Category Archives: Mia Grace

~Seoul Day 2~

Family, International Adoption, Korea Adoption, Mia Grace, Seoul, South Korea 7 Comments

Okay we are out of order here..because I dont know how to rearrange pictures. Let me just say…Koreans are stylish…they are dressed so stylish. We went over to the Dangdumun Market and the women were shopping like no place I have seen. Below is a picture of some stylish shoes. My feet were killing me in my nice comfy shoes..some were wearing 4 inch heels..!! Yes I look like a dork…but I bought this awesome pineapple on a stick…it was really good but juicy. Sit down and eat this, dont try to walk around with it.:)

Kenny got this fabulous…tatertots and fries fried around a hotdog..He said it was really good.? I didnt try it.


Look at these toddler clothes…arent they incredible! I love the leggings, lacy skirts with matching shirts. Oh so cute!!! We plan to get some after meeting Mia today and we see what size she is. We havent had a weight on her since September 2010.

Our first day to explore….starting out fresh and ready to go!!:) There are signs at almost every street corner with English and Korean on them. Very helpful, if you know where you are going…which we did not.:)

Our typical Ken/Wendi…we do this anywhere we get a cool oppurtunity.

We found Pororo in the Seoul Subway Station…it was so cute!! I had to get his picture for Mia. I am guessing the some Koreans are like some Americans..they leave their Christmas decor up all year.
Picture of the Subway…seems like total chaos..but it is complete organazation! Love it!! the best way to get around and least exspensive!!
We walking some back alleys(we were told too) and came across this awesome parking contraption. Slide your card and your car will come down for you. When there is as many people as there are here..I am sure you must be creative on parking space.
Subway! I thought Americans were crazy about their electronics…every where we looked people are on their cell phones, IPads, carrying antennas for their phone to watch TV. Everytime we stopped for directions…we would show them our maps..they would say, “We have an ap for that” Cant complain love my Iphone and Aps as well.
Not so busy street corner..
This is the basement of the Lotte Department Store. Very high end, mall and food. Grapes were $10 here! We are looking for street vendors for fruit tomorrow!:)
There are 2 things that remind us of Mexico here..1. the smell- there septics arent sealed like ours(but the smell here comes and go, Mexico was all the time, everywhere) and 2. the electric wires..crazy bunch of wires.
Our hotel bathroom…is very odd. The walls are glass..so zero privacy. The bathtub is definetly for a woman under 5 foot and zero hips. And I am a 5’5 and have much more than zero hips..

But the toilet is awesome…their septics may not be up to our standard in America..but their toilets are incredible!!

First of all, their is a light in the toilet for when you use it at night and they have a BEDET!! I had only ever seen them on House Hunter International…these are awesome!! Why doesnt America have these yet?

My cousin told me I was lucky to have one here, and out in the country they have squatter potties. I didnt even ask what that was. I am enjoying this futuristic toilet this week.
Okay so you may think this blog doesnt have much feeling in it….I cant explain the way I am feeling. I am overwhelmed, exhausted, elated, excited, exhausted, anxious and nervous. It is about 1:30 in the morning..I cant sleep. I know we will be meeting Mia in 12 hours. 12 hours..I will meet my 5th child. Oh my..the feelings that are rushing over me are completely unexplainable. Please pray for us to have a fabulous meeting!!!Stay tuned for more exciting blogs to come…

Travel Call and We Made it to Seoul!!!!

International Adoption, Korea Adoption, Mia Grace, Seoul, South Korea 4 Comments

No pictures yet.

We arrived in Seoul yesterday afternoon at 3:30 and then onto our hotel after a little confusion (okay…alot). We passed out about 8pm. I was wide awake at 1:15 Sunday morning. Maybe I will take a Tylenol PM.

The flight was about 12 hours. It was really long. But I got the joy of watching all these Korean children run up and down the aisle. And one little boy, in particular, kept waving, laughing and coming over to us, Kenny leaned over and said, “How about a little boy next…”LOL!!

When we got to Seoul, we got through the airport rather smoothly. We exited the plane, went thru immigration, then baggage claim, then customs, then changed our money to Won, rented a cell phone for the week SUPER CHEAP ($3 a day) and then got our ticket for the limo bus(which is just a bus for anyone wondering).:)

We arrived to our beautiful hotel, Seoul Palace, and unpacked. We fell asleep at 8pm on Saturday night. We only slept a couple of hours on our flights!

We will be meeting Mia on Monday afternoon at 1:30, we will be taking our gifts and going to the foster parents home. I am really anxious to do this. Deciding what to take..we are going to look for strawberries today since she thinks they are DELICIOUS. I love when our social worker translates that word and how she says DELICIOUS!! It is so cute!! But we are hoping to take those..so she may show us some interest. We also have a bag of skittles, that might help. ANd of course her bag of gifts!!:) And I WILL find her a Pororo cell phone today!!

We are out to explore..maybe if I get some sleep…Thank you for all the prayers!!

She isn’t waiting for us..

Family, International Adoption, Korea Adoption, Mia Grace, South Korea 7 Comments


Dear Family and Friends, We have been waiting awhile see and hold our baby girl. We’ve had quite a few months to prepare for the changes we will experience, to learn as much as we can, to contemplate what adoption will mean to us as a family, and to anticipate the changes we will experience as our family grows from a family of six to a family of seven. We have started to come to know and love Mia Grace Heimee through the photos and updates we have received from our agency. It is hard for us to believe we are still strangers to her! While we are preparing a place for her in our home and hearts, Mia Grace has not even thought of leaving where she is. She is happy and content in the loving arms of her foster family. In a few days, she will be experiencing the loss of everything she has ever known. Her world will be turned upside down. We anticipate that this will be a very difficult time for our little girl. We ask that you keep Mia Grace in your prayers. As Mia’s arrival is approaching, we wanted to talk to everyone a bit about bonding and attachment. We are thrilled that everyone is excited to welcome our new daughter. That said, we want to make our expectations clear from the start, so that there won’t be any confusion, misunderstandings, or hurt feelings after her arrival. We have talked a lot with our social worker and agency about this transition and have done a lot of reading about ways to make healthy attachments with adopted children. As hard as it is to say, please enjoy her from our arms for awhile. Mia Grace needs to recognize us as mom and dad before she is ready to be passed around. This is a small window of time we have to develop an appropriate bond. She will be a much happier baby if we give her time to grieve her losses and then form a forever bond. There is no set length of time for this, but we will be able to tell by her reactions whether or not she is ready to be held by others. We still invite you to say “hi” to her, talk to her and play with her (keeping in mind her reaction of course); but, for awhile, we need to be the only ones to feed, diaper, bathe, cuddle Mia Grace. She will be grieving the loss of her environment, foster parents, language, familiar foods, etc. This usually lasts for at least a few weeks, but grieving episodes could occur for months after her arrival. Grieving episodes are also intensified by over stimulation, so we need to keep her world quiet, small and consistent for her first weeks with us as she begins to bond with her forever mommy, daddy and big sisters and big brothers. We have been so blessed by this gift. We want to make sure we are doing everything we can for Mia Grace to feel secure. It is important to remember, in her short 2 1/2 years, she’s lost her birth-mother and now will be losing her foster parents, the two people who have taken care of her every need since she was born. We know many of you have bonded with Mia Grace just as we have! So many of you have prayed daily for her and we do not underestimate the bond or love you feel for her. We hope you understand our need for this special time with our baby girl. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call or email us. Thank you in advance for understanding!
Ken and Wendi

The Pile…

Foster parent gifts, International Adoption, Korea Adoption, Mia Grace, South Korea Leave a comment

Yes this is my guest room! It is such a mess. I have been shopping and shopping and just piling it on my guest bed. Gifts for the foster mother, sister, father and of course all the fun stuff that comes with having a little girl. Sippy cups, little bottles of juice, playdoh, moon dough and as you can see my list will go on and on and on…. Some of the gifts we are taking to have on hand are local honey, local maple syrup, Ghiradellis chocolate, jelly bellies….

Oh and please notice all the hair bows…be still my heart..I just keep buying….


When things are more organized, I will take single pictures like the foster mother gift, Mia’s first gift…and so on!!!

I600 Approval~~ PRAISE THE LORD

International Adoption, Mia Grace, South Korea 5 Comments

Oh wow!! I can’t even believe it. I had been emailing a friend who is also adopting from South Korea all morning, complaining that it had been 13 days since I had been matched with an officer, what could be taking so long? My husband had just called yesterday to see if it was and our officer bit his head off and told me she would do it when she got to it. We had no idea but this morning our officer called..yes you read that right…OUR OFFICER called us (like we are great friends) and left a message on my hubby’s phone that WE WERE APPROVED YESTERDAY!!!!

Yes, after she yelled at him… Whatever we can take the yelling, just approve us already!

As I write this and say..finally we are approved. I need to step back and look at the realization that our homestudy ONLY went to Korea on April 7th. We will have travel call probably on the 30th or 31st. That is not even 2 months.

I am so thankful Mia is with a quick agency. I am so thankful this has went so quickly. I am so thankful for a debt free adoption. I am so thankful.

We are officially waiting for Travel Call. On Friday I will called the National Visa Center (NVC) to see if they have recieved our paperwork yet and if has been sent to Korea.

‘Where The Heart Is’

International Adoption, Korea Adoption, Mia Grace, South Korea 3 Comments

I am just going through the motions.

I am just acting like I am interested.

I am just checking duties off my list.

Because my heart has already gone to Korea. I couldn’t have stopped it, if I wanted. I didn’t even know it was happening.

I am fine with traveling tomorrow. I am fine with traveling in a month. I am just ready for my body to catch my heart and hold my little girl in my arms.

Our First Gift to Mia Grace

International Adoption, Korea Adoption, Korea ziploc bag gift, Mia Grace, South Korea 5 Comments

I need to say that if it wasnt for a few special friends telling me what do with this adoption, we wouldnt be as far along as we are in the process. I just found out today though that I could have already mailed our special FIRST GIFT EVER to Mia Grace!!

So I already have it all together and will be shipping it tomorrow. I thought you all might like to see it, especially those of you just starting the process.:)

It doesnt really look like alot….but I had to fit it all into one ziploc bag! So 2 outfits, a small doll, a family album full of pictures of us, stuffed pink bunny, spiky little rubbery toy, a card for the foster mom and 2 little starbucks coffee for her as well. I am not sure I was allowed to add the card and coffee for the foster mom, but if it werent for certain friends on the adoption forums I wouldnt know as much as I do know. I have also been told, that I may never see any of these things again.

So that’s its, doesnt seem like much to send to my baby girl…but it’s a start!!

Things to Accomplish Before Mia Comes Home…..

International Adoption, Korea Adoption, Mia Grace, South Korea 6 Comments

With this one little picture, I knew…I knew she was the one that I would hold in my arms. She is the one who is in my daughter. The one who has been living in another world away from me, until we could figure out we wanted to adopt. I am already in love her.

I have to prepare for Mia to be home within 7-11 weeks, this is soon!!! I have a ton of stuff to get done.

Things to purchase:

~toddler bed

~car seat

~sippy cups CHECK

~potty chair

~Pororo table and chair

Things to do around this busy house.

~Finish the school year with my 9th grader, 6th grader, 4th grader and kindergartner

~ Get the older three evaluated

~Have Blake tested for 6th grade (should have done that last month) CHECK

~Order 10th grade, 7th grade, 5th grade and 1st grade curriculum(well what I dont have)

~ Clean Front closet

~Weekend in Nashville CHECK

~10 days in Texas CHECK

~4 days in West Virginia

~High School co-op trip to Cedar Point

~Plan High School Sock Hop CHECK

~Reorganize Kitchen cabinets CHECK

~Sort cookbooks..no reason to have about 300!!

~Plan and organize a VBS

~Plant a massive garden

Hold on Mia…Mommy is coming ~!!!!

What every little girl needs…

Korea Adoption, Mia Grace 4 Comments

A place to keep her hair accessories….what else? Camye and I decided to make Mia Grace, a place to keep her hair bows. Everyday we get closer, every step of the way…it becomes more real.

I need get my toddler mom hat back on and start preparing for our new little girl. Mostly we have been preparing by reading loads of adoption books and scouring the internet for information.

But now we need to get moving..a bed, a car seat, toys, clothes and of course, hair bows!!