New year....new work schedule!

With the start of 2014 came another blessing that we have been hoping for.  My agency finally expanded their part-time program (work from home) and I found out I was accepted into it at the end of last year.  There was only 12 people in the program for the last 5 years.  Over the last two years I have been regularly speaking to the administration and our union president about my desire to enter the program.  It actually came to fruition at the end of last year as I applied to one of four slots and got in.

Cody and I had planned for me to cut my work hours after Grant is home because the last thing I wanted to do was put him in full-time daycare after missing the first 2 years of his life.  I would have had the option to go back to my Office in Alexandria to work part-time hours instead of working from home.  But that didn't make too much sense once you factor in the 35 min. commute, the cost of the parking garage and time spent of me having to actually get ready in the morning.  So I've been waiting for them to expand this part-time work from home program and the timing couldn't have been better.

So what's my new schedule?  I was approved for Fridays off the first quarter of this year (32 hrs/week) and then starting on April 1st I will have Mondays and Fridays off (25 hrs/week) which is the schedule I will keep permanently after maternity leave.  We know we are so very blessed to be able to afford me working only 3 days a week.  I know that is a luxury that many families do not have.  We had these plans when we were house hunting 1.5 yrs ago so we made sure to not by a house with a mortgage that couldn't accommodate my part-time schedule.  I am so thankful we had the foresight to do this.

Since Cody works a flex schedule where he is off every other Friday we decided to have some fun on the first Friday we both had off and went to a ski mountain.  We went to Liberty Resort which is just over the Maryland border into Pennsylvania.  Because we were there on a Friday it was pretty empty and it felt like we had the whole mountain to ourselves, perfect for Auden's first skiing experience.

 

  


Getting geared up!

Cody was anxious to use his teaching skills from when he taught kids how to ski in college at Tussey Moutain.  As predicted, Auden couldn't have cared less about learning how to stop, he just wanted to ride the big chair lift and go down the mountain fast with Daddy.  So, we chalked the day up to just exposing him to it and getting comfortable wearing skis and had a great time.  Cody got the work out of his life holding Auden in between  his legs (under Auden's armpits) and doing run after run down the big slope.  Auden had a blast riding the chairlift, watching the snowboarders do tricks underneath us and going super fast with Daddy down the mountain.  Mommy had fun brushing up her skills (intermediate at best) and loved that there was hardly anyone there.

Alright forget the bunny hill, let's go to the chair lift!  We tried to explain to Auden on the lift how lucky he is to have two parents that chose to work for the government instead of at big law firms.  We may not have (nearly) as much money choosing this path but we have opportunities to both be off on Fridays and be on a ski mountain instead of working!  He didn't understand....but hopefully one day he will:-)

It was an awesome day with lots of great memories made.  Cody is hoping to take him a few more times this winter and we are already excited for next winter when we can put Auden in ski school and it will be Grant's turn to fly down the mountain with Daddy:-)  

Holidays in Review

We had a fun and busy December which started with two pretty snowfalls that provided just enough snow to get the sleds out.  

            

                           

We had fun making the house look festive for the season....

Time to get the Christmas cards out!  Luckily Auden was very cooperative during a "photo shoot" with Mommy in the backyard.  Unfortunately he was not as cooperative when it was time for our neighbor to take a family picture.  Oh well- you win some, you lose some!  Here is just a sampling of the material Auden gave me for the Christmas card- he is such a ham sometimes!

The Saturday before Christmas it was time to pack up and go to Rochester, New York.  But before we left, Auden had to write a letter to Santa to tell him where to find him on Christmas morning:-)  We had a great time at Nana and Pappy's house and Auden loved spending time with his second cousins.  It was a white Christmas and the few inches on the ground let us have some sledding fun on Christmas day.  It was a wonderful morning opening up presents with Nana and Pappy, Auden was one lucky boy on Christmas morning!  

Then it was off to Christmas part II in Philadelphia!  We had a nice post-Christmas get together with my brothers and their families and Great-Grandmom (GG).  We also had fun taking cousin Reegan with us to the Franklin Institute with Grammy and Grandpop.  It was a fun time and we only managed to lose the kids for a few seconds here and there:-)  The rest of the time at Grammy and Grandpop's was relaxing which was very nice.

  

With the car filled to the brim and Auden coming down with a virus, it was time to hit the road and finally come back to Virginia.  It was a fun-filled eight days with all of our family but we were excited to get home for New Year's.  Since a few of our friends and neighbors were still looking for somewhere to ring in the New Year we decided last minute to host a small party.  Unfortunately Auden's virus put a bit of a damper on it, but I was able to put him to bed by 9pm and we still had fun with a few friends.  It was great to finally break in the basement bar since Cody just finished the work on the basement two months ago during the government shut-down.
  

Happy New Year to all!  We are greatly looking forward to an awesome 2014 and pray it will be filled with good health, happiness and a new addition to our family!  

Secret is out...Auden is a big brother!

Happy Holidays!

The day after we found out that Grant's file was submitted for emigration permission we told Auden about his little brother waiting for us in Korea!  We explained that instead of growing in Mommy's tummy like he did, Grant was going to join our family through adoption like Mommy's friend adopted little Henry recently from Korea.  We talked about what it meant to have a little brother and how fun it will be for him to be a big brother.  He was acting shy during our conversation and didn't say much except for some squeals of excitement and nodding his head.  You could tell his little head was processing a lot of information!  Then we gave him a special picture frame that I custom ordered for him with Grant's picture inside of it.  He took a good look at Grant, took the frame out of my hands, set it up on the couch and laid down in front of it to stare at the picture for a few more minutes.  It melted Cody and I's heart as we quickly tried to find a phone to capture the moment.  I told him it was his picture and he could put it in his room if he wanted.  He quickly took the picture upstairs and put it on his bookshelf.  We then took him into the empty room across from his and told him it was going to be Grant's room and talked about how we should decorate it.  We came back downstairs to finish drinking milk/cleaning up after dinner and 5-10 minutes later I noticed Auden disappeared.  I went up the staircase and peeked into his room and I saw him sitting in front of Grant's picture.  Heart melted again!  

The next morning the first words out of his mouth were "when do we leave for the plane?!"  With all the information the day before he didn't remember that we explained it would be a few months from now.  He started to cry when I told him it's not going to be for a little while.  In all honesty, he's excited about his little brother but I think in this moment he was even more excited to go on a long plane ride:-)  To better understand I told him first we celebrate Christmas and New Years, then his birthday in February and then it will almost be time to prepare to go to Korea.  He's okay now with those fun things happening first, ha. 

Here is the picture of what Auden did after we gave him the frame.  Sorry, I had to white out Grant's face since this is a public blog and he is not legally ours yet.  

Auden gave the picture below to his grandparents for Christmas.  What a proud big brother!

I had to order these cute shirts that I found online.  I know they are cheesy but I can't wait for them to wear them in Korea together!

EP Submission!!!!!

Finally, the news we have been waiting for!  Today Grant's file was submitted to the Korean government for emigration permission (EP)!  We are overjoyed to have this news before the holidays and feel so thankful and relieved!  To know that his paperwork is officially getting processed by the government for permission to be able to leave South Korea and become a part of our family is the best Christmas present ever!!! 

So, what happens next?  Here are the estimates:

4-8 weeks for his EP approval from the government
1-4 weeks for his file to get submitted to the Korean family Court
2-4 weeks to get a Court date
4-6 weeks later- travel to Korea!

Our agency is still estimating us to be traveling to Korea in April.  Hoping dearly before Grant's 2nd birthday on April 20th which happens to fall on Easter Sunday in 2014:-)  I like the sounds of spending Easter in Seoul with ALL my boys! 

And we have now decided it is time to tell Auden about his little brother!  Cody and I are SO excited to finally share the news with him!     

Hopeful!

So, still no news yet regarding Grant's file being submitted to the government but I'm feeling hopeful it will happen soon.  My agency updated us all yesterday that they are are still planning on two more submission batches in the month of December.  This was corroborated with a blog article written by an independent organization that promotes adoption within Korea (and internationally).  It was said that the government agency (MOHW) plans on taking more submissions in December and they plan to only take a break of a week or so when they relocate to the other city the week of December 15th.  So hearing that there are going to be more submissions the month of December from two sources is definitely making us hopeful we could get news soon.  Also, the news that the MOHW doesn't plan to take a huge long break for their relocation is wonderful to hear as well.   

Another thing that made me hopeful is that last night I had the pleasure of meeting my friend's son that just came home from Korea two weeks ago.  To see Henry, amazing and adorable little Henry, was a great boost to know that in several months Grant too will come home.  After over 3 years, this journey will finally end with our new son in our arms.  Auden played so nicely with Henry and warmed my heart to envision Auden playing with Grant the same way (you know, until he sticks around and then the brotherly fighting begins, ha).  I was so impressed with how well Henry was doing only home two weeks.  He has formed a great attachment with his new parents, smiles and laughs a lot, is trying to repeat so many words, and has been pretty easy going for them all around.  I hope we can say the same with Grant 5-6 months from now!  I feel so fortunate that I have made several local friends that are all in the process of bringing home their little Korean cuties.  What a wonderful playgroup Grant will have with boys that share his Korean culture and adoption background.

Here are some pictures of Auden and Henry playing:

                        

 

 

Meeting Henry was also very good for Auden in the respect that we are "planting the seed" of what adoption means and how Henry came from the country of Korea.  So hopefully it will easier when the time comes to explain how Grant is becoming his brother.  Luckily his favorite show is Dinosaur Train right now and the whole premise of that show is how a pteranodon family adopted a t-rex baby, so that is helping with the concept of adoption too!   

Update and Care Package #11

 Last week there were more submissions to the government, however, our file was not one of them.  It was a great disappointment to learn that our family, along with 4 others that I'm aware of, were basically skipped over as we learned they submitted files that had later referral acceptance dates as ours.  I had a long talk with the Korea program director on Wednesday morning and got to vent my frustrations.  She is equally as frustrated with the Korean partner agency as I am that they are not submitting files in order despite her asking them to do so several times.  So she was very apologetic for that.  She called Korea for us on Tuesday night and found out everything is all set with Grant's file and they are just waiting for the next submission group.  She was very sorry it wasn't in the group last week and can't tell me why they choose the files they did.  The Korean partner agency plans to have two submission groups in the month of December to take care of all the rest of the files they have prepped for this year.  My director is hoping that we hear good news the first week in December regarding our submission.  So, fingers crossed.

In better news, on the back end of this process the Ministry has been diligently approving files and many families have been getting court dates faster than ever before lately.  They added a fifth judge that is planning to work only on adoption cases, so hopefully that will streamline the court process further.  Even though we are not submitted yet, it is great to see lots of movement on the back end because the more families that get through court, means that much faster our case can get through.  My director thinks based on how things are moving along currently, it is still entirely realistic to plan for traveling in April and making Grant's 2nd birthday.  So that was good to hear.  Of, course that was predicted based on our file getting submitted in December so let's just hope that actually happens like they say it will.

We got 19 month pictures of Grant this past week which was nice given the disappointing news.  I was a little bummed that his foster mom didn't have him dressed in some of the clothes we sent the month prior though.  Oh well.  He was looking like a cutie pie but had the same "deer in the headlights" look from last month pictures, haha.  Hopefully we can get some smiling pictures again soon, I want to see all his teeth:-)   

My friend Erin took Grant's Christmas care package over to Korea 1.5 weeks ago.  I decided it would be better to give it to him for his Nov. 20th visit than Dec. 20th visit so he can enjoy the Christmas goodies longer.  I wrapped up the little toy car and helicopter and pasted my friend's translated letter in a card I sent to Grant's foster family.  

50 days

As of today we've been waiting 50 days for our file to be submitted to the Korean government.  That's about 20 days longer than we expected as families have been typically submitted one month after they were notified their file was being prepared.  The last 20 days have definitely been the hardest on me out of the last year.  It's so difficult when you have expectations of something and are so hopeful and it doesn't come true.  It feels like I've been running a race for the past 3 years and they keep moving the finish line.

I spoke with my agency last week and they said the Ministry is still accepting files and right now the issue seems to be with the Korean partner agency just being backed up with files.  I just hope by the time they are done with our file the Ministry is still accepting them and not shutting down to prepare for their move to another city. 

Anyway, once we are submitted the process takes 5-6 months so we should probably start wrapping our heads around not making it to Korea by Grant's 2nd birthday on April, 20th.  This makes me so sad. 

Auden's teacher asked us to bring in family pictures for this Friday which is "family day."  The kids are going to share and talk about all the people in their family.  I so wish we would have been submitted by now and been able to tell Auden about his brother.  It breaks my heart that Auden can't proudly share with his class that he has a little brother waiting for us in Korea.   

In happier news, my two local friends are in Korea right now awaiting custody of their sons.  Everyday we chat through facebook messaging and I'm getting great information about where to stay, where to eat, places to go with kids, etc.  I'm so happy they will finally be united with their sons and I can't wait to have playdates with them and meet their little guys when they get home.  That will make it feel like one day, eventually, Grant will come home too.