Wednesday, October 27, 2010

8 Month Check-up

We got the most exciting email from Korea today...
Evelyn's 8 month well child check!!

She is doing great!
She weighs 16 pounds and is 29 inches long.
That puts her at the 10% for weight and 3% for height!
She's a little peanut :)

She is sitting without support, crawling and pulling up! She also plays "peek-a-boo" and says
"mama/dada" in Korean!
She has 3 teeth on the top and 2 on the bottom and her overall physical assessment says "cute and fine."

Yay for Evelyn!!!

We are so thankful that she is growing and developing normally and staying right on target. Still praying for immigration paperwork to speed up so that we can
GET HER HOME!


Monday, October 25, 2010

New Picture of Evelyn!!!


And just when we thought we couldn't wait any longer this comes out of the blue....


Here she is with all the things that we sent in her care package! She could be looking at our pictures right now or snuggling with the blanket or golden puppy that we sent! So happy to see her little face and see that she is happy and healthy. We are also very excited to see her sweet foster mother in the picture (whose face cannot be shown for privacy reasons). How will we ever be able to thank this sweet family for taking such amazing care of our daughter for the first year of her life?
It's overwhelming to think about...


Isn't she beautiful!

thanks to my friends Maggie and Candace for some fancy cropping
so that I could post these pictures today :)




Sunday, October 24, 2010

no news.


No news here.
We are in week 7 of waiting on the approval of Evelyn's I-600 (the last portion of immigration approvals before applying for her Visa). Everything is on hold until this is done and it is the last major step before bringing her home. Please pray that this will happen soon so that things can start moving again...

We did get a brief update from Holt Korea regarding an ER visit that Evelyn's foster family made with her for fever (it ended up being hand, foot and mouth so thankfully she is ok!) Other than that we are just waiting and working on getting her room ready for when she is finally home!

Here is a preview of what we have done so far...
still have work to do but we're getting there!


...bookshelf that my dad made for her...




...he wrote these 2 verses for her and signed the back...



...pictures for the wall...



...chest of drawers and carseat...



...her little bed...



Thanks for everyone's prayers.
We hope to have some exciting news soon!



Saturday, October 9, 2010

{Saturday's Song}


"When Love Takes You In"
Steven Curtis Chapman

I've imagined this little Asian girl is what Evelyn will look like.....

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

{Shine}

“I believe in God like I believe in the sun. It’s not because I see it, but because of it I see everything else” C.S. Lewis

Amy and I view this world through a lens or filter that has at its focal point the reality of Christ and of God’s work of redemption in time and history. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not just the core of Christianity; it’s the focal point of all history. Because of Christ and the reality of the resurrection we as believers get to revel in the grace and mercy of God’s bringing a rag tag group of sinners together (“misfits” as Flannery O’Connor would say) into His family through the Cross. This is the lens we hope to cultivate in Evelyn’s heart and mind as she tries to make sense of this world and all its worries.

This is the backdrop of our wrestling through one particular document we received lately. We received Evelyn’s legal papers from Seoul, namely her birth certificate and the document from her birth mother stating her desire to officially and irrevocably give our adoption agency custody of Evelyn for the purpose of adoption. We saw her birth mother’s fingerprint and signature. There is a real woman in South Korea who gave her daughter to us. To make this adoption a reality someone had to sacrificially give a part of herself for us to have joy. We are fully dependent on the gift of another. Am I reading too much into this? The Gospel seems to peak its head around every corner we encounter.

We have prayed for Evelyn’s birth mother’s wellbeing numerous times. Perhaps the Lord will redeem her in due time, and in Glory, she may once again be able to see her daughter.

“For all that we struggle

For all we pretend

It don't come down to nothing

Except Love in the end

And ours is a road

That is strewn with goodbyes

But as it unfolds

As it all unwinds

Remember your soul is the one thing

You just can't compromise

Take my hand

We're gonna go where we can shine….” David Gray


Saturday, October 2, 2010

Waiting...


The waiting is the hardest part...
Adoption is beautiful. No question about it. Adoption is also excruciatingly hard. The process is hard. The waiting is hard. And once the time comes for you to see the face of the one you’ve been waiting for finally arrives…
it’s beautiful, but also hard.
She's out there. We know who she is and what she looks like yet there is so much land and sea (and paperwork!) keeping us from our daughter.
For those of you who have gone through or are currently going through an adoption process you know what I mean....

Adoption is full of "hurry up and wait."

Some of you may have read this on the 147 million orphans website but we have found these words to be very pertinent
to us during this entire process:

"Waiting is never an easy process. We began to dream about our daughter and fall in love with a person, whom we have never met. I will say that with each wait during this adoption process God has done some amazing work in our lives. He has taught us how to submit to His will, how to trust in His perfect plan for our life, and how to reach for His word during the hills and the valleys. Always remember that others are watching you wait and you want to WAIT well by shining as a light for the
glory of the Father."

While I'm waiting...
I will serve You
While I'm waiting...
I will worship
While I'm waiting...
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait
Though it's not easy
Faithfully, I will wait...