hello, baby!

ahhh, home sweet home! :) as hard as it is to leave vacation, it's always nice to come home!

now that we're home, i want to post the latest update we got from korea about choi boy. it came while we were away via email and we got to share it right away with our family!

here are some recent pictures that our korea country relations manager, who was in korea for the last month, took during her meeting with choi boy's foster mom. he is too cute!

when i first opened this, my honest reaction was, "hmmm...he looks like a balding man or a little girl..." it was mostly because of his hair and his girly kitty cat outfit. see for yourself:
for some reason, the agency does not allow foster parents to cut the children's hair while the children are in their care. so, my little choi boy has rather long, flowing locks that won't be cut until he comes home. not sure if it's so the new parents can have the experience of the first haircut, or if they don't want to mess up the baby hair, or what, but it's kinda funny! choi boy's hair is pinned back with a barrette in these pictures (you can see it clearly in one of them) because his hair is otherwise in his face! maybe when we finally meet him, it'll be long enough to braid! heehee!

the update said that choi boy LOVES to eat! just like mommy and daddy! this is a direct quote from the written update: "when he sees the dinner table, he gets excited and wants to eat what everyone else is eating. he screams to ask for food." HAHA!!! he is going to fit right in with our family! :) he seems like he's growing well because of all his eating and weighed 19.7 pounds as of mid-june. i love that in half the pictures, he's holding this thing of snacks (you can see the barrette clearly in this picture):
as you can see, he's standing with help and the update said that he cruises quite well and can get to a standing position on his own.

see?
this picture reminds me of that commercial for those ridiculous faux-denim diapers (you know, "the coolest you'll look pooping your pants"?)

he's also crawling lots! i like to think this picture is blurry because he's moving so fast!

the update also told us that he sleeps well; doesn't have stranger anxiety (something i was really worried about); he likes to open drawers and explore his surrounding environment; he can say "umma" ("mommy" in korean) and "uhboobah" ("piggyback ride"); and he is altogether a happy and well-adjusted baby. yay! look at this smile!

we also got a new estimate on our timeline...although it's just an estimate, it looks as though choi boy won't be coming home until september, or more likely, october. :( part of the reason why the country relations manager was in korea was to inquire about the longer wait time that parents are having to endure. we should find out more information this week or next week, but as of now, it's looking like we still have a few more months ahead of us in our wait. boo.

our paperwork is pretty much just sitting and waiting in an office until it is our turn for everything to be sent to the korean ministry to have choi boy's travel documents prepared and issued. our agency is not sure what is causing the delays and the backlog of all the waiting documents. it's so hard because to the korean government, we are just a number and a file, but to us, this is our son!

but, there is nothing we can do, so we will continue to wait and pray...and until then, we'll look at our sweet boy's face and wait until we can hold that face in our hands. :)