Our Seoul Search: Isaiah Song Smith

So, I know this is a little over due to our faithful followers and distant family. However, these past few weeks have been quite...well, raw. Emotions have been high. Chris was out of town when we first found out about Isaiah. Chris left town the Friday before last, I got the call the following Monday, and he didn't return until that Friday. In complete honesty, that.was.tough...for both of us. We were, and still are, so very excited. Unfortunately, not everyone is nice and some even seemed upset when we told them. It was almost like some were okay with the idea and not with the reality of us giving an orphan child a home. Finding out that I was a mom, having Chris out of town, and encountering one too many unfortunate comments made for a rough Thursday. The good news is that we are parents of a beautiful baby boy and negativity has no part in our new life!

Onto the details! It was about 3:30pm and I was in one of my daily meetings that got started rather late. We were on our second patient and my phone began to ring. I assumed it was Chris giving me a "I have a quick second. How is your day?" phone call, but when I saw it was Judy, one of the social workers from Holt, I jumped out of my seat and said, "Oh my Gosh! It's our social worker! Maybe we have a baby!!!" Of course, the room of women yelled at me to take the call. So as I stepped into the hallway, Judy said hello and told me they have some good news. I immediately asked, "Is it a baby!" I think she went on to tell me about his gender and name, at which point, this seldom a tear shedder lost it. Fortunately, our Activities Director was in the hall and looked at me with concern and I mouthed to him, "We have a baby!" I wish it were my husband I was standing next to, but it wasn't. The amazing thing is that Lee and his wife just recently completed their own domestic adoption so he knew my very state of emotion and I can't put to words the look on his face. He nodded his head with a wonderful smile and I turned away. Judy went on to tell repeat his name and gender while I tried to stop sobbing. Then she asked if I had any questions, and apparently to her surprise I said no. I think this threw her off because she again repeated his name, gender, and date of birth and asked me again if I had any questions. At that point, I asked if he was healthy and she said yes (this question was out of curiosity alone, Chris and I already knew that the baby Holt would refer us to would be the baby God had set forth for us). She then asked to email me his clinical records to which I agreed and we hung up.

Then I sent Chris a text that read:
"Call me! 911"
And he did, I mean, within seconds he called me. For anyone who has ever attempted to contact my husband at any time (myself included) knows that there is a 4 hour turn around time and after 12 you've been forgotten (as an accident, the guy is so busy!), so this was monumental. How else was I suppose to get an immediate response?!?!

When he called I was in a small room echoing like a cave and began crying again saying, "We have a baby!". I was responded to with a "Huh, what?" then "What do you mean a baby?" then "Who?" then again, "What do you mean about a baby?" That's when I said,

"A KOREAN BABY! COME ON!!!"

Eventually in the phone call he told me that he at first thought I was calling to tell him I was pregnant (a big can't do while doing an adoption with Korea), but then he realized I was telling him I thought Pieper (my dog, who is 11 human years old!) had babies, which is how I refer to our dogs and their, well, babies.

Seriously, Chris? A. I'm not taking a pregnancy test at work in the middle of the day. and B. WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ADOPTION!

I think the whole thing is hilarious! Totally fitting for us and our crazy communication style. It's totally going in the memory bank! LOL

It was in this phone call that Chris suggested a completely off list name for our baby, Isaiah. Two phone calls to each other later and we agreed on Isaiah Song (his Korean name).

So, after that I was of course useless and had to leave work. I immediately went to the hospital in which I used to work to have one of the pediatricians I used to work with review the clinical record with me. Of course, the amazing Dr. Greg Cugini was there and he is not only my favorite pediatrician, but also moving into clinic. SCORE! So, I updated him on our adoption, and that I received a referral 20 minutes ago and need him to review the records with me. He was ecstatic and when I told him that he is the only pediatrician I wanted for Isaiah he said he'd be honored to be his doctor. We reviewed the chart, I called Chris and we accepted.

So today, our little Turkey baby is 8 months old! We couldn't be any happier! He's 100% ours and 100% real, so there's no need to ask about having "real kids" or "our own kids" because he is really ours. Obviously he is adopted but we have chosen to never use biased words when describing biological differences. Chris and I have never had the strong desire to conceive and we can't say that we ever will or won't. But for now and until the Lord reveals his next plan for our family, we have adopted our own, real baby and we have never been so blessed in all of our life!

Our acceptance paperwork was received yesterday, but that is the first of MANY stacks of paper. We were told to expect a year wait and they won't send our acceptance pack to Korea until we've paid the final bill in full...which, when you are expecting 9 months to save and fund raise that's not biggie, but when you get your referral in 17 days it's a BIG biggie! So we are making some immediate decisions and I am crafting my socks off because every penny counts! We don't want any amount of money to extend the time between us and our baby!

Keep us and our Isaiah in your prayers, more than anything, this is what we all need. Love and prayers.
If you are interested in support of any other fashion you are welcome to contact me or Chris, but again, we covet your prayers and love.

That is it for now, updates may be scarce due to paper work, crafting, fundraising, and "normal" life things, that definately does not include dishes or laundry!