Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Today's Featured Children #2: Asher and Emi
We are the Snyder Family of Ohio. Our journey started almost 16 years ago when a mom and a child met and joined the dad in TN. Little did we know then the journey we were on! We never planned to have a large family, but the best laid plans are not always the things that happen. We are now working to bring home number 5!
We have been on a journey to add to our family since 2002 when I (mom) decided we needed one more. I knew we could love one more child and make one less orphan in the world. It took dad about 6 years to agree! Once he did we added a beautiful little boy to our family. He was a waiting child in So. Korea with some special needs. NOW… He is a happy, healthy, fun loving ball of energy and our son.
After Asher came home in April 2009 we felt complete. That was until we started seeing pictures of a little girl who really needed a family. She had been waiting for a couple years. Her needs we so great that not many people would want her. BUT you know what… we want her. We were told she would need life long care. We were told there were other healthier children waiting. We were told to reconsider. We couldn’t… she was our daughter and we WANT HER. Now we are waiting for her to come home from Korea. She is now 3 years old and a beautiful little angel. We cannot wait to meet her face to face. We expect her to be here in February of 2011.
What a journey of faith each of our children have been. We have been blessed by so many. My life is over flowing in gratefulness to all my new friends that have been praying for us.
You can read more of our story at our blog.
www.ourpromisedson.blogspot.com
(Asher and Emi were previously featured this month, but we wanted to share more of their family's story!)
Monday, November 29, 2010
Today's Featured Children #1: Cameron and Lucy
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Today's Featured Children #1: Calen and KatieJoy
Today's Featured Child #2: Grace
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Today's Featured Child #1: Nate
Today's Featured Child #2: Marius
Friday, November 26, 2010
Today's Featured Child #1: Ty
When I met my husband, he told me he wanted to marry someone who was open to adoption. Looking back, I find it hard to believe I had never considered adoption for myself. Anyway, we both got excited about the idea but agreed we would pursue adoption after completing our biological family.
Fast forward a few years and two biological children later. We were pretty sure we wanted more biological children but someone mentioned room-sharing restrictions for adoptive children. That was the first time we considered adopting before adding more biological children to our family. Because we already had biological children, we knew we wanted to adopt a child who was already waiting. We were willing to consider minor special needs and a child as old as our youngest. We first explored foster to adopt because of financial reasons (in our state there is no cost to adopt out of the foster care system). With two toddlers in the house, we decided this was not an option at that time. Then started the search into international adoption. The process was overwhelming at best. At the end we decided we were not financially ready to adopt internationally but we were getting excited about starting an adoption ministry to spread the word about the need for adoptive families and help to lower the costs involved.
God had other plans.
In April 2008 while researching on what ministries in our region were doing to further adoption, I came across a photolisting of waiting children. I gravitated toward the Korea page and forwarded it to Patrick at work. When he came home, we had both identified with this 1 ½ year old little boy was born severely prematurely, was at high risk for some serious issues, but seemed relatively healthy. He also had already been matched with a $5000 grant which helped ease our minds about some of the financial hurdles. We decided to see if we could get a little more information. What I didn’t realize is that you can’t just get a little more information; you get the entire file which only can be reviewed by one family at a time. Miraculously no one else had showed interest in his file and so 20 minutes after calling the agency, I had an electronic copy of his file and 2 weeks to decide if he was going to be the newest member of our family. Overwhelmed does not even begin to describe what were feeling, but we accepted after a lot of praying and a Hopkins medical review.
Figure 1 One of the first pictures we received
Because we hadn’t actively been pursuing adoption, we didn’t even have a homestudy. Our acceptance of Ty’s referral set in motion a whirlwind of meetings and paperwork.
Even though we had an identified adoption, we still hit some bumps along the way. About half way through, we found out we were not eligible for the grant that had originally lured us in the first place. Our immigration paperwork took an abnormally long time at our local USCIS office. The wait was excruciating but looking back it was a great time of spiritual growth for our family and God’s timing was perfect. We traveled exactly 365 days after first seeing Ty’s picture to pick him up from Korea.
Our trip was a family affair. Besides my husband and I, we took my mom, my husband’s mom, and both kids. We blogged about our trip at http://www.thecorkums.com/tag/korea/.
We were blessed with a pretty smooth adjustment as far as attachment goes. I will say that raising a child starting in toddlerhood has been one of the hardest and most humbling experiences of my life. But also one of the richest and most rewarding. If you’re doing it and finding it harder than you thought, don’t be a silent sufferer. Find a friend who understands. If you can’t, email me.
So now what? Over the past year, God has taught us so much about His heart for orphans and how He reveals Himself to those who care for them. I had no idea how limited my view of adoption was. Now I can truly say I am a proponent, not just for adoption, but for orphan care in the US and internationally. We’ve began the process of starting a non-profit called Grafted Families (www.graftedfamilies.com). Our goal is to encourage the church to understand God’s heart for the orphan, advocate for adoption, support and partner with other agencies, and support those families who are already on the journey. We’re still in the beginning stages but we’re seeing God do awesome things, and we’re excited to see where He takes us. Meanwhile, we’re busy keeping up with our three children who are now almost 4, 5, and 7. Ty’s making great progress, and we’re constantly amazed at how healthy he is considering his history.
Will we adopt again? We’d love to but really it’s up to God so stay tuned…
If you were touched by our story or would like to know more about Grafted Families, stop by our blog at www.thecorkums.com. Can’t wait to “meet” you!
Today's Featured Children #2: Ellis and Sumner
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Today's Featured Children: Charlie and Claire
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Today's Featured Children: Will and Clementine
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Today's Featured Children: Maya and Logan
Friday, November 19, 2010
Today's Featured Child: Isaac
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Today's Featured Child: Briar
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.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Today's Featured Child: Kyle
On September 9,2009 we received a phone call that would forever change our family. I will never forget that morning. Words cannot describe the joy we felt when we first laid eyes on Kyle Dong-min. Six and half months later on March 24, 2010 he was placed in our arms forever.
Our journey was long with many obstacles but now that Kyle is home with us, we couldn't imagine life without him. He has been such a blessing and was worth the wait!"
Blog: To read more about our adoption journey visit our blog: http://blessingsfromkorea.wordpress.com/
It is password protected, but we are willing to share our journey with adoptive families and families considering adoption. Just email me at blessingsfromkorea@fastmail.net and I will send you the password.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Today's Featured Children: Lillian and Louisa
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Today's Featured Child: Zoe
Zoe's brothers, anxiously awaiting her arrival!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Today's Featured Children: Camden and Rory
Friday, November 12, 2010
Today's Featured Children: Asher and Emi
Emi Faith HyoMin is waiting in South Korea to come home! She is 3 years old.
For more on this amazing family, please visit their blog at http://ourpromisedson.blogspot.com/
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Today's Featured Child: Rai
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