The Beginning...

I wish I could post that we are now beginning our lives with sweet Ty Ty, but instead I have to post that this is going to be the beginning of the long, long process of getting him home.  On Tuesday we got an email from the adoption agency in Korea, Holt Christian Services, explaining that the Korean goverement is starting the process of limiting the number of children they let out of the country each year.  Essentially, they don't want to be one of the top exporters of children, not a good record to hold.  Anyway, what we are waiting for is Ministry Approval from the Korean government and they have said that they are pretty close to stopping any more approvals this year...UGH!  I immediatly called our caseworker who counseled me a little and then got in contact with the international coordinator at Bethany.  She called her contact to find out how close we were to getting approval.  Here is what she found out:  1.  We have not yet been submitted to the Ministry for approval but at so very close.  The group that was last submitted was from March and we are in the group from the first week of April...oh so close!  2.  She will know in the next few weeks if we will be submitted this year, which means Ty comes home this year.  3.  If the verdict is that we will not be submitted for this year due to the cut-off then Ty won't come home until after January...:(

The reality is we have no control over this process so we are trying to stay sane and postive.  The hard part is not that we have to wait an additional 4 months or so, it is that Ty will be coming to us at 1 1/2 years of age instead of closer to 1 and that his adjustment will be a much harder process.  I find myself not thinking about what I want but instead what is best for him...oh I really am his mother!!!   The last few days I have been watching kids who are around his age, or the age he will be when he comes to us, and I have realized how attached kids this age are to their parents, especially their mother.  It breaks my heart to think that we will be taking him away from the only mother he knows, his foster mother.  All the documentation we get tells us how attached to her he is, which is good but only makes it harder to think about taking him away from her.  Why is this process so painstakingly hard?!?  I can't wait for a few years from now when all this is a distant memory.  I know it will be because it happened with Libby.  I remember asking one of the parents in the hospital who had a preemie as critical as Libby if you ever forget all this, she said , "Yup, in time it all becomes a distant memory."  What I have come to realize is that if hard expereinces didn't fade, we wouldn't rebound to do things again. 

I'll keep you posted as I hear from Bethany about where we stand.  Prayers might help right now, so if you have any good ones send them our way. 

Here are a few pictures of Libby and my dad on Father's Day... next year Ty will be with them!