It's Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
Sung Tan Chuk Ha!!
(And let's hope this will be the last one without our Korean baby...)

Our Christmas Tree

Korean dinner

We discovered a Korean restaurant
in our city that give take away food.
So tonight we decided to get a first
taste of Korea with two dishes.

Bibimbab - boiled or steamed rice, mixed
or topped with assorted dishes:


Chapchae - Korean sweet potato noodles stir
fried with vegetables and meat.


And here is our dinner! All was really delicious:

This is a tasty way to think at our Korean baby!

Happy birthday, little boy!

Today my little boy is 4 years old.
I love making cakes so I made this blue
frosted one for his party:


Now, come on, Korea! Give us a baby!
I would like so much to start making cakes
also for him/her...

Our dossier is in Korea!

Today we had a great email from our Agency.
Our dossier has been given to Korean Authority.
Now let's wait for a quick referral! The timing should
be around few months, so... Korea! Choose us!
We're all waiting for a little one!

Gifts for the new baby

We have already bought some gifts for the Korean baby.

• a cute sweater blue with a embroidered bear (bought this summer in Malta)
• a bib with a duck (pink)
• a bath towel with bears (blue) - I'm open to both genders...
• a Snoopy table set
  
• last one: this cute teddy bear from Ikea:
• 

Let's start hoping...

The last news I got are that for other Italian couples
the time between documents sent to Korea and referral
are of few months, maximum six months.
So let's start hoping and dreaming for a spring referral!
In spring there will be my birthday and our wedding
anniversary: a referral would be a great gift!

Thinking to our future

I've read that the favourite character for Korean babies is Pororo, the
little penguin.
Well, now we can also see it in Italy!
Every evening, during our dinner, we watch a Pororo episode
with our little boy, thinking at the joyful moment when we'll watch
it also with our Korean baby.

Now let's sit and wait...

All the documents ar ready to fly to Korea!
We're now really waiting for a referral!
Let's hope it will be quick...

We have finished!!

After a tough month running around the city to
prepare all the documents,
tomorrow we'll got the last one!

It was difficult trying to discover where to make some
medical exams or asking to the offices to write a document
in the right requested way...
But we've been great and we have all we need.
Luckily the documents for South Korea were
simplyfied recently so we had less things to do.
We were one of the first couples of our agency to make
the new simply documents.

If tomorrow we'll have immediatly the last one we'll
go to our adoption agency in the afternoon and we'll
give them all the papers.
And then we'll start officially waiting...

It's coming real!!

Today our agency told us that we have to prepare
all the documents for Korea because they must be sent
there for the end of the month!!
I'm so happy... In November we'll be officially waiting for
a referral!!!

Italy really sucks!!

We're out of the Cup...
Let's hope for my "second team", now...

South Korea has won!

I'm very glad... Italy sucks this year so I'll have a team
to watch in the next days!

World Cup update

This World Cup isn't going very well
for my TWO teams.
At least South Korea won one time...
And today the tv in our city lost the signal
so I hade to watch the match (Italy - New Zealand)
on the web!!

-4 days to the World Cup!

I'm Italian and I love soccer. Most of all
the FIFA World Cup.
Four years ago I was pregnant of my son
and WE WON the Cup! It was really exciting.
Now we'll start again, with my little boy with me
and thinking to the little one that will arrive one day
from South Korea.
This time I have two teams in my heart:
ITALY
and
SOUTH KOREA
Even more exciting...!

Summer holidays

For the end of August we booked an apartment in Malta,
a little island in the Mediterranean Sea, under Sicily.
It's quite near for us (about 2 hours of fly) and we
have the opportunity to make our son have his first
flying experience before the longer fly to South Korea!
The island should be beautiful (my husband went there
already two times and he loves it).

New Agency's update

The couples waiting in Korea with our Agency are now 12.
One month ago they were 14, so we are closer to our happy end!

Do you want a pizza....

... but you don't want to make your own dough?
A nice idea is using a big slice of bread then covering
it with tomatoes, cheese and what else you like.
Then you have to heat them in the oven,
also a microwave if you have a crisp function.
We call them "crostoni" or "bruschettoni" and
I recently made one with lot of sliced smoked ham (called "speck").
It was really tasty and my husband said that I had to post it...

To celebrate spring...

Yesterday I baked some muffins, then I decorated them
with a pink frosting, pink like trees during spring!

Finally spring is arrived!

Today, during a blank hour at work,
I took a walk and I discovered a lot of
trees full with flowers!

(The pictures aren't very good because
I took them with my mobile phone)

I love little boys!

I often tell my son some stories from the Greek mythology (due to my high school studies
in Greek and Latin). Today I told the story of the judgment of Paris*. When I said that the golden apple was for "the most beautiful" he said "My Mum is the most beautiful!"
How sweet!
(*Check here if you want to know more about this myth)

I think the Korean baby will be another boy (apparently there are more boys for
adoption) so I'm ready for more boy's sweetness!

Dessert mania

Another way to let flow the long days of waiting
is a my passion, cooking.
So I started a blog about my desserts
http://dessert-mania.blogspot.com/
It's in Italian so if you speak my language
look at it!
Yesterday I've written about my last creation: frosted cupcakes!

About adoption

I've received a book from our Agency about their adoption's stories.
Written by the parents, it was touching and useful in the same time.

I've discovered that an old school mate is now in Vietnam
to take home her son. Good Luck and Congratulations!

New spring redecoration

Yesterday I changed the look of this blog,
now it's more fashion. I always stared at the other
journals thinking "How nice! I want it too!" unless
I found this great website and I loved all their templates.
It was difficult choosing one of them, I made a lot
of samples before the final one.
I also used the same website for my other blog,
in Italian, that speaks of my passion for desserts.

Snow, snow, snow...

I want spring! Here is so cold, still with snow at almost the half of March.
Sure the korean baby won't feel differences from Seoul to our city.
Both cities are very cold.
But now I really begin to hate this long, cold winter...

Fruit cakes

Maybe this korean baby will be fat with all my recipes...
But yesterday I made two fruit cakes, for two different occasions.
Here they are.
With apples

and with oranges

More sweets

My little boy loved the meringue with whipped cream that some
friends brought us from a sweet shop.
So I decided to do them all by self trying a new recipe and they were very good!
For the first time I got a good meringue, not too much flat or hard.

Ice skating

Our Italian skater in Vancouver didn't have a good moment...

But, as future mother of a South Korean baby, I can be very happy
for the victory of Kim Yu Na (that was really amazing!)

More cooking

Friday was a long afternoon to be at home because the weather was rainy.
So I made more cookies with the help of my little boy, that also helped
"washing the dishes" after baking.

Here are some pictures of the cookies, some of them are made with
chestnut cream and chocolate.

South Korean photographer

Today I saw on a magazine the photos of a Korean photographer,
Jeong Mee Yoon.

I liked them very much, most of all obviously the ones with cute
Korean babies:


( Jeong Mee Yoon "The pink project-Dayeun and Her Pink Things" - 2007 )

Good news!

Today our agency put on its website the new waiting list
and I've discovered that we have 13 couples before us.
I thought they were 15 so I'm quite happy!

I'm doomed

My mother has a collection of masks,
while my grandmother has one
of little vases and jugs.

What I've discovered?
That the best items to buy in Korea are...

Traditional masks



and the famous celadon vases!

Coincidences

I opened this blog on 14th February, when the Lunar Year of the Tiger -
백 호 호랑이 - started in Korea.
This is more specifically the Year of the White Tiger, the first one in 60 years!


I was also born in a Year of the Tiger.

Let's hope these coincidences will bring us some luck in our journey!

Life is surprising

Yesterday I was talking with an old friend of mine.
She said that life is surprising because now she's speaking to everybody
about his husband that would be chosen in the next Regional elections.
She never imagined something like that for her life.

Well, that's right also for me. Sure I'd never thought when I was younger
of finding a child into another part of the world...

The second toy

Some time ago I decided to "create" something new for the Korean baby
with the help of my first son.

I've read about an Italian retailer of beds
that will give a toy called "Sleepy" to every child that will send a coloured version of it.

You just have to download and print it, than send it all decorated.
Well, I've done it and with the help of my son I coloured the drawing.

After some weeks I received a big packet with our new Sleepy!


My son obviously wanted to play with him sometimes and he
decided anyway that the name Sleepy didn't fit the toy and he called it "Napy".
It's a cute name because it looks like something for "nap time"...

The first toy

This Christmas my dear hubby bought a Panda toy from Ikea.

He did it to help Ikea's Christmas project for the children hospital.
We decided that it could be the first toy for our second baby and hubby
suggested to call it "Aglio" (= garlic) because we read that Korea is the garlic's country.

My son, that in the first moment didn't want to see it, when he understood
it could be for the other baby decided that Aglio would be his favourite toy.

Poor baby, maybe you're not yet born and you already have to share your toys
with your big brother!

This is funny!

Missing pizza won't be a problem for us in Seoul:
apparently this is one of the best restaurants in the city...
http://www.viadinapoli.co.kr/

Our St Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day wasn't very romantic because my boys (husband and son) are sick.
The son is slightly feeling better but the hubby has still flu and fever, so we forgot
the first idea to a sweet afternoon to the theater seeing "Avatar" and we instead remained at home.
But I like cooking and I at least made they illness better preparing a special meal:
focaccia and pizza home made (well, we're Italian, pizza is the best medicine... ), heart shaped cake, and cookies.

Here are my dishes:
Focaccia and pizza

Heart shaped cake made with chocolate and pears

"Coffee sugar cookies " (I've got the recipe here http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/, that blog is amazing!)

(one note: the cookies were only for me because hubby doesn't like coffee - while I'm a coffee addict - and I can't eat chocolate due to my migraine)

Well, let's hope that our future Korean child would love cooking: I'd like to have a new little helper!

How adoption works in Italy

• In December 2008 we followed a two days of training then we presented to the Court our request of adoption, both for domestic and international adoption.
• In January 2009 we started with a lot of medical exams, as x-rays at the chest, blood exams, sight and hearing tests...
• In March and April 2009 we had eight meetings with the social assistants and the psychologist, they also visited our home and met our son.
• In May 2009 we had a final meeting with the Court and then we started waiting for our dreamed piece of paper: it will say if you're able for international adoption. For the domestic one we have less chance because there are - luckily! - few children and they are usually given to childless couples.
• In September 2009 we got our precious piece of paper: now we must find an Agency that works with international adoptions. Our paper says "one child born not before the 1st January 2008". The date made our dream seeming real! This date was set because our first baby was still little. Waiting for the paper I've already asked at many agencies and most of them said that they couldn't take us because of our first child!
  
• In October and December 2009 we went to the meeting of an Agency that works only in few Regions of Italy, but I liked it at first sight (and the psychologist also spoke very well about it). We were taken!! The better countries available for us would be Burkina Faso in Africa and South Korea. We liked most Korea because we would like to bring our baby boy with us and a journey to Seoul would be safer for him.
• In February 2010 we signed all the papers with the Agency and we're officially starting our adoption to South Korea!

Now all is done? No, we have more waiting: the Agency works only with one Korean group and the waiting list is of 1,5 - 2 years before getting the referral! So now we have to wait the end of 2010 to start with all the papers to send in Korea...
Our love for our baby grows every day of our long waiting!

Our story

We are Italian, friend from 1990, together as couple from 1999, married from May 2004.

We had a baby boy, Francesco, at the end of 2006. In 2008 we decided to give him a brother/sister. Unluckily the doctors said that I couldn't afford another pregnancy
due to medical issues I've had with my first baby.

Without thinking a lot we decided to adopt a child. Before starting a family we were already sure that adoption would be the way if we couldn't have children.

My journey to Korea

This will be a sort of diary for our adoption in South Korea!
This blog will be full of random posts about kitchen, children, adoption...
These pages will be written sometimes also in Italian because we live in Italy.
These news will be in English because I like the idea of an international diary for my baby.
These words will be a first gift to a child that will join us from another part of the world.

I don't know if you are already born or if you're still on the moon waiting to come,
but we already love you, little chicken.

I love you = 당신을 사랑해요, 너를 사랑해요