Recalling a Wonderful Day

Many of you have asked for a recap of the referral day, and I'm happy to oblige.

It was Monday morning, after a weekend with friends. My email is always up and at 9:32am I see a message titled "Referral!" from our social worker. I sort of did a double take but yes, she did in fact have a referral for us, and wanted to know what time we could come in. I started to shake and was a bit choked up when I called Dave right away. He just kept saying, "he's our guy, I know it."

After the LONGEST 4 hours of my life (so far), we went to the agency at 1:30pm. We walked in and our social worker asked how we were doing. I told her "I feel like I'm going to puke." I was able to keep it together but let me tell you the nerves, anticipation, excitement, curiosity are all very hard to keep in check in this type of situation. Dave and I tried to be very cool and started to read the top page of info but I could feel the photos of our baby on the next page and said "oh forget it, I HAVE to see his face." We jumped to that page and there he was, in his cute little sweatsuit, spikey Elvis hair, chubby hands and feet and the sweetest face, with round red cheeks. At that moment, a complete level of peace just washed over me. I understood instantly what everyone meant when they said you would KNOW that he's perfect for you. I didn't cry and usually I'm not shy with the tears, but just could not get the grin off my face...neither could Dave.

After we chatted with our social worker and went over all the paperwork we needed to fill out, Dave and I headed out to celebrate. We had a glass of champagne and a nice dinner at Mon Ami Gabi in Oak Brook. We have celebrated many happy occasions there over the years, and knew that was the place to go. It was nice to have some alone time to enjoy this enormous moment before we shared it with all of you.

Let's Learn about Korea on Tuesday-Lesson #20

Got any weddings coming up? You may want to consider giving a traditional Korean gift.

Wedding Ducks
A typical wedding gift is a pair of wooden carved wedding ducks since many ducks mate for life. Traditionally the belief is that the pair can indicate whether couples are happy or at odds. In the pair, one symbolizes the bride and the other the groom. After the wedding each spouse places one of the ducks somewhere in their house. If the ducks face nose to nose, the couple is getting along. If they are tail to tail, the couple is believed to be fighting.
Dave and I received a pair when we got married. My cousin Cathy was in Korea on business and told her Korean colleagues that she had to head back for our wedding. They gave her a set for us and told her a slightly different story. They advised her that the ducks must never separate and I have always kept the ducks together. I love our ducks and it was one of my favorite gifts, long before adopting from Korea was even a thought. Not only are they cute and have a nice sentiment but I thought it so kind that someone that didn't even know us half-way around the world sent us such a special gift. Here they are:

Awww...love those guys! Thanks so much to my cousin Cathy for transporting them 5 years ago.

Gabe's Buddy, Josiah...

I've mentioned my waiting buddy Rachel before. We both signed up to adopt our first child with Lifelink a day apart. Well, we got our referrals 3 days apart! Her son was born 3 days after Gabe, November 13. Hop on over to In His Hands and check out her cutie. Congratulations Rachel and Josh...I'm so thrilled for you!

Let's Learn about Korea on Tuesday on Sunday-Lesson #19

You didn't think I'd skip our lesson this week, did you?

My sister-in-law's birthday is today. Maybe she'd like a party like they have for Buddha in Korea.

Buddha's Birthday/Lotus Lantern Festival
Every year Korea celebrates Buddha's birthday with a beautiful celebration known as the Lotus Lantern Festival. Buddha's birthday is based on the lunar calendar so the date changes each year, this year it falls on May 2. The festival is this weekend, April 24-26 in Seoul, but lanterns decorate Buddhist temples all month. On the eve of the festival, there are traditional Buddhist celebrations at Jogyesa Temple in Insadong. The festival consists of a parade of many beautiful lanterns in small lotus shapes or very big dragons, elephants and Buddhas through the streets of Seoul.

(large float in the parade)

(lotus lanterns on display)

Happy Birthday, Buddha (and Bari)!

Truly Blessed

We knew God had blessed us the minute we saw Gabe's picture and began to learn about him. We knew you would all be happy and excited. But we never quite expected SUCH the outpouring of love, support and enthusiasm that we've had the past few days. It's really breathtaking. I've tried to respond to many of you, but it's hard to keep up! So please trust me when I say every email, call, text message, blog comment, etc are significant and touching to both Dave and me.

Little does Gabe know how much he is loved, half way around the world.

Meet Gabe!

Yep, we got our referral for our darling son yesterday. He was born on November 10, 2008 in Jinju, South Korea. He was 7.7 lbs at birth and shot up to 17.5 lbs at 4 months. He's very healthy and as you can tell, pretty adorable. We are totally over the moon and could not be happier with our little boy. We hope to be traveling to Korea to bring him home in August.

Girls' Weekend

This weekend a few of my oldest (as in time, not age) girlfriends stayed at the cottage of my friend's mom in Michigan. We had such a great time catching up and just hanging out. We used to go up to Michigan and Wisconsin all the time but as our lives have gotten busy, we don't talk or see each other nearly as much as we'd like and a weekend trip hasn't happened in ages. When you've been friends with people for 20 years (yikes!) you easily fall right back in step with how well you all get along. We marveled at how much more mature we are now. We didn't run to each bedroom and 'call' the best one, we didn't stay up til 2am, and we find that we appreciate each others quirks much more now. Rather than talking about who we have crushes on, we laughed about how my friend's 3 year old introduces her by her first name. I think we all needed a little time away from our usual lives to enjoy life and laughs with some old friends...and that's just what we did!

Sharing 'Shoulder Taps'

I wrote a post a while back about God's 'shoulder taps' along this journey encouraging and supporting me. I've had many 'shoulder taps' and some of you have even been a part of them, whether you know it or not. I couldn't possibly share them all, but this one I felt was worthy.

I recently subscribed to Real Simple magazine. My first issue was the May issue and of course had Mother's Day stuff all over the cover. I thought "Oh great, this is all I need right now... a whole issue devoted to me feeling like crap." No offense to the mothers (including my own) out there, but this holiday has not exactly been a joyous time for me for the past couple of years. So I was going in with a bad attitude reading the article "What's the Greatest Gift Your Mother Ever Gave You?" Among the responses they pick their favorite and this was this month's winner:

"When I was two days old, I was abandoned on a sidewalk in Seoul, South Korea. My mother adopted me and raised me in a home full of love. What did she give me? My whole life!"

Tara Robbins Fee of Washington, Pennsylvania

Not only is this beautiful and just what I needed to read, but the woman was adopted from Korea, no coincidence to me.
One day you'll look forward to the Mother's Day issue.

Let's Learn about Korea on Tuesday-Lesson #18

Who "Won"ts to be a Millionaire? Sorry folks, you know I love a pun. With tax day being tomorrow it seemed appropriate for today's lesson to be on the currency of South Korea.

Won
The currency of Korea is known as the Won. Banknotes come in demoninations of 1000, 5000, and 10,000. On the front of the notes there is a picture of a person: a scholar or a king. The backside has a picture of a place: nature or a palace. Coins come in 1, 5, 10, 100 and 500, but the 1 and 5 are almost obsolete.

The current exchange rate to dollars is approximately 1300 won for every US dollar. A 1000 won note is worth about .76 cents. Don't spend all your won in one place!

White Sox 4, Royals 2

A fun day was had by all. I had on my long underwear and lots of layers (that's why I look a bit smushy in the pic below). Though it was only 45, it was a very nice day with the sun shining. The Sox were down 2 to 1 going into the bottom of the 8th, but Jim Thome hit a 3 run homer to win the game. Another successful opening day...bring on summer!

(I know you envy my satin jacket)

Let's Learn about Korea on Tuesday-Lesson #17

I did do a post on Korean food before I started my weekly lessons but one type of food needs it's own lesson, the ubiquitous kimchi. It's so ingrained in the culture that when taking a picture, Koreans will say "kimchi," to provoke a smile like we say "cheese." Let's learn about this important Korean food.

Kimchi
When most people think of Korea, kimchi is the first thing that comes to mind, and there's a reason for that. Kimchi, pickled vegetables with spices, is served at almost every meal in Korea. There are about 200 different varieties but the most common is the spicy cabbage type, pictured below:

Koreans have been making kimchi since ancient times, where region and season influenced the flavor of the kimchi. For spring, summer and fall consumption, kimchi was cured in a small quantity, but for the winter months, large quantities were made so that it could be eaten over three or four months. The climatic differences of each region affected the taste of kimchi as well. In southern Korea where it's warmer, chili powder was used in abundance so that kimchi could be prevented from going bad. On the other hand, kimchi made in colder areas was less salty and pungent. Traditionally kimchi is stored underground in earthenware jars that aid in the fermentation process, but nowadays, special containers and even refrigerators are being developed so families can make smaller batches all year round.

Kimchi certainly has a strong, distinct, flavorful taste, one that I really like. Health and well-being are very important in Korea and since kimchi is considered a very nutritional food it fits in nicely with a healthy diet. So, give it a try!

Ahhh....Opening Day-Postponed :(

Today was supposed to be opening day here in Chicago, but alas since it IS Chicago...the weather is 34 and possible snow. Now as Chicagoans, that doesn't really bother us, but I suspect it's hard to run the bases in 4 inches of snow and 40mile/hr winds. So, Tuesday will be opening day for the White Sox where the forecast is a balmy 37 and partly cloudy instead.

But here's why we still attend this very American tradition...
After a long winter there is nothing like baseball's opening day. Most years you can feel spring and summer around the corner. There is such energy in the air and everyone is filled with hope. Any team, no matter what the predictions has a chance to win it all (I'm looking at you, 2005 White Sox). Even if you've been disappointed before, opening day has potential to be THE year and that's why we keep coming back.

Here's a glimpse of what it will look like tomorrow:

You know I'll be there... Tuesday, April 7, 1:05 CST, White Sox VS Kansas City. If I get some good pics, I'll post them Wednesday.

GO SOX!!

Slightly Obsessed

There are 2 things that I have become, as my sister-in-law says, OB-sessed with lately.

The first is BLURB. I found this site on my friend Christine's blog awhile back. It is a book self-publishing site. Now there are quite a few companies that do this, but what's great about Blurb is you can "slurp" all your blog contents (instead of cutting and pasting) into a document where you can get as creative as you want, then publish your blog as a book. I definitely wanted to make a hard copy of the blog for our little one and was looking for an easy way to do it. My friend Cori (who coincidentally mentioned Blurb in her blog today!) assured me of the quality...so off I went. Well, I LOVE playing with the look, layout, pictures, font, etc. and am totally obsessed with my books and the look of them. I currently have 2 books going now....one cute little book with all my Let's Learn about Korea lessons and the other about the posts related to the adoption. I highly recommend all my fellow bloggers check it out.

The second obsession was where we are in our wait for our little one. I emailed my social worker and she told us we are #3 on the list for a boy. I like 3...3 is a nice number. Getting a little morsel of info eased my anxiety and this obsession has now subsided a bit. One of my closest friends, Amy, put it this way: "It's not a race. It's about the right path to YOUR child." So true...and though I know that, having a dear friend remind you makes such a difference.

Any of you "slightly obsessed" lately?

You Oughta Be in Pictures

I've mentioned my new, good friend Rachel before and how the two of us should get our referrals fairly close together. It seems that while everyone is being matched with their babies lately, the 2 of us are still just...waiting. Lately, we have gotten a bit giddy and goofy in our wait. In her excitement, Rachel decided to throw the O Baby Picture Carnival. Everyone who wants to participate should post a baby pic of themselves and their husband on their blog, today. So here goes...

(on my mom's lap... you like that Wisconsin shirt, Rach?)

(I know it's cheating, but I was much cuter as a little girl)

Now one of Dave...

(awww...isn't that blondie so cute?)