With Luv From Korea

The End of the Beginning

2009-04-17T06:05:00.000-07:00

In July of 2007, my wife and I began having conversations about our family. We were happy having just our twin girls http://bradysgirls.blogspot.com/ but we were unsettled. I really wanted a boy to carry on the family name, but we knew we wanted another child regardless if it was to be another girl. Though three was an odd number, something felt right about it.

Twelve months ago today, we became a family of 5 with three kids (5 kids if you include our "boys" - the dogs) after God laid it on our hearts to adopt a baby boy from South Korea. Read the blog entry below.

This has been the blog of his story from our first adoption conversations through his first year with us. Read entry one here: http://luvfromasia.blogspot.com/2007/06/our-first-real-adoption-step.html

Though much more is in front of us, this blog will no longer be updated. It will remain for those that want to read the story, but updates about our family will now all be posted on our main family blog here. http://bradysfamily.blogspot.com/ From time to time there may be adoption info updates that will be posted here, but for the most part it is what it is!

We are ambassadors of adoption and encourage anyone to strongly consider letting God change your life and the life of a child by doing so. Read our story and you will see why! God is good!

One Year with Quinn

2009-04-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

One year ago, our life was just about to be turned upside down and we had no clue.

The adoption process was well under way to bring home from South Korea a cute little boy we only knew in pictures and one short video. Mr. Smiley had us all wrapped around his little finger. His contagious smile and bubbly attitude were obvious from even the short video and few pictures we had.

Then, the call came that everything was set and we were approved to get plane tickets and make our way to Seoul. Just days later, Julie and I boarded a Korean Air monstrous airplane and 15 hours later were standing in the heart of South Korea. Everything Julie and I had discussed, prayed about, worked on and planned for was suddenly upon us like a duck on a June bug.

The day we met him for the first time was surreal. His foster mom was so sweet and amazing, and Quinn immediately took to us. I instantly knew this little guy was brave and strong. He had already gone through so much turmoil in his short 7 months of life, yet here he was embracing us and seemingly ready for the next adventure.

Three days later, we were back in Texas, new son in hand, as a family of five. Quickly our life changed. We wanted a boy, and a boy we certainly got.

The last 12 months have been full of fun, challenges, and learning that boys are nothing like girls. Yes, our little Mr. Smiley has turned our world upside down in many ways. I call him a one man terrorist organization. In minutes he can destroy and be into everything in sight.

But, I would not change it for the world. There is something special about our son. God has big plans for him. I can feel it. Maybe part of that is turning the rest of the world upside down. Lord knows the world needs it.

Quinn is a boy full of energy, passion, curiosity and love. His favorite thing to do in public is wave and say hi to everyone. He loves people. He knows no strangers. It used to be all about our twin girls when we went anywhere. Now people see Quinn's amazing smile and it's all about him. He truly lights up a room. Though he likes to check out and get into everything, he is amazingly adapted. He loves our girls, our dogs and the rest of the family. As they have embraced him, his arms have been extended right back at them.

It's after he nearly kills himself after somehow finding the hidden pair of scissors that we have to remind ourselves of these wonderful attributes. LOL.

I really cannot believe it has already been a year. What a journey adoption was from begining to end. Our quiver is full and we are done having kids. But the Quinn story will always be fresh in our hearts and minds.

Julie and I are just blessed and thankful to be chosen as the parents for this amazing little guy. His smile is love. His joy is contagious.

And, his terror keeps us on our toes.

Life is good 12 months later.

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow.html?fl=3082965&alb=0

(this will be the last post on Quinn's blog - future posts will be in our main family blog - www.bradysfamily.blogspot.com)

Yep, He is ALL Boy

2009-04-05T02:34:00.000-07:00

After Julie had the girls, deep inside I still wanted a boy in the family. Being the last "Speers" in the family line, I truly wanted the family name to continue and I wanted the experiene of raising a boy.

Early indications are God has FULLY answered my prayers. Quinn is ALL boy that is for sure.

Though he can occasionally slip on the girls play shoes, walk around with one of their purses and push around a baby stroller, Quinn is every bit the boy our curious minds wondered about after the first two child rearing years with the girls.

In just under the year since came into our lives, he has truly turned it upside down. And I mean cups of water on the floor, unplugging electronics, shutting down computers, walking outside after figuring out how to open the door, eating everything he can grab, grabbing everything in sight....oh and that is a short list.

He is a ball of joy and a ball of pain all wrapped into one! God is good.

First Haircut!

2009-02-26T11:01:00.000-08:00

Today was a special day for dad and Quinny. We both enjoyed some time together at my office and then we headed to get his first haircut! He was nervous and a little whinny but otherwise sat still and was a good boy! What a special moment for us two!

We ended the morning with a nice trip to CFA just the two of us!

A Year Ago Today

2009-01-28T17:53:00.000-08:00

It was a year ago today that Julie and I told the world about our little boy in South Korea. We had spent days praying, researching and thinking about this child that we had seen on our agency's website and finally we both knew that we were called to be his family and he our child.

It was a great day for us all and Julie as it was her birthday. I will never forget calling her parents and showing the little video we had gotten in the mail that very day to my family here that night. Most of us were in tears as we realized this precious little guy on the other side of the world was about to be a Speers.

We had a baby boy and soon he would be in our arms....

Celebrating Korean New Year in Dallas!

2009-01-26T08:58:00.001-08:00

http://bradysfamily.blogspot.com/2009/01/happy-korean-new-years-2009.html

Quinn Update

2009-01-23T18:12:00.000-08:00

People often ask via email, forums, calls, etc how Quinn is doing so I figured for those few that still keep up with his blog that I would answer that question.

Quinn is growing like mad. He eats like no other boy in the world! He just loves it here. He loves his mommy and daddy and is very attached to not only us but his entire family, especially his aunt Becky. He really loves his sisters too, though he drives them crazy and is already copying eveything they do (or at least trying to). He basically just loves people. He loves to walk around whereever we are saying hi and even giving strangers hugs....which of course we try and avoid at times.

He is really just a happy camper most of the time. He is very smart and figures out how to do things VERY quickly. He is way more to keep up with than even thr girls were with two at his age. It is amazing the difference between girls and boys and he is ALL boy! (he does like his sisters dolls, strollers and purses though.....)

He is talking alot more and is very communicative with nods, saying "yeah" or telling us no.

In general he keeps us laughing and reminds us all, that despite circumstances, we should have the joy of the Lord everywhere we go!

Q's Foster Brother has Forever Family

2009-01-16T05:14:00.000-08:00

During the course of Quinn's adoption we met alot of neat people all over the country (mostly online) that were also in the process of adopting a child from Korea. One of them was a family we came to know via email that lives near Texas.

Only months after we came home with Quinn they learned information about their adopted child and it turned out he was with the same foster mom as Quinn, Mrs. Kim! How exciting it was to know we would have this incredible connection between us and this amazing woman of the Lord. Mrs. Kim has fostered many babies in Korea and certainly has a special place in eternity for her efforts and love.

The exciting thing was that this week this family left for Korea and as I write this they are at Eastern meeting thier baby boy and Mrs. Kim just like we did 6 months ago. What a special time! She even took a photo of Quinn with her to show Mrs. Kim and I bet she will certainly be surprised to know that God connected our families! When they get back we plan to go see them and do a "family photo" to send to her with both of her foster children!

One day I will be able to share more information about this child and family, but it sure is incredible to see how God works and the little "extra" things he has done for Quinn to make his story that much more incredible.

Quinny Has First Christmas with Forever Family

2008-12-28T10:51:00.000-08:00

Just 8 months ago we made the journey to Seoul to bring this little amazing boy into our families and give him the love he deserves. Since then he has done nothing but give us way more than we could ever give him. He is full of love, smiles, hugs and kisses.

It is amazing at all our baby boy has overcome to be where he is today with such an amazing attitude.

This Christmas season we celebrated him being a part of us and us being a part of him. He was spoiled with candy, toys, and most importantly lots of love from us, his sisters, his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and a few great grandmothers!

And it was the first of many!

Want to see some pictures? click here and go to our photos!

http://www.thefamilypost.com/Speersfamily/

Quinn Follows Sisters Lead - Doesn't Like Santa

2008-12-19T08:01:00.000-08:00

Quinn's sisters have had a tradition of freaking out when it comes to actually sitting in Santa's lap each year. Quinn followed in their footsteps during his visit with Santa at the Gaylord Texan last night. He was not a happy camper.

Hopefully Santa will still be good to our little sunshine!

Quinny Meets Santa!

2008-12-09T18:20:00.000-08:00

Saturday was a big day for our family as we had "Breakfast with Santa" for our local multiples club - AMOM. The girls finally warmed up to Mr. Claus and told him what he wanted, while Quinny was a little cautious and concerned about this man all in red.

Quinny gave him a slight hug as you can see in this photo.

Quinny Update

2008-10-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

Quinny is 100% boy! Let me tell you we are learning the difference between boy and girl toddlers! Ha! He is SO active and into EVERYTHING.....

But he is full of joy and smiles 90% of the time. Everywhere we go he is reaching out to people, waving or saying "hi".

He LOVES his big sisters and they make him laugh which makes us all laugh cause he has a very deep, belly laugh.

Words are starting to be more common as he is now saying: moma, dada, How(for his Howard bear), uhoh, hi, and a few others.

Life is certainly busier than ever for Julie and I, but Quinny has added a flavor to our family and to our lives that we never expected and it sure is good.

Quinn Speers - It's Official

2008-09-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

Our little baby boy is....our baby boy! He was officially adopted by us today in family court in downtown Fort Worth. (we had to wait 6 months until we could make it legal).

What an incredible day and thanks to the amazing court workers who made the day one of the most special of this entire process. There were balloons, cookies and gifts for all of the kids and siblings. The judge took pictures with each family as the came forward when called and you could tell he was truly honored to be a part of the process.

Quinn is now a Speers. How amazing....

Final Post-Adoption Homestudy Completed

2008-09-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

Just a little over 12 months ago we had our first home study in order to begin the process of adopting a baby from South Korea. Tonight was the last.

In just a matter of weeks (4), little Quinny the pooh will officially be our son according to the State of Texas. Tonight we completed our final home study with our incredible social worker. It was likely our last time to see her for awhile, but she played an important role in helping us over the last year. She is another in a long list of people we will never forget who assisted us and that God used to bring our son to us and us to him.

We are grateful that all of the adoption paperwork will be over this month, but we cannot be more thankful in how smooth it all has gone. What a blur the last 12 months have been.

Now we can focus fully on being a family.

http://www.dillonadopt.com/

Big Steps for Our Little Quinny

2008-08-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

Quinn is walking!

He started taking 4-5 steps to each of us this weekend. Yeah! He could walk farther if he just did not crack himself up over doing it! Check out our website for a short, funny video of some of his first steps. (look in the video section)

http://www.thefamilypost.com/Speersfamily/

Tol Party Huge Success

2008-07-28T07:57:00.000-07:00

Throwing a Tol party for your Korean child's first birthday is really an all week affair. Wow. It takes a lot of work to pull it off (mostly by the wife in the family).

But, it is so worth it.

Quinn turned one this weekend and we celebrated in Korean style complete with Hanboks, Bulgobi BBQ, rice cakes, Kimchi and other Korean side dishes. Over 40 people showed up to join in the fun. What a great time Quinn had getting more toys to play with than any child I have ever seen!

Quinn Turns One! Happy Tol Birthday!

2008-07-27T18:51:00.000-07:00

Our little baby boy just turned 1 years old and we had a great Korean Tol party to celebrate this amazing child. He has only been with us for the last four and we can only imagine what we missed in his first eight months of life. It has hard to know all that Quinn has experience in the last 12 months as we only know part of his story. We do know more than we can share, but we can certainly testify that based on the last 4 months he has been ours, that he is one amazing baby boy. If I could list five words to describe him it would be active, happy, determined, strong-willed, and curious. His nickname on the Dillon website was “Mr. Smiley” and he has lived up to that name every single day. We are truly blessed that God chose us to be his forever family.

We first got sight of him on the Internet on Tuesday, January 22, when Julie noticed his great smile on the Dillon website waiting child section. Instantly we both knew there was something about him and a week later we made the official announcement that he was to be the child for our family. We have 2 year old twin daughters that had similar birth weight and pre-maturity issues and we just knew he was the child God had for us and we were the family He had for him. We completed the paperwork and on April 17th he came home with us as our son.

He spent nearly 7 months with his foster family. You can tell by the photos they gave us when we went to Seoul that he was cherished and loved greatly by them and had a wonderful setting. They provided him security, peace and consistent love. When they came to Eastern the morning we left for America, it was a very sad moment as his foster parents said goodbye. We promised to keep them informed throughout his life. They were his little angels God sent to care for him while he prepared us and our girls. It takes a special heart to be a foster-parent. They said he was a very special little boy and both had tears in their eyes as we drove off. Julie and I did too. Quinn took it in stride and spent the next 14 hours on a plane without shedding nearly a tear! What else should we have expected?

Quinn arrived in the United States on April 17, 2008 and he was about to be 10 months old. Our hope that he would be home by his first birthday, the Tol, was coming to pass. After being welcomed home at DFW airport by many friends and family, Quinn fell right into line with his sisters and our home. He was having a ball and so were we, though we had to remember everything about caring for a toddler again. It had only been a little over a year, but it was a little wild with three at first. The girls took to him quickly and adjusted to having a brother faster than we thought they would. Quinn was still on formula and was still having some stomach issues, but by June he was eating solids and eating about anything he could get in his mouth.

It didn’t take long for us to realize he was way more active than the girls ever were. Man, could he move! Plus, he was one fast crawler. We thought he might be an early walker, but he seems to like how fast he can crawl and basically refuses to even try and walk. He is one active boy and he never stops moving! If he sees it, he gets it, no matter what he has to overcome (literally) to get it. We learned quickly he can climb the stairs in seconds. He did that a little over a month after being here too!

We joined our new church after we came home with him so that all 5 of us would be there. It was important to us that he was apart of this special event. It was a special day and later in May he was dedicated by our new pastor. He loves our church and we even have a Korean service there on the weekend. The workers and everyone raves about him and he takes to the workers well and enjoys the time there.

Quinn got to experience his first family Balloon Festival, Speers Memorial Day and 4th of July parade and celebration with us this summer. He has been the star of the show since April and all everyone is talking about. We cannot get over how incredible he is. Despite his first month of sleepless nights, he now sleeps through the night and loves his own little room. Every morning when one of us goes up to get him, his is standing waiting on us with a huge smile on his face. He also loves our two dogs, the only boys we had until Quinn, and took to them though dogs are not a big thing in Korea.

Quinn babbles all the time but basically only says momma and dada at this point. But he is very vocal and can make it known when he is not happy, which we have learned is when he is hungry, tired or just mad that we told him to stop doing something he wanted to do. He has been given a lot of names too over the 4 months he has been here such as Quinners, Quinny the Pooh and Chubbers. This last month we have noticed he has become an eating machine. We literally have to stop giving him food at meat time or he would eat for hours. He eats like a mad man and still loves his bottle. But, nothing is more important to him than his little stuffed HPU bear, called Howard. He chews on and sleeps with that every night. Chloe has “Lambie”, Sidney has “Penguin” and he has Howard. Great stuff.

The first 12 months of Quinn’s life have been unlike most anyone that would ever read this. But we can already see in him a strength that I bet we will all admire later in his life as he grows older. As I always say, he is the happiest in our family and he has been through the most! God is great, that is all I know to say.

(revised to protect all involved)

Q is Doing So Good!

2008-06-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

Our little Quinn is already a boy of many names:

Qster

Quinn

Quinny

Quinny, the pooh (his sisters call him this)

Seong Wook-ga

Chubbers

He is ALL boy too, let me tell you! But ALL fun too! Here are some recent shots.

Building Families Quinn Fund

2008-06-07T06:50:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

As you know, Julie and I recently adopted a baby boy from South Korea name Quinn Seong Wook. His is an amazing boy and fits right in with our family. We are truly amazed at God’s goodness and how He puts children and families together via adoption.

We have been working with Dillon International since our return and together have set up a “Fund” called the Building Families Quinn Fund in honor of our son to assist other families who feel led to adopt and help a child have a forever family. This fund will provide finances to other families who desire to adopt but may be held back for financial reasons. We personally plan to contribute monthly and wanted you all to know how you can help if you feel led. There are many families right now in the process that need grants from a fund like this and we can all help make sure a child is not left without a family simply because of money. Quinn’s Fund will be set aside specifically for children in South Korea and will also target kids with special needs.

This is a great way to give and all donations are tax deductible thanks to Dillon.

To help, click the link below, click on the “Donate Now” button and then choose “Quinn Fund” under the program selection options.
http://www.dillonadopt.com/

Thanks for each of you and God Bless!

For more on Quinn see his blog: www.luvfromasia.blogspot.com

Seoul Tour Book Published

2008-05-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I compiled our "Seoul Report" for those wanting a hard copy to take with them on their trip to South Korea. It is a 22 page book of all we learned, places we saw and recommended and hints about traveling to Seoul.

If you want a copy they are about $12 and I make zero. Just hope it will help someone. It's actually my first real, self-published booklet. I am working on a few more books right now - see - http://nobonesaboutit.blogspot.com/

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/145770/36ab6155cb5623d4565ec58f48464c62

I can still email a .pdf file if anyone would prefer it.

Our Son's First Month

2008-05-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

Life has been crazy busy since we got back from Seoul a little over a month ago. Life with 3 certainly is much more than just adding one more to the mix. Our house has turned into a romper room of sorts from 7am until 8pm each day; adding one more child to the pile might as well be 4 more. Wow. For those of you in the process of adopting - get ready! Lots of changes in store.

Quinn's first month was wonderful however. Despite sleepless nights (mostly for Julie), a bad runny nose that he cannot seem to kick, and everyting being new, he has done amazingly well. He has really bonded to all of us in his own way. He loves Julie and calls her "momma" and seems to light up when "dada" comes near too. He is every bit the boy I have always dreamed of having. Fun, fun, stuff.

The girls have adapted too and now they are starting to play around and with him. The usually call him by his Korean name "Seong Wook-ga" which we think is so cute. He really loves his Korean name and smiles big when we use it.

He spends most of his days smiling and exploring all of these new things. He is a busy body but really seems happy. He really is a joy. His nickname "Mr. Smiley" is so true. Sometimes we tell him he looks like his face is about to crack open he has such a huge grin.

He is quick though. Much different than our girls. He can move as fast as lightning and does not like to be told he can't go, touch or do something. And, when he is hungry or tired, boy he will let you know. His sleeping patterns have been the toughest thing to deal with so far. He still seems to be on Asia Pacific time as about 4am in the morning he is up and ready to start life. But each week he gets more and more into a routine. Which is especially good for Julie as she has slept in his room every day since we have been back. Finally, this week my wife started sleeping with me again! :>

This last weekend was his first trip out to his great grandmother's house, Grandma Kat, as we celebrated Memorial Day. The family got their first real taste of his personality and he had everyone grinning from ear to ear. He fits in so well, it is like you can clearly see God designed him for us and us for him before time began.

Most of our concerns with him medically have been erased. His doctor sees no issues to be concerned about and he is eating solids finally. (I will say this, his poops are unreal. OMG even the dogs leave the room when he unloads in his diaper. Whew.) He looks to be ready to walk at 10 months. He is so close. We are doomed once that happens too....

It's really amazing how God gives you such a love for an adopted child. It truly is as if Julie gave birth to him. We are blown away and full of such happiness and humility to have him as our son.

I hope this encourages those that are waiting. It will be worth it all!

We Are Family...

2008-05-25T20:21:00.000-07:00

Just my sister, brother and me...

Picture Day!

2008-05-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

I had my friend, my photographer, Cheryl, take pictures of my beautiful kids last week. Cheryl is AMAZING...but she had some pretty good subjects, too! This slide show will only be up for a few days, but I just had to share!
www.cherylogle.com
click on Enter Site
click on Clients
password: speers1

Dedication Sunday

2008-05-11T17:55:00.000-07:00

Baby Dedication was always such a bore before we had kids. Now, with 3 in the bag, it means more each and every time.

Today, Mother's Day, we dedicated our new baby boy Quinn to our Lord just as we did the girls nearly 3 years ago. We committed to our friends, family and fellow church members that we would do everything we could to guide him into a life of love, grace, forgiveness and joy.

What an honor.

Fun in the Sun

2008-05-11T13:28:00.000-07:00

Baby Quinn Gets a Shower

2008-05-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

In honor of our new baby boy, our friends and family threw him a baby shower like no other yesterday!

Thanks to all who helped plan and organize the event which helped us greatly with clothing, toys, diapers and more! What an amazing group of friends and family we are blessed with. Quinn is gonna love it! He certainly loved it yesterday as he was passed around for hours.

One of the neat things we did for him that we also did for our twin girls when they were born was create a "tile mirror" for his room. The mirror is made of small square tiles each designed and painted by a friend or family member. The tiles are then "fired" and framed around a square mirror. Everyone had fun drawing or putting messages on theirs!

Picture Update!

2008-04-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, so some of you out there wanted some more pics of our amazing little boy. Here some are! Enjoy.

View Our Quinn and Seoul Slideshows

2008-04-25T13:46:00.000-07:00

For Quinn photos click here:

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow.html?fl=2967470&alb=0
For Seoul click here:

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow.html?fl=2967473&alb=0

Enjoy!

Quinn is Doing Great - Girls Are Adjusting

2008-04-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

Quinn is doing wonderful and is already transitioning to his new lifestyle here in the U.S.

Our twin girls however, are a different story which is making life a little unpleasant at times for us both. They are really acting up, needy and VERY MOODY since we have gotten back, which we both think is likely their way of showing their unhappiness in us leaving them for 5 days and their confusion about this little boy that has joined the family.

After all, the girls are not even 3 yet. But, man, we could use some sleep!

A Quinn slideshow coming soon!

Jet Lag & Photos - Ugh

2008-04-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, it has become that I cannot keep up with sleep or all of the pictures we have taken and keep taking of our latest family addition!

We both need some Calgon.

But, here are some great photos of our homecoming at the airport taken by our "family photographer" (can I say Cheryl is that 'cause she basically is?). Her website is www.cherylogle.com and she is amazing! That's from one photographer to anther (she is way better than I am!).

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow.html?fl=2964986&alb=0

Don't Think That Just Because We Have Quinn...

2008-04-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

that our updates are gonna stop! Unlike some others (Uhem Margie - I mean Tim (Margie told me to say this Tim)) we will continue to update our son's progress and life!

Plus, we have tons to share about the trip, Seoul, Eastern, Dillon and South Korea! We are unpacking, spending time as a family and, once I get through about FOUR BILLION photos and video files, we will start posting some great information, tricks and stuff we learned.

Hopefully it will help those of you that are next to get your child by traveling. We had such a great trip because of all we learned from the many others ahead of us who shared their experiences so it is the least we can do.

I will say this - if you are wrestling with going to Korea or having your child escorted and you can afford to go - DO IT! We are so glad we decided to go!

Talk to you all soon and, thanks again for all the wonderful comments! God bless!

Quinn is Home - Forever!

2008-04-17T12:03:00.000-07:00

We arrived on time and in great condition this morning at DFW airport at 8:35am after a brief little TWELVE HOUR flight. This was after leaving Seoul at 9:50am the same day, so we are totally jacked up! We basically had two Thursday mornings...

The trip was awesome and Quinn did not cry one time.* Everyone was amazed! He laughed, slept and stole the show with those around us on the plane. He had a great and larger than expected welcoming party at the airport too. (Thanks to everyone who came out to welcome us home and welcome him to our country and family! We know most of you had to take a day off of work and that meant a ton! We have some of the best friends and family members in the world)

But we are totally exhausted and about to sleep for-ev-er. This was truly an amazing experience in every way.

When we got home Quinn spent hours laughing and playing with his new cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles and dogs! He loved it all!

Quinn now has his forever family and he is now home forever!

*results not typical - results may vary!

Seoul Day 4 - Final Comments

2008-04-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

We just woke up and are making final preps for the airport, which is likely to be chaos with all of the bags we have, a baby and few people speaking English well, but God has taken care of every little thing since this entire adoption process started so I have high expectations. All we care about is getting on that plane and sitting down. We could use 12 hours of sitting!

As you all sleep we will be flying across the top of the world. Over China, back over Siberia, the Bering Sea, Alaska, the over Canada and into the US. We cannot wait to share everything with you all, especially our new little tyke! He is so incredible! We really miss our girls and our dogs too! So we are just as eager about this flight as we were about the one coming over here.

We will really miss this city and these people. It has changed me forever in many ways. Once I get back to normal I will be writing A LOT about it all and will hope to pass it on to you. Next time we come we might bring an entire gang of people who could love on some babies. There are about 40 of them that just need to be loved, rocked, told their special and prayed over.

Love from Seoul,

Brady

Seoul Day 3 - Final Live Update from Seoul

2008-04-16T01:49:00.000-07:00

Today was by far the best day since we have been here! Oh my gosh a lot happened today, best of which was spending some more unexpected time with Quinn this afternoon at Eastern! I am so beat I cannot really write all we did so but I did want to post some more pictures for you all. (Even if I was not wiped out I am not sure I could put into words all that happened today - just so amazing). OK - Julie just informed me that I needed to give more details than this....

Today was literally a blur of activity as we tried to get everything in we did not get done the last two days. I cannot explain how sore our feet are though!

We started the day with a mission - head to Bucheon (poo chon) via subway and located the hospital he was born at. We had to play detective as no information was given to us other than "Bucheon Hospital" which we figured meant "a hospital in Bucheon" that might be named something other than "Bucheon Hospital". (Bucheon is outside of Seoul about 10-15 minutes so we were outside of the tourist areas for sure and really on our own - again feeling all eyes on us at times.)

Finally, after doing some major walking and asking a few people for a hospital, we found it! And get this - it is called Seong-ga Hospital and his first Korean name is Seong! Since we know someone at the hospital likely named him when he was born we figured this was not a coincidence. Further supporting our belief was the fact that this hospital was large and had NICU. We are so excited that we could find it and get photos for him later in life.

Then we made our way to World Cup Stadium thanks to the guide of an older Korean man who saw us on the subway. He personally escorted us through 2-3 subway stations and train change points and pointed us to the right stop; then had to get back on a train himself and return to where he was headed - all without speaking a word of English. (These people are unreal - we have a ton to learn from them as Americans.)

The stadium was amazing and so big I cannot describe! We bought some FC Korean soccer team hats and shirts and had but a few hours left. So, we left there and hit Insadong, which was by far our favorite shopping area! We got name scrolls for our family, the girls and Quinn and some other special keepsakes! We only had about an hour there, but it was the highlight of our shopping here for sure.

Finally, we came back to Eastern and saw Quinn again and got to play with him for about an hour. His foster mom gave us some amazing gifts too including a Honbok, a sweater vest and hat that she knitted and two photo albums full of his pictures!!!!

After that, we saw Dr. Kim again and he gave the blessing prayer (in Korean) over Quinn, his foster mom and us which was truly humbling. This was done with a group of Eastern staffers too including Ms. Shil and Ms. Oh and some agency representatives from Colorado and Minnesota.

To end the day we met with Dr. Kim, Jin Sook (the new President of Eastern and daughter of Dr. Kim). She met with us for about 45 minutes, told us the history of Korea, orphans in Korea and what Eastern does to help and then gave us some amazing gifts to bring home (seriously, can these people be any more Christlike?!?!?! They are incredible!).

That is truly a summary! I could write for days but I am dying of hunger and overly tired.

Anyway, here are some great pictures. He is so stinking fun and cute you are all going to die when you meet him! By the time you all read this we will be sleeping and getting ready to come home! Our brains are completely overloaded with every emotion and thought you can imagine, and we are JUST NOW getting used to the fact that we are on the other side of the world! But, tomorrow we start our 12 hour flight back! Pray for safety, peace and a quick return!

We hope to see a ton of you at the airport!!!!! Come see Quinn and someone please have an ice tea for us both!

Live from Seoul - Day 2

2008-04-15T06:02:00.001-07:00

Another day in this amazing city is behind us. A day closer to coming home (yeah) but also a day away from knowing we did not get nearly as much accomplished as we had hoped. This place is just bigger than you can possible imagine. It is like a combination of New York City and San Francisco as far as how this place is laid out and looks.

Here is what we did today:

1. We visited a Korean Palace that ended up being closed

2. Spent an hour being lost

3. Went to US Embassy

4. Discovered Koyobo Bookstore (best bookstore EVER!)

5. Took City Bus Tour

6. Toured Korean War Museum & saw Dead Sea Scrolls (insane on both accounts!)

7. Shopped at Itaewan for gifts/goodies

8. Went to top of NSeoul Tower

9. Rocked/Fed babies in Eastern Nursery

More details will follow but I need some sleep! Here are some more photos of our trip here.

We should learn tomorrow if we get Quinn tomorrow night or if we pick him up the morning we leave. We are just trying to get it all in before we leave so we have tons to tell and give him later in case we cannot return!

Love you all....pray for our safe and QUICK trip home and watch us online as we return!

More Photos - Seoul Day 1

2008-04-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

Day One - 1st Meeting with Quinn

2008-04-14T01:54:00.001-07:00

Words cannot express how incredible our day has been, so far. I woke up at 3:30am, Julie at 5:00. We had our meeting to meet our baby at 10:00am, so we had to kill 5 hours. We walked around the city for a few of those, ate at McDonald's of all places for breakfast, and took our first ride on the crazy Subway system back to Eastern. By the time we did all of that we only had an hour left, so we went down to the nursery and saw all the babies - about 30 of them!

But, I will write more about all of that later tonight when I cannot sleep because we took a 4 hour nap this afternoon!

Most importantly, this morning, we met our son for the first time - so here are some photos.

VIDEO IS POSTED HERE!!

http://www.thefamilypost.com/Speersfamily/videos.php

UPDATE: (same day, now 11:14pm SEOUL time)

Ok, so much to say about this place and our first full day here. We arrived yesterday after our flight and promptly got our first real experience of being the minority in a crowd - as in BIG TIME minority. We saw some white Americans this morning on the sidewalk and they looked as excited we were to see them and say something to each other in English like "How are you guys?". Overall we have seen about 4 non-Asian people, so like I told Julie, we now know how Quinn will likely feel at times - like the only one like himself around. I will never forget this either. Really makes you come face to face with prejudices we have that we don't think or want to admit we have.

There is a real sense of "all eyes on us" out here, for obvious reasons. But, overall, we are looked on with curiosity (almost like our spaceship is parked around the corner) but with much openness, as the people here are AMAZING. We could learn a ton from the way they live over here. More than I can write right now.

This is place is bigger than New York City, but as laid back as Fort Worth, but more crowded than the streets during a Pope parade in San Antonio. It is just unreal. I told Julie at one point while standing in a very crowded and lively subway station that this was "culture shock in every way". More on that at a later time. I cannot forget to discuss this however - work, shop and eat.

After we met Quinn and his foster mom, we got to meet with the founder and President of Eastern Social Welfare Society, Dr. Kim. He is 92 years old and we got some one-on-one time as he showed us a short video and talked about his passion for children. This place is full of God and His power!

He has single-handily started this and other orphanages in Korea as well as schools for special needs kids, homes for older children, vocational training programs, and a home for unwed mother's, just amazing. He was very humble and grateful for our cash donation too, which came from the garage sale we had. Everyone here embodies his attitude and character it seems.

Then the Director of Children Services Mrs. Shil, took us to a real Korean restaurant for lunch which was very good, though I felt like I was acting like Doug from King of Queens (dropped my chop sticks on floor, could not get dumplings out of the bowl, etc - more on that later).

Then we came back and crashed. What was supposed to be a 1 hour nap turned into 5. Still full from lunch we decided to head out to the streets. We decided we would do some shopping at a place called Namdaemun Market (nom day moon) and outdoor collection of Korean/Asian shops with everything you could image. It was huge, as in the size of a small city - seriously. We bought girls and Quinn some traditional Hongboks and got some other small gifts before totally tiring out and taing the subway back to Eastern for the night. Tomorrow will be killer.

Our feet are tired from walking and climbing the stairs in and out of subway stations! Too many steps to count!

More later! Love you all and thanks for the wonderful comments. God is good, no?

Spin the Globe, Stop Halfway, There We Are

2008-04-13T03:00:00.001-07:00

We made it to Seoul. After getting on one of the biggest planes I have ever seen, we flew for 14 hours and landed at 3:11pm Sunday afternoon. (about 1am Sat for you puppies back in the US)

Believe it or not the flight went super fast - despite the fact that we had NO TVs like we were supposed to each have (we got an OLD 777 turns out) and so we had to depend on my IPOD with a battery that lasts about THIIISSS long or watch 14 hours of mostly Korean TV on the ONE screen the airplane had for us all to enjoy. But regardless, Korean Air was the way to go. Incredible service, insane food, and great flight. They did have the flight tracker deal on the screen so I could watch and see where we were. It was wild to watch us fly over the US into Canada, over Alaska, then Siberia, China and finally into Korea. Crazy. Plus we had empty seats around us so we got to spread out. I took Ambien and still only slept maybe an hour total. Julie got more. We were amazed though at how fast the day went.

Seoul is H-HUGE. Feels like an asian New York City and we are right in downtown staying at Eastern.

We are finally tired and hitting the hay at 7pm Seoul time. We get to spend an hour with Quinn at 10am tomorrow! That means we will be posting/calling after lunch.

We cannot wait.

Just Hours From Now...

2008-04-11T07:11:00.000-07:00

In just a matter of hours, my wife and I will be getting on a Korean Air 777 airliner heading around the world to visit Seoul, meet our son for the first time and then bring him home just a few days later.

It is hard to put what we are feeling into words. Here are some that describe it:

anxious
excited
nervous
expectant
hopeful
proud
peaceful
happy
emotional
urgent
inpatient

I think when Julie was about to give birth to our girls in 2005 this was about the same list of words I would have written down at that time. One of the questions people who know very little about adoption often ask is, "How does it compare to having a child naturally?".

In so many ways it feels exactly the same. Yet, they are really quite different. But, overall, they are equally emotional, exciting, and nerve racking. Actually, in many ways I think the adoption process is MORE nerve racking and emotional, simply because there is a true sense you that are on your own. In most cases those in your inner circle have never had anything to do with an adoption. No one you know really can relate.

But most importantly, I believe God gives those that adopt special feelings, pride and a sense of parental bonding to a child He has called you to love, adopt and provide a forever family to. I cannot explain this to most people, but other adoptive parents and friends we have met during this process say the same thing; you almost feel like you actually gave birth to this child!

God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.

Our baby boy is going to love his new family and we are going to love our new baby boy.

And now we are only hours from all of this coming to a big-time, wonderful end, when he is officially ours.

Flight info

2008-04-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

For those of you who would like to meet us at the airport upon our arrival with Quinn, here is our flight info. I'm also putting our departure info for Saturday and you can track our journey with this website: www.flightstats.com - just put in our flight info and you'll know where our plane is at any given time!! Pretty cool!

Saturday, April 12
Depart DFW 10:50am
Arrive Seoul Incheon Intl. 3:15pm Sunday
Flight #KE0032

Thursday, April 17
Depart Seoul Incheon Intl. 9:50am
Arrive DFW 8:30am (Thursday)- yes, we are leaving on Thursday and returning on Thursday an hour earlier than when we left! How weird is that?!?
Flight #KE0031

Customs will only take about 30 minutes, so be there at 8:30am Thursday if you'd like to see us!

Neat Letter from Quinn's Cousin

2008-04-08T15:23:00.001-07:00

My 12 year old niece wrote this neat letter for class the day after she was told about him. I finally got a copy and thought I would post it:

“We have got to go”, my mom screeched while galloping towards the car. My mom, Kelsey and I scrambled thru the store hoping to find a cake for my Aunt’s birthday. We found the perfect cake just in time. As we piled in the car, my mom quickly launched the key into the starter, she submerged her foot on to the gas pedal. We got there in record time. As we stood on their lawn, I knew something was about to happen.

We all scrunched onto my aunt and uncle’s couch waiting for the joyful news that is to come. “Three years ago we found out that Julie was pregnant with twins” my uncle stated. “Now we are pregnant again, well not really, we’re just getting another baby!”

Everyone screamed with excitement. The adoption is final, the wait is over. We will have our “Quinn”. The adoption that was supposed to take over a year took only about two months. “We have pictures!”, my aunt loudly abrupted, snatching a stack of papers. “We also have a video!” she said.

Everyone laughed and giggled at the pictures. “He’s soo cute” my nana said. “We will go get him in either in March or April” said my uncle. My uncle put in the video and pressed play with the remote.
The entire room filled with tears. Everyone was intently watching my new cousin play with the toys, and laugh at the lady. We all then realized that a handsome baby boy, would soon be in our arms. The joy of saving a life is amazing!. The rush, the memory will never die.

Maci Jensen
Age 12

TC Received! We Leave Saturday!!!

2008-04-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

Prasie the Lord, Dillon called this morning and we leave to bring our son home in just 4 days! We will fly Korean Air this Saturday morning at 10:50 and return with Quinn next Thursday morning at DFW at 8:20am!

More details and thoughts later!

The Wait is Killer!

2008-04-07T15:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, so, everyone else in our little group gets their TC on Friday. But not us. Not Friday and not today and more than likely not tomorrow seeing how tomorrow Eastern is closed due to elections taking place.

SOOOOO....it is looking like it will be pushed back yet another week. We want to leave on a Saturday with Korean Air. Ughhh. What is the deal!?!

Maybe we will get TC Wednesday and the plane will still have room for us. We know this. We know his travel clearance is approved so this is 100% in Eastern/Dillon hands now.

Not sure what the hold up is, but it is killer!

Quinn's Visa is Done

2008-04-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

We just learned that his Visa exit intervew has been completed. We should get our travel call in the next few days!

We are so eager to go!

Garage Sale HUGE Success - Surpasses Goal

2008-03-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, shopped, made donations and/or gave their time to our weekend family garage sale to help pay for airline tickets to bring Quinn home! I believe over 15 families donated great items and we sold nearly everything! Together we raised over $2200!!!! This will pay for one airline ticket and his ticket home as well!

Thanks especially to my amazing sister and brother-in-law who hosted & coordinated the event, put out signs, gathered items and tables, setup the event and much more! Thanks to my dad for working the event early and all day long both Friday and Saturday as well as Becky's longtime, garage sale expert friends!

"Thanks You"s will be coming in the mail soon!

Brady & Julie

Visa Sent Back to Embassy

2008-03-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

Good News! We are one step closer to getting our Travel Call! Eastern services http://www.eastern.or.kr/eng/htm/home.htm returned the Packet3 Visa papers back to the Embassy in Seoul, which means a Visa interview will be done and then we will be called and told we can travel to bring Quinn home!

Looks like it will now be either the weekend of the 12th if we get lucky but more than likely the 19th.

Deep Thoughts, by Brady Jack

2008-03-26T18:55:00.001-07:00

Ok, not sure how deep they will be, but oh well. I will try!

Julie and I had dinner tonight (yes, without any kiddos - they are in Tyler! YEAH!!!) at Cheesecake Factory (can I get a whoot whoot?!) and we were talking about various adoption stories, adoption friends and adoption topics. Kind of been the center of our talks for the most part of the last 9 months.

We have met so many incredible people during this time that we will forever be changed and blessed to have been touched by some of the most unselfish people on this planet. It is quite humbling and emotional to be honest. It brings tears to both of our eyes many times as we talk about this entire thing and discuss the people involved. From Dillon workers (our agency) to Dillon friends (other adoptive parents) to other adoption related people, everyone has a heart and a love about them that is really unexplainable. It is the closest thing to being around true followers of Christ I can relate too. From what I hear this will even be more apparent to us when we meet the Korean workers at the Eastern Agency in Seoul and Quinn's foster family; those that actually care for these newborns until they have a family. There is love no greater than the love that lays down your life for another and these people sacrifice everything for children they will likely only know a short while and never hold, rock, comfort, kiss, cuddle or sing to again.

I guess what I am already learning about this adoption thing is really quite simple. Some friends of ours are on their way back from Seoul tonight, with new child in hand. But they shared the message on a sign that says it all; Adoption isn't about a family getting a child, it's about a child getting a family.

It feels like it was yesterday that I was standing in line at a store in Walt Disney World when I first talked to some adoptive parents about their 4 year old Korean son. I called Julie after talking to them for nearly an hour and from that moment on, we went full throttle into adopting a boy from Korea.

Now, 9 months later, here we are within days of traveling across the world to meet him and embrace him for the first time and for us all to become a family.

Quinn will have some tough times ahead of him. Racial issues, feelings of being different, identity conflicts, wonderings about his birth family, and cultural issues are just some of the things he may struggle with. But I can say with all hope, joy and determination, that we plan to love, support and encourage him through all of this, year after growing year.

God placed Quinn in our lives as much as He placed us in Quinn's. We will be his forever family and we will be a family forever.

When it comes to the most amazing experiences of life this falls right in line with the rest; accepting Christ as my savior, getting married to Julie, the birth of Chloe and Sidney and now the adoption of Quinn.

Those are the things in life that matter most. Actually, those are really the only things that matter at all.

New Photos of Quinn!!!

2008-03-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

We got an amazing gift in the mail today. Someone at the hospital where Quinn Seong was born made a nice little scrapbook for us! It has some of his newborn photos in it along with some messages in Korean and a note to us was attached in Korean as well.

We just need to get someone to translate it for us, but what an amazing thing. It brought tears to our eyes as in just days we will get to hold him as our own!

Tentative Date Set - April 10th

2008-03-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

We spoke with the Visa department this morning and the lady said our paperwork is going very fast. Said we should get travel call in next 10-14 days.

So, we have pre-arranged our flight plans for APRIL 10th! Yea! Looks like we will have child in hand before our 5th anniversary which is insane!

There is a small chance we could go on the 3rd, bot we are expecting it to be the 10th. Please pray for these things:

1. For God to provide rest of funds needed for trip.
2. Hate to admit this BUT - We need a mini-van and are looking hard!
3. NO RAIN during our huge garage sale next Saturday.

Quinn is coming home soon!

Thanks everyone!

We Got Passport Approval - One More Step!

2008-03-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day as we learned that Quinn's passport has been approved and is ready. Now we are waiting on his Visa to be ready in Korea. We will call the Visa center here in the US tomorrow morning to find out just where in the process we are. The people we had Korean dinner with a week ago got their travel call today and leave Saturday! (Congrats Tim and Margie!)

We should be 10-14 days behind them, but I feel it will be sooner for some reason.

YEA!

HUGE GARAGE SALE in two weeks!

2008-03-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

Pray it does not rain!

Thanks to ALL of you (and there are many) who are donating items to the huge garage sale my sister and her friends have planned to help get Quinn home. All proceeds go to our travel. It will be Friday and Saturday, March 27th and 28th.

I have never seen so much stuff in my life and tons more is coming!

Thanks again everyone!

First Korean Meal, Before We Get to Korea

2008-03-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

Check it out.

http://www.bradysfamily.blogspot.com/

Help Us Go Get Quinn

2008-03-11T20:59:00.001-07:00

Things Are Going Even Faster! Could Travel in Weeks!

2008-03-07T21:35:00.000-08:00

We got notice from Dillon that Quinn's passport is being processed and that usually takes 1-2 weeks. His emigration papers are done and his visa is basically done. Others are telling us to be ready to get our travel call within a week or so of being told his passport is done. Wow!

We could be traveling to Seoul in MARCH!!!! As in, we are packing our things and making arrangments for the girls THIS WEEK!

What excites us the most is that we will get the chance to become his parents while he is still a little baby. He will more than likely be around 9months old, if not younger, when we get him home.

Please pray for our hearts to be prepared, and pray his transition to us is as smooth as it can be. Finally, pray for his foster mom, as she will have a very hard time saying goodbye to her little Seong Wook.

Waiting on Travel Call - Getting Nursery Ready

2008-02-26T19:28:00.000-08:00

Well, we are waiting. Looks like it will be another couple of months at the earliest, but considering how fast this has all gone, we are very blessed. We are eager to go to Seoul, visit his homeland and bring Quinn home!

In the mean time we are raising money, preparing for a huge garage sale this month, getting ready to join MiniVan world, and preparing his room.

Paperwork Headed to Korea Friday - We Will Be Soon

2008-02-06T22:25:00.001-08:00

Once we get our travel call, which will likely be in a few months (April?) we will jump on an Korean Air flight straight to Seoul from DFW. Check out the route map here! Wow. 14hours over Canada, Alaska, Siberia, China and then to Korea.

I have include some pics of the plane we will likely ride on just for grins....

Yes we are excited to get Quinn ho

me. Can you tell?

Meet "Mr. Smiley" - Our Baby Boy Quinn!

2008-01-28T19:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is true. The process that was supposed to take us around 2 years, only took us 6 months! We have a baby boy as of today! For the whole story of how this occured so fast, read my latest entry in my blog.

http://nobonesaboutit.blogspot.com

I will update his blog with more details later, but as you can imagine, it has been a blury of activity.

Besides both being sick for over a week, the last week has been crazy. We learned about this baby boy a week ago Tuesday and confirmed our decision to adopt him over the weekend.

He is cuter than we ever dreamed!

Read My Latest Adoption Book Entry...

2008-01-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

http://nobonesaboutit.blogspot.com/

We May Have a Child - More Details Soon!

2008-01-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

That's all I can say right now. Just pray for our direction and some big decisions we have to make.

Please help if you can. Time has snuck up on us regardless.

http://bringquinnhome.chipin.com/quinn-speers

Amazing News from Dillon

2008-01-09T12:28:00.000-08:00

We got an email update today about current wait times and families waiting on referrals. We are one of only 11 that are approved and waiting!

On top of that, current wait times have been much shorter than the 12 months we have been told to prepare for. Some families are getting referrals for a child in 3 months!!!!!!!!! This means we COULD get a referral for a child in the next 90 days!!!

So, pray God gets us ready for all of this. We still need about $10,000. We have paid $14,000 in fees to date!

We also could get a referral of a girl instead of a boy, though that is not likely. We just have to be open to that. It is all in God's hands now!

We cannot wait for the day our phone rings and we are told a child is waiting on us! What a day that will be and it could be very soon!

It's Official - We Are "Pregnant"!

2007-12-28T15:45:00.000-08:00

What a great Christmas gift we got in the mail on Christmas eve as Dillon sent us our approval letter informing us that our paperwork is complete and we have officially been placed on the "waiting list" for a child!

Now we wait while a child is chosen for us!

It is all in God's hands now!

Homestudy Interviews Are Done

2007-11-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

We finished our homestudy interviews last night as Heather came over and spent about 3 hrs with us and the girls. Now she will write the report up and submit it to Dilon who will then review it and send it to Korea! We should be "in line" by the end of the year and then there will be few blog updates from that point!

Honestudy Part 1 Is Done

2007-11-17T06:40:00.000-08:00

We met with our social worker, Heather, Thursday morning for a few hours to complete the first part (and biggest part) of our homestudy interview. She will come over again the week after Thanksgiving and then complete her report some time in early December. If all goes well, we should be "officially pregnant" and the waiting will begin sometime around Christmas or by the end of the year.

We have finally moved past the last stage we were at when we were with Holt International. We are now moving ahead!

At that time we will begin the real test of our faith as we will start the waiting phase and WAIT for 12-18 months to get the phone call that they have found Quinn! We thought 9 months of Julie being pregnant was hard....

Wow. We are going to need major prayer support. What am I going to do with this blog????

Homestudy About to Begin!

2007-10-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

As of last week, we got word from Dillon that we are approved to move forward about our payment of $5,000 is due in order to get our homestudy done! Thanks to those who have helped us raise funds already as many of our friends have. We are excited and ready to get this ball rolling.

According to Dillon the homestudy will take 60 days or so to complete which means we will "be in line" and the 12 month countdown begins sometime around December. Of course, that "12 month period" could be shorter or longer. God is in control!

Thanks for the Help!

2007-10-04T07:34:00.001-07:00

Just a quick word of thanks those of you who have already donated to the "Bring Quinn Home" fund! Every dollar will help and we really do appreciate it. We are still going to need thousands more over the next 12 months, but we know God will provide. If you want to be a part just click on the link below this entry!

Thanks again!

Wanna Help? - Just Chip In!

2007-10-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

http://bringquinnhome.chipin.com/quinn-speers-adoption

Paperwork Round One COMPLETE

2007-09-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

Dillon has received our application part 2 paperwork (outside of my doctor appoinment report tomorrow and a few referrals) so we are about a week from begining the new homestudy process! Things are progressing as hoped so far!

More to come soon!

More Paperwork....Yuck

2007-09-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

This "switching agencies" thing is not as simple as we thought it was going to be. It will be worth it in the end, and we are very excited about working with Dillon, but getting things together for Part 2 of our application is time consuming too.

We should have it ready to roll by the end of next week. Once we do, the homestudy will soon follow and then we get in line! Our target date is to be in line by the end of October. That means we need to bust it to get our papers done and the homestudy done! We are going as fast as we can! We cannot wait to get our little Quinn home!

To whoever is out there - keep praying please! We still have big time needs.

For now, back to more paperwork.

Dillon Update

2007-09-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

We attended a Dillon adoption overview seminar Saturday in Arlington, hosted by the North Texas director who was also adopted from Korea 30 years ago! It was an incredible day. We met 3 other families in the Texas area who are just starting their Korean adoption process as well and swapped emails and phone numbers. Maybe our kids and theirs will have that connection years from now, who knows!

The day was full of getting ALL of our questions answered, hearing Melaine share her own personal views and story of being adopted (very cool!) and we learned a ton about the process, expectations and much more. It was a cornerstone day for us and really helped us feel more prepared to do this. There will be many things for our friends and families to understand as we bring Quinn home. Hopefully by then I can put some of it on paper and explain the rest in person. Everyone will play a vital role in the development of his security and identity. It is going to be hard but fun too.

We also got to meet 4 other parents who came for lunch that had adopted through Dillon in the North Texas area. They brought their kids and one was a two year old boy from Korea. He was hilarious and the good news is we met his case worker, who we found is going to be our case worker! And, she was very sweet and excited to start working with us!

We should get the 2nd part of our application done in the next few weeks and then our homestudy will be redone sometime in October. Which means we should be "in line" sometime in November, just one month longer than originally planned.

We just love Dillon and all that it stands for! We definately made the right decision in switching agencies.

Dillon Application Part One is Done!

2007-09-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

Well, our application to Dillon is turned in and the ball is officially rolling again in getting Quinn home! We have heard too that the adoption process has quickened in Korea for a variety of reasons!

We are hearing from people who have used Dillon all the time! The feedback is so incredible and it turns out Julie has a friend in her TWINS club that used them over 20 years ago and they adopted from KOREA! Insane.

We have our first meeting with them this Saturday. After that we finish the 2nd part of the app and get the homestudy done. Our goal now is to "be in line" sometime around my birthday!

A Change in Plans?

2007-08-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

We are seriously considering making an agency change. We have been working with Holt International, who has been doing adoptions from South Korea since the 50s, but something is just not settling with us. We are very concerned about their wait times to get a child, and how their response to some of our concerns that we have voiced. Our last phone call was never even returned.

We have found another TEXAS based agency called Dillon www.dillonadopt.com with an office in Coppell! We REALLY like that fact alone and everything we are reading about them is amazing. We are going to do some more research, but have put our homestudy with Holt on hold until we make a decision.

If we go with Dillon, we won't have to completely start over as most of our paperwork will transfer right over to Dillon. Just means we will have to redo a long application, get copies to them and start our homestudy again.

We are going to pray about it and do some thinking and make our decision by Friday at the latest.

Confused...

2007-08-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

Been a frustrating week or so.

Probably par for the course, but it is not fun. We have conflicting information on our I-600A form we mailed off a month ago. No one seems to be able to confirm we did it right nor tell us how long it takes to get some kind of confirmation from the USCIS about it. Their website says they are working on April's apps! Ughh. We thought passports were bad...

Julie still does not have her passport.

Our social worker told us some information we are not comfortable with, but she also seemed a little unsure of herself too. So, who knows.

Now we are hearing Korea is taking between 21-30 months AFTER we turn in our application! This is NOT what we wanted.

So, we are putting some calls into Holt and even looking at other options - countries, a different agency, a little older child, waiting children. We don't want adding two more kids to the family to take 6 years.

Due diligence is all we are doing. We post-poned our Home study Part Two for a week or so until we get some clarification on some things.

Homestudy Phase One

2007-08-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

We met with our social worker, Ellen, last night for our first interview/inspection. She was very nice and just asked us a bunch of interview type questions this go-around. We will meet with her again on the 21st and she will then interview us each personally and check out the house. But, generally it was not bad and we should fly through with flying colors!

We are waiting on a few other docs (Ellen's report, Julie's passport and our I60Oform) and then we will be officialy into the waiting phase!

Homestudy to Begin Wednesday!

2007-08-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

We got a call from our Social Worker, Ellen, tonight! Yea!

She says this will be a "two visit" process, with the first set for Wednesday night. She will then do another the week after next, compile her report and we should be done with all papers at that point! This is great news!

Once we get our passports (a few more weeks) and our I600 done (another month), then all of our papers should be sent to Korea some time in late September! This would be a full month ahead of what we had set as a goal!

Let's hope so! We want Quinn to come home soon!

Quick Update - Social Worker Soon

2007-07-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

Doubt anyone is reading these updates but us, but if for nothing else I'll do so for our own enjoyment later.

We overnighted our documents to LSS in Austin Friday which means they should assign us a social worker sometime this week. We still have to get our passports, medical exams and I600 back in the mail and send to them, but we are done with paperwork phase I. Our social worker will be our main contact and our best friend from now until we get Quinn home. Needless to say we are praying he/she is cool and someone we can really bond with. They will have answers to our MANY questions and concerns...

My guess is our Korean Dossier should be complete with homestudy and all docs and then sent to Korea some time in October. That means our 12-14 month clock (shorter? longer? who knows) will start at that point. That means we could be a year or more from knowing who he will be. Pics and info comes when we get a "referral" of a child sent to us. Then we have another 3-5 months before we can actually go get him! Ahhh.

Basically, it's hurry, hurry, hurry so you can wait FOR-EVE-ERRRRR!!!

Godspeed is what I pray! Where is my Vette when I need it? (it's now owned by another so no luck there)

Funny note - the lady that helped us with our "expedited" passports at the Mansfield Post Office told us she had a cousin that had twin girls AND also adopted a Korean boy. Says they are all great teens today! Just another little nugget God threw in our path last week.

We will post more later...

A Slight Setback.....

2007-07-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

Our hearts dropped a little today when we were told this process will likely take 18-24 months! We had read Korea was much faster and this was a let down to some degree.

We are nearly done with our paperwork and should have a social worker assigned to us within a week or so. Then our homestudy can get done and we can send our paperwork over to Korea and get in line!

We just hoped we would get a referral for Quinn in 4-6 months but today we were informed it is 12-14 months, then another 3-5 to bring him home. We will pray it happens quicker.

Paperwork Is Flying!

2007-07-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

We are into our first week of what some call "paperwork hell". Spent time yesterday making copies, writing autobiographies and the like.

Today I spent lunch at the courthouse getting all kinds of legal docs. Our Department of Homeland Security I-600 form and passports are next on the horizon!

We've already spent $1200! Wow. Crazy.

Money, Money, Money.....Money!

2007-07-09T21:34:00.001-07:00

$25,000 - $30,000!!

What is it for? Why is it so expensive?

From what we know, so far, at least with Korea, here are some of the expenses we must cover:

1. Holt Application - $250
2. Homestudy Application - $250
3. Homestudy Fee - $2800.00
4. Korea Program Fee - $17,200 (varies, might be a little less)
5. I-600 USCIS fee $685
6. Copies & Notarizations of various items - $200
7. Orphange Fee - $3000
8. Travel expenses to get child - $6000 (you usually have two weeks to plan!)
9. Other misc we are still figuring out

This does not include gas, babysitting money while out doing all of these things, new furniture, etc. Wow.

By the way, American adoptions sometimes cost more but are usually at least $18,000!

THE List...

2007-07-09T21:20:00.000-07:00

What all must be done? Well, let me just give you the "Cliff Notes" version. Don't let this scare you from doing an adoption yourself, but having a baby is much easier! Just takes two to tango (married folks that is) and 9 months of waiting!

Here you go - after you have decided the country, sex and agency to use, which in and of itself is a BIG process.

1. Turn in 4 page application to Agency with photos and copies of 3 years tax returns.
2. Turn in Homestudy agency application with MANY documents.
3. Gather ALL of these docs (certified copies from government in most cases) - marriage licenses, divorce decrees if any, finance statement, budget, personal biographies of both parents, medical records statement from doctors on both parents, directions to your home, more photos of family, house and backyard, copies of passport (if none, see next item), completed references forms (4), copy of most recent tax return, statement from employer verifiying salary on company letterhead, photo release form, copy of parents driver's license, copy of parents SS cards, completed financial agreement with $250 check, authorization for criminal background check, copy of parents birth certificates, floor plan of your home that explains what each room is used for, firearms safety verification, statement verifying receipt of tons of articles we are to read, and that is NOT all.
4. Get passports at local Post Office - yuck!
5. Notartize most of the items above!
6. Submit I-600 application to US government with fingerprint cards - must be done at USCIS office!
7. Obtain all the documents from courthouses above that we do not have certified copies of, which is most!
8. Prepare for interviews by social worker at our home
9. Do much of the same for Holt Agency at the same time!

And Korea is an EASIER country cause they do nto require a complete dossier! China is even more on the paperwork side! Ahh!

Paperwork Round One

2007-07-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

We received our first paperwork package today from Lutheran Social Services of the South based in Austin. They will be doing our "homestudy" which is the main paperwork aspect of this entire process. We should get another nice package of things to do from Holt any day.

Some have asked what all is involved and why this cost so much. Good question and we have asked both and are discovering for ourselves the answers to both!

See my next post - What we must do before we get Quinn.

One another then follow - What do you have to pay for to do this?

Hope you learn as much as we are!

Wow. My Emotions Are Crazy!

2007-07-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is going to be a big day. It's like we are at the phase of having a baby in which you "think" you are pregnant and all signs say you are. Tomorrow we mail our application to Oregon to being the process of adopting a boy we will name Quinn.

My emotions are nutts too. I get teary-eyed allot more about babies than ever before these days. I want them all!

I am nervous, excited and have the same "wow!" factor going on in my gut that I did when I found out I was having twins over two years ago. I of course will never forget that day.

But this will be right up there with it. Just imagine. Of all the little children who need homes I am going to be fortunate and blessed enough to have one? For all we know he will be born this week. He could have been born last week. He might be forming in this birth mother's womb right now! It's incredible.

We will fly nearly 23 hours to get there. We will have raised and spent somewhere between $20,000 - $30,000 to do so in the end.

It will be a miracle only God can orchestrate. A miracle for him and a miracle for us.

Our girls will have a brother and I will have a son.

I would not be here if not for the miracle of adoption. My granny made a difference in my mom's life. And , as believers in Christ, all of us are adopted into His family.

If He can adopt me, I certainly can return the favor!

I am not sure how bumpy or smooth the road ahead will be. Our family will suddenly have a new genetic culture to accept, love and embrace. Our lives will never be the same.

But through it all, God will guide every single thing as He is already doing.

That I know. BRADY

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27 (the Message)

Application Sent to Holt Agency!

2007-07-03T22:13:00.000-07:00

It's official. The paperwork process from you-know-where has officially started! Our application to bring home Quinn Speers is now in full motion as we spent nearly 2 hours trying to get this thing notarized and in the mail today! But it is done...

Everyone in both the Speers and Wroten families seem excited (well, except for a few) and we are already getting things done.

There is a lot to do too! I will list just some of the things we have to do soon....IF I have time that is!

Please pray. We need about $20,000.00 to do this. Wow.

And His Name Will Be...

2007-07-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

Quinn Speers.

How does that sound? We like it and the few we have shared it with do too. He could look like the Korean baby boy on the left!

We are excited. The process to have a Korean Speers boy has begun as our application to Holt International will leave this week!

The Story Behind Our Adoption Journey - Part Two

2007-07-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

It really is incredible to see how in a matter of months, weeks and then over the course of one day, how God has guided us down this adoption road. As a result our family will be complete and a few lives (yes, I did say a few) will have a new destiny and home!

NOTE - Read PART ONE first if you have not read it yet - for all the fun stuff! As before, "God signs" will be in red.

It has been amazing as "our part" has consisted of being open, doing research, reading His word, talking to each other and others and listening to what He is saying. All we have essentially had to do is walk. He has made the path clear as the noon day sun. Primarily through using Psalm 37:4 as He has clearly been the one make our own and His desires agreeable!

Up to this point in the story we had these things in our hearts:
1. Us having our own baby was not an option.
2. Domestic adoption was too risky to try.
3. We wanted more kids.
4. We wanted to make a bigger difference.
5. We were feeling called to adopt.

So let's begin PART TWO right there....

Many "God signs" have been taking place all around us - some we noticed and others we didn't until now. Many more I am sure will be discovered later as we keep walking down this path. Some of them have been there for a long time too. For example, my own mother was adopted. Where would I be without her? I also have an adopted aunt my age thanks to my grandmother (my mom's mom).

Plus, we have met and heard about many others such as Dallas Cowboys Hall-of-Famer, Rayfield Wright, who told the story of how he adopted his two children at my own company's Christmas party just last December. Had no idea then that it would means so much now and I cannot wait to email him about it!

But the first real event that occurred for me was hearing about our friends the Honigs as I stated before. That was when I first started to get “feelings” about doing this. So, we decided we ought to start looking into Russian adoption. We bought some adoption books, Julie began doing more research and one thing led to another and soon our feelings on Russia dimmed. It would require two trips to Russia meaning weeks and weeks away from the girls and my office and that simply was not an option at this stage.

Then came the news story of the girls in China (read part one) and a little video by Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman. (You thought his music was good? Wait until the tears of the Mississippi start flowing after watching the video of his daughter!) http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer. Anyway, after reading that story and seeing his video our attention shifted to China. I still wanted a boy but I wasn’t going to cause a stink. We just wanted to help and so many girls in China need homes. The Chapman’s have adopted three children in 5 years!

BTW - There are three main issues one has to research and decide when doing an international adoption – what country, what sex and what agency. We had narrowed the countries to China, Korea, and Guatemala, we only had a few agencies we had even heard of and we had narrowed down the sex to either a boy or girl! So things were progressing nicely! We could not find an agency that would do a Korean adoption in Texas and Guatemala was having all kinds of issues with their adoption process.

Finally, we heard about the Great Wall China Adoption agency based right here in Austin, Texas! It had a great reputation and from the materials they sent us looked like an agency that had it all together and knew the process in and out. So, the next step was to attend an introduction seminar. Julie, who was quickly becoming an adoption Internet guru, found out they were having a seminar in Tyler – her home town – the next day, which was Saturday, June 16th. I could not think of one single thing I would rather do on the one Saturday we had free in June than to go to Tyler, so we headed out the next morning to a Chinese restaurant for this meeting. Of course, food from China ranks high on my list too – right up there with baked, sugar free, whole wheat, glazed donuts. Julie, on the other hand, luvs the stuff!

Anyway, we get to Tyler and no one is at China Buffet! No meeting, no people talking about China girls, nada. Nothing. Zippo. The place is void of people looking to adopt….

Our hearts sank and we spent the day with her parents. It turned out to be fun for us and the girls, but we were really frustrated because we were so eager to learn more. On the way home Julie tracked down a regional director for GWCA based in Fort Worth named Melissa and she agreed to meet us the next week in Grapevine.

We meet with Melissa a few days later and she brought her own adopted daughter Armei, who was from China. She was such as sweet 6 year old. For me this helped put some skin and bones to this entire process going on with us. It was neat to watch the videos and read stuff but I needed to see someone who had done it and see a child whose life had been changed. Melissa had been to China, had done the whole thing and had used Great Wall to do so! She was a first-hand witness and her story was just awesome! We sat there for hours as she told us all about it. We left there knowing we were going to have a China doll of our own one day! There was no doubt. We even had a name picked out – Linley – and one day, Linley would come home….

Over the next week we began to inform family and friends of what was going on. Feedback from them was great and just added to the list of "God signs" that we were in fact being called to do this. Emails came pouring in of support and good stories of people others knew who had done this with no problems. It was amazing. We had also gotten information from a Christian agency that seemed great called Holt International and they said they supported Korean adoptions in Texas. But they were based in Oregon so we tossed them to the side as we had no idea how that would work being so far apart. China it was.

Yet, there was one thing that was really bothering us both a little and that was the fact that by going through China we would have to wait nearly a year before beginning the process. That would mean we would not have a child for nearly three years from now. On top of that I still wanted a boy. Julie seemed more excited about a girl. But God would handle both of those concerns in a matter of days…..

China paperwork could not start until October, so we had time to continue to pray, think and research everything. We were in a holding pattern. One thing we had read over and over again was the adoption process is long and very emotional. Some say it is even more emotional than when you have your own kids. Months go by with nothing happening, waiting on the call that a child has been referred to your for adoption and the entire process usually takes between 1.5 and 2 years anyway. Imagine being pregnant for 24 months. That is what it is like!

I started talking to Julie about us getting a boy from China first and then a girl a year later. I really wanted a boy and boys were more available from China than in the past. She agreed and we started thinking in terms of a Chinese boy. We ordered China tour books, TVO’d China shows and I started preparing my brain and taste buds for numerous visits to PF Changs. Our family was about to have an Asian side to it. Talk about a change in the Speers look…..

But something still wasn’t right about it all. Even I had to admit to myself that I was feeling guilty for wanting a boy from China rather than helping the thousands of girls available. I tried to convince myself that every baby needs a home, but it wasn’t working. I left for a business trip last week to Florida and could not wait. I planned to use the time to think and clear my mind. I had a drive to make from Jacksonville down to Orlando to meet with some vendors. I love driving and being on the road and I needed it.

After one of my meetings last Thursday, I decided to run down to Downtown Disney to shop for the girls (yes, daddy loves dressing them up!) and to buy a gift for a friend of Julies. I had the time and traffic was terrible so there was nothing more to do. I got there around 3pm, an hour later than I planned and the place was just packed. You can imagine. Disney in June? What moron would want to do some shopping there then?

But I accepted the challenge and dove right in. I found what I needed and headed to find a check-out line that did not have 300,000 people in it. I wandered around, feeling totally out of place without my family being towed behind like everyone else and found a register with a girl from China waiting on just one couple ahead of me! It was then I noticed the people had an Asian boy with them and they were whiter than me! I tapped the lady on the shoulder and found out they in fact had adopted him from Korea! But, on top of that they had used Holt International to do it and they were from NEW JERSEY! And, the icing on the cake was his name was TYLER of all things! Are you kidding me!? The boy was 4 years old and they got him when he was about a year old. He was just the cutest little boy ever and those people were amazing!

We both checked out and for the next 30 minutes I stood there and heard their wonderful story. We swapped business cards and he told me they would email me when they got back. They raved about Holt and how easy they made it and said they would be glad to help! I was suddenly overwhelmed with a feeling that we needed to follow in their steps and possible adopt from Korea. There was a reason I met these people. It suddenly all made sense. Clearly.

Now, I am not a freak when it comes to things like this, but what are the odds that I would run into the traffic I did in Orlando at 2pm that would delay me getting to Disney by an hour, then end up in the one store out of thousands at Disney, behind the one register out of many in that one store, behind the one couple at Disney with an Asian boy from Korea (Korea only allows 1,700 adoptions a year. He was rare!), at that exact hour and exact minute!? I mean another 90 seconds and they would have been gone!

We had just assumed working with an agency 1200 miles away would be impossible and we were worried that if we adopted a China girl later that the two cultures would clash. But, heck, we would have two anyway, so why not have three!? I was nearly giddy. But I was nervous about how Julie would feel.

I sent Julie a camera phone picture of Tyler and his dad (see here) and Julie responded with a wow. She had a story of her own that was taking place at the same exact time at home.

Her sister Amy has always been known as having a way with words and being direct. And we both needed it. Julie called her to inform her of our plans to adopt a boy from China. She wanted Amy’s input on names but before she could even get started Amy asked one simple question. “Why would you adopt a boy from China when there are so many girls?” Julie didn’t have a good answer and felt at that moment adopting a boy from China was not the path we were to take. Needless to say, she was shocked and excited when she heard my story a few minutes later. I had changed my tune on Korea and she had too. Our next baby girl would could from China, but it was clear our boy would come from Korea.

Two things then happened last weekend to solidify it all. First we took the girls to The Little Gym Saturday just for some family fun. They love that place! As we were leaving we noticed a couple with an asian daughter! Sure enough, they had adopted her from China using Holt International, yet another couple who had used this agency based in Oregon! And, to make it more insane, they were about to start the process to...you guessed it....adopt a boy from Korea at the exact same time we were!

Second, we finally decided it was time to break the news to everyone of our final decisions. Instead of it being a 3 year process, we were going to be parents again in likely less than a year! My mom and dad came over and we explain the entire story to them and we watched a video Holt sent us. With most of us in tears, it was clear, everyone was in agreement. God was about to do a miracle in our lives, but more importantly in the life of a baby boy likely not even conceived yet!

So, our plan? Adopt a baby boy from Korea in 2008 and submit papers for a baby girl from China in 2009! We will be a family of four. He will be called Quinn. She will be called Linley.

Wow. God works. That's all I know.

note 4/21/08: Please see the 1st comment on this post. At the time this was written we knew very little about adoptions in China and waiting child lists. We are in complete agreement with the lady who posted this comment.

The Story Behind Our Adoption Journey - Part One

2007-07-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

This is such a cool story and that is why I really need to share it. I hope it can be an inspiration of watching how God can reveal His will. I will color "God signs" in red.

This adoption thing began for us, well, years ago actually (I will explain later). But, as a couple, it really came to the forefront this year. After having the girls (our 2 year old twins), we had some discussions here and there about whether to have another child naturally or through domestic (U.S.) adoption. We discussed what we knew about adoption a few times while driving or laying in bed and that was about it.

Over the course of the last 2-3 months and as the girls got older we both suddenly started getting serious about deciding about the size of our family - having more kids or just being the typical family of four? I was closing in on 38 and Julie was already 32. Neither of us really wanted to be daily parents in our late 50s or 60s and I was already planning to be in my mid-life crisis at 39 - complete with a new Vet, blonde hair, and a young...nevermind.

Anyway, we were eager to decide and get started with things if we were going to add some more tods to the gang. Either way we had peace. I had already accepted the fact that the Speers name was ending with me and I was going to be the wonderful father of my two incredible girls. I have always loved girls, so it figured God would give them to me to father! I chased them forever in my younger days and like Grandma told me, I ended up with three! The only male prescence in our home has been me and the dogs and I think I am more like the dogs than they are like me!

But at the same time, being a dad sure was fun and I was begining to love the idea of more kids. (gulp). What else was I going to do with my life? Live it selfishly? Plus, there was something in me that wanted to follow in my Papa's footsteps, who had 4 children and enjoyed having tons of grandkids to boot! I love my family and all of the fun times at holidays and such we have and really would love to pass that on down the line. Besides, there is a stupid fishing clock Christmas gift that has to find its way down a generation or two before it's retired!

At the same time, Julie was starting to yearn for more kids too, either through pregnancy or adoption. She is such a great mom (deposit slip please) and we both had started wondering what "one-at-a-time" would really be like since the twin thing was all we knew. She simply wasn't ready to say bye to babyland yet. Toddlerville is insane, don't get me wrong, but there is something addictive about it.

On June 5th of this year I wrote an entry in my online book (http://nobonesaboutit.blogspot.com/) about living a life that is "worth writing about" and suddenly my own words were coming back to mind. Funny how that works. God was saying He had more for me and more for us. We just didn't know exactly what yet. But we had started listening.

As yet another sign, my company, Equal Health, has been in another exciting phase of growth. Expectations are extremely high and we believe as we are faithful in our giving and in living right God will continue to bless us in ways beyond imagine. It will require lots of faith and lots of hard work (yes late nights will be a must at times) but I believe the business will afford us the opportunity to do this and maybe even more. God provides.

During all of this time we had finally decided to learn more about adoption and began doing some light research. What this quickly led to was the clear decision that domestic adoption was out for a lot of reasons, most having to do with the hassel and possiblity of losing the child you worked so hard to get.

As a result, the idea of international adoption began popping up in our discussions and research. Now, come to find out later, Julie had felt in her early 20s that she wanted and may have been called to adopt a baby girl from China, which of course she casually failed to mention to me during our pre-nup discussions! :> Me on the other hand really had no understanding of international adoption at all until God started lighting that fire in my heart...and boy did He!

First, we got an interesting email from some friends of ours serving as missionaries in a remote part of the former Soviet Union. So remote in fact that they will eventually live in tents with these people they are trying to reach as they follow buffalo in Siberia, with THREE KIDS of their own! On top of all of this the Honigs' email stated they were feeling called to adopt two Russian boys at the same time! They needed our financial help and prayers, and we certainly obliged on both as tears of respect, wonder and even jealousy filled out hearts! "They are crazy!" I said to myself. Yet, suddenly our talks of doing the same increased that day. I even emailed them back to say we had started thinking about doing the same.

Second, a news story was posted on Foxnews.com one morning about how little girls in China are just left for dead. That just set me off and I wrote yet another entry in my book about how we needed to do something about it. And even as I wrote it I knew Julie and I were being called to be a couple that did.

Now all we needed to know was how in the world to do it.

What we did not know until now was how all of this was simply laying a clear path for God to work. All we were and have been doing is simply moving down the road in front of us. There have been no long, fervent prayers, no fastings and no days of meditation. We have simply trusted Him and prayed as we could and have kept our eyes out for options in front of us.

At this point a few things had become clear:
1. Us having our own baby was not an option.
2. Domestic adoption was too risky to try.
3. We wanted more kids,
4. We wanted to make a bigger difference.
5. We were feeling called to adopt.

And the story goes on, later...it's 12:19am and I have a 8am meeting.

A Turn of Events....

2007-06-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

God is truly amazing. And, just like Him a curve ball came our way this week as gently He reminded us both how His ways are higher and better than ours - for all involved.

It's a long story to tell and it's too late to do so now, but as of Thursday, we have changed the path by which our boy is going to join our family.

Instead of China, we believe he is to come from Korea through Holt International, a Christian based agency we have recently been introduced to.

It is very clear too. God is good. More details coming tomorrow!

Looks and Feels Like China...

2007-06-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

Without going into a ton of details right now (it is nearly mid-night), I wanted to make note of the fact that it looks more and more like we are going to begin the process of international adoption soon. For the last few weeks Julie and I have had heavy, emotional hearts about this. We have read hours of materials, watched tons of videos, and though the process has not even started, we are feeling totally called to do this.

We want a large family (4 kids?) and we know we have been called to help abandoned kids.

We had narrowed it down to three countries as of last night - China, Korea, and Guatemala. After our meeting with Great Wall China Adoptions agency, based in Austin, it became very clear, that China was the country God has for us. The agency, their process, their services, their reputation, the people....it just can't be better.

Right now we are thinking of searching for a toddler boy to join the Speers clan here. Likely 18months - 2 1/2 yrs old. But that could change. Our hearts are beyond excited and we know this is a path God is taking us down. It cannot be more clear.

We can't even apply until October. From there it will be another 7 months before our papers can be sent to China and after that it will likely be 1 1/2 years until we can go and get our baby! What a long wait (2.5yrs from today) But, God is good, and it will all work out. All we know is we are honored to be able to do this. Imagine, changing the entire destiny of an unwanted child! Wow.

A posting and a letter with more details will be sent once we are set with this decision, but I think tonight is the first night of a new cultural twist to the Speers family name...

Guess I better start liking Chineese food....

(Brady - a dad in waiting...again)

Our First Real Adoption Step

2007-06-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

We are headed to Tyler today; taking our first steps towards learning all about international adoptions from China. Yes...China.

God has really been laying this on our hearts for months now; hard and heavy. We are excited but nervous about what we will learn today.

Will God confirm this more or will we back away?

(Brady)