A Blog Posting for You to Read...

Dear Readers,

If you want to understand the mindset of a Korean adoptee, read this blog's posting. It IS very enlightening. When you are done with that posting, feel free to read the rest of her blog. Don't criticize her (or any other adoptee) for her (their) thoughts and feelings.

We need more adoptees who are willing to put themselves out there for all to see. We need to support them not tear them down and call them an angry adoptees.

And while we who aren't adoptees may not understand, we can just say that we ARE listening and learning from you so keep talking. Thank you to all of the adoptees out there willing to talk. Without them, there is only the adoptive parent voice out of the three parties of the triad (First family, adoptee, and adoptive parents). And this adoptive parent doesn't want to seem like a bully.

Random Acts of Kindness Part 2

Okay no takers on the suggestions for Part 2 so we are donating some food to our local food pantry. The kids had a blast getting together the food to donate. We try to involve them in everything that we do with the community (whether that community be local or thousands of miles away). We have a bag and a box of food for them.

Random Acts of Kindness Part 3 coming soon!!!

Pictures from Inauguration Day 2009

Here are some pictures of the Inauguration that I took of the kids. Watching it with them was amazing just to see and hear their reactions.



Ryan saluting all of the former Presidents just like the guards did. My girls did it too but I couldn't move fast enough to capture it on camera.




Ryan taking the oath of office for both Vice Presidency and the Presidency. Katie and Bella did the same.




All three are glued to the events unfolding on the TV while having snack.




Bella waving her flag to President and Mrs. Obama while not giving up her snack. Did I mention we also said "Hi Michelle" alot of times like every time we saw the First Lady on TV?????

Our 2 Year Old

Bella is now officially two. Her birthday party went off wonderfully. We had invited family and friends over to celebrate it with us.

Jeff and I cooked for nearly a day and a half preparing for this while watching the kids. We made her 2 cakes (one was a flower-shaped orange flavored cake with orange buttercream frosting and the other were applesauce cupcakes for the birthday girl and one of her friends who both have food allergies). We made chicken bulgogi, seasoned mung bean sprouts, carrot cole slaw, and oven roasted broccoli (all requested by the 3 kids). We served up kimchi. My mom made Penne Vodka and my dad made bread especially for the birthday girl and one of her friends.

Bella had 3 helpings of food for lunch until she realized that she had presents to open up. All of a sudden she was done and wanted to open up her presents immediately. She had 2 helpers (her brother and one of his friends) to get rid of the wrapping paper. We oooed and ahhed at the various presents she received from others.

Here are some pictures of the birthday girl from more formal pictures that we took of them to the pictures of the birthday party....Enjoy!!!!




She had to take a picture with one of her Hello Kitties and her Panda bear.




The gang



1st outfit change




2nd outfit change...this outfit used to be mine!!! Yes I had fun doing the outfit changes.

Both of my girls have worn this outfit.







Bella's special heart shaped cupcakes!!









Bella with her Papa





Yeah!!!! We found the puzzle piece that was missing!!! 2 of the adults had a head to head puzzle making tournament game going on with 25 piece puzzles to see who could complete theirs the fastest. One of the beat out the other by 1 second. I am not reporting who was involved or who won...sorry folks!!!

~Jen

Random Acts of Kindness

As some of you know I'm Catholic and I'm doing some Random Acts of Kindness this Lenten season. I've given up chocolate in past years along with popcorn, going out to eat, doing take out and more. This year I wanted to do something for others.

Act 1 will be done this weekend...I can't say what it is but hopefully you'll hear about it afterwards on here. I'll need to chat with the other person to make sure it's okay with him/her.

As for Act 2, I'm open to suggestions...I'm thinking of a few things (clothing donation to my local domestic violence center, donating food to our local food pantry, donating pet food to our local food pantry and more). Anybody have some different ideas??? Please share them...

A bit of Korean News...

A doctor here in the US (that I think we met at the KAAN Conference in Boston in July 2007) is working on getting help for single moms in Korea (read the article in the Korean newspaper). I am hoping that his efforts there will help others in the same situation in Korea so that the First Mom won't have to choose between her child and their social status. I hope that more and more single birthmoms will be able to parent their child if they so desire without feeling shunned by society and have the financial ability to do so.

This particular AP (adoptive parent for those of you not up on adoption lingo) thinks that his efforts are a good thing.

Adoption Fundraiser for a Friend of Mine

First some background as to who this is: Beth is a mom who is fundraising to adopt a little girl from Korea that she and her husband have affectionately named Jocelyn. Jocelyn is a biological sibling to one of her other children (so you can see how this hits home for me). Beth is also somebody that I know through a group of women who have adopted either domestically or internationally. We are helping her do some fundraising. I hope that you are willing to help.

Please visit her fundraising website for more details. I'm hoping that you will help her out.

Thank you from my heart and from Beth's heart as well...

~Jen