I thought you would like to read this story and to know that there are people in our state who are willing and able to jump in and go to work for us when we need help. His office has told us that if they can help in any way to bring "Vince" home they are happy to do that. This is a nice story.
"Sen. Paull Shin is a name you don’t hear much around Olympia. As a legislator, he doesn’t speak very much on the floor of the Senate, but when he does it’s with a calm and assured demeanor. Never inflammatory, he’s rarely mentioned in the press. Nevertheless, Sen. Shin is one of the strongest voices in Olympia.
Sen. Shin’s journey from his native Korea to the halls of government is one of the most unlikely and amazing stories in Washington state history.
A childhood none of us could imagine
Shin was born in Japanese-occupied Korea in 1935. His mother died when he was four years old; shortly afterward, his father abandoned him in the streets. With the brutality of the occupation and the world at war all around him, Shin grew up in conditions that even Charles Dickens couldn’t imagine. Eating spoiled food and wearing filthy clothing, he had no relatives and no friends. Shin survived in the open elements through Korea’s sweltering summers and frigid winters. Just surviving until the next day was often a struggle.
“I remember at night, crouching down in the street and looking up at the stars,” said Shin. I would start tearing up and crying for my mother.” When he tried to go to school in Korea to improve his situation, they kicked him out on first sight.
In 1950, communist North Korea invaded South Korea. Under a United Nations directive, the United States led an international coalition to defend South Korea. Many residents of Seoul fled south to Pusan after U.N. forces were able to secure the area on the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. Shin joined the exodus. He was almost halfway there when news arrived that Gen. Douglas MacArthur had captured Seoul. Shin headed back to the capital city.
In their hasty retreat, both the U.N. forces and the Korean People’s Army had knocked out all the bridges crossing the major rivers. Walking north, Shin came upon a United Nations pontoon bridge crossing the Han River. Unable to cross (soldiers guarding the bridge gave priority to military vehicles), Shin begged the passing soldiers for food. Finally, one day an officer grabbed him and put him in his truck. The officer was part of a U.S. Army medical unit. The soldiers instantly took a liking to Shin, offering him a job at their base and making him a houseboy for the officers. For the first time in his life, Shin was able to bathe, wear clean clothes, and eat on a regular basis.
Even at the base, Shin felt alone in the world. Like before, there was no one he could talk to or be friends with. At night, he would sneak outside and look up at the stars, crying, thinking of his mother. One night, one of the officers from the base came upon Shin.
“I looked up at this man who was looking at me,” said Shin. “The next thing I know, he was hugging me with his big, powerful arms. That was the beginning of my new life.” The officer was a dentist named Ray Paull. Through the remainder of the war, Shin and Paull developed a close, father-and-son relationship. When the war ended, Paull adopted Shin.
Coming to America
It took nearly a year for the adoption paperwork to go through the system before Shin could start his new life in the United States. In 1954, he met his new family at their home in Salt Lake City. In honor of the man who gave him a new life, Shin changed his first name to Paull. Once Shin was here, he didn’t waste much time. He had always dreamed of getting an education, and now he had the opportunity.
At an age when most American children were finishing their primary education, Paull Shin was just beginning his. There were a few problems starting out. All of the schools in the area rejected Shin because of his age, his lack of previous education and his lack of English skills. However, this didn’t deter Shin. With the help of his new family, Shin started a GED program.
“I remember only getting three hours a sleep a night while I was studying, trying to memorize the English dictionary,” said Shin. “My new father and family were there supporting and believing in me.”
In less than 18 months, Shin finished his GED. He then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brigham Young University. After a brief spell in the U.S. Army, he went on to get his master’s degree in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh, and another master’s and a doctorate from the University of Washington.
While at the University of Washington in the Korean Studies Program, Shin rediscovered himself. “I had terrible feelings. I felt rejected by Korea,” he said. “When another Korean person would come up to me, I felt embarrassed because I didn’t know how to speak and read Korean.” Through the Korean Studies Program at UW, Shin was able to rediscover the country of his birth — something he has always been grateful for. Many years later, when the program faced the budget-cutter’s axe, Shin led the effort to not only fund it, but also set up a permanent endowment so the program could continue as a vital link between the two countries.
After teaching in Hawaii for a few years, Shin decided to move back to the Pacific Northwest. In 1969, he took a job at Shoreline Community College as a professor of history and East Asian civilization. He taught there for more than 26 years.
Into state politics
Paull Shin got involved in politics when, in 1976, Gov. Dan Evans called on Shin to help him increase trade with Korea and Japan. Through many changes of administration in the governor’s office, Shin served as a trade ambassador to the state, a role in which he continues to this day. By 1987, both parties were actively recruiting him to run for office. Secretary of State Ralph Munro tried to get him to run as a Republican, while Gov. Booth Gardner tried to get him to run as a Democrat. Gardner won out..."
Daniel Brunell
Article for Association for Washington Business.
12/30/09
12/23/09
Paperwork update
I just found out from the people in DC that the documents that we sent- to arrive no later than 8am this morning- did NOT get there until between 9-10 and they are Not being processed until Monday. We were hoping that they would be processed today, sent to the agency tonight and off to China tomorrow night, but God had a different plan apparently and so we are waiting on His direction and His processing power.
We had 1 month from yesterday, so this is getting pretty tight- ok really tight- but nothing is too big for God if this is what He wants to have happen.
I'll keep you posted and please keep praying that God would want us to have "Vince". We are ready if He is willing.
We had 1 month from yesterday, so this is getting pretty tight- ok really tight- but nothing is too big for God if this is what He wants to have happen.
I'll keep you posted and please keep praying that God would want us to have "Vince". We are ready if He is willing.
12/22/09
Wild Day in Olympia
The beat goes on.
Yesterday was Secretary of State day for the Weinbergs. We had to take all of our paper work down to Olympia to be authenticated and notarized. Since one of the documents had been notarized with a stamp that is now expired- apparently they cannot change stamps until the day of expiration- we had to go back to that person and have her re-notarize it for us, which meant we had to wait for their shop to open. We did that and were on our way down to the capitol.
We hadn't quite made it to Lake Stevens proper and I said, "Are you sure we have everything we need before we drive all the way there?" Teresa asked me a question about a document that I had received in email form. I had been waiting for it by fax and then the lady in DC decided to email it to me instead, so that was a bit confusing; was I waiting for a fax still, no it came by email.
Then there was still a letter that was supposed to be delivered from someone, I can't remember who, from again somewhere on the east coast, "Did we already get that one?". 'I think before we go all the way to Olympia that we had better go back home and make sure we have every single piece of paper we could ever need".
As we were driving home we past Kimmy leaving for Seattle with Ian and we waved as we passed. We got home and about 2 minutes later Kimmy walked in the front door; "What happened, aren't you guys going to Olympia". "Yes" we replied "But we think there might be a package we are waiting for on Fedex". She walked into the house, picked something, I don't know what up, and walked back out. She came back in 5 seconds later and said, "Fedex is here". Thank you Lord for not making us wait and for not letting us get all the way there w/o that piece of paper.
Still a little frazzled we made sure we had every thing we needed and headed back down. The mall parking lots are bursting as we drive past on the freeways- people attempting to find the perfect gift that will change their "listed people's" lives, while being in a frenzy because they waited until the last second to purchase this life changing gift. I'm glad I am on my way to Olympia- should we ever be super excited to go to Olympia to visit the Secretary of States office?
We get to the office and the people there are really nice. They do this kind of thing all the time, so they know a bit more about what they are looking for than we do, but each state and country is a bit different and each agency has a different set of docs, so they are not totally sure what they are looking for either.
We found out that they expect every doc to be notarized before it gets to them, even though our agency made it sound like there would be some that would have to be authenticated and notarized by them. The lady said it happens all the time, but thankfully she didn't send us home or back out, she just did that for us.
We had all of our family background checks done previously, with the home study, and we had to go to the local police station to get one done for Washington state, which really made no sense to me, since that is wHere T has lived almost her entire life. Our home study provider sent the ones they had to us, since we had already paid for them. We handed them over to the lady at the SofS office and she said she had never seen this form before, it always looked different. She advised us to go the WSP and get a new one and have it notarized while we were there. So off we went to WSP.
We got on the computer in their lobby, since it is cheaper to do that then have them input it for you, and finished that up, but then the lady there told us it would be between and hour and 1-1/2 hours to get that back completed. In the mean time we had copies to make, so we went for a late lunch and went to Kinkos to copy all the paper work.
We had thought that we needed to wait to copy all these forms until oAter the authentication took place, but the SofS lady said that this was incorrect and that many agencies tell their people the wrong thing to do, since once they have been authenticated the forms cannot be separated from each other. Ok, we'll do that now.
We checked the PU time for Fedex while there and got the copies made, went back to WSP and picked up basically the same forms as we had previously, just now they were notarized by them and back to the SofS's office.
Everything looks great there. They were really fast and told us of a BofA that was closer than the one tHe other lady had told us, as we needed to get a cashiers check to send in the packages for the processing fees for all these docs. Got the cashier's check and went back to Kinkos to send them all off.
While there we explained to one of the staff what we were trying to accomplish and he was excited because his sister is in the process of adopting. We have a lot of docs to send and some are going one place to be processed and some are going to another, but could arrive with the other packet. So we wanted to put them all in one single envelope so the first person could do the work and then send them all to the next person. "No problem, here is how we need to do this", was his reply.
He grabbed an envelope and had me put the docs in that one, but then it was not large enough to accommodate all the other papers, so I took those out of that one and asked if he had a larger one. He did so I took those papers out and transferred them. There is a point to all this rambling.
He finished the transaction with us, but had not put the stickers on the envelope. T and I were a little reluctant to leave w/o those stickers and the address being on the envelope, but after about 2-3 minutes I finally told her we were going to leave and let God handle this. We left, got in really thick traffic on the way home, were late to Garrett's non league game, which he didn't start, so it didn't matter thatf we weren't on time.
I went to the concession stand, at half time, to get a hot dog since we ate a long time ago, and went to pull out my wallet, which is normally in my jacket pocket. I put it there when I am logging many miles in the car, so it doesn't make me "crooked" in my back pocket. It wasn't there. It wasn't in my pants pocket. "Oh no, did I leave it at Kinkos in Olympia"?
I went out to the truck and thankfully it was on the floor of the back seat- it had fallen out of my coat pocket sometime in the long drive home. "Thank you Lord".
The rest of the night was uneventful and we got home, relaxed a bit and T checked the voice mail on the home phone. A message from the Kinkos guy in Olympia. A client of theirs had found our checks in the "first" envelope and they had not gone on with our forms. When I had taken the docs out of the first envelope the checks must have slid out of those papers and were in the bottom of that envelope and not made the transfer to the bigger envelope. They put them in the safe over night and I have to call him this am to give him instructions.
When T let me listen to the message all I could do was laugh and think about how many obstacles we had to cross and how many places we could have fallen down and what would have seemed to be one of the easiest parts ended up being the crashing point. God gave us some glimmers along the way yesterday and He can still make all this work. It's really is too big for us now and it will be fun to see what He does with all this.
Please pray that all this gets done in time, especially with all the holidays and weekends in the middle of it all. I'll keep you posted.
Yesterday was Secretary of State day for the Weinbergs. We had to take all of our paper work down to Olympia to be authenticated and notarized. Since one of the documents had been notarized with a stamp that is now expired- apparently they cannot change stamps until the day of expiration- we had to go back to that person and have her re-notarize it for us, which meant we had to wait for their shop to open. We did that and were on our way down to the capitol.
We hadn't quite made it to Lake Stevens proper and I said, "Are you sure we have everything we need before we drive all the way there?" Teresa asked me a question about a document that I had received in email form. I had been waiting for it by fax and then the lady in DC decided to email it to me instead, so that was a bit confusing; was I waiting for a fax still, no it came by email.
Then there was still a letter that was supposed to be delivered from someone, I can't remember who, from again somewhere on the east coast, "Did we already get that one?". 'I think before we go all the way to Olympia that we had better go back home and make sure we have every single piece of paper we could ever need".
As we were driving home we past Kimmy leaving for Seattle with Ian and we waved as we passed. We got home and about 2 minutes later Kimmy walked in the front door; "What happened, aren't you guys going to Olympia". "Yes" we replied "But we think there might be a package we are waiting for on Fedex". She walked into the house, picked something, I don't know what up, and walked back out. She came back in 5 seconds later and said, "Fedex is here". Thank you Lord for not making us wait and for not letting us get all the way there w/o that piece of paper.
Still a little frazzled we made sure we had every thing we needed and headed back down. The mall parking lots are bursting as we drive past on the freeways- people attempting to find the perfect gift that will change their "listed people's" lives, while being in a frenzy because they waited until the last second to purchase this life changing gift. I'm glad I am on my way to Olympia- should we ever be super excited to go to Olympia to visit the Secretary of States office?
We get to the office and the people there are really nice. They do this kind of thing all the time, so they know a bit more about what they are looking for than we do, but each state and country is a bit different and each agency has a different set of docs, so they are not totally sure what they are looking for either.
We found out that they expect every doc to be notarized before it gets to them, even though our agency made it sound like there would be some that would have to be authenticated and notarized by them. The lady said it happens all the time, but thankfully she didn't send us home or back out, she just did that for us.
We had all of our family background checks done previously, with the home study, and we had to go to the local police station to get one done for Washington state, which really made no sense to me, since that is wHere T has lived almost her entire life. Our home study provider sent the ones they had to us, since we had already paid for them. We handed them over to the lady at the SofS office and she said she had never seen this form before, it always looked different. She advised us to go the WSP and get a new one and have it notarized while we were there. So off we went to WSP.
We got on the computer in their lobby, since it is cheaper to do that then have them input it for you, and finished that up, but then the lady there told us it would be between and hour and 1-1/2 hours to get that back completed. In the mean time we had copies to make, so we went for a late lunch and went to Kinkos to copy all the paper work.
We had thought that we needed to wait to copy all these forms until oAter the authentication took place, but the SofS lady said that this was incorrect and that many agencies tell their people the wrong thing to do, since once they have been authenticated the forms cannot be separated from each other. Ok, we'll do that now.
We checked the PU time for Fedex while there and got the copies made, went back to WSP and picked up basically the same forms as we had previously, just now they were notarized by them and back to the SofS's office.
Everything looks great there. They were really fast and told us of a BofA that was closer than the one tHe other lady had told us, as we needed to get a cashiers check to send in the packages for the processing fees for all these docs. Got the cashier's check and went back to Kinkos to send them all off.
While there we explained to one of the staff what we were trying to accomplish and he was excited because his sister is in the process of adopting. We have a lot of docs to send and some are going one place to be processed and some are going to another, but could arrive with the other packet. So we wanted to put them all in one single envelope so the first person could do the work and then send them all to the next person. "No problem, here is how we need to do this", was his reply.
He grabbed an envelope and had me put the docs in that one, but then it was not large enough to accommodate all the other papers, so I took those out of that one and asked if he had a larger one. He did so I took those papers out and transferred them. There is a point to all this rambling.
He finished the transaction with us, but had not put the stickers on the envelope. T and I were a little reluctant to leave w/o those stickers and the address being on the envelope, but after about 2-3 minutes I finally told her we were going to leave and let God handle this. We left, got in really thick traffic on the way home, were late to Garrett's non league game, which he didn't start, so it didn't matter thatf we weren't on time.
I went to the concession stand, at half time, to get a hot dog since we ate a long time ago, and went to pull out my wallet, which is normally in my jacket pocket. I put it there when I am logging many miles in the car, so it doesn't make me "crooked" in my back pocket. It wasn't there. It wasn't in my pants pocket. "Oh no, did I leave it at Kinkos in Olympia"?
I went out to the truck and thankfully it was on the floor of the back seat- it had fallen out of my coat pocket sometime in the long drive home. "Thank you Lord".
The rest of the night was uneventful and we got home, relaxed a bit and T checked the voice mail on the home phone. A message from the Kinkos guy in Olympia. A client of theirs had found our checks in the "first" envelope and they had not gone on with our forms. When I had taken the docs out of the first envelope the checks must have slid out of those papers and were in the bottom of that envelope and not made the transfer to the bigger envelope. They put them in the safe over night and I have to call him this am to give him instructions.
When T let me listen to the message all I could do was laugh and think about how many obstacles we had to cross and how many places we could have fallen down and what would have seemed to be one of the easiest parts ended up being the crashing point. God gave us some glimmers along the way yesterday and He can still make all this work. It's really is too big for us now and it will be fun to see what He does with all this.
Please pray that all this gets done in time, especially with all the holidays and weekends in the middle of it all. I'll keep you posted.
12/19/09
Crazy Week
Last Thursday I had shoulder surgery- torn rotator cuff- and I scheduled it only AFTER I consulted the surgeon informing him that on Friday our entire family was scheduled to go to Dept. of Homeland Security and be finger printed. He informed me this would be no problem and I told him if there was going to be ANY issue that I should schedule it for this week. Again, no issues.
It is awesome that God has allowed people to be smart enough to create all these different medical devices that allow repairing a shoulder that was pretty up with just 4 little holes and I came home the same day; though I was pretty beat.
We went, on Friday morning, to Tukwila, about an hour and a half drive from here, and took all our paperwork in. It's like the airport except they don't really seem to be protecting anything. I don't think there are a bunch of people who are going to try to hijack that building, but maybe I am naive.
We arrived early- in true Weinberg form- and then got our numbers. They called me up and took one look at my arm in a sling and decided that it would be too risky- for them- to finger print me. Humm. I told them the story about the surgeon and they told me that I would have to get a note from the doctor before they could proceed. I knew he had surgeries scheduled for Fridays but I couldn't not get these done if there was any possible way on my end. I got the doctor to write a note and he faxed it in. Then the man in charge told me that it didn't matter if I had a note of not, they were going to make the decision whether or not they were going to finger print me. Humm, why did I trouble the doctor to do that??
We arrived at 11:30 and finally left, all finger printed, at 1:30. Kind of nuts.
Then we had all our paperwork and now we have to get it in the mail. Next day here, same day processing there, fax this thing to them and emails burning up the airways. Will we actually get this all completed in time? Only God knows the answer to that question. It will literally comes down to the last day or 2 I'm sure, but God has this all planned out and if "Vince" is supposed to be part of our family, more than just in our hearts, then it will all get to the right people in time. Pretty crazy.
On Monday we have to go to Olympia and get a bunch of paperwork notarized, certified and authenticated. I had to next day my birth cert. to NJ, since that is where I was born, in order for them to authenticate the paper they sent me. Humm? You send it to me and then I send it back to you so you can make sure it is right. That seems a bit odd, but we are trying to play be the rules and get through the "game" as fast as we can.
Anyway, it seems as if adopting an international child who is about to age out is about as miraculous as conception. We have 3 kids to prove that God can do miracles, so it's easy for Him to do another.
Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement along the way. I'll keep you posted as we go along. BTW, I am supposed to be in a sling for at least 4 weeks and then I get to do some very light resistance exercises. I think I am going to be gimped up for quite a while, but this is all part of His plan so I had better just enjoy the process.
It is awesome that God has allowed people to be smart enough to create all these different medical devices that allow repairing a shoulder that was pretty up with just 4 little holes and I came home the same day; though I was pretty beat.
We went, on Friday morning, to Tukwila, about an hour and a half drive from here, and took all our paperwork in. It's like the airport except they don't really seem to be protecting anything. I don't think there are a bunch of people who are going to try to hijack that building, but maybe I am naive.
We arrived early- in true Weinberg form- and then got our numbers. They called me up and took one look at my arm in a sling and decided that it would be too risky- for them- to finger print me. Humm. I told them the story about the surgeon and they told me that I would have to get a note from the doctor before they could proceed. I knew he had surgeries scheduled for Fridays but I couldn't not get these done if there was any possible way on my end. I got the doctor to write a note and he faxed it in. Then the man in charge told me that it didn't matter if I had a note of not, they were going to make the decision whether or not they were going to finger print me. Humm, why did I trouble the doctor to do that??
We arrived at 11:30 and finally left, all finger printed, at 1:30. Kind of nuts.
Then we had all our paperwork and now we have to get it in the mail. Next day here, same day processing there, fax this thing to them and emails burning up the airways. Will we actually get this all completed in time? Only God knows the answer to that question. It will literally comes down to the last day or 2 I'm sure, but God has this all planned out and if "Vince" is supposed to be part of our family, more than just in our hearts, then it will all get to the right people in time. Pretty crazy.
On Monday we have to go to Olympia and get a bunch of paperwork notarized, certified and authenticated. I had to next day my birth cert. to NJ, since that is where I was born, in order for them to authenticate the paper they sent me. Humm? You send it to me and then I send it back to you so you can make sure it is right. That seems a bit odd, but we are trying to play be the rules and get through the "game" as fast as we can.
Anyway, it seems as if adopting an international child who is about to age out is about as miraculous as conception. We have 3 kids to prove that God can do miracles, so it's easy for Him to do another.
Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement along the way. I'll keep you posted as we go along. BTW, I am supposed to be in a sling for at least 4 weeks and then I get to do some very light resistance exercises. I think I am going to be gimped up for quite a while, but this is all part of His plan so I had better just enjoy the process.
12/7/09
12/3/09
Roller Coaster
Well this has been a roller coaster since we came back from Ethiopia.
There was no agency, then one came on and then went back off and today it appears as if God may have provided not one but 2 agencies to get these kids into homes. Time will tell and we'll know more on Monday or Tuesday, but it looks as if there is a real solid one that will start taking applications as early as today.
Praise God for His amazing provision for these kids. he never fails.
There was no agency, then one came on and then went back off and today it appears as if God may have provided not one but 2 agencies to get these kids into homes. Time will tell and we'll know more on Monday or Tuesday, but it looks as if there is a real solid one that will start taking applications as early as today.
Praise God for His amazing provision for these kids. he never fails.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)