It's Official!

The paperwork has been signed and sent FedEx to Holt International. Here is a picture the notary took of us once we had finished signing everything. You can also view pictures of Kaden's nursery at http://www.dropshots.com/starwarsfans. I sent an e-mail with the password to everyone on my list earlier, but if you don't know the password, send me an e-mail at rat898@juno.com.

The Story of Our Referral

ETA: Unfortunately, Blogger's audio posts did not last. So, we've lost the story of our referral on recording. But, basically I came home after a long, hot day at work, pulled my hair out of a soggy bun, and laid down on the couch. I heard a strange sound in the distance. I finally realized it was my cell phone. Since we bought it specifically so I could be contacted anywhere, anytime, I KNEW it was our referral call! Sure enough, it was!

I couldn't hear Judy very well, so I just kept repeating, "Call our home number." A few minutes later, she called back. She said she was looking at a picture on her computer at that moment. There was no other information. We didn't know whether the baby was a boy or girl (though figured boy because of the long wait for a girl), birthdate, or any other information. All she had was an e-mail with a picture attached that said, "Referral for the Oren family."

I immediately called Ryan and told him to get out of the tractor and to Mom & Dad's house ASAP. I was itching to go to there house (no internet at ours) and see the photos, but knew I should wait for him. When we got there, Tim was on the computer. I screamed at him to get off and then thrust the camera in his hands so he could video our reaction seeing our baby for the first time. Unfortunately, he videotaped the computer screen instead of us, but you could hear the excitement in our voices.

We opened the e-mail and saw the cutest baby on the planet. We were over the moon. Then we waited another full hour before getting the information we'd been waiting for. It was a boy! and he was born May 10, 2006.

IT'S A BOY!!!!!

It is with the greatest pleasure that I announce to you the referral of Kaden Glenn. He was born on May 10, 2006 and was 8 lbs, 6 oz. & 20 inches.

Thank you everyone for your prayers - they have definitely been felt. It's amazing how the years of hoping and dreaming of parenthood just vanished the second I laid eyes on this beautiful face!

It's been a rough week!

Well, we've reached the end of the week and still no referral. I was really hoping we'd get it before Father's Day. What's even more frustrating is that another couple with our same agency got their referral this week and their homestudy didn't go to Korea until mid-December. Ours went November 4! Our social worker didn't really give much of an explaination for this.

On top of all that, I had a run-in with a snake last night. Those of you who know me really well, know that I am TERRIFIED of snakes! I met up with it as I was walking down to Mom & Dad's house at dusk. I thought it was a large stick, went to kick it, and it wriggled across my foot. I then screamed and ran as fast as I could all the way to Mom & Dad's. I think I was in shock for awhile or had a panic attack, because it took them awhile to calm me down and get me to stop shaking.

Finally, this has been a rough week because I haven't felt well. I went to the doctor on Tuesday and discovered I had two infections. I then spent a lot of money on prescriptions, only to have 1 of them cause an allergic reaction. My hand has been numb and tingling for over 12 hours now.

So, in short, I'm ill and frustrated. I would really appreciate your prayers over the next few days. I know I need to trust that God is in control and has a perfect plan, but I'm having hard time doing that right now.

I appreciate all of you and your support.

Love,
Me

Positive Adoption Language

Well, another week of June has come and gone with no referral. I am still hoping that we will get our call before Father's Day!

In the meantime, I thought I would add this link for all of you to read. It gives a list of positive ways to refer to adoption. Since most of you will be related in some way, I thought it would be good for you review this list of adoption affirming phrases and terms.

http://www.holtintl.org/adoption/language.shtml

Mandy is a married woman!

For those of you on the Kearns side of the family, here is a video I made from a few clips of Zeke & Mandy's wedding. You can view more video clips and pictures from the wedding by going to DropShots. You can also view the professional photographer's pictures at http://www.aPhotoOp.com.


Video Hosting - Upload Video - Video Sharing

Check out my scrapbook pages....

I have started a hobby of digital scrapbooking. You can check out my creations so far by clicking on the link to the right. In the future, I plan to have a site of family photos and another of home videos to share with everyone. I have also added a link to the Holt Adoption Web Forum. This forum has been invaluable to me. It is a great resource for learning more about international adoption.

It could be any day now!

I have created this blog to keep all our friends and family up-to-date on our road to parenthood! Every time the phone rings, we jump, hoping it will be the phone call that is going to change our lives forever.

We are the #1 waiters in our branch of the Holt agency and I believe we are #6 in the overall list of people waiting with Holt. So, any day now we should be getting a phone call letting us know that a FedEx package is in the mail. That long sought package will contain the picture and details about our precious baby. We've waited so long, but the wait is almost over!

I'll try to post at least once a week to keep you up-to-date. After the baby is here, I will be sure to frequently post and add pictures so you can all watch him/her grow and be a part of his/her life. Have a great day!