Introducing Joseph Sung Min Switalski

Today marks a new chapter in our lives: the day Joe Sung Min's adoption was finalized.  What an incredible journey brought us to this place; we've seen more than our share of heartache, grief, disappointment as we tried to have a second child, tempered with the joy of our sweet and charming daughter.  We jumped through numerous flaming hoops, filled out forms in triplicate, were fingerprinted multiple times and laid our lives open for our adoption agency and the US and South Korean governments to review.  We were finally matched with a darling little boy and waited what seemed like an eternity to get the call that he would come home.


It is hard to believe that just over six months ago, I traveled to Korea - and finally met my friend Amy, with whom I traded text messages, emails and phone calls daily as we waited for the good news.  We met Omma and Appa and their family, celebrated Joe Sung Min's first birthday and toured his orphanage - and of course saw the sites, shopped and ate some incredible food during this trip of a lifetime.


Finally, his finalization day is here, and so many feelings and emotions are bubbling to the surface.  Excitement, relief, joy, nervousness (what if I answer a question wrong?), peace. We are ready.  Ready for this chapter in our life to be over, ready to start a new one with our son.  


The finalization itself was quick and relatively painless.  I spoke with the Judge, then Brian, our social worker and finally we were all ushered into the court room together.  The Judge enjoys these types of cases because everyone leaves the court room smiling and full of joy.  Today was no exception.  We were thrilled to be at this point in our lives, and for Sung Min Kim to be officially recognized as Joseph Sung Min Switalski.


His Korean (foster) family will always be a part of his life, our lives, his story.  We look forward to continuing to share his story with them and the rest of our family and friends.  We thank you for your friendship and for being part of our story.


(and thank you to Grandma Fuehrer for joining us on this special day and for having your camera ready at all the right times!)

Patiently waiting for our proceeding to begin

The family with our social worker

Liv with Joe's teddy bear welcoming him as US citizen

Yay!  Our first official picture (with the Judge even!)