2008

It started in January as an unknown future for our family. I was driving home from the casino when I received a call asking me if Rachael and I would be interested in adopting a child with special needs. It was something we had already discussed we just didn't know our path until it was right in front of us. Three weeks later we weren't going to China for a girl but we were headed to South Korea for a boy. Our lives have been changed forever.

A mountain of paperwork, online courses, nervous and exciting nights followed.

In March we were struck by tragedy when Rachael's brother Anthony passed away. He was very excited about James' arrival. Please continue to pray for him.

A baby shower, acceptance of paperwork, and a 14 hour plane ride later and we were in Korea. We were a day ahead and on the other side of the world.

6 days later we were on our way home with our son and a whole new world sitting in my lap. It was now time to plan a birthday party and baptism.

The next six months are a blur with a thousands of pictures, plenty of video, and a lot of fun. By the way the only special need James has is has an enormous appetite. :)

We have a new niece Samantha and a new cousin Arianna.

Andrew won his second little league championship in a row.

Gasoline went mysteriously down to $1.65 from close to $4.50.

We have our first black president.

Suzanne and Matt are having another baby.... woohoo.

I think everyone in America lost at least half of their retirement savings if they were fortunate to have one, while the CEO's of these major companies get multi-million dollar bonuses for running their companies into the ground.

Goodbye 2008. It is a year we will never forget.

Thank you Heavenly Father for the blessings you have given us and for answering our prayers.

Christmas is coming

We took James for some photos at the Milford Mall last week and we introduced him to a guy named Santa. He is not a big fan! We tried to get him to take a picture but there was no way it was happening. I hope Santa understands.

We also want to update everyone on China. It has not changed much. The CCAA has sent out referrals for those logged in up to 2/23/06 and as many of you know our log in date is May 31, 2006. It sounds like its right around the corner but last year at this time they had just gotten into January 2006 which means they didn't even complete 2 full months in one year. We feel that if they stay at this pace we will not receive a referral until mid 2010. On the bright side we have James to keep us busy. :)

James' Baptism

We were blessed with a beautiful day today for James' christening. Here are some pictures.

Halloween and more...

James wore his costume three times this year. We celebrated our friends 1st birthday @ Beardsley Park's boo at the zoo. The line was crazy to get into the park but what a bunch of cute kids dressed up in their halloween costumes and it turned out to be a nice warm day.

Halloween was a lot of fun with James and the triplets doing their first trick or treating.

Pumpkin Patch

We took James to our friends Halloween outdoor movie night on Saturday and to Jones Tree Farm on Sunday for some pumpkin picking.

Happy Birthday

We have a triple header birthday on Monday, October 6. Sophia, Doris, and my mother-in law Anna will all celebrate their birthday. Here are some photos from Sophia's party on Saturday.



We also want to welcome our newest family member Samantha. Congratulations Stephanie, Cheyne, Joey, & Doris.

Venice, Florida

We took James to meet his family in Florida last week (Rachael's Aunts and Uncles). James did great on the plane and now has more time on a plane than most of our brothers and sisters combined (lol).

We thought we were going to have to cancel because of Hurricane Ike, but it turned just in time.

James funny face

Our son has a few new tricks he has decided to show us. If you ask him to show you his funny face this is what you get.

We also have been trying to keep him away from the stove and repeating the word HOT, so everything he touches he repeats his new word - HOT.

Fairfield County Catholic

Hi everyone. Fairfield County Catholic has written a story about our adoption of James. Here is a link.

http://www.bridgeportdiocese.com/fcc.shtml

The story is on the front page. We hope it brings a little more attention to adoption.

Happy Birthday James

Happy Birthday to our son. The weather was great and James had a blast. Here are some photos of his big day.

Everything is great...

Hi everyone,
James is real cool. He still hasn't turned down anything we have given him to eat and sleeps in his crib every night. He ends up in our bed by morning but sleeps in his crib for the most part. He is warming up to more people, especially if they food in their hands. James also talks a lot just like those first video's we saw.

We went to Ichiro last night for some Hibachi to celebrate our 4th anniversary. James was a little bent at us for waking him up but then he realized we were about to feed him and all was good. He even clapped for the chef.

He will be one year old next Saturday.

Sunday Macaroni

James has not turned down any food we put in front of him and he loves grandma's macaroni. He's not to fond of baths or being put in his crib. (He never slept in a crib) He has started letting us change his diaper without freaking out and has been in the pool once and loves it.

Here is a few more photos from his first days home.

Two days home

Hi everyone,

He is so awesome. I woke up today with a gentle slap to the face and a great big smile. He is adjusting real quick and doing well. I finally downloaded some photes from my camera so here thay are.... I get to home photos next time. :)

He's ours!

Wow.

It was amazing. It was the most scary moment of our lives as well as the happiest. I'm lost for words right now and don't know what to say.

We were all emotional when it was time to say goodbye and James was great until he realized he couldn't see his foster family anymore. It was a 45 minute taxi ride that we never want to repeat. It took about ten minutes when we got him back to the room to calm him. He was so scared. He's sleeping now.

So peaceful.

It's gonna be a long ride home. We are very nervous about the flight but we will manage. Say an extra prayer for us Mom. I think we're gonna need it. :)

We hope you enjoy the video. I will put the link here when the video has been uploaded.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nU6pqQ9tcCQ

5 more hours

While you guys are all sleeping at home (except for you mom), one of our dreams will be coming true. We've tossed and turned all night but the day has arrived and we are ready. I will do my best to get a video downloaded on You Tube to share with everyone.

We thank God most of all for this moment in our life and this special gift we are about to receive. Things don't always happen as quickly as we hope or the way we think they're supposed to. You try to do the best you can and play the cards your dealt. I believe we have done this and we will continue to do this. We have faith, family, and friends. What more can you ask for?

Now go get your tissues! :)

20 hours to go

It has been a long day. It's 6:00 pm here and 5:00 am at home. We went to Holt at 9:00 am to meet our tour guides. Their names were Bryan and Sarah. They were young and very nice. We had a good time. We went on a tour of the Changdeokgung Palace. This is where kings and queens resided along with their servants. I can't tell you much else because we took the Korean tour because we were an hour early for the English tour. Sarah and Bryan who is fluent in both English and Korean were our personal translators for any questions we had.

Then we went to another part of the city (not sure of the name) and did more shopping and had some Korean food. The only way I can explain it is it looked like Ziti, but wasn't hollow, it was doughy like Gnocci's, and spicy.
It was pretty good.

We parted ways with our tour guides and went on a squeaky shoes mission.(don't ask)

It almost feels like Little Italy during the San Genaro festival (very narrow streets), but a lot bigger, more food, and more shops, a lot more. You also have to keep an eye out for motorcycles on the sidewalks.

Well, its time to get some rest now. In about 20 hours we will be getting full custody of our son. We get him at 2:00 pm at Holt. (1:00 am for you guys) Then we'll be locking ourselves in the hotel and get to know each other a little better.

Please keep us and James foster family in your prayers. I'm sure this is going to be the most emotional time of the trip.

I'm looking forward to posting another video of us with James before we head home and I'm sure you guys can't wait too. :)

A little more about the meeting

James
likes Italian bread
no pacifier
doesn't suck his thumb
loves picture videos with music
he has sensitive skin
he takes 2 short naps a day about 20 - 30 minutes
he's a light sleeper during the day but sleeps through the night
doesn't stop crying when he is sleepy
drinks 8 oz of warm milk every 3 - 4 hours
likes steamed rice
is a very active baby
picks things up with two fingers
walks holding on to things
he sleeps on the floor or in between his foster parents

What a moment

It happened. All of our fears have been wiped away.

We were an hour early so we decided to walk around and we basically stayed right in front of the place. A few minutes later all of the foster mothers were showing up with their children. Now we were wondering if we were going to see them walk right by us. That didn't happen but a local came up to us and decided to have a conversation that neither one of us understood. He was very nice and it was funny. The Korean people have been pleasent. I busted out my Korean language book and pointed to the words that said "goodbye", shook his hand and walked toward Holt. We walked through the front door and right into James and his foster mother, foster father, foster brother, and the fathers sister. We all recognized each other instantly and there were tears immediately.

WOW.

His little foster brother (4th grade) handed me a half a heart necklace with his name engraved and showed me the other half around his neck with James name engraved. Another WOW moment.

We proceeded upstairs for our meeting and sat in a room with everyone together, they asked Rachael if she would like to hold him, and WOW another moment that will be stuck in my heart forever.

We each gave each other gifts. The foster family gave us framed photos of James ( he is very photogenic). You'll see them soon.

After the meeting, which was about an hour, we saw the Dr. for his final exam. James is just getting over a cold and congestion, so the trip home may be tough.

We took some photos together and video (I'll be posting soon).

The foster family is Catholic and was very happy to know that we will be christening James.

I'll write some more later. I'm going to work on the video now.

Link to the video :)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KeODquBx8hs

Subway System & The Korean War Memorial

Good morning everyone. It's 9:30pm here and 8:30 am at home.

We traveled by the Seoul subway system today. It was very easy once we got our bearings straight. All of the little kids were smiling at Rachael as well as quite a few adults (The men that is). The entire city reminds us of Manhattan, without the skyscrapers.

We started the morning by finding Holt International Adoption Services. This is where we'll be meeting James in about 13 hours. It's a good 25 minutes on the subway. We're both very happy we found it. It's gonna make tomorrow morning a lot easier.

After that we went to the Korean War memorial. It was huge. It had every kind of plane, helicopter, boat, tank, and artillery used in the war. It was nice to visit knowing that dad served during that time. 21 different countries helped South Korea defend themselves against the North.

The Itaewon shopping area was full of street vendors, shops, and restaurants. We ate at the Hard Rock and got back to the hotel around 4:00pm. There is another shopping area around the hotel with narrow street and it seemed about a million bars and restaurants.

Well that's it for now. I haven't been able to download my pictures from my camera or email the video but I'll keep trying.

Good Morning

Rachael has been pacing back and forth, she can't sit still. We just came back from breakfast and around 11:00am we'll be catching a shuttle bus from the hotel to Itaewon shopping which is next to the Korean War memorial.

It's raining so I'm not sure how much walking we'll do. I think we're going to attempt the subway system.

I'm also having trouble with posting the video on the blog. I think the file is to big. I tried to email it to some of you. Were you able to open it?

Seoul

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_vcTX7zclbI
We have arrived in Seoul. We are 13 hours ahead of you guys back home. The flight was long but not bad at all. We each watched about 3 movies each and the food was good (along with my PB & J sandwiches). It's 8:00 pm Saturday night, June 21st and it's 7:00 am back home.



A big HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to you Mom & Dad. 56 glorious years.




Good Night!!!!

2008 North End Champs

Andrew and his teammates won their second straight North End Little League championship. Andrew went 2 for 3 with 1 RBI and two runs scored in the final game. Andrew also made the all star team and will be practicing for the upcoming tournament. Congratulations Andrew. We are so proud of you.

Travel approved

We will be leaving to meet our son James on Friday. We land in South Korea on Saturday night and have Sunday to explore Seoul. Our first meeting with James and his foster mother will be on Monday morning (Korea time), which will be Sunday night here, at Holt International (adoption agency in Korea). The meeting will be about 2 hours. After the meeting James will be going home with his foster family.

Depending on how James reacts to us we may have an additional meeting on Tuesday. We will also be touring Seoul on Tuesday.

We will be back at Holt on Wednesday. This is "THE DAY". We have a Thursday am flight so he will be coming back to spend the night and forever with us. This is going to be the one part of the trip that we have both been scared of. Taking James from his foster family who have raised him since October. They have gone back and forth to the doctors, changed many diapers, fed him, put him to sleep, seen him wake up, played with him, and loved him. We are eternally grateful to them for their commitment to be a foster family.

We plan to lock ourselves in our hotel room after that, get acquainted with our son, and get ready for our flight home.

We got the call!

Wow. We can't begin to explain the excitement, butterflies, and nervousness that we feel right now. I'm sure many of you who are reading this and have children are smiling and know exactly what we feel. It has been exactly 2 years, 7 months, and 28 days since we decided to adopt and today we got the call. Our son James is ready to come home to the good old USA.

James Ji-Hun will be one on July 26.

Thank you to all our friends and family for your prayers and support over this long journey and remember to keep checking this blog for updates as we go through this exciting time. You are all going to be able to share this time with us as it happens.

Above is the latest picture of James.