Milestone Birthday

I have a confession: I have been kinda dreading my 30th birthday for some time for a myriad of reasons. But as it turns out I had no reason to worry because my birthday this year was awesome...I mean really awesome.  

When the alarm went off that morning for work, I rolled over and Jon said, "Happy Birthday. Do you want to open your presents?" Although I declined because I *must* have a shower to function in the morning, I knew he must have something good up his sleeve if he was this eager for me to begin opening presents. When I got out of the shower he was right there...waiting. "Are you ready now?" 

Jon handed me a card which was what I expected since I had told him NO GIFTS this year. I already knew he was planning a big trip for my birthday, and I told him that was my present.  However, he was allowed to get me a card.  I opened the card and read his lovely birthday note. Then, inside the card were two pieces of paper. The first was a coupon for two years worth of a Ver!zon data plan. You see, Jon and I had decided to switch to Ver!zon because of AT*T's lousy service, and although I really wanted an iPh*one I didn't want to pay the $30 each month for the data plan.   The coupon looked so real I actually believed it for a second.  He had broken the rules about no presents, but because I really wanted an iPh*one I let it slide. :)

Next he told me that my Mom (who was coming into town with my Dad and nephew for my birthday) and I would be enjoying a 4 hour spa day on Saturday. I was thrilled because I had always wanted to do a spa day, and doing it with my Mom would make it even more special. We were going to receive a facial, massage, foot treatment, and body exfoliation. It sounded heavenly! 

Then to top it off I opened up the last piece of paper. It was a map and had Korean characters on it. I asked Jon what this was, and he told me that we were going to have an 8 hour layover on the way home from our mystery vacation...and it happened to be in Seoul!  That's right...we are going to Seoul. I  was so excited but shocked all I could say was, "I'm so overwhelmed!" Jon informed me later that he wasn't sure if I was happy about the trip because I just kept repeating that phrase over and over. Believe me when I say I was excited, but when you don't expect to be in the same country as your son for another year it leaves you a bit overwhelmed.  We will be receiving a tour of the Eastern adoption agency facilities and might even have time to do a little shopping. I am so thrilled to be in the same city as our son instead of thousands of miles away, even if it is only for a few hours coming and going to our mystery destination. 

Work was a pretty good day, even though I had a staff meeting until pretty late in the evening. I left work and drove straight to Jon's work so we could make our dinner reservation on time. He was waiting for me with white roses.  Isn't he the best?  Dinner was at Anthony*s Fish Restaurant in Kirkland, which is right on Lake Washington. We both enjoyed clam chowder, a lobster dinner, and a warm berry cobbler. It was delicious!  Then, waiting for me at home was a huge bouquet of flowers from my parents.  Didn't I tell you the day was great?

The whole week, however, was fabulous. My birthday week started on Sunday night when we went out to dessert at the Cheesecake Factory with some members of our small group at church for dessert. On Tuesday night the hostess of our other Bible study had made rice krispy treats. Then my parents came into town on Thursday along with Garrison. Although I was nervous totting a four year old around Seattle, he did a really great job. We had our own birthday celebration on Saturday night and had fun cheering on the Packers on Superbowl Sunday. See, I told you it was a great birthday! Jon set some pretty high expectations to live up to for his own birthday in a few months. Ideas are being accepted!

Some Big News

Jon and I have decided to adopt from South Korea!

We researched a lot of different programs and narrowed it down between domestic and South Korea. I know these probably seem like night and day choices, so why did we pick South Korea?

One of the major concerns we had about adopting state side was not knowing a great deal about the baby. Although we would be able to adopt the baby almost immediately after birth (a definite plus in many ways), if the baby was exposed to alcohol or drugs it might not show until several months of age. (Agencies do not test birth mothers for drug or alcohol abuse during the pregnancy). One of the big movements in domestic adoption is "open adoptions," and Jon and I weren't very comfortable about continuing to meet the birth mother throughout our child's formative years, especially if the baby's first family is in the NW and we plan to move back to AZ in a few years. In some ways we also felt like adopting a child in America felt, at times, a little like buying a baby. It's amazing that some agencies and companies can guarantee a child to you faster if you pay more money upfront. It just doesn't seem right!

We looked at several international programs before deciding on South Korea. We liked South Korea because of all we looked at (Russia, Ukraine, China, Mongolia, etc) the babies were raised in foster families instead of orphanages. The institutional delays common in babies who don't receive lots of one-on-one care aren't present because the children in South Korea have lots of personal attention from their foster family.

South Korea's medical system is also on par with that of the US and Canada, so babies are given extensive medical care throughout their time in South Korea. We also will receive medical reports on the baby when we receive our referral, probably when the baby is between 5-6 months of age. Although I'm sad that I will miss out on these important first few months, I am thankful that our child will be well taken care of during this time. (Although if you ask me about this after we receive our referral I might not be so matter of fact about this).

Many international adoption programs have strict guidelines of who can adopt from their family. They look at how long you have been married, if you have any divorces, your height/weight ratio, if you have any other children, etc. The waits for some programs are also very extensive: China is between 4-5 years (!) right now.

Since we have decided to adopt I have been readings lots of books on South Korea and on international adoption in general. If you'd like, you can check out our blog about our adoption. We have lots more information there, and we plan on keeping it updated fairly often over the course of this journey. (If you end up posting a comment, please try to keep it anonymous since it's a public blog.)