Nesting at its finest!

So, we had a super fun day painting Max's room. We've still got lots to do, but we're really happy with the color. The curtain's were a last minute purchase, and I think I like them! Now I've got to press them because they look a mess!!! Our plans still in the works include, a new ceiling fan, staining the dresser to match the bed (that Stephen's dad built!), finding some fun things to put on the walls, and a toy box that my dad is going to build that will match the bed too!!! This morning when I got up, it was so fun to walk past his room and see his little bed there! It makes it all feel so much more real. Can't wait to have him home!

A present for our little man!!!

Tonight Stephen and I went out and bought Max a few things to send along with his photo album. It was so much fun! Of course, we had to watch ourselves, I think we were tempted to buy the whole store. Our social worker reminded us to keep things small and simple for now. So, that's what we did. He's now got a toy truck, a book with simple English words, a coloring book, a super cute truck t-shirt, and a bear to snuggle with. And, of course, the thing that excites us the most is that Max will now have pictures of his mom and dad!!!

I also have to take a little time to brag on my awesome husband a little bit. Since we set out on this journey of adoption, I have been looking forward to the day that we got to share our news with our awesome church family. I thought we would have to postpone the big announcement until next week since Stephen had to be on campus this weekend for work. Well, Stephen pulled some strings at work and planned the big reveal with our pastor without me knowing! It was the coolest thing. Our beautiful little boy's face up on our big projector screen and the pure joy and support of our whole church family. It was awesome!!!!! And sooooo emotional. I feel like all week all I've done is cried tears of joy. Its been great!

Now for Stephen's birthday tomorrow! He wants to spend the day painting Max's room. What an awesome dad! We're going with blue, and we've chosen the cutest bedding. I'll be sure to post pictures when we're done!

Stephen and Angie

And then there were three...

So....I finally get to post the blog Stephen and I have been praying for for what seems like forever!!! We are so excited to let all of you know that we have a son!!!!!!!!!! His name is Max (after Stephen's awesome dad) and he was born August 29, 2007. He is currently living in a baby's home in Thailand, and from all the picture's we've received, he looks like he's doing great. Thailand asks that adoptive families not post pictures of the children online, and we want to respect their wishes. So, unfortunately we can't share his super cute face with you right now. We will however have pictures with us at all times (just like all proud parents do!) and would LOVE to show him off any chance we get!

At this point, we don't have a ton of info on Max, but here's what we do know. He was born with a cleft lip and he had that repaired in January of this year. We've seen both the before and after pictures and we have to say, those Dr.'s in Thailand did an awesome job!! He'll still need a few corrective surgeries here in the US, but that's nothing we can't handle! Otherwise, Max is totally healthy from what we've seen. Our social worker has been super helpful and she even sent us a copy of his medical records. Some of it was in Thai, but what was in English told us that his heart, lungs, eyes, and ears all check out!! He's average weight (28 lbs) and slightly above average height (34 inches). We're told that Max is super sweet and kind of shy with strangers. Our social worker actually just returned from Thailand and she got to visit with him a little. We're soooo jealous!

Just like before we received this awesome news, we now have to be prepared for more waiting. Now all of Max's paperwork has to be prepared and matched with all of our paperwork before we can look towards getting a travel date. There are more official documents that have to be completed along the way but we won't bore you with all those details!

Stephen and I are putting together a photo album that will be mailed to Max with our photos in it. This way he can hopefully become familiar with his mom and dad's faces before we meet him.

We have no idea how long the wait will be at this point, but that's okay. We have a son, and God is soooo good!!!!! Thank you all again for all of your words of encouragement and prayers. This journey has been hard at times, but it has been so comforting to be able to share it with all of you. Please, please, please continue to pray for Stephen and I as we begin truly preparing to be mom and dad. Also please pray that we are able to find the finances to bring this little guy home. And, just as importantly, please be praying for Max. Pray for his health, his happiness, and that God would begin preparing his heart for the day we meet!!!

Slowly but Surely

Hi Everyone! We are really sorry its been so long since we've blogged. We haven't had much excitement on the adoption front until recently. We found out this week that our dossier has made it to Thailand!!! God has just really blessed us with a speedy process. We were under the impression that our dossier wouldn't even be mailed until we completed our paperwork with immigration, but much to our excitement, we were able to proceed! Speaking of immigration, we heard from them this week too ( we were anticipating another 6-8 week wait)!!! Stephen and I go to St. Louis on Monday to get our final set of fingerprints. This is huge believe it or not! This is the final, and we mean final, step in the process as far as what we need to complete. Once we get this done, all we have to do is wait.......and wait........to be matched!!!!! We're still hoping to have the name and picture of our child by the end of the year, and travel in 2010. So, we've got some serious waiting ahead of us. But, its a comfort to know that all of our paperwork has reached Thailand. Please pray for us, and for patience through the home stretch. So far, our patience hasn't been tested much, everything has truly been moving along so quickly. But now is where it gets hard. And for those of you who don't already know this...I'm not the most patient person.....especially when it comes to being a mom!!!

Baby Kull's first Christmas (in our hearts)!

Happy New Year everyone!

We have always known how awesome our family and friends are, but this Christmas we were very reminded of all the love and support we've been blessed with. On Christmas morning, we had as many gifts to open for Baby Kull as we did for ourselves! The t-shirt we got is from my parents and I can't wait to wear it! They also got us an awesome baby book that is for adopted children, and its great. There's a place for us to write about Stephen and I as a couple and why we chose adoption, and there's spots to put picture of all the baby's first. And they aren't your typical firsts like "first step" (our child will likely already be walking) but there are things like "first family holiday together" and "first birthday celebrated as a family" I can't wait to fill it up! My parents also got Baby Doo (Stephen and I decided we needed a nickname to call our baby, and its a long story, but that's what we came up with) a Little Tykes Noah's Ark, complete with all the animals. Its the baby's first toy, and I can't wait for them to play with it! And we got some books that I think will really help us build our baby's vocab.

Stephen's sister Virginia crocheted us this BEAUTIFUL blue blanket and I don't know if she intended for it to go in the nursery but we think it will look perfect there! Stephen's cousins Mark and Heidi got us two Thai cookbooks that I can't wait to use! I'm a little nervous, seeing as how traditional recipes don't always turn out so good for me, but I am definitely up for the challenge!

My brother and sister in law made us the wall hanging that says "A match made in heaven." I can't believe how creative Rachael is. She is definitely going to come in handy when we decorate the nursery!!! We also received a letter from our future baby, complete with an authentic return address from an orphanage in Thailand. We received the letter on Christmas eve and both Stephen and I cried when we read the words, telling us how much our child is looking forward to meeting us and how they already feel our love for them. I hope Michael and Rachael know how much that letter meant to us. It also came with key chains that say "Someone in Thailand loves me" and we are proudly carrying them with us!

My grandma also sent us a blanket and a super cute "lovey". Its a green and white dog and Stephen and I have already decided that it will be the first thing we put in our first care package to our baby. We are encouraged to send things to our baby once we received their name, that way they have things from us, and things of there own that they can bring with them here. I'm excited to hold that stuffed animal and think someday our child might hold it as they fall asleep!

The second picture is our nursery as it is now. We've decided not to buy any furniture or decorate completely. We really want to make that room special and individualized for our baby, so we'll wait until we get our referral. But, its been absolutely impossible to pass by the baby section and not splurge once in a while.

We also just want to say a special thank you to those who gave us special, heartfelt gifts towards our adoption fund. We never expected to receive such generous donations, but please know that your gift means soooooo much and we can never say thank you enough.

Happy New Year everyone and we pray God will bless you abundantly! We love you!

Practice Makes Perfect!

For those of you who haven't got to meet this cute guy, this is Noah, our nephew and we LOVE him!!! Today we got to experience first hand the awesomeness of full time baby care. Unfortunately my brother and sister-in-law are really sick, but fortunately for us, that means Noah gets to spend the night! Its about 9 pm, and so far, so good (except for the brief unhappiness we captured in the first picture!) So, maybe I'll blog again tomorrow and let you know how the night goes ;)

Things with the adoption are still moving along really well. We had our second homestudy today. We're just waiting on a few more papers (reference letters, doctors forms, Angie's passport) and then we can send everything to our social worker. She said she should be done with her part in a week, then she forwards it to our international agency, and hopefully they should be done in one to two weeks. From there is goes to ICPC (I think that's it) I know part of it is "interstate compact" and I think they'll have it three to four weeks, and finally it goes to another state agency with a lot of letters (I know part of that process includes INS and them agreeing to allow us to bring an international child into the state) and they'll take up to ten weeks. So, we really want to get all the of final papers to Susan (our social worker) this next week so we can begin that whole process. Its only after our dossier travels to all those places that it can then be sent to Thailand to be matched with a baby!!!!! I just keep praying that by Christmas next year we can at least know who our baby is. It so hard to talk about your baby and remain abstract. I want to call him or her by name, and shop for them.

Today I totally had a moment in regards to all that. We were at practice today for our church's Christmas Cantata and we were practicing the song where the kids choir comes in and sings "Sleep Baby Jesus." and I was totally overcome with tears. Now I'll admit that I always get a little teary-eyed when the kids sing, just cause they're so darn cute, but this time was different. I could just picture our child singing with them. And to hear the words they were singing and to think that we are going to be taking a child from a country that is nearly 100% buddhist and instead teaching him or her the love of Jesus. It makes me cry again just thinking about it. I keep praying that our little one is safe and healthy this Christmas being loved by a wonderful caregiver in Thailand.

We also pray that all of you are having a wonderful, happy Christmas. We love you all!!!

Our first taste of Thailand!

Well, I have to admit, I was nervous to try Thai food for the first time, I'm just not very adventurous. But, the food was AWESOME! We went to dinner with our friends Bo and Sarah and their adorable baby Brody when we were up in Ohio, and we had a great time. I can't remember the name of the dishes themselves, but there were noodles and chicken and broccoli (that really narrows it down doesn't it!) When we got back into town, we checked out another Thai restaurant here locally with my parents, brother, sister-in-law and nephew (also absolutely adorable!). I was feeling brave and ordered a dish I normally would never had tried. This time.......not so much. I didn't like it at all. So, if any of you have any recommendations of what to order next time, let us know. It was just fun to be in the environment. Of course, we know that a Thai restaurant in the US is likely nothing like what we'll experience when we travel to Thailand, but it was still neat!

When we got back from our trip (which by the way was great!), we had a big packet waiting for us from the agency. We hadn't planned to hear anything for another week, so we were really excited. Of course, it was filled with another stack of forms to be filled out........and a rather large bill :( But, we knew that was coming. Right now we are concentrating on getting together all of our "vital records" (birth certificates and marriage license) Once we get the official records, we then have to send them off to the state of origin to be authenticated. I'm also going to get my passport and we'll need to get our physicals redone and more of that kind of stuff. We've been super blessed that all of the money that we put into our home study for the domestic adoption has carried over, so we only needed to pay a little more on top of that to add the extra stuff for international.

So, that's where we're at, papers, papers and more papers. We put up our tree today, and I keep thinking that this time next year we could be so very close to having our baby! Now I just need to pray for patience!!!! God Bless.