This was supposed to be Christmas Break Project # 4

We were supposed to put up our baby gate during Christmas break, but it just didn't end up getting done. In fact, it didn't get done until this past weekend. But now we are pretty much done with all our projects we needed/wanted to do before Isaiah comes home.
I was trying to get a picture of Travis and his handwork (the gate), but he decided to be goofy instead.

Office Picture

I finally took a picture from our Christmas Break Project # 1- painting the office. Thanks to my sister (who is letting us borrow the bedding) we now have a matching comforter for the newly painted office.

Toys!

One of our wonderful neighbors gave us a couple of toys that her kids were no longer interested in anymore. I think Isaiah will enjoy playing with both of these new toys!

This train sings a cute song!
An activity block that will be tons of fun. We already had some friends come over and both a one year old and a seven year old were entertained by this toy. Perfect!

National Visa Center Update

Travis called the National Visa Center today and we have been logged out! Our paperwork has been sent to the embassy in Korea. Now we are just waiting for stuff to happen in Korea. Everything US wise is done at this point. Come on Korea-we want to bring Isaiah home.

January 13th: Korean American Day

I just learned from the Holt forum boards that today is Korean American Day!

Korean American Day was first proclaimed by Congress in 2003 in acknowledgment of the centennial of Korean American immigration to the United States and the contributions of Korean Americans. "This will be an annual occasion to celebrate the lives, history and accomplishments of Korean Americans in the United States, and acknowledge the many ways in which they have helped to build and enhance American culture."

The first Korean immigrants arrived in the U.S. on January 13, 1903. Like many other immigrants, these 102 men, women and children faced language, cultural and economic barriers. Since that time, the Korean American community has blossomed to a population of nearly two million.

Another Picture

We were blessed this morning by receiving an email with another picture of Isaiah. The picture was taken with his foster mom(this is the first picture of her we have gotten- she is beautiful and has glasses too!) and all the stuff that we sent to him in the care package. I am so thankful for his foster mom who is taking such good care of him before we get to be his parents. They both look so happy in this picture. I can't imagine what the transition will be like for all of us. Good thing God is amazing!

January 4th = I-600 Approval

January 4th is our date of approval of petition. However, we didn't get the letter in the mail until Friday, January 8th. Yeah we are one step closer to bringing Isaiah home!

The agency in Korea already had generated a set of documents known as legals. Then we filled our I-600. Our local USCIS office used the legal documents to verify that the child meets their criteria of an orphan and that it's okay for the child to immigrate to the USA. Once they have issued the approval (we have this) they will forward it to the NVC (national visa center) in NH. The NVC logs all the information and sends a hard copy to the embassy in Korea by DHL (this is like fed-ex).

We know that our paperwork has been sent to the National Visa Center, but now we are waiting to be logged in and logged out. We will keep updating our blog as we learn more about our steps completed.

Updated PIcture

On New Years Eve morning Travis was upstairs working on the computer and I was downstairs talking to my mom on the phone about a cooking question when I heard Travis yell down to me, "Kalina we got a new picture, come up here!" I raised upstairs and we opened the email and this is what we saw
We are so in love with him. We can't wait to hold and care for him! We love his hairs, eyes, toes, pretty much everything about him.

Christmas Break Project # 2 and # 3

The last weekend of Christmas break we took everything out of our closet and redid the closet. My dad made the design plan. Travis and my dad spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday evening getting project # 2 done.

While the boys were busy upstairs my mom and I were downstairs working on putting away my Christmas decorations and organizing the stuff that had come out of the closest so it would all be in tubs and labeled before getting put back into the closet. We finished before the boys so we created another project for ourselves. Thus project # 3 was reorganizing my kitchen. We moved shelves so more things could fix per self. I even got rid of a few things that we haven't been using since we moved into the house.

It is a great feeling to have so much new organization in our house!

New Years Party

The New Year Party was at our house. We made wedding soup and broccoli cheese soup. We had salad, homemade bread sticks, and homemade oatmeal bread. It was a very yummy meal.
Our fancy table before we ate.
While we played games we snacked on chocolate covered almonds and pomegranates.
I decided that mixing them together was like trail mix in your mouth.
Yummy!
In case we hadn't eaten enough yet Sarah made an amazing Australian dessert for us.
Group photo shot... with Michaela sleeping upstairs in our crib and Isaiah in Korea still.
The girls were trying to be funny and act really tired from all the group shots. I guess we ruined the picture.
Adam and Brook celebrating the new year!
Josh and Sarah celebrating the new year!
Travis and I celebrating the new year!
What would be a blog post without a silly picture of me.

Christmas in Sherwood

On Tuesday December 29th we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family.
I got to help Campbell unload his gift bag.
He got an Elmo stuffed animal which he loved!
He got a phone and we had fun talking to each other.
Aunt DeAnn was able to come to family Christmas too. We gave her a Willow Tree Nativity wall hanging.
Travis and I gave dad a Planet Earth Blue Ray DVD.
We gave mom and a new expanded version of Guess Who.We gave the Willis family left over containers.
Elise was very excited about this next gift from us...
Because I found her another yellow purse... just like the one I bought her earlier this year that she loves but it is starting to wear out.
Dan is making fun of Elise by also making a very excited face before opening his gift.
He got chocolate pomegranates from Costco!
We gave Campbell a doctor kit. He is letting me put a band-aid on him in this picture.
Yep the shot from the doctor kit is in his mouth.
Travis and I enjoying more gifts for Isaiah.
Travis was almost as excited as Campbell when he realized Isaiah got a Cookie Monster stuffed animal. The cool thing about this toy is that it talks!
I am carefully feeling the gift...
Carefully shaking the gift... no guesses this time. It was Jaffle Irons for camping.

It even snowed in Sherwood!
Campbell had fun playing in the snow.

Christmas in Madras

We sent Friday, Christmas day through Monday in Madras. We had a great visit!

Pictures from Friday:
Digesting my wonderful Christmas dinner meal.
These are all gifts for Isaiah. Our little boy is so loved!
He got tons of cool stuff: pajamas, outfits, dvd's, and toys.
Kayla and Dad cuddling during our family gift exchange.
Mom opening a gift after saying... I wonder what this is... and we all know she bought it for herself and warped it herself too.
What a good sport... she still is acting surprised.
Kayla is intently opening a present that happens to be a Madras calendar celebrating 100 years of history!
Travis and I got a new baby camera that we are very excited about and have already used tons.
Josh getting ready to open a gift.
He loves the box... and the stuff inside.
Mom with a thermos and a set of mugs.
Travis and I looking over some of our gifts.
Josh and Kayla opening a gift.

Pictures from Saturday:
This is my knee with a huge bruise on it. Travis and I got up early on the day after Christmas and headed to Bend to look for good after Christmas deals. At our first stop, Target we discussed it was very icy and we needed to be careful. Well even though I was being careful I fell pretty much right after getting out of the car. Bummer for my hands and knee! But we did get some good deals so that helped make up for the miner pain.
After our errands in Bend we came home and had lunch with the family. Later in the afternoon we went to the St. John's house. I got to hold/play with Analise. She is getting big so fast.

Pictures from Sunday:

Sunday morning we woke up to snow! We went to church, ate lunch, and then we decide it was time to go have some fun in the snow. Kayla was a little more prepared snow clothes wise than me!Kayla had fun sledding!Travis enjoyed pushing the train of sleds.
Travis and I enjoying the snow.
Travis tested out the sled run too.
The sledding crew: Josh, Kayla, Aaron, Travis, and I (Dana was our photographer)