We are Traveling Early to meet Michael!
Many of you are probably wondering what the latest news is for our adoption of Michael.   We received updated photos of him about a month ago, so that was a wonderful surprise!  I just want to jump through my computer screen a pinch his cheeks, and give him a hug!
On a sadder note, the time line from referral (being matched to Michael) to our Travel call has grown longer than ever.  We are now being told to prepare for an 8 to 9 month wait.  That puts us potentially getting a travel call in July or August.  He will be 13-14 months old at that time.  The thought of waiting that long brings an emptiness in my heart.  I don’t want to go into the details of why it’s taking longer; it just is.  We know he will come into our family at some time.  That time is just later than what Stefan and I would like.
Therefore, with a lot of discussion between us, Stefan and I have decided to take a trip to Seoul EARLY to meet Michael!  We are going to travel April 16-23.  We will meet with him (and his foster mother) at least once, and hopefully twice.  We are taking a suitcase full of gifts, toys, cameras, and clothes for him.
Stefan and I have done a lot of soul-searching to determine whether this is the best thing for our family.  We certainly had the cost issue to discuss and work out. We had the logistics of Stefan talking off work and teaching, and the logistics of child care for Alex. When it comes right down to it, we have to GO.  We have the opportunity, and in many ways, we hope that will ease the wait just a little. We talked to 4 other families who took the trip for similar reasons, and they all said “GO!â€.  It will be heart-wrenching to leave Michael behind, and tears come to my eyes as I type this, but we feel it’s what we need to do.  We want to meet him while he’s a baby.  We want to show him (now, and in the future) and his foster mother, how much we already love him.  We want to kiss his pudgy cheeks, and we want to see if he has grown any hair.  We want to get a glimpse of his personality.  We want to see the real baby behind the few photos we have, that we so much cherish.
Most importantly, we simply want to hold him, even if it’s just for a little while.
Please send your positive thoughts and prayers our way to lift us up and keep us strong as we proceed on our journey.  We so much love our little boy already.
Here are the updated pics of Michael.  He’s about 6 months old in the photos.  Also—I can’t make a blog entry without including our handsome son, and soon to be “big brotherâ€, Alex.
Alex enjoying the snow–Feb., 2010