A snowy day

Hiding from Mommy while we are getting ready to go out and play in the snow!
Helly Hansen sweatshirt compliments of Uncle Dave and Aunt Julia's trip to Canada last week!





Checking email after a hard days work!

Posted in: on Saturday, February 17, 2007 at at Saturday, February 17, 2007 0 comments

Valentines from here to S. Korea



So - it was Valentines day - and in our house hold it was a typical run of the mill day other than the fact that we ended our crazy hectic day with an I Love You and 2 Cosmos!

Having been with Matt for almost 12 years now - Valentine's Day for me isn't so much about finding 1 day to express love to him - but to teach Ben about hearts and love. Note - we've taught Ben how to say I Love You in Korean (Sarang Hamnida)! Its super cute...

At any rate - I wondered - do they celebrate Valentine's Day in other parts of the world? Korea? Here is what I found....

(An excerpt from http://korea.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/valentine-s-day-in-korea)

"It turns out that the greatest Greeting Card Holiday of all is celebrated everywhere. In Korea, it’s celebrated a little differently. Here, Valentine’s Day is a big excuse to give everyone we know a lot of sugar. In Korea, February 14th is a day for the women to give gifts to their sweethearts.

If that seems a little unfair, never fear, Korea has a way around that. March 14th is called White Day and this is the day that men buy gifts for their sweethearts. They might even choose that day to swear their undying love for their girlfriend.

Not to be forgotten, if you are single in Korea, you get to celebrate on April 14th. They call it Black Day. It’s a day where you eat jajong noodles with your friends. Jajong noodles are black."

Just an interesting tid-bit!

Posted in: on Thursday, February 15, 2007 at at Thursday, February 15, 2007 0 comments

Snow, Sniffles, Sanity and Spreadsheets

So - you would think that we would be super duper excited for our first snow day of the year with Ben.....

However - Ben has been sick since Friday (last week) with a fever and cold. So, he was in no mood to hang out in the freezing cold...bummer!!!

The snow wasn't so much the issue in our neck of the woods as much as ice and sleet were...so - Matt decided to work from home. Great! Idealistically you think, snow - cold, hot chocolate, puzzles, and all out fun....but that was not the reality in our household yesterday...

Here is how it went down....

Matt working at the kitchen table on the lap top modeling out extensive excel spreadsheets (note - he says his day was very productive!), Ben running around like a chicken in a coop, nose running, going stir crazy, not wanting to play outside but clearly sick of being inside, Mommy wiping Ben's runny nose (about 10000 times), making soup (aka clearing out the refrigerator), cleaning the kitchen, checking email, wiping ben's nose some more, waiting desparetely for Ben to crash and nap so I can get a good 2 hours of work in....

Uhrig's Law
1. When it snows - our child doesn't want to play outside because he is sick
2. When mom wants to work - our child didn't take a nap.....
3. When everyone was just getting back on the mend - mom's herniated disc starts to flare up...

So instead of my romantic view of a cool snow day - it was more of a running around, praying for a nap, checking email (on the sly) kind of day....

Oh - speaking of romantic - wasn't it valentines too ;-)????

Posted in: on at at Thursday, February 15, 2007 0 comments

Top 5 Ben sayings...this week

The top 5 things ben has said this month (some funny, some thoughtful, some out right sweet)

5. Matt and I were talking about work at dinner...ben said "You! You talking about office? Stop talking about office"!

4. While climbing up a bookshelf I told Ben - Ben no climbing on the bookshelf. As he got down he looked at me and said "What can I climb on mommy?"

3. Its breakfast time and I'm asking Ben what he wants to eat. Do you want oatmeal? No. Cereal? No. Waffles? No. Yogurt? "That's what I was thinkin!"

2. Ben has a cold and now that he doesn't have a crib to "contain him", he will wake up in the morning and come into our room and climb into bed with us. Albeit it - normally its 6:30am - but with the cold - this morning it was 3:30am. We are exhausted but we let him climb in - for the sake of "our" sleep. He lays down. Rolls over. Puts his nose up to mine and says "I love you mommy" and kisses my nose. Ok - you can climb on in anytime I thought ;-)....

1. Two nights ago. We are sitting at dinner and talking about our sister-in-law Tara who is pregnant and due in May. We were telling Ben about the new baby cousin, Caroline, that he will have soon. Ben loooks at Matt and says "I was born in my mommy's belly". Oh boy! I couldn't believe it. Were we really going to have this conversation - sooo early? (I'll blog about our resulting conversation later)

They say out of the mouths of babes...but seriously?!?!

Posted in: on Sunday, February 11, 2007 at at Sunday, February 11, 2007 0 comments

"Its everything I could have hoped for..."



My friend Heather brought a cool blog to my attention called "the antiracist parent". The site is committed to helping parents raise their children with an antiracist outlook on life. The content is really great and I enjoy reading it (when I have time). I love the site for so many reasons (more for another blog about raising children).

Recently there was a post: "Question: Do parents love adopted children differently?"

It was an interesting post - but what I found more interesting were peoples "comments". Regardless of how others felt it made me think...is it possible that I love Ben differently than I would if he weren't adopted? Its hard to say (since I have no basis for it). However, one thing was clear - loving ben, having ben as my son, being a family is "everything i could have hoped for."

During our wait for Ben so much went through our minds. Fear, excitement, anxiety. We had so many widespread coversations over the 16 months....

Will we be good parents? Do we know what we are doing? Are we responsible enough for this? Are we ready for this major change in our lives? Will we love him as much as we would if he were biological?

The last one (about our capacity to love), was less of a concern, however - one we discussed....

Its been 20 months since Ben has been home. Our love for him was so instantaneous from the moment we held him in our arms (among about 100 strangers in the middle of Newark International Airport - yet a topic for ANOTHER post). And from this instaneous feeling was an enourmous overwhelming feeling and capacity for love.

Every day Ben makes us smile and warms our hearts. He is such a special child who has the capacity for sympathy and empathy at such a young age, asking others how they are and impressing others with his manners (including us!).

On the way to going out to dinner last night to our favorite family restaurant Matt and I were talking about how happy we are (we were also talking about whether or not we ever think we would adopt again and have more children - yet again - another post....but note: the answer is I don't know for now ;-) ). I told Matt: - having ben and raising a child is everything I could have hoped for.

When we got home and put Ben to bed Matt said "what you said really made me think. we had so many thoughts running through our minds when we were going through the adoption process and you are right: having ben is everything I could have hoped for too....times 10!"

So - would we love a biological child as much as we love our adopted child? I'm sure we would. However, I do feel strongly in my heart that with adoption comes a special, additional layer of appreciation for your child. The want. The wait. The distance of thousands of miles separating you from your child for months on end. It has made each day with Ben one that we never take for granted. We are so blessed...its ridiculous.

Posted in: on at at Sunday, February 11, 2007 1 comments

Kyle and Owen home for 2 years!

Adoption Day
In celebration of our friend's, The Johnson-McCormick's, 2nd anniversary of their adoption day.

A must watch film by Braydon.

http://johnson-mccormickfamily.blogspot.com/2007/01/adoption-day.html

Posted in: on Sunday, February 04, 2007 at at Sunday, February 04, 2007 0 comments

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