Update: Part 2

Today marks one week that we've had Lola. I can't believe it! God has surely blessed us!

We were welcomed home at the Paducah airport by our family and friends and what a welcome it was!!!

 

 

 

Lola has been doing fantastic here at home. Henry and Charlie are completely smitten with her and she is equally as crazy about her brothers. To see the love they have for each other...for someone that they just met....that just gets to me like nothing else. How could you not see Gods love in that?

As far as adjusting Lola is doing great. We are no longer giving her formula (we are giving her whole milk now) AND we are only giving her one bottle/day  (as opposed to the 6/day she was getting). 

Here is how she is doing with sleep: Sunday night -she was up for four hours in the middle of the night crying inconsolably and it was tearing me up because nothing I did would calm her down. She ended up sleeping until noon that day because she was up so long during the night.

Monday night -she was up from about 1-2:15am but I was able to get her back down and she slept until 11am

Tuesday night -she slept all night!! 8:30-10:30pm and then went back down from 10:45pm-10am!!!! 

I put her down tonight at 9pm tonight and I'm hoping and praying for another good night. 

 This little girl has unified our family in so many ways. Sadly, we were unable to take the boys to Seoul with us. However, God blessed us by allowing our return to fall on spring break. As a result, we have been able to be home together as a family and the boys have been able to bond with Lola. Typically, I am a get up and go kind of girl who gets stir crazy very easily. I honestly thought the hardest part of adopting was going to be "cocooning", which basically means keeping your world very small, predictable, and simple for the adopted child. There is already so much new stuff for them to process, so going new places and meeting a bunch of new people continuously can be a sensory overload. A child is able to attach to new parents so much better when there is no one else around to bond with. For that reason, we have chosen to hang out at home for a while. We welcome visitors but just ask that you let us be the ones to hold, cuddle, soothe, and feed our daughter so that she understands that we are her parents. 

Anyhow, being at home has been wonderful. Although Casey has been working during the day, the boys have been home with me and we are starting to set up some consistent routines and that is very comforting to Lola. I am already seeing her start to attach to me. She reaches for me, wants me to comfort her, and even pooches her lips out wanting a kiss from me. 

Furthermore, our girl is eating like a champ. She will eat any and everything you feed her. Last night we gave her corn on the cob and she even tried to eat the cob!!! She bit off a chunk of it and got mad when we took it away from her. The girl is sassy!!!! 

This sweet and sassy little lady has found her way into our hearts and forever changed our lives. I thought there would never be an experience as incredible as the birth of my children and holding them in my arms for the very first time, BUT I was wrong. Lola's "gotcha day" was every bit as amazing! Furthermore, my love for Lola is equally as strong as it is for Henry and Charlie, who grew inside me for 10 months. Tell me....how can you not see Gods love in that??? God is sooo good!!!!

In conclusion, I want to say thank you to everyone. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for lifting us up. THANK YOU FOR PRAYING. I have been so humbled by all the incredibly kind words you've said to us. People have told us that they've been touched by us, touched by our story, and touched by Lola. To HIM be the glory for it all. South Korean pastor Lee Jong-Rak, founder of the "baby box" and inspiration of the film "The Drop Box" says this:

"Adoption is the closest human relationship that can resemble Gods love for us, and our precious adopted identity as Gods beloved children." While I will never fully grasp Gods love for us in this life, I think we've gotten a small glimpse of it. I long for heaven and life with our Heavenly Father when I can fully comprehend the depth of his beautiful and perfect love.

 

 

 
 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 

 

 

Update: Part 1

The last week has been a whirlwind, so I haven't had a chance to catch everyone up the remainder of our trip AND on our new life with Lola. I will be doing this in a two part series.... 

Part 1 (remainder of trip)

Here is a quick rundown on our last week:

Wednesday:

Gotcha Day = most incredible day ever

Thursday: 

Visa hearing at US Embassy=

Spent about 2.5 hours in a room with 11 other adoptive families in order to process the paperwork to get Lola home. It was a very laid back environment and fun to see all the other kids being adopted. Lola and our friends from TN were the only two girls....the rest were boys! Unfortunately, they took our phones, so I wasn't able to get any pictures at the actual embassy. 

After our visa hearing we took the subway to the IFC mall near our hotel and got some grub at the food court. We then headed back to the hotel for the night. 

Friday:

Our last day= "free day"

Lola tended to go to bed around 9pm each night and then sleep until 9:30am so Casey and I took turns at the breakfast buffet. We then headed to Times Square Mall where we picked up some essentials for Lola and some toys for the boys at E-Mart, which I would equate to a Super Target.

Casey and I were very impressed by their escalators. 

We met up with our TN friends for lunch at a Korean Bento Box restaurant and then spent the rest of the day at the Yeoido Park. It was truly a gorgeous day and the park was spectacular. Our girls enjoyed playing together and we cannot wait to meet up with our friends again soon. I already miss them! 

Saturday: departure day

Everyone has asked how the flight was so here goes. Imagine 3 flights. Imagine 24 hours of total travel time. Imagine 17 hours on airplanes. Imagine waiting in long boarding pass lines, long security lines, long immigration lines AND then a separate visa line for your daughter. Imagine having to check/claim and then recheck your bags at different airports. Then imagine doing this with a 19 month old. Next, imagine doing this with a 19 month, newly adopted child. 

Let's just put it this way. THANK THE LORD it is OVER. Lola did as good as anyone in her situation would likely do. She slept some but tossed and turned A TON and fussed as any 19 month old grieving child would. But we made it and we are all still in one piece, so I'd call that a win. And God did bless us with some wonderful play areas near our departure gates at each layover. Lola adores play!!! 

Part 2 (update on Life with Lola) to come....

Trip 2: Day 4- Gotcha Day

I'm sure by now most everyone has seen the sweet and joyous video of Lola. Yesterday was everything I dreamed it would be and more. My heart is so full it could literally burst right now. God is soooo good! 

We got to the agency yesterday at 4pm. Lola, Omma, and Appa, were all there waiting. She immediately wanted to play with us. But first, we had to sign and go over some paperwork as well as go through the bags Omma and the agency had prepared for us. Little miss busy body wanted to be right in the middle of it and we had to keep distracting her so she wouldn't tear up our papers for the embassy. She also kept trying to run out the door as we went through the bags of clothing, toys, diapers, formula, and then all the food Omma had made for her. It was the sweetest thing. Omma had made sticky rice, some sort of squid paste to put in the rice, soup, seaweed, beef jerky cut in strips, puffs, cups of water, and bottles. It was so so kind. After going through everything, it was time to leave. I handed foster mom a card with some pictures of Lola and her together. She opened it and then lost it. It was so so hard to watch. I asked the translator if they were going to say goodbye and she told me they would do so at the elevator. So we walked to the elevator and Omma was really really trying to be strong for Lola. They didn't hug her there because I think they knew that would be so terrible and hard for Lola. I embraced Omma thanking her profusely for all she had done and we both hugged and balled our eyes out. It was heart wrenching. Casey held Lola as we waved goodbye, rode down the elevator, and headed outside to the taxi. Lola was so distracted by all the commotion that she didn't cry at first. We played and looked out the window for the first 10 minutes. 

Then, she realized Omma and Appa were gone and she started balling. We held her and loved on her, but she was inconsolable for the next 45 minutes to the hotel. Even the taxi driver was being so kind and trying to console her, but nothing would do. It broke my heart but I knew this was to be expected and I would have been more concerned if she hadn't cried at all. I eventually distracted her with my makeup and she was good for the remaining 5 minutes. Why didn't I buy her some fake make up? She is so prissy and has already put every one of my makeup brushes in her mouth. She puts powder on her cheeks and then puts on Chapstick and smacks her lips. It's the cutest thing!

Once we got back to the hotel we played and explored the room. Lola ran around everywhere and climbed every last thing in our room. She is so busy! Truly she was meant to be our child. She will fit in perfect with her rowdy brothers. We also walked around the hotel some and went outside for a bit before we just decided it would be easier to order dominos than try to go someplace. We figured there was no way Lola would sit still long enough. 

We fed her some banana and sticky rice with squid paste for dinner but she didn't eat a ton. She did eat some of our pizza and really liked that. 

We gave her a bath, which she absolutely loved!!! She splashed prob 1/4 of the water out of the tub and thought it was hysterical. We put on jammies, attempted to read some books, and then fed her half her bottle. She didn't drink much of that either. Omma had told us that she hadn't pooped at all yesterday. Just before bed Lola pulled down her pants, squatted, and then started crying. Casey said she must be constipated. Poor baby. I picked her up in my arms and rocked her and she was asleep within minutes. I laid her in bed with us and she has slept all night, with the exception of waking up one time around 12:30am crying. I gave her a bottle, but again she only drank 1/4 of it. Omma has been giving her two bottles in the night but I really think it's a comfort thing and she doesn't really want the milk. We will try to replace that with something else once we get home and settled. (I'm sure all the dentists out there are having a cow!) Also we are going to try and wean her off the bottle and formula altogether soon because right now they say she is getting 6 bottles of formula a day. Wow! 

We will take it a step at a time.

Right now, it's 7:30am and our baby girl is still sleeping soundly. We are going to try and head down to the breakfast buffet and then we have our visa hearing at 1pm. Praying Lola wakes up happy and not scared about where she is. Thanks again for all the many prayers. We are feeling them.