Drew

I love this child. I love him more than my own life. Will I ever be able to tell him, show him how much love I carry for him in my heart? Will he know that there could never have been another child for me? The moment I saw his face he took my heart and made it his. He is my son. He is my blessing.

Psalm 2:7 I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”

Psalm 68:5 A father to the fatherless, defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families.

John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.

Adoption – accept, receive, welcome, embrace, take in to one’s family and raise as one’s own

November 2008

We celebrated Drew' s first birthday and Tol on 11-9. A Tol is a celebration for the babies once they reach the age of one. A long time ago babies did not make it to one so it was cause for a great celebration when they did. They get dressed in a traditional outfit (a hangbok) and their fathers walk them around a Tol Table where they select items that will dictate what they will be in life. For instance, scissors mean that he will be good with his hands and a spool of thread means he will have a long life. He did pick these items as well as a race car. That boy loves his cars!

Drew grows more and more each day and we love him so very much. What did we do before we loved him? He is the best decision we ever made.

He is still having separation anxiety panic attacks. So much so that day care is now not an option. I had to quit my job so I am now a stay at home mom. It's the best! I love taking him for walks and to feed the ducks. He cracks me up!

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. Drew basked in all the attention and ate really well. It was a great day...except for the turkey. Laurie and I hated the turkey...we prefer ours cooked!

October 2008

Drew's personality is now shining thru! He is very attached to his dad and me.

He has started saying "duck" and "good" although not all the time. He is getting more and more vocal.

We finally established a routine. It is actually the same schedule he was on in Korea-just a different time zone. He gets up around 8 and goes down for a nap between 11:30 and noon. He is up at 1:00 and back down for another hour at 5:00. This way he is up to see his daddy when he comes home around 7. He goes back to bed around 9:45-10:00.

We got his pictures taken at JCP on 10-16. They turned out great! Drew kept trying to crawl back to me but we did get some really nice shots.

The end of this month marked a change for Drew. He started having really bad panic attacks if he thought I was leaving him. He cries so hard he gags himself. Very sad. Laurie said he sounds like a wounded animal. My poor baby. Just gotta love him thru it.

We also discovered that Drew LOVES cars and trucks. He squeals when he sees them and gets very excited. Just like his daddy...

September 2008

The first few weeks Drew was still on Korea time. We had no schedule and I just had to nap whenever he did if I wanted any sleep at all. Richard had to go back to work but I was on my 12 week leave. We were up most mornings at 5. Even though I was drained I still look fondly back on those 5 am mornings...we would play in the living room with daddy dozing on the sofa before work.

We had Drew mostly on formula those days. He drank 8 oz every 3-4 hours. Getting him on US formula was expensive! We had to try so many just to find the one that would taste good to him as well as stay down. We donated a lot of formula to the food bank! We figured out that Gentleease was best for him.

He started crawling better in days and was pulling himself with help. He seemed to get more and more used to us.

I felt so blessed to be home with him. I was getting to see more and more of his personality. He is a funny little guy. He really is a good baby. He loves to be outside so we took a lot of walks.

Richard was falling so in love with him. I loved to watch the two of them together. All you had to do was look at Richard's face and you could see the love there as he looked at Drew.

We love you baby! We are so glad you are home.

The first few days

We arrived home at 1:30 am on 8-30-08. We were exhausted.

I'm sure Drew was scared and curious by his new surroundings. He was fine as long as we were playing with him but cried when we tried to get him to sleep. He and I played peek-a-boo on his bed at 3 am. He cried a lot and I called Laurie for advice. I really needed my mom. I missed her so much during those first days. He finally went to sleep at 8:30 in the morning which for him was 10:30 at night in Korea! He slept till 1:30 and then woke up for a few hours before napping on the love seat. Laurie (aka Nuna) and Katy (aka KiKi) came over about 5:30 to see him. He did well but kept wanting to hug and touch me (which I loved...he trusted and wanted ME!). Then we were up again till 8:30 the next morning! Being up all night is rough! I am not as young as I used to be.

We held him, rocked him, pushed him in his stroller and took turns laying down. Whew...it was rough. But so worth it!!!! That was our first weekend as a family of three. Which leads us to...

Better Late than Never...

Well, I should have started blogging about the adoption and my sweet baby boy along time ago but if you know me...you know I am always a little behind the times.

So, I guess I will go back to the beginning. On May 2, 2008 I found out I was a mama! The call came from Bobbie (our social worker) at a little after 11 am. I was at work and I could tell right away that she was excited. My heart started beating fast and then she told me "You have a son!". I was beyond thrilled and never managed to work again that day! Drew was born in S. Korea on 11-9-07.

So...fast forward to 8-25-08 at 10:00 am Korea time and Richard and I are sitting in the computer room at the guesthouse waiting to meet our little one. In walked his gracious, generous and wonderful foster mom with Drew on her hip. I jumped up and said hello in Korean (sounds like 'On Yo Ha Say Oh') and she put him in my arms. Besides my heart melting, I could tell this little baby was sick. I knew he was burning up with fever. His poor little face was so swollen, he had a very bad cold.

I held him, Richard held him and we fell even more in love with this boy. Our little Boo.

I will get you more up to speed tomorrow...