Alex and Heather Family 2015-2020

 

Many of you are texting us asking how we are doing, so we wanted to send out an update.  

 

We picked up our boy this past Saturday from Pohang about 4.5 hours away from Seoul.  At first, the birth mom didn't want to know anything about us, but she changed her mind and came with her mother to meet us on the day we went down to pick him up.  They wanted closure and when they met us, the grandmother said that she was at peace knowing that he was going to a loving home.  They were very thankful that we wanted to adopt him.  Miracle #1.

 

Our baby boy is big and healthy.  He was born just a day before Alex's birthday (we received an email about him on Alex's birthday) and he just turned one month old today.  It's only been 4 days, but he is adjusting well at our home.  He has been the easiest baby for us so far.  He is eating and sleeping well.  He sleeps 4-3 hour stretches at night.  Miracle #2.

 

Both Jacob and Katherine are doing great with the baby.  Jacob's teacher said he talks about his new brother at school.  We were worried about Katherine because she is very attached, but she loves him!  She hasn't shown any jealousy at all, but instead she wants to hold him, kiss him and help with his feeding etc.  This is answered prayer for us because if you know Katherine, this is a MIRACLE.  

Our friends offered to take care of our kids on Saturday when we went to pick up the baby.  Since it's a long trip and I was feeling sick we decided to take up on their offer and leave our kids with them.  We were worried about Katherine since we never left her with anyone else other than family before.  We were sure that she was going to have a melt down.  But by our surprise she didn't cry or look for us at all the whole day!  And since the first time she saw the baby, she has been the best older sister a 2 year old can be.  I really feel like she grew from being a baby of our family to being an older sister in a day.  I am so thankful for this because this was one of the biggest worries we had.  Miracle #3. 

 

In short- we will be doing a home study in January.  And if everything goes well, everything will be done in 6 months or less.  We are going through a private adoption with family court here in Seoul with the primary US HAGUE credited adopting agency making sure that we are doing everything right.  After that we have to go through US immigration to make him a US citizen.  We are hoping that he will be able to receive an orphan visa because that will be the fastest track. Please pray that this will be an easy and fast process.  It really does feel like God's hand is already all over in this process, so we are not that worried.  The guy who is coming to Korea to do our home study was already planning on coming to Korea in Jan. to do another family's home study, so he said we can split his traveling cost with the other family.  Timing and money wise this is miracle #4.  

 

We also want to thank our Jubilee family for all your support and prayers!  We haven't bought anything for our baby yet except for formula because all of your generous gifts and hand me downs.  We received enough clothes, bottles, diapers, and other nice baby stuff to last few weeks!  Thank you so much for your encouragements, visitations and meals as well.  You guys really made this whole process much easier and made us feel like we are not alone at this.  When I think of you guys, I know that miracles at not just supernatural, but we all have power to make miracles happen in our lives.  So thank you for making these miracles possible!

   

Lastly, we named him Miles Ethan Lim.  Miles means gift from God, servant, solider and Ethan means strong and optimistic, solid and enduring, permanent. His birth mom named him Gang (strong in Korean).   

 

 

Thank you.

 

Love,

 

Alex, Heather, Jacob, Katherine, and Miles