This past Saturday, we braved the heat and headed into Chicago for the 14th annual Korean Festival. We tried to imagine that we were back in Seoul, and for a minute we could almost believe it! We ate at one of the Korean restaurants in the area and enjoyed bulgogi, which is barbequed beef, and dol sot bi bim bap, which is rice, veggies, and red pepper paste in a hot stone bowl. It was so good! We walked the streets and bought some Korean sweets--rice cakes and honey cookies. They also had two performance tents and we watched a Korean traditional drumming team and a class of tae-kwon-do. Joel had a great time, too, and did a lot of smiling and looking around intently from his carrier. While we were watching the tae-kwon-do, the instructor was counting over the microphone in Korean for her students, and Joel just started laughing! It was too cute. We need to learn to count in Korean, apparently! It was also fun to use our Korean vocabulary (limited as it is) with the people there, although we had a couple that laughed when we said kamsahamnida (thank you). Either they were surprised to hear it from us or we said it wrong! Since we used it all over Korea and had no problems, I don't think that was it, though.
As we sat watching the drumming performance, I was thinking that four years ago, when we started trying to have a family, I never would have pictured us with a Korean son eating kimchi at a Korean festival. We were led in such a different direction than what we expected, and it has turned out to be more wonderful than we could have imagined. Joel is our miracle, our answered prayer, and we are so in love with him. Not only that, we love the culture and experiences that our adoption has brought us, things that never would have happened had we not experienced infertility. We can truly say that we know God has a plan for each of us. Although it is often very different from what we plan, it is always better. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8)
Surprise, surprise--we forgot our camera when we went to the festival! This is the best we can do: our Korean sweets and a copy of the Korean Quarterly that we picked up. And a cute one of Joel, just because. :)
6 comments:
Wow - he's got some good flexibility there! Love that photo :) And I like what you said about ending up in a different place than you expected but that it ended up being more wonderful this way. Amen.
Sounds like a great day! I know just how you feel, I feel so blessed to have expanded my world and view of life from my past 4 years of trying to start a family.
Oh, you brought tears to my eyes. You're absolutely right about the journey. I'm so excited about what lies ahead. I can't wait until we can go to the festival next year with our child as well. Also, love the picture of Joel!
Hi! It is so nice to "meet" you! First of all let me say that Joel is SO adorable!!! I loved your post and can relate so much - even though our little Matthew is not here yet, I am already so thankful for our journey of infertility that brought us to him! I can't imagine it any other way now and I thank God for answering my prayers to be a mommy in a way I didn't expect. He does know best! I look forward to reading more of your blog :)
Quite a journey it is for all of us...as we make our ways to creating our families.
Love the yoga shot. He is performing a seated "happy baby" pose (Ananda Balasana)...with the advanced option of putting his foot in his mouth. Happy baby pose is so appropriately named...love it!
Joel is such a cutie. And a chunky one too!!! Love a healthy baby. :)
I look forward to following your journey through parenthood.
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