He's a BIG boy!

We received another email this morning with an update and pictures. The update wasn't as detailed as we would have liked, but the pictures.... WOW. He's 14 months old in the pictures and he looks like he is in at least 2T.

We would like to wish everyone a Healthy and Happy New Year.

We got the call.

We are in shock right now, I mean we knew we were getting the call, we just thought we had two more months. It's all good. The travel is set and we'll be arriving home with our son Anthony on 1/21. Of course you'll all be able to come along with us because we'll be posting video links on You Tube and Facebook.
Thanks for all the congrats and well wishes. WE ARE PUMPED!
Last time we went it was June so it will be a whole different packing experience. The temp. in Korea today was 14 degrees.
We also are trying to set up a meeting with James' wonderful foster family while we are there. They are going to be so happy to see him.
If your wondering its a 14 1/2 hour flight nonstop.

Electric Bill

I usually hang up on telemarketers but a couple of months ago I was in a good mood and took a call from Viridian Energy. They are an electric supplier. I never paid much attention to my electricity bill..... I just pay it.
After talking to Viridian and letting them talk me into switching over to them from UI I have saved $21 the first month and $18 the second month. The best part is it's all on the same bill and I'm still writing one check to UI. It's basically a different Generation service charge on your bill and its in black and white.
UI charged .124228 per kwh and Viridian charged .0979 per kwh so if you used 800 kwh of electricity you would save $21.06 per month. Like Dad always says "That money is better in my pocket than theirs."
If you have UI the Generation charges are under the new charges and credits column. I'm sure the same goes for Connecticut Light & Power. Do the math.

http://www.viridian.com/

Things I'm Thankful For

• My Faith
• Our men and women who fight for our freedom
• My beautiful wife Rachael and son James
• Adoption
• My new son Anthony Jooahn who I haven't met yet (coming soon buddy)
• A wonderful family that keeps growing and growing
• Foster families
• Memories of those who have passed (Grandma Kay, Uncle Tony Ferrone, Eddie White)
• Two very special birthmothers on the other side of the world who I may never meet but have changed my life forever because they choose life.
• 27 time world champion New York Yankees!!!!
• Great friends and good times!

Dotting the i's and crossing the t's

I bet no one in the world is trying to get their taxes done and their acceptance packet for the adoption of their child in the same night. No one except me!

Well we are done and Uncle Sam isn't the only one that is happy. Our official acceptance packet will go out in the mail tommorow. It has taken a lot longer to get to this point than it did with James. Our official wait time (4 - 6 months) will beging when our documents are recieved by SWS in Korea. Our new window for travel to Korea looks like February - April 2010.

The wait continues

We had to update our medicals a couple of weeks ago because they were more than a year old and fill out some additional papers. Our end of the paperwork has been submitted for final review by Children Home and Family Services and we are now awaiting our official acceptance and refferal from them for our son Anthony. Our official wait time, which is 4 - 6 months, does not begin until we receive our acceptance. We're still looking to travel from late January to early March.
We're sending out a letter to James' foster family this week to let them know we will be there again so we can set up a reunion between them and James. We are so looking forward to that.

In loving memory of Aunt Connie

We ask you all to pray for Rachael's Aunt Connie who passed away suddenly on 8/21/09. She will be missed.

Facebook | James Grabowski: Anthony Jooahn Grabowski

Facebook James Grabowski: Anthony Jooahn Grabowski

Anthony Jooahn Grabowski

Rachael and I would like to announce that we have been blessed again with our second son. James has a little (BIG) brother. Anthony Jooahn Grabowski. He was born on October 4, 2008 and weighed in @ 7.3 lbs. He is now 10 months old and weighs 23 lbs. It is truly a blessing and very exciting. We will most likely be leaving in January.

I will post some pictures soon.... if your on Facebook look us up.

North End Juniors All Star Team

Andrew's North End Juniors All Star team won the CT championship last week but were unable to advance in the eastern regionals this weekend in New Jersey. I just want to congratulate Andrew and his team on their accomplishment and let him know how proud we are of him. Be proud of what you've done!

Happy Birthday James

James will be 2 years old tomorrow. He is talking good and repeating words. It has been a great and unforgettable year and I am looking forward to the terrible 2's. BRING IT ON James. :)

We also have our approval to adopt again and have been looking at the waiting child lists from a couple of agency's that work with South Korea. There are some agency's that have waiting child lists from South Korea that we can't work with because they are assigned certain states by the agency in Korea. Please keeps us in your prayers during this process. It's definitely not as easy as it was when we adopted James.

We have another new niece. Maya Grace Macero welcome to our growing family and congratulations to Matt, Suzanne, and Adam. We love you.

One year ago we held our son for the 1st time

We can't believe it's been a year. I still remember walking through that door at Holt and James being right there held by his foster mother.... we got a smile out of him right away and she handed James to Rachael. WOW!!!

Look back in our posts from last year at this time to the right to see what I wrote.... it was a very special moment. The video from that day is on the right.

Fingerprinted again!

Another step forward towards our next adoption. Today we were fingerprinted in New Rochelle, NY for our I-600A application. We should have our approval within a few weeks and then the search is on!

James is starting to repeat everything. He says a lot of the kids names now. Noah, Betha, Dom, Jamma (Jana). He also says rain, gramma, mommy, daddy, Nana. When we go to church he says JeJe for Jesus. He say monya for banana and when you ask him to say please he says P. O. or B. O.
I have no idea where that came from.

3 years waiting

Today is our 3 year anniversary of being logged into China for adoption. It is still amazing to us how this could take so long. China has referred children to those logged in as of 3/14/2006. In June of 2008 they had referred up to 1/20/06, that's less than 2 months in the entire year.

We now estimate it could take another year to 18 months before we will get the call for Hannah. With that in mind Rachael and I have decided to renew our paperwork for South Korea and keep our eyes on the waiting child lists. Adopting James was such a wonderful experience we feel that is what we need to do and give the rest to God. We will continue moving forward and if China does happen so be it and if it doesn't it just wasn't meant to be.

We are visiting Wide Horizons for Children next week in Massachusetts. They are the agency whom helped us to adopt James along with Catholic Charities. We just want to thank them in person.

Something special

After searching for a while on the Internet and a whole year after Rachael's brother Anthony passed away we have finally found his daughters and their mother Krista. They have been living in Japan for five years. Both Rachael and Krista are happy to have talked and we will get to see the girls and their little brother this summer when they come to the states to visit. We can't wait...

Dad's 80th Birthday

Tommorow on March 19, Dad will be celebrating his 80th birthday. Last Saturday's surprise birthday party was a success and everyone had a great time. It was great seeing dad's side of the family because we don't get to see them as much as we would like to.

God bless you Dad and happy birthday!

Adoption is final

We weren't sure it was gonna happen yesterday with a foot of snow outside but it did. James was giddy from the moment he woke up like he new it was a special day. It was even more special because some of his cousins had the day off from school and were able to make it thanks to four wheel drive :)

After an hour and a half wait we were called in to the court where James continued to run around and be silly. Judge Ganim let him slam the gavel down to finalize the adoption. It was very special and adorable.

Here is a link to the video..... enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru29UZKSvHo

Adoption Day

On March 2, 2009 James' adoption will be finalized at Bridgeport's Probate court. This is the final step in James adoption. Over the past 8 months we have had post placement visits in our home, doctors visits, letters to write and photos to send to Korea which is all part of the process of adoption from Korea. James will not only become an American citizen on March 2, but he will also be officially our son. :)

We have been forever blessed by God.

Diocese of Bridgeport 2009 video

We've made it on the 2009 Living Our Faith Appeal video. If you click on the link below it will bring you to the page. We are in the very beginning of the video....... 10 seconds of fame. There is also a picture of Rachael and James in the Bishops Annual Appeal newsletter.

http://www.bridgeportdiocese.com/external-aba.shtmllcome.shtml