Our trip to Korea

Yeah, so it's 3 or 4 years away.  It will take a ton of planning to afford and get 7 people to Korea and meet 3 different foster mothers at 3 different agencies scattered throughout Seoul.

We have the account set up.  We got some money from Dell for a PC we had several years ago that went bad.  Then, today I sent our Discovercard rewards to that account.  We now have a whopping $350 for Korea.  Doesn't sound like much, but hopefully we'll get there.

I'm figuring we'll need around $13,000 for us to go.  I'm estimating; $300 for cabs, subway and incidentals fees, $2100 for hotel ($300/night for two rooms for 7 nights will hopefully squeeze all seven of us in), $8,750 for airfare ($1250 each if we're lucky!), $300 for food (this is one of the cheapest things we did travelling), $500 for shopping (new hanboks and all the other things from Korea we'll want to bring back) and last and very least is about $90 or so for parking while we're gone.  This only comes to $12,000 or a little over, but I'm sure we're not going to get airfare for that price in 3-4 years.

So, let's say we now have our food money!  :)

Just $12,650 to go and we'll get to go to Korea with the kids!   Please pray for the rest to come.

Lisa

Little Man's Outing

It was a nice cool evening, so I took Jaemin out.  The boys and Brian were already out.  The girls were already dressed for bed, so they stayed in.  Poor Kaelin realized we were out for a bit, but I don't think she was too sad.  She was just watching.  We had just finished our movie night, so it wasn't real early anyways.

Jaemin did a lot of crawling through the yard and could get away quickly.  Brian had to interrupt big brothers' baseball game for the baby interference.  He wanted to play too.  :)  Then, he really decided he liked my rock garden and eventually found the fountain.  Quicker than I could grab in he just about took a dip.  But, Brian was right there too.  He got pretty wet.  We told him to find the dog and he knew exactly where Frisky hung out and quickly crawled the sidewalk to him.  But, when he licked him, he wasn't quite as impressed.  :)



















And, I just had to throw this one in.  Cole wanted to rock Jaemin to sleep for his evening nap.  He didn't nap long, but he did go out.

Recycling for Korea *trip*

So, we've decided we really need to go to Korea as a family.  The girls and I think the boys and their dad need to experience what we experienced and profoundly loved in Seoul.  And we'd like the chance to explore Korea more and really would like to take all three kids to their birth cities, Gwangju and Cheju.  This will be fairly expensive since Cheju is an island and will require all day with a one night stay and a plane ride.

I talked to an adult adoptee and she suggested getting the kids involved in saving for the trip, since it's going to be a massive savings to fly 7 people from the midwest to Incheon.  Best case is about $1,000/ticket.  That might be difficult.  Anyways, she suggested having the kids recycle cans.  Since we rarely drink out of cans ourselves, we'd like to collect other people's cans.  So, if you have can, know us, and would like us to come pick them up when you have a bag or a bucket full (smashed or not), we'll take them.  The kids can smash them and then Brian will bring them in and we'll put the money in our Korea account.

The girls are already planning what they want to see and do this time and I'm just as bad as they are.  I pray we can really go.  I fully loved our short visit to Korea, but since we were bringing our son home we were limited to how much we could really do.  We had to stay rested for the long trip home with a new baby.

We hope to go to the Korean Folk Village in Suwon again.  We hope to take day trips to Cheju and Gwangju.  We will definitely set up visits to all 3 foster mothers again and visit the babies homes.  I'd like to visit the maternity homes if we can as well.  That may be something for the girls and I.  We'd like to go to Itaewon and Namdaemun for shopping this time.  I'd like to see some of the other palaces and maybe the Blue House.  If we could afford one of the shows, that would be awesome.  We have a lot of hopes and dreams for this trip and who knows if we'll even be able to save enough to go, but we're trying.  The kids' passports expire in just under 5 years, so we have to be done saving by then.  That will be right before Cole graduates and probably the best time for our last, big, family vacation.  And little man will be at least 4 or 5 by then and able to tolerate the trip.

If you don't know what to get us for Christmas, etc....money for the trip or airline miles would be awesome! ;)

I absolutely cannot wait!

Lisa

Oh my little man

Even when he's grumpy or getting up at night, I love him so much!  I take the once or twice he gets up at night as an extra opportunity to hold him a little more.  And grumpy, sometimes I can hold him too...depends on why.  :)  He's just an awesome blessing.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE This man so much.  He gave me such big hugs this morning and it just melts you into pure liquid.

We went to our annual friends' fish/frog fry last night and he did great.  One of the bigger gatherings he's been to since being home.  We brought our little gate (coral) in case he got tired and we could then keep other kids away from him.  We decided, ahead of time, that only the close friends who have been around him a lot in the past months were allowed to hold him so we'd have an easy reason to keep him pretty off limits.  His world is still very small and needs to be so.  So only one of my friends held him for a bit and he flirts with her anyways, so it was fine.   He was in his little gate thing and I went to go get one of the girls something, not too far off, while Brian was frying.  Someone came close enough to the gate to scare him and he made sure he cried loud enough to get everyone's attention immediately.  As soon as I held him, he was fine though.  He's definitely looking for us.  I think he just couldn't see us when she came near and it scared him.

He's truly doing well and I can't imagine our lives, no matter how chaotic, without him.
Lisa

Pullin' and Teeth

Jaemin has become an expert at pulling up.  So, I guess cruising and, inevitably, walking is next.  We're ready though.

Coming to get paci.



Starting the climb.





Almost got it.





And it's mine!



Wait, I just lost it, oh well, I have fingers!



Wait, I want paci.



Jaemin's first teeth.  Yes he got them at the same time.

Getting a routine in order

This is my first week back, so I've been taking leave early to make sure Jaemin knows I'm not leaving him.  Not that he's not fine anyways.  I guess since it's grandma's daycare and we've visited so often AND his brothers and sisters are there he seems very adjusted.  The first day he went to her just fine and was content.  Then when I picked him up she'd woke him up for me and he was very groggy and didn't seem to care if I was there or not.  Today I've been a bit worried am I doing this right or not?  Because today, again, he went to her very easily, but didn't want to come back to me.   :(  I think he was interested in what the big kids were eating and he knew who was going to feed him that and with this boy, food comes first!  I picked him up today and his back was to me because grandma was holding him across the room.  I was talking to Chelsi as I entered and grandma said she knew I was there because as soon as he heard my voice he started kicking.  By the time I walked over there he was getting really excited.  :)  Made me feel SO much better!!

I'm so glad to think he just might be adjusting better than the girls did.  I just didn't expect that, but will still treat him as if he's not and use our bonding tools.  He loves being in the carrier anyways.  He can sleep on me while I make supper or do dishes and he's perfectly content to do that.  So am I!  As long as, in the end, he's attached that's all that matters.

Lisa

Whatcha doin'?

Usually, if the kitchen floor has been swept, I just leave the gate down 'cause little man likes to cruise the floor and just look around.  There's nothing to hurt himself on, so I just let him explore a little.  Today he decided the cabinet under the sink looked interesting and checked it out.  I guess it's time to start latching it before he pulls the trash can out.  Otherwise there's nothing under there to hurt himself, but oy would that be messy.











Well, I'll just read then.  Dad stays out of trouble like that.