Goodbye to 2009

I always have mixed feelings at the end of a year. It is somewhat sad to say goodbye to it, and yet sometimes I'm ready to just start a new!  This time last year, we did not know our baby that God had marvelously hand picked for us from Korea. Now here she is home now for 8 months...yet it feels she has been with us the whole time. That is an amazing feeling to have. Tonight at bedtime I looked at her, and she was looking at me...I said "Happy New year my sweet baby Gracie" She giggled and smiled big at me..as if she knew what I said to her. I told her that 2010 is going to be a great new year and mommy is so happy you are home with us! I hugged her tight with tears in my eyes! Thank you Lord for blessing us with three great kids! They are the best!

May you all have a great new year...many blessings..and great health!!

Internet Traffic on our Site?

I have noticed a huge amount of activity or visitors on our blog these days. Something that is more surpriseing is when I see 5 or 6 different countries that visit our blog too. From Canada (very frequently), Indonesia, Germany, Phillipines, Sweden, Australia ...sorry if I mispelled any of them! I am curious who you all are and what brings you to read our "interesting or not so interesting life journey".  So please next time you drop in, leave us a comment and introduce yourself! We would like to know how you are!?

First time playin in the snow...

Grace has been looking out the window watching all the kids play in the snow, and so finally her Big brother and sissy took her out to play too. She was in heaven to be playing with them, and seemed to have a blast. She did not want to come inside again. They love her sooo much, and it just brings such joy to my heart to see them and how much love they show her every day. Talk about spoiled! :-)

Big Sissy teaching me to eat the snow!

Grace says brrrrrrrr!

Happy Monday Everyone!!

Sharing Christmas Pictures...

This was a very special moment as I gave Amanda her first ring!

Gracie Christmas Morning..

Out of all the gifts...Gracie decided to love the $7 puppy. :-)

Very White Christmas

Christmas day.

On Christmas we always have a candle light dinner and Terry reads the Christmas story.

I love this tradition and hope our kids continue to pass it on to their children some day.

The day after Christmas we got even more snow. ..and we were running out of mild and food with no way to get our of our drive way. So Terry and the two older kids took a couple sleds and headed on foot to the grocery store. It is about 6 blocks away. Then later this evening

Bailey headed out to make a snow fort...and our wonderful neighbor started blowing us out!

Good Neighbors are sooo nice to have! Here is our neighbor Brian snow blowing our drive way.

This year we can definetly say we had a very very white Christmas! Thank you Brian..Your the BEST!!

Merry Christmas to All!

Our First Christmas with Gracie

This Christmas is extra special for our whole family. It makes me remember last year at this time and when we were anticipating getting a referral call. It seems like we have had her forever, but yet at this time last year, we did not even know who our sweet baby was yet. Even though the call did not come before Christmas like we would have liked it to, we did get to see our baby for the first time on January 13th. So this year as we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ, we are reminded also of what good the Lord has brought to our family with the miracle of bring us our sweet baby girl that was born in Busan Korea. Isn't it amazing ....How the Lord knows all things, and has perfect timing! Thank you Lord for your son and all that he brought to this world!

Gracie

our Miracle from God..

She would just have loved if she could just sit on this box all night long!

Amanda and Gracie playing in a big box.

Amanda is so cute, she is always saying out of the blue..."I just love this baby of ours"! Our love for our baby is soooo amazing! It makes me want one more! :-)

Winter Frost

This morning we woke to a beautiful Winter Frost on everything. It was like God blew a magical kiss to us and everything landed perfectly onto the trees and everything surrounding us!

Finalization Day Today!!!!

On December 14,2009 At 11:30 a.m. Grace was finally declared legally ours forever!

In our hearts she has been ours since we first saw a photo of her, but now today it is legal in the court.

Those of you in the adoption world know that this is a familiar photo...signing paper work!

We have all done it a million times haven't we?

Many people thought that when we went to get Gracie that it was all finalized then. But with South Korea you must have your child for 6 months before you can finalize the adoption. Each country is a little bit different when it comes to this.

Chit chatting with the Judge. I acually taught his daughter in my dance classes.

Isn't she getting sooo big!!

Korean University Magazine Publishes our family...and more...

To top off the great night we had, we were surprised to see that Soobeum published our family in the Kyung Hee University Magazine called "The university Life". We are the little picture on the right side and article about our family and the exchange program here. My heart is very touched by him doing this. It is something special to our family and something we will always remember. As Gracie grows up I think she will also think it is pretty cool!

Soobeum and JK "trying" to play the piano together! These two are totally funny guys!!

Bailey being dorky and walking on big foam from the tv box...Grace thought he was a giant!

Really seriously all kids need are a box. With in about 5 minutes these two were cutting little windows and doors in this box...way cute..

In case your wondering why we are all wearing the same thing in the last three posts ..it is because it is all from the one same night. :-)

The exchange program for the students from South Korea are only for one semester, which you all know what that means, they will all be heading back home before Christmas. I just hate goodbyes, they will be hard to do. We have of course gotten to know them really well and they will always be special to our family! Till then we will cherish more fun times with them before they have to go back home. Im excited to be building a community of friends in Korea. When we go back we will have much family and friends to visit. Next semester more students will be coming so we will be excited to mee them as well, and see who God will bring into our lives!

Mrs. Claus came early this year...

"what could it be?"

My lucky hubby got his gift early this year! There was no place to hide this thing..

A 50 inch t.v.!!

And for those of you wondering...This steel of a deal happend at 4:30 a.m.!!! No where , no where would I have found this kind of a deal. Im so proud of myself, and so glad my son woke me up that morning!! This is Christmas and anniversary all in one! :-)

 

The girls just needed to play in the big box!! Oh what fun they had!

Christmas Popcorn balls...

Very fun night of eating Chili and making popcorn balls with family and some of our Korean Friends...tomarrow I will also post pics of the special surprise my hubby had...

For some it was a first time experience...it was soo funny!

45 popcorn balls coming soon...

Amanda enjoying the end of the batter..

Tonight Terry's Parents arrived from many many long miles away! We were so happy to see them. We also invited some of our Korean friends over too to eat chili and make popcorn balls with us. It was so fun to see them experience something like that for the first time. The college semester is almost over and our special friends will be heading home back to South Korea again. We have so many great memories with them and I know it will be sad to say goodbye. We had so much fun with everyone tonight. Thank you Lord for all the special people in our lives!