So, many are wondering how our adoption story started. It actually started 11 years ago. After months of infertility treatments, we were told on February 14, 2001 that we would probably not be able to get pregnant. That is when the idea of adoption was first planted in our head. Then we were blessed with a pregnancy and Evan was born April 2002. After trying again for a second child through infertility treatments, we had just decided that once again we would pursue adoption and shortly after, we found out we were pregnant and Sylvia was born September 2004. We put our idea of adoption on hold at that time. Then we were surprised to find out in August 2006 that we were once again pregnant and Levi was born April 2007. While the idea of adoption was never gone, we did not pursue it further until April 2010. That is when our journey to find Vivian began.
We entered what we call our first trimester of the adoption . . . Paperwork. We completed application forms, attended workshops, classes, completed questionnaires, fingerprints, home study paperwork, interviews. It was a lot of paperwork and meetings, but were officially "logged" in September 2010.
Then we moved into the second trimester of the adoption . . . Waiting for the Referral. We were told that the wait could be six months or longer. We were quite surprised when we received a call on December 1, 2010 letting us know that we had a referral of a little girl that had just turned 16 months old. We loved her from the first pictures that we received.
Now began the third and longest trimester . . . Waiting to Travel. Initially, they thought the wait would be no more than 11 months. Unfortunately, with some roadblocks with the processing of adoption paperwork in Korea, our wait stretched into 16 months. On April 3, 2012, we received the call that we had been waiting for. Our daughter had her VISA and was waiting for us to pick her up!
We have now spent the week making travel arrangements, packing, wrapping up a few things at work and elsewhere. We leave on Monday, April 9 and will return Sunday, April 15. We have leared that our first visit with Vivian will be 1 hour on Thursday, April 12. It will be a short visit and we have a long list of questions for the Foster Mother. At that time, we will be told what time we can come back on Friday, April 13 to pick her up and keep her with us for our remaining time in Seoul and then bring her home to MN.
Please pray for us as we travel to South Korea. The entire family is going and we do not know how well the kids will transition to the 14 hour time difference. Also, both of our mom's are coming with to help with the kids and share this experience. We will try to keep you updated on how things are going and post pictures when we can.
