My blog/adoption friend Elizabeth had a giveaway a couple of weeks ago, and I won this great book!
It's a Korean children's book that's been translated into English. The book was waiting for us when we returned from visiting family earlier this week, and I couldn't wait to check it out. Very cute book. I'm excited to read this with our child someday.
Elizabeth and her husband Jason have two sons -- three year old Isaac and two year old Matthew. They traveled to Korea just a couple of months ago to bring Matthew home. Her blog truly is one of my favorites, and I've so enjoyed reading about all the blessings (and sometimes challenges) their family is experiencing. If you have a few minutes, jump over to Elizabeth's blog and check it out.
For those of you getting our blog posts via email, you won't get the video, so you can click HERE to see it.
Lyrics
Well I don’t know if you remember me or not
I’m one of the kids they brought in from the home
I was the red-haired boy in an old green flannel shirt
You may not have seen me – I was standing off alone
I didn’t come and talk to you, ‘cause that’s never worked before
And you’ll prob’ly never see this letter anyway
But just in case there’s something you can do to help me out
I’ll ask you one more time
All I really want for Christmas
Is someone to tuck me in
A shoulder to cry on if I lose
Shoulders to ride on if I win
There’s so much I could ask for
But there’s just one thing I need
All I really want for Christmas is a family
Well I guess I should go ahead and tell you now
If it’s really true about that list you have
Somehow I always seem to end up in a fight
But I’m really trying hard not to be bad
But maybe if I had a brother or a dad to wrestle with
Well, maybe they could teach me how to get along
And from everything I’ve heard
Sounds like the greatest gift on earth would be a mom
All I really want for Christmas
Is someone to tuck me in
A shoulder to cry on if I lose
Shoulders to ride on if I win
There’s so much I could ask for
But there’s just one thing I need
All I really want for Christmas
Is someone who’ll be there
To sing me “Happy Birthday”
For the next 100 years
And it’s OK if they’re not perfect
Well, even if they’re a little broken, that’s alright
‘Cause so am I
Well, I guess I should go
It’s almost time for bed
And maybe next time I write you
I’ll be at home
‘Cause all I really want for Christmas
Is someone to tuck me in
Tell me I’ll never be alone
Someone whose love will never end
Of all that I could ask for
Well, there’s just one thing I need
All I really want for Christmas
All I really want for Christmas is a family
We had our third home study meeting this past Wednesday. There isn't a whole lot to report from it. We turned in a bit more paperwork and then spent about an hour and a half talking adoption with our social worker. She asked us some questions about our marriage and how we anticipate a child will change it and also about our plans for helping our child adjust to his new life with us. We both thought it went very well and was an enjoyable meeting. Our social worker is great, and we've found the entire home study process to be relatively painless.
We're hoping to have our final home study meeting in February or March and also to submit our I-600A to USCIS around that time. I know it seems like we've been in this home study process forever, but as I mentioned a few months ago, we're intentionally moving slowly through the process for a couple of reasons: (1) there's just no reason to get in a hurry since we're still quite a ways down on the waiting list, and (2) we don't want our home study or immigration paperwork to expire before we receive a referral (it can all be extended without too much trouble, but we'd prefer to avoid the hassle if possible).
So, if all goes as planned, we should have all our pre-referral paperwork and meetings done in the spring. Things still seem to be on track to receive a referral sometime in the second half of 2010, with our travel to Seoul to pick up our child in early 2011.
After putting up our Christmas decorations the weekend before Thanksgiving, we had a 2 day work week followed by a 6 day Thanksgiving weekend! (Yeah, working for the state has some great benefits.) My sister Elissa and her husband of three months, Clint, flew up to spend the holiday with us. We picked them up at the airport Wednesday morning, and they flew back Monday.
We started out our Thanksgiving Day checking out Black Friday ads (the one newspaper we buy every year) and watching the parade...which I'm convinced just gets worse every year, yet I keep watching it. Tucker was pretty content hanging out with us Thanksgiving morning...isn't he cute?
We then spent several hours in the kitchen and fixed an incredible (if I do say so myself) Thanksgiving meal. We (ok, Brad and Clint) fried a turkey.....
We also had dressing, cranberry sauce, giblet gravy, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, broccoli & cheese casserole, creamed corn, green bean casserole, and rolls.
Yum!!! And yes, we had LOTS of leftovers. (And um, yes....those are platters we ate off of...needed lots of room for all the good food!!)
Elissa and I braved the Black Friday crowds to do some shopping Friday. I love shopping with my sister, so Black Friday with her was a special treat! We learned several things on our shopping expedition: first, Boston Store has made their $10 coupon virtually impossible to use (did anyone else run into this problem?); second, crowds improve as the day progresses; and third, we are more like our grandmother than we ever realized. (We discovered this third point as we found ourselves scouring the clearance shelves at Marshall's for cheap home decor items...we got some great deals but didn't realize until that moment just how frugal we've both become!!)
We spent the rest of the weekend visiting a few local places of interest, watching a couple of movies, going to church, and just hanging out. We laughed, visited, and thoroughly enjoyed each others' company. It was a wonderful weekend filled with family, fun, food (no, I'm not trying to alliterate), and laughs....seriously, I have probably not laughed so much in my life. Great, great weekend that we hope to repeat in the future!!
Wow, where have the last couple of weeks gone? I know I promised to be a better blogger...and I've failed miserably. Life seems to have settled down, so hopefully I really will be more dedicated to this blog going forward.
So, what have we been up to? (I know you're all on the edge of your seats...) Let's see, we spent the weekend before Thanksgiving properly Christmas-fying our home, and I love it! I love our tree, our two nativities, our stockings (including one for the dog), the apothecary jars filled with ornaments, the greenery with lights on the shelves above our TV (since we don't have a mantle), our Christmas cookie jars, and few other Christmas knick-knacks around the house. I'm a little bummed we have to take it all down in a few weeks...or do we? Last year I left the nativity up through about March and really only took it down then at Brad's request - I also told him he must not love Jesus as much as I do :)
Pictures of all the Christmas decorations coming soon...but up next -- Thanksgiving!!
