WE ARE A FAMILY OF FOUR!!!

After almost a week of adjustments and jet lag recovery, I am so pleased to share the details of our travels to bring Jonah home!

OUR WEEK IN KOREA

Prior to leaving for Korea, I reached a level of stress that was almost unbearable. The sense of loss I felt over leaving our son, Bennett, for a week and not knowing what Jonah would truly be like AND traveling back to the states with a toddler were all weighing on me. 
But once we arrived in Korea late Sunday night (August 1), our focus shifted to sleeping and making preparations for our transfer meeting on Monday.  We bought food and set up our suite with toys for Jonah Mingyu.  Then in the afternoon, we headed over to the Adoption Offices to get custody of Jonah.  It was a quick meeting including gift exchanges, signing documents, and getting a detailed narrative written out about Jonah's daily schedule.  The foster mom was so kind and gave us food that Jonah loves:  rice porridge, blueberry yogurt, and puff snacks.  We played a while longer and then said our good-byes and headed down the street to our suite.  Jonah didn't cry or seem bothered by the exchange. It was very surreal.

When we got to our suite (a.k.a. the guest house), we fed him the yogurt as suggested by the foster mom.  From then on, it was a juggling act of trying to keep him happy and getting to know him while figuring out the best means of communication.  Keeping Jonah happy usually involved food or playing with something other than toys ....i.e. hairdryer, fire extinguisher, and remote controls to all devices.  He slept great!!!  He ate great!!!  His greatest adjustment was learning that he couldn't splash his face with toilet water or play with the fire extinguisher.  He loved about everything in that suite…but not so much the toys.  He loved the cabinets and whatever might be in them...hangers, a toaster, pots, pans, iron, etc.

 After a couple of days of just spending time together and learning to communicate a bit, we ventured out and did some sightseeing and shopping. 

The week was excellent.  Our Visa appointment was on Thursday (Korean time- 14 hrs ahead of CST).  It was painless and very quick.  The taxi ride there and back was challenging since Jonah wanted to walk around in the back seat, pull the door handles and locks, and pull and kick the cab driver's seat. We were learning that Jonah is a typical, active toddler.  Those active moments became just a glimpse of what the flights would be like. 

On Saturday, we packed up and headed out to the airport by taxi.  During this cab ride, Jonah fell asleep.  That was a huge blessing because the next 24 hours were NONSTOP action and pure exhaustion.

OUR TRAVEL BACK HOME
The travel was difficult.  I guess it is a time to see how much you can completely rely on God for strength and patience.  Jonah is a happy guy and when he is happy, he is LOUD.  And when he is upset, he is LOUD. We learned this quickly. 

FLIGHT #1: The first flight from South Korea to San Francisco was quite a challenge.  He threw fits, screamed and cried, laughed and played loudly while others were sleeping, and only slept 4 out of the 11 hour flight.  I stood as much as possible with him in the carrier because that seemed to make him content.  I did this until exhaustion would set in and I would have to sit, which would make him more upset. Our "toys" and distractions were not as interesting as all the new gadgets that he found like headphones and the seat tray that opened and closed.  And if he was encouraged to sit in the seat or on a lap, a tantrum was sure to occur. But we got through this trial!!!

Flight #2 was wonderful for him.  He slept all the way from San Fransisco to Chicago.  

Flight #3 was good too because it was only 1.5 hours to Nashville and we hadn't had a good meal in a day so we kept him busy with food.  

The traveling was NONSTOP.... every connection spot was a mad rush to get through customs or security and/or baggage points and then more security and to our gate before the plane took off.  We were on our toes for 24 hours straight either keeping Jonah happy or running through an airport.  Too bad we didn't have an attached camera.  It would have made for some entertainment, I'm sure.

When we arrived to Nashville, we had such a sense of relief and joy!!!  We were finished with this journey and could begin our new journey as a family of four.  We were greeted at the airport by our family and were overjoyed to be with Bennett. The reunion was so memorable!

Even though Jonah screamed the ENTIRE car ride back home from Nashville (and he has some lungs!) and has had difficulty dealing with the time change, he has adjusted beautifully to his new family and surroundings considering what he has been through.  He has gone swimming, played in the sandbox, gone for lots of walks, pulled grass, eaten many new foods, and tried relentlessly to get his little hands in every toilet to splash his face.

On the first day Jonah was home, we caught a precious moment. He saw a picture of himself in Bennett's room and picked it up and talked to it.  He seemed so happy to see another Asian in our home.  

The last two nights, Jonah has slept from 10PM until around 8AM and has finally adjusted to the time change.  We all feel more rested.

Thank you for your prayers, your thoughts, and your help.  Our family is honored to have you as part of our adoption adventure. 
God is faithful.

MORE WAITING and PRAYING

MORE WAITING...

Two months have passed since I last updated this blog.  I apologize to anyone who has been eager to hear about our trip and has waited for an update.

I have found that writing on this blog is tough for me when nothing is really happening to move us forward in our process.  But we did go to Korea and we did meet Jonah Mingyu and we did fall in love with him and his sweet little personality.  So, let me give some details that I have not been able to share with all our friends and family.

We left Saturday, June 8th and arrived to Korea Sunday evening Korean time (14 hours ahead).  The traveling was exhausting but we got through it (Nashville to Chicago to Tokyo to Seoul).  
We got up first thing Monday morning and went to meet our case worker, who took us to the foster mom's home.  It was there that we met Jonah Mingyu.  He was adorable!  He reached out for me, hugged me when I held him, and laid his precious head on my shoulder. He loved on Drew in the same way.  He interacted with Bennett and played with him.  He laughed a lot at Bennett.  That thrilled Bennett.  We ate a snack with him, which happened to be watermelon, grapes, and bread puff snacks.  He likes to eat!  

We said our good-byes after about an hour and went on our way.  The rest of that day we spent time with Drew's Korean friend from graduate school.  This friend was so kind to take us to lunch and talk Korean "culture" with us for most of the afternoon.
 
On Tuesday, we took Bennett to the Children's Grand Park.  It was amazing!  First of all, it is a FREE park with a very nice and well-kept zoo, botanical garden and playground.  It also had a Children's museum for a small fee and Bennett absolutely LOVED it!  He was also completely exhausted by about 4PM that day and crashed in my arms and I could not wake him up.  The jet lag had caught up with him and the excitement of the day had worn him out.  
On Wednesday, we did a little more tourist activities and then had a meeting scheduled to visit Jonah Mingyu at the Adoption Services office.  This time, while in the office (toy/play room), the foster mom left him with us.  He did notice that she was gone and occasionally went to the door but he was so easily comforted and us and distracted by playing with all of us.  We have some hilarious videos of that hour together.  He was so sweet and I can't wait to show his precious smile on this very blog after we get him home.  
 On Thursday, we (along with several other couples) went to the courthouse for our court experience.  I was quite nervous about this part of our trip.  Not knowing what the judge would ask and knowing that we were under a microscope was intimidating.  But it went well and the judge appeared pleased and satisfied with our answers.  
After court, we received bad news that because this judge is new, she is requesting longer between court and visa interview (the second trip to gain custody of child).  This broke my heart!!!  I had hoped to have Jonah Mingyu here in our home in March or April. Then after changes in the court system, we were unfortunate to get the new judge and she was slower.  Other families submitted to court with us in February, had their kids home in May.  And now we had to wait even longer.....probably even August.  I was crushed.  I believe I cried on and off for about a 24 hour period.  I have gotten attached to Jonah Mingyu in the short time with him and grieved the time apart.  
 We then traveled back and returned home a couple days later....jet lag had us thrown for a few days after our return.  

And now it has been exactly 4 weeks since we were in Korea.  We have gotten bits of information from our agency that one document is causing our wait to be extended.  
I have personally struggled more this week with my vulnerability and emotions.  Other couples are getting their dates to go back and we still wait.  The whole process is a true test of my faith, trust, and hope in our Lord.  Some days I fail miserably.  So I pray earnestly that the Lord would supply what I lack in faith.

Prayer is always my request from anyone reading this.  Pray for Jonah's transition into our family and culture.  Pray for bonding to occur with each of us and Jonah.  Pray for SAFETY during all the traveling.  
 
I will post our custody/visa interview dates on here when I receive them.  It shouldn't be long.

Kenna

OUR COURT DATE IS JUNE 11th!!
By June 9th, we will be meeting our little guy.

 It has been an emotional couple of days due to the urgency of getting flights and travel arrangements made AND the realization that we won't be joining our family on our Disneyworld FAMILY vacation that has been planned for 2 years.  Our court is RIGHT in the middle of that vacation. Not to mention, I had a business trip scheduled for next week that I am postponing due to the growth of my "to-do" list.

During the first couple of hours of quotes, phone calls and emails; our original flight quotes increased by $400 each.  Big decisions and more decisions with urgency did not make for a relaxed afternoon.  When we considered that our friends, families, acquaintances, and even strangers had dipped into their own pockets to give to us, we felt a sense of disappointment that over $5200 was gone....JUST LIKE THAT! Not only that, there is no rhyme or reason to why we are going NOW and not a month or two ago when flights were much, much lower.  If we'd have gone earlier, all of the donations we received would have gone farther.  But that is not what God had in mind and for reasons I won't know.  I have to trust God's plan.  

Another emotion that was pulled out of me in the last couple of days is that I am faced with the reality that we won't get to bring Jonah home until he is nearly 2.  More than likely, we will get a Visa Interview date sometime in July.  That is the time we go back to Korea and take custody of him forever.  August 30 will be Jonah's second birthday.  When we accepted the referral for an 8-month old baby, I never imagined he'd be this old before he came to live with us.  God has made it clear though, that this is HIS plan for us.  I will trust in Him that his plans are better.

As these emotions settle, I am becoming more and more excited for this next chapter in our lives.  
Please join us in prayer specifically for:
  Jonah's health and adjustment into our family
  Travel details (lots of flights & hotel itineraries & Korean appointments)
  Our health (that we all stay healthy during the sleep deprivation/food changes/jet lag)
  
Thank you.
Kenna

I Praise the Lord.... but still no court date

Psalm 146: 1-2
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul.
I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Psalm 145: 16
(to God)
You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made. The Lord is near to all who call on him to all who call on him in truth.  He fulfills the desires of those who hear him...

Yesterday, I took our son to the dentist.  As the dentist asked me questions about when our son's teeth came in and how many he had in his infancy, I couldn't help but allow some sorrow to creep in.  It was another reminder that  I will not know those details about Jonah's life.  Every month that goes by, every day that passes, allows for more details of his life that we miss. I am comforted by the reality that  GOD CALLED US TO THIS ADOPTION!!!!   We are an adoptive family!  God's plans are beyond my understanding.  
 

I am comforted by these verses today as I try not to think about how old Jonah is this month (20 months old). Drew and I were just talking this morning that we truly thought we'd have him home at 18 months old. 
BUT.... I will sing praises to God regardless of what happens in the Korean family court system, even if we don't get our court date this week, even if we don't get to bring Jonah home until he is two years old.  I will praise God because HE is worthy of all my praise and he knows what is best for our family and for Jonah.  

I continue to ask for prayers for this waiting period. I am strongly praying for a May court date. ...and for the ability to surrender the entire process to God's timing.

Thank you friends.
-Kenna

Officially waiting for our court date/travel dates

Yesterday, I sat down to study God's Word.  I reflected on Isaiah 40:29-31 and Psalm 27:14.  God reminded me that a few months or even years is not so long to wait for his plan.  I felt such comfort spending time dwelling on this life and His timing.  He has provided everything we need for this transition and in a year, we will look back at this time in a totally different light.  I realized during this time, that I have a HUGE list of "to-do's" to finish up before we get Jonah.  So, I made a plan for finishing up some of these tasks and in the process, He [God] restored my HOPE!

Fast forward to the end of my day.... I had emailed the adoption agency with a couple of questions, so I decided to check that particular email account. 
 To my delight, there was an email waiting for us:

EP approved 1/29
Submitted to court 2/5
Jonah Mingyu's medical tests showed THE HOLE IN HEART HAS CLOSED!!!!

We are now in our last step waiting to go meet our little guy.  We now wait for our Korean judge to assign us a court date.  At that point, we make travel plans and buy our plane tickets.  Remember, this step can still be unpredictable and can vary from 4 weeks to 4 months.  

Please continue to pray for us and our waiting.  I hear that this is a difficult waiting period because you are literally waiting to find out when you can go meet your child.

In our wait...we praise and worship our God.

We Wait

I am not a blogger.  I don't claim to be a blogger.  I have directed people to this blog and then have deserted it altogether.  I think it may be time to share my heart a bit for anyone who wishes to know what is really going on with this adoption.

I have discovered that by avoiding this blog and not talking a whole lot about Jonah Mingyu, that I am somewhat guarding myself against getting excited to avoid disappointment and heartache. You see, raising funds by promoting and making scarves was an AMAZING distraction during this wait.  But, we have raised a great deal of money for our first trip and it has all slowed down. The excitement has worn off. We have been extremely blessed by friends and family and even strangers.  But I had hoped we would be further along in our timeline by this point after raising all of those funds.  I originally calculated that our traveling might occur in February and March.   Then thought that maybe it would be May.  I am now calculating possibly summer traveling.  There is just no way to know.  

So, I've discovered that I don't want to look at Jonah's pictures and videos and ache for him so bad that it hurts each day when we get no news of our progress. We received a new video of him 2 weeks ago.  I haven't even loaded it on my iPad to share it with anyone.  Yep..... I do believe that is a sign of protecting myself against the excitement that leads to disappointment.  I, also, haven't watched it nearly as much as the previous videos.  Please don't misunderstand.  I am excited and I also long for this child.  But, I simply don't allow myself to experience those emotions on a daily basis or to even think about it on a daily basis.  I don't know if it makes sense, but I do have extreme PEACE with the entire process of waiting and the unknown.   But I am also protecting myself emotionally.

It is difficult enough to live each day in the unknown of what our next months will be. We have TWO trips to South Korea that will have to fit into our lives at some point.  We have no idea when those trips will occur.  For someone like me, who is flexible but feels secure in the "plan", it is a challenge to look through my year and not know when I will add another little being to this household.  Even more difficult, is that I don't know how old he will be by the time we introduce him into our lives.  I once thought, we'd get him before he was walking.  Now, I'm not even sure if he will still only be 1 yr. old.  He may be 2 (birthday is August 30).

So, for those of you who are a bit confused about why we have to wait, I will attempt to explain what I know.
Step 1:  Complete Home Study & US Emigration requirements/  Accept Referral
Step 2: Send Acceptance paperwork of a referral to South Korea ( Aug. 27th for us) 
Step 3:  Paperwork is prepared and submitted for EP  (Nov. 27th for us)
Step 4:  EP is approved
Step 5:  Paperwork is submitted to Court and we wait for a court date
Step 6:  Receive court date and make travel plans to meet Jonah Mingyu
              Once we travel, we meet Jonah Mingyu, go to court, then come back to home
Step 7:  Receive Custody date & make plans to go back to Korea and get Jonah Mingyu
      during this step, we also get a Visa Interview date for while we are in Korea

Step 8:   BRING JONAH MINGYU HOME!!!!!

We have to surrender this process to God daily.  We have no control over what is happening with our son or how long it will be until we get to meet him and bring him home.  I pray for a miracle every day but also I recognize that God knows the best time for us AND for him.  As I have information, I will share but having very little information for me just means I'd rather focus on the rest of my life, such as enjoying being a wife, a mom to a 6-yr. old, a music therapist, and a daughter and sister within a pretty fun family.  There is ALWAYS lots to do and we have very full lives.  It all makes the waiting easier!

This file contains the steps for our adoption through South Korea.  We are only at step 2, but that is better than being at step 1.  I am hopeful our process will move along in the coming months.

file:///Users/rny/Downloads/whathappensnow-Jan2015-fillindates%20(1).pdf