Birthday, Thanksgiving Day, Game Day!

Birthday!

Celebrating the big 30 at Shogun with my wonderful husband

Thanksgiving Day

My kids really DO love each other
Family picture at the in-law's house


DW's first "hunting" trip with daddy

High Five!

Game Day!

ESPN's Game Day showed up in Stillwater for the annual bedlam game.

Big crowd of OSU and OU fans

No pictures from the game since it was a disappointing loss for OSU :(

November 8th, 2010

November 8th started out as a great day but ended with sad news.

The good news was that I started a new job that I really love. I am now a case manager working with preschoolers at a community mental health center. After a great first day of work, my dad called late in the evening to let me know that my grandpa (his dad) had passed away. My grandpa had suffered from dementia and had been really sick the past few weeks and was not eating. He was in a nursing home and had hospice care the last few days of his life. It was a year to the day that my grandma had fallen and broken her hip, which set off a sequence of events that led to my grandpa going to live in the nursing home.

I worked a few more days, then we loaded up and drove the 7+ hours to Missouri where the funeral would be. We arrived just in time to check into our motel room, change our clothes, and then meet up with the family for the viewing. I've never had to do this before, so I had no idea what to expect. It was difficult, but in a way, it was nice to know that my grandpa wasn't suffering anymore. He looked so peaceful. I tried to keep DW away from the casket so that I wouldn't have to explain death to him. However, he wandered up there at one point and said, "What's wrong with that man? Is that man sick?" I just replied, "Yes, he's sick." The simple mind of a 3-year-old...

The next day, Nov. 12 was the funeral and burial. The weather was unseasonably warm and beautiful. Everything turned out nice...good sermon, good time with family (some we hadn't seen in years), good food, the kids cooperated, etc. The only thing missing was grandpa.

My grandpa had a lot of tough things happen to him during his life, but he had peace in his relationship with the Lord. He was such an example of a good Christian man - he worked hard, was a devoted husband and father, and served wherever he could in his church. He honorably served in the military and was a prisoner of war during WWII. Sadly, his hearing declined so much that we had difficulty communicating with him for the past several years so I feel like I didn't know him as much as I would've liked.

I felt like I couldn't be as supportive to my family as I would've wanted to be since I had to also be mommy to my little boys. At that time, HJ had only been with us 6 weeks. It is not recommended to travel with a newly adopted toddler since they have already had to deal with so many changes, but obviously we didn't have much of a choice. It was very very hard. HJ was doing well adjusting at home, but sleeping in a strange motel and meeting a lot of new people was a whole different story. He cried off and on each night we were in the motel, he was very clingy (which is a good sign that he was attaching to us), and he just wasn't his happy self. Motels and my grandma's house are not set up to accommodate curious toddlers who find the uncovered outlets, pull on cords, eat random things off of the carpet, try to play in toilet water, etc! Our long drive home was even harder. HJ cried and whined almost the WHOLE drive home. He hated the car seat and just wanted out. Nothing would soothe him and when he cried, DW would cry too! The trip wore Tim and me out!

I'll leave this post with the last picture taken of my grandpa and me. We went to visit him in the nursing home in January 2010.

Baby Dedication (10/31/10)

Yep, I'm that cute!
Daddy and his boys

Mommy's sweethearts


Not a good family picture, but it's the only one we got up close




Our church had baby dedications on 10/31, and we decided to take part in it for HJ. We had already dedicated DW at a church we used to attend. Of the 4 families taking part in the dedications, 2 were adoptive families! What a special day to take time to praise God for giving us our children and to publically say that we dedicate them to the Lord.

"Children are a gift from the Lord..." - Psalm 127:3

Halloween and Hanboks

The boys picked out pumpkins at a local store that sells fresh apples, pumpkins, and jam. DW wanted a small pumpkin, so I got HJ one as well. They played with their pumpkins on our porch, but DW about cried when I mentioned carving the pumpkin. He wanted it to stay just like it was and didn't want it to be decorated or carved. That was fine with me, less work and less mess! Did you notice little mister pinching his big brother? They are quite a pair!

The boys wore their hanboks as costumes this year, and I called them my little Korean princes. Both boys were awestruck by how much candy they collected from two different church trunk-or-treat parties. We found out that our normally happy little HJ could throw a big fit if you took his candy away from him!

The boys also dressed up in their Arkansas Razorbacks football jerseys from their great aunt and uncle. Go Hogs!

Hanbok photos:

I tried to take pictures of both boys in their hanboks on our front porch. These outfits are very special to our family since both boys' foster moms gave them their hanboks. In Korea, the hanbok is worn on special occasions such as the baby's first birthday. In Korea, there are no "gender colors" like in America, so it is quite common to see baby boys wearing pink. I think my boys look quite stunning in their hanboks, and it was cute to see the reaction on people's faces when DW would say he was a Korean prince. :)

OSU Homecoming Weekend

Every year I try to go back to my alma mater, Oklahoma State University, for homecoming weekend. The best part is walkaround (click here for more info and pictures), but after a 3 hour drive with whiny children, I was exhausted and decided to skip it this year and opt for going to bed early. Tim went hunting for the weekend, so this was my first long trip away from home with both boys by myself. It was a lot of work, and I was so glad to have help from my family.

The homecoming parade is one of my favorite parades of the year. DW decided he wasn't going to go, and then changed his mind at the last minute. However, he refused to change out of his pj's. To avoid a major meltdown, I became one of those parents. I actually let him go to the parade in his pj's! HJ had a great time waving at everyone, waving a flag, eating Smarties, etc. He was Grandpa's little buddy all weekend. My adorable niece really enjoyed the parade too in her cute little OSU cheerleading outfit.

We dressed the cousins in their new Eskimo Joe's shirts and tried to take a group picture. No such luck on getting a picture with them all looking at the camera!

And lastly, a group picture (notice that none of the kids are cooperating very well!): my mom and her parents, my brother and his daughter, and me and my kids. My grandparents traveled a long way to visit with us that weekend, and it was their first time to meet HJ and Cousin C.

I didn't go to the actual Homecoming football game, and now that it is December, I don't even remember who they played or who won. I only remember that it was a good weekend with family, which is way more important than football anyway.