Waiting Nine Months and Counting

Today, we have officially been waiting nine months to see our little girl's face for the first time. Its been a long nine months and we are preparing ourselves for a much longer road. Although we hope to know more about our daughter soon, we will not be able to hold her and bring her home for a long time. It took me a while to post this because we needed time to process some news we received from our adoption agency. On August 3rd, our agency informed us that any referrals received between July 15 and January 4, 2010 (that should be us) should expect to wait up to 10 months for our travel call. When we first started our journey to our daughter, the wait to travel after referral was 10 to 14 weeks, and now we are faced with a long 10 month wait. Instead of bringing home a baby around 8 to 10 months old, we will be bringing home a toddler around 16 to 18 months old. In case you are wondering why that is, the basics of it are that Korea only issues so many emigration permits (EPs) per year (aka visas allowing children to leave the country) and they have already run out of them for this year. In addition, they do not process paperwork at the start of the new year due to staff change over and training. The hardest part for us is that she will be growing up without us and we will be missing so much with her - so many firsts. But we do know she will be extremely loved and cared for in Korea by her foster family and that we will have other firsts with her and a lifetime to share. We love you baby girl!

Kyle's Motorcyle

So it's been a busy month since our last post...

We went to Amy and Todd's house for a play date. Mommy and Amy became friends because we are both adopting little girls from Korea through the same agency, and they live close to us. And Cameron and Jacob (her son) became quick friends at soccer camp. They love hanging out with each other. It was such a great play date. Cam discovered the Wii video game system and now wants one. Cam can't wait to see Jacob again.

Daddy had to go back to NH for a long weekend in mid-July because great grandma Mary King passed away. It was hard to have daddy gone again but we understood that he needed to be there for his family. While he was gone we went to the park, for a bike ride, out to Stillwater to see Uncle Dan's new house, out for lunch, and had a wonderful date with Grandma Judy and Grandpa Al. On Saturday, July 18 we all went to Como Park in the AM. We saw the animals, and best of all, went on tons of great rides. Then later that day we played mini-golf at a local course. Cameron really loved it but all Kyle wanted to do was throw his ball. Luckily it wasn't too busy.

Cameron attended a three day mini basketball camp. His friend Blake from preschool also attended. Cameron had a wonderful time learning a few new skills. The coach was wonderful...giving all the kids Mounds View High School basketball t-shirts, college basketball caps, and basketball trading cards.

We had a very busy day on Saturday, July 25th. In the AM we watched the Shoreview parade and got lots and lots of candy. Yummy! Then we packed up the car and headed up to Albany to go to great uncle Jim and great aunt Jean's house for the annual Sand family party. It was cold that day so we didn't do much swimming, but we did have fun with yard games and we ate lots of yummy food (including a fish fry). We planned to stay at grandma and grandpa's house that night, but Kyle was not cooperating and we ended up packing up quickly and driving back home late - we got home after 10 PM. What a long day.

Mommy and Daddy celebrated their 9 year anniversary on July 28th. We spent a quiet evening together and had a good dinner out at Chili's.

Our local park - Sitzer - was torn up at the beginning of August so they can built us a new and improved park. We miss going there but are looking forward to new the playground and are having fun watching all the construction vehicles.

We had some great friends, Wendy and Kendall, over for dinner on August 1st. We had lots of fun playing with their children and mommy and daddy had fun catching up with them.

August 4th was Night to Unite. Our neighborhood held a potluck. We were able to meet with the sheriff's department and some local politicians. The fire trucks didn't come until after we had gone home for bed. We had lots of fun playing with all the neighborhood kids.

The next night Kyle learned how to ride his bike. He is doing wonderfully. At first we had a few issues with him watching his feet and not looking where he was going, but now he goes great and mommy and daddy have to run to keep up with him. He is very proud of himself. He calls his bike his motorcycle.

We held our fundraiser garage sale for our adoption the first full weekend of August. It was so much work to get ready for and then it rained most two of the three days. Ugh. Mommy was still happy with the sale but wonders how much better we could have done without the rain. Cam had lots of fun selling lollipop and freezee pops. On that Saturday, August 8th, we got more than 4 inches of rain that AM. Then that night after we were asleep the tornado sirens sounded. Mommy, daddy, grandma, and grandpa scooped us up and we all headed downstairs. We made a cozy bed in the closet under the steps and we waited for the storm to pass. It was scary for awhile, since they said the tornado was headed right down Hwy 96 (just three blocks north of us). It was an adventure and luckily just that...no damage.

On Sunday, our friend and neighbor, Masyn and her parents, held their annual summer fun party. They had tons of yard games, slip n slides, and a huge bouncy castle with slide. We also enjoyed a potluck with all our neighbors. It was so fun. Our favorite part was the zip line.

This past week we had a few play dates and a pizza lunch with Cam's preschool buddies. We also had the neighbors over for a water party. Plus we went to an area kids pool. It was finally warm enough to do some of those water related things.

Cameron and mommy went out for Happy Meals and to see the movie Ice Age 3 on Sunday, August 16th. We had a good time together. Cam even opened mommy's car door since he said we were on a date. Wow. We didn't make it through the whole movie (only about 50 minutes) before we had to leave because Cam was scared.

We have a pretty quiet week this week and then its time to start thinking "back to school"!

Bye-Bye Diapers, Hello Fun!

So here's our recap from the past few weeks...June 19th, Cameron attended a preschool buddy's 6th birthday party at the Community Center. Little brother, Kyle, tagged along to check out the new indoor play center. While Cameron loved the new play center, Kyle got kicked in the face on his first trip through and refused to try it anymore. He spent the rest of the two hours on mommy's lap. Oh well, he is a mommy's boy and mommy enjoyed the extra cuddles.

We had a low key father's day for daddy. We grilled and played tennis. Perfect day by daddy's standards.

On Monday, June 22nd, Mommy attempted to take us boys to Snail Lake since it was so hot. Well, it was a bust. There was about 5 feet of water that went up to Cameron's knees. The water is so low this year but we did have a nice snack at the lake.

Cameron attended a two week swim class. He did wonderful this year and made such progress from last year. He is now putting his face in the water and doing deep water bobs but he did not pass this year. He needs to get stronger in his strokes and work on his breathing. Maybe next year. Kyle was such a trooper sitting there during lessons. The lollipops and books helped.

We have been enjoying the weekly puppet wagon shows put on by the city. Going to the library and farmer's market weekly. And have been meeting up with Cam's preschool buddies for park play dates each week. We have also had a few play dates with the neighborhood kids.

Daddy was gone the first week of July to help Uncle John move from NM to NC. He had a wonderful time on his road trip but we missed him lots. Mommy took us to Como Park for amusement park rides as something special while he was gone. The photo is from our day there...yes it was freezing that day. We loved all the rides.

Daddy came home on the 4th of July. We had a great BBQ that evening and played some yard games. The next day our neighbor, Tony, had us over to watch his display of backyard fireworks. We got to stay up late to enjoy the show. We loved it but were tired the next day.

Grandma Judy and Grandpa Al have been down here a lot lately but we haven't really seen them much. They are just sleeping here and eating a few meals but have been working on Uncle Dan's new house in Stillwater all day. Its been hard to know that they are around but that we can't play with them since they are working so hard.

Kyle is now officially a big boy. He is learning to use the potty. We started potty training on Friday, July 10th and he is doing great. We hope this progress continues so we can say bye-bye diapers, hello fun!