Christmas

Caleb was doing a "tough guy" pose to go with his black eye
Julia enjoyed her first Christmas
Julia got a tea party set, but Isaac thinks it is his toy :)
Isaac got the motorized Thomas train- a great gift!

Julia's Christmas Eve dress, isn't she adorable?
Our best Christmas present this year
Our first family picture with Julia


Merry Christmas! We had a really nice holiday. Nate went back to work on Christmas Eve. My brother, Tim, came down and took the kids to the Christmas Eve service with me. Even with his help it was not a pleasant experience. There was no nursery and my kids do not do well with evening services that last 1 1/2 hours. Oh well.

My parents and sister came down Christmas Day. We opened gifts in the afternoon after Nate woke up. I was thankful my family came to us this year so that Nate could participate as well. And, I don't want to travel too much with Julia yet. It's always fun to see the kids so excited. Even Julia was having a good time. My parents then took Isaac back to their house for the weekend. I miss having him around, but it does make life a little easier since Nate is gone all weekend. I thought I had more to share, but my brain isn't functioning well at the moment. :) We are so thankful for our children and families and pray that you had a wonderful Christmas too celebrating Jesus' birth!

Ouch

Caleb's sledding injury
Julia in her favorite spot, my lap!
She sucks her thumb when she's tired or stressed


Nate took the boys sledding today and Caleb left with a nice souvenir. They had a great time until Caleb collided with another boy and Caleb's face got the worst of it. We're telling him that his injury looks tough. :) We planned on taking a picture of the kids this week for our Christmas cards, that's not happening. We will be sending out New Year's cards instead!

Nate returns to work tomorrow, so sad. I am thankful he had these past few weeks off though!

The first week

Julia's foster brother played the piano, she seems to enjoy it when Nate plays
Isaac did ask me to put Julia in the basket with him, even though his expression doesn't show it!
She has this stunned expression in most of our pictures so far
Here's the happy girl!

Julia has been home for over a week now! The first week went WAY better than we expected. She is a great eater and hasn't refused anything yet. She is also consistently sleeping thru the night. She is slowly warming up to Nate. She will go to him without screaming, but if I'm in the room she makes it clear she wants me. I'm not sure how this second week will turn out. This past weekend we went to Chicago to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday. Julia came down with a fever during the weekend and did not feel good. It didn't help that she was also surrounded by tons of new people and slept in a different bed. It was a stressful weekend for her. I'm glad we were able to celebrate with my Grandma, but I was also glad to get back home. :) Her fever seems to have gone down today, but she has been very clingy with me again. The book I've been reading about parenting internationally adopted kids talk about how attachment goes in waves, so I won't be surprised if she needs more attention again. The book is very informative about what adopted kids need from parents, etc. and I'm learning alot. I am very thankful Nate is off still. He goes back to work on Christmas Eve. It's a little disappointing he has to work thru the holidays, but I am so grateful he was off during Julia's first weeks home!

We've been blessed with friends making meals for us and coming to visit and meet Julia. My parents and siblings will come to our house for Christmas Day, which will be fun. We're excited to celebrate Julia's first Christmas! I pray you all have a wonderful Christmas celebrating our Savior's birth!

Korea

This felt like a familiar scene! Happy to be home with my kiddos!

Our first night together with Julia.

This is Julia's foster mom. She provided a great home for Julia and we
are very thankful for her and her family.

The Korean National Folk Museum. We learned much about Korea's history here.

Part of a dance/percussion group we saw. The show highlighted traditional
Korean dance, percussion, and instruments. It was much better than we
originally expected and very entertaining.

This little cafe had the best hot chocolate I've had in a long time!
A statue in the Folk Museum Village. We just thought it looked a little funny.
Visiting Julia during her pre-flight physical at Holt.

One of the highlights of our trip was our visit to the DMZ. That is a North Korean building in the background. It was hard to envision living under the constant threat of war.

The American soldier upfront was giving the tour. You can see the Korean soldiers in the background facing N. Korea. In between the blue buildings you can see a cement line- don't cross that line! Unfortunately we couldn't go in the blue buildings. Supposedly inside the building there is a line marking the separation between the two countries. They use the buildings for negotiations.

We had a wonderful trip to South Korea! We experienced some jet lag for a couple nights where we woke up around 1-3 am and couldn't fall back asleep. South Korea is 14 hours ahead of eastern time. On Monday we walked around a local shopping district and ate lunch at a local restaurant. We then met Julia in the afternoon! She was with her foster Mom, who is a wonderful lady. Julia was her 10th foster child and also her last. The family is moving out of Seoul now that their sons are all grown. Julia let me hold her for a minute, then started crying. The foster Mom held her for the rest of the visit, but Julia would interact with us. It was so amazing to finally meet Julia. Later that night we went to the Seoul Tower, which has an impressive view of the city. We ate a burger there for supper, but it didn't taste quite right. :)

On Tuesday we had our DMZ tour which I talked about in a previous post.

On Wednesday we went back to Holt for Julia's pre-flight physical. She fussed a little when she saw us walk in. The Dr. gave her a clean bill of health and said in English, "She is a cute, fine baby." We agree! That afternoon we took a Seoul City Bus Tour and got off at a different areas of Seoul. We ate at a "traditional Korean" restaurant for lunch. We ended up with a potato pancake and soup with fat noodles in it. The food was ok. They really like "kimchi" in Korea which is fermented cabbage that is spicy and served cold. Personally, we are not fans. :) Also, if you order "cider" in Korea, it's Sprite. Something must have gotten lost in translation along the way. :) That night we went to a traditional Korean folk musical. It was really excellent. The percussion group was entertaining and the costumes were beautiful.

On Thursday we toured a local palace, not far from our hotel. (By the way, our hotel was fabulous. We really appreciated that they served American style breakfast!) The palace grounds are huge and the buildings are beautiful. They still have a bit of renovating to do on them though. The Koreans have not had an easy history, between Japan ruling them for a long time, WW II and the Korean War- all took their toll on the historical landmarks. We also walked thru the National Folk Museum. We learned alot about Korean history and how they lived over the centuries. We also learned that Korean farmers used to use wooden shoes during rainy periods. A little Dutch-Korean connection there! ;)

That afternoon we went to pick up Julia, we were each very nervous. The transition itself went so smoothly- thank you for all of your prayers! It was a very hard separation for the foster Mom. The foster Mom had pictures of us and she had taught Julia how to say "Mom." So when Julia was riding back to the hotel with us she kept looking at me and saying, "Mom, mom, mom." She then fell asleep against my chest. Such a sweet, wonderful moment. We ate supper with Julia in our hotel room and she was happy eating some of our food and looking around. Putting her to bed was rough. In Korea, babies sleep with the family on a mattress on the floor. Eventually I put her in our bed and she collapsed from exhaustion. Then our alarm clock went off for some reason at 9:30 pm and she woke up screaming. Ouch. It took awhile to get her asleep again. I did not sleep well that night with her in bed with me. I was so worried that she would roll off the bed or something.

On Friday we then went to the airport to make our trip home. It was a long, stressful day. Julia did ok considering the circumstances. She didn't sleep alot on the plane and she cried often. The flight attendants walked her a couple times and some older Korean women near us tried to console her as well. At first I felt like a bad Mom giving her to other people. But, eventually I realized this was going to be a LONG day and I should just accept the help. We arrived in Chicago on Friday morning, yep, we saw the Friday sunrise twice. :) It was so good to see our boys again and they were excited to meet Julia!

Since arriving home we have been adjusting. I think Julia's internal clock is still operating on Korean time, so it will take a little while to adjust her sleep schedule. She latched on to me right away and screamed whenever Nate or someone else tried to hold her. She is getting better with Nate, but still prefers me if I'm in the same room. We are starting to see more of her happy, playful side. It reminds me that even though things are rough right now, eventually she will be fully adjusted and happy here. Thank you to all of you for your support and prayers on this journey. God is so good and we are so blessed to have Julia! We appreciate your continued prayers too!

Julia

Playing with Daddy's watch

My baby girl!

DMZ

Today we went to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). It's basically the line separating N. Korea and S. Korea. It's been 50 years since the line was established. I didn't realize that the two countries have been exisiting under a cease fire since then, not a true peace agreement. It's sad to hear about the living conditions in N. Korea. And it's a little creepy walking up to a building near the line and seeing a N. Korean soldier watching you through binoculars. We weren't allowed to point or make rude gestures toward the N. Korean side or take pictures in certain areas. The S. Koreans are very careful to not have any incidents, b/c even little incidents can escalate quickly. S. Koreans still talk about when unification happens, like it's a sure event. And, I think they are right. I think eventually all cruel govts who suppress freedom of religion and people's rights eventually come to an end. I just pray that end comes about without violence. We also walked thru one of the tunnels that the N. Koreans dug under the DMZ in hopes of making a surprise attack. (The S. Koreans discovered the tunnels before they were used.) Nate and I had to duck quite a bit in the tunnel, and it was a long way down. I kept thinking my Dad would get a kick out of all this history. :) Anyway, it was a good Korean history day. Seoul is such a modern, wealthy city that you wouldn't even know about the subtle tension that is always present unless you went to the DMZ or the Korean War Museum (which we won't have time to see.)

Cardale's Birthday, Family, and Big News!

The boys having fun together
Blowing out candles on the Elmo cake
Isaac, Caleb, Jack, Uncle Mike and Aunt Colleen
Jack all bundled up to go outside

We met up with Cardale's family, my parents and sister to celebrate Cardale's 2nd birthday. I am so grateful we are still in Cardale's life! When he turned 1, I remember thinking we probably wouldn't be celebrating his 2nd birthday with him. But, God has better plans than we can ever imagine! I made an Elmo cake for Cardale. Kind of 2nd birthday tradition now. And I wanted to make up for the sorry 1st birthday cake I had made for Cardale. :) Overall, everyone had a fun evening!

The day after Thanksgiving, Colleen and family came to our house. They are leaving tomorrow. We've had fun visiting with them and the boys are very cute together. We took the boys to the GR Children's Museum and had a good morning.

And the big news, we got our travel call today! It was such a good phone call to get. I was so excited and couldn't think straight. :) We are flying out of O'Hare this Saturday and flying back on Friday, the 11th. I have alot to do in the next couple of days! Julia, here we come!!

November- still waiting!

To sum up these past few weeks- we are still waiting for the travel call! I have to be honest, this has been frustrating. I'm a planner and not knowing when we are leaving is a little stressful. But, I am trying to keep busy. I have almost all of our Christmas shopping done. I don't think I've ever been done this early before! Once Julia is home, I'm guessing there won't be much time or energy to shop. I also went to visit a college friend in Ohio this past Monday- Wednesday. Nate is off this week so I was able to go without the kids. I enjoyed spending time with my friend, Beth and her family. Her youngest, Clara, is 6 months old. It will be fun to have daughters so close in age! Julia is 8 months old now.

On Tuesday night, Nate got a phone call from our social worker at 10 pm. He was a little surprised, but it wasn't the travel call. :) She was telling us to look for a document in the mail on Wednesday that we needed to sign, notarize and drive to the Grand Rapids office on Thursday morning so the form could be mailed back to Korea on Thursday afternoon. Julia had her visa physical in Korea and the physician noted that she had a hemangioma on her scalp. They then need the adoptive parents to sign a letter of acceptance basically saying, yes, we still want our child. Seems a little silly, but they have to make sure everything is legit. We already knew about her hemangioma and have seen pictures of it. It's like a raised birthmark under her hair. Not a big deal, but we'll sign whatever we have to and drive all over MI to get her home! So, our social worker is hopeful that the form will arrive in Korea by Monday and MAYBE we could get our travel call by Tuesday or Wednesday??? I am trying to strike a balance between being really excited, but also not getting my hopes up. Have I said this waiting game is difficult? :) I know once Julia is home though, the wait will be worth it!

In the past couple of weeks Nate and I have helped out in Caleb's classroom. He enjoys school so much and is learning alot. He is very close to reading. He is learning some phonics and is excited that he can sound out some words! We have started taking Isaac to the Dash and Splash program at the gym. He is a little young, but does well if we stay with him. He needs a little help following the teacher's directions. :) He likes the scooters during the gym portion and is actually learning quite a bit in the swimming portion. Isaac is still our silly, snuggly child. He has adjusted to Cardale being gone, but he still doesn't play alone well. He prefers to follow me around and do whatever I'm doing. Isaac has also started the "scared of the dark" phase. We leave the hall light on now when he goes to bed and he's been waking up more at night and having a hard time going back to sleep. I remember when Caleb went thru this phase. I thought it wouldn't be an issue for Isaac since Caleb is in the room with him, but I guess I was wrong. :)

October 31

Grandparent's Day at Caleb's school- he really had fun, he's just making a funny face :)
Air Zoo museum in Kalamazoo- they had a room for kids and the rides are free!


Pilot Isaac ready for takeoff
Caleb enjoyed playing in the plane cockpits
This was the first carnival type ride for the boys, Caleb liked it, Isaac not so much
We were shocked when Caleb agreed to go on this ride! He liked it too!
Caleb was a soccer player this year, so really he went as himself :) Didn't have to buy costumes though! Like the Green Bay pumpkin?
Post trick-or-treating loot.

This past Friday was Grandparent's Day at Caleb's school. My Mom was excited to attend. The school served breakfast to the grandparents and the kids put on a program. The school dismissed at noon, so it was an even better day for Caleb!

Nate didn't have to work this weekend so we took full advantage of that! On Friday night we went out to dinner with some friends. We haven't done that in a while and had a good time. On Saturday we took the boys to the Air Zoo museum. The museum has free admission until the end of December if anyone wants to go! You just have to pay for some of the rides at the museum. The boys are too young to appreciate looking at all of the airplanes, but there were enough things to catch their interest. Saturday night was trick-or-treating. The boys had easy costumes, yea! It was freezing last night, so the trick-or-treating didn't last long. Many of our neighbors weren't home, but that is ok. I figure it's better for all of us if the boys don't get alot of candy. :)

No word yet on our travel call. We'll keep you posted.....

The waiting game

Caleb's last soccer game for the fall season- brrr!
My Grandma Jongsma and my Mom

As many of you know, we received a phone call from our social worker last week telling us that we could get our travel call in the next 2-4 weeks!! We were a little surprised! Everything seems to be moving faster than we anticipated- which is a good thing, just unexpected. Our paperwork is done on the US side. We are waiting for Julia's visa interview in Korea now. Once they approve her visa we will get the call to come get her! Once they call us we have to arrive in South Korea within 7 days. We will buy our plane tickets once we get our travel call. We know which airline we will use (Korean Air) and that we will fly out of O'Hare on a direct flight. The flight is 13 hours long! I feel a little claustrophobic thinking about it. :{ No matter when they call us our plan is to fly out on a Saturday and fly back on a Friday. I'm praying we get our travel call early in the week so that I have a couple days to pack/prepare! We'll see what God has planned. The adoption agency in Korea (Holt agency) will make our hotel reservations for us, take us on a city tour, and help us line up a tour to the DMZ. When we're there we'll meet Julia and her foster Mom on a Monday. We'll then sightsee for a couple days and then pick Julia up on Thursday afternoon and fly home on Friday. I'm hoping when we're in Korea I can blog, but we'll see.

Julia's room is pretty much ready! We painted the walls pink. I have some pink and sage colored bedding and I bought a sage valance. We also found a really nice dresser for a good deal at a second time around furniture store. I still need some decorations for the walls and a little rug, but that will happen in the future.

Caleb had his last soccer game for the fall season on Saturday. The field was full of puddles, it was drizzling and freezing! It's hard to see in the above picture, but Caleb was covered in mud. The parents were a little miserable, but the kids had a great time! After the game we drove to Grand Rapids to eat lunch with some of my extended family that was visiting MI. I had to get a picture of my Grandma to post on my blog because she faithfully reads my blog. Hi, Grandma! :)

As I am writing this, I am watching a friend's little girl who is about Isaac's age. The two of them were coloring and Zoe must have done something Isaac didn't like. He then turned to me and said, "Zoe, in time out." Apparently in nursery at church he likes to tell kids what the rules are as well. I'm thinking Julia might have a bossy older brother. :)

Fall fun

The hand dryer was probably Isaac's favorite "toy" at the museum
Playing together again
The boys had a great time, it's hard to get them to look like it though for a picture!
The hay pile was Caleb's favorite part of the orchard
The perfect pumpkins!

Just a warning- this post will be long! The two weeks without Nate were a little tough, but manageable. Life just doesn't work as well without him here! :) This past week the boys and I saw Cardale. We met Cardale and Jenn at the GR Children's Museum. Cardale was confused when he first saw us, but then had a big grin. The boys enjoyed playing together again. Cardale was a little sad when we said goodbye, but that is to be expected. It was a fun morning for all of us!

Nate flew home yesterday. The boys and I met him at the South Bend airport and they were so excited to see Daddy! Our original plan was to drive to my grandparent's house and spend the weekend in Chicago doing museums, etc. By the time we finished eating supper, we decided to just drive home and then take the train into the city Saturday morning. When we got home Nate made the mistake of answering the phone. It was work calling and telling him he had to work the night shift Saturday! He was so mad! Actually we were both mad. His work has known for a month that he was just getting back from a WORK trip and that they needed to find someone to cover this shift. But no, they waited 21 hours before the shift started to find someone. Nate is at work right now and has vowed that if he has anything to say about it, this will not happen again to him or anyone else. :)

I digress. Since we couldn't go to Chicago we went to a local orchard. We ate some yummy cider donuts, went on a hayride, saw a petting zoo and picked out some pumpkins. Thankfully the boys weren't disappointed about not going to Chicago. They were just happy to be all together again.

I want to share some news about Julia too. Almost a month ago we received some medical reports showing she had an abnormal EEG. The doctors in Korea diagnosed her with partial seizures and put her on medication. Partial seizures are like "absence" seizures where kids kind of space out for 30 seconds and then wake up again. We met with our pediatrician and she fowarded the reports on to a neurologist for their opinion. We heard back from the neurologist and they felt Julia's EEG looked normal. Now, they can't say that 100% because they didn't have the whole EEG. They also felt the sunset eyes they documented in Korea shouldn't be a concern because that also correlates with increased brain pressure which then affects head circumference. The neurologist here thinks Julia's head circumference growth has been normal and not indicative of brain pressure. So, now that we've gotten some more info, I feel at peace about Julia. The neurologist here is more than willing to see Julia when she gets here, so that is good to know. We know Julia is receiving excellent medical care in South Korea and that God will lead us through whatever transpires. We appreciate your continued prayers for Julia!

New picture!

We received a new picture of Julia today! She is 6 months old now. She is holding the care package we sent her. :) I edited this picture for the foster Mom's privacy. I am glad we have a picture of the foster Mom though. I appreciate learning about the family who is caring for Julia. I'm sure when Julia is older she will appreciate having pictures of her foster family as well. Julia looks so cute and tiny! I love her cheeks and her cute little mouth. Our social worker is sending in our paperwork to US Immigration today. We'll get the approval in about a month. About 4 weeks after receiving our approval we'll get our travel call! So maybe near the end of November we'll travel?? I feel like I'm nesting these days. There is alot of cleaning I want to accomplish, mostly b/c I haven't done a deep cleaning in about 2 years. :)

Nate has been gone since Sunday. The past couple of days have been rough, mostly b/c Isaac was sick. He was coughing alot at night and neither one of us was sleeping much. I had uninterrupted sleep last night which was great! I guess Isaac feels better too because he's refusing to take a nap right now, grr.