Cocooning

We are leaving for Korea in less than 24 hours so this will be the last blog update until we get back, and we probably will not be able to update the blog right away because we will be a bit tired and busy with a little one!

So I am taking the time to let you know what our plans are after we get back. Our agency has done a wonderful job educating us on adoption issues, Korea, multi-racial families, and attachment.

Attachment is the one I want to talk about now. Our son has been taken care of by his foster mother for the past 8+ months. The only mother he knows is his foster mom. And she is doing a great job spoiling him. She is carrying him around all day, feeding him lots of food, playing on the floor with him, and sleeping with him in her bed. And then one day (one day soon!) he will be handed over to us! And we do not look, smell, sound, or act like anything that he is used to. We are probably the last people he would think of as his parents.

The agency said to help with the attachment process, the family should take some time to "cocoon". Cocooning is when the new-family gathers together and bonds with each other. The first week we get back we are just going to stay home and be with our baby. We are not going to go out and we are not expecting any visitors. We need time for our family to figure ourselves out. Our son needs to be able to have time to process who his primary care givers are before we introduce a bunch of new people. As a mommy who has had her son in FULL TIME daycare for the first 9 months, I am going to be a little selfish and take some time for my family to bond alone! Plus I think that we will need some time to recover from our trip and the 14 hour time difference. But it is only a week, so please have a little patience with us, and it will be over before you know it! : )

This brings me to the next couple of weeks. So after Week 1, we are going to want to get out of the house and show off our cutie! BUT there is a catch! We will still be bonding with our child and he is still learning who his Mom and Dad are. For the first month or so, Jason and I will be the only ones holding, feeding, bathing and changing our child. We need to be the ones who fulfill his basic needs so that he knows who to trust. This is really important to us. Since I have not been the one holding my son for the first 9 months of his life, forgive me if I am a little hesitant to hand him over to someone else once I get a hold of him! : ) Again this is for a short amount of time and it will be over before you know it!

So, please do not be offended if when you ask to hold our child we kindly say "no" it is not you, it is us!

I am off to finish packing and cleaning!

WE GOT OUR CALL

We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!! We got our call!!

Oh, in case your have not heard, we got our call to travel on Friday Oct. 24th! This is probably the second most important call that we have ever gotten (the first was getting the referral!)

I was teaching my first hour and my phone rang in my classroom. I knew that it was an outside ring (it double rings if it is an outside ring) so I answered it and it was the director of the Korean program! She said "are you ready?" I said "yes!" and she said "go! and call me back!" I was shaking and crying and I had to teach the rest of the day. The next thing that I did was call Jason and tell him. Than I had to call my parents and siblings (except Justin- he lives too far away and I do not have a number for him- but I did send him and e-mail). Jason did the same for his family. During my prep time I call personal to let them know that Friday was my last day and that sub would be starting on Monday. I than called my sub to let her know. I finish the day teaching the best that I could under the circumstances. To be honest, it was not a very educational day for my students, and they were ok with that! :)

We have our plane tickets. We decided to get 3 seats. We wanted to just have 3 seats on the way back but it was less money to get 3 round-trips seats so we will have extra room on the way there as well, which will be nice! We leave Wednesday Oct 29th and come home Wednesday Nov. 5th. We will will arrive in Korea on Thursday evening and meet our son Friday! We are so excited and it is really hard to believe that in less than 1 week we will meet our son!

Please pray for safe and stress-free travels (well, as stress-free as possible with a nine-month old) Please also pray for good bonding with us and our child.

I just have to say it one more time: WE GOT OUR CALL!!!!

I think that it is called "Nesting"

So, nesting is not just for pregnant women. It is not a hormone thing; it is a mom thing. I have been going around the house cleaning things. I cleaned the kitchen floor (my baby is not crawling on a dirty floor!). I reorganized the kitchen cupboards to make room for all the baby dishes and bottles and such. Jason and I cleaned out the Jeep, we vacuumed, Windex-ed, and Armor-all-ed the inside to make it "shine like the top of the Chrysler building!" We also put in the car seat. It is a little weird going from no car seat to driving around with an empty car seat. We rearranged the living room to make room for toys, toys and more toys! We put up safety gates and safety locks on the cupboards, oven, and refrigerator. The Baby's room is READY. We also put together our high chair, exersaucer, and pack-n-play.

So basically, we are pretty ready. I am going to clean the bathrooms and vacuum the house about 100 more times to get the last of the dog hair.

So, we are still here, waiting for the call! As Scarlett would say, "After all, tomorrow is another day!"

Travel Window

Our travel window is now open. We could get the call to travel any day now (please let it be tomorrow!). It is a weird feeling being "on call" this way. It is hard to make plans. I am still working, but my long term sub is all ready to go. Any day could be my last day at work. We still want to do things with our family or friends but I find myself saying "We'll be there, unless, we are in Korea"

Our travel window is 4 weeks. So that means for the next month I could be waiting. Waiting for the call to come any day! UGH! Honestly, I am SICK of waiting! I am ready to go, so, lets GO! And I am sick of the expectant look on every one's faces when they say "any news?" I just answer "If I had any news I wouldn't be here right now!" I try to do it in a sweet voice and add a smile - it is not their fault that I don't have news- but I am sure that there is a twinge of annoyance in the sound of my voice- sorry, I am only human!

So my prayers is now "Lord, let us get the call to travel SOON- meaning tomorrow! You know my heart and my heart wants to go get our son!" Please pray for us this way!

On a side note, tonight I am trying a Korean Short rib recipe! Maybe this will help me wait!
-sigh-

Stimulating the Economy

You should be happy to know that we are doing our part to save the economy. We have been buying so many things to get ready for our son! In the last month we bought a pack-n-play, crib, glider rocker, safety gates, dresser, diapers, and several other baby items. We also bought things for our house to get ready for his arrival. We got furniture that will be child friendly and have storage for toys. We started a bathroom in the basement, got a new tank-less water heater, and we will be buying plane tickets to Korea in the near future! Jason also found us a new digital camera to buy as well. Not to mention, people are throwing us showers, so we are even encouraging others to buy! Who knew we were so patriotic?

We are feeling the pressure of becoming parents soon. Just yesterday, I bought my first box of diapers. Now the baby can come home! I have diapers, a pack-n-play, a stroller, and safety gates (what else could a person need?!?). I am also starting to think about what it is going to be like to be a parent. I know one can never be fully ready for what is to come and I am starting to wonder what I have gotten myself into. I mean, I am going to come home with a child and I am going to be in charge of it all the time. Am I prepared for this??? [rhetorical question - no need to comment on this] I am so excited to be a mom, and every night I fall asleep dreaming of holding and playing with my son, but I know I have a lot to learn about parenting. I can probably only learn it by being one!

Challenging things have also been happening as we are getting ready. A couple weeks ago, I got strep, followed by an ear infection, which took me out of school for three days. Last week, we found out that Jason and I are not the only ones living in our house. We have some uninvited house guests: mice- and NOT Micky and Minnie! We have declared WAR on the mice, and have several traps and mouse poisons spread throughout the house. We are hoping to kill the little guys before our child comes home, because we will definitely be pulling the traps and poison once he gets here. We did get one so far! Today I slipped on some water on the floor at school and twisted my ankle. It hurts pretty bad and I can not put much weight on it. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow, hopefully it is not broken because that would really stink to have to travel to Korea with a cast!

Our travel window opens one week from today. Please pray for us as we get prepared for our trip and journey into parenthood.

A peek at the baby's room

We are almost done with the baby's room! I love to just sit and look at the room! So I took some pictures to share with all of you!

I did say it would just be a peek! We will eventually post pictures for all to see but, for now we would like to give real-life tours! We want to see the look on your faces when you see it.

It is now October, the month that we have been talking about since we received our referral. I cannot tell you how many times I have said, "We will hopefully be traveling at the end of October." Too many to count! And now October is here! Our travel window opens after October 15th, which is less than 2 weeks away! We were told that we would most likely travel between 10-14 weeks after signing our official paperwork accepting the referral. That puts us traveling between Oct 15th and Nov 12th. We will get a phone call that will tell us to get our tickets ASAP, so NO, we will not save money on tickets and No, we have not bought them yet!

Now that we are getting this close we are starting to get a little freaked out! We have talked about traveling for so long. We have been looking at the pictures of our baby boy, and talking about bring him home for a while now too. But talking about it and doing it are two different things. We have some MAJOR child-proofing to do! I still have our car seat and pack-n-play in their boxes. The baby's room is ready, but I need to wash all the clothes, and put them in the closet or dresser. I need to get some diapers! I need to transition the back part of the living room into a baby-area. I need to pack a bag for the baby, and for us. I need to get some extra sleep, because we all know I won't get any after the baby comes. We need to pick a name for our child! And, I need to mentally prepare myself for the 20 hour flight home with a 9 month old (this is the part that freaks me out the most!)... not to mention the jet lag we will all have when we come home!

Next week I will be interviewing for my long-term sub, and hopefully training them the following week so it will be a smooth transition out of the classroom. I was granted my FULL 6 weeks paid maternity leave (Hooray!) and the unpaid family leave after that. What a blessing!

Even though we are totally FREAKING OUT, we are beyond excited for our boy to come home!