The waiting game

Caleb's last soccer game for the fall season- brrr!
My Grandma Jongsma and my Mom

As many of you know, we received a phone call from our social worker last week telling us that we could get our travel call in the next 2-4 weeks!! We were a little surprised! Everything seems to be moving faster than we anticipated- which is a good thing, just unexpected. Our paperwork is done on the US side. We are waiting for Julia's visa interview in Korea now. Once they approve her visa we will get the call to come get her! Once they call us we have to arrive in South Korea within 7 days. We will buy our plane tickets once we get our travel call. We know which airline we will use (Korean Air) and that we will fly out of O'Hare on a direct flight. The flight is 13 hours long! I feel a little claustrophobic thinking about it. :{ No matter when they call us our plan is to fly out on a Saturday and fly back on a Friday. I'm praying we get our travel call early in the week so that I have a couple days to pack/prepare! We'll see what God has planned. The adoption agency in Korea (Holt agency) will make our hotel reservations for us, take us on a city tour, and help us line up a tour to the DMZ. When we're there we'll meet Julia and her foster Mom on a Monday. We'll then sightsee for a couple days and then pick Julia up on Thursday afternoon and fly home on Friday. I'm hoping when we're in Korea I can blog, but we'll see.

Julia's room is pretty much ready! We painted the walls pink. I have some pink and sage colored bedding and I bought a sage valance. We also found a really nice dresser for a good deal at a second time around furniture store. I still need some decorations for the walls and a little rug, but that will happen in the future.

Caleb had his last soccer game for the fall season on Saturday. The field was full of puddles, it was drizzling and freezing! It's hard to see in the above picture, but Caleb was covered in mud. The parents were a little miserable, but the kids had a great time! After the game we drove to Grand Rapids to eat lunch with some of my extended family that was visiting MI. I had to get a picture of my Grandma to post on my blog because she faithfully reads my blog. Hi, Grandma! :)

As I am writing this, I am watching a friend's little girl who is about Isaac's age. The two of them were coloring and Zoe must have done something Isaac didn't like. He then turned to me and said, "Zoe, in time out." Apparently in nursery at church he likes to tell kids what the rules are as well. I'm thinking Julia might have a bossy older brother. :)

Fall fun

The hand dryer was probably Isaac's favorite "toy" at the museum
Playing together again
The boys had a great time, it's hard to get them to look like it though for a picture!
The hay pile was Caleb's favorite part of the orchard
The perfect pumpkins!

Just a warning- this post will be long! The two weeks without Nate were a little tough, but manageable. Life just doesn't work as well without him here! :) This past week the boys and I saw Cardale. We met Cardale and Jenn at the GR Children's Museum. Cardale was confused when he first saw us, but then had a big grin. The boys enjoyed playing together again. Cardale was a little sad when we said goodbye, but that is to be expected. It was a fun morning for all of us!

Nate flew home yesterday. The boys and I met him at the South Bend airport and they were so excited to see Daddy! Our original plan was to drive to my grandparent's house and spend the weekend in Chicago doing museums, etc. By the time we finished eating supper, we decided to just drive home and then take the train into the city Saturday morning. When we got home Nate made the mistake of answering the phone. It was work calling and telling him he had to work the night shift Saturday! He was so mad! Actually we were both mad. His work has known for a month that he was just getting back from a WORK trip and that they needed to find someone to cover this shift. But no, they waited 21 hours before the shift started to find someone. Nate is at work right now and has vowed that if he has anything to say about it, this will not happen again to him or anyone else. :)

I digress. Since we couldn't go to Chicago we went to a local orchard. We ate some yummy cider donuts, went on a hayride, saw a petting zoo and picked out some pumpkins. Thankfully the boys weren't disappointed about not going to Chicago. They were just happy to be all together again.

I want to share some news about Julia too. Almost a month ago we received some medical reports showing she had an abnormal EEG. The doctors in Korea diagnosed her with partial seizures and put her on medication. Partial seizures are like "absence" seizures where kids kind of space out for 30 seconds and then wake up again. We met with our pediatrician and she fowarded the reports on to a neurologist for their opinion. We heard back from the neurologist and they felt Julia's EEG looked normal. Now, they can't say that 100% because they didn't have the whole EEG. They also felt the sunset eyes they documented in Korea shouldn't be a concern because that also correlates with increased brain pressure which then affects head circumference. The neurologist here thinks Julia's head circumference growth has been normal and not indicative of brain pressure. So, now that we've gotten some more info, I feel at peace about Julia. The neurologist here is more than willing to see Julia when she gets here, so that is good to know. We know Julia is receiving excellent medical care in South Korea and that God will lead us through whatever transpires. We appreciate your continued prayers for Julia!