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Mo,
We decided to adopt from Korea after really learning about the program from a social worker at our domestic agency. She mentioned that with Korea's program, the kids weren't in an institution but in a foster care program--one child per home and that the child could be escorted over (I'm deathly afraid to fly and was afraid that the child would pick up on my fears and have a harder time bonding with us). After we looked further into the Korea program and Korea itself we fell in love with it.
We made our decision on Mother's Day of 2004. We had the application in to our agency in mid August. We went through the homestudy process between mid August and Labor Day and had our son's referral one day before our 10th anniversary in mid September!! We accepted the referral after having our pediatrician review it a few days later.
Our son, Ryan, came to us April 14, 2005 and my delivery room was the JFK airport along with 3 other mommies. I "delivered" a nearly 20 pound, 10 1/2 month old healthy baby boy!! We could tell from the pictures that the foster family sent that he was well loved and we could tell that he was well taken care of.
My husband got a phone call from our adoption agency the morning of October 16, 2005. Ryan has a sister and they wanted to know if we wanted to adopt her as well. My husband called me from his cell phone in the car of his work's parking lot. My immediate answer through the tears was "yes". I had so many questions about her (her birthdate, her Korean name, her health and more).
When we finally got the referral we had our pediatrician review it. She's had quite a few health problems but that seems to have cleared up since she was placed in the same foster home that our son was. We know that she'll be well taken care of and loved just like our son was. And now we are just waiting for that phone call to go "deliver" our daughter and we're wondering which "hospital" we'll be delivering her at (she could come in one of three airports for us).
Ryan has his own picture from the referral picture that he carries around of his sister. He calls her "baby". He also has a copy of his own that he carries around as well.
Yes we'll have our hands full, particularly me since I'm a Stay at home mom, but we won't change that for the world to have these two beautiful children with us and share in their culture.
Jen
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