Two Big!!

Something exciting has been brewing in my family for the last few months. My younger sister is expecting twins, a boy and a girl. We are all so very excited.

At her last Dr visit,she is just 35 weeks, the babies were measured during an ultrasound. The girl is measuring at almost 7 lbs and her brother is measuring at just about 6lbs. Also, the doctor scheduled the C-section for March 5th. Those babies might just be two little chunks. My dad was a twin and he and his brother were 7+ and 8+ pounds at birth. My poor grandma. So we'll just have to wait and see if these two set a family record.

A Promise, Prayer and Praise!

A few of years ago I began praying about adopting. It's actually something Josh and I talked about before we got married. It seemed to come to the forefront of my mind. I knew it was a calling God had given me because the feeling was so strong. At one point, a couple of years ago,Josh and I decided we would NOT adopt (for financial reasons) but it didn't take long before the feelings came back stronger than ever. I truly believe this is something that God wants us to do. He has picked this boy out especially for our family.

Since I began praying I promised God that He would get the glory for everything that happens in this process. We have had worries ($) and concerns ($) that we feel we can't overcome. I've tried to have faith that God will provide. This is hard for my husband. I guess it's a guy thing, he sees the Wall ($25,00) and doesn't know how to get over it. God has already revealed Himself in so many ways I am going to keep my promise and give Him the glory, even if that means revealing a little more information than I might have otherwise. Here goes.

-The fee for Korea is typically 17,000+, when we got our paperwork our fee had been reduced to $13,000. PRAISE THE LORD!

-We received a grant from our agency for another $2,000 just for asking. PRAISE THE LORD!!

-Josh is in school and had been getting GI Bill checks. A few weeks ago he said he didn't think he had anymore coming, that he'd used it up. Okay, no big deal. Well Thursday we are going to KC to file some paper work with immigration. It comes along with a fee that totals about $800, well, one day last week I went out to the mail and found a GI Bill check for almost $600, tell me that's not God!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!

We have applied for two more grants that we haven't heard from yet so be praying about that. We have about 1/3 of our fees taken care of and are still working on the rest. I KNOW that God will provide. I'm so excited to see God working in my life and the life of my little boy.

Psalm 105:2 "Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all this wonderful acts."

Update!!

Did I say it would take a month to get our "Legals" here???? Well, they came today. I am so excited and blessed. God is awesome! Now, Josh and I will plan a trip to Kansas City for the next step in the process. More paperwork and fingerprinting. After that point there's not much we do except wait. Most everything else happens on the Korea side of things.

I've gotta start preparing for a new baby. Ahhhhhhhh!!!!

New look.

I finally figured out how to get a cute background. This is my choice for Valentine's day. After the holiday passes I'll try to change it again. In the process I lost my Korea clock, but I'll work on that.

Adoption update: We sent in our official Acceptance paperwork and it got to the agency on Tuesday. The next step could take a month. We are waiting for a batch of paperwork called "Legals" Once we get them we move on to the next step. So right now there's nothing much we can do except pray and raise money. God is already showing Himself faithful in this area. He's so awesome. Thanks for praying for us, keep it up.

It got me thinking.

I was sitting here, in front of the computer not doing much of anything. I was curious about what time it might be in Seoul, South Korea. I found a website that shows times for cities all over the world. You can copy the code and add it to your website. I did that. I looked at my new addition to the blog layout and got to wondering, What's my baby doing right now? When I was looking it was 12:42 pm on Friday. I wondered if he'd had lunch yet. Was his foster mother putting him down for a nap? I wonder if he knows yet that his forever family is here waiting for him and loving him already. Someday I'll be cleaning up his little face and lifting him out of his highchair. I'll be the one snuggling him as he gets drowsy and tired. I will kiss his face. Someday, his two big sisters will be the ones to make him laugh and smile. Josh and I will be the ones to show him the love of a family. But, until then I hope his foster family knows what a treasure they have. I pray for them to take the best care of them they can. I can't help but pray because that's about all I can do right now. But, someday...

Our Boy

Finally here's a picture of our new baby boy. The first one is the original one we received with the referral, I'm not sure exactly how old he is in it, but pretty young, just a couple of weeks. The second one we received late last week, it was taken early this month, he's just about 5 1/2 months old in it. I was so thankful to get an updated picture. Some families never get one and just have to imagine how their baby has changed. I think our boy has changed a lot. I looked over the new picture for quite a while trying to find similarities. He's become quite a chunk, this is a good thing. When he was born he weighed just over 5lbs, now he's up to 16 or so. The new picture made me laugh because someone has pulled that baby's pants up way to high. Josh said "We'll put a stop to that!" No Erkel babies in this family:) I'm so glad to be able to share him with you. Now we have to think of a blog name for him. How about "Bub" or "Brother"?

Okay, here goes...

WE HAVE A SON!!!

I can't believe it. This happened so fast. We got the call on Dec. 19th that we had been matched with a little boy from South Korea. We took a month to research, pray,talk about it, oh and did I mention PRAY!!! Monday we decided to go forward and I called Tuesday to let our agency know. I was shaking with excitment and nerves. I must admit, I'm a little scared, too. But, I am convinced this baby is our boy. His birthday is July 19th, 2008. He turned 6 months old on Monday. Big Sis is excited because her birthday is the 18th of July. I will wait to post a picture until we fill out the acceptance paperwork, but we are officially matched. Yay!!!

We will hopefully have him home by his first birthday. Pray that all the paperwork goes quickly and smoothly.