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(part two)
– we received a referral for baby #2!
The website is finally going to live up to its name ---
10 more toes are on the way!
first swimming lesson when my phone rang - it was the agency and they wanted to know what I was doing? Huh? So I told them
and then they wanted me to promise I wasn't driving...I looked at Sam sopping wet with his bathing suit half on, half off, shoving
the goldfish I used to bribe him to get into the pool with into his mouth..."definitely not driving". They said they wanted " a
meeting ASAP", meaning that day, and right away. Honestly, my mind was so far off from even thinking it could be a referral that
my first thought was "oh no, what glitch have we hit now?" and I told them I could come now with Sam, but they insisted on
meeting with both of us, without Sam. At this point I just wanted a hint of what was to come, so I asked if it needed to be today
figuring that would give me some kind of clue, but no luck, they repeated that they needed both of us, in person, ASAP. So in one
final attempt to break them down I asked "is it was good news or bad news?" "Oh its good, very good".... finally I got the hint and
freaked out!!! I begged them to tell me something, anything...but no, just that they had "really, really good news" and as soon as
we got there they would tell us everything.
I scrambled...thankfully Kevin was actually in town so I called him and he promptly picked up, told me he was on another call and
hung up on me. UGH, the nerve! So, I called him again and again leaving 'urgent' messages every time (he hates that) and redialing
the second I hung up. In between calls to Kevin, I called 'Miss Bef' and asked if Sammy could come, right now, for the rest of
the day and made up some random excuse why. Then I called school to calmly tell them I was NOT coming to work, and to just
anticipate that I would not be checking out of my room anytime soon - they definitely thought I was crazy - everyone else was so
anxious to get out of there and here I am acting like a squatter who had no intentions of ever leaving. Finally, Kevin called me
back, but I was in such a tizzy at that point, I told him (in what has been described as a high pitched/squealing, run on sentence
kind of way) to clear his schedule and come get me already we had a referral and we had to get the agency, now! - and hung up on
him. Ahh, sweet justice.
I raced home, packed Sammy's lunch and tried to act all cool and normal when I dropped him off at daycare. I felt like a spaz,
neurotic even, but no one seemed to notice, and it later occurred to me that either I am a really good at hiding my emotions or
I'm a little neurotic anyway and I should maybe worry about that - later. (zip it! peanut gallery!!!) I sped back home - again - and
decided there was no time for a shower, changed into something more presentable than a bathing suit and cover up, tried to mask
the chlorine perfume I was sporting and leapt out the door as soon as Kevin pulled into the driveway. The drive there seemed to
take forever but we finally made it only to find ourselves waiting. Okay, it was only ~about 20 minutes before they were ready
to meet with us but it seemed like forever! Soon, the assistant came out to tell us it wouldn't be much longer, and she said "You
are not going to believe how cute she is, the pictures are amazing and there are a lot of them" and then hurried away before we
had a chance to ask anything.
Wait a minute?!? Did she say "she"? Holy moley! (how do you spell moley?) It's a GIRL? A Girl!!! Keep in mind 4 out of 5 babies
adopted from Korea are boys (the exact opposite of China) and for baby #2, they allowed us to choose the sex. But, rather than
choose one sex or another, we replied "open" and so, assumed (and were told to expect) it would be another boy. So, we sat
there and debated whether or not she actually said "she or he" and if it was in fact a girl...what were we going to do with a girl? I
was thinking of all of Sammy's fabulous boy stuff and how none of it will be handed down and we will have to buy all new, girly
stuff (this is where Kevin suddenly came down with a chill so deep in his bones, he is still trying to recover).
When we were finally called into the office, they told us how surprised they were that our referral was so early (by months)
AND that it's a girl! In fact, they said that they were so surprised that they had called the agency in Korea to make sure this
referral was actually for us. Thankfully, Korea confirmed and said, "YES, she is definitely for the Angel's". After some
discussion they left us in the room by ourselves with her pictures and information. Of course we went right for the pictures and
all thoughts about her not being a boy were G-O-N-E. The pictures revealed this really pretty, tiny, peanut of a baby girl and she
was going to be ours. I can't tell you how surreal that moment was/is/always will be. Even though we went through it already
with Sammy, it is still unbelievable. Of course we read through her information but, by that point, it really didn't matter,
because once you have a face to connect with, there is no other decision other than yes - we want her. We already knew this was
indeed Sammy's sister.
On the way home, while attempting to talk through the initial shock, we agreed not to tell anyone until we had the medicals
reviewed and we officially accepted, no point in giving any false hope, so we'll just go on like 'normal'. Then we further conspired
that if the medicals come back clear and we accepted, that we wouldn't tell anyone until we were at the beach in two weeks so
we could tell my family in person and could make calls to Kevin's family. Since we didn't get to tell any of our family in person
when we got the news about Sammy, we thought we could have some fun with it this time around. Besides, two weeks is nothing,
right? So, Kevin dropped me off at home and I decided to go back to school and try to get some work done and close up my room
for the summer. I put the pictures in my bag telling myself it was just for safe keeping but deep down, I knew exactly what I
was going to do with them. When I arrived, I walked straight to Linda's room and instantly pulled out the pictures and told her
everything. Needless to say, I was going to burst if I didn't tell someone and Linda is as close to a mom as I have around here so,
of course, she became my confidant for the next two weeks and my sounding board for my plans for breaking the news to our
family. Thank goodness for Linda, otherwise, who knows what I would have done.
So SHE (yes, a little girl, I still can't believe it) was born January 28 and the doctors say SHE is perfect – just like Sammy. We
officially said yes as soon as our super fabulous pediatrician (who I pretty much stalked several times a day until she took my
call, I am 100% sure the receptionist thought I was crazy) gave the thumbs up, we gave Barker our official "yes we accept" and
sent the paperwork to them, and they quickly sent the acceptance paperwork to Korea.
Now we have to wait to be notified that we can travel to pick her up. Why the wait? Bureaucracy. Korea processes paperwork,
then contacts the US government. The US government processes something (still not sure what exactly they do other than take
our money then take their time) then Korea has a turn to process more 'stuff' and do a final medical check on her. Once all of
this "processing" is done though, we think we will get the travel call in the September-October time frame again, but still are
not sure…essentially we will get a call when she is ready and from that point we'll travel 3-4 weeks later.
Here are some quick facts:
- She is tiny - remember, we only have Sammy to compare her to. She was 6.6 lbs when she was born and remains in the 25th
to 50th percentile on all the charts…Sam has yet to come down from the ~100th percentile in all areas. To really compare
the two, Ellie weighed 14.7 lbs when she was 5 months old. At 4.5 months, Sammy weighed ~24 pounds.
- Both her birth mom and birth dad defected from North Korea and currently live in Seoul, South Korea.
- Her Korean name given to her by her birth mother is Sul Ha which, when translated, Sul means "give" and Ha means
"celebrate". Kim is her surname but it is common for the hospital to give the babies a surname to protect the identity of
the birth mother. Since we have no way of knowing whether Kim is her mother's surname or one given to her by the
hospital, we decided to leave the surname out as we did with Sammy. Sammy's surname was Suh and the hospital's name
was ....Suh. Real creative, right? There is some confusion on our end whether Sul Ha is one word or two - it is written in
English both ways on the paperwork we have and if it is one word, our question is does she have a middle name? And yes.
Kevin is already having fun with the name Ha. Apparently he is concerned that we may confuse her when we laugh out loud.
Yes, I deal with his warped logic and non-politically correct, though not malicious, sense of humor all the time. All I can tell
you is he cracks himself up -not many others, but he laughs and laughs. For her sake, I hope Sul Ha is one word.
- Sammy's name was Joon Young Suh and after our meddling, his legal name now is Samuel Joon Young Angel. We are going to
follow tradition and like Sammy, we are going to give her a new first name, keep her Korean name as her middle name(s),
and then Angel will be her last name. So her new name will be…
- Eloise Sul Ha Angel - assuming Sul Ha is two words. Why Eloise? In short, Lauren’s mom's name is Louise and we wanted to
honor her and how special she is to us. So a bit of Lauren's family mixed with a bit of Sul Ha's family and a bit of Kevin's
family all in one big mouthful of names. Cute now, but I'll bet she curses us when she has to bubble in her name during
standardized tests!
- So, we think her nickname (I just realized I'm turning into Kevin! ...can't...call anyone...by real name...must have...nickname!)
will be Ellie. We debated between Ellie and Ella and while initially we were leaning toward Ella, we decided against it. Our
fear is we will be blacklisted should we ever need to call their names out loud in a crowded restaurant - "Sam and Ella"!
Get it? Sam and Ella? (sounds like salmonella? aka, food poisoning?) Sorry, that’s just how we roll. OMG! Whatever Kevin
has seems contagious!
OK, one last thing in the name of full disclosure - we must admit that we did tell some of our good friends before we made it to
the beach. While we wanted family to be the first to know, it was more important for us to tell them in person and it was two
whole weeks - we had to tell someone! What was most difficult is I talk to my mom almost every day and I can't tell you how
painful it was to pretend like everything was business as usual - "nothing new to share today". Oh, the lies! The deceit! The
manipulation for our selfish entertainment - and as hard as it was to wait to tell Sammy and our parents (more on all of that will
follow for the month of July) it was totally worth the wait and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.
Even though they are all cute, we always
go back to this one as a favorite.
and we can't wait to meet them both!
the day we finally got to take Sammy home.
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