Care package!

Thought I'd share a little about our care package we are sending to Little Man in Korea.

Most agencies, including ours, don't allow parents to send a package directly to their children/foster families before you meet them. Our agency will forward a letter and a maximum of 5 photos to the family. That's a start, but I'm guessing that an 8-month-old isn't going to be too interested in flimsy photos of some people he's never seen.

However, adoptive parents (unite!) have figured out another system. Parents who are traveling to Korea to meet their children often carry care packages for waiting families. We are fortunate enough that someone will be carrying one for us!

Brad & Dena, of Brad and Dena's Adoption Journey, are awaiting their travel call to bring home their son Calvin. We are both with the same agency, and they are ahead of us by several weeks. They offered to take a package for us, and will leave it at the agency for our foster family to pick up. We tried to keep it small/light because Brad & Dena will be packing plenty of their own stuff. But we are so very thankful to have a chance to send something to our little sweetie.

© Cheese Curds & Kimchi

Of course, you know me, deciding what to put in this had me in a pickle. We settled on:

A Hallmark recordable story book of The Man and I reading Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Hope this helps Little Man get used to our voices. It took us an evening to record it because we kept cracking each other up while we were reading.

A onesie and cute little jeans and socks.

A Comfort Silkie security blanket. One side is silky soft, and the other is a snuggly flannel. It's small, and supposed to retain our scent. I went back about 35 years and started sleeping with a blankie again, but who knows any of that Mommy smell will remain on it by the time it gets to him. The other nice part about the blankie is the smell of Little Man's foster home will be on it too, which might comfort him when we come to the U.S.

A Whoozit baby photo album. It has lots of bright colors and a teething handle, so maybe while he's drooling on it he will notice those goofy faces in the book. It also has these cool texture & crinkly inserts between the photo pages to keep his interest.

© Cheese Curds & Kimchi

Disposable cameras. I've heard some adoptive families have good luck sending these. My hope is that the foster family will take lots of photos of themselves with Little Man. Fingers crossed that this works out!

Vera Bradley stationary for the foster mother. Boy, she was a really tough person to buy for! What do you get for a perfect stranger who is taking care of the most valuable thing in your life? We'll bring more sentimental gifts for the family when we meet, but until then, just something to say thanks.

We also wrote a letter to the foster mom, that was printed in English and Hangul.

Hopefully our boy will be smelling, listening and looking at Mommy and Daddy soon!

© Cheese Curds & Kimchi