We're going back!! - Day 1

Last Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, we got the news that our FINAL approval was issued from the Korean Family Court! This means the end of the paperwork process for the adoption and nothing stands in the way of our little boy joining our family, only a visa for emigration. We booked tickets in a flurry that day and chose the second of the 3 visa interview appointments listed for us, which was 9/18/18. This means Gotcha Day would be the day before, Sept. 17th, and we arrive the evening of the day before that!

Headed to Seoul via Seattle to bring our son home!

Today, eight days after receiving final approval, we are currently in Seattle en route back to Seoul. While it was hard to wait after getting to meet our little Stephen after coming home, mostly it has just been exciting. We got to see his little face that we had only seen in photos, glimpse his personality, and meet his precious foster family. We knew all along that there would be two trips involved, so it was not a surprise. In fact, we had been told that it would be 3-7 weeks before we'd return, and it was on the shorter end of that for which we are so thankful. It was also a very full month while we waited, with a baby shower given by friends from church to celebrate Stephen, the first month of school + home school, starting piano lessons, and the beginning of the fall soccer season, not to mention the house preparation for little Stephen.

My dear friend texted me today, praying for us to lay down our expectations and worries at the cross. Amen! Aren't unmet expectations the worst?!? But we know that God, who has begun a good work in us, his adopted children, will see it to completion, so this story is GOOD no matter how I may feel that it is going at any given moment or any given day. I feel a jumble of heart flutterings, including excitement, nervousness, happiness to finally bring him home, wondering how all the logistics of sleeping, airports, and plane rides will go...But I don't need to worry, even though I'm tempted, about "how it's all going to work out" because I know that it will be to God's glory. I always need to be reminded of it though, because I'm forgetful. So, I remind myself, and all of us, that God's stories in the lives of his children are amazing. I can rely on that expectation. He is our Rock and Redeemer.