We've had a lot of fun in the last month: trips to the park, fall festival at church, Halloween, playing at home, celebrating birthdays, and learning to walk!  Here's a video of the cuteness that is a toddling baby :)

Alex is 1!

Last weekend Alex celebrated his first birthday :) In Korea, the first birthday is a big deal so we wanted to do the same here! We followed as many of the traditions as we could and had the party at our church so that we could invite whomever wanted to attend. We had a pretty good turnout and had a great time celebrating the newest addition to our family!

Enjoy some photos of the party and a short video with some of the highlights!

The party table

items for the fortune telling game (he picked the stethescope)

all dressed up

the sweet birthday boy :)

yummy cake!

opening gifts

Settling In

Alex is continuing to settle in to a routine and getting to know his new family.  Not every day has been simple, but we are loving being 5 instead of 4 :)  I know I haven't updated much, but we've been so busy its hard to find the time!  Enjoy this quick video of Alex being cute.  He loves his big sis and bro a ton and they can always make him laugh!

Adjusting

We are doing our best to adjust to the time difference between here and Korea!  Last night Alex finally slept through the night (or at least we didn't let him get up and play).  Matt and I both feel significantly more rested today, but I think we still have some adjusting to do! 

Today I will take Alex to the doctor to have a quick check up and be sure he's 100% healthy like we think he is :)  The kids also had their first day back at school since we've returned.  Its nice to have life seem a little more routine!

I've got a ton to do around the house, so I'll post more later, but in the mean time, enjoy some pictures of our homecoming taken by my sweet friend Jill from Raindancer Studios.

Coming Home Photos

He's with us!

Alex is finally with us!  we left the agency with him today around 2:30 pm Seoul, Korea time.  There are a few more pics on the facebook album, and this sweet video of our cab ride back to the hotel... stay tuned to around the 3 min mark to see Alex fall asleep on me!  Too tired to post much else!

Video Link 

Photos

We've been so busy so far that I haven't had any time to post on here!  We are settled into our hotel, we made it safely on Monday afternoon.  Today we are going to get Alex!!!  You can see some of the photos we've taken and some explanations of what we've been doing on an album on facebook, just click the Photo below :)

WE GOT THE CALL!

Ji-wan is ready for us.  He's got all his paperwork and its time to get him!  We're still working out details, but we could be traveling as soon as Sunday to meet our precious son!  Please join us in prayer during this time! 

Continued Preparation

We still have no news on when we'll be traveling.  Most days that's fine.  Some days we're impatient.  In the mean time we've been enjoying the opportunity to continue preparing to bring Ji-wan home as a part of our family.  We decided to go for cloth diapers with him instead of disposables like we did for Eli and  Anna, and I felt very domestic hanging them out to dry today :)  Little things like this allow me to continue to connect with him even though he is miles and miles away!

Crunch Time

Well, the anxiety and stress has finally hit!  All this time I have been amazed at the peace and calmness with which I've been able to face this adoption (minus a few days of stress here and there), but I feel as though I'm now in a constant state of anxiety.  Never knowing when we'll get the call and having to prepare for not just an international trip for myself, my spouse, and a baby I've never met, I have to prepare childcare for the two we're leaving home during the trip.  Sometimes it all just seems like too much, but then I take a look at Alex's sweet face, take a deep breath, pray for strength and find the will to go on.  Your prayers during this time would be much appreciated! 

Photo Update!

We were lucky enough to get some new photos of Alex today!  They are below.  We also got his well-baby checkup for July showing that he is right around the 25th percentile in height and weight, but continues to be healthy and developing well :)