Meet Our Daughter: Lauren MeeHyeon

Approximately 1 month old

Approximately 5 months old

Approximately 5 months old being held by foster mother

After 12 months, 2 weeks, and 6 days, we finally got the call we had been waiting for and our lives will forever be changed for the better. Thursday, December 10th brought to us an early Christmas miracle...our daughter Mee Hyeon Kim. Mee Hyeon was born in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do in South Korea on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 9:12 AM. She came into this world at 6.72 lbs and 18.9 inches. Her birth parents named her Mee, meaning "beautiful" and Hyeon, meaning "brilliant". This was their hope for their daughter. We will be forever grateful for their choice to give Mee Hyeon life and make an adoption plan for her.

We have chosen to give her the name Lauren MeeHyeon. We have a very long time until we can travel to bring Lauren home to us. Travel normally comes between 6 to 10 months after acceptance goes to Korea (edit to add Acceptance to Korea was December 17th) with our agency CHSFS. It will be a long, hard wait, but in the end all the waiting will be worth it and she will be our daughter forever. In the meantime, Lauren is being cared for by the most loving and selfless foster family. She has a foster mother and foster father, and even a foster sister and brother - both of whom are in their early 20s.

Here is a little about Lauren that we learned in a report prepared by Eastern Social Welfare Society: She...

• Drinks 5.4 oz of lukewarm formula every three hours. She loves to hold the bottle with two hands.
• Goes to sleep around 10 PM and wakes once for a bottle around 2 or 3 AM and returns to sleep until 6 or 7 AM. She often gets cranky before going to sleep, so the foster mother wears her on her back until she falls asleep. She takes an hour nap in the afternoon, then plays for three hours, then naps again around 4 PM.
• Takes two baths a day and loves the water.
• Whines when wet and turns happier after being changed.
• Babbles when her foster mother talks to her. She laughs out loud when in a good mood.
• Raises her top half of her body to look around in a prone position.
• Sometimes rolls over.
• Has started to crawl on her tummy.
• Dislikes lying down.
• Can bear weight on her legs when made to stand and loves to move to desired places in her walker.
• Shows severe stranger anxiety and bursts into crying when in new places. Once she starts crying, she will cry for 30 to 40 minutes.

We love you baby girl, and can't wait for you to be home with us. We have added the third star in our constellation.