Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Longing for Levi





First, the good news: We were told by our agency that we could send 2 items for Levi. A soft photo album and a lovey. Pictures are attached of the lovey & the front and back of the album. Another praise - our fingerprints have been scheduled! Unfortunately, it was for Nov. 28th - the day after thanksgiving, when we will be away, so we will mail a petition to change the date tomorrow. As you can imagine, a small part of me wanted to cancel our thanksgiving plans to make the appointment, so we can bring our little Levi home sooner - but we know that a the time with our family is precious. You can pray for a speedy rescheduling.

Honestly, if you've never been there, you can't understand. Those of you who are APs or waiting parents with us - I know that you know how hard it is. We've taken turns sleeping with the lovey each night, having sweet dreams of our little Levi. I also mentioned to the kids that when we send it to Korea, it would have a little "scent" of each of us in the lovey, and that might help Levi bond with us. Ella started the sleeping process 2 nights ago. She woke up the next morning, crying, absolutely beside herself. When I asked her why, she said, sobbing... "Because...the blanet...fell...out....of my...bed...and it won't smell....like me..." (picture her SOBBING through this WHOLE thing). We figured out a solution (she is with the lovey now, but I get it before heading to bed :)!!!). But because of this, I realized that there is pain in the waiting for Ben & Ella as well. I don't feel anxious...I just miss having him here with me. I thought the holidays would distract us, but as they get closer, we wish we could be celebrating with him. Each day is precious to us. We are not wasting a minute. But - please pray that God would comfort our hearts. We long for our little Levi.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Grateful...

I love everyday miracles. We've seen so many of them in our lives, and yet we don't often recognize them as such. Here is one for the record books...

On Monday, I tracked our package to the USINS to make sure it arrived. (You remember...the paperwork that has ALREADY been returned once!!?) When I saw the status, my heart sank. "Out for re-delivery." WHAT?? I remembered Jean mentioning something about checking the little box that says "no signature required", but somehow it never really made it into my brain. People...it's being delivered to a POST OFFICE box. There is NO ONE standing at the post office boxes ready to sign for packages?? I pretty much figured we'd be getting that darn package back in the mail. The status indicated that it would redeliver the package up to 4 times until it got a signature...and then return it to us if it failed. Let's see..mailed on Sat, delivered on Monday...then the holiday... We should be receiving the package on about Fri or Sat only to turn around and redeliver WITH box checked to arrive on Mon. or Tues. next week We lost a whole week..grr...or so I thought...

I logged on Tues to check and see how many additional delivery attempts were made, I saw this message... "Your item was delivered at 11:28 AM on November 10, 2008 in BOSTON, MA 02114. The item was signed for by E S."

Again...WHAT? I'm am not complaining, but HOW did that happen? I'm still scratching my head. When I spoke to Jean about it last night...she just kept remarking "Angie, it was meant to be..." She told me, in her 20 years of doing this, that has n-e-v-e-r happened. "They always come back," she told me. I'm feeling very, very grateful tonight. Hitting road blocks doesn't mean something isn't meant to be." I can't consent that life is going to be handed to us on a platter...but sometimes, we just get a break. Thank you God for this everyday miracle. And thank you E.S. for your signature.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

One additional picture. By: Ella


Ella can't wait for her baby brother.

NEW PHOTOS











We got a 5 x 7 envelope today from Love the Children! I called everyone into the kitchen and all three additional family members came running! Here are the new photos! We got a total of 12 photos + the report that you see! He sounds to us like a DREAM baby! To do the conversions, he is 16.5 lbs and 25.3 inches. Well done, Levi & Ms. Kim! We are praying for Ms. Kim, Levi's foster mom. We are praying that God would bless her many times over for caring for our sweet little Levi and that He would heal her brokenness when Levi leaves Korea to fulfill our heart's desire - bringing Levi home.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Moving forward...oops, I mean back!

I was SO excited yesterday morning to find in our mail a package from the USINS (United States Immigration and Naturalization Service)! I couldn't believe how fast they were...or so I thought. I opened the package only to find that it was the entire contents that had been mailed to them with a note saying that we owe them an additional fee. Argh! It was disheartening to say the least. I was burdened with the feelings that we may have just cost ourselves some time in bringing Levi home. So I called our social worker, Jean, who once again, reassured us that we are still on track. She encouraged us to get a cashier's check with the additional funds, and express mail the application back to Boston today. She noted that our documents really only took a little over a week to be reviewed (to see that this error was made) and that - she said was "very" good news. She was also excited to tell me that Levi's documents are IN the states, and are ready to be filed as soon as that paperwork processes. So - it appears that we are still on track...in the words of Jean, we are onto step #2. So, I went to bed feeling more relaxed and dreaming of holding our son. We should have more pictures to share next week. Stay tuned...

Monday, November 3, 2008

What's the latest?? Any News??

Any word on the baby? What are the next steps? Will you hear more about him soon? When will you hear something?

We get questions like this all the time...and we never get tired of knowing that there are many, many people waiting with us. Problem is...there hasn't been much new, a lot of "nope...nothing new" or "we'll let you know." Mostly, it's hurry up and wait for us. We have all the paperwork in that we should. We should be receiving a letter in the mail soon about having our fingerprints made for the USINS paperwork. But it hasn't arrived yet.

Waiting is hard, but we are confident in this: Levi will be with us the rest of his life. So though 4 months is hard, life is very full. We will be in Philly (home of the World Series champs - congrats!) for Thanksgiving and here (hopefully with my parents) for Christmas and New Years. We have Ben's birthday (12/14) to plan and are already thinking about the Marathon, Levi's and Ella's birthdays in April! And there is all the collecting! I'm REALLY wishing I hadn't given away ALL our baby things! :) I just bought several shirts, 2 pair of pants, and a jacket for Levi today. A couple of them were 2T, so not for right away...but soon enough! Later this evening, Ben called me over to the stairs and tossed a shirt down. "What's this for?" I asked. Ben said "It's for the baby". When I questioned, he said the sleeves were too short, so he thought it was ready to pass on. I thought it was so cute that he's so excited about passing his clothes down to Levi.

Whenever people ask about how many kids I have, I can't pass up the opportunity to say "Three. An almost 8 year old, a 5 year old and we're expecting our 3rd in late Feb or Early March." If I'm feeling particularly ornery, I leave it at that! I ignore the stares at my seemingly un-pregnant belly and act as though I don't notice. :)

We are also anxiously awaiting our director, Cecelia to come back from Korea. We've been told that she'll have updated photos of Levi and a full report. She'll have visited him a couple of time while she's there. About 80% of me can't wait! I can't wait to see and hear about how big he is NOW. But the other 20% of me is sad. Sad that she is seeing him and holding him - and we are still so far away from holding him ourselves. There is already a little part of us that lives in him. We think about him every day. An ancient Chinese proverb talks of “an invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet. The thread may tangle or stretch but it will never break.” I believe that we were meant to be Levi's forever family. It's complicated to believe this, because I would have never chosen for these to be his roots or for him to have such a difficult history. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but because it rings true....my other two children grew in my womb - Levi is growing in my heart.

We'll post photos as soon as we get them. We promise.