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

Our Adoption and Support Update

An update of our adoption process is way overdue.  Blogging is never really on my "to-do" list.
We have a few steps left before getting the call that we have a court date and are to be in Korea to meet our son.  One of these steps is getting submitted and approved for EP.  We learned that we were submitted November 27th.  That is good news!   We are praying that our next step has been finalized this month, but we may not hear anything for a couple of weeks.

As for the scarf donations, we have been swamped with orders and it has felt wonderful!  I was making scarves up until Christmas Eve and delivering them.  We took some to Ohio in the middle of December and sold 7, while we were there.  The support has been truly humbling.   At this point, we have raised enough for most of the first trip including 3 round trip plane tickets for our family.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!  We will continue to update.....

Scarf Donation Prices

1 scarf for $40

3 scarves for $100

(shipping has been around $3.60 per scarf-

if you wish to add that to your scarf amount)

BUY IN BULK FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS!!!

NEW:  If you are buying a scarf for a Christmas gift, we will include a card that explains who we are 

and why we are asking for donations.

IT'S COLD OUTSIDE- YOUR NECK COULD BE WARM- AND YOU COULD HELP BRING JONAH HOME!

Berry

Black

Charcoal Mixed

Granite

Green

Gray

Maroon

Soft Blue

Purple

Yellow

Oatmeal

Autumn

Many color options available in this WARM scarf.   

Red, Pink, Charcoal Gray are shown at the bottom in yarn.   
Some colors are sold out;  skeins of yarn are currently waiting to be made into a scarves!

Homespun Pastels

Homespun Multi-Color bright

Homespun Multi-Color dull

Homespun Creme Mix

Homespun Turquoise Mix

                

The Homespun yarn has been 
such a huge hit!  
This is a lightweight scarf that is more for accessory and not as heavy.

more colors available soon!

Waiting for Jonah

And so we wait.... having no control over how long it takes. 

 We have no control over when we get meet Jonah Mingyu or when we get to bring him home.  It may be January or may be April.  We have no idea at this point.  So, we wait.  

Full dependence on God is necessary and aids our peace of mind.  

We did receive a wonderful update with videos and photos of our sweet baby boy last week.  He seems so happy and looks so healthy.  

I am grateful for the Korea system that takes terrific care of these waiting children.