room crazy-Written by Amanda

Today we went to Rapid City.We got alot of differant things to put in Grace's room like stuff to put on the walls and a changing table.We definetly hit the jack pot in the stores.when she gets here she will definetly be loved and spoiled in a good way.Oh-ya I forgot,but I'm writing a song about baby Grace.I might even put a vidio of me singing the song.

Make a Smilebox greeting

Lunar New Year!

Today is the Korean Lunar New Year. The Lunar New Year is one of Korea's Biggest holidays. The Koreans focus on the family as they celebrate the beginning of the New Year. Children put on new traditional clothes called hanbok. They kneel and bow to their ancestors and elders. Family members wish each other prosperity and good fortune. Then they exchange gifts. Children receive lucky money, candy and fruit from the elders. The family spends time together and have rice-cake soup for breakfast. Children often take this day to play special New Year games. I bet our little Gracie was dressed soooper dooper cute!!

Update on Baby Grace

Today we got another medical update on baby Grace. They are so great about getting her monthly medical check ups with Holt Clinic. She is 5 1/2 months old now, and she weighs about 13 lbs. She is on the 30th percentile on our US charts. She is tiny, but growing very healthy. On her report it read that she is cooing, sucking her hand, and rolling over among other things. It is amazing how she is growing. I cried after reading the report just because we are missing out on some of the firsts. On the other hand...Im so thankful to the the foster family that is taking such good care of her in Korea. THis helps me alot to know she is in a loving home and being well taken care of and probebly spoiled! A friend just emailed me and said she was making a blanket for her! That really is touching to me to see my friends really happy and excited as we are. That made my night.

A Moms Heart!

Well all the paper work went in the mail on Friday morning. Wow was that a load of papers. Now 6 weeks to get our legal papers for her, then we can finally file the I600 form that is for immagration to bring her home! It is really sad that we have to wait hold her. We all fall in love with her more and more every single day. We went shopping this weekend, and I'd have to say Grace made out really good! Lots of great sales going on, so I picked up some cloths for her for next winter, and some for when she arrives. We found a great crib. The boys (Terry and Bay) set it up and Amanda and I put in the new bedding! I looked over and notice Bailey crying, then Amanda, then me! We were a mess! Terry walked back in the room and hugged us all! It was really emotional to see the kids miss her, and want her home just as we do, they love her soooo much. I can imagine how much they will spoil her when she gets here. Im glad this is my busy season with the dance studio (just to make time go faster), but honestly my mind is on her constantly. So much to the point IM not sleeping very well, I lay and think about her, and pray for her all night! I know I must trust God that He will take care of her and meet her every single need. It is just so hard now that we know she is our daughter to not have her home with us yet. This whole experience is surely growing us in many ways I could not have imagined. I guess each day that goes by is one step closer to getting her home! This Sunday we are going to a celebration gathering, we will meet families in the process and families who have their little ones home. Should be very fun, we are looking forward to it.
God Bless!

Big Sister's Thoughts! Wrote by Amanda

Hi I'm Amanda the new and proud big sister.This is so exciting to all of us .I can't wait to hold and cuddle little Gracie.We just set up her crib today and it looks adorable.Grace's bed set is pink and brown polka-dots.We even got Grace a Miny-Mouse teddy bear.My grandparents have already started spoiling her.We also got Grace 3 soft cuddly blakets.If your wundering who "WE" are It's Amanda,Bailey(big brother and sister),my Mommy,and my Daddy.I'm not so excited about the dipers and the long wait for her to get home,but I will try to do some of the wet dipers .Please pray for us and Grace to come home soon!

Off the Paper work goes!! Yeah!

Wow...what a week! Im not sure I even remember going to work or anything els except that God blessed us with this beautiful little angel. We have her pictures everywhere, and many many times one of us is caught staring and gazing into her eyes! We are totally in love with her. Waiting to hold her is harder than we ever imagined it would be! Just pray God gives us the strength we need and that he will bring her home in a few months. I dream of holding her on stage at our Spring Production with the dance studio. I want to show the world our little miracle! It is so neat to see our whole family espcially her grandparents getting all goofy over her. One of them has already been out shopping for her! Tonight we are up late filling out the final paper work and final payment to bring her home. Tomarrow Friday morning we will get it all notarized, then off it will go! Amazing and overwhelming how much there is to this. Many of it is stuff we already did in the beginning, and so it is all alot of repeat information and forms. You would think they would have it on file? ! We plan to get this all mailed tomarrow, Then we wait for them to get through all the paper work ...mostly immagration work. Korea will be escorting baby Grace here to the US. So now we will once again wait for that most important phone call. I dream of that day! thank you all for keeping posted on our journey. Your support means alot to our family! God Bless!

God Sent Us An Angel!!! Our Baby Grace!

It's A Girl!! She is beautiful! Im overwhelmed with such gratefulness to God! I can not even think straight today or barely type. I got the call this morning at 8am just as I was dropping the kids off at school. So they were excited to hear the great news too. It's a girl!!Her birth date is August 4,2008. Remember God gave me a dream about a girl on August 30th. ...How amazing! When she was born she weighed 5lbs 5 oz. Her Korean name is Yi Gyeonge(shine) Eun (grace). She truely is our little miracle and has been loved for so long. Now of course I can not wait to hold my little one in my arms. She has such lovey eyes and the cutest button nose and the sweetest lips! I love her sooo very much. I can not imagine now waiting for her to be with us, but that is just what we have to do. God will give us the strength to do so. We will get our package of more photos and all the information about her tomarrow. We will then have to wait 6 weeks to get the legal papers from Korea. Then we will file the I600 to immagration. Once that is there it can be 2-5 months for them to travel. They escort her to Denver Colorado, and we meet there. Please join with us in prayer for our little angel that we will be holding her in 2 months! God can do all things, and I know he can move paper work!! Thanks for your support and prayers. They mean the world to us. I just had lunch with Terry who is also overwhelmed with such great emotion. I hugged him as he went back to work and I said...I look pretty good for just having a baby don't I? He laughed! We are so happy. God Bless!!

Family Memories!

Today, we just got a call from Ginger (our social worker). I saw her name on the id and about fainted. She says we should have our referral this week!! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I think I am going to go through the roof top from such excitement!! My heart is beating rapidly and I can't put into words my feelings.!! WHEWHOOO. My next posting on here will be telling you all what we have! A boy or a girl!!

This week we will get our I600A reapplication updated! Once we have our referral we will file the I600 which allows us to bring our child home. This all takes time with Immigration, so please please pray that this process goes quickly and that God will put his hands on all our paper work that is necessary to bring our baby home. I have heard some families have had to wait longer for some reason, they are taking longer to get the paper work done. Once we know our baby, I know that wait will be one of the hardest hardest parts of this whole thing. Thank you all for your support and your faithful prayers..we couldn't do it with out you all!! Talk to you again when we have our baby photos to show you!!

Great Update

Every day many times a day I find myself just talking and praying to God about many things in life and alot for our baby. This whole experience it completly amazing to me and my family. To know that God cares about us all so very much is very comforting. His grace is amazing, and His love is never ending! To think He is bringing us our baby from clear across the world into our home is truely miraculous! He placed adoption in my heart 8 years ago, and now it will come true. One of my good friends was in town this week and we had coffee, she remembers me talking about the dream of adoption that long ago and she is so happy, and thinks it is so neat to see it finally happen.

Great news....

Tonight we finally got an update from Holt, our adoption agency. Usually it comes on the 3rd or 4th, so I was getting a bit concerned about it now being the 8th of January. So tonight it finally our update came through email. (they update us monthly on which families they are working on for a placement of a child. ) I am happy to report great news. We are so excited to say officially for sure we will be getting our referral anyday now! YIPPY.

We went out to eat with some friends tonight and I honestly could not even think about anything els but our baby. I came home and started cleaning out closets. Terry came around the corner and said "what are you doing...nesting"? Well I hadn't thought about it, but I guess I probebly am. We need to get many baby things, and will do that as soon as we get the photo of our baby girl or boy. Please keep this all in your prayers please.

Happy New Year !!

Happy New Year Everyone! How exciting to finally see 2009. I hope and pray we all are blessed with a great new year. This month will be exciting for us as we are anticipating the big call for our referral! We are all happy to change the calendar to January. Can't wait to see that little face that is sooo many miles away, but sooo close to my heart!