The weight of the wait

There is not much new in the world of "waiting for John", but seeing as a few people have asked for updates, I will fill my blogger audience in with what little information I do have. CJ & I were both able to get our fingerprints done before the holidays. Phew! I had planned to keep things quiet at work until the arrival date was closer but, well, me & secrets don't get along all that well and I spilled the beans at our holiday party. And of course had to tell my principal in order to get permission to leave early for fingerprinting. Ah, yes.... fingerprinting...
So off I jetted a million miles an hour to get to the immigration office, thankfully finding a parking spot on the second trip around the block and only getting slightly held-up at the security check. However my 10 minutes to close arrival did not please the fingerprinting lady who grumpily yelled at some poor kid on his cell phone who was just trying to navigate the entrance form. Honestly, I have spoken English all my life and have a hard time with the immigration forms - I cannot imagine how difficult it must be for people with limited English. I tried to be as pleasant as possible in an effort to keep her from squashing my fingers and made jokes about how I was an expert in having my prints taken. She was only mildly amused. BUT, the fingerprints are DONE, and we have officially been approved to bring an immigrant into the country. Woo-hoo! We found out after the fact of course that we didn't need to pay a second fee and I have been trying to get it reimbursed (HA. HAHAHA.) without any luck thus far.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that the agency in Korea has decided they will not be giving us any medical updates or new photos between now and homecoming. The photo thing is a disappointment, but not a surprise because it was the same way with Paul. Thankfully his foster mother took a lot of pictures and arranged them in a nice album that was sent home on the plane. But the medical updates?? Part of the reason we were so happy with the Korean adoption process was the monthly medical updates - it is so wonderful to hear that your child is developing well and to see what he is doing each month. 6-12 months is such a speedy time for development and not only are we missing seeing it in person, but now we don't even get to enjoy it vicariously!! It makes me want to cry.
In the meantime I am working on a package to send to John and his foster family in hopes that they might at least send a letter back saying he is doing well. Until then - what I know, you know. Stay tuned.

The Christmas season: part 2

Vacation. It began on Wednesday evening, December 23. My SIL arranged for a professional photo of all the cousins. The evening started out pretty poorly, with both Paul & mommy having temper tantrums at the studio.... but eventually things turned around and the pictures turned out pretty cute. Paul actually smiled this year!

For Christmas Eve we travelled to my sister's house and enjoyed a fun day of food, laughter and gifts. Paul enjoyed spending time with "My Mitch" - playing video games, acting goofy and having guitar jam sessions. Despite the fact that he enthusiastically announced, "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT" when opening his first gift (socks), his favorite gifts were a guitar and keyboard complete with microphone and recordable "Ipod". What can I say? The boy is a rock star.

From my sister's house we rushed back home to go to our church's Christmas Eve service. It was very nice. We enjoyed singing Christmas carols and had to laugh when Paul belted out the first line to "Joy to the World" before the rest of the congregation. After church we headed to my aunt and uncle's house for a quick visit with my mom's family. Paul was a bit overtired at this point and in all-out goofball mode. He entertained my cousins with rounds of "Jingle Bells" and his over the top reaction to a gift: "IT'S WHAT I WANTED - A DOCTOR'S APPOINTMENT!" (Pretend doctor's kit) Thankfully we were able to use the lure of Santa's late night visit to quickly coerce our overtired boy into sleep mode.

Christmas morning was spent unwrapping more gifts and enjoying a second year tradition of Belgian waffles with Grandma & Papa. Then it was off to celebrate with CJ's family. Paul had a great time with his cousins and the older crowd enjoyed staying up late playing board games.

The whirlwind did not end there!! The following day we got to connect with an old high school friend and on Sunday we hosted a party for my dad's family. Phew!!