Seollal (Korean New Year)

January 26th marks the first day of the lunar Korean calendar, making it New Year's Day. This is the most important of the traditional Korean holidays, and involves a series of celebrations. Koreans dress up in colorful hanboks and perform ancestral rituals.

One of the ancestral rituals is called sabae, in which children visit their parents and grandparents and wish them happy new year by doing a deep traditional bow. The children are then rewarded with money and words of wisdom.

To celebrate, Koreans also eat a lot of tteok guk, which is soup with rice cakes, and enjoy a lot of

sujeonggwa, a sweet cinammon and persimmon drink.

Many games are also played during this holiday. A board game called Yut and a card game called Go-Stop are very common. Men fly kites and women play a game of nurtwigi, which is a game of jumping on a see-saw!

We find the Korean culture so fascinating and it's fun to learn more about it! Perhaps our child is experiencing his or her very first Seollal!

One Month Down...How Many to Go?

As of last Friday, we've been waiting one month for a referral! Only five to seven months left! Our baby could be born anytime from now through the next two months, since the babies are about five months old when they are referred. My good friend said yesterday that I could be a mommy already without knowing it! It's so exciting to think of our baby, 6,500 miles away, being born. His or her first breath, first cry, first feeding--although we are missing it, we are thankful that the birth parents are able to experience these first sacred moments of their child's life.

What have we done this past month to get ready for our child? Well…other than pray for our child and our process, not a whole lot! I did read Adoption as a Ministry, Adoption as a Blessing by Michelle Gardner. We've also added a few agencies on our list of grants to apply for. Hopefully next month will be more productive! As always, thanks for your encouragement, prayers, and support!

The Great Attitude/Spirit of Gratitude Award

One of our blogging friends Joanna at Little Bit O'Seoul was sweet and thoughtful enough to pass this blog award onto us! As someone who struggles with being optimistic, this award made my day! Now it's our turn to pick five blogs that we think are uplifting and positive.


So, here are the guidelines of the award and instructions for passing on the award. Nominate at least 5 blogs which show GREAT ATTITUDE and/or GRATITUDE! Be sure to link to your nominees within your post. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

I love reading other's blogs and have become quite addicted to checking for recent posts. I especially enjoy blogs that are funny, sincere, heartwarming, and informative. Our five choices are...

Our Life With Nathan. One of my best friends Lori just began blogging. She is a great friend and her son Nathan is so cute and charming! She's sure to have more great posts in the future.

Bring Stevenson Home. Our friends that we met through my husband's business are adopting their third child! They have been waiting for over a year and a half to bring their son Stevenson home from Haiti. They have met Stevenson and it is so difficult for them to know that he is so far away from his forever family. Their determination and perseverance is an inspiration! Let's pray for Stevenson to come home quickly!

Building the Ark. This family lives in our city and has shown support to us through comments on our blog and prayers for our journey. Jane has written articles in our local paper about adoption and her blog posts are always interesting and informative!

Banku, Pho, and Fried Spiders. A multicultural family with lots of faith and big hearts. Anita is traveling to Ghana and has raised money to provide food for the kids at the orphanage. What an awesome gift for the people of Ghana!

Little Seouls. This blog links to a store that sells adorable Korean items for babies and parents. We will definitely be purchasing from them when we bring our baby home! They also have great links to sites about Korean culture.

Thank you again, Joanna, and thank you to all of you bloggers who have made my life more interesting and uplifting!

Christmas and New Year Reflections

We had a great Christmas this year, and enjoyed celebrating with our friends and family. As nice as it was, we felt incomplete as a family, and we hope and pray that next Christmas our baby will be home with us! We have waited so long for the special blessing of a child, and our hearts yearn to share all of our love with a precious baby. Looking back on our journey, it was sad to remember that the baby we miscarried last March would have been with us at Christmas. However, our sorrow was soon overshadowed by joy as we thought of the exciting journey we are on right now, and what happiness there will be when we bring our child home.

As we thought about our future travel to Korea and the adorable baby we will have, it seemed that a new camera was in order. So, thanks to my wonderful husband, I opened this package with joy on Christmas morning! I have already taken 300 pictures with it, and can't wait to learn more about how to use all its features!

My parents always give us something meaningful, and this year's special gift brought tears to both of our eyes (well, mostly mine). My mom found a beautiful bamboo box that she stenciled with bamboo leaves and an Asian character for love.

Inside the box was a book about adoption called "I Wished for You". This is a beautiful, moving picture book that we will share many times with our child.

There was also a book to teach us some Korean, a special candle and holder to light for our child, and a small ceramic fish which is an Asian symbol of luck and prosperity. What a special gift! We've also started putting anything meaningful related to our adoption in the box, such as the letters from our anonymous donor and the newspaper articles about us. Eventually we'll make a scrapbook with all of this memorabilia, but for now the box is perfect.

As we look ahead to this new year, we are hopeful that we will experience much joy, in the form of a baby boy or girl that will become ours. Our prayers right now are for patience and trust in God's timing! We wish all of you a happy and healthy 2009!

Happy New Year!

In 2009 we became a family of three...

...in 2010 we will enjoy many more special moments together.

We wish for everyone many blessings in the New Year!