A B C

[*] A is for age: 21+ (you should never ask a woman her age)

[*] B is for beer of choice: umm none since it's way too gross...wine please or mixed drink

[*] C is for career right now: SAHM, preschool teacher, student of Korean adoption (it's a lifelong learning process), mediator, chef, maid, and wife just to name a few

[*] D is for your dog's name: Maggie

[*] E is for essential item you use everyday: diapers and wipes

[*] F is for favorite TV show: anything to take my mind off of my pain

[*] G is for favorite game to watch: my college basketball (GO SAINTS!!!!!)

[*] H is for Home town: Glenville, New York

[*] I is for instruments you play: voice (hey we have music time here in our home!!!), drum (or anything that looks like a drum), tambourine, egg shakers, homemade shakers, and piano

[*] J is for favorite juice: Apple

[*] K is for whose butt you'd like to be kicking right now: umm nobody that I'm aware of at the moment

[*] L is for last place you ate: Home

[*] M is for marriage: Been married for 14 years

[*] N is for your name: Mommy/Momma to 3, Jen to Jeff and friends, Jennifer to my family and extended family members

[*] O is for overnight hospital stay: Yes 2 times for 23 hour stays after surgery and 3 nights for my Katie girl who was hospitalized

[*] P is for people you were with today: My family

[*] Q is for quote: Okay who wants to learn something today??

[*] R is for Biggest Regret: Not traveling to Korea to pick up our other two children

[*] S is for relationship status: Happily married with 3 active kids

[*] T is for time you woke up today: 7:30

[*] U is for underwear you have on now: no way this is a family blog here and I'm not answering this one!!!!!

[*] V is for vegetable you love: fresh out of the garden sugar snap peas

[*] W is for worst habits: Dwelling on why people just can't get along and be friends

[*] X is for x-rays you've had: Chest (several times last year alone for pneumonia), and teeth

[*] Y is for something yummy you ate today: 2 Chocolate chip cookies (makes me want to bake more)

[*] Z is for zodiac sign: Aries

Korea's Missing Children

While I was looking something else up today I found a website on missing children in Korea. I searched it and was saddened to see the listing of 110 kids on it dating back to 1973 all the way to this year. Their ages vary from under a year old to 17 years old at the time of abduction.

It's very sad...very sad. I am thinking about all of these kids and hope that they get returned to their families soon.

~Jen

Our Agency's Reunion Picnic

We traveled to our adoption agency today to celebrate with other adoptees and their families the 27 years that this agency has been doing Korean Adoptions. It was a reunion with the older adoptees with the younger ones along with their parents, grandparents, etc. We had the founders of the Korean program for our agency present as well for the picnic. It was a bittersweet moment when I learned of them closing their program a few weeks before this event.

I made something fitting for Chuseok. I made 녹두나물 for the picnic. I didn't know that this was typically served as a part of the traditional Chuseok foods but I learned that the morning of the picnic while searching for the Hangul online for the name of the dish I made. How completely fitting don't you think??

At our table we had my parents, one of my friends who adopted 20+ years ago through this agency, her two girls (my girls' mentors) and one of her daughters' friends. Unfortunately Ryan's mentor was busy and couldn't attend the event. I managed to share a chair with my husband and Katie as I don't think there was enough room at our table for another chair.

The potluck picnic food varied from 만두, 잡채, my 녹두나물, to taco salad, fried chicken, brownies, Ggae Gwa Ja, chocolate chip cookies, and more.

We saw friends of ours there from the parenting class that we took at our agency and friends of ours who adopted as well from our agency so that was really nice although we did alot of running around with our kids. We saw some familiar faces from 무지개 캠프 which was extremely wonderful.

I had one mother come up to me while I was waiting in the art room for some supplies and told me that she absolutely loved Rising Stars at 무지개 캠프 this year. She got alot of information out of it and really appreciated all of the effort that myself plus the two other mothers put into that class of 무지개 캠프. Hearing this from another mother who remembered me from camp was just heartwarming. I am so glad that we made such a huge impression on this mother.

The kids had a blast there. The girls sat with their Korean mentors and ate their meals. Katie even went up with her mentor, Kathleen, to get some desserts (I believe it was twice). After the lunch, we listened to the speakers talk about the history of our agency. I videotaped the speeches as it was that important to me and, I feel, to the kids as they get older.

After the speeches, we worked on painting the ceramic tiles with the help from The Pottery Place. They also had a bouncy bounce for the kids however my kids had fun just running around the gym.

We had a family picture taken with our social worker as she has been there for us for all three kids. Afterwards we had our last post placement visit with her. I need to pick out pictures, write letters to the foster moms and such yet, our last visit is done (at least for now with our social worker). I know that down the road when things crop up, we know that she will be there for us to answer our questions, to help us understand the adoption emotional rollercoaster that our children might be going through and more.

While it's a bittersweet moment for us and our adoption agency, Jeff and I have no fear that our social worker will be there for us when we need her. We hope so much that this potluck picnic will become an annual event. And I know other families would love to see this as well...

Chuseok Celebration

추석 잘 지 내 새요 Chuseok jal ji nae sae yo
추석 잘 보 내 새요 Chuseok jal bo nae sae yo

This coming weekend is Chuseok 추석 (otherwise known as Hangawee 한가위). Chuseok is a 3 day holiday considered to be like a Korean Thanksgiving. Traffic in Korea is apparently a nightmare since I read most people live in a city. Koreans visit their ancestral home and thank their ancestors for the harvest.

We, as a family, are learning more about the holiday from Chuseok Info for Kids, Chuseok Information, and More Chuseok Information.

So what are you doing for 추석???

~Jen

September is a Special Month for us

In my family, I first started as a wife. Jeff and I got married back in 1994 just this very month...has it really been almost 14 years??? Seems like only yesterday that I married my love. Hard to believe that he just graduated college in May 1994 and that I graduated from college the year before. Hard to believe that we had family and friends present at the church that my grandfather did some work in many years ago, the church that I attended since I was little, the church where I learned to sing German Christmas carols and Latin chants in, the church where I was the youngest choir member in (joined at age 17).

Jeff and I started off as a young happy couple living in NJ. We eventually added a puppy in 1997, Jasmine. We lost her too young...she was only home less than 2 weeks. God I hate puppy mills!! After Jasmine's death came Maggie...she's a Jersey girl and comes from a breeder near the Jersey shore. She came home in late August 1997.

Then this month in 2004 one day before our 10th anniversary, we got the phone call about a referral. That referral was Ryan. We accepted his referral on our 10th anniversary. It's a very special time for the three of us. It's a story that I won't stop telling to him. How it came to be that this little guy who was 4 months old waiting for a family came to join ours.

~Jen

Something to Think About...

I'm just wondering if you have read this A Different Perspective on Adoption. With the bonding/attachments issues that we had with Ryan at the beginning, I can completely see why he reacts the way that he does to certain things.

Let me know what you think about it.

~Jen

Playdates

Mommy set up a playdate for us with a local moms group at local park on Saturday August 23rd. We met one of Mommy's friends along with her four year old boy there and saw Mommy chat with another Mommy with her little boy there as well.

This park was just redone and we had fun playing in the sandbox, checking out the creek, eating snack in the gazebo, going down the slides, swinging on the swings, and going across the bridges and so much more.

We hope to see them again at the next playdate we attend in September.

~Ryan, Katie, and Bella