EP and Visa interview!! Yahoo!!!

Have you heard my shouts? Have you felt the vibrations of all the hops and jumps I've been doing? I got a call from Carol, our social worker, today right at 11 as I was rushing out the door. (I'm so glad I was running late!) Henry's EP has been approved and his Visa interview is scheduled for this Thursday, April 1 -- April Fool's Day!!!! :) That means about 2 weeks from Thursday --hopefully less-- we should get our travel call!!!!!! I've already told Brent to decide what he's taking because I'm starting laundry now and packing our bags! Anyone who wants to send a care package to Seoul better send it quick!! :)

I'm so incredibly excited that I really can't stop smiling and I find myself involuntarily hopping and skipping as I go places today. Oh happy day!

Negative

The answer from the NVC is still no. This one was harder to take than the other ones. :(

Nope

For those of you who are curious, a very nice and polite lady told me that they have not received anything on my son, Lee, Joon Seong. I'll try again next Friday. :)

Weekly NVC "No!"

Back in January when I had thought our EP would be applied for right away I had gotten into the habit of calling the National Visa Center (NVC) to see if our EP had come back to them. Of course it hadn't because the EP was not yet applied for. The way I understand things to work -- feel free to correct me if I'm wrong -- is that when our EP is applied for in Korea it is approved by the Korean government and then is sent to the NVC in America. Once there, the child's picture is in the system and a "visa interview" will be scheduled for the child in Korea. The foster parents will be required to take Henry in for the interview in order for his visa to be issued. Once that visa interview takes place the travel call generally comes rather quickly.

Since I really feel like our EP has been applied for I've resumed my weekly calls to the NVC center. I call on Friday mornings because I know that by then Friday in Korea is over and no more business over there will occur and there is a much shorter wait time on the phone in the morning than there is in the afternoon. Each week I receive the same answer -- no -- delivered in a variety of ways. I've heard, "No, I'm sorry!"; "Nope"; and "Not yet!" My favorite delivery was when the lady said, "Oh, too bad! I was really hoping to see a picture of the little guy" and my least favorite response was plain old "no" with no other words spoken. (I just said thank you and hung up).

So here I sit late on Thursday night thinking about my ever faithful call tomorrow morning. I'm desperately hoping to hear, "Yes! I see his cute little picture here on the screen", but I'm prepared for my normal response -- I just hope I get the nice lady. :)

Chelle

I couldn't resist posting this picture of Chelle. I know that Chelle is going to be a big part of Henry's life because she already has been. :) Not only has she been my friend since somewhere around kindergarten, but she has been my #1 listener when I needed to vent about adoption frustrations, the first person to always ask how things are going with Henry and truly want to listen to all the details. She has been praying for Henry since we got on the list in October of '08, she always oohs and aahs and says just the right things about Henry's adorable pictures, and she even made me homemade chocolate chip cookies for the plane ride when I went to visit Henry in January. You all know how wonderful she was on Henry's birthday. Chelle said that if she had the money she'd fly both of us over to Seoul to see Henry. I believe her -- that's just the kind of gal she is. Yep, she'll be a big presence in Henry's life ~ lucky guy! :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Henry!!

Yesterday was Henry's first birthday. It was a tough day for me, but the girls were very excited over his birthday -- mostly because there was cake involved. The girls got to make the cake. Since it was a mix they really did everything. All I did was get the ingredients out and they did the measuring, egg cracking and turning on the mixer. I did pour the batter into the pans, but then the girls did what was the most important part of the cake -- licking the beater and bowl. :)

On his birthday, yesterday, we had planned to celebrate quietly at home. I had iced the cake and then I heard a knock at my front door. When I opened the door there was Chelle, my closest friend since around kindergarten, standing there with her hands full of balloons and flavored milk. She knew I was having a rough time and so she brought over balloons (one for Lydia, Trixie, and Henry) and our favorite special milk in glass bottles -- chocolate and strawberry for us to enjoy at our party. As if that wasn't enough she stood there and let me cry on her shoulder. I think if you looked up the word "friend" in the dictionary you would see a picture of Chelle. So, in the evening we had our clebration. We had Korean Teriyaki chicken, clementines and cauliflower. This is the usual amount of food that I usually make for dinner, but since the girls got to drink flavored milk instead of white milk and have cake for dessert they declared it a "birthday feast" and ate more food than I have seen them eat in a long time.

After supper we watched the video that Brent made of Henry's first year a couple times. Of course Lydia and Trixie blew out the candles on the cake and we all wished to get Henry as soon as possible. We ate a lot of cake and then at bedtime we all said a special prayer for Henry and his foster family. It's good that the girls were so excited over Henry's birthday because it made act less sad. I will say, though, that a couple times when they were laughing and being so very happy I wanted to shout at them, "Don't be so happy! We're sad that Henry isn't here!"

Our celebration was extra exciting because we wrapped a gift for Henry to open when he's home and we have our real party for him. They loved playing with the Leap Frog birthday cake toy. And, of course, Birthday Elmo showed up to add to the excitement. Birthday Elmo first appeared on Lydia's 2nd birthday, and he has visited us at every family member's birthday ever since. The girls were happy to see him and told me that Elmo is so smart that he knew Henry was part of our family and having a birthday even though he isn't here yet. Yep, that Elmo's a smart one!

I would like to add one final word to all of you that called or posted birthday wishes for Henry. That really, really did help me through the day a lot. As I said earlier I had a bit of a rough go of it, but I found myself checking the computer and each new message helped me through. Not sure why I kept checking the computer -- I think I was secretly hoping I'd get a phone call or email telling me to come pick Henry up. Now that's logical thinking!!

Henry's Birthday Package

A week or 2 ago I sent Henry's birthday package to a friend who I think will be travelling soon to Seoul. I originally wanted to send the package directly to Eastern in Seoul, but I was told that when the package was delivered Eastern would have to pay customs on it. That's not a good thing, so my friend will take it when they go to pick up their son. It won't be in time for Henry's birthday, but it's the best I can do. His first birthday is March 10.

As you can see I didn't include a lot, but I really like what I put in. There's a wooden shape sorter for Henry that rolls, and all the pieces that fit in light up or rattle or do something fun; some smoked almonds for the family (delicious and healthy -- just what Koreans like!); a video of Henry's first year set to Steven Curtis Chapman's adoption song; and of course a Korean translated letter for the foster parents.

Every year Brent makes a video for each of our girls chronicling (sp?) the previous year in pictures and videos. Of course he made one for Henry. Thanks to the video and pictures given to us by the foster father, in addition to what I have from my trip to Seoul , Henry has a pretty good video. :) Brent's very good at putting these videos together, and I invite you to view it -- I love it! The address to view the video is http://www.kohlfam92.webs.com/. Enjoy!