Bella's Song and Dance...Thanks PAPA!!!

Bella has a song and dance that she has been doing for a little while. It's called the Dupa (pronounced like doo pa) Dance and Song. The song has one word in it...and you probably already guessed it...DUPA!!!! For those of you that are Polish reading this, you might know the meaning of the word. For the rest of you just ask me privately and I'll let you know.

I do know that we can thank my dad (her Papa) for this one. He mentioned the word to her on several occasions.

One two three...THANKS DAD!!!!! THANKS PAPA!!!!

I'm crawling back into my hole now due to embarrassment...

~Jen

Conversations with Bella

Me: Are you a good girl today?
Bella: No
Me: Are you a bad girl today?
Bella: Yeah (then smiling and laughing from her)

Similar conversation 15 minutes later...

Me: Are you a good girl today?
Bella: No
Me: Are you a bad girl today?
Bella: No
Bella: (laughing over the puzzled look on my face)
Me: Okay Bella I'm not sure how to take that one
Bella: (still giggling)

Me: Bella please get off the computer
Bella: I workin (she is opening and closing the cd tray and "typing" furiously at the computer)
Me: You're working??
Bella: Yeah I workin

We'll chalk it up to a Wacky Wednesday...

~Jen

Annual Neighborhood Halloween Parade

One lady in our neighborhood each year organizes a fantastic Halloween parade for the little kids and some of the older kids in our neighborhood. Anybody who wants to dress up can.

At last year's parade, we were treated to 2 full sized R2D2 units (from Star Wars just in case you don't know) that danced to their own music. They were a huge hit with the kids.

This year's parade was no exception. We had adults dressed up as Darth Vader and 2 Stormtroopers and a teenager dressed up as Princess Leia (also from Star Wars).

We also had a real life State Police officer who was doing the parade route with his young son.

My parents came up to help out with the kids and take pictures of them trick or treating. We had the two oldest walking and Bella was in the stroller. By the half way mark, Katie was being carried, Ryan was dragging, and Bella was still in the stroller. About 2/3 of the way through the route, Katie was in the stroller, Ryan was being held and Bella was walking most of the rest of the parade route. By the 2/3rds mark, Bella knew the routine and how to do it. It took one hour from start to finish to do the parade.

When we got home they had to see their goodies. They each had a couple of pieces for snack and haven't asked for any more since.

Sorry I'm not showing any pictures just yet...I need to download them from my camera.

Now we just need to work on them saying "trick or treat" and then "thank you" (heck I'd take a Kamsahamnida as well).

~Jen

The Story of a Ladybug...

Today Ryan and I found a ladybug in the family room. Normally a bug in the house makes the kids upset that it is in their home and bugs live outside in their own homes however this was a different story today. Today the ladybug was more than welcomed into our home for a little while longer. We mourned the loss of the ladybug's life in our home for a little while.

The two oldest kids were sad to see the dead ladybug and Ryan didn't want it to go outside. He ended up giving me the dead little ladybug. So in the pouring rain with Ryan looking from inside the house, I said a prayer and buried the little ladybug in our front yard where he could see and right near some bushes that the ladybugs would frequent.

After the prayer and burial, I went back inside the house a little soaking wet and took off my shoes and coat. I gave my son a hug and after a small amount of time he went off to play with his cars a little sad that "his" ladybug was gone but better since Mommy took care of the ladybug by saying a little prayer over its grave.

We miss you little ladybug and hope that you are flying carefree in ladybug heaven.

~Jen

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...