white christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

What an amazing and wonderful snowy Christmas 2009 has been...and the snow keeps coming!

We started the holiday off Christmas Eve by passing another milestone in the adoption process - we mailed our I-600A application to the Department of Homeland Security U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Ever since the beginning of our adoption process we have noticed there have been some coincidences of reaching significant adoption process milestones on some already mighty special days (submitted the Adoption Registration Form on Damon's birthday; had our decision to adopt reaffirmed through numerous "signs" on Drew's birthday; submitted our application Labor Day - an anniversary of the day Damon proposed; went to our Pre-Adoption Class on our wedding anniversary; and had out last Home Study visit with the social worker on my birthday). So, why not submit the paperwork to the USCIS on Christmas Eve?! I just cannot wait to see what special day we receive our referral for K2...and then the day when we finally get to bring K2 home.

Christmas Eve we also attended the Children's Mass at St. Michael. Drew just loved it. He really enjoyed the children's choir...and I would not be surprised if he's up there singing in a few years. He LOVES to sing...and make up he own songs. Such talent this little dude has!

Drew woke up at a reasonable hour Christmas morning (6:45a) and enjoyed tearing open all his gifts. Santa must have thought he had been a good boy this year because he did get the Batman Cave he really wanted. After all the gifts were opened, we headed outside to enjoy all the snow and had fun sledding and making snowballs (and snowblowing over and over).

Tomorrow we leave for Detroit and are looking forward to a great time with family and friends!

(and Vernor's, Buddy's pizza, mom's Christmas dinner, a Whalers game, a slew of date nights....)

Hope you all enjoyed the magic and joy of the day as much as we did.

Merry Christmas!

K2

In the years that we were trying to have Drew, while everyone else we knew was having kids, we would affectionately and jokingly refer to our imaginary children as I.D./I.S. - as in Invisible Daughter/Invisible Son. When we found out we were pregnant with Drew, it was an especially happy and special time for us. "Special K" was how we referred to Drew before he made his grand entrance into the world. A Special Kid; a Special Krekelberg.

So, here we are preparing for our next child. For awhile we assumed that if we were to adopt from Korea, a girl would be placed with us since we already had a boy in the home. So, we had been test driving a few "pre-placement" names...my personal favorite being "Raspberry Jam" (the color of the paint chip I already have picked out if we do add a daughter to our family). But, we have since learned that we are able to have either a girl or a boy placed with us - and we have decided "not to find out" by indicating in our paperwork that we are open to either gender.

In the end, the nickname K2 has stuck. "Kid Two". "Krekelberg Too." Definitely no less special, but definitely the second kid we've always wanted.

13.1~2:04~36~almost there

It has been an extremely busy past ten days...fun and very exciting!

My half marathon in Las Vegas went better than imagined (despite the cold weather). Over 27,000 people ran either the full or half marathon and I managed to finish the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 4 minutes (and 24 seconds). Amazingly, the time I clocked on my watch was the exact official time. As I ran by the mile markers, I kept thinking that I must have pushed the start button on the watch way too late - there was NO WAY I could be that "fast". But, I was. And it was an amazing feeling crossing the finish line more than 10 minutes faster than I had hoped. The only thing that could have made it better would have been to have Damon and Drew there to celebrate with me right away. Next time (I have to break the 2 hour mark, right?)!

This past Friday was my 36th birthday and Damon, Drew & I were more than happy to share some birthday brownies with Hannah as we finished up our Home Study at our house! Drew was totally awesome during the three hour visit...he played independently, was respectful and polite, and eagerly offered to take Hannah on a tour of the house - complete with "Follow Me!" Not many days go by that I am not proud of him. But, on my 36th birthday I was especially proud of our little Drew-man!!

We completed and passed the Home Study interview process! Damon and I thought this round of questioning was much "easier" to answer...who knows why. Maybe because even though a lot of the questions were about some heavy topics like potential attachment issues, how and when our child will feel and express grief and loss, and racism...we know we are gaining confidence in these areas through the books we've been reading and being able to connect with others that can share their experiences. And, as it should be when expanding a family, we are full of excitement, hope, pride, and joy. With all those feelings, it is easy to talk about the future and and how as parents we will do whatever it takes to always be the number one supporter of our children.

So, now we wait for the official report to be written for the USCIS. Hannah expects she will have it competed for our review within three or four weeks. By the New Year would be a great Christmas present. Our fingers are crossed. We also have some USCIS paperwork to work on in the meantime to help make us feel a little more "in control" of the process.

To further prepare for our expanding family, Damon has been going above and beyond to find the perfect family vehicle for us. Researching...test driving...compromising...wheeling-n-dealing...he's been incredible (driving me crazy at times, but always incredible). And, on Saturday we picked up our totally awesome new GMC Acadia! It is really beyond amazing and I look forward to daily trips to the grocery store, school, sports practices and a slew of great family road trips in it ~ and especially so when we are finally a family of four.

Until next time...stay warm and enjoy the spirit of the holiday season!

Home Study: Take 1

We took another step towards "Waiting" on Monday! It's Home Study time...which is basically a big, fancy report written by a social worker that deems us ready/acceptable for adoption by the government.

To complete the Home Study, we already wrote and submitted "self studies" - a ten page paper from both Damon & I that describes ourselves, our spouse, Drew, our extended families, our childhood, our support system, our experiences with multiculturalism, and our plans for incorporating our child's Korean heritage into our lives. Once these documents were submitted (Drew and I handed delivered them to St. Paul in hopes of speeding up the process) we could be assigned a social worker and begin meeting with her to complete the Home Study.

Damon and I were very happy to learn that we had been assigned to Hannah - the same social worker that facilitated our small group sessions during our two-day Pre-Adoption Class in October. For us it just made us feel that much more comfortable knowing we had already met and knew each other. Hannah will see us though the entire adoption process...including being the one who will make "The Call" to let us know that there is a baby for us (a "referral").

We spent four long hours with Hannah on Monday answering a slew of questions about ourselves, our families, our marriage, and our parenting styles. While I am sure there are no "right or wrong" answers, I have been doing a bit or second guessing about some of my responses (seriously - how would you answer if asked what you'd change about yourself? and how would that answer be interpreted by a social worker?) But, as Damon pointed out, this Home Study is as much (if not more) for us than it is for the government. It is reminding us of our strengths as individuals, as a couple, and as a family. It is helping us identify and understand our shortcomings and learn ways to strengthen them. Ultimately, through this process we will be a better spouse/parent/child/neighbor/friend.

Home Study: Take 2 will happen here at our home on my birthday, December 11th. Hannah will get to meet Drew (hopefully it will be a day that he doesn't want a different mommy or daddy), "inspect" the house to make sure it's suitable for another child, and we'll talk more about parenting and becoming a multicultural family. We will also eat cake - on Monday we learned that Hannah loves chocolate, so we'll have some chocolate birthday cake on hand to make the three hours a little less stressful.

Once we are done on the 11th, Hannah will write up the report for our review, submit it to the USCIS and we can declare ourselves officially waiting!

I am off to Las Vegas on Friday...for some fun, relaxation, and accomplishment (all while missing Damon & Drew, of course - it's my first time away from Drew for four days!!). I am going with my lovely sister-in-law and dearest friend to run the Rock-n-Roll half marathon on Sunday. Best of luck to us!!!

Until next time...lots of love!

Giving Thanks

I am truly amazed and blessed by all the enthusiastic and supportive messages and comments about our growing family! Damon, Drew and I are so thankful to have such wonderful friends and family. Having all of you by our side truly makes this journey that much easier and oh so much more fun! Thank you.

We started Thanksgiving 2009 at the Rogers Activity Center for a special Open Skate with the Rogers H.S. hockey team. It has been all Drew has been taking about for the past two weeks since we learned about the event. And, the event certainly did not disappoint!! Drew had a blast skating with three players in particular - Andy, Joe, and Nick. They were so great with Drew and we cannot wait to cheer them on throughout the season.

After our time on the ice, we went home and baked a delicious homemade pie to take to Thanksgiving dinner at "Auntie Jo-Jo's House". It was a lovely meal and Drew really enjoyed playing with his cousins! From there we went and spent some good quality time with good friends...and ate more yummy pie. It was a wonderful day!!
We hope that you too had a great Thanksgiving!

Around the rink with Andy & Joe

Drew with Nick & Andy after winning Water Park passes

Skating solo from Andy to Nick

Ready set go....

Here it is...post number one. Never in a million years would l ever have thought I would have a blog! But, as our journey to expand our family continues to unfold, it really does make sense...especially with friends and family all over the country. This will be a great place for us to chronicle the process and share all the excitement with family and friends. As well as, provide a glimpse into the daily joys of the Krekelberg household!

We are so happy to announce that we are adopting from Korea!

Patience, love and faith have led us to this decision...and we couldn't be more excited! You could say we started the official process in August. We've accomplished a lot in three months (decided on an agency, submitted a registration form, completed a long two-part application, sought three references, partook in fingerprinting take-one, attended a two-day Pre-Adoption Class, and wrote and submitted our very detailed self-studies). Over the next three weeks we will be meeting with our social worker, who will in turn write up a nice report for us called a Home Study, so we can get fingerprinted again (for the USCIS) and finally be "Officially Waiting" (by the New Year would be awesome!). So right now, we are technically just in a "waiting to wait" period. We are finding this is a period where you are so happy, anxious, and excited...but it's also a period where you don't really know what you should be doing to prepare or who you should be telling the exciting news to. Much like those first months of pregnancy...only without the morning sickness to remind you daily that "you're expecting".

We have learned, and are continuing to learn, a lot about both adoption and Korea. We hope that our friends and family will share in the excitement of our journey and learn with us along the way. If there is anything you want to know or are curious about - please let us know and we can discover together.

Some "fun" facts:

• Once we are "officially waiting", we are prepared to wait up to nine months to be introduced (via pictures and records) to our son or daughter...and up to another six months before we travel to Korea to bring him/her home.
• Our child will be around 12 months when he/she joins our family.
• Minnesota is home to the largest population of Korean adoptees.
• Drew is going to be a great big brother!!!

Until next time...lots of love!