A few pictures

The batteries in our camera died - so the recent ones from the trip home are all on Cindy's camera. Here's a couple we took today after a Walmart run to get some things including a few batteries. We've got some video which we need to go through; so we'll hopefully post some soon.

Here's Liv and daddy on the kitchen floor :).

The exer-saucer has been a hit and keeps her attention. We put her in there in our room for a little bit to be with us while we got our suitcases unpacked.

Now 3 at Home :)

We're home! I made a mistake on my last post that we were coming home today, but we actually came back yesterday. We landed in Chicago at 10:40 and Minneapolis at 3. We stopped at Cory and Cindy's for a little bit and got back to Eau Claire at about 7. It's SO good to be home and SO good to be in my own bed. I woke up at 3:30 am Seoul time on Tuesday and didn't sleep again until about 10 last night. So now I've have a few rounds of sleep and am starting to feel better. All of our internal clocks are out of whack, but we're getting there.

So, now what you really want to know - how's the baby! She's SUPER awesome! We are really enjoying her. We left the agency Tuesday morning, and she had to leave her foster mother. She fussed a little, but did okay and fell asleep and stayed asleep until we were at our gate. It was hard to see the foster mothers and the separation they were experiencing. We were a part of 6 families that left the agency with their children. There were tears on both sides. Then Dr. Kim prayed for all of us. He's said this prayer probably hundreds or thousands of times and multiple times a week I'm sure. But he still teared up as he prayed. Then he went around and put his hand on each child, and there were tears running down his cheeks. He's really an amazing man with such an awesome heart. I feel so honored that we were able to meet him.

Liv woke up at our gate and was smiling and moving around (ps - the carrier I got is awesome. Liv loves it and will sleep or look around.) Overall, she did amazing on the plane ride home. Thanks so much for praying for us. The Lord was definitely with us. We fed her her bottles, then she's squirm around (we ended up in seats in the middle with people behind and infront of us; so there was nowhere for her to go) and after fussing a little and then would sleep. She took a few 2 hour naps which was great. She got the fussiest when it was her bedtime. She just fights sleep. It took an hour + to get her to sleep. And a random grandmother came and took her for awhile. (not uncommon - the nice man next to me had an 18 month old and held Liv a few times, and the flight attendants walked and held the other babies as well). So Liv finally fell asleep and slept 'til we landed and got off the plane. She probably would've slept longer, but I thought I should change her diaper before we got through customs which was a long line. So she woke up again and just snuggled in her carrier. We got through customs and were now in America! The rest of the way home she'd fall asleep in one place and wake up in another. I was concerned how she'd do in the carseat cause (as far as I know) she'd never been in one before. I'm assuming they don't drive much in Korea, just walk and take the subway. So she fussed getting in, but then did fine once carried her and moved her. She fell asleep on the way to Cory and Cindy's and again on the way home. We woke her up at home so she'd maybe sleep a little longer. So we gave her a bath and got her jammies on. Then we got the meltdown. I think this incredibly long day with so many new and different people just got to her. She went hysterical, just screaming. I felt so bad. We got her calmed down and back to sleep. Then she woke up hysterical 2 hours later, I had just fallen asleep or was almost asleep but now definitely awake again. So she just screamed. But the good thing in it was that she wanted to be held. I tried a bottle and that seemed to start calming her down. After that she slept for 2 - 4 hour stretches... so we did too :). She got up at 9 this morning (she's in her pack-n-play in our room). And we went to get her, and she just smiled and reached up to be picked up. Also, she shipped an overnight package which she hadn't done yet (our term for filling her pants). Then she shipped another package this morning. So things are moving well :). We had breakfast and gave her rice cereal which she ate just fine - again, not sure how she'd do in the high chair but did great. She went back to sleep at 11. So in an effort to obey the "new baby rule" to sleep when they do, we all took a 4 hour nap!

Again, I just can't believe how well she's doing. She knows both Aaron and I and will crawl to us and reaches to be held. She's a little cuddle bear and will snuggle into us. She's very observant and looks around and studies things intently. Her favorite toys so far have been paper and plastic cups - so glad I packed so many others! :). She's just a sweet baby. She smiles easily and seems to adapt pretty well. She's just awesome and so darn cute! It's been such a blessing how smooth things have been so far. Now that we're home we're going to try to lay low to help her adjust.

Thanks so much for praying for us and for your encouragement and sharing in our joy. It's been so good to have her home. It's been apparent that the Lord is helping all of us and giving us strength and connection to each other. We'll continue to keep you posted. We love you!

Leaving (again) on a jet plane...

First, a day late: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JILL!!!!
I tried to post this so you'd get it on your birthday, but couldn't get online.
And this is a Starbucks, but the insignia doesn't show up...

So sorry I didn't get to post yesterday. I tried and the internet wouldn't connect. But yesterday we went to the largest church in the world - the Youido Full Gospel Church here in Seoul. It has over 850,00 members! (and they said over 700 pastors and a few thousand elders and deacons - I guess you'd need that many!). It was amazing, such an experience. The main sanctuary held 12,000 with others nearby that telecast the service. There's 5(?) services on Wednesday, 2 on Saturday, and and 7 on Sunday (at 7, 9, 11, 1, 3, 5, and 7). And so after a service gets done you see thousands of people stream out of the sanctuary and then thousands flood in - and there really aren't any empty seats. It was awesome. We meant to go to the 9:00 service and left at 8, but we were told to get out at the wrong stop and got there at 9:30. So we waited around 'til 10:30 to go in for the next service.

We came back and ate and changed and went to a sketchy market - didn't like it very much. I had intended to go to a different one but got the name wrong. Today we left at 9 to go to the Korea National Museum (6th largest museum in the world). 1 hour and 45 minutes later, we ended up at the market that I had wanted to yesterday. Really, the subway is super easy to use, but again there were 2 words that were similar and so we went in the wrong direction for awhile and had to turn around, and by then we didn't have much to time to go to the museum.

At 3 we had an appointment to see Liv today!!! Um, she was a little more hesitant today. The foster mother had to wake her from her nap to bring her, and we tried to hold her a few times but she just started crying. So, if you could pray for us tomorrow (we leave with her at 8:30 tomorrow morning, 6:30 pm on Monday your time), and then our flight leaves 3 1/2 hours later at noon our time. I know it's going to take some time, and I'm prepared for that. But I just feel so bad for her cause it's just going to be hard. Her foster mother is just wonderful and takes such good care of her and knows her so well and shares those things with us. So if you could pray that Aaron and I will do okay with her, no lost paperwork (have to get her into the country :), safe travels, and for strength for Liv we'd appreciate it a bunch.

I'll post pictures when we get home, which we'll come into Minneapolis somewhere around 3 on Wed.

Also, a couple funny things that I at least want to post to remember from the trip:

• Cindy is the hungriest in the middle of the day. So we have first and second lunch - usually a pretty decent snack and meal for the mamma-to-be.
• $10 worth of showers - they have fitness center here called "fitna". Aaron and Cory checked it out a few days ago and went into the "spa" part of it. They thought it was a 50 cent charge. There's a few different whirlpools, a sauna, a shower, and shaving materials. So they think this is great and were living it up. They went back again this morning and found out it's actually a $5 charge. So each of them now have had $10 worth of bathing/showers.
• Cook your own Korean style - last night we went to this little restaurant that had a little grill in the middle of your table. We got beef (the menu was entirely in Korean, and we really didn't want to end up ordering squid). They also gave us large chunks of garlic, raw onion, and some lettuce leaves to put the grilled things on to eat. It was a little adventure. We got good "footage" as Aaron refers to anything he wants to videotape.

Okay, so I'm really tired (at a whopping 8:30 pm) and am going to go finish organizing and go to bed. Tomorrow will be a long, good, challenging day!

Can't wait to come home!!!

Lots of Adventures!

So I have a lot rambling around in my head and not much time, so please bear with me :). We saw Liv on Thursday and won't see her again until Monday, and then we'll fly home on Tuesday. There's 2 other couples that will be on the same flight home with us. These poor people on that flight have no idea what's coming :). So I'll start with the flight here. Having Cory and Cindy with us has added quited a bit of humor. On our first flight from Minneapolis to Chicago, Aaron, Cindy, and I were up front and Cory was way in the back. So we landed and waited for Cory who's comment was, "We're commin' in hot," referring to how low and fast we landed - which we did. So that line has come in handy a few more times.

And since Cindy is pregnant, that has also added additional "adventure" for her. So we're on the flight here, and she's needs to get up because she's under threat level orange (which the loudspeaker kept announcing over and over at the airport) which we refer to as her state of nausia. Being in a foreign country she's perpetually under threat level yellow because you just never know. But unfortunately she hit level red on the bus drive to our hotel. She had been in Mexico a week and a half prior and the bus rides made her sick there too. So (after asking her permission to share this story), here's how she recounted the story to me yesterday, "I wasn't feeling very good and thought I'd go to the front of the bus. And then, no, I'm going to throw up but what do I throw up on." And then Cory courageously gave her his sweatshirt - and so threat level red hit the hood of his blue sweatshirt. Which I had no idea she was losing lunch until after. Poor thing! I felt so bad. So while this wasn't funny, it was (and Cindy would agree). Fortunately we've had no more incidents. I was concerned the subway might do the same, but it didn't. And now we keep plastic bags in our purses.

The country, overall, is very clean. The people have been wonderfully kind and helpful. The subway is just immaculate. But I'll keep trying to stay in chronological order. So a few things about Liv that I forgot to mention last time is that she likes TV commercials, and her foster mother said she gets mad when you change the station. She sucks on her first finger, and she's an excellent climber. I think it won't be too long before she's walking cause she could stand pretty well. After we saw her on Thursday, we were invited to eat lunch with the Dr's Kim upstairs. They had a buffet line, and the food was amazing. It was really good. We met some of the other couples as well. Then we got to go see the newborn nursury. They stay there about 1 month before they go to their foster home. We went back to the hotel for a bit in the afternoon, and then went back to the agency to help take care of the newborns for a little while. That was awesome. First they came out with an 8 month old boy, and the nurse there just handed him, crying, to Cory with a bottle. The baby hadn't been there very long, and poor little guy, you could just tell he was tired and sad. So after awhile he fell asleep on Cory, but then he'd wake up and look at Cory and start crying again (I think because he's reminded that who in the world is this guy and this isn't someone I know). So finally he fell into a good sleep and slept on Cory's chest for awhile. Then they brought Cindy a few different babies, and she'd feed and hold one baby. Then they'd bring her another. For Aaron and I, we just had one baby the whole time. I had this little guy who couldn't have weighed more than 7 pounds. He was so precious and very active! So I had him for about 2 hours. There was one room with about 25-30 newborns. They were so precious. Some crying, some sleeping, some awake. You just wanted to take them all. After that we tried to stay awake long enough to eat at TGI Friday's. Then we came back to the hotel and went to bed.

At about early afternoon everyday I'm ready for a nap, and by 6pm I'm ready for bed. So we've been going to bed at 9 or so, but last night I was just wiped and managed to stay awake until 8, and then went to bed at 8. I'm still waking up in the middle of the night (somewhere between 2:30 and 4) and am awake for an hour before I fall back asleep. This time change just messes you up!

So I'll stop here for now. Yesterday we saw a palace and today we're going to a market. So I'll post on that later. Glad you like the pictures of Liv! We just think she's awesome!

Meeting the Baby!

So I kindof posted these pictures backwards. This first picture was towards the end of our appointment and the bottom one was closer to the beginning...

We were meeting Liv during her nap time, and so she got progressively sleepier. She was asleep in the foster mother's arms by the time we were done. Here's Liv with her foster mother.
She was pretty willing to crawl up and be held. She crawled into my lap a few times. It was so sweet :).
Moving baby = blurry picture.

Hanging out with Aaron for a minute (she was pretty active).
She liked the tissue paper we had put in the foster mother's gift. The woman on the right was our case worker and interpreter.
Her foster mother puts oil on her cause she has sensitive dry skin. Liv had gotten into the oil a bit which is why her hair looks greasy :).

Crawling around.

So there's some pictures from this morning! We hope you like them! Cindy took more on her camera which I haven't seen yet.

First Meeting

Wow. It's been a full day, and it's only 2pm! We got to sleep around 9:30 last night. We woke up at 3:30, and I was able to doze a while. Then I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep; so we got up at 6. As excited as I've been all week, I was surprisingly calm this morning. After a little breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts we headed over to the agency to meet Liv! We got there at 9:45 and received Liv's passport and immigration documents as well as a little instruction on what to do. Then at 10 we joined 2 other couples to meet Dr. Kim Sr. who is the founder of the Eastern (the agency/orphanage) and is also 93 and still working. He was a neat Christian man to meet. Eastern is much larger than I knew - they have many different facilities that meet a variety of social service needs. He speaks Korean, Japanese, and Chinese fluently and apologized for his English. I thought he did just fine,and for goodness sake - you can speak 3 other languages besides! We then met the other Dr. Kim who is the president of Eastern. She was a very kind woman who gave us some of the history of Korea as well as Eastern. Then at 11 we got to meet Liv!

I had been calm all morning, but right before we walked into to see the baby I just lost it and needed a minute to regain my composure. I didn't want to scare this little one! One thing that I'd been praying in the months leading up to this was that somehow the Lord would make us familiar to Liv, that we wouldn't seem like random strangers to her. And so we went into this little room and there she was! We took off our shoes and sat on the floor with her, and I had sat down for just a second and she crawled right over to me up into my lap! It was amazing. And she looked at me for a couple seconds and I looked back at her. Then she crawled off and moved toward Aaron. The Lord really had answered that prayer. She was definitely anchored to her foster mother but was not at all scared of Aaron or I and crawled between the 3 of us.

It was just amazing to finally meet her and touch her. She's a little peanut, not very big. She crawls really well and pulls herself up. Her foster mother was wonderful. You could tell that she loves Liv and takes really good care of her. She was very encouraging of Liv to move her toward us and volunteered so much information and was very willing to answer questions. She said that Liv is smart and curious and active. She doesn't like to be covered up when she sleeps, and she moves around a lot when she sleeps. The foster mother has nicknamed her Princess - appropriate :). It just seems like she's doing really well!

So I'm going to post this and then put up some pictures. I don't want to lose all I've written. We'll continue to keep you updated. With much love, the Joneses :)

We're Here!

We landed in Seoul at 2:30am US time - about 4:30pm here. It's now 6:15am home time, and we are ready for bed! We're just exhausted. We just ate at Outback for supper because we're too tired to be adventurous and try Korean food. Overall, the flight went well. We flew up north from Chicago into Wisconsin and Canada and then over Northern Alaska into Russia and down to Korea. Our flight had little monitors on the seat back in front of you, and we could watch a number of different movies or listen to music or play Tetris or a few other games! It was great. I think Aaron was the only one that slept a little on the flight. The rest of us tried. There were definitely moments of humor and a little adventure but overall no trouble on the travel aspect.

So now we're at the hotel and will be heading to bed! I don't know what time our appointment is at the agency tomorrow to meet Olivia, but I'll call in the morning to find out. I'll post again as soon as I can!

I'm Leavin' on a Jet Plane...

Just a quick post here, but we're getting ready to drive (through the snow) to the cities (where it is also snowing). I'm just running on adrenaline. We went to bed at 11:30 last night, and I woke up at 4:30 and just couldn't get back into a good sleep. So at some point, I'm going to crash. We'll see how soon that comes. Hopefully I can sleep a little on the plane. I usually can't... Anyway, as far as I know we'll have internet access there and will do the best we can to keep you updated but more importantly post pictures!!! If you could pray for safe travels, no missed flights, no lost paperwork, and wisdom for the unexpected we'd appreciate it!

And for those like me that tend to overpack (which I may have done but tried real hard not to) I did mange to get all my clothes, the baby's clothes, a couple blankets, and gifts for the orphanage ALL into my 1 suitcase! I'm so proud of myself :). Our love to you all. :)

Getting ready cause she's ready!

We got the tickets booked today (I think - I sent way too much personal information through a fax machine so they better be booked!). We fly this Tuesday to next Tuesday. But when we leave we don't get there until Wednesday afternoon their time. Then the trip home we leave Seoul at noon and get to Chicago at 10:40 am! Then get through customs (which I've been through customs at Chicago and they don't mess around) and onto Minneapolis. So that'll be a long day. We'll have 5 full days there to see some stuff and the baby (!!!). I'm still relatively scattered, but I've got to get my act together cause there's a lot to do this weekend! And for an update, I ran an errand yesterday afternoon and got home and Aaron was doing the dishes! I never did get them done :). Also, we ordered 2 extra tickets cause Aaron' brother and sister-n-law are coming with! They're some of our most favorite people, and we are looking forward to sharing the adventure with them. So that's where we're at. We'll keep you posted!

She's Ready!!!!!!!!!!

We got the call at 9 this morning! She's ready to come to her new home! So we're just ecstatic! I've been on the phone with the travel agency and a few others and am also just wandering around the house in a distracted haze as I wait to hear back from a few people. I'm semi-productive but not entirely. I had a load of baby clothes to wash to pack for her, and I just did that. I've gone to start the dishes twice and gotten distracted. So I think I'll go try to do those now... put the baby clothes in the dryer... look at the weather in Korea to know what to pack... It's going to be a random day! We're hoping to fly out early next week. It's going to be great to finally meet her!

CANNOT Wait to bring this little peanut home!

So we didn't get a call today, but we DID get pictures! An unexpected surprise! Isn't she awesome! It's so fun to see pictures of her smiling, and she's just so cute! So I was just a ball of jittery excitement for a good part of the day just hoping to get a call. I talked to our social worker, and she said it really could be any time. Maybe tomorrow... :)

A few things...

Being that I love bullet points and have a few random topics to post on, here we go:

• Happy Easter! Hope you all had a good Sunday. We had such a good service which included a baptism. It doesn't get much better - a baptism ON Easter Sunday. What a great day to celebrate new life in Christ. The only thing I miss is singing a hymn that we sang at my old chuch - "Up From the Grave He Arose!". Not a well-known hymn but fun to sing. So every Easter I sing it at the top of my lungs at some point in the day. This year my mom joined me, and my poor Grandpa endured it in the living room.
• Geneva Joy is making excellent progress. She is off ECMO and is working on getting stronger. She's still on a respirator as her lungs get stronger. Keep praying for her, but it's great that she's doing so well.
• Still waiting... I knew we COULD get a call last week, but would've been very surprised if we actually would have gotten a call. But this week, now we're really hoping. I had that nervous excited ball in my stomach this morning just hoping that today would be the day. So now we have another day of waiting done, and we'll see if tomorrow is the day. I've got a load of baby clothes ready to wash and am planning to pack a few and start getting her bag ready. We only need to pack for the trip home; so it won't be a ton of stuff. I'll do my best to be prepared, though :). Thanks for being in this with us! Our love to you all :).

Please Pray

We go to just the greatest church (Calvary Baptist if anyone wants to visit :). We absolutely love it there. We're also a very fertile church - we've had 3 babies born in the past few weeks! I'd love it if you'd say a prayer for one in particular. Little Geneva Joy was born just over 2 weeks ago. She was immediately flown to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis because her diaphram wasn't closed, and some of her intestines were pushing up against her lung leaving her right lung underdeveloped. A day or two later she was put on ECMO to help her little body rest and to see how that right lung would do. She just had surgery on Friday to correct the hole, and she did great. She's such a beautiful little peanut. Here's her Caring Bridge site: www.caringbridge.org/visit/genevajoyselvig . The whole family has been on our hearts a lot, and I've been praying for them quite a bit. I know they'd appreciate your prayers as well.

Also, an update on Ben - as far as I know he's doing well. He's been holding his own. It's been good to get periodic updates from Elizabeth and know how to pray for him and their family.

No news yet...

...But I did buy diapers today! :) It was fun to be able to buy diapers again. We haven't heard anything yet, and I'm not really expecting to get a call this week. I'm hoping for next week or at the latest the week after. It's very surreal to think that in just a few weeks we'll have a child that will be ours living here. It's just crazy. But we're very excited and can't wait to meet her!

We had our last day on campus on Friday. For the remainder of the semester we'll work on raising support along with taking a week off to go to Korea and another week to settle in with Liv. We haven't had to leave campus to work on support since we initially reported 3 1/2 years ago, but I just feel like the Lord's timing is really neat in this. He's been so faithful to provide for us, and I know He'll continue to do so. And His timing in this feels like such a gift to be able to work at home together where Aaron will be able to interact more with Liv than if he was going back to campus for the end of the semester. So it was hard to know that we won't be having all the interactions with students that we had been having and connecting with them on a regular basis. I just continue to love the women God has given me to work with. But it's so exciting to get ready for this little woman God has given me.

I also ordered a baby carrier that's patterned after the Korean style baby carriers. That's what Liv will be used to, and I'm hoping it'll feel familiar and comfortable. It's sort of vest-like and their legs more wrap around the sides than down like in a Baby Bjorn. If you're curious as to what this looks like here's the link: www.hosausa.com. And I'm reading What to Expect the Fist Year. I started from month 6 and am on month 8 - Liv turned 9 months so I'm almost caught up! There's such good information in there, some that's familiar and some that's new. So we're getting there!

Approved

We got our papers from immigration saying that we're approved to bring an immigrant into the U.S. for the purpose of adoption (at least I think that's what it says :). I'm always intimidated reading legal paperwork - I think I know what it's saying, but it's always worded in an unclear way. But anyway, I DO know that we're approved. We let our social worker know. She said she had gotten the same papers, and that we're DONE on the U.S. side - now we're just waiting for Korea! I'm HOPING we go the end of this month or at the very latest the beginning of April. Weeks away... I can't believe it! 'Kay, hope you're having a great Monday!