Monday, June 27, 2011

Quiet Days

No new information today.  We just wait.  Not very patiently, but we wait.  We have to be in the final few days (weeks at the most) before traveling.

Yesterday we started decorating Jae's lock to hang below the Seoul Tower.  I took pictures which I will post on Jae's Gotcha Day; but, for now, a teaser...


Love,
Jae's Mom

Friday, June 24, 2011

Rumors Hurt

Our dramatic week came to an end this afternoon.  Our US agency officially released a statement saying the Korean Ministry will not shutdown prior to completing Jae's (and everyone else in his batch) paperwork.  Good news, no, great news. 

Rumors.  Rumors.  Rumors.  Now that our US agency has posted that they do not believe the Ministry will be shutting down, the discussion posts regarding this subject have been deleted from the site.  Which is very telling in my mind.  Now my only frustration is why someone would make such a strong, confident statement without having all the facts?!?!?  Rumors were hurtful back in 8th grade, and they are hurtful now at age 30.  That was a very stressful week for nothing.  Don't worry though, I flushed out all my stress with two tall beers at Big 10.  I will be just fine.  :)

Love,
Jae's Mom

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Can't Sleep

It is closing in on 1am and I can't sleep anymore.  My heart aches.  Just about the time I posted the last blog thinking we were out of the water, someone posted on the discussion forum that yes, our Korean agency will be affected by the delay.  Just when we thought we were days away from traveling, it is looks like we are still months away.  It sounds like the Korean Ministry just stopped processing exit visas and passports.  No one understands why, but they have just stopped.  There are rumors of them starting back up at the end of July, but we don't know.  Jae's paperwork, along with the rest of the current batch, were within days of leaving the Ministry and moving on to the US Embassy for entrance visa, and now nothing?  Seriously?  Just stopped? 

I am in love with the most adorable 15 month old boy.  I have never met him but I carry pictures of him everywhere and talk about him to everyone I know.  He is the one I carry around in my precious heart shaped locket.  I dream about playing with him, taking him to the zoo, going on picnics, playing at the pool, watching him get his face licked off by our dog, but now just getting him home seems like a dream.  It might appear that I am being a little over dramatic, but my heart is broken.  I can't tell you what it feels like to be thinking, "Yep, any day now" and then all of the sudden it turns back into "Nope, at least another month, maybe two."  Paul and I miss Jae.  We want him here with us.  We have been waiting for so long to grow our family and we are at the point where we can't wait anymore.  Stealing a line from When Harry Met Sally, "...you want the rest of your life to start right now."

As soon as we hear anything official, I will update the blog.  In the meantime, we could really use some prayers. 

Love,
Jae's Mom

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Scary 24 Hours

We had a scary 24 hours in the Herzog house.  It is a long complicated story, so I will try and keep it simple:

As many of you know, there is an online informal discussion forum for Korean adoptive parents.  Multiple Korean agencies and multiple US agencies are represented here, but again on an informal basis.  The actual agencies are not allowed to post items or comments, only parents are.  Well the discussion forum was very (unusually) quiet the last 2 days.  No travel calls.  No new referrals.  No new pictures.  It was weird.  Then, yesterday afternoon the discussion forum blew up with comments from parents who appeared to be all from the same Korean agency.  All of them were talking about some mass email and visa approvals being delayed.  We had no idea what they were talking about but it didn't sound good.  Delays?  Shutdowns?  Closed to 2012?  But the one of the rules of the discussion forum is you can't post any confidential information.  Meaning: No one could tell us exactly what this mass email said or who it effected.

After a long day of expecting a bad phone call from our temporary social worker, Paul and I are 90% confident that we are still on track with Jae's travel call.  The mass email is regarding a Korean agency that is different than the one Jae was referred through.  But man, it was a stressful afternoon!  I am not a fan of people that tear up at work, but I was scared, confused and nervous.  I has no idea if I wanted my phone to ring or not.  No calls.  Thank God.  Again, 90% sure these delays do no effect us.

To summarize my day, I send a text to a friend who Paul and I met though the adoption process and it ended with..."Sh** that was scary!"

Any day now.

Love,
Jae's Mom

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The First 45 Minutes

I get to work around 7:15AM and the 45 minutes leading up to 8AM are 45 very long minutes.  Our agency opens at 8AM and if any important information comes from Korea in the overnight, they pass that info on as soon as possible, AKA- 8AM.  But all this week 8AM has come and gone without anything too exciting.  Which is okay and expected.  Hopefully in the next 2 weeks we will get the travel call.
My new obsession is an online adoption discussion forum for Korean adoptive families.  I have to make myself stay off of it when I am at work.  Basically it is an website for parents like myself to post information about their adoption.  Where they are at with the process, ask questions, meet other adoptive families, etc, etc.  But the section I am most concerned with is the section where adoptive parents announce they received travel calls.  Not everyone posts the on the site so it is not all inclusive, but it gives Paul and myself a pretty good idea of how long others waiting for EP submission, EP approval and then travel call.  We are so close, I can feel it. 

Love,
Jae's Mom

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Getting Ready

We are finding small projects that need to get done prior to Jae Miles coming home.  In the last 48 hours we have:
  • Put safety plugs in all the outlets.
  • Moved books that were on the coffee table and end tables downstairs to the office (Jae's most recent update said he really enjoys tearing pages out of books).
  • Cleaned the outside windows
  • Picked out some of Jae's clothes to come to Korea with us.  Which includes his "coming home" outfit!  :)
  • Tested the best place to plug in his Noah's Ark nightlight given to him from his Great Grandma Hunze
  • Move cleaning supplies to higher ground.
  • Tested the baby monitors.
We are ready Jae!  Come on home!

Love,
Jae's Mom

Thursday, June 2, 2011

New Pictures!

Look what we received today!  Our little dude is now 21lbs and 30" tall and walking pretty well.
C'est l'amour!








Love,
Jae's Mom