KAAN Conference 2011

Facebook friends, did you read my prior posting about KAAN? If not read this one:

Do you know about KAAN and its wonderful annual conference? Do you know about the conference’s sessions that are wonderful not only to the adoption triad but also to the extended family and social workers as well? Do you know that the sessions are wonderful for those of us who have adopted transracially years ago but also for those of us who have adopted transracially recently?

My husband and I are going to our 3rd conference this year. We attended in 2007 in Boston (our children were just 3 and 2 years old with our youngest still in Korea), 2010 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and now 2011 in ATLANTA!!!! We have made KAAN friends from all over the US and in Korea and I cannot wait for KAAN this year to see them again.

For me, I am highly interested in the session Making Culture Camps Relevant for Children Adopted from Korea. My children attend Camp Mujigae (my oldest two have attended since 2006) and I have been volunteering at camp since 2007. It’s the only Korean cultural camp that I know of in the Northeast if not in the country that has a program for children under age 5 just like KAAN is the only Korean adoption organization that I know of that has an annual conference that is all over the country (once in Seoul Korea as well J) that you get to hear from all sides of the adoption (the good and the bad from adoptees, adoptive parents, social workers, birthparents from the US and Korea, screen movies like In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee, Adopted, and many others and discussing those movies with the producer(s) of those movies, has workers from the Korean adoption agencies, and many more).

KAAN has something for everyone…even children can attend KAAN and I look at it as an extension of Camp Mujigae for them. Next year I think you’ll see my husband and I with our children there and maybe some extended family members!! KAAN can be so emotional at times but also uplifting. I find that I learn something new from KAAN each time that we have gone and it’s wonderful in seeing my KAAN friends. I always take something away from the conference that I hadn't heard of before, or learning something more about myself in my role as a mother to 3 children from Korea.

The early registration for the 13th Annual Conference has been extended to May 31st and if you are attending for the first time, please mention my name when registering and both of our names will be put into a drawing for next year’s KAAN conference so if the name is drawn that person can attend for FREE!!! Go to KAAN Conference Sessions to check out the sessions, KAAN Registration to register and for more information send an email off to

• info@kaanet.com ... for general or program questions

• kaanregistration@aol.com ... for registration questions

Remember: Register now for the early registration rate and for those first timers, remember to add my name so that both of our names can be entered into the drawing to win registration to next year's KAAN conference!!

This Children's Day Won't You Help??

I'm on Facebook and I'm a fan of TRACK (Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea) on there. They sent their fans a posting to a gift drive that they are having for single mothers in Korea who can not afford to buy stuff that we would consider to be basics for raising a child. Some of the stuff these mothers are asking for are so basic that it's almost surprising for a Westerner to read. Stuff like diapers for one expectant mother for her unborn child, books for another child, toys for others, a backpack for another and more. One caught my eye and we decided to participate in the gift drive for this family.

There are still several others that could use your help.

I'm hoping that you will read this, go to TRACK's website and pick a family to help out.

You'll be putting a smile not only on a child's face but also their mother's as well.

~Jen

Blessing with Holy Water

Seong Tae and I were playing upstairs when he decided to get his bottle of Holy Water from his Baptismal font. He blessed his dresser, his books, his bed, the floor of his room, my head, the floor of the upstairs hallway, Autumn's head, the floor of the upstairs bathroom, and himself. I told Mommy about it and she and I went upstairs to check things out and to find the bottle of Holy Water.

Mommy had to bring Seong Tae upstairs to find the bottle. She took it away from him as now it has a damaged cap.

When Mommy asked him why he needed to get it from the top shelf of his closet, Seong Tae responded so that Autumn could be blessed. I think he is done blessing things right now.

~Eun Seong

Name Calling and Bullies

Church School would be one of the last places that I would suspect name calling at. I mean it's Church afterall. God is especially watching you while you are in Church. And yet Church School is where my son was called by another child who sat at the same table as him a "Sushi Head". My son didn't take it as a negative thing at first but upon further reflection told us yesterday about it.

We had a lengthy discussion with him and later his sister, Eun Seong since she is in the same classroom, that this behavior from this boy was unacceptable and to alert their teacher. If this teacher did nothing, then to alert us and we'll handle it. I know that I'll have this conversation over and over again.

What I need is a good comeback for my children to tell a 5-7 year old child for calling them "Sushi Heads". If any of my readers here or on Facebook can give me something, I'm all for it. Right now I have them moving their materials to another table after telling their teacher.

I lit a candle for you today...

I lit a candle for you today
it was in memory of losing you
it makes me feel better when I am sad
to say a prayer for you
I hope that you hear the prayer that I have said

I miss you and love you

~Ryan

From my boy to those he misses and loves in Korea. I hope they hear his heart speaking right now.

~His Mommy

On MLK

Today on the celebration of MLK Jr.'s life, I celebrate the differences between my Polish, German and other ancestry and my children's Korean ancestry. I celebrate the wide range of music that I have exposed myself to by my own choice (classical, church hymns in Latin, German, and English languages, some Polish music, some JPop, some KPop and traditional Korean music, some American Top 40 music, some French Top 40 music, and more). I celebrate the differences between others and take it to be a stepping stone to learn more about each other.

The best time I had in school was on a bus trip to Montreal with a bunch of foreign exchange students from Central and South America and Europe and our discussions of the things that made us different but the things that made us alike as well (kids listening to music and dancing, doing school work, etc).

So I hope today that you celebrate the life of MLK, Jr. by dedicating your time as a Day of Service to help others but also celebrate the differences between you and other people around you and learn something not only about other people but maybe even yourself as well.

Sick...

Okay it started with me, the youngest one. I started with just a cough. I got a runny stuffy nose. Then my siblings developed their own colds with coughing. Then Daddy got sick and had to stay home from work due to him feeling hot and cold. And now Mommy is sick with a sore throat.

Daddy went back to work yesterday but he still isn't feeling well. We are giving Mommy fits because we don't think that we are still sick even though each of us are coughing and blowing our noses. I think that if we listen to her when she tells us to nap, we just might feel better but we are very reluctant to nap. The best she can do is confine two of us to the couch downstairs and one of us in our room upstairs.

Well I gotta go back to resting but we hope that you are healthy this holiday season.

~Tae Hee