WE GOT OUR REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, they said that it would be about a year from when we sent out paperwork over to South Korea that we would get a referral. I guess I didn't keep my hopes up, but lo and behold, Thursday we got our referral. We have a son waiting for us in South Korea. His name is Ju-han Im (Im being his last name). He was born January 25, 2009 at 9:16 PM. He was about 7 lbs 4 oz and was about 19 and 3/4 inches long. The crazy thing is that he was born at 37 weeks and 3 days, so he was a big guy for being born a little early.

He had jaundice, but in this 1 month picture, it looks like it is gone. We'll get more of an update on his health I think at the 6 month check up.

Because he is not 6 months yet, we can't process his paperwork. So we have to wait until July to even process his paperwork. From there it will be a little while until we get him. I think it will be around October, but who knows. October 25, he'll be 9 months old, and that's kind of young to come out of South Korea. We were expecting a 12-14 month old. Hopefully he'll be here for around the holidays.

I've been reading, and apparently, for the first month, or so, I have to be the primary caregiver. Even before Todd because little Ju-han needs to be able to for attachment bonds. It's going to be a different kind of parenting style than I'm used to, so the prayers for that would be much appreciated.

Also, if you could pray for finances, that would be appreciated as well. This economy stinks. I tried to get a part-time job, but to no avail. I put in 6 applications and sent my resume to 12 different professional services. Todd's job is holding steady, so we are so grateful to God for that!! Lastly, if you could pray that we make a decision on if we are taking Audrey with us or not. We are really leaning towards taking her, and we just want God to give us confirmation on that. THANKS!!

Like Father...Like Daughter

Audrey was in the bath yesterday. I am one of those anal parents who is constantly in the bathroom with their child as they are bathing because they could drown. I like it much more when she showers, so I can go about my business, but I shouldn't complain because it affords me reading time. Yesterday, however, I was on the phone. I went to go hang the phone up and I heard, "Help!" coming from the bathroom. I panic and run in there and notice that her face is bloody. I tried to calmly ask her why her face was bloody. I asked her where she was bleeding from, and she held up the (old and rusty) razor. She probably saw the panic in my eyes as I'm thinking she sliced off the tip of her tongue, or will have to have reconstructive surgery of some sort, so she started to cry and try to get out of the tub to see her face. I explained that she did not want to see her face right now, but that I would show her in a minute. It's hard to keep a slippery, soapy 4 year old panic-stricken in the tub when blood is dripping down her face. I figured out, in between sobs that she was trying to "shave her face like Daddy." Thankfully, she only got a few marks on her upper lip area, and only nicked her actual lip a little. It could have been SO much worse. After I realized that the damage was not as bad as the blood would have had me believe, I relented and let her see herself in the mirror. BIG mistake - huge. I think my ear is still ringing from the crying. The blood tipped her over the edge (as it had previously done to me). She looks like she has tiny railroad tracks between her lip and her nose. Thankfully she is all up to date on her vaccinations that she isn't in any danger.

Fun Rumblings

So as my biological mother's loving husband pointed out, "You're a Miller. You open your mouth and things just kind of explode." It was all in jest, of course which was hilarious because it is true. Let me just tell you about the stuff coming out of my mouth:

I sent out some fliers indicating that I was interested in teaching some of Audrey's friends at church, self-defense. It all started when I was so outraged at the cost of self-defense classes for little kids! CRAZY!! It would have cost over $500 for a whole year for only 1/2 hour a week! Insane. So I decided to teach my daughter myself, and figured it would be fun for her to have some friends along to do it. The response has been overwhelming in a good way. People really seem interested, which is great because I have a passion for it as well. I have seven 3-6 year olds coming to my house on Friday afternoons for 1/2 hour. This all raises money for our adoption because it is a suggested donation of $5-10 dollars a session.

Then I had a neighbor inquire about teaching her two children who were a little older, and I was thrilled to tell her that I wouldn't mind doing that. That will be on Wednesdays most likely. I sent out a lot of information to the parents to indicate what I would be teaching, so as to make sure it was truly what they wanted for their families.

THEN I had a friend ask me about her 8th grade daughter, and I thought, yeah, that makes sense. They would need it too! So I said yes to that, and that is most likely going to be Tuesday evenings. We're going to try it out to see how it will go, and to see if the kids are interested in it.

Lastly, I had a friend tell me I should consider teaching a small class like that at Calvin College. I've been thinking about that, and praying about it, so we'll see where that leads!

I don't know, but it seems that God has made something bigger out of a small idea. He often does that with me. Does He do that with anyone else?

I Stand Corrected

I was informed by my aunt that her neighbor cut her hair THREE TIMES!!!!

Week From Hades

For those of you who don't know, Audrey is in preschool 3Xs a week. It is a Spanish immersion school. Every month, your child is star of the day. That is a glorified way of saying, "Mom, you have to come in and help with the class, oh and by the way, bring the snacks and drinks while you're at it. Also, if you don't know Spanish, you really need to keep quiet, or use gestures." Yes, they really told the parents to keep as quiet as possible if they don't know Spanish, which I am grateful, but fortunately for me, I know Spanish. Anyway, Audrey was "blessed" enough to be star of the day the first day of school. The FIRST day. Talk about stressful. Then I had to go this past week as well and guess what - it was PICTURE day. What the heck? What will it be next month? Some sort of field trip or some crazy thing! Picture Day - are they trying to make me go insane? So I was the one behind the camera man trying to make the kids laugh because the teachers were in the class picture, of course. Then the camera man made one of the twins cry. You're a school photographer who deals with kids for a living, you'd think that you'd learn a thing or two about NOT making kids cry!

To top my week off, yesterday, Audrey cut 5 inches off her hair right by her ear. She's never had so much as a trim! I was traumatized, but tried not to show it. Every kid cuts their hair - as far as I know, only once. Her safety scissors were tucked nicely in their spot in her backpack, and I forgot to take them out. So I had to run to my friend's salon and have her fix it. I have to say, my friend did a FANTASTIC job. It looks so cute! She totally put me at ease and walked me through Audrey's first hair cut. It was awesome. I'll put pictures up soon...

Bloody long time

Sorry, sorry, sorry!!! I've taken a long time to write to all y'all. I'm currently watching Bones, so some of this may seem disjointed. Here's the biggest update: As of June, all of our stuff is over in South Korea. We are just waiting. We will get anywhere from 2-8 weeks notice. Hopefully it's more like 8. In January we'll be closer to getting our child. Apparently there are more families bunched up waiting now, and this number will taper off starting in January. While there will still be more families in front of us, things should move quicker then.

On another note: Audrey started her total immersion preschool last Monday. She likes it a lot! She is great at it! I'm sure I'm bragging because she's my kid. I did, however, make some other kids in her class cry today. I should probably tell their mother first before I tell you this, but it's funny. Hopefully I remember to tell her! Ummm...second thought, just call me if you want the story - or email me. It's really funny, but I feel badly writing it here for some reason. Trust me, it's worth the $0.35 a minute to call me to hear it.

Here's a story I can tell you: I worked out this morning and didn't have a chance to shower. I was putting a kid that we're carpooling to her school in our car, and I leaned over Audrey. She said, "Mommy, something smells like something." I said, "Is it gross, or is it pretty?" She said, "It's gross." I took the hint.

Well...I'll be writing more later, I promise!

Officially Waiting

We got word on Friday that our paperwork would be sent over to South Korea tomorrow (Monday)! I think having those little girls (and one boy) that were available, helped our situation. That took two more families out of line ahead of us. We weren't given a time frame yet, but we are thinking about 9 months, maybe a little more.

Of course any travel time would be fine with us, but what would be super, is if we could travel next winter. That would be GREAT as far as Todd's work goes. Please pray for that.

On a completely different note: we really should only be allowed one child. Today in church, our pastor was instructing us to remember our baptisms and how we are children of God. That is our title, so we should act accordingly. When we don't act accordingly, it makes our title, or what we say we associate with, meaningless. He gave a few examples. One such example goes as follows:

Say you're walking around downtown Chicago. You look across the street and see your friend sitting at a cafe. You're just about to walk over, when you see an attractive blonde, who is not his wife, sit down across the table from him and lean in to give her a kiss.

The premise of the story is that his wedding ring, the symbol of his marriage, means nothing because of his actions. However, our pastor didn't get to sum up this particular story, because as soon as he said, "She leaned in to give her a kiss," Audrey, who was happily playing with her princess dress-up magnets, says, LOUDLY, "Eeeewwwww!"

It completely caught Todd and I off guard. You never know how much she is listening to things, and we were both into the sermon and not focused so much on her. I turned a dozen shades of red. The pastor tried to keep going, but people were laughing too hard, so he said, "Let's just get back into First Corinthians."

Seriously, who let us have children in the first place?