Six Days from Seoul!!!

On Friday, July 31st we will be on a plane bound for Seoul, South Korea!!!  We are still in shock from the phone call that came Thursday morning informing us that our son is ready for travel! We aren't sure why things changed so quickly, but we aren't complaining.  Our tickets have been purchased and we are thanking God for this wonderful answer to prayer!  We will meet Titus for the first time on Monday, August 3rd so check back for pictures and videos!  Please pray for safe travel, health (especially for Titus), and a smooth transition for our precious baby boy.   

The Wait Continues

After being told that we would very likely be getting our travel call by last week, we received the disappointing news that we are actually fifth on the list of families who are waiting for their babies to get passports and visas.  And given that things run at a slower pace in Korea during the summer months, we now have no idea how long it will be before we receive travel news.  Our little Titus will be nine months old on Tuesday and is now pulling himself up to standing which makes the waiting even more painful.  But we are so grateful that God has placed this precious boy in our hearts and we know that He will add him to our family at His chosen time.  Please keep praying!! 

On a lighter note, here are a few pictures of our sweet girls from our family camping trip over the 4th of July weekend.  There were almost 70 members of Ronn's extended family gathered for a wonderful reunion.  The girls thoroughly enjoyed every minute of playing with cousins, building sand castles, swimming, riding bikes, taking walks, watching fireworks, sitting around the campfire, eating smores, staying up late, and of course, getting VERY dirty!  I think we are still finding camping dirt at bath time! :)    

Room Restored, No Plane to Board

After mudding and sanding the terribly damaged walls and applying layers of primer and paint over a lovely shade of pink we have restored our century old office to it's original state!  This project also gave us an excuse to purge the contents within so we are enjoying a new and far less cluttered space to read, write, peruse the internet, and engage in stimulating conversation after our children are in bed.  And just maybe we will be motivated to reinstate an exercise routine on the bike sitting in the newly painted corner. :)  Once we renovate both of the bathrooms we will have redone EVERY room in our ten room house!!  

We derive great satisfaction (too much, perhaps?) from removing years of old paint and revealing the fine hardware beneath.  How could anyone paint over such a great looking piece of metal? :) 

 

Now for the news you're really curious about... according to the timeline we were recently given we should be getting our travel call this week!  Our bags are packed and we are more than ready to meet our precious son, but given the fairly high probability for disappointment, we are trying not to get our hopes up too high.  Please pray that we will get the call this week, but if we don't, please pray that we will be able to be patient and rest in God's plan.  By the way, you are all invited to meet us at the airport if you'd like to be a part of welcoming Titus to our family and to the United States!  We will be sure to let you know when to show up.    

P.S. Family Camp-out pictures are forthcoming.

Home Improvement Project?!

"Why the picture of Ronn working in a pink room?" you ask!  Our pink office has been on our list of needed renovations since purchasing our home FIVE years ago and one thing after another has prevented it from happening.  Well... a couple weeks ago (sorry we're a little late in posting) we found out that our trip to Korea is very likely not going to happen in June.  It seems that the Korean government is a bit less efficient than the U.S. government so now that things are in their hands we have reached a stand still.  Our best case scenario for travel may be mid-July and our worst case scenario may be early August.  So with this in mind, we decided that a home improvement project would be a productive way to keep ourselves occupied as we wait. We would, again, ask you to keep us and our precious Titus in your prayers as we trust God with this disappointment.  Even in our disappointment He is good and His plan is perfect. 

Increasing anticipation

Our mail slot has become the source of great excitement these days!  Peeking under it this past Friday revealed more unexpected good news - Titus' paperwork passed through the National Visa Center in record time!  Instead of sitting there for two to four weeks (the standard time frame), it was in and out in just over a week!  The last thing on the agenda now is his visa and passport.  As soon as that is issued we will receive our travel call!  Perhaps we will be traveling in June, maybe even EARLY June!  So... we made a trip to the consignment shop and brought home a fun bundle of 6-12 month size BOY clothes.  After shopping in girls' apparel for the past five years, it is great fun to search through shades of blues and greens!  

 

The drawers are filled, the crib is made, and this lonely rocking chair is ready for a baby!  Please pray that it will be in use very SOON!  

Faster than expected...

As I peeked under the mail slot this past Thursday I noticed an envelope from Immigration Services.  Given that we were not expecting this for at least two more weeks, I cautiously opened it thinking it must be a request for more information.  But instead I read the word "approved" on the front page!!  I immediately dialed our program director who said that she was as shocked as I was and told me that we may actually find ourselves on an airplane in just one month!!  It seems that God may want our baby boy to join our family much sooner than we had expected!  Please keep praying with us!   

Awaiting Titus

As we wait for our little Titus we are finding ways to help the time pass more quickly.  Something that was very fun for all of us was putting together a package for him.  We held several photo shoots around our house (see below) to get just the right pictures to place in a baby photo album for him, we picked out a soft, sweet lion for him to cuddle, and we wrote a letter to his foster family expressing our gratitude for their wonderful care of him.  

Please continue to pray with us for patience and for things to move along at the expected pace, or maybe even a little bit faster!  His paperwork is currently in the hands of U.S. Immigration.  It takes about three to six weeks for them to process everything and then it will be passed on to the National Visa Center and remain there for two to four weeks.  When it finally reaches Korea we will wait for him to be issued a Visa and a passport.  Once this occurs we will be given a ten day notice to travel to Korea!  We hope to be on a plane by mid-July, but we know that God's plan is better than ours and we are comforted to know that Titus is resting in HIS arms as we wait for him to be in ours.