What a blur!

 

So where did August go???  September is half way over!

This post will be a lot of pictures and catching up.  Sorry it's so long, but... hey, our lives have been anything but boring!  How wonderful!

• In August we traveled to PA to be with Ron's family to celebrate his parent's 50th wedding anniversary.  Wow!  This was an amazing and special time, and both of the boys did great.  We are so thankful to our family for spoiling us rotten during our visit.  I can't believe how great Hyun did with the all the new places, people, airplane, etc.  On our trip we got to spend a few days at "camp" - which is Ron's parent's place in the middle of nowhere in Maryland.  It is a beautiful place in which Ron has many wonderful childhood memories - now we are creating the same awesome memories with our boys!

Plane ride to Philly... we no longer fit on one row!

Reese found a new passion while we were camping in Maryland - driving golf carts!

First s'mores!

MomMom and PopPop... what fun!

Build A Bear

Reese chose a Thor outfit for his bear (Ben).  Hyun simply chose underwear for his dog (Yogi).

• Reese is now back to school.  Though he, for the first time, isn't in class with his buddy Carter, he is making the best of everything.  He seems to have a teacher that likely fits his personality fairly well.

First day of school - I'm sure the teacher didn't believe Reese when she asked the question "what did you do this summer?".

• Over the summer we (along with a few other adoptive families) were asked to film for a Korean reality show called "Infinite Challenge".  It is a very popular and fun show in Korea.  Ultimately, the cast wanted to meet Korean adoptees around the world and share Korean culture with them.  Well, we made our television début just a few weeks ago.  Here's a link to the show!  Infinite Challenge.(our part is at the 1 hour and 4 minute marker.  A lot of it is in Korean, but of course our part is in English)

Yoo Jae Sook - One of the stars of Infinite Challenge

 
• Two years ago we captured a snake that we found in the women's bathroom at the church.  Steve has been a fun pet, but we said goodbye to him last week.

 

Hyun digging Steve's grave

Kids from the neighborhood coming to give their last respects.

Oh the sorrow!



Goodbye Steve.

• Hyun and I have been getting together with friends - going to the zoo, the park and story time.  We are so thankful for good friends! 

 

Hyun and Peter at Guthrie Green

 

 

Hyun, Peter, and Jonathan... yes all these boys are only weeks apart in age. 

 

• Potty training is well on it's way.  He is wearing underwear on most days, and he gladly shows it off to anyone who comes to the house and often tries to check to see if they too have underwear on.

Hyun receives a coin for going "dong" in the potty.

Check out those briefs!

 

• Of course, there has been some chillin' out since I am still off work :)

 

 

• Last, but not least, we made a trip to TX last weekend to visit my family.  This was a wonderful trip, but it was filled with mixed emotions.  I stayed at my childhood home for the last time as my Dad closes on the sale of his house this Friday.  He is scheduled to move down the street from us in just a few weeks.  It is exciting, yet difficult.  Hyun did great with the whole crazy Somerville family :), but I was disappointed that I didn't get time to contact and be with anyone from my Mom's side of the family.  As always, it was a blazing fast trip.

  

Morning bug hunt out on the land.  We found some toads, grasshoppers, bees, bunnies, dragon flies, and some wild berries... overall, a pretty successful hunt.

We love our Papa!

Saying goodbye to Dad and the house... wow.  So many memories.  I love this man and am so amazed at his courage and willingness during this huge change in his life.  Can't wait to spend time with him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week of 7/12/15

Crazy!  That describes normal life, doesn't it?

Well, during the week of 7/12/15, we experienced the following:

1. First Urgent Care visit in the US - Yes, a busted head; Hyun had to get stitches because he jumped off a step and then rolled right into a chair.
2. First home visit from our social worker since Hyun came home
3. First "well-child exam" - Went well; only a few minor concerns.
4. First time to bowl (at least with our family it is his first... maybe he went bowling in Korea??)
5. Announced that we are closing Celebrate Recovery at Highland Park - a ministry that we have been a part of for >11years... wow.

Hyun has been going to bed a little easier this week which has allowed us a little more "one on one" time with Reese in the evening.  This is valuable time for us to pour into him (or mostly just snuggle on the couch and watch TV together with no interruptions).

I thought you might be interested to know Hyun's current list of English words (these are words that he actually uses properly - not just words that he is repeating.  He repeats EVERYTHING Reese says.)  There are many words that he understands but doesn't say yet.  You may note that "Daddy" is not on the list; it's because he calls him "Appa", and we haven't really corrected or tried to change that.

• Mommy
• Reesie (he actually calls him "Reese-ah", which is a "Korean-ized" version of his name :)
• "Up" in order to be held (he actually says "up-ah") 
• Get (as in Mommy get me food)
• Chicken
• Pizza
• Cereal
• Hungry
• Cookie
• Tea
• Cheese
• Pickle (he's not talking about a real pickle; he's talking about the Veggie Tales show "Dave and the Giant Pickle")
• Cooper/Carter (Reese's friends)
• "E-Bs" (instead of ABC's)
• Amen
• Peek-a-boo
• Hi
• Bye Bye
• Stop
• Go
• 1,2,3 (but I'm pretty sure he doesn't know he's counting... he just knows that something fun usually happens after saying it)
• He can say milk, but ultimately fights with us because he still claims it is definitely "ewyoo" and not "milk".

Here are a few pictures to enjoy.  

Yes, we are "that" family.  Even our 8 year old gets to ride in the cart... it's just too fun not to do it now that there is a 2 year old to ride along with him.

 

 

I think it's so ironic that we take a kid from Korea, where guns are outlawed and even pixilated on TV, and all he does is find ways to make guns and shoot them at people.  When we were at church a few weeks ago, he used some blocks to make a gun, then pretend shot it at the elderly lady who was brave enough to sit next to us!

This boy is really into puzzles right now!

So, apparently the American flag is one of his favorite toys.  He takes it with us almost anywhere we go.

First trip bowling.  Eventually he decided that pushing the ball off with his hand wasn't good enough, so he started kicking it off.  It was a technique that I'm pretty sure had never been done before.

 

Hope you have a great week!

In a Nutshell

This is our week in a nutshell:

Spent Independence Day with Connie, Charlie and the rest of their family in Claremore.

 

These two boys have a lot of fun together.

 

Day at the zoo with the Duclos family!

 

 

Ron's work threw us a shower... Thanks everyone!

 

YAY!!! This boy finally enjoyed a normal bath!

Korean black noodles... yummy!   The owner of the restaurant was so happy with how much Hyun liked the noodles and kimchi that she boxed up some extra to send home with us so he can enjoy more later.

 

This boy LOVES to ride this bike.

 

 

 

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Reese had a dental appointment on Monday and found out that he needed a tooth pulled.  This kept us at the dentist for over 2 hours.  I gave Hyun my phone and he did a "time-span" video of the whole event.  So, here is our time at the dentist in a "flash" - thanks to Hyun :).

 

We were also blessed to have play dates with a couple of friends throughout the week.

Overall, Hyun continues to do well.  He's actually reverted on his sleeping.  It is now taking quite a long time to get him to bed, and his nap time is very difficult and sometimes sparse.  Reese recovered well from his pulled tooth. 

Ron's Aunt Bobbie passed away this week, so we grieve along with our family and are disappointed that we can't be with them today as they celebrate her life. 

We are so blessed with amazing family, friends, and a God that is so much bigger than we can imagine.  So thankful for the chaos that exists in our house - the dirty diapers, the on-going messes, the never ending laundry, and all that comes along with having 2 boys in our house. 

Simple Life

Right now, we are living the simple life - just trying to figure out our new normal.  I'm mostly remembering how many messes the mom of a 2 year old is required to clean up :).

The general rule for Hyun right now is "Whatever big brother does, I shall also do!". Reese doesn't mind this at all, but this morning - the inevitable happened - one of Reese's Lego creations got destroyed by Hyun.  We had wondered "when" and "which one" this would happen to, and now we know.  Reese was obviously not happy, but pretty quickly forgave him - so we went to enjoy some time at the park.  We are trying to teach Hyun boundaries in respecting some of Reese's things... hmm... not sure Hyun understands yet. :)

Acts of Kindness

The last 2 days have been big days in the life of mankind... okay, maybe not mankind, but they have been HUGE in the Wood household.

1. We made it to church!  Hyun was asleep when we arrived, so I was a little afraid of him waking up to hundreds of unknown faces.  But when he awoke, music was playing.  He saw people singing and hands raised, so he joined in.  After church was a fundraiser cookout, so we stuck around since he was doing so well, and, WOW, did he have a great time playing with everyone.  Crowds don't seem to bother him much I'm assuming because he is accustomed to the high population density in Seoul.
   
2. He rode in the jogging stroller! While in Korea, this boy would not even touch the stroller - which I thought was going to put a major damper on my exercise routine, but he jumped right in this morning and had a great time.  He was ticked off when it was over.

Outside of the "Hyun update" - I wanted to spend a few lines just telling of a few acts of kindness that people did that made our trip and our transition so much better.  We have been so blessed!

• Korean Air - Korean Air has amazing customer service!  On both the flight to and from Korea, they made changes so that our family could sit together because our tickets had to be booked separate from one another since we booked so last minute.
• Korean airport security - They allowed us to go through a separate line for families (even though we didn't completely qualify since Reese was >7 years old) - which helped us tremendously!
• Korean Immigration - The gentleman processing Hyun's paperwork actually got out of his booth in order to shake Hyun's hand and wish him well in America (this was an amazing moment!).
• Man in Korean subway system - Long story short, we were stuck and were about to miss our train to the airport - he stopped to help us by having us throw all our luggage and son to him over the turn style.  Yes, it was crazy.  We would have missed the train without him and probably our flight.
• Man on flight from Chicago to Tulsa  - This guy was so incredibly kind when he was trying to help with Hyun on the plane.  He could have said "can you please make that child be quiet", but instead he said, "what can I do to help?"... what a difference.
• Friends and Family - Can't say enough about all the love and support we continue to get.  The Duclos brought us Charlie's Chicken to the airport (Woohoo!!!), Cindy Wade got us home and fed us multiple times, the Sauter's brought us diapers to the airport so we wouldn't have to go shopping immediately, then more dinners from others, gifts for Reese and Hyun, and anonymous $20 donation from someone...

God is so good and has placed many friends and strangers in our lives to help us through this journey.  So thankful for how everyone is continuing to love on Reese during all this.  What a big change for him!

So grateful...

Happy to Be Home

Hello everyone! 

I apologize because I "went off the map" for several days during and after our trip.  We were exhausted and busy, so I had to put blogging on pause.  Also, sorry for the long post.

The day before our return trip home, was nerve racking because Hyun developed a bad case of diarrhea.  He seemed to feel fine - and we assumed it was because of a slight change in diet (I honestly think we fed him too much seaweed because he liked it so much). Praise God, it was cleared up by time to travel.

Our travel home was better than expected, but, just so you know - we had pretty low expectations :)!  Getting to the airport was quite an adventure that I won't get into, but I'm pretty sure I accidentally broke some Korean laws.  Now the story seems pretty funny, but it wasn't at the time.  Hyun slept a total of ~1hr on the 15hr flight to the US (10 minutes during the first hour of the flight and the remainder during the last hour of the flight).  He was good on the flight but was of course squirmy and active, so we walked around as much as possible.

Chicago was crazy!!!  Aside from the fact that we had an 8 hour layover, the line for immigration was many hours long.  Then we went straight from there to stand in another security line.  By the time we actually entered the airport, we had stood in line for ~3.5 hours.  It was hard on everyone.  The next 3 hours went by pretty quickly, but by hour 6.5 - Hyun was turning into a mess.  About 10 minutes before the plane was suppose to board, he threw himself down on the ground to throw a fit, and in mid-scream just fell asleep in the middle of the floor.

As we boarded the plane, I apologized as I walked to the very last seat on the plane saying, "Sorry if the baby wakes up." We knew it wouldn't be pretty.  They had Ron and I separated by 12 rows.  As soon as I sat down, the screaming bloody murder began.  The plane was slightly delayed in moving, but as soon as it started moving, he fell asleep... "Whew!"... or so we thought.  Just as the plane was about to take off, the pilots learned that there were issues at the Tulsa Airport, so we couldn't take off.  We headed back to the gate.  As soon as the plane stopped, Hyun woke back up.  He began screaming inconsolable for the next hour.  Thankfully, one guy helped us by supplying a phone that actually had power (both of our phones were dead at this point).  This definitely helped.

We had many friends greet us at the airport upon our return.  Wow.  I was so happy to be home, and see so many people who love us so unconditionally.  Thank you!

As for Hyun now...
He is doing very well.  He is sleeping fairly well and is eating great.  It seems that those 2 things must play a significant role in a good transition.  He doesn't "love" meeting new people, but it doesn't completely freak him out.  He continues to throw his fair share of tantrums.  Hard to say if this is part of the transition or if it is part of being 2 years old - probably both.

He is starting to mimic a lot of our words.  He often calls me "mommy-get"... I think it's because when we say my name, it is usually said with the word "get" after it, such as "Let mommy get that for you".  Reese is the leader in teaching him new words - whatever Reese says, Hyun wants to say also.

Not sure what all to tell... we are in a fog right now.  We are so incredibly grateful.  I plan to continue posting things on this blog for a while, and I am going to make it a public blog now that the adoption is finalized - so you should now be able to sign up for an email if you'd like.  My posts will likely be very simple, but will try to include pics of the family. 

Enjoy some pictures of our first few days home...

Our last trip to Dunkin Donuts before leaving Korea.  Nothing like going to Korea to get an American food chain!  BTW, Hyun had no interest in the donuts.

Prayer together at the airport thanking God for our safe trip and for a healthy transition.

Even Reese's best bud - Carter - made it to the airport!

 

First Mexican food - quesadillas!  He kept saying "pizza".  Of course we added a side of kimchi.  Have you ever had kimchi with your Mexican food... yummy!

First American pancakes - Ron makes pancakes every Saturday morning, and they were a big hit with the boy.

First swim - we made it over to Jim and Cindy's today.

Hyun was holding onto me like glue... until Jim showed up.  Who doesn't love Jim?