New Blog

In celebration of our upcoming arrival, we have started a new blog...

http://ourjoyfilledjourney.blogspot.com

Parent/Child

‎I saw this posted by an adoptive mom today on Facebook.

"Natural child: any child who is not artificial.
Real parent: any parent who is not imaginary.
Your own child: any child who is not someone else’s child.
Adopted child: a natural child, with a real parent, who is all my own.”
- Rita Laws

Korean New Year

Each year our Korean Adoption Group celebrates the New Year. The Lunar New Year was last week and our group had another amazing gathering filled with music, K Pop, delicious food, a magician crafts, and so much more. The kids LOVED going this year. They love the college students being there. Ben and Cami volunteered to be part of the Karate demonstration. The blur in the picture is the guy breaking a board after jumping over the 5 kids. All of the kids loved it! One of the other favorites was the magician. He took an empty semi smashed Dr. Pepp*r can and filled it with the "air" around him. As he waved it around, it filled up and sealed. He opened the can, poured it in a cup and handed it to Ben to try. WOW was Ben feeling like a million bucks! We ended the evening with some delicious Korean food before heading out and dropping Ben off at the Kohl center with Stacy, Brian, and Hank to watch the UW Hockey game. We are looking forward to Korean Culture Day coming up!

Cami's Subtraction Rhyme

Cami's teacher is so creative! She has so many wonderful, fun ways to help the kids learn. Last week Cami brought home this...

Subtraction Rhyme

More on Top

no need to Stop!

More on the floor,

go next door and get

10 more!

Numbers the same?

Zero's the game!

Happy New Year!

2011 is gone and we are happy to welcome 2012. I love the number 12, have since I was in high school. I am not exactly sure why, but I have always considered it my favorite number, a lucky number. Now that we are beginning 2012, I feel a sense of excitement, of hope. We have many things we are looking forward to doing this year including a week long cruise to the Bahamas with my mom and step dad and with Mike, Allison, and the kids. We also hope to sell our land and find the house that will be our "forever" house. Only God knows what is in store for our lives. We pray for His blessings in whatever we do and wherever we go!
Happy New Year and Welcome 2012!

Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas!

This year we thought we'd put our Christmas letter online. We're still mailing out cards, but the letter is online. We hope you enjoy it. Click here to view it. It will open up in Google Docs, but we recommend you download the original version for the best quality.  Once it opens, click Download Original in the upper right corner of the page.  You'll need Adobe Acrobat to view the original version. If you don't have it, you can get it from Adobe for free. Or if you let us know, we'll mail you a copy.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Let's hear it for the Ears

This summer Cami and Kylie were set to get their ears pierced together when Aladodo and Papa and also Mike, Allison, and the kids were in town. When we got to the mall, Cami saw a little girl crying after getting her ears pierced and opted not to get them done. Kylie still got hers done as we all watched. So brave!

For the past few months, Cami has been asking to try again. She said she is now ready for her ears to be pierced. We waited a few months to make sure it is something she still wanted. This weekend, Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Neil were in town. We took a girls trip to the mall (although the boys were also in the mall) to get Cami's ears done. We didn't tell her until we got there. She was so excited!!!! She picked out several pairs of earrings before narrowing it down to the one she wanted...flowers in the color of her birthstone. She sat by herself in the chair then decided it might be less scary sitting on mom's lap. Grandma took pictures as Cami bravely sat and had her ears pierced. We are so proud of the big girl she is!

Cami said it hurt a little bit when they "poked" her ears, but she is so happy that she did it!