24 more hours.

Tomorrow morning the actual journey part of our journey to Rubin begins. We're leaving home at 7am for Chicago, and our flight takes us directly to Seoul.

As it turns out, we are also staying at the Renaissance Seoul Hotel... the same hotel where  Christine and Doug just spent their first nights as a family with their baby boy, Spencer. Following their blog this past week has been such a comfort to me. So reassuring, and such a thrill.  As disappointed as I was that our paths weren't able to somehow cross along this route, I know that our travels are only beginning. I feel blessed that I've come to know so many other Mamas who have been or will be in this spot. All of these eyes and ears who have taken Seoul in, and who might be able to help me, someday, tell Rubin more about where we first met. 

My mom and my mother-in-law are ready to go. My own mom, anticipating her very first visit to the country where two of her sons were born.  She told me yesterday that she is racked with emotion each time she thinks of meeting Rubin. I can't wait to do this with her.  With both of them. Their joy is both familiar and unexpected.  Equally wonderful in my heart.

Of course, I am going to be missing Theo and Emmett like mad.  Dave asked Theo this weekend, "What are you going to tell Rubin when he gets here?" And Theo, without giving it a second of consideration, said, "Oh, welcome home, Rubin!!"  I know that he is ready, and can't wait to meet this boy that we've been talking so much about.

And Emmett. Just as I soaked up all that was "my baby" about Theo in the days before Emmett's birth, right now I am wrapped up in Emmett. His vice-grip hugs in the morning. His LOUD voice. His kisses and giggles and pats on the cheek at bedtime.  I can't help but worry, a little bit, about how his transition will go once Rubin is home. But not because I really have anything to worry about. Just because I am their Mama.  And worrying is what Mamas do.

And so begins our last day together as a family of four.  It's been so good. I can't wait to see what will happen next...

I almost missed Wordless Wednesday!!!

As is becoming my tradition, 

Wednesday's photo can't go without a few words. 

This week, a song I've been singing in my head. 

(As sung by a choir from a Korean Church, nonetheless...)

And, 

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you; 

I will bring your children from the east 

and gather you from the west."{Isaiah 43:5}

...lemonade.

Just when I needed some cheering up, I receive a copy of a fax from Rubin's caseworker at SWS that reads:

Note: I let you know that I have planned the adoptive family is going to visit Woobin's foster home with me in the morning of 4 of May (Monday.) So, I hope that they would come to my office at 9:20am.

I can not wait to meet you, Rubin. You are on my mind. 

When it rains, it pours.

Things around here have been... painful.

1.) Emmett had an ear infection (a first in our household) that ruptured. I never even knew that he was sick. Of course, I ended up taking him to urgent care on Sunday night due to the fact that his ear was... oozing. (No other symptoms.) The doctor made me feel like the worst mom in the world for NOT KNOWING what was going on. He's on antibiotics now.

2.) I started feeling pretty sick on Sunday, too. I woke up achey, and I figured it had something to do with running an 8k race the day before in POURING RAIN. (Not smart, I know...) As the day progressed, the body aches turned into shivering and chills, a sore throat, swollen glands, a fever... I found myself in the doctor's office yesterday afternoon (for about 2 hours) as well, and left with my own antibiotics. Penicillin for Strep Throat.

3.) The SWS Guesthouse is due to be closed during our stay in Seoul. I have been SCRAMBLING for the past 24 hours to find a hotel room.  A task made extremely difficult by a.) a bacterial infection causing a high fever and difficulty speaking and b.) hotel staff who speak English as their second (or third, or fourth) language. Now, don't get me wrong, I have gotten nothing but exemplary service from the hotels that I have contacted. However, I've contacted about 20... and I'm tired. And sick. (And I'm whining now. I'll stop.)

Look forward to another post, soon, which will be titled, "Making lemonade out of lemons." 

Happy Birthday, Theo.

The greatest poem ever known

Is one all poets have outgrown:

The poetry, innate, untold,

Of being only four years old.

~Christopher Morley, "To a Child."

The status of our affairs.

Okay, so...

Still waiting to find out if our reservation at the SWS guesthouse has been made. (A quick shout out to Krista who sent me a list of the most useful information... things a gal just NEEDS to know if she is staying at SWS. Thank you, Krista, SO VERY MUCH!!! I made a copy for each of my moms, too. We feel so "in the loop" now!)

Also, I have to thank Christine for forwarding me a very useful travel packet.  The info that our agency provided about who is who and what is what (and where is where and... you get the picture) in Korea was... sparse.  Where should we eat? What should we pack? How much will lunch cost? Where can we stay if the guesthouse is full? Where in the world IS SWS, anyway? And how should we get there from the airport, which is an hour away?  I can confidently say that I know the answers to these questions, and more, because of my fellow blogging-adoptive-mamas.  What an incredible community I have found myself a part of.

We have been, of course, quite busy. Flights-check. Gifts-check. Packing-in progress... I know that I'm missing something. I have a feeling it's something huge. I will be calling our social worker on Monday morning, first thing, for an "all points check." 

Theo and I went on a foster-family-gift-buying-mission.  I still haven't found the perfect gift for Rubin's foster mother, but I have a beautiful sun catcher in mind. We picked up tons of Starbuck's coffee (thanks to Miya for the tip), dried cranberries, chocolates, spiced teas... I might not have room to pack my clothes!!

I'm curious about whether or not I will be able to run while I am there. I asked my friend Dave, who spent last summer living in Seoul, if I could run in the city, and he looked at me with a puzzled expression. His reply was something like, "Well, you can, but people will wonder who is chasing the big white woman through the city!" (Not the reassurance that I was looking for...) Dare I bring my running shoes??? 

Besides all of this, we are having a busy weekend.

Photo shoot!

8k

birthday party

confirmation party

oh, my.

More to come.

Theo speaks.

Tonight Theo pointed to his chest and said, "These are my nipples!"

I agreed with him, and quickly he asked me, "Where are your nipples, Mama?" (I should have known that was coming...)

___________________________________________

We have a wonderful teenaged boy who babysits for us, on occasion. This evening, Theo pointed out a dead worm that was on our driveway and told me, "Noah said he was baked on by the sun, Mama."  

I told him that I thought Noah was right, and he replied, "Now that worm is crunchy. Worms are much happier in the rain, when they are wet and warm."

____________________________________________

We were in the bathroom together, getting ready for bed.  I was "going potty" when Theo told me to "hurry up."  I asked him to wait his turn and he said, "Squeeze over a little bit, Mama. Make room for two."

Plans.

The past 36 hours have been a bit hectic.

Here is what we know:

Rubin had his visa interview in Korea TODAY (which was actually yesterday in Korea. But on today's date. There. You know what I mean.)

I am FLOORED, once again, by how quickly this whole process went. Like Christine and Doug, we got our TC before he even had his VI. What in the world?! Our baby is ready to come home.

We made our travel plans. It wasn't easy... SWS is closed on May 1st and May 5th, throwing a bit of a wrench in my plans.

And, unexpectedly, my mother-in-law (commonly referred to here as Nanny) has decided to join me as I travel...

And so, our flight has been booked. Next Friday afternoon I will fly out of Chicago with my mom AND my mother-in-law. 

We will arrive in Seoul on Saturday afternoon.  Hopefully, we will meet my baby boy, and his foster family, on Monday.  Tuesday is Children's Day in Korea, and so the SWS offices will be closed.  I don't know for sure, yet, when we will get to have Rubin with us. I am assuming that it will happen on Wednesday... but I haven't heard back from our agency. 

We are scheduled to return to Chicago on Thursday the 7th. We'll fly out of Seoul around noon, and arrive back stateside around 10am. The same day. I love that.

Rubin, your Mama and both of your Grandmas are on our way!! We can not wait to meet you, and bring you home. 

More details to come, as soon as we know!

News Flash!

We just got our
TRAVEL CALL!!!!!

"Wordless" Wednesday?

Whatever.

I can't resist a few words.

I love what I find sometimes upon inspecting Theo's play area after he's finished "make-believin'."

Yesterday I came upon this crash scene and couldn't help but think to myself, "Now, THAT'S a bad day."

Busy little bodies.

Well, every once in a while all of our "stars" align, and Dave and I actually share a true "weekend." The last three days, thanks to training and a changed regular day off, was such an event, and we made the most of our time... all together in the same space. This is what we did:

I went through the boys' closets, sorting and separating winter things and spring/summer apparel.  Between the two kids' bedrooms in our house, we actually have 4 closets (2 in each room.)  I successfully put together a space for each of the boys' things, with some room left over for me!  I think I have just about everything I will need to keep Rubin clothed this summer. (How could I not, with two big brothers and a neighborhood full of boys?)

Dave and I put Rubin's crib together (Facebook status: "Emily has two cribs in her crib now!") and rearranged Theo's room to make it fit. Theo has been pretty insistent about sharing his bedroom with his youngest brother.  I can't wait to see what happens!

I was able to cross off a number of items from my "to do" list.  These are the things that I still need to accomplish:

1.) purchase an extra mattress pad and more kids' sized hangers.

2.) purchase gifts for rubin's foster family and SWS staff.

I got a couple of good, long runs in. In record times. Nothing feels better than that. AND, we took a family trip to the Home Depot.  We agreed that such excursions might be really ugly once we are outnumbered by the boys.  Better get all of our shopping for the summer in before we get the travel call.

Yard work! (Inappropriately named, in my opinion, because it doesn't feel like work to me. I love "working" in the yard, raking, mowing, weeding, mulching. Sigh. Pure joy.)

We cleaned out the garage. THIS felt like work. Whose junk is this, anyway?!

Emmett started knocking my socks off with his excitement for going potty on the toilet! Every time he tries, he succeeds. And he is thrilled about doing it. Of course, I'm sure the four of us look ridiculous whooping and hollering and dancing around the bathroom every time he tinkles. But, that isn't going to stop us. I'm having lofty daydreams about bringing Rubin home and only having ONE CHILD in diapers. Crazy, I know.

Last minute road trip to Nanny and Grampy's house in "At Fortkinson."  My mother and father-in-law always know just how to spoil us when we need it. And, on Saturday night, we needed it.

_____________________________________________

I had a wonderful start to my week this morning at Theo's parent/teacher conference.  Even though I already knew everything his teacher told me, it was great to hear her say the words, "eager" and "respectful" and "sensitive" in describing my little boy.  I am so proud of him and I love the boy that he is.  

Tonight, he brought me When You Were Born in Korea and asked me to read him "Rubin's story" before bed. (He's also been insistent about coming to Korea with me.)  When I got to the part that talks about how Rubin will look a little bit different than we do, I explained to Theo, again, that Rubin's hair will be a darker color than his. Tonight he told me, "that's okay, Mama, because Emmett's hair is different than ours, too."

I made the call...

... and we were P3 on April 14th!! (This means that our paperwork, or our "Packet 3", was sent from the Embassy to SWS- Rubin's orphanage- on the 14th.)

Now, from what I can tell, it has been taking about 2 weeks for a visa interview to be scheduled after this point. Once Rubin has his visa interview, we can travel.

2 weeks from April 14th = April 28th.

Oh, boy!!

Things to do while in Seoul: Part I

I found the following tip and link on the "Families Through Korean Adoption" blog in my city.  A new family submitted a few links to some of their "great finds" while in Korea.  They particularly enjoyed and recommended THE KYOBO BOOKSTORE in Seoul, and wrote the following: 

"If traveling to Korea, check out this great bookstore and make sure to visit their music, children's and foreign languages sections. This is a great place to stock up on children's books with Korean-looking characters that are often in English/Korean languages, and children's music sung by Korean children (our child's absolute favorite!)"

Wordless Wednesday: Before and After Operation "Blagojevich, Be Gone!"

(Do you like how I snuck all of my words into the title of this post?! I'm getting better at Wordless Wednesday!)

We're waiting on Rubin

This is what we saw flying high above Grandma and Grandpa Yucky's house when we pulled onto their street on Friday afternoon:

My mom said, "Dad and I just had a feeling this week!"

My heart is full, with knowing that my dad will fly it until his youngest Grandson comes home.

So, this is what I know...

I realize that NVC OUT means NOTHING to some of you who are reading this, and so I wanted to take just a minute to clarify...

Dave is working this weekend, so the boys and I headed north to spend the Easter weekend with (part of) my family. Emmett (aka Rod Blagojevich) got his first real haircut this morning (photos to come... he looks much more like Leo from the Little Einstein series now) and he just went down for his afternoon nap. Theo is in the kitchen, helping Grandma make some slaw. He's anxiously waiting a trip to the grocery store with Grandma, and for Grandpa Yucky to come home from the office and take him up to "the yellow park."

I have a few spare minutes...

And so, this is what I know about where we are, on our journey to bring our youngest son home.
Thanks so much to my blog friend Christine, I found out exactly how to contact the National Visa Center in New Hampshire so that I could start hounding them about Rubin's visa. After many phone calls last week, and after hearing many busy signals, I finally reached a very helpful individual who provided me with our case number (I never got this information in the mail?) and told us that we were NVC OUT on on April 7th. This means that all of our paperwork from the states (namely our petition and approval from USCIS for Rubin's visa) was sent to the American Consulate in Seoul on Tuesday. Once it arrives there and they fill out their portion of the paperwork, they will send it on to SWS (Rubin's orphange) for his case worker to fill out her portion of the paperwork. SWS will send the packet back to the Consulate, and when they've deemed it complete, they will contact SWS again for Rubin's visa interview. Phew. It sounds like quite a bit but, in actuality, this has all been happening (for some families) as quickly as 3-4 weeks after their NVC OUT date. What is significant is the fact that travel calls come as soon as one or two days after little ones have their visa interviews! This could put us in Korea as early as May 1st!

My mind is racing. We have so much to do!

The next couple of months have so much in store, there is so much change on the horizon that I find I'm constantly reminding myself to be where I am... not to dwell, at all, in what has past or start poking around in what is to come. Today is a beautiful place in my life, and I will never be here, ever again. So my prayer to God, while I'm anxiously awaiting Rubin and all of the joy and wonder that is to come, is to continue to open my heart to right here and right now.

Because I will never see another place exactly like this. And it is perfect, for what it is.

I just got the word...

We were NVC OUT on April 7th!!!

(Christine, I think this puts us about 5 days behind you?! Seoul, here WE come!!)

(More later. I have a date.)

Wordless Wednesday. With words.

I've decided to give Wordless Wednesday a try. Here's my first attempt. (Not such a great start, considering that these are words...)

There he goes, again...

If you are a reader who has carried over with me from my first blog, Being Bugsie, you might remember that Emmett has an uncanny talent for "celebrity" impersonations. It started when he was about 5 months old when he, almost freakishly, made the same facial expression that you see every Christmas, on the Grinch. (Jessica may be the only one who actually remembers this photo... I have to see if I can track it down...) He looked something like this:

As if that wasn't enough, at about 14 months, he seemingly morphed into Animal (from the Muppets) right before my very eyes while splashing in the bathtub one night.  Here's the proof...

Well, folks, it seems as though he's gone and done it again.

Dave noticed about a week ago, and I can't deny (no matter how hard I try) that it's true.

My son has, perfectly, copied Rod Blagojevich's hairstyle.

I can't handle one more minute of Dave calling my baby, "Blagojevich!!"

Grandma P, get your scissors ready. Here we come...

From the NY Times

Relative Choices  (<-----click there!)

Quite a few of the articles in the New York Times' segment on Adoption and the American family are written about Korean adoption, mostly by Korean adoptees. I find some of them and the comments posted afterwards, at the same time, heartwarming and heartbreaking. All day, I have been thinking about Rubin. I've been thinking about the inevitable losses that he will experience, some immediate and some eventual, as the result of his adoption. I am determined, as his mother, to make sure that the gains outweigh what is left behind.

My brother Joshua, adopted from South Korea over 35 years ago, recently applied for his passport and is thinking about returning to Korea with me and my mom, when we travel for Rubin.  When I first asked him if he would, his answer came easily. No. I have no interest in returning, there are other places I would rather see, things I would rather do. No. But thank you for asking.

But something inside of him has been changing. He is beginning to reconsider. And I am prayerful that I will get to share his trip, to the place where he was born, with him.  And I am hoping that he will want to share my trip to that same place, where my youngest son was born, with me. And with our mother, who loves us unequivocally. To meet our newest family member, coming to be with us the way his uncles did years before. To share with Rubin what is being lost.

And to gain.

A big day in our adoption community.

I want to shout out to Christine and Doug, who received their I-600 Approval today. It is still my secret wish that their process starts flying by ridiculously fast, so that we can meet in Seoul, and introduce our beautiful sons, Rubin and Spencer.  It could still happen, right?!

Dave, Theo, Emmett, and I also received a special adoption delivery this afternoon... 

(drum roll please.)

Our I-171 made it's way to our mailbox.

This form is the Notice of Approval of Relative Immigrant Visa Petition. In layman's terms... USCIS officially grants us permission to work with the United States Consulate in Korea in obtaining a visa for Rubin (our relative!!) In short, his visa has been approved.  As soon as it's issued in Seoul, we will get a travel call, and Rubin can come home.  

From what I can tell, it has been taking about one month from the date of approval for the visa to be issued. Perhaps my mom and I will be in Korea for Mother's Day... meeting my third son, her ninth grandchild.

Is anyone else floored by how quickly our adoption process has moved??  It was just last August that Dave and I made the definite decision to pursue an adoption.  Our first informational meeting was on September 18th of 2008.  Emmett was just shy of 15 months old, and Dave and I wanted to get the ball rolling, hoping to keep a 2-3 year age difference between all of our children.  We were certain that bringing our baby home from Korea could take... forever. We were anxious to get started.

What was I thinking? This baby boy, in so many ways, was made for us.  

I know how blessed I am. I've never had to wait.  With both Theo and Emmett, it seemed that Dave and I had to do no more than simply think about getting pregnant and (ta-da!) it was done.  Why did I think that this baby boy would come to us any differently?  Shouldn't I have known that it would happen, lickitty-split?

I say this with some trepidation, as I know how many women in my adoption circle have waited so much longer than I have. I know that many of them would trade places with me, in this process, in a heartbeat.  But I'm a little overwhelmed right now. I'm a little freaked out about how fast things have moved.  Just as I worried in the weeks before Theo and Emmett were born, I'm afraid that we aren't ready. 

What size is Rubin wearing? 

What will he like to eat? 

How will Emmett feel about me leaving, again, and coming home with a baby brother?

I am going to have two one-year-olds, for 19 days!!!

Does Theo seriously want to share his bedroom with the baby?

And how the hell am I going to fit a crib in there with that boat of a bunk bed?

How badly is Rubin going to miss his foster mother, 

and am I going to be able to comfort him and assure him 

and will he fall in love with me, too?

So very soon, we'll be five, too...

We're ready to brave the rain.