There's no place like home

Well, I finally made it back home on Thursday night! I worked yesterday and my boss was very happy I was back. Last night Patrick and I went to Sam's club and we found this awesome deal on car seats so we bought 2! Yes, that is right, we bought car seats about a year ahead of time...what can I say, I like to be prepared! :) It makes me happy to start buying things for this baby, although part of me worries that other people will think I am crazy!

I plan on posting a timeline of events thus far but I am sick today and have no energy. This always happens when I fly back to PA. I think part of it is the airplane and all the germs and the other part is that I don't get a lot of rest while I am there. I woke up today and just felt horrible. I am still in my PJ's and I plan to stay in them for a while.

Snowed in!

UPDATE: Baby Harper is off of her respirator and is eating from a bottle!!!!! Praise God!!!! If you want to follow her story, click on the "Praying for Harper" on the left.

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I should be waiting to board my flight at Philadelphia International Airport but, instead, I am sitting in my parents dining room writing a blog entry. I woke up this morning, all packed and ready to go, only to discover that my flight was cancelled. When I called, the guy on the other end of the line informed me that the 2 remaining flights for the day were uncertain and it would probably be in my best interest to re-book for tomorrow. So we will try to do this again tomorrow. Stupid snow and ice! It is nice to get one more day with my mom but I miss my husband and my kitty cats. Plus I was supposed to work tomorrow.

Oh well, since I cannot control the weather I will just go with it and enjoy!

Since I have been home I have been talking about the adoption a lot, filing in everyone on our progress...they should just read my blog but that is OK! I am so excited to find out who this little baby is that God has picked out for us! I am so excited to be a mom. I found these cute little books for the baby and I bought them. They are called God's Little Zoo and teach about manners, morals, etc. I couldn't help myself, I can't wait to read and snuggle with my little one!

Please pray today for all those out on the icy roads, for my baby and his/her birth mother, patience for Patrick and me as we wait to be matched, safe travels for me tomorrow and still prayers for baby Harper. She is doing so much better but still needs our prayers!

On the wait strip

I booked my flight to go home for Dyana's funeral. I fly out tomorrow and arrive in Philly at 8:40pm. In order to get a good price on a ticket back here I will have to stay until Wednesday. My mom paid for my ticket, thanks mom!!

On the adoption front we have made great progress! I am waiting on the letter from Holt and then Patrick will mail in the supporting documentation for the grant from Shaohannah. All the paperwork needs to be in by Tuesday, 1/27 so hopefully the letter will come in the mail tomorrow!

And, as of January 6, 2009 we are OFFICIALLY on the wait list. Our home study will stay at headquarters in Oregon until Holt Korea asks for it. I have made two "friends" on a board for Adoption, Nancy and Christina. They both live in NJ and are adopting from Korea through Holt. Christina's log in date is about 4 months ahead of ours and Nancy's date is one week after our. So, since they usually match one month at a time, Nancy and I should get our referrals at the same time!

I am now signed up to get the Holt updates by email and so I should be getting more information about dates they are working on currently. I like that I will be able to tell when we are getting closer!

I am starting to look into fundraisers to help subsidize the cost of the adoption. If any of you have any suggestions I would love to hear them!

Prayer requests this week: for my safe travels to and from PA, for our little baby and his/her birth mother, for Harper a 4 day old little baby with pneumonia, for the family and friends of Dyana, for my husband as he stays home alone for the next week.

Please pray for a dear friend

I know I don't have a very big following on my blog yet but, for those of you reading this, please pray for the family of Dyana (Sanders) Roberts. Dyana passed away Monday night at the age of 31. She leaves behind an 11-year old daughter (Marina), her husband (Joel), her parents, her sister and so many friends who just thought the world of her. Please pray for all of her friends and family during this difficult time.

From her husband, Joel:

Dyana had complications with her surgery and was not able to get enough oxygen. They put her on oxygen, but she was struggling to breathe. Yesterday they put her on a ventilator to help her breathe.

She had fluid around her heart and they attempted to remove 150 CCs of fluid. Dyana went into cardiac arrest and was revived 3 times. Her heart kept stopping and they did everything they could for an hour to bring her back, but her lungs and heart were just too strained. There was nothing else that they could do and Dyana passed away around 7 pm Monday night, 1/19. We are all really a mess right now, but have a lot of friends and family giving us support.

We are having a memorial service for Dyana at:
Founds Funeral Home
229 S High St
West Chester, PA
At 2:30pm on Friday 1/23

Please pray for our friends!

Our friends, Nick and Janelle, are expecting their second son, Joel. Joel has been diagnosed with many health problems and Nick and Janelle have been told that these problems are pretty bad. They will be traveling soon from Pensacola up to Atlanta, GA where Janelle will deliver baby Joel. Please pray that God would heal Joel, that He would be with Nick, Janelle and their whole family during this difficult time, and that they would travel safely to Atlanta. I am devastated for them and pray that they would feel God's peace during this time.

PIP I, II, III and IV

Patrick and I completed 4 of the 5 PIP (Parenting in Progress) classes we need to take before we are matched with our baby. The classes were supposed to be yesterday and today from 9:00am to 3:00pm in Omaha. (For those who know me well, 9:00am on a Saturday morning HURTS!) I say supposed to because we got done at 2 yesterday and at noon today. All in all, it was a good class. We talked a lot about our baby and the adjustments that they will have to make when they come here. We learned the importance of talking with our baby about their Korean heritage and watched videos of kids who have been adopted. It gave me some things to think about and gave us some good references to go forward with.

I pray that God would give us the right words to say and things to do to help our baby be well adjusted and have a good sense of self. I also pray that God would shield our baby and us from all the "well-meaning" people who may say hurtful things about/to us, our baby or the adoption. Before anyone asks, no, we haven't gotten any yet but just want to be prepared for the future.

We were in the class with 2 other couples so it was a small class. I was hoping to meet another couple that was adopting from Korea, but we didn't. The one couple is doing China's Child of Promise program and the other is adopting from Ethiopia.

Yesterday I was so tired after the class that I took at 3.5 hour nap when we got home. I was sure that would mess me up at night but I was able to go to sleep last night with no problems. Guess I just needed a little extra rest.

I still need to get the I600A paper work in the mail and get some supporting documents to a grant organization I applied to, we plan to do most of that tomorrow. So, hopefully early to mid next week I will have some more adoption milestones completed!

My friends Sharon and Aric are also in the process of adopting a baby in the US. If you could, I would just ask for prayers for them during this time. That they would find things to occupy their time as they wait for an expectant mother to pick them to be the parents of her baby.

Thank you all for caring about us and for being with us on this journey.