365 days...52 weeks…12 months…1 year

However you want to break it down, we’ve been “officially” waiting for our referral for one year. We started researching adoption and attending informational meetings in the summer of 2008, but it has been one year since all of our adoption paperwork, known as our homestudy, was approved. Raleigh and I are anticipating that we will hear from our social worker any day about scheduling a home study update. She will come to our home and basically talk to us and update any necessary information in our paperwork. I’m not sure if she will do a detailed tour of our home again, since she has already done this, but we will see.

Raleigh and I are thrilled to celebrate this fun milestone along our adoption journey. In honor of 12 months of waiting, I thought I would make a list of 12 things we have learned along the way.

1. When God calls you to follow him, he really will provide. (Did we have a savings account full of all of the money we would need to pay for this adoption? Absolutely not! Has God provided each time a large portion of the money is due? Without a doubt! There are creative ways to save and raise money.)

2. Supportive family and friends make the journey so much easier.

3. There is a relatively large Korean population in Atlanta. There are lots of Korean restaurants and stores. H-Mart is a great grocery store to buy ingredients for Korean cooking.

4. The Dol is a child’s first birthday celebration in Korea. Hopefully our child will be home by his or her first birthday so that we can incorporate this special tradition into his or her birthday party.

5. Going through the adoption process has opened our eyes to the vast needs of orphans all over the world. We are so incredibly blessed that our child will most likely spend time living with a foster family before he or she comes home. However, millions of orphans do not have this opportunity. Please pray for the millions of children that will go to bed tonight without ever being told “I love you” or “goodnight.”

6. Pororo is a cartoon character that is really popular in Korea.

7. Korean meals are served with lots of side dishes, known as banchan. You don’t have to order them, they just come with the meal.

8. Tae kwon do originated in Korea.

9. Holt International and Holt Korea are two different organizations. Isn’t that confusing? Holt International has an “online guidebook” that I tried to gain access to because I knew our agency works with Holt in Korea. However when I called and tried to figure it out, I realized that Holt International is based in the US and is totally separate from Holt Korea. I was totally confused about this for about 9 months.

10. Kimchi is served with almost every meal in Korea and is the ingredient in lots of recipes. It is basically spicy fermented cabbage. I’ve read that Koreans say “kimchi” when posing for pictures, but I’m not sure it there is any truth to that.

11. Korean babies usually sleep on the floor on a mattress. When our child comes home, he or she will most likely be used to sleeping on the floor with his or her foster family.

12. I am so thankful that I am on this journey with my best friend, Raleigh.