Yep, that's right. We have a son!! I wish I could post his pics on here, but I'm still unclear on whether or not it's okay for me to do that. I promise I will post pics if it's okay with our agency.
Before I give you the details on Ben (we are naming him Benjamin), I need to give you a little background on how this all came about. When we first began the adoption process last October, we chose Nepal as the country we wanted to adopt from. Then, that kind of fell through because of political instability in that country, so our agency let us switch to Thailand. However, they also let us put our names on the "waiting child" list in South Korea at the same time. Then, whichever country matched us with a child first would be the country we would adopt from.
The waiting child program in Korea is for children who aren't completely healthy when they are born. South Korea is extremely picky on what they consider completely healthy. If a child had low birth weight or was premature but otherwise healthy, they would go on Korea's "waiting child" list as opposed to their standard program. The good thing about the waiting child program is that prospective adoptive parents can choose exactly what conditions we are open to. We marked what conditions we would be open to on their form and really didn't think much of it after that. We weren't open to much. Just a few minor/correctable conditions. So, we really didn't think we'd ever be matched with a watiting child from Korea before we heard from Thailand.
Boy, we were wrong. Just 3-4 short months after we put our name on the list, we were contacted by our agency on June 12 and asked if we would review the file of a 6 month old baby boy from South Korea. After they told us a little about his medical "conditions" we agreed to look at his file. They emailed us a couple of pictures, along with a detailed doctor report for every month of his life after he was born.
We had a pediatrician in Omaha (who specializes in children that are adopted internationally) look at his file to get his opinion on his condition. The doctor had very positive things to say. Although Ben was born prematurely and had low birth weight, he has grown extremely well in the past few months and is currently in the 25-50 percentile in height & weight and was at a 5-6 month developmental level at is 6 month doctor visit. Wonderful news! Also, he has a minor thyroid condition that he is currently on medicine for, but the doctor said the condition he has is almost always temporary and most babies are completely weaned off the medication by the age of 1 year. Even if it turns out to be a life long condition (which is highly unlikely) he would just have to continue to take medication. No biggie. Well, after the doctor gave us his opinion, we quickly contacted our agency and said "YES"!!!!
We've had to wait to post this news until we had Ben's legal papers in hand. That is the point at which it's basically considered a "sure thing". Now, we just have to wait another 4 to 6 months and he will be home!! South Korea gives the option to either travel there or have an escort bring him over. We flip-flopped many times and it was a VERY difficult decision, but we decided to go the escort route. We would have loved to go to South Korea and meet Ben's foster parents (babies in South Korea don't live in orphanages, they live in foster homes). However, with all the instability with North Korea in recent months, we decided it best to have the escort bring Ben here.
So, that's the big news! We couldn't be more thrilled. I still don't think it has completely sunken in for either of us. It just doesn't seem real. We praise God for getting us through all these challenging years of trying to have kids. We prayed that He would join us with the child He has chosen for us and we are so thankful for His answered prayers. Also, we are so thankful for all of you...our family and friends...for supporting us and being there for us over the years. We are truly, truly blessed! We can't wait for Ben to come home and to introduce him to all of you!
I'll keep you updated as we know more.
Love,
Greg and Brooke
