Thank you...

To those of you reading this blog...Kamsahamnida!!



I'm so glad that you are enjoying the blog. I was worried when the kids started it that they (and I) would have little to say. But alas with 3 kids now there is never a dull moment around here.



We love you all...

So this is Christmas...

Jeff and I are sending our children a big message starting this year that we hope to build on with each coming year.

Christmas isn't the season of getting but the season of giving. We are remembering those less fortunate than ourselves this holiday season.

We dislike the hustle and bustle of the shoppers and the traffic getting to and from the stores. We don't want to get a gift just for the sake of gift-giving. We want each gift we give to our children to be special. Whether that be something from Korea, something to get them to Korea, or something to remember those less fortunate than ourselves.

You too could probably find in your own home something that you could donate to someplace like Salvation Army for somebody else to use. You could probably find someplace in your hearts to donate time and/or money to various charities in your own backyards. We have our favorite charities here in our household both local, national and in Korea.

We hope that you are staying safe this holiday season and we hope that you will think of others not just during this time of year but all year round.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!

Bella Has Been here for 30 days...thoughts are in Korea

It's hard to believe that Bella has been home for 30 days already. It seems like only yesterday we were in Korea touring the city of Seoul and seeing the birthplace of our children. It's hard to believe that one little girl was placed into my arms and we were whisked into the van waiting to take us away to the airport. She screamed half the time on our drive to the airport...she pushed me away. She finally cried herself to sleep and woke up at the airport where she screamed some more scanning the crowd for her Omma. She refused to take a bottle from us. She refused to take much more than a ounce from another passenger waiting for the same flight we were.

In flight, we had an offer from a Korean passenger to help us feed her. Boy were we ever grateful for that woman!! She talked to her and sang to her. It calmed Bella's nerves but she wasn't Omma.

Each airport we came to, she scanned the crowd again crying out hoping that Omma would hear and rescue her from us.

Today she is a happy little girl with her moments of tears and fears that we'll leave her. She's had many losses in her life at such a young age...loss of her First Mom, loss of any caregivers at the adoption agency in Korea, and the loss of her Omma. I won't take away what you called her...it's hers and hers alone.

Don't worry little Bella, Momma's here. I'll dry your tears, hug you tight and tell you that I love you very much.

I'm not leaving you...

~Your Mommy

A Visit with Santa

Mommy and Daddy took all of us to see Santa the other night. We dressed up in our Christmas finest and went out to see him. Both Katie and I forgot to tell Santa what we wanted for Christmas so we told Mommy as a go-between us and Santa...she'll have to call the North Pole for a direct line to Santa. Both Katie and I were afraid of Santa and didn't want to sit on his lap and Mommy was holding Bella so Daddy got to hold both of us.

Mommy and Daddy haven't uploaded the picture yet but we'll post it here once they do so.

Gotta go since I told Mommy I was playing upstairs!!!

~Ryan

Going to the Museum

We went to the museum today to see the trains. They had lots of trains set up for us to watch go round and round the tracks. We saw passenger trains and freight trains. We saw Mr. and Mrs. Claus on the pumper car and the passenger train that caught up with it pushing them around the track for a little bit.

We also walked around the museum and we played with the magnets and played with a kitchen set they had there.

After all of that we saw the Korean show that was there. After the dance portion of it, Mommy asked Ryan if he could dance like that. Ryan told her "No Mommy" (like what Mom are you kidding me??).

And to top the day off we got to spend it with our friends.

Tonight it's snow snow snow snow snow...

Santa unfortunately can't make it down from the North Pole tomorrow to meet us so hopefully this week we can meet Santa.

~Katie

Korean Celebration at a Local Museum

This afternoon we attended a Korean Celebration at a local museum. The museum had a month long celebration called Festival of Holidays with different cultures. They had a program that was put on by a local Korean church. We watched a film about Koreans celebrating the New Year. They had Korean fashion show with women dressed up in various Hanboks. They also cooked and served up for Beef Bulgogi. We got to listen to a men's choir sing Christmas carols in Korean. We also watched the church's youth group perform as well to modern version of Arirang and they were good. During this performance I got teary-eyed. It brought me back to Korea just hearing the song. I'm really glad that I saw this in the local paper and told Jeff that we should go.

~Jen

1st Meetings

Ryan went out to lunch today and met several people in our neighborhood (sorry I have Sesame Street's song running through my head right now).

First he met 2 Police Officers while we were eating lunch. Here's the conversation between Ryan and I:

myself: Do you want to go say hi?
Ryan: (incredulous that I would even ask a question) What????
myself: Do you want to go say hi to the police officers sitting over there?
Ryan: No (attitude was "no way mom what are you thinking??")

Later on during lunch Ryan is still staring at the officers. I have another conversation with him.

Ryan: are they eating lunch??? (incredulous that this would happen)
myself: yes they eat lunch...they are people just like me or you
Ryan: (still staring)
myself: Ryan, let's go say hi to the police officers, okay?
Ryan: okay (but scared to walk over there so I picked him up)

His conversation with the officers:

myself: Hi...I'm sorry since I know that you guys are eating lunch but my son wanted to say hi to you.
Officer Dave: oh no problem
Ryan: (dead silence and staring)
Officer Dave: so what's your name?
Ryan: (more dead silence and staring)
myself: his name is Ryan
Officer Mike: Hi Ryan. I'm Mike and that's Dave
myself: Ryan, you going to say hello?
Ryan: (dead silence and still staring)
Officer Mike: see Dave, I told you not to scare off the little kids
Officer Dave: we like to talk to the good little boys so be good, okay?
Ryan: (dead silence no head movement and he's still staring)
Officer Mike: (laughs a little since his partner scared Ryan)
myself: Ryan was surprised to see you guys eating lunch
Officer Mike: yeah we get to grab a bite to eat when we can
Ryan: (still staring at the officers)
myself: (slightly embarrassed with the conversation and lack thereof by Ryan) Thank you so much for talking with my son.

We walk back to the table and I have another conversation with Ryan:

Ryan: (after we get to the table) I talked with a police officer
myself: (thinking the following but didn't respond to him about it) YOU??? YOU talked with the police officers???



~Jen