It’s a Girl!

babygirlwillisJPGWe announced 3 months ago that we are adopting again. Last Wednesday, we received a referral of a baby girl from Korea — up to two months earlier than expected!

On Friday, we met with our caseworker to receive and review a packet of info including a description of the child, family history, medical information, several photos, as well as the acceptance paperwork we must complete and submit.

Baby Girl Willis was born March 5, 2009. She weighed 7.4 pounds at birth and 16.3 pounds at 4.5 months. She was born 19.6 inches long and has grown to 26 inches.

A foster family is caring for Baby Girl Willis. Her foster family includes an 8-year-old boy, which should give her some sibling experience (but it will be a whole new experience for Ethan!). She is described as being “rather gentle and she likes to be with others.”

Now that we know her Korean name, we can start looking for American names that have the same meanings as her Korean name.

While this certainly brings back memories of the first referral nearly two years ago (see It’s a Boy!, one of this blog’s most popular posts to date), Ethan certainly adds a whole new twist to the experience!

Our caseworker showed Ethan the photos of his future sister before she showed them to us. It was fun to watch (and video) — it was a good/positive reaction, albeit a clueless one, perhaps! (see photo below).

One big difference between this referral and the first is that with Ethan’s referral we struggled with whether or not to post a photo on our blog. Looking at our blog now, you might not know how much we struggled with that initial decision 🙂 (then, we ended up posting one of the six we received).

Now, the next step is to complete the final/acceptance paperwork and wait for all the legal pieces to come together so that we can go to Korea to pick up our baby girl. Travel to Korea is expected to take place in about 3 to 4 months … just in time for Christmas!

19 thoughts on “It’s a Girl!”

  1. WONDERFUL!!! What a beautiful little girl! May all procede smoothly! She certainly looks well cared for. 🙂
    Pam

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  2. Thanks for sharing the great news. It is so exciting. Baby Girl Willis already seems to have so much personality and joy! Congratulations.

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  3. WHAT GREAT NEWS!!!! We know God is blessing you all with this new family of FOUR! We are so very happy for you all and look forward to meeting her before too long.
    She is such a cutie!!

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  4. A HUGE congratulations and wonderful wishes for your family that now included a beautiful baby girl. God is good, and you are blessed.

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  5. Congratultions Randy, Joleen and Ethan for the wonderful news of a new little granddaughter. We are so happy and pray that all goes well quickly so that you can soon go to get her.
    Love, ‘ya

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  6. What a beautiful baby girl!! So happy that your family is growing–and that you will soon all be together.
    Trish

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  7. We are thrilled for you. Prayers for everything to go smoothly and for beautiful little Baby Girl Willis will be home for you for Christmas.

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  8. Thanks, everyone!

    We returned the acceptance paperwork on Friday. Now we wait for all the remaining pieces of the process to fall into place.

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  9. Your family here in Tennessee thinks she is “So Cute”. I hope eveything goes through quickly and you can bring her home soon. We are all very excited to have another little girl in the family. We love you all very much. By the way, could I have an 8″ x 10″ picture of oul Little Girl to add to the Grandkids wall.

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  10. Thanks, Dad & Valerie.

    We have a set of photos ready to mail out. We might have to wait on an 8×10, though, because the photos we have (scanned from small photos) won’t enlarge very well (they even lost a little sharpness going to 4x6s).

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  11. Willis Family: We are so happy for you! She is precious. Can’t wait for you to have her here in Clearfield. What a Christmas this will be.

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    • Thanks so much to all of you for sharing in our joy! Now is when the wait is long … as we see her pictures and know we belong together and cannot be together until all the legal paperwork is complete! Thanks for your continued prayers during this time.

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  12. Hi Willis Family,

    Haven’t been on your blog for a while and behind on your wonderful news. Congradulation on your new daughter. I will pass the news at 12th Street.

    Judy Wilson

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