It feels like a dream when I say-we have another son!!! He is on the other side of the world right now, but he will be ours and we will be his forever family!!!!
Many of you are probably very confused right now since the last thing you knew is that we were pursuing domestic adoption, so let me take a step back to explain.
After our last failed match with a domestic birth mother, Cody and I were pretty disappointed (and stressed) with how things were going. I was spending so much time, energy and emotion speaking to these potential birth moms that called us and we just ended up getting hurt in the end. I know that if we continued we would have eventually been successful but our heart just wasn’t in the domestic process any longer.
That is when we suddenly found out that if we switched from the Korea girl line (which never moves) to the Korea boy line we would move to #1 on the list (since we have been waiting 15 months) and we would likely be matched within two weeks! It didn’t take us much time at all to know this is definitely what we wanted! After all, Cody and I already decided we would be happy with either gender when we embarked on the domestic adoption journey (since usually you can’t choose), so why were we spinning our wheels with domestic when we could have a baby boy from the program our hearts called us to in the first place two years ago?
Even though wait times and travel times have gotten longer since we began this journey, there is still so much to love about the Korea program. The children get top of the line medical care in Seoul and live with loving foster families until you are able to get your child. Since unwed mothers typically live in special homes during their pregnancy you have the opportunity to get extensive background information about the child’s birth family, which is very rare in the world of international adoption.
So, now onto the fun stuff!!!
This week we received a referral for a beautiful baby boy!!! He is now six months old as he was born on April 20, 2012. He is a super healthy little guy and this was confirmed by our pediatrician and an international adoption doctor that reviewed his file for us this week. We officially accepted the match today and are in the process of putting our acceptance packet together to be sent to Korea!
We have more information about his birth mother and birth father than we ever imagined! We even have heights, weights, occupations and even childhood histories for both parents….such a blessing for our baby boy! Please understand we will not be sharing this information with anyone as this is his story to tell one day if he so chooses.
But I would love to share stuff about our little cutie!!
-At 6 months, he weighs 16lbs, all his stats are 50th percentile
- He sleeps 10 hours at night, with three one hour naps during the day
- He poops 2-3 times a day (hehe) and loves taking a bath
- Speech and Response: "He makes eye contact and babbles a lot and
laughs out. He moves his limbs vigorously and turns over. He
controls his head and sits for a while when placed in a sitting
position. He bares weight on his feet and bounces when placed in a
standing position. He grabs object within his reach and brings it to
mouth. He stares at and plays with his hands. He brings his hand to
mouth to suck. He turns head in the direction of sound. He tracks a
moving object at the angle of 180 degrees. He responds to a feeding
bottle. He talks a lot during play. As he spends most of the time
with his foster mother during the day, he gets happy to see other
foster family members coming home in the evening (two school age boys
and father)."
- The social worker states that he is "a cute and clever 5 month old
baby boy. He looks up at people and laughs out if he is called by his
name. His social response is good. He has developed good feeding,
sleeping, and bowel habits: his motor skill development is
age-appropriate."
It still feels like we are dreaming. We are so excited to become a family of four, even if it is “in spirit” until we are able to travel to Korea to go get him. Auden and Grant will be a tad over 2 years apart in age which will be perfect. Perfect for playing together and of course perfect for fighting with each other like brothers do!
So now we have to exercise more patience than humanly possible and wait 14-16 months to go to Korea to go get him. This may sound horrific to some but Cody and I have always known about this travel wait, so we have been mentally prepared for it (it was the wait to get matched we were not prepared for, ha). We will get updates and pictures every two months and be able to send him care packages as well. In the meantime, we can rest assure that his foster mommy is taking good care of him.
Thank you to all our friends and family for all your support since we first started this journey just about two years ago! It’s amazing what a rollercoaster ride it has been and we are so lucky that we’ve had so many cheerleaders along the way. It is easy to see now that every day and every bump in the road was meant to be, as it lead us to our little Grant. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we begin our wait to when we can finally hold our baby boy in our arms.
Continue to check our blog for updates about our little guy as we receive them! The agency discourages posting his pictures on public websites so we may have to stick to emailed pictures until we get to Korea:-)
