's escort option in that they no longer offer it unless it is an emergency. Soooo, this means....WE ARE GOING TO KOREA!!! Bryan and I were on the fence really about this option. Although it would be cheaper to do the escort option, there are so many benefits to going to our child's home country! We would experience the culture first hand and also be able to meet our child's foster family and all those who have loved and cared for him/her for 10 months of their life! We were open about this option and prayed that if God wanted us to go, that He would make it an obvious choice. Well, there's no choice about it, it is a requirement now, so He made it kinda easy! ;) We are so excited that we get to do this and won't get too discouraged by the additional cost. We know that God will provide for this as well. :) I'll give more details about our trip later on when we know more about it. Overall the meeting was very beneficial, and gave us a good idea of what to expect in the next 13 to 15 months (estimated time line until we can bring him/her home!) On another note, I definitely underestimated the work still left to do, even after the home study is complete. We would ask that you would pray for us as we struggle to find time to complete all our requirements in a timely manner and to rely on God to get us through what seems so overwhelming to us at times! Just a reminder...our Home Study Interviews are scheduled for Friday, April 9 at 9:30pm and Saturday, April 10 at 8:30 am! Thanks so much for your prayers and support! We love you all! P.S. Sorry no pictures! We forgot to document this trip! :( But I'll have some coming up soon, I promise!

The Dates Are Set!

Just found out this weekend that we have our home study date made! It will be scheduled for April 9 at 9:30pm and April 10 at 8:30am. If you think about it, please keep us in your prayers for these days. I am a little nervous about it all, but I am very excited that it is happening so quickly! We also found out that the man who is doing it, is going to be coming down to Charleston for a visit anyway, so we don't have to pay the mileage fees associated with that trip! Also, our adoption interview with The Barker Foundation, is scheduled for March 31st. It was originally supposed to be in Maryland, but the lady in charge of the Korean program was coming down to North Carolina on vacation and asked to meet with us then instead of us driving all the way up to Maryland! Thank you, Lord, for Your goodness!

Home Study Application Mailed!

Our home study application and fees were mailed in today March 6th, 2010! The home study is probably the biggest, most crucial parts of the adoption processes, because it requires such a HUGE commitment in time and in money! It is conducted by a social worker from the agency and it is basically a written, comprehensive assessment of us as an adoptive family. This process helps to educate and prepare us for adoption, gathers information about us as prospective parents that will help a social worker match us with a child whose needs we can meet, and will evaluate whether or not we are fit enough to be adoptive parents. As you can imagine this is a very in depth process and quite intimidating! We will have our house evaluated, be interviewed several times (together and separately), be required to fill out tons of paperwork and provide many documents including references, doctor's records, guardian information, financial documents (just to name a few) and pay some pretty hefty fees for the evaluation and handling of it all! :) It will take our agency about 6 to 8 weeks to complete and once approved, our paperwork will be sent to Korea and then we will begin the waiting process. We are so blessed to be working with a great Christian agency, Nightlight Christian Adoptions, for our home study, and trust that we are in good hands!

Here we are...just prayed over our documents...and trusting in a Mighty God...

Why South Korea?

We have been asked lots of questions so far and one of the biggest is, "Why South Korea?" I thought I would answer that for you all as well as other questions you might have about our adoption...

Basically, we chose Korea because it was the right program for us at this time in our lives. One of the things we looked for after we decided on international adoption (a process in itself), was if we met the requirements for the program. Some people believe that you can just choose the age you want and the country you want, but it is a lot more complicated than that. Each international program and each adoption agency, for that matter, have their own restrictions for those that consider adoption from their country. Some are reasonable and some are peculiar. Korea required that you be married for more than 3 years, age 25-45, no more than four kids, minimum income of $30,000, and not weigh more than 30% of what is considered normal body weight for your respective heights (that would be one of the peculiar ones). There are some others pertaining to health records and such, but those are the basics. Overall, we felt that Korea offered numerous benefits compared to other programs...

• Korea is one of the oldest if not the oldest and most well known international adoption programs out there.

• Korea offers healthy infants from 9-12 months. We definitely wanted an infant (child under 1) which eliminated many international programs.

• Another big reason we chose Korea was because the children are raised in warm, loving homes through foster care and not in orphanages.

• They also have excellent medical care, equivalent to United States, and they have extensive medical records of the birth mother and often the birth father.

• Other countries require you to travel to their country at least one time if not two times and for several weeks at a time! Korea only requires a 4-7 day trip that they encourage, but also have the escort option where they can bring the child to you (depending on your agency). As of right now we are choosing the escort option.

• And lastly their time frame and paper work are very reasonable compared to many of the other countries.

What We Can Expect...

• We will probably get a boy (90% chance), but sometimes, every once in a while, someone gets a girl. We would be happy with either. ;) Most are boys because infants are available for domestic adoption in Korea until they are 4 months old, and most Koreans choose a girl.

• Like I said before, Korea currently offers healthy infants ages ranging about 9-12 months. So we can expect a child in that age range once they are home. (BTW, that means someone is most likely pregnant with our baby right now!!!)

• The whole process will take us about a year and a half. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. We hope for the latter! ;) Once we get our home study submitted, there is a 6 to 9 month wait until our referral (our matched child and information) and then once we accept our referral there is another 3 to 4 month wait until they are available to come home!

• Cost of Korea is about mid range for international adoptions. This is where our faith really steps in! The total cost for us is going to be around $30,000! Although that is about $30,000 more than we have, we have heard story after story of how God has provided for adoptive families and met their every need!

We truly feel called by God in this direction and know that He able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21), so we decided to step out in faith! We are so excited to see God work through us and for us and pray that He receives all glory throughout this whole process! We strive to follow God's leading no matter how hard it gets, and once our baby is home, we will finally have the honor to raise our child, dedicating him/her to know and love our Lord, as we always dreamed. We look forward to sharing our journey with you all!