my name is kelly and my husband of 10 1/2 years is chris. we met the summer before our sophomore year at the university of colorado in boulder on a trip to chile with campus crusade. we started dating in september of 1998, got engaged in july of 1999 and were married in boulder in may of 2000.
we have had many adventures in our 10 1/2 years, one of the greatest being the journey to our daughter, briar grace dayeong. We knew that someday we would add to our family through adoption, but
our plans and timing were different than the plans god had for us. after 3+ years of trying to conceive a child and losing a baby to miscarriage, we began down the path that would lead us to our daughter.
in april 2007 while out for a manicure, my mom met a lady and her daughter, who had been adopted a daughter about five years previous from south korea (she was with her mom at the salon and my mom was just taken with her cuteness!). they got to talking and my mom told them that chris and i were thinking of adopting but weren't sure where from our through what adoption agency. she told my mom what adoption agency they had used to bring their daughter home and soon thereafter, my mom told us about her meeting with this woman. the rest is history, really. about two weeks after my mom met this woman and her daughter, chris and i looked on the agency's website and filled out an online pre-application. we received a formal application in the mail about a week later, filled it out and called the agency about coming to an information meeting. we went to that meeting on april 25, 2007 and after a short meeting at our house with the director of the korea program on may 2, we were placed on the waiting list for a daughter. our journey had officially begun.
after 1 year, 2 months and 10 days, on july 12, 2008, we received the news we had waited so long for--we had a daughter!!! i was driving back from a very early morning in longmont to watch my grandma take her first hot air balloon ride (it never did get off the ground because of wind!) and chris was out getting wood chips with his stepmom for a landscaping project we were helping them with when "the call" came in to my cell phone. kim da yeong was born on januray 9, 2008, weighing 5 lb, 1 oz. and she was healthy and thriving with her foster family in seoul. i quickly called chris to let him know the news and when i arrived back at his dad's house before chris did, i waited in agony so we could look at our daughter's picture for the first time together! it was worth the wait, and we were immediately in love and knew she was ours. this is the first picture we ever saw of her, taken when she was around 5 months old.
we decided to have her escorted to us rather than travel, but in september we received a call from our agency that briar's foster mother really wanted to meet us and asked if there was any way we could travel. we absolutely could not say no! our focus then shifted to going to korea instead of having briar brought to us. after five long months and a paperwork hiccup that set us back a couple months, we received the call that briar was ready to come home on december 10, 2008--two days shy of five months since we first saw her face and one day after she turned 11 months old. we quickly made our travel plans and left for seoul less than 24 hours after our travel call!
our trip to korea was a total dream and we are so incredibly thankful that we made the decision to go. we got to meet our girl for the first time
in korea, we saw the look of love for our daughter in briar's foster mother's eyes, we rode the subway in seoul, saw palaces, experienced the sights, smells and tastes of our daughter's country of birth. we are ever-grateful for that call we received and that mrs. park was brave enough to ask us to come. we will never forget our trip and meeting our daughter's foster mom and social worker was one of the most amazing, unforgettable experiences ever.
two flights (seoul-seattle, seattle-denver) and 12 hours later, chris, briar and i arrived home on december 17, 2008 to a large crowd of our family and friends at denver international airport. It was quite the party and we were so thankful to finally be back in denver--home at last!! the wait to bring Briar home was excruciating, but it was oh, so worth it to hold our girl and know she was finally in our arms.
briar has now been home 1 month shy of 2 years and is an incredibly funny, smart, inquisitive, loving almost 3 year old. we absolutely cannot imagine our lives without her. she fits in perfectly with our little family and is such a joy. we would not change anything about what we have gone through because it has brought us to this precious child.
