It's Christmas Time

Ian helping Grandpa clear the walkway

Ben worked hard shoveling to build a huge fort and sledding hill

Ian likes riding on the tractor with Grandpa

Ben likes helping Grandpa drive the tractor

We headed up north to celebrate Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa and Keri, Joe, and Natalie. We always enjoy heading up north for relaxation and time with family. The kids love having a lot of space to run around outside. They also love playing with Grandma and Grandpa. Of course nothing can compare to Grandma's cooking, we all enjoy her delicious meals and treats.

The kids spent a lot of time outside sledding, riding on the tractor with Grandpa, and shoveling snow around. They couldn't wait for Christmas Eve when they could open their presents. Keri, Joe, and Natalie joined us on Christmas Eve for dinner and opening presents. It is fun to watch the excitement the kids have each year as they rip the wrapping paper to find what treasure lie underneath.

The kids are excited to open presents

Ben and Cami pose for a picture...where's Ian?

Cami and Ian are so happy for Christmas to be here

One of Ben's favorite gifts

Cami loved the dress and purse Grandma made for her

The barn was a HUGE hit

Silly dancing kids

One of our best presents

Our family

Natalie, Uncle Joe, and Aunt Keri

Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Neil

We headed home on Saturday after a wonderful weekend. On Sunday, Justin got to go to Lambeau Field to attend the Packer's game with Mike Glassford. The kids and I headed to Milwaukee to spend a belated Christmas with Jeff, Kerri, Katelyn, and Nathan. The kids had a blast playing together while Jeff, Kerri, and I caught up. It was a wonderful Christmas and we look forward to a great New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

All Aboard

A perfect time of year to head to Olbrich Gardens for their annual train show. Ian LOVES trains. He would watch them all day, if he could. The kids and I, along with Mimi and Ben, headed to Olbrich. We paid our admission and headed inside. The kids were so excited. Ian just stood in awe as he watch the multiple trains go around the track.

Reluctantly posing for a picture. They are ready to get back to the trains.

Ben points out the different parts of the train to Ian

One happy little boy

Can I touch it PLEASE mommy!

Moving toward Christmas

Bell ringing to Christmas programs, another week full of things to do!

These last two weeks have been filled with constant activity. We enjoyed a snowstorm two Wednesdays ago. It was a beautiful sight to see and we especially enjoyed the day off from school. I get just as excited when the kids school is cancelled. I look forward to spending time with them. Since schools were cancelled and clinics were closed, we did not have any additional kids over to our house that day. We spent the day decorating the Christmas tree and house. It was nice to sit back and relax. The days following the snowstorm were not as enjoyable. The city of Madison did not do a good job plowing, so the roads were bumpy and full of ice. Since we were rear ended a week prior to the snowstorm, we were driving a rental minivan. It is stressful enough driving your own vehicle in bad conditions, but the stress goes even higher driving someone else's car. We got stuck twice in snow, but were extremely thankful for the people that helped push out out.

Last week we enjoyed Ben and Cami's Christmas program. They were scheduled to have it the night the storm started, so they had to reschedule it. The school did A Kids Classical Christmas. It was a great performance by all. We especially enjoyed the kindergarten classes say their lines out of order. They had such excitement in their voices that it did not matter that the lines were not in order.

Ben and Austin building a snow fort

On Wednesday, Austin and Mike flew to Milwaukee. Mike was here to visit a few churches about Free Wheelchair Mission. Austin was able to come with Mike and enjoy a father/son trip. Ben was so excited to spend time with his cousin. Austin and Mike had come from 70 degree weather into piles of snow and 17 degrees. What a change! Austin fits right into the cold. He was eager to go outside and play with Ben in the snow. We bought him a pair of boots and gave him extra snowpants, hat, and gloves and sent them outside. They had a great time!

On Thursday I was able to chaperon Ben's class to see the production of A Christmas Carol at the Overture Center. The kids did extremely well sitting and watching the 2 hour production. The cast and crew did an amazing job!

Ben's class lines up to go to A Christmas Carol

On Friday we headed to Milwaukee to have a family dinner at Aunt Pam's house. It was a nice get together. We enjoy getting together with our aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was a nice treat for Mike and Austin to spend time with family. The trip to Wisconsin is short for them, so having everyone together in one place to visit is always nice.

Cami showing off her Christmas bag of treats

Ben and Austin at Aunt Pam's house

Ben's Gotcha Day

Six years ago today we anxiously awaited having our son, Benjamin, all to ourselves. Our journey to him took less than 6 months from the time we started the adoption process, but this was a journey that God had planned for us for a long time. Our son was born before we became eligible to start the adoption process with Korea. He waited patiently for his parents to come to him.

We tell him about our first night as a family at the SWS Guest House. Justin tells Ben how he had a poopy diaper as soon as we got to our room. I tell him about having to give him medicine for his cold and having him throw it back up each time I gave it. I learned by the third time that it was not worth giving it to him just to have him get sick and us have to clean him up. We bonded that night as we took turns sleeping next to him. He had a cold, so neither of us really slept. We prayed for an open flight coming home. A side note...we had take an Asiana flight going stand by (or space available). This is usually not the best option when traveling close to the holidays. Flights are typically oversold and one can spend anywhere from several hours to several days trying to get a flight out. We had called the airline the next morning to find out our flight was oversold, but we decided to take a chance anyway. We checked in around noon for a 4pm flight. The gate agents told us to wait. We were finally told at 3:30pm that we would be able to have 3 seats on the flight! We hurried through customs and was whisked onto the airplane by some Asiana employees. They had us skip all of the other people waiting since we were traveling with a child. We were overwhelmed by the kind service they gave. We were especially thankful that Ben had a wonderful 14 hour flight to LA. He was happy and ate well and even slept really well. We met Allison, Austin, and Kylie in the LA airport in between that flight and our flight on Midwest Airlines to Milwaukee. Since our Asiana flight was a little late and customs took longer than anticipated, we had only a short time to spend with them. We appreciated the long drive Allison made with her 2 kids to see us. It meant a lot to us to have family there as arrived in the U.S. We made our Midwest flight and slept almost the entire 4 hours back to Milwaukee. We were blessed with a wonderful flight crew, including one flight attendant who has 2 children she adopted from Romania.

Although 6 years have passed, it still fills my heart with joy as I remember our first trip to Korea. We were so excited and scared as we knew our lives would forever be changed.

Today we celebrated by surprising Ben with a Milios sub at lunchtime. He thought it was a special treat for mom and Ian to bring him a special lunch. I also brought a treat for his class, which he passed out and explained to the other kids in his class what Gotcha Day means. We celebrated at home as a family with a special present for him and his current favorite meal of Taco Bell (which he has only had once, but he declares that it is his favorite). He enjoyed putting together some new legos and then talking more about when we went to Korea to bring him home. So long ago, yet seems like yesterday.

Our prayer is that our son will forever know how much he is loved and how much he was wanted. We celebrate Gotcha Day because it is the day we finally GOT each other.

Snow Day!!!

It is a beautiful day in Madison where a lot of snow has fallen overnight. As I look outside, the snow is still blowing around. We ran our errands and took our van in to get repaired yesterday so we could avoid driving today. We now have a newer van for the next few days as ours gets repaired from our car accident last week. Everything is direct billed to the person's insurance company, which takes the stress off of us. As my back heals and Cami's nightmares subside, we look forward to the day when the accident will be settled and we can continue on with our life. Thankfully there were not any serious injuries.

The kids were disappointed about their Christmas concert last night having to be rescheduled, but we are thankful for the massive amounts of snow to play in. We are decorating our Christmas tree that we cut out of our backyard this week, making chicken soup, and taking it easy. We may even wrap a few presents and make cookies later this afternoon.

It would be an even nicer treat to have school cancelled tomorrow too, but unfortunately that is not likely to happen.

Happy Wednesday!

Time with Mike and Austin

This entry is dated BEFORE Mike and Austin came to town because I forgot to add it in. I had started a different entry, however, did not finish it, so I changed it to an entry about Mike and Austin's visit. There is no way to insert an entry since everything is dated. So, ignore the date and enjoy the pictures and entry.

Mike and Austin flew into town on Dec. 16 for a long weekend. Mike needed to be here for work and brought Austin along to visit. We enjoyed time together with them. The kids LOVE spending time with their cousins. The boys headed to a Bucks game, we spent time in the snow, and headed to Aunt Pam's house to spend time with family. It was a fast, yet very fun couple of days. We can't wait to see them again!

The boys were SO excited to go to the Bucks game. They got to go onto the court to shoot a basket.

Ben threw the ball so hard to try to get it into the basket.

They had great seats

Perfect outing for Ben and Austin. They both love watching and playing basketball.

Austin doesn't usually get to play in the snow being in southern California.

Building a snow fort. The boys were outside in the cold for a few hours.

Having a picnic on Aunt Pam's floor

Ian's Gotcha Day

Ian age 2

Ben age 6

Just 2 years ago today, we received an amazing gift, our son Ian. He is a true blessing on our lives. He is such an amazing little boy who loves to say prayers, sing the alphabet (he gets some of the letters), count, and make everyone laugh. The time has gone by so quickly!

We also celebrate today as the day we received the travel call for Ben 6 years ago. We were shocked by the call since we had been told just weeks earlier that we would have to wait until February since the quota for visas had likely been met and with the holidays, they would wait until the new year to process anymore paperwork. With many prayers from us and our friends and family, we were delighted by the call. We were on a plane to LA less than 24 hours after receiving his call. We arrived in LA around 11am and spent the day at a hotel resting until the midnight flight to Korea on Asiana airlines. We looked very strange checking in with an empty stroller and car seat. The person who checked us in was confused that Mr. DooJin Park was not with us, but meeting us in Korea. After explaining the situation, he wanted to refund us part of the ticket. Since we were blessed to get standby tickets (non revenue/space available seats, for those airline lingo people), we were happy to let them keep the difference. We had several people who had helped us along the way to get tickets on Asiana. One of the VP's of Asiana was contacted and let us have the tickets for free if we paid the $90 in taxes. We were shocked and humbled by this gesture. We anxiously waited for our flight and anxiously sat for 14 hours on the flight to Korea.

Although 6 years has passed since our travel to Korea for Ben and 2 years has passed since our travel for Ian, the memory is so clear in my mind. I will not forget the tears of joy I have shed after receiving the travel call for each of our 3 children from our social worker. I feel truly blessed.