Martin's 8 !!!!

That's right. Yesterday our little dog turned 8 years old!!! It's hard to believe its been that long but its true. He's such my little shadow. Many have asked how we think he'll do when his world gets turned upside down with the addition of two little ones and we think he'll be fine. We know it will be an adjustment (as it will be for all of us) but we plan to continue to include him in everything so he'll just roll along, we hope. I have visions of him laying by my feet in the middle of the night as I rock our little one back to sleep. Happy Birthday Buddy!!!!!

This week we got a phone call from our agency for Korea just asking a simple question about our immigration forms. When the phone rang and I saw on the caller ID WHFC my heart skipped a beat and my hands started shaking. Now my head knows that logically our referral call would not be coming this early, but my heart wouldn't listen. Someday that phone will ring and it will change our lives forever. I have replayed that moment in my mind over and over again and know that it will be one of the greatest moments in our lives. We know that we told you all we won't discuss timeframes with you but we want to be clear that it will be a bit of a wait for referral. This process isn't lightening speed, just faster than a snail's pace!!!! So, until that life changing phone call happens we enjoy the anticipation and all that comes along with it.

Korean Barbecue Burgers

Tonight Joe decided to try a new recipe...Korean barbecue burgers. They are based on bulgogi, a traditional Korean barbecue
speciality of marinated sirloin (well, thats right up Joe's alley!!!!) In Korea you can go to a bulgogi restaurant where you sit around
a flame and cook your own meat-you know exactly where we'll be
when we travel to Korea. The burgers called for things like ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and several other ingredients. They were actually very tasty!!!! Of course we had to "Americanize" them by adding cheese, yum.
Good job Joe!!! KB would be proud!!!! Next up Kimchi. Well, maybe not we'll see.


Oh, and toall you readers ,we know you're out there and we want to say thanks for stopping in. Feel free to leave us a comment or two in the comments section. We'd love to hear from you!!

Isn't Joe just going to be the best Dad??

1 Month Down!!!!!!

...waiting for KB!! Today marks one month since we joined the line for a sweet bundle from Korea. Waiting stinks but we have committed ourselves to making the most of it. So, last night we realized this day was approaching so we talked and decided that each month that goes by in our wait we'll mark with a little fun activity to celebrate this journey to KB. So tonight this tradition began. We found a book titled Tell Me Again About The Night I Was Born (after lots of time in Borders). Its a great adoption story for kids. We both loved it and decided it was perfect for tonight. We also have a special about festivals in Korea on our DVR so we plan to watch this too. Tonight we celebrate you, KB!!!!!
Some will probably wonder why we don't celebrate each month's anniversary for Ava. Well, that would just be too depressing!!!! We celebrate her each year on our anniversary of paperwork to China (it looks like we'll have plenty of those to celebrate). I was talking to a "friend" on an adoption group on line and she was complaining about waiting 6 months already for her baby from Korea. Little did she know that we are old pros. Its been 16 months in total for us. Someone recently said that your wait begins the moment God puts these children in your heart and mind. If thats the case we've been waiting far to long!!! Happy 1 month KB How many more to go?

Remembering 9/11

Today we remember exactly where we were on that sad day. We took time today to remember all those that lost their lives on that horrific day. Its weird that even after all this time seeing the pictures just sends chills through you. We learned from that day just how precious life is. I'll give Joe an extra kiss and snuggle tonight, knowing just how lucky I am!!

OOPS-we jumped the gun

As you probably have seen, in the world of adoption things move pretty slow. So, with that in mind Joe and I had seen that our fingerprints and immigration forms were expiring on Nov 2nd so being the organzied, worriers that we (well I) are we decided to reapply in August thinking it would take months to get it done. Nope, lightening speed!!!! That fingerprint appointment came quick and this weekend our new immigration form came in the mail. So, we basically "screwed" ourselves over by two months. And two months in the adoption world can be like years.
We were so afraid that there would be a glitch and it couldn't expire (as now we need it twice) that we panicked and did it way to early. It's good for 18 months so will we have to do it again? We just don't know. Oh well, better safe than sorry.
Someday we'll be able to relax again!! Someday when we see those sweet faces. Until then we'll continue to keep track of all this paperwork and get things done lickety split!!! Two months we could have used on the other end. Oh well, you live and you learn.

Stork Has Landed

...From China, that is. Referrals began arriving today alittle unexpectedly due to little to no rumors that they were on their way. It looks like the cutoff is 2/9/06 for this month. That's 9 days closer to seeing our sweet Ava. We'll take it!!!!