January gifts

January has been filled with a multitude of gifts for our family: gifts of time, gifts of love, and gifts gifts.  At the beginning of the month, Hubby and I brought in some grandparents and got away for a weekend of relaxing, reading, sleeping in, and just hanging out with each other.  This was the first time since we brought J home, over 8 months ago, that one of us had not been with him at night!  I think we waited 2 hours before calling home to see how Grandma and Grandpa were holding up.  I also think our child ate more that weekend than he had eaten for us the entire previous week!!  Grandma K is really good at getting our picky eater to eat whatever she puts on his plate.  Mommy and Daddy had a good time up in Madison; we dressed up and went out to eat at a couple of nicer restaurants, we slept in until 8am (last time we did that was before we had dogs!), we missed our little boy like crazy, and we read.  A lot.  The week before we went, I bought myself a gift and was hoping that it would be delivered before our departure.  The day before, guess what showed up at our front door?  My new Kin*dle!!!!!  This is absolutely one of the best things I have ever gotten myself.  I am an avid reader and, going on trips, would probably end up packing 5 books or so, which obviously takes up space. Well, now I just download new books to my Kin*dle and I could be ready to go for weeks!  Now I just need to find the time to read everything I've downloaded so far...ha!  Love, love, love it!

We have also received a couple other very special gifts in the mail this month.  A friend who traveled to pick up her daughter before Christmas brought back a gift for us from the adoption agency.  It was a small photo album with professionally mounted pictures of J's dol (first birthday party, which is a very big deal in Korean culture) and a couple with his foster mother.  We had a heads-up from our friend that she had brought this back to the States with her, but since it took so long to go through our agency here and then get to us, I thought maybe she had been mistaken about which little Korean cutie was in the pictures.  We're so happy she was right, though!!

But I can even top that happiness...

The following week, I got a phone call from our agency, wanting to know if our address was still correct, as they had a letter from J's foster mother to send to us.  Wow!  After having to wait an entire two days to get the letter, we got it and found out that they have most likely been checking out our blog as she thanked us for the "videos filled with his great smile."  We have never sent video clips to them.  So I must have been right a few posts ago that they are the hits on here from Seoul!  It is such a treasure to have this letter for J, so that he knows how much his foster family loves him.

And our last gift (so far) was buying plane tickets to go to Florida to visit some good friends before J turns two and we have to start paying full price!!  I know, I know, I've gotten lots of "you're flying?!?!  I don't think I'd want to get on another plane yet!"  But, you know, after getting through the flight back from Korea, I think we can manage flying anywhere with him...and J is such a good little traveler, I think it will all be okay.  We will be seeing a friend of Hubby's, who has twin boys a little older than J; he's really starting to imitate us, so I wonder what he will pick up from them while we're there?  Should be fun.  The other family we're going to see is the one who was over in Korea the same time we were to pick up their son and who was on the same flight with us back to Chicago.  I am looking forward to getting the two boys together again; J is just 11 days younger than their son.  I wonder if they ever saw each other when they were with their foster families?  I can't wait to see them all again; that was such an emotional week to share with each other and I hope we can always be close.

More video of our happy little boy:

He fell asleep holding his snack!

With Grandma T.

Helping Mommy at the grocery store, which took waaaay longer than normal, but he l-o-v-e-d it!!

Skyping with Grandma and Grandpa T for the first time.

We're getting it right

After putting J to bed last night and coming back downstairs to relax next to my hubby, we realized that we have hit a M-A-J-O-R milestone with our little guy over the last few weeks and haven't really given it/our son/ourselves the huge pat on the back that we all deserve.   Our not-so-baby J is falling asleep on his own!!!!!  For the last 2-3 weeks, more often than not when we put him down for naps or bedtime, he is awake when we leave the room.  We still rock him for a little while before putting him in his crib (I think I will be doing that until a. he puts a stop to it, or b. he's too big to sit in my lap...yeah, yeah, yeah, it'll be A!).  But once we lay him down, tell him we love him, and say night-night, all he does is say a sweet little "night-night" back to us behind his binky and that's it!  He may occasionally cry a bit, but is done before we even get downstairs.  After months of going from sleeping on the floor with him in his room, to sleeping on the floor next to his crib with him in it, to literally inching our way out of the room after he's asleep while holding our breath that the floor doesn't creak and wake him up, to painfully listening to him cry through the monitor when teaching him that "he's safe and loved and mommy and daddy are here but it's time to go to sleep", to getting him used to having his binky only when he's in his crib...and now here we are, still getting to cuddle and snuggle with him for a bit and then he is o-kay to go in his crib and finish falling asleep there on his own.

He's growing up.

I guess we're doing something right.

Looking Back At 2010

Since our nephews are almost exactly one year younger than J, we got to see what J was probably doing one year ago at Christmas.  I get a little sad to be reminded of what we have missed out on in J's life, but I also know he was being loved on by his foster family at that time and that he was healthy and happy, which is all that really matters in the long run.  We got to experience this Christmas with him and everything that has happened over the past 7 months.  It has been awesome, tiring, miraculous, at times frustrating, and so many more emotions that I can't list them all.

2010 started with us thinking that we would be traveling to Korea sometime very early in the year to get our son.  My sisters planned a baby shower for me in late January and I remember telling them that I hoped it would have to be postponed because of us being in Korea or having just returned...wow, how naive that seems now!  :-P  Then waiting four more months before finally, finally getting our travel call.  It all seems so long ago.  But that wait was worth it.  At the time, it felt like things were never going to move forward, but now 7 months has passed us by and it's going too quickly!  It was actually the perfect timing for bringing him home: our son absolutely loves to be outside and the end of May was the best time to have brought him home, so that we could take advantage of the hot summer weather.  (It was also nice for Mommy to have the summer off of work!)

I know we felt like our referral to travel call was long (just shy of 8 months), but the families that are waiting now to bring their kids home are looking at even longer wait times, some of them close to a year!  I can only imagine how they're feeling at this time.  Please pray for those families who are waiting for their travel calls, whose babies are going to be even older than J was when he came home.  Pray for them to stay strong during the rest of the wait, pray for that wait to be short, and pray for their children who will be coming home as toddlers and that their transition to their forever families is smooth.  Pray for the foster families as well, who have loved and nurtured these children for 15+ months in some cases.  It cannot be easy to do what these families do, emotionally bonding to these children that are placed in their care, all the while knowing that it is only temporary.  It has to be heartwrenching for them.  We have seen a visitor on our blog from Seoul recently and I can only hope that maybe it's J's foster family looking in on him.  I hope that being able to see him grow and seeing how happy he is with us gives them peace.  I've said this before and I'll say it again because I feel so strongly about it: I think the love J received from his foster family had a lot to do with how very well he adjusted to us once we brought him home.  I hope that we get to meet them again someday and show them in person what a great little boy they helped raise.  Lee Family, if you are reading this: kamsahamnida!

Holiday Fun

I can't believe the holidays are over already and the new year is here.  Thanksgiving with Chris' side of the family at his brother's and then Christmas with my side...at our house!!  Thankfully, they all made it into town before the bad weather hit.  And wow, was it ever a white Christmas here!  We are glad that everyone was under one roof and safe and that we could all be together for the holiday.  And talk about a full house, but it was so much fun.  J and our nephew, C, had a good time playing together and we got to watch the babies crawl around and pull themselves up on the furniture.  I think there were even a few v-e-r-y tentative steps from one of them, you know, until he fell because he couldn't believe he was standing on his own!!

One of the recordable storybooks that J's godparents sent him.  Similar to the one we sent over in one of our first care packages for him.  Whenever he hears their voices reading the story (especially his Uncle Pat's), he gets a big grin on his face!

J is learning to give hugs and is so adorable doing it.  Here he's giving his cousin J a hug...from that facial expression, looks like my J may be squeezing just a little too tight!!

...although that same expression was seen quite often, even without getting a hug!  I think he is starting to be aware of his tongue.  Either that, or his parents are teaching him to mug at the camera!  hehe

Older cousin, C, had a good time getting to know J a bit better.

His little brother, E, was a jolly little elf during the day!

Christmas morning

The four cousins; this was the best picture I could get and it turned out pretty well!!

Relaxing with daddy.

One of my Christmas presents from my awesome hubby!  Exactly what I asked for (gotta love those Ama*zon Wish Lists!!) and it's been great for my music-loving child.  Now I don't have to go turn the big stereo on; can just punch the button and we've got tunes!!  Plus, we can play his Korean music CD that his foster mother gave to him.  So wish I could find some more of them...any suggestions?

My Christmas present from J, with a little bit of help from Daddy.

This was a great gift; I almost started crying when I opened it!  It's so unique and incorporates what our family now represents.  Can you see the outline of South Korea within the US and the Korean flag in it as well?  Perfect.

The weekend before Christmas we had a friend in town from PA with his family.  He was the Best Man at our wedding.  J took to him pretty well.  Maybe because he has a cute little 2-year-old princess that J got to play with all afternoon?  Hmmmmm...

J's first sucker.  We had gone to apply for his SS# and the man who finally helped us asked if J could have a sucker since he'd been such a good boy (we waited for about 45 minutes and he played quietly the whole time.  I'm so proud of him!).  Once we got home, I told him he had to stay sitting on the couch and he did; does this child know how to relax or what?!  With the belly hanging out and everything!  

Playdate with our friend, J.  The table and chairs were actually passed on to us from this family.  We really love the set...thanks!!

It has been a great holiday season to top off an incredible, life-changing year!!!  Hope everyone had a safe and blessed holiday.  We couldn't have asked for anything more...uh, well, maybe for less sickness in the house...you know who you are, people!!  Glad you're feeling better.