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

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