Arriving safely

The prayers definitely worked!! God granted us the best possible trip. The 14 hour plane ride was rough, but as good as it could be with two 5 year olds and a 15 year old.

Things we learned or were reminded of so far on this trip:

-Detroit is, in fact, in Michigan AND on Eastern Time Zone
-Hyeon su will fight sleep to NO end. (I already knew this though)
-You will be away at 4am local time no matter how much you try to sleep.
-Paris Baguette tastes as good as I remember!!
-Korean people will shower my children with gifts, even if you try to politely refuse. (as evidenced by the Korean flight attendant loading down Jeong hu with pretzels and peanuts until he couldn't hold anymore!! And the very nice man who was sitting next to Stacy who would give all his extra snacks to the kids...even before he ate anything.)
- Korean drivers are still amazingly crazy when compared to most of the Western world. This became especially evident when the BUS driver made a U TURN in the middle of the street to drop us off...I think Elizabeth thought we were going to die. I'll call that a good indoctrination into foreign travel!!!

This is how we all felt last night: 

He FINALLY slept!!! But then he was up at 2am. :/

Well, not ALL of us:

The view from our hotel room...notice the elevated highway.

 I *think* that the green dome roof is part of Seoul Station. If that isn't the exact building, it is right down there.

We getting ready to leave for the adoption agency soon. Going to see both boys' foster moms and HOPING to have lunch with them.

Complete Chaos

Yes, Chaos is spelled with a capital C. I don't think it is THAT bad, but it sure does feel like it tonight. The checked baggage is on the verge of being ready. We need a few more zip ties to tape inside the totes and to get the labels attached and they'll be good. 1 out of 4 carry on suitcases with everything that we will need is packed.

And because I don't have enough to do or think about, I decided it would be a good idea to *attempt* to take some pictures of the boys in their hanboks. A hanbok is the traditional outfit worn in Korea. I wanted just a few more pics to put into each foster mother's album. I needed to go to Walmart this afternoon anyway.

I'll share a couple pics with you from my attempts.

They are attempting to show you that they have TWO more sleeps until we leave on the airplane. I'm not entirely sure where the idea came from, but the number of  "sleeps" has been working a lot better than telling them they need to wait until Wednesday!!

Would you please pray for health for our family?  Hyeon su's nose started kind of running yesterday. Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal, but I know how miserable flying can be with sinus issues. I'm just praying that God will grant us all HEALTH for this entire trip!!

This particular picture makes me giggle a little. They were singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star because that is the best way to get them to stand HALF way still and capture smiles. And the fact that they are holding hands!!! 

And just one more of my handsome young men...because I think they are pretty darn cute. :)

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

To say the weather has been unseasonably warm this winter would be the understatement of the year. Today continued this wonderful trend! It was about 50 degrees, sunny and just about as perfect as possible. Today would have been my grandma's 92 birthday, so we decided to celebrate by going to the zoo!!! I feel sure she is dancing in heaven.

Look who we "found" at the zoo!!

Isn't Miss Leah just a DOLL??? It was such a pleasure to meet her and hang out with her mommy and big brother!!!

Cute, cute silly little boys!!! 

T minus FIVE days and counting until we leave on a JET PLANE!!!!!

Tales from the weekend past

So I'm definitely not an expert on posting updates on my blog. As evidenced by my current post which is now out of order. Oh well, I suppose if I end up getting all the information in one place, it will still count for something, right?

This past weekend, the boys and I made the trek to the farm. We got to see the high school boys basketball game, eat at the KAY dinner, play in the dirt AND eat some scrumptious birthday cake that Aunt M made for Hyeon su.

See what happens when E1 and Uncle E are left in charge? They were COVERED in dirt. 

I'm very VERY sad that I didn't have the forethought to take my camera with my on the Saturday morning adventures. But having 5 people smashed into Papa's mule was almost more than I could handle. Because E3 (age 11) was driving the mule, I had to hold onto tight to each of the little boys!!! We got to see cows, bulls, BABY cows and throw things into the pond. Everybody was able to get to the dock, despite the high water (only a little mud was involved). But when we got back to the house, the only thing the boys could tell Papa that they did was see cow poo. Really? All boy, I suppose.

E3 had to help light the candles!! My mouth is still watering. As always, Aunt M makes the BEST cakes!!!! 

Happy Birthday!!!

Just to add a little more excitement to our trip planning, we are celebrating Hyeon su's birthday today!!! We now have TWO 5 year olds in our house!!

I'm FIVE!!!!!

Tetris anyone?

We have purchased six large totes plus two large suitcases to fill with donations to take to Korea. Single grain rice cereal is SUCH a needed item, but I must admit, it is a bit bulky when trying to pack it. I've acquired enough boxes to try several different arrangements to see how many boxes I can possibly fit into one tote. This is proving to be more difficult than anticipated.

We have to fit THIS...

Into this...this is going to be TIGHT!!!

I'm hoping to have a tally of all the donations we've received and bought by the middle of next week. It may take that entire time to figure out how to get all this stuff tucked into our bags!!!

Korea prep

I just realized it has been over a month since I posted anything. Oops!! I'm not sure if anybody actually looks at this, but I'm going to keep typing so that we'll have a record of this trip.

Our lives have been consumed by illness lately. I think there have been 3 weeks *total* time that someone in our house hasn't been sick...since HALLOWEEN!!!  Hyeon-su was finally well last Thursday and Jeong-hui started running a fever on Friday!!! Both boys are back in school today!!! The rest of this week is going to consist of gathering all the donated items from our church and preschool. I'm itching to count everything up and see how many totes & suitcases we'll be able to fill!!!

There is still time to donate items if you'd like. Single grain rice baby cereal is the biggest need. All monetary donations will be used to by cereal or to help cover the extra baggage fee for the flight.

We did receive word yesterday that we'll be able to see BOTH boys' foster mothers while we are in Korea. I was so happy I started to cry happy tears!!!