An Outing to a Korean Restaurant for a Princess

We recently took our youngest Princess to a local Korean restaurant. We arrived before 6 pm and we were the only ones in the place but not for long. After picking out a table near the fish tank, we ordered our food of 2 orders of mandu, one order of dolsot bibimbahp, one order of Tang Soo Yuk, and one order of Dahk Goo Yee. This was on top of the soup and the mung bean sprouts, spicy cucumber slices, and kimchi.

The children didn't want the bibimbahp but had the mandu, Tang Soo Yuk and Dahk Goo Yee. When we mentioned that we were out celebrating our princess' birthday, the owner came back with a scoop of ice cream with a lit candle and umbrella in it. The other two children are planning their birthday dinner outings after the good food that we had.

~Jen

Olympics 2010 and Korean Role Models

We've been busy here in our home with schooling, preparing for Santa to come, Bella's birthday on Seol-nal and more. I have to catch up with you all later on those events.

This week we've been cheering on both Americans and Koreans in the Olympics. Hands down our favorite going into the Ladies Figure Skating was 김연아 (Kim Yu Na) and boy did she ever deliver. Her performance with the short program was amazing and fun to watch. The children saw it and Bella said "Kim Yu Na is dancing Mommy". And dancing she was with a little 3 year old fan doing jump spins right along with her. What a wonderful role model to have!!!

Kim Yu Na's performance last night at the Vancouver Olympics was in the stratosphere. She definitely earned the gold medal. Jeff and I watched as the rest of the skaters tried but just couldn't obtain that stratosphere high bar that Kim had set.

I wish we were in Korea right now to celebrate along with the other Korean fans. We can't wait to watch more angelic dances by this Olympic skater!!

~Jen

Happy Merry Share Day!!!

Did you hear about Happy Merry Share Day?? Ryan created it last Thursday and we have been celebrating it since. It's when you share your stuff with others who don't have enough. Can you share your time to help others in need? Can you share those homebaked cookies, pies, etc with your neighbors? Can you share your toys with other children in need?

Think how much better this world would be if we all learned to share and give of ourselves...my children know the meaning of Christmas. It's not to receive gifts from others but to give them TO others. Those gifts may be the gift of time, the gift of knowing how to read, the gift of giving toys, clothes and food to others in need, and more. And my children are 5, 4 and 2 years old.

So Happy Merry Share Day to you and I hope that you celebrate it by helping others in need each and every day of the year and not just during the upcoming holiday season.

~Jen

HUGE BREAKTHROUGH!!!

Ryan had a huge breakthrough last night and today. He has been thinking about himself for awhile and not helping others who are in need. Last night while we were out shopping he wanted to pick out toys for the poor children who don't have any. Jeff and I had discussed before about donating a toy to Toys for Tots so he picked out a matchbox car set for a boy. The girls picked out a musical instrument set for the girls who don't have any toys.

We also shopped for Operation Christmas Child as well. It was suggested to us by several people as a means for our children to further help others. We are joining a homeschooling group to help pack up the shoeboxes.

This morning, Ryan was upset that we couldn't do more. He told me while he was eating breakfast that he wanted Nana and Papa to not give him a Christmas present but to give it to the "poor children who don't have any toys". I told him that this means he may not get a present to open from them at Christmas this year, he said "that's okay I have alot of toys Mommy". Per his insistence, I called my mom up at work so that he could tell her. Then we made two more phone calls, one to my dad and one to Daddy at work.

After the chiropractic appointment this morning, we went to the local dentist who is collecting Halloween candy and paying $1 a pound for it in our Halloween Candy buy back program. We dropped off our candy and got $3...one dollar for each of them for their piggybanks bringing them a step closer to going to Korea.

After we got home, Ryan had a snack with his sisters and asked to help out those poor people who don't have any food. We filled up two grocery bags with peanut butter, rice, jelly, canned goods, and more. After that was done we bagged up the stuff for Operation Christmas Child and got that ready to bring with us to next week's meeting.

Tonight he asked me if I was proud of him. I couldn't be more proud of him. And now he understands why I help out the local mothers who need clothing and baby supplies for their newborn to 2 year olds. He also understands why this past Saturday his Daddy mailed out 5 packages to a friend of mine from one of the adoption boards. She and her family are helping the less fortunate in Mexico. Children that have next to nothing along with their families.

He might be a 5 year old boy but he is wise beyond his years right now. He can't understand why others don't help the poor and needy. He can't understand why people are hungry, why people live on the streets instead of homes, why their children don't have toys to play with, and more.

Can you answer him? Can you help others less fortunate than you this year? While I realize this comes during a difficult financial time, can you afford to purchase one more can of vegetables this upcoming holiday season? Can you afford to buy one gift for a child who has none to open this Christmas? Can you donate coats, hats, scarves, or mittens for those children who have none this winter? Can you pass on the word to help others?

Doing Something to Help Natural Mothers in My Area

My church is helping an organization that helps out Natural Mothers in my area. Heck the place is about 5 miles away from us!! I decided today that we are going to help them out with their donation drive that they are having. So the like new clothing that I have that is 2T and under is going to this organization which helps the mothers

~Jen

My August Birthday Girl

I now have a 4 year old in the home. Katie turned 4 recently and we had her birthday party here at our home. She is into animals but extremely interested in elephants. She wants to know everything there is to know about elephants. We have stuffed animal elephants, books on elephants, and elephant figurines. Her invites were covered with elephants.

For her birthday she was asking for a baby elephant.

No not a stuffed animal.

No not a book about them.

No not a figurine.

A baby elephant as a pet. She has it worked out that it would live in the home and she would take good care of it. She is beginning to realize that maybe we can't do this. But she can hold out hope can't she??

And since my girl is now 4, she wants to learn how to play soccer. So this fall, after some investigating on my part, we'll enroll both her and Ryan in soccer.

Now I need to figure out where to bring her to see live elephants...I see a trip to a zoo in the future.

~Jen

Camp MuJiGae is done for now...

Camp MuJiGae is over for this year for us. Mommy was the coordinator for the youngest campers (5 years old and younger) this year. She had learned 2 new Korean songs to teach this year and didn't get to do them since the SIWA women had their own program this year which was absolutely wonderful. The group had a play about a Goblin and most of the 24 campers sat their and listened with their parents to the play. They handed out masks for the kids to decorate. If the campers showed their masks to the SIWA students, they got a prize of school supplies which included a ruler, a pencil case, a pencil, an eraser, and more.

After the SIWA students' program, the older campers (the 3 to 5 year olds) had a Tae Kwon Do program that a Korean adult adoptee who is a 4th degree black belt did for me. He was former camper and former counselor for camp and wanted to give back. The kids had a blast and they got to break boards at the very end of their session. He signed the boards for the kids and handed out gift certificates for one month free lessons with 2 private lessons and a uniform. That was totally unexpected and I thanked him several times. He stayed through the family day events and made sure that he said goodbye to us before he left.

Every time that I saw "The Big Kahuna" for camp yesterday and today, he mentioned to me that he got rave reviews from parents that this was the best camp for the youngest age group in several years. The last thing that was said was this: "we've filled the position of coordinator for Curiosity campers and you're doing it". Wow


I'm taking some time to relax and regroup and then start planning next year's camp for the youngest group of campers for MuJiGae.