Look what I got for $50!

These are most of the things I got at the outlet mall last week! All these things for only $50. I also got a couple pairs of adorable shoes for $2.99 each and two pairs of boys tennis shoes for my little guys for the same price!

Today was a great day! First, the boys and I hit the outlet mall and found bargains galore. Children's Place had crazy amounts of clothes and shoes for only $2.99. I think Claire has just about all she needs after the sales I got today. It was a blast getting such great prices.

Then when I got home we called and found out that we have NVC in and NVC out as of today. This means that our I-600 was logged in in the US and has now been sent to Seoul, South Korea. One more step in the process that we have gotten through. We are VERY excited!!

I am currently adding some new photos to my blog so check back in the coming days. I also going to add some that are sewing project pictures from my www.ItsSewChic.com buisness!

Waiting for Claire!

So, it has been brought to my attention, as it should have, that I am way behind in posting to this blog. Life is a little hectic with three boys and our little girl on the way. Today, however, I am making time to update everyone about out lives and what is happening with little Claire over in Korea. By the way- we finally picked a name for our daughter. She will be Claire Liliana Se-ra.

After receiving Claire's referral, it took a little over a month to get her legals (essentially all her background history that the USCIS needs to approve her to come to our country). I was bummed that it took so long but was relieved that we finally had it. These papers allowed us to file the I-600 form with USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) allowing us to bring Claire home. It was just another step in the process and I was anxious to get it done. I new that once we submitted it, it could take weeks to get the approval.

Chad dropped off the form to the USCIS office in Des Moines on 6/19. This last week on 6/25 the official approval letter was in our mailbox. The date on the paper said it was approved on the 19th, only one day after we submitted it! What a blessing - something going very quickly in the process. I just have to remember not to get too excited and expect this to happen with all of the other things we are waiting on.

As of right now, we have done all the paper filling out that we will need to do. It is just a matter of waiting for all the paperwork in Korea to go through. I am still hopeful that it could happen sometime in August maybe September.

We sent Claire a care package a few weeks ago and we are hoping that maybe we will get an updated picture of her with everything we sent. I am dying to know what she looks like now since we only have a picture of her at a few weeks old. I am so curious if she has hair! It is nice that each month we get well baby checks (much like the monthly checkups for babies here in the U.S.) letting us know how tall she is, how much she weighs, how she is doing developmentally and what vaccinations she has gotten.

I am going to try and up date things on a more regular basis as we hear more.

God's timing is always perfect!

Last night I was working on sewing one of my pillowcases dresses for a customer when the phone rang. Hunter answered it before I got to it and said he wasn't sure who it was. I said hello and it was our social worker. I figured she was just wanting to check in and make sure everything was going good for us. Instead she started to tell me that there was a little girl that they were wondering if we would be interested in. My heart stopped for a second. Was this really happening? It couldn't be, we thought with the way things were going for referrals of little girls in Korea, it would be a least a few more months before this call would come. Yet, God had different plans because his timing his always prefect!

I personally had always felt that when the time came for us to receive this call, it would be "the" child because it was the one that God had guided the individuals at Holt to select for our family. There were a few minor issues such as her being born early and having jaundice for a while at birth but right now she is perfectly healthy. How could I say no to the daughter God had placed in our hands? I hadn't even seen her picture but I felt 100% sure that we should accept the referral.

Wednesday rolled around and we gave the social worker a call requesting a copy of the info she had given me verbally the night before over the phone . Chad and I opened the email and saw the pictures of our beautiful daughter. It was surreal! I was thrilled and couldn't wait to call the sw and let her know we would accept the referral. Chad was excited too but wanted to make sure everything was good by thoroughly reading through her file that day.

At about 2:40pm we made the official decision and I made a phone call to our sw. We accepted the referral and we couldn't be happier!

We are now waiting for all the paper to arrive via FedEx Thursday, Friday but hopefully before Tuesday. God is so good!!!