Nitchevo-Russian

Although I hate that there was nothing in the mail box, I do like the way this word sounds...Nitchevo-Nothing in Russian.

Updated Measurements

June 30 measurements

Weight 20.46 lbs

Height 67.8 cm

Head 43.7 cm

Chest 40.8 cm

Claiming a Title...Hmm This Could Get Good

So if you stake the claim as the favorite Aunt, do you get to take the smartest Aunt as well?
How many names are you known by?

Faic-Nothing In Irish

Our oldest daughter danced in an Irish Feis this weekend, which is a dance competition, so we will use an Irish word for nothing today.

Things We Have Done While Waiting...

Numerous Trips
San Antonio-Favorite part is the River Walk-twice
Disneyland-twice
Huntington Beach-once-family photos
Mesquite, Nevada-to many times to count
Las Vegas, Nevada-twice
Bear Lake, Utah-to many times to count
New York-once
Berthoud, Colorado-once
Mesa, Arizona-once
Helena, Montana-once
Boise, Idaho-twice
Pacific Coast Highway-3 seperate 9 day driving trips up the California, Washington, and Oregon Coasts. One of our favorite places to be. I love kids on sandy beaches!
Canada-once
We enjoy traveling as a family and already have several trips in mind for Isabella to join us on.
We like to watch movies together, we go to the theater or watch them at home on our oversize, comfy couch. Snuggled up under a blanket.
We spend time with family.
We go to parks.
We spend 3 nights a week at Taekwando.
One night a week at Irish Dance.
Two days a week at Swimming.
We cook together, both kids think cooking is a great activity. We eat dinner together.
We have done so many things, all of which have been great activites to bond with our two children. We are excited to add Isabella to the mix because we love both our children and have plenty of room in our hearts and our lives for this sweet little girl. She will most likely be overwhelmed with the amount of love and care she will receive. Even though we have enjoyed our lives so far, we have known that there is an empty spot for our Korean born daughter. It will be nice when this void is complete and we are not waiting for someone to join the family. Come home soon baby.

Niente

This is nothing in Italian...Isabella's name is Italian.

Naught

Still waiting.

Void

as in my mailbox was void of anything exciting...

One Good Piece Of Mail Today-Cardiology Consult

Hooray, today we received the cardiology consult in the mail that we have been waiting for. It had good news. The doctor suggested with her health info that we take a conservative approach and just watch her for a few years. If the hole should get bigger then they would want to discuss surgery. He says that they would watch her until she is about 3 or 4 and if it hasn't gotten smaller or closed by itself then that is when to step in. He does suggest a visit for very soon after she arrives home. How nice does that sound, home??? I will pass this info to AAC and hope that the second opinion doctor has the same findings when our sweet baby sees him.
Just info for me, once I600 is received, and approved then it takes about 6-8 weeks for travel call. Passport will be in baby's birth name.

Vacant

No good mail...Geez this wait could kill a person.

Zilch And Thanks

Nothing exciting in my mailbox. Called AAC, no update for 2nd opinion. Called Primary Children's Cardiology, I can go up tomorrow and request a copy of whatever it is they mailed to me last week.
Thanks Lynda for finding a picture of the little baby doll in pink!

Fortune, Fortune Teller, Who Needs A Fortune Teller

This is from my fortune cookie yesterday!
"The respect of influential people will soon be yours"
Maybe this is a good sign that things will start moving!

El Zippo

No immigration paperwork, no cardiology consult. Tomorrow being Sunday there will be no mail to think about. A rest until Monday. Come on Monday, don't let me down.
Although I did receive the charm from Australia that I am giving to our foster mother. I will post a photo of it in a few days when I have her package put together.

Empty

My mailbox was empty of anything exciting.

Jon Hunstman/Mark Koebel Channel 2 News

I sent both of these men an email today requesting information about the processing for the I600 application. Jon Huntsman is the governor for Utah and has an adopted daughter of his own. Mark Koebel is a news anchor with the channel 2 news and did a story on the Joys Of Adoption with Jon Huntsman and his adopted daughter. I know that it has not been the 90 days processing allowed for our I600 form, I would just be interested in knowing why it takes so long when Jerry at USCIS said there is not a backlog of applications at this office. Who knows if they will reply but at this point I am wiling to write to anyone that can make this process faster for us or for adoptive parents to come.

Nada

No I600 and no cardiology report. Maybe tomorrow.

Adorable Book

This arrived yesterday, we got to pick it up at the post office today! I love, love, love this book. Thanks Karen for finding the picture on the adoption website!

I Hope That I Am Tempting Fate

So you know how you do something to make something else happen. Well I hope that me sending a status letter to USCIS today will make my I600 appear in my mail box. Who knows, maybe it will work. I talked to AAC today and they said that the Utah USCIS office always gives them trouble. Just what I didn't want to hear. After this is all said and done I am going to write a few letters concerning this process.

Answer To Question About Our I600 Wait

I know it seems like we have been waiting for this forever, although on Saturday, June 20 we will have waited one month. There was some confusion at AAC and I was told that our I600 was submitted to USCIS on April 20, when in fact our file had only been submitted to Korea. We received our I600A approval on May 6, our baby's legals on May 20 and according to AAC our I600 was sent to USCIS the same day they sent the legals to us, May 19. So give or take a day USCIS should have had it in their office by at least May 21, the office that it was sent to is quite near to us. According to "Jerry" a representative there that did our I600A things WERE moving quickly and he figured by doing the I600A we should have had the I600 within two weeks of submitting. Now if I email him about it he is quite rude and tells me that I need to just wait. Sure it may be easy for him to wait, it's not his baby... According to him, people waiting cannot get any info by phone, email or appointment concerning the processing of the I600 form. The petitioner can write a letter and send it by mail BUT it it up to the processor if they choose to respond to your request for information. Thats government work for ya.

Zero

(No I600...Although my niece that is going to travel to Korea with us did get her passport yesteday!)

Are You Kidding Me?

Don't ya just love waking up to headlines like this:
North Korea warns the U.S. of a "thousand-fold" military strike if provoked.

(North and South Korea)

Nothing-------In The Mail

I think maybe I will come up with a different word that means nothing and post it for each day that passes until we get our I600.


I did hear from Primary Children's cardiology today. Nothing exciting to post now, just that one of their doctors is responding to our request for a paper consult. We faxed them the records last Monday. Hopefully this is not going to be a letter stating that they can't consult on patients that aren't theirs??? We contacted them on advice from a friend/cardiologist that I know. I really hope that they will give some suggestions as to what needs to happen from here. The girl said the letter will go out in the mail tomorrow. She could not email it or give me any details contained in it, so I guess I get to look forward to getting the mail maybe on Thursday! Stay tuned...

(Jackson saw me posting this heart picture and said, "Is that her heart? It's broken they need to fix it." He is four years old and we told him Isabella has a broken heart because he constantly asks about her.)

Completely In Love And Totally Dedicated-You Are Our Baby

"At one glance I love you with a thousand hearts."
Mihri Hatu

Our baby, Isabella Eun Jin Lee has a broken heart. Medical diagnosis is Atrial Septal Defect (ASD). On Friday, June 5th AAC called to give us updated medical information on Isabella Eun Jin. They told me that she had ASD. I know a little about this after working in hospitals most of my life. I wasn't really freaked out by this because I know that it is somewhat common and can be treated in most cases. I started to ask what our plan of action would be. Watching the heart for closure, surgery, if surgery when, can I go to Korea to be with her if she hasn't had surgery already as the medical records were dated June 2nd and we didn't know if the ASD was found in an emergency or a well baby check. Recovery time? Travel delayed? You know, all the questions you would ask about your baby if you were the mom...The person from AAC could not answer any of my questions, her main reason for calling, I found out, is to find out if we wanted to "give her back" and go back on the girl list. I was absolutely DEVESTATED at this point. Isabella Eun Jin is a part of our lives already. We are so in love with this particular little girl, not just any little girl. She is ours. We have fully immersed her into our daily lives. Not a day goes by that we do not talk about her and when we will get to bring her home. We have had our referral for over two months and still I show her picture to everyone that I can. Even the girls at Starbucks are excited to meet her. We have named this little girl, we have sent her care packages in which the items are carefully and lovingly picked out for her. When we signed the adoption paperwork, we commited to be her parents. We did not take that lightly. We know that for the rest of our lives and our childrens lives, (all three of them) that things are going to come up. We are not going to abandon our children when they need us the most. I would not be any more concerned if this had been our local pediatrician calling about either of our other two children. After several phone calls to AAC, we were able to find out that this was found during a routine well baby check. The doctor could hear a heart murmur and sent her for an echocardiogram. We have been told that the foster mother was besides herself with grief when finding out the diagnosis because she was afraid that the "family" would no longer want her. We are currently in the process of preparing another care package for Isabella Eun Jin so that her foster mother can be assured of our love and excitement at bringing her into our lives.
Isabella Eun Jin pack your bags because we are coming to get you as soon as all the Immigration paperwork is done. We cannot wait to hold you. We are so excited to be a part of your life and can't wait to watch you grow up and experience life.
Isabella is going to be seen for a second opinion at a bigger hospital. When the echocardiogram is available AAC will call us and let us know how to proceed, and yes we are STILL waiting for our I600 approval. I hope it will be this week...





Four of the things for Isabella Eun Jin's next care package. This blankie is sooo soft. The brand is BareFoot Dreams. I had them for my son when he was little and was so excited that I got to buy a girl color. I got her the lilac colored one with the buttefly in the center. I hope it will bring comfort to Isabella when she is sad. This cute little bunny is just the right size for little hands. It is from Bunnies By The Bay. Their motto is- Bunnies are our best friends indeed, they do delight and give glad dreams. I hope Isabella will have good dreams while waiting for us. I wanted to get this toy for her before but didn't because I had so much to send before...Why not send it this time! This baby is the Berenguer baby girl that I had wanted. My dear friend Lynda from work bought it for us! When it arrives we are going to add it to this care package. We are getting the one dressed in pink but I cannot find a picture of the pink one online.

An ASD is an opening or hole (defect) in the wall (septum) between the heart’s two upper chambers (atria).
Every child is born with an opening between the upper heart chambers. It’s a normal fetal opening that allows blood to detour away from the lungs before birth. After birth, the opening is no longer needed and usually closes or becomes very small within several weeks or months.
Sometimes the opening is larger than normal and doesn’t close after birth. In most children the cause isn’t known.
Normally, the left side of the heart only pumps blood to the body, and the right side of the heart only pumps blood to the lungs. In a child with ASD, blood can travel across the hole from the left upper heart chamber (left atrium) to the right upper chamber (right atrium) and out into the lung arteries.
Children with an ASD often have no symptoms. If the opening is small, it won’t cause symptoms because the heart and lungs don’t have to work harder. If the opening is large, the only abnormal finding may be a murmur (noise heard with a stethoscope) and other abnormal heart sounds. In children with a large ASD, the main risk is to the blood vessels in the lungs because more blood than normal is being pumped there. Over time, usually many years, this may cause permanent damage to the lung blood vessels.
If the opening is small, it doesn’t make the heart and lungs work harder. Surgery and other treatments may not be needed. Small ASDs that are discovered in infants often close or narrow on their own. There isn’t any medicine that will make the ASD get smaller or close any faster than it might do naturally.
If the ASD is large, it can be closed with open-heart surgery, or by cardiac catheterization using a device inserted into the opening to plug it. Sometimes, if the ASD is an unusual position within the heart, or if there are other heart defects such as abnormal connections of the veins bringing blood from the lungs back to the heart (pulmonary veins), the ASD can’t be closed with the catheter technique. Then surgery is needed.
Closing a large ASD by open-heart surgery usually is done in early childhood, even in patients with few symptoms, to prevent complications later.
(Taken from the American Heart Association Website)

The Cute Baby Asian Doll From Previous Post

The doll can be found at the following website. Look part way down at the boy and girl "baby bottoms" The are anatomically correct, but don't worry, it is done tastefully. They are very soft. Perfect for a baby to hold.

http://asianethnicdollstoys.homestead.com/


My next purchase will be the La Newborn Asian Specialty 9.5"


I also have the Calin Yang doll, she is very cute.
(Both of these photos are from the site)