Let's Go Fly a Kite

I am amazed by the warmth this March. We have been so blessed by warm weather for several days. It gave us an opportunity to head to a few parks this week and the Milwaukee Zoo yesterday when we visited our friends, Kris and Jason and their kids Jared and Kelly. On one of our trips to the park this week, Cami mentioned wanting to fly a kite. She and Justin had a perfect day to head to the park today to fly the kite. With a nice breeze, her kite made it as high as it could go.

Thank you God for another beautiful day. We welcome the expected rain this week and appreciate the anticipated warm weather to go with the rain.

Baby Ian

Recently I joined a group on Facebook for parents whose children were placed with SWS (Social Welfare Society) in South Korea. I read a posting yesterday about families that emailed their agency to ask SWS for pictures of their child when the child was at the SWS Reception home. I was SHOCKED. I thought we received ALL of the pictures they had of our children. I promptly emailed our agency and received a response today. My hopes were set high as I read about families who had up to 40 pictures of their child as an infant. Our response from a social worked at SWS was as follows...

I checked each of the children's files and only came up with this one photo. I hope it makes adoptive family feel happy.

Sledding...

After a crazy long weekend with lots of unexpected events, Justin and I were thankful to have an afternoon alone to talk and visit the Madison Area Builders Expo. While we were out, Tammy sent us a picture of their outing. Cami and Ben tried snowboarding for the first time. They all had a great time sledding!

Phillipians 4:6

A friend posted this today on Facebook. Wow! Just what I needed.

"When something in your life or thoughts makes you anxious, come to Me and talk about it. Bring Me your prayer and petition with thanksgiving, saying: “Thank You, Jesus, for this opportunity to trust You more.” Though the lessons of trust that I send to you come wrapped in difficulties, the benefits far outweigh the cost.

Well-developed trust will bring you many blessings, not the least of which is My Peace. I have promised to keep you in perfect Peace to the extent that you trust in Me. The world has it backwards, teaching that peace is the result of having enough money, possessions, insurance, and security systems. My Peace, however, is such an all-encompassing gift that it is independent of all circumstances. Though you lose everything else, if you gain My Peace you are rich indeed.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
—Philippians 4:6 nasb

I-600 Addendum

We received the approval for the addendum to our I-600 in the mail today. We are getting everything ready for our phone call with our referral. We found out yesterday that AIAA has not yet issued any referrals this year. We anticipate that EP's will start flowing soon (ok, praying they will). Once this begins, we anticipate referrals will start coming.

I promised myself that I will stay positive. Let me tell you, it is NOT easy. I remind myself that this is the "easy" part of the adoption process. Looking back, the hardest part is having the picture of your child and waiting for everything to be approved and receive the travel call. This takes months. Each day you wake up thinking about your child. You calculate what time it is in Korea. You wonder what your child is doing. What milestones am I missing? Will the Foster Mother document those first steps, first teeth, first words?

So for now we take it one step at a time. We file our I-600 and wait for the letter letting us know our fingerprints are expiring (June) and go on the date they assign to get fingerprinted again. We continue to pray each day for a child we do not yet know but that God knows.

Love Your Child

Thought this was cute!

Prayer for the Children

Please join us...

Tonight at 7PM/EST it will be 9:00AM on Monday in Korea. Can you take a minute to send a prayer (or send a good vibe, or beg, or do a happy dance or whatever it is you do when are looking for help on something you have no control over) for the Ministry? The adoption community is hoping this is the week Korea allows movement. No babies have been united with their forever families yet this year. This time last year 4 or 5 batches of exit permits had been approved. So far this year...zero. Thank you!!!