8 Months Home!!!!

Today is our 8 month anniversary as a family of 3. What was life like without Jae-min? It's hard now to even imagine. Our days are so full (as are sometimes our nights) with this little guy. We thought to celebrate this 8 month milestone we would share a snippet into our day. So, if you spent the entire day with this little family we have 8 things that you would most likely hear:
!. If you stop at a stop light for too long you will hear this from the little man in the back seat..."GO, GO, GO" until the car begins to move again!
2. To distract Jae-min from mischief, I often say "Lets go find Martin" to which his response is "brabra(brother)" and he takes off on the hunt to torment him!
3. If you're ever at our house and Joe asks you if you want "death role" just say no. Trust me on this one. We have mommy death roll, doggy death roll, and Asian death roll. You can use your own imagination on this one. Just say no thanks.
4. If Jae-min is near Martin's food and he has a silly grin on his face with his lips pursed together you would often hear "Are you eating Martin's food?" followed by a finger sweep and extraction of the goody.
5. Did you seriously poop again? How many times can these little creatures poop in one day?
6. At the end of a meal you may hear "CRACKER" shouted numerous times until you open the cabinet and retrieve one for the little guy whose got his pointing finger poised toward the cabinet.
7. You may also hear "No touch" often to which Jae-min will point his finger and wave it, and then of course touch it just the same.
8. But the best sound of all that you would hear would be laughter, squeals, "lets snuggle" to which Jae-min would rest his head on you, "good morning" to which you'd hear a delighted sound, and an "I love you"!!!!Our days were once filled with quiet, where now there filled with noise, laughter, and fun.

Our focus has changed as has the joy we find in each day. This little face is the reason!!!

If you had told us 8 months ago Jae-min would be this well adjusted, happy, secure, and loving we may have been doubtful as we walked off that plane. We attribute this to the ways in which we've parented him these past 8 months and we honestly wouldn't change a thing!!!
Happy 8 months home Jae-min!!!!

1,2,3,4!!!!!!!!!

That's the number of steps Jae-min has taken on his own this week. That's right, you read that right!!! At the beginning of the week Jae-min was taking 2 steps to walk between Joe and I. As of today he has taken 4, count them 4, steps between us as well as to get to something he wants in the room. Its kind of funny to watch him plot out his move in his head and then go for it. He's becoming more confident that those little feet can take him somewhere. I had taken him to visit my work today and he was "walking" all over the place,4 steps at a time. So............. it's just a matter of time until he walks all the way across the room!!!Go Jae-min. You can do it!!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

For those that added children to their family easily, this holiday may be just another day of annoying doorbell ringing and way to much candy. But for those that waited in the adoption line for 2 plus years (and years before that) this holiday was magical!!!!! I had always sat on the porch with Joe handing out candy and looking longingly across the street, wishing that we had our very own cutie to walk up the walkway to the neighbor's front door, ring the bell, and say trick or treat holding our pumpkin head bucket. Well, tonight that dream became a reality. We had so much fun wheeling Jae-min around the neighborhood in his wagon and walking him up to those doors while he held his very own pumpkin head bucket. We felt like we truly belonged in this holiday this year and it was amazing!!!
Jae-min had a great time visiting family this morning and afternoon and everyone was so generous to him...thanks so much!! We wish we could bottle up that love you all have for him and send it to Korea so they could feel how much he is loved.
Here's our little cutie in his pumpkin shirt having fun.

And here's the cutest little Tigger around (we're not biased or anything Haha)Happy Halloween Jae-min!!!

Hats For Korea

Our "little" project has taken on a life of its own!!! When we sent out the emails requesting hand knitted or crocheted baby hats to donate to Holt about a month ago, we never imagined how big this project would get. We continue to hear from you saying how many hats you already have done and we are so thankful and grateful. The generousity is truly amazing!!! We have a feeling that the babies waiting for their forever families will be very warm this winter. It means alot to us that you understand how we feel about giving something back to this amazing agency which cared for and helped bring Jae-min home!! We mentioned it to Father John at our church and he had us write about our story. This Sunday at church our story was in the bulletin with a request for hats. Wow, is all I can say. We never want to forget those in Korea or those babies still there. This is just our little (well, big) part to say thanks. Keep those hats going. We'll let you know around the holidays how many we receive.
This weekend we had a little fashion show with all the handmade sweaters Jae-min received as gifts. He looks pretty dapper in all of them!!! A special thanks again to all those that took the time to knit these special sweaters (and blankets, we'll be taking those out again soon). We just love them and we think our little guy loves them too.

7 Months Home!!!!

Today marks 7 months home. Boy, when we were waiting 7 months was an eternity and now it has gone by in the blink of an eye. We had a fun weekend doing all sorts of fun fall activities. We had a great time spending time with family at the apple orchard. Last year my heart broke the entire time we were there. If you had told me that day that next year we would join our families with our very own son I wouldn't have believed you!! What a difference a year makes.
We spent today as a family of 3 at a farm picking pumpkins, going on a hayride, seeing the TRACTORS and DIGGERS (which are two of Jae-min's favorite words), sipping cider, and digging in a big pile of dirt. We had the best time. A great way to celebrate 7 months home!!!Jae-min was soooo excited when he saw the tractor, so he decided to take the people for a ride!!

I think this pumpkin looks perfect!! So does the little cub picking it!!!

Apple anyone? What a way to ride, attached in your carrier on daddy's back.

7 sweet months with our little sweety. How did we get so lucky?

"A" OK

Could he be any cuter? We just love this little guy!!!!

I Wished For You

We have been searching for some children's books relating to adoption to incorporate into Jae-min's bedtime routine. We have begun to talk to him about his story and how he joined our family but thought it would be fun to let him see some stories as well. We bought 3 and they arrived yesterday. I opened the box and took out this amazing book entitled I Wished For You by Marianne Richmond. As I read it, my eyes filled with tears. It addresses how a little bear's mother wished for him in her heart for such a long time. It also addresses how his birthmother wished for him a better life than she could give at that time. Also it addressesed the fact that this little bear looked differently from his parents. How wonderful!!! The big theme is about wishes, and how sometimes they come true, and sometimes they don't. The mommy bear explains how she wished all day and all night and never stopped wishing. Sounds very familiar huh? Last night we snuggled on the couch and read this book to Jae-min. We think this will become a favorite in this family and will open up the lines of communication in the future. Oh, how I love a good book!!!!

In other news, Jae-min had his 15 month check up last week. He's a picture of health and developing well!!! Jae-min and I have joined a music/story time at our local library once a week. We are having a great time!!

We have our final social worker visit Monday and we received our adoption finalization papers in the mail. We fill these out, our social worker writes up a report, we mail it into our agency and they deliver it to their attorney. She then schedules us a court date and we can finalize. Right now the courts are backed up, so it may not be until the winter, but we'll see. We can't wait for our social worker to see him again.

We've been having fun around here and can't wait to make Jae-min Francis legally ours. We know he's our son, but it will be nice for the courts to acknowledge it.