The "No Update" Update

I'm feeling a case of "bad blogger" coming on! I'm sorry for my absence, though truthfully there's not been much to post since the last entry. Tony and I have seen no movement in our case, and the updates we've received haven't been as positive as we'd like.

The good news: there are now a few families home with their children. That's BIG progress, of course, considering that these families thought they would be home to celebrate Christmas together last year. And there are a group of families who have been assigned court dates for the end of August, meaning they should be home with their children in late September or early October.

The not-so-good news: there are still a lot of families waiting for movement. In addition, it seems that the Ministry and the Courts are still working out various kinks, implementing new restrictions and limitations, and the Court is taking it's summer break from today through August 11th. 

On the home front, I've been struggling. Ready to throw in the towel. Frustration at an all-time high, coupled with a constant panic of "I don't think I'm ready for this / the house isn't ready for this / how do we do this parenting a toddler thing" line of thinking. I've also been trying to push ahead on the things we can work on now (purchasing items, finishing the lower level so we can carpet and get Oliver's room ready, etc.). And we've tried to take advantage of the time we have as a party of two and grabbed some lovely meals out on the town. 

Beyond that, nothing new to report here. As soon as there is, I'll be sure to share. 
Enjoy the last couple of days of July!

Korean Culture & Adoption

International adoption from South Korea has a long history, beginning in 1958. They also have a long history of trying to curb and eliminate international adoption. Their reasoning is valid -- what country wants to be known as a baby exporter, or as a country unable to care for their own? Things aren't black and white, however.

Given the recent changes to the international (and domestic) adoption program, Tony and I have been asked many many questions about why, how, why not, etc. We've also heard a lot of negative comments about the Korean government and law makers and how frustrating and unfair it all is. While we are also quite frustrated and feel it isn't fair to those involved, it is important to remember that our own country is full of flaws. Law makers are not always in touch with the realities of the laws they pass and how they impact the general public. Laws often don't make logical sense; sometimes enacting a new law causes even more difficulty than the issue the law is trying to address. 

With all of that said, today I want to share a link with you from another blog. This is a lengthy article, but worth reading all the way to the very end. It covers some of the history of adoption from Korea, the cultural influences, previous efforts to reduce international and increase domestic adoption, etc. It is a well-cited article and I appreciate that it seems to be coming from a semi-neutral position. If you have a few minutes, it would be great if you could take a look.

Creating a Family blog post: click here

24 Month Update (a.k.a. New Photos)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to present a very active two year old Oliver [drumroll please...]!

Looks like he's full of energy.

Such a big boy!

He can work a door handle...guess we better get to kid-proofing the house!

He has grown so much since we first saw the referral. He weighed 7.7 lbs at birth and was about 20.2 inches long. By the time we 'met' him in January 2012 (meaning when we saw his information in the referral packet), he was more than 22 lbs and 29 inches tall. 

Today he has a massive amount of hair, is nearly 32 lbs and is officially over 3 feet tall! He's had a busy couple of years. 

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Oliver is officially 2 years old -- a growing and active little boy! To celebrate we enjoyed a small family dinner (Uncle Mike, Oma and Opa were on hand) complete with an ice cream cake and gifts. It wasn't exactly a kid-focused party (the guys did a bourbon tasting and enjoyed a pre-dinner cigar), but it was a good distraction from what could have been a rough day.

When we celebrated his first birthday last summer (see this post), we had high hopes that his second birthday would be a big bash here in town. If not a big bash, at least a quiet bash with our newly home son. Not having him here makes it bittersweet and we really hope his foster family treated him to a special day. Since we didn't have a cute little boy to take photos of, you'll have to be entertained by other shots:

Oliver and his gifts!

Oma & Opa with the "loot": a remote control car, beret and Leapfrog Laptop from them and Simba from us

Tony picked out the cake: a DQ Ice Cream Cake. Maybe next year I can do something homemade!

In other news, Tony and I drove down to St. Louis over the 4th of July. It was great to see family and friends. For the 4th, we headed to the Webster Groves fair (one we frequented when I was young) for rides and fireworks. Tony, who has a fear of carnival rides, was convinced by our niece and nephew to give the Tilt-a-Whirl a try. Here are a couple pre-ride shots as they get ready to tilt and whirl!

Ian's ready to go and Brooke is cuddled up next to Uncle Tony

Everyone is excited!

In addition to seeing family and friends, we also brought back my nephew's bedroom set for Oliver to use. Our little one now has a twin size captain's bed with drawers on one side and an open little person play area on the other; a mattress; a chest of drawers; a book shelf; and the necessary safety gates for the bed. He also has a box full of GeoTrax train supplies to set up underneath is bed. Very cool! We are happy to have some of the essential items (plus the trains). Now we just need to finish our lower level enough to be able to get the house carpeted so we can set everything up!

I hope you all had a great 4th of July holiday and that the summer is going well.