Florida Trip - Part 2

The second part of our trip.  (Again, mostly pictures and video.)

J absolutely loved riding in his friend J's wagon...you've a birthday coming up soon, son!

Dining...al fresco!

"Cheers!"

The water fountain at the zoo was a huge hit with this outdoor- and water-loving child...

...if you can't tell...he. is. soaked.

Annie and Rita

the troublemakers: green J looks a little nervous/guilty, red J looks like he's about to do something to get in trouble!

*hugs* "thanks for a great day at the zoo, J!"

great picture of the manatee; friend J was entranced by it

Daddy and J watching the moray eel

feeding the giraffes.  Watch out for his tongue, Daddy!

family photo

riding high on Daddy

I just LOVE this next set of pictures of my two favorite guys.  Looking at these pictures makes my heart want to burst with love for this father and his son.

Bath time!  These boys are only 11 days apart in age.

Puzzle time.

Finally worn out

This picture reminds a whole lot of another one just like it taken 9 1/2 months ago...(from this post, look towards the bottom of the page.)

We had a great time on our vacation!  Too bad it couldn't have lasted a bit longer, but we had to get back to work so we can go on more vacations!!  Where to next??

Florida trip - Part I

As promised, here are pictures and video of our trip.  This is only the first part of it, as I wanted to get at least some of them posted now...there are a lot!  And that is your forewarning, folks!!

L and N had these neat plasma cars that J just loved riding around on...maybe there'll be one in his future??

lunchtime

cleaning the beach

sharing

hmmm...do I have to share the truck?

yeah, I guess I will.  cool truck, huh, J?

the beach bums..Craig and Chris  :)

It was sooo windy, it looks like J is going to get blown over.  But he loved picking up the stones from the bottom and throwing them back into the water.

At the St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training game!

What a great place to watch the game...front row from Daddy's lap!

I love my Mommy!  Let me give you a kiss!

Our seasoned traveler.  

We took his car seat which helped him be more comfortable and he was able to sleep on the drive between friend's houses.  This is how he sleeps in his crib, too; both hands behind his head with his elbows out to the side.  Looks so relaxed!

This is a sign we saw at the rest stop; not something normally seen in the Midwest:

(and don't worry, mom, we did NOT see any snakes in the area at all)

Family (of 3!!) Vacation

Last week, after 9 months home, we took the plunge and got back on a plane with little J in tow...and boy, were we right, our child is a super-duper traveler!!!!!  We flew down to Florida, with one layover, to enjoy a little fun in the sun with some good friends.  The day we left, we had to get J up at 4 - yes, that was in the A.M., people! - to drive to the airport that is 45 minutes away (free parking there still, yippee!).  J stayed awake for the entire first flight except for maybe the last 10 minutes when he got a little cat nap.  We had a quick bite to eat at the Atlanta airport and then on to our final flight, where he again stayed up until we started our descent.  He then proceeded to sleep on my shoulder through landing, de-planing (is that even a word??), and going to pick up our checked bags (one of the two being J's carseat and are we ever so glad that we took his rather than renting one with the car!).  So that was it.  A combined nap of about 55 minutes...for. the. entire. day.  I don't know what the boy was running on, but mommy and daddy were on fumes by the time we got to bed that night!
The first part of the trip, we stayed with friends who have 2 1/2 year old twin boys and it was cute to see them all interact with each other.  And J had a great time playing with their toy grill set and all their cars.  Except the motorized ones; he completely freaked out whenever the gas pedal was pressed on those, even if he was nowhere near them!  Weird, especially with how much he likes cars, trains, buses, and, well, anything with wheels!!  We went to a children's beach the next day, although the wind was pretty strong and made it a tad chillier than I would have liked, but dang it!, I was in Florida for some sun and sand and, by God, I was sticking it out!  It really wasn't all that bad.  It's not like we got sandblasted due to the wind.  I have some video I'll get up over the weekend hopefully, where you can hear the wind blowing constantly and see the waves it was creating in this little inlet we were playing in.  The following day, we went to a St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training game and got to sit in the front row behind the batter just to the side of the dugout!!  Sweet seats!  Thanks, Aaron.  We all had a great time and were actually able to make it through the end of the game, even with three toddlers who weren't really paying attention to the ballgame.  My child pigged out and completely mooched off the snacks of the other two boys...of course, he didn't want the snacks Mommy brought!  On the way back home that night, Chris, J, and I stopped and had dinner, al fresca, right off the beach at a very yummy restaurant.  J was in a good mood the whole day and zonked out in the car on the remainder of the way home.  What a great day!
On Sunday, we drove about 4 hours to see our friends that we met while in Korea picking up our sons.  This was the first time we had seen them since returning to the States on the same flight.  I was so excited to see them again, rather than just talk over the phone.  J did great on the drive and slept about an hour or so.  Their son, J, was napping when we got there, so our J got the run of the playroom where there is a train table set up; he was in heaven!  But the most amazing thing that brought tears to my eyes and really touched my heart, was when their J got up from his nap.  When our J saw him, his face lit up and he squealed and smiled and ran over to him...of course, I wasn't expecting this, so I didn't have the camera ready.  Boo!!  I so wish I knew what J was thinking right then: does he remember the other J, or was he responding that way because they look more similar to each other than they do to us, their parents?  But we have other Korean friends here in town, and he doesn't respond in the same way to them.  How I wish I knew if maybe their foster families had gotten together in Korea, but how on earth would they still remember each other with how young they are??  Oh well, something I may never know.  But it did my heart good to see them together.  They are only 11 days apart in age, but physically are on opposite ends of the growth charts!  Wait until you see the pictures.  They seemed to interact very well after the initial getting-to-know-each-other phase.
On Monday, we went to the zoo and even though they weren't completely into all the animals yet, they actually did a lot better than we had anticipated.  Well worth the money.  Although I think my J's favorite thing was the water fountain area just inside the gates that he played in for about 20 minutes while the other J finished up his nap...and which earned him a souvenir beach towel and t-shirt, since I had only packed an extra pair of shorts for him!  If only I had known, I would have put him in a swim diaper and stripped him down...the boy was soaked!!  Good thing it was sunny and warm that afternoon.  We fed the giraffes, saw the manatees and big turtles swimming right up to the glass under water, watched the penguins diving, and pushed the stroller in (almost) straight lines.  (Of course, J didn't want to sit in the stroller and be pushed; he wanted to do the pushing!)  The one thing we were hoping to finally show J were the lions...but there were NO lions at this zoo.  Bummer!  Guess we'll have to go find them at another one sometime soon.
We flew home the next day and J was officially exhausted by then.  He stayed awake for the first leg of the trip, but fell asleep in Chris' arms before we even left the ground on our second flight.  Woke up by the time we landed and was happy to run around the lobby of the airport while Daddy went to get the car.  He was soooo ready to get out of the car by the time we finally made it back home and was very excited to see all his toys again.  All in all, a great trip spent renewing friendships.  Thank you all for the hospitality.  Cannot wait to go back!!  Pictures and video will be coming soon.

Music time and movies

Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame!  Go Irish!!

Sitting down to watch some T*om and J*erry this morning...

...after getting dressed, he just couldn't sit still, but he DID keep his eyes on the screen!  

My little monkey.

He won't sit still for cartoons, but when we were flipping through channels on TV and came across a little boy with a red balloon on a show that had barely any talking and, when it did, was in some language other than English, the. child. was. riveted.  He just sat there, mesmerized by this balloon that followed the little boy.  Even when Chris and I got up, he stayed right there on the couch, cocooned by pillows...I wish I would have gotten a picture to show you just how enraptured he was.  We have no clue what this show was, but maybe I should look into it??

On a different, one of our friends is going to be leaving for Korea on Saturday to bring their son home and we are soooo excited for them.  They have been waiting 11 months to bring their baby home and it is finally time for them to get their child in their arms forever!  It brings back so many memories for us when we went through the same thing 9 months ago.  These friends are taking over a picture frame with a picture of little J in it, as well as a letter, to J's foster family for us.  We hope they have a safe, fun trip filled with wonderful memories!!

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!