Been So Long

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to apologize to anyone who from time to time checks out this blog.

I have not been updating it as much as I'd like (obviously), but with the new year - I'd like to set a goal of updating the blog atleast once a week.

So here goes:

Benjamin is about 23 months old! Can't believe how fast time has gone. I can remember when he first came home like it was yesterday, and yet I can't seem to think of a time without loving him.

Fast Facts:
His birthday is February 8th!
He will be 2 years old.
He knows how to say "two".
He loves to run and jump when he is happy.
He loves his mama, and "ah-bab" (Korean for dad... sort of.)
He loves to swim.

Here are some pics of Benjamin and the family.

Benjamin with his two lil teeth.


1st Korean birthday ("Dol")


flanked by mommy and ah-bab


hanging with "ha-jee" (grandfather)


my boy loves to swim.


Till next week,
Phil

Benjamin & Friends

Hello everyone!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Here are some updates from the last post:

Benjamin is now the proud owner of 4 teeth! He has two on the bottom and two on top. He loves playing outside in the cold. His favorite food right now is whole wheat bread. He can't get enough of it! He is such a joy to our family.

Thank you to all of our friends and family who have encouraged us and continue to pray for us! We love you all and pray that God would continue to keep you near His gospel.

We have put together a small video of Benjamin's Story onto DVD for a limited number of people (mainly family) due to budget and time constraints, however if you are interested in seeing this DVD, please email us and once we get some more DVDs - we will find a way to get it to you!

Love,

Phil and Amanda

Here are some new photos:

It's a Benjamin Christmas!

Benjamin playing with his older cousin ("hyung") Jared.Dave Brewer, Phil Kim and the Mini-Me's

Here we are with Benjamin and his cousin Jeremy. So cute!

"More whole wheat bread!"

Phil and Benjamin at the hotel in Gaithersburg, MD for the Small Group Leader's Conference.

Playing at the mall.

New slippers from Aunt Myra!

New Pictures!

Hey everyone!
Here is new pictures of Benjamin. Once we figure out how to resize the image without distorting the picture we will have more up! Sorry this took is taking so long! But we think this is a cute one of him tasting apple for the first time. His eyes perked up when he first tasted it and then he lunged forward for some more. Ah just like his daddy.


Benjamin with his first taste of apple (in his teether...)
This is where we let him sleep.
This is from Aunt Heather from the West Coast! Go Eaglets!

The Pictures

Here are some pictures of us at the airport. These three above were taken by our great friend Shirley Chang. Thank you Shirley! The red throne picture was taken at the local "Glamour Shots" joint.


From Benjamin: Hello everybody. My name is Benjamin Kim. Here are my pikchurs. I hope yoo like dem.

This is me sleeping with mommy.

He's coming home!

Hello everyone:

We just received THE CALL today from Love The Children (adoption agency)! We will be picking up little Benjamin on Friday September 9th @ 3pm. We are so excited and cannot wait to see his little face! We are leaving for Philly tomorrow so please pray for safe travel as we speed down the turnpike. Just kidding... I think.

I am going to try to post some pictures that we have of Benjamin. As we get new ones, we will post them.

Praising Him,

The Summary

Hello!

The purpose of this blog is to give our friends, family and anyone else who is interested an update on our son Benjamin Kim. Benjamin is a beautiful baby boy who we are adopting from Korea. His Korean name is Minho Kim, which translates to Min: "likeable" and Ho:"efforts". We love him.

Anyway, for those who are praying for us and asking how we are doing, thank you so much for your care for us. And anyone who is considering adoption or wants to know more about international adoption, please feel free to ask us any questions. My hope is that there is something useful, or interesting that you can take with you after reading our blog.

Here are the important dates -

February 14, 2005:
We officially started the process of adoption by sending in the application to an agency called Love The Children (http://www.lovethechildren.com).

February 27, 2005:
The agency's social worker, Anne contacted us within two weeks! We set up the homestudy tentatively for March 19th, however due to scheduling it was conducted on March 29th.

March 29, 2005:
Anne came to our house by 10:00am and spent the day with us. The homestudy consisted of a review of our history as a couple and as individuals. We have heard and read about homestudies being a very challenging part of the adoption process, however Anne made it very pleasant experience. We spent most of the morning and by early afternoon it was over!

April 2, 2005:
Both Amanda and I got our fingerprints done.

April 19, 2005:
We had sent our complete file of information to Love The Children (LTC) and Anne, which included such things as: employment history, physicals, etc. (Lots of stuff!)

May 4, 2005:
LTC contacted us to let us know that all of our paperwork was received, and that they were waiting on the completed homestudy report.

May 19, 2005:
Very exciting day for the Kim's! We received our referral information on our son. Within the packet was his picture, full medical report, social history, etc. This was the information that we received~

Birth Date: 2/8/05
Weight: 7.8 lbs
Height: 19.6 inches
Name: Min Ho Kim (yes, he is a Kim!)

Needless to say we were excited and thrilled to be looking at the pictures of our son. We called Cecelia from LTC to let her know that we would love to adopt this beautiful baby. We named him Benjamin Philip.

May 24, 2005:
Korean government received the offical matching paperwork for Benjamin. Cecelia let us know that the adoption process could take 3 to 4 months (August 24 ~ September 24) from the official matching date.

June 13, 2005:
We received notice from LTC that some additional paperwork had to be signed, certified and overnighted for their files. Though we were out of town, God blessed us by allowing us to stay at a hotel that had a Kinko's and Notary on staff!

June 22, 2005:
We received Benjamin's 4 month update. He is doing very well! He is a healthy infant with a good appetite. He rolled over for the first time on the day of his 4 month check-up. He sleeps 7 hours straight through the night. He has a nice loud laugh for a baby! =)

July 2, 2005:
We received a new picture of Benjamin. He is sitting on a red chair that looks like a little red throne. Very cool.

July 28, 2005:
We received notice from the INS office in Pittsburgh that our file was not approved due to an Insufficient Homestudy Report. We were pretty sad that this happened, however God was gracious again because we were able to speak with Anne that very day. Anne worked very hard to complete an addendum to our homestudy that we hoped and prayed would be sufficient for INS approval.

August 15, 2005:
We are officially approved by the INS! Yeah! We now have INS approval and our VISA approval. We are now waiting for the Korean government to review our adoption profile and VISA from the INS. We were told that there is nothing more that we need to provide or forms to fill out, we are truly just waiting to hear from Korea!

I will be attempting to update the blog as we get ANY news from LTC, so if you have any thoughts, comments, prayers, etc please feel free to email or post something. We'd love to hear from you.

Thanks again to everyone that has been praying for us! We don't know where we would be if it weren't for faithful friends who are lifting us up in prayer.