Wednesday, August 31, 2011

We made it to Korea!
















We had great flights to Seoul. We left Huntsville at 6 am and had a layover in Detroit, where we had breakfast in the Skyclub. We were so blessed to get to travel first class from Detroit to Seoul!!! It was fancy! Our seats reclined all the way and we had yummy food, comfy pillow and blankets and even a massager for our back!

When we arrived in Seoul- CJ went to get the rental car and they said his reservation was cancelled!! It was because he doesn't have an international driver's license! So, we had to take a taxi to the hotel (it was only about 30-45 minutes) Anyway, the taxi driver tried to charge us $200 and CJ got him down to $120! We arrived at our hotel with all our luggage, but got an e-mail from Delta that they had our stroller- oops. So, they are going to hold it until we go home.



We unpacked in the hotel room, had appetizers, and then went exploring around the hotel- we went to the pharmacy and then had dinner at a yummy leaf and beef!!! We could NOT communicate at all with our waitress, so we did lots of smiling and pointing.


Only 14 hours and we meet Tae! This is the day we have dreamed of and are so excited. We have all our gifts ready to take to the foster family, etc. and our cameras are ready! Praying he likes his new Mommy and Daddy!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

YIPEE- we have TC!!!

Travel Clearance!!! This is really unbelieveable, but we got Travel Clearance, which means we can leave to get Tae at any time!!! I got the call while I was at the beach and CJ in Australia! I had to hurry home and CJ had to come home early from his trip, so we could prepare to go get Tae! We had tentetively booked tickets for Sept. 8 to fly over there using our FF miles. We didn't think that just one week later from EP approval that we would get our TC! We are so surprised and excited and have a ton of emotions about expanding our family! We had to immediately start looking at flights and figuring out when we would go get our son!

Did I mention that God's timing is perfect? In the middle of all this, CJ called and said that they may need someone to work in Korea in the next couple of weeks. So, long story short- God's providence has worked it out that Cj will get to work in Korea the week we are there! What that means is that our trip is completely paid for!!!! His work buys his ticket, hotel, rental car, food! We are using his FF miles and we both get to go First Class - another huge blessing! God truly is able to do more than we can ask or imagine. We have waited and waited for almost a year for Tae and He knew the perfect time for him to come home to his forever family!

We have had the best day! Church this morning- baby blessing for Tae, baptism for Emily Anne- picked up Kailee, dinner with great group of girls, Ree arrived! I have spent the past hour telling Kailee and Ree everything about the kids. Jerri Lynn will have her first day of school without us- but, we took her to her classroom last week and she didn't want to leave- I am praying that she will feel like a big girl going with Charlie to school. Charlie has said that he wants to snuggle Kailee and Mootsie wants to snuggle Ree and that is exactly what happened tonight at bedtime!!! God is giving us a peace about leaving the kids and knowing that He will take care of them.

Our prayer now is that God is somehow preparing Tae's heart for leaving his foster family and coming home to us. We already love him so much and pray that he will be able to recognize that as he is taken from his secure, loving foster home. We leave here Tuesday A.M. at 6 and arrive in Seoul on Wed. afternoon at 3. We meet Tae for the first time at 10 am on Thursday!!!!!! We don't get to keep him until either the night before we leave or the day we leave.

We know that God has handpicked Tae for our family and has put His hand on blessing us with this child. We are trusting Him in Tae's transition as well as our family transition from a family of 4 to 5! I must say- WE CAN"T WAIT and are SOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

EP approval!!!

FINALLY!!!! We have news- after waiting since May 17th, for what was only supposed to take 4-6 weeks- we got our EP approval today!!! Thank you Lord for blessing us with Tae- we will see him so soon! We are going to look at flights, because we should have TC (Travel Clearance) in 2-4 weeks! So much to do to get ready to meet our sweet boy!