It is official!

Verbally we accepted our match with Minjoo on Thursday, however, we mailed off all of the legal forms starting the process to bring Isabella home this morning.  They should be in Korea by tomorrow afternoon.  Financially, we still need $15,020 to pay for the adoption.  Pray for us, this is a huge need. 

Since Wednesday, we have been on such an emotional rollercoaster to say the least, luckily, it has been mostly for good.  We have had a few negative moments with negative comments, we know that this is a spiritual attack on our family to steal our joy in this moment.  We know that Isabella is coming to her forever family and that God has placed her here for a purpose that only he knows.  We are simply being obedient to his call on our family and taking one of his blessed children on as our own. 

On the home front, we have moved both boys in the same room and my mom will begin painting Isabella’s room next week.  That is if I can get Noah’s old room cleaned out.  This is a huge task, he is a boy!  I found the body of an old hermit crab that died several months ago neatly packed away in a box.  YUCK!!!  Poor Noah, he did not want to part with him, maybe her, I do not know!  

We are also trying to decide on a middle name.  So far we have Isabella Minjoo, those names are certain.  We like unique names that you do not hear everyday (I think that Minjoo covers that!) I also love the idea of expressing our journey through her name.  I am not creative, so the only thing that I can come up with is Isabella Minjoo Faith.  If you know of any good names, let us know.   

Lastly, I want to thank each and every one of you.  We have definitely felt all of your thoughts and prayers over the past several months.  God has a perfect plan for each one of us.  He is going to use Minjoo for great things and you have helped make that possible.

Thank you, Tiffany and Dominic

Isabella Minjoo Moro

WOW, amazing!!  Our original wait time to receive a referral from South Korea was 4-6 months, this would be late January.  Well I got a call this morning letting me know that the adoption agency had a referral for us.  Needless to say, we are very excited.  Our  pediatrician has looked over her records and we are waiting for our cardiologist to give us the okay.  After that we will accept and she will arrive in 3-4 months. 

Her birthdate is April 21, 2009.  She has a few medical issues that will need to be checked into when she arrives, but nothing too big.  She has had heart surgery to repair a heart defect and will need to be followed by a cardiologist after arrival and she has a small tongue issue that will need to be surgically repaired after arrival.

We need your prayers now more than ever.  This is MUCH quicker than we anticipated.  We will need to send in the remainder of our balance tomorrow when we accept our referral.   The balance is $22,900, currently we have $3,200.  This is a huge need, so keep us in your prayers.    

To view Isabella’s picture go to www.faithfullyadopting.com, then go to the page titled our little girl.

www.justlovecoffee.com/moro

Just love coffee is a great adoption fundraiser that we are excited to be a part of.  Our storefront is now up and running so check it out at http://www.justlovecoffee.com/moro.  This is a wonderful fundraiser for us, so if you like coffee, check it out.  Please also pass it along to anyone else that you know.

Cakes anyone?

We are baking cakes to raise money for our adoption.  Those of you who are frightened, it is really just Tiffany who is doing the baking!  If you need a cake for the holidays or just because, let me know.  I am baking pumpkin rolls, red velvet cake, carrot cake, caramel cake, apple pound cake, orange juice cake, chocolate chip pound cake and cheesecake.  We have already raised a lot of money with the cakes, so thank you to all who have placed orders.  Email me at tiffanymoro@hotmail.com if you would like one.

Okay, so adoption is not your thing? I get that!

Please prayerfully consider a short term hosting opportunity of a lost orphan child for three weeks this Christmas. For more information visit www.lovedalready.blogspot.com or contact Steve at sjeimers@yahoo.com.

Our homestudy is off…

Our homestudy was mailed off to Korea on Thursday.  Whoa!!! Now, we wait.  From this point, we wait for an appointment with United States Homeland Security for fingerprinting.  This will give us clearance to accept a referral when the time comes.  We have been told that we can expect 4-5 months to receive a referral.  After acceptance of the referral it will be 3-4 months for travel.

A new prayer request is that when the time comes, Korea will present to us the child that God wants us to have.  We know that the child will have some sort of special medical needs, pray for these as well.

Tiffany

What a great sale!

We have just wrapped up two great days of our adoption fundraiser yard sale. It was terrific! With the help of family, friends and total strangers we raised $1966!! We are so blessed to have so many great people in our lives. I want to thank everyone who helped us out, this could not have been possible without you. We even had two complete strangers who left and came back to give us $100 just to help out with the adoption. Thank you!!!!

Still no word on our homestudy. We are not sure if it is in Korea yet or not, we are hoping that it is. I will update when I have more.  If you have not visited our website, check it out, www.faithfullyadopting.com.

Our home study is approved!

Finally! Our home study is finally approved and in the mail to our agency Michigan. Once they receive the official paperwork, they will turn around and mail it to Korea. Hopefully we will have our referral by January then have our baby here by April.

Okay, I am frustrated!

Our home study has been with our placement agency, AIAA, now for over one month, no approval yet.  They just came back yesterday saying that we need more face to face interaction with our local social worker.  Okay, we can do this.  Here is the problem.  We are trying to apply for a grant through Show Hope and we need the official home study to apply, our deadline is quickly approaching.  Meanwhile, Luca turned 5 yesterday and Noah will turn 9 on Monday!  They are growing so fast.  Also, I accepted a part time job with our church to make some extra money for the adoption.   

Thanks for reading! 

-Tiffany

No news yet!

Do social workers really only work two days per week? Well ours does! It seems like we have been in this “holding pattern” of home study approval for so long. When will it end?? Dominic keeps reminding me that God has our little girl out there and He has perfect timing. I am trying to keep that in mind, but I am very impatient. What a way to teach patience than an International adoption!