Water Fun

This weekend was hot, hot, hot! Jake really enjoyed playing in the sprinkler and with the hose all weekend at our house. He loved swimming in Mimi and Papa's pool, so I'm sure we will be visiting them a lot this summer. Here he is sporting some cute swim trunks and showing off his rockin new haircut.

Updates

Wow, May has been a crazy month, full of ups and downs. We've gotten very good news, and bad news as well.
Jake was supposed to have open-heart surgery to repair a hole in his heart on May 26. It was determined a year ago that he would have to have the surgery, and they wanted to wait until he was a little bigger to do it. So, we saw his cardiologist at Children's hospital in April, and made the surgery for May 26. On May 25 Brian, Jake, and I all went in to the hospital for a pre-op appointment. Jake had has blood drawn, they took a chest x-ray, and we talked to numberous doctors for over 5 hours. We find out during the appointment that it was possible that Jake would not have his surgery tomorrow because there was an emergency case of a baby. We went home to wait on the call, and it turns out that his surgery was postponed because a day-old baby needed emergency heart surgery. I understood why it was happening, and certainly feel a lot of compassion for the baby, but it was very frustrating and depressing knowing that we would have to wait another 2 months for his surgery. The surgery is almost hanging over our heads, and we worry about him constantly. At first, I couldn't bear the thought of going through another 2 months of the waiting, but I'm getting used to the idea. We just keep praying and praying that his heart stays strong and that the surgery goes OK in July.
While worrying about Jake and his heart surgery, we got the great news that Evie was going to come home on May 17. It was such a relief that have a date on when she's coming home! Two weeks prior, we heard that she was probably going to come in early June, but at this date we got official word that she was coming home. Then we had to decide whether to go and get her, or have a social worker escort her home. I wanted one of us to visit Korea and see the country where she was born, and I also wanted us to be the first ones to bond with her instead of having the social worker do it. She's going to go from her foster mother to us, which I think will make for a better transition. It might not have made a difference either way, but I wanted one of us to be the ones to comfort her on the airplane. I have more vacation time than Brian and have a little more experience traveling, so we decided that it would be me to go to Korea. I had originally planned to go by myself, but after Jake's surgery was canceled, my mom stepped up and said that she would go with me. I'm thrilled to have a travel companion to share this special trip with! We get back to the States with baby Evie on May 10 late at night. I will be sure to post lots of pictures at some point.
Thanks to all my wonderful friends and family for their ongoing support, love, and prayers for our family. Everything seems to be happening at once, but we will get through it and have great times in the future. I can't wait until Evie is home and Jake is through his surgery and is well.

New pictures of Evie!

The first smiling picture we've gotten!
Evie with her foster mother.

sleeping

The week we received some pictures of Evie that were taken by an adoptive mother who was in Korea to pick up her son, who stayed in the same foster home as Evie. The foster mother brought this little boy, Joel to the agency for his mother, and brought Evie as well. Joel's mother is named Beth, and by chance, she lives in West Chester. We plan to get the kids together again once Evie comes home. Beth and Joel came home about 2 months ago, and she reported to me that Joel is doing well. She also said that Evie is very cute and was smiley with her foster mother and giggled and blew rasberries. We can't wait to see her for ourselves! No news yet on when she's coming home, but I will post it when I know.

Easter 2011

Getting pysched for his first egg hunt of the weekend by wearing his basket on his head.
Hunting for eggs at Aunt Becky's church with her help.
Have to check everywhere.
Jake and cousin Clarke show off their loot after the egg hunt.
Hunting for eggs on Easter Sunday with help from Papa.
Trying to eat the candy with the wrapper still on. We encourage him to move on and get more eggs before trying the candy.
Sitting with his second-cousin Maya (while still trying to eat the candy through the wrapper).
Jake and a group of his second-cousins.


So, we went to Somerset last weekend for Easter and visited with Brian's family. Besides visiting with family, Jake went on 3 Easter egg hunts. Yeah, he got a TON of candy. The first one was the day before Easter at Aunt Becky and Uncle Dale's church. There weren't that many kids that came, so Jake really hauled it in at that one. He is so motivated by candy that he really worked to get the eggs and get to the "yummy treat" inside. The second egg hunt was later that night after dinner at Mama and Papa's house with cousin Clarke. We did it separately, so Jake could get some practice in before the big egg hunt tomorrow with all the second-cousins. Easter Sunday Jake woke up to get a basket of candy from the Easter bunny and some fun sand toys. We then all went to church, and then to Brian's Aunt Della's house for a huge family meal. There were a ton of people there-we counted 58. And we all pigged out on the massive amount of food that everyone brought. I ate so much food that I didn't even have to eat dinner that night. After lunch, there was the final big Easter egg hunt. Jake got to hunt in the little kid's area with his second-cousin Maya who is also 2. Papa helped him while the rest of us cheered him on. He stopped hunting after getting an egg to check what was inside and even tried to eat the candy through the wrappers. But it was a very successful hunt and he had a good time.