Meetings and Checklists May 24, 2008

Wednesday was a big day in our adoption world. We had our fourth home study meeting at our agency. This was a meeting that both Tom and I had to attend together. We discussed our marriage and our views on parenting. The next meeting will be in mid-June at our house and that meeting will complete our home study meetings. After that, we just have to rely on government agencies to help us move things forward.

On Wednesday, we also had a meeting with a doctor from the International Adoption Clinic (IAC) at The University of Chicago. The doctor helped us go over the medical checklist that our agency asked us to fill out. To anyone pursuing an international adoption (IA), I could not recommend talking with an pediatrcian who specializes in IA more. He went over every diagnosis on the list and told us exactly what ramifications the diagnosis could have on quality of life, cognitive development, physical development and emotional development. We feel so much more confident in filling out the checklist now that we have spoken to an IA professional. If we had not spoken to him, we would have been relying on Google (which I did try before making our appointment) for our medical information and we would have been very misled in many of the cases.

Sniff Sniff Sniff & Home Study Update May 16, 2008

Allergy season is back with a vengence. I never had outdoor allergies as a child, but for the last few years I am a miserable mess from the first bud to the first snowfall. I knew I was tempting fate by not starting my allergy medication the second I saw the color green appear and I am paying for it now. I have spent the last day and a half in a haze with an incredibly stuff nose and watery eyes. I finally started my 2 medications back up last night and I am praying that when I wake up tomorrow I will be able to breathe through my nose.

On the Adoption Front:

After 24 days, our agency updated their tracking list and I was excited to see another pink referral come through in April. That made 2 pink referrals in 2 weeks! That should make up for the 65 days of no pink referrals.

We have our next home study meeting at our agency’s office on Wednesday. It will be the final meeting that we have to drive to Bensenville for (until we get our referral, that is). We also meet with the pediatrician from the International Adoption Clinic at the University of Chicago next Wednesday. We will be going over the medical checklist we have to fill out for Eastern Social Welfare Society (the adoption agency we will be going through in South Korea). The checklist has a list of diagnosis and a place to check yes or no for each diagnosis. Since I got my medical degree via Google, we thought it would be best to consult an actual doctor so we could make an educated decision as to what we can comfortably handle.

Happy Mother’s Day 2008 May 11, 2008

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone. I am actually writing this post from the comfort of my own bed. It is 8:42 in the morning and nobody has come to get me up yet. They have no idea I am already awake (and have been for at least an hour). It is so nice to just sit in bed and relax. Later today, we will be joining family for dinner, but for now I will enjoy the peace and quiet of my morning.

Of course, on this Mother’s Day, I can’t help but let my mind think about next Mother’s Day – Will I be celebrating with 2 children instead of 1? I realize that is doubtful due to the current waiting times in Korea, but it is fun to think about.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Sad News May 10, 2008

We just got word that Tom’s grandpa died tonight.  We are very sad.  He was quite ill and we knew that this was coming.  We are so grateful that he got to meet our son.

Checkout the Blog Roll May 2, 2008

The blogroll is on the right side of the screen. Over the next few days, Tom will be adding websites about Korea to this page.