In Korea

It's 5:30 am, a respectable time to get up.  Although a few hours short of normal.  But I have been in bed awake since 2:30 am listening to the loudly laughing men five stories below on the street.  I'm guessing the bar closed around 4 am since their voices were no more.  But the city traffic soon replaced them.  The hum of the air conditioning help drown out the outside noise, but then it caused the vertical blinds to tap tap tap against the glass windows.  This is what one notices when she gives in to her deep drowsiness and goes to bed at 6:30 pm and thus awakes at 2:30 am.

Today is our magical day of welcoming Jae-min into our family.  We have been praying like crazy for him and his foster family as they go through this time of loss and sadness.  We hope his grieving time is short and that we are able to sooth and comfort him.

Yesterday we went on a tour with a sweet twenty-something guide named Elli.  She took us to meander through a palace then to an area called Insadong to shop.  It was a great time.  We got ask her lots of questions about Korea and she helped us find the things on our shopping list.

For our first meal in Seoul back on Tuesday night, Paul and I walked around looking for a restaurant.  The one with the sign, "We speak English" won our won.  (ha, that was a joke.  won is the Korean currency.)  We ordered Bulgogi soup and hot noodle soup.  Before the bowls arrived, the server brought out five small side dishes: kim chi and namul, which are mostly veggies prepared Korean style.  I went for a tan olive and took a bite to find that it was a super small hard boiled egg.  So now we had to determine what kind of bird it came from.  We asked Elli the next day and she said, "You know the story in the Bible of Moses and he takes them out of Egypt and they're hungry and mad that they don't have food and God gives them this bird to eat?"  Quail.  They were quail eggs.

We're not sure how we're going to spend our time until our afternoon appointment at the adoption agency.  The World Cup park and stadium isn't too far and we could probably walk to a University.  For some reason I packed one less shirt than I need, so I should probably buy one.  But nothing is really of interest knowing that we finally get to meet and hold our new son today.

And tomorrow.  What will we do with a whole day tomorrow?  Perhaps we will connect with WooSeok and Inbum.

Thanks for praying for our family.  I'll post pictures probably when we get home, or sooner if we can figure out how to do it here.

It's Time

We are going to Korea tomorrow.

Every slice of paper that needs to be signed and notarized and approved is complete.

We meet Mr. Bingley (good name, yah?) on Thursday.

Are we keeping his name Jae-min?

Undecided.

Mr. Bingley is quite nice.

We'll just have to see.

Maybe he prefers Mr. Darcy.


At this point, I am exhausted.

We just spent two glorious weeks traveling the western coast with my extended family.

It was such a grand time.

Even the camping part.

The best part of the camping may have been when our social worker called at six one morning to tell us we could now go to Korea.

We spent the morning arranging our flights, then went about our camping festivities, including a sweet visit with my closest friend from jr/sr high school.

We got home this morning at 2am, Paul preached on 1 Corinthians 14, and I've been doing laundry all day.

The boys are off to Nana and Papa's for the week.

WE are off to twelve and a half hours of flying time.

Aha!

Jae-min's Birthday

Happy Birthday to Jae yesterday.

I feel like calling him Jae today.

The boys and I spent the day at the Children's Museum.  Jae would have had a great time.

Then we came home, had a fantastic birthday dinner of leftovers, I chatted with my brother David on the phone about our visit to their house next week (!), and then we went for a birthday swim at 8:30pm.  It's hot here.

Then all got into pjs while I iced Jae's chocolate chocolate cake (I just know, being his mom and all, that he would have requested chocolate).

 A little cake.

We've had a lot of desserts at our house lately

so I didn't want to have a lot of left over cake.

So I baked it in a square pan,

cut it in half and stacked it

to make a rectangular layer cake.

Paul let us use his birthday plate.

He's so sweet.

 Lighting the candle.

With a smile.

The VonTrapp Family Singers.

Our tour will be in a city near you.

Run and hide.

 Slicing the cake

as Jae looks on.

 Birthday cake at 10:30pm is delicious.

Favorite bug pajamas.

And, um, I'm not going to tell you what I had for

breakfast this morning.

But it was good with my tea.

And it met my emotional needs.

And it was Paul's idea when he asked me,

"What are you going to have for breakfast this morning?"

Jae-min

New pictures today!!

Look how big he is...

He's up to nineteen precious pounds and four tiny teeth.

Not walking yet, which is fabulous.

And so very stylish.

Oh, he's so big.

And my heart aches and my mind cannot focus.

Which is great for Peter because we haven't done formal schooling for weeks.

Can't.

My brain is elsewhere.

Like, in Seoul.

And Everybody Said

I did a search for:

"and everybody said amen,"

source of "and everybody said amen" quote, and

why do we say "and everybody said amen."



And what I found was:

a trout fishing blog,

a Yahoo forum discussing their favorite Captain Crunch cereals,

and lots of religious sites using the phrase.




Now that I've been thinking about it,

I notice it a lot more,

and it makes me REALLY want to know why
publicly praying people say it.

It's starting to grate on me a bit.


But, alas, I cannot find the answer.

I've asked my pastor and he doesn't know.

Maybe yours does.

Do tell when you find out.

Hanging Out With Jae-min

I am, um, hanging out with Jae-min today.

Because I miss him.

Pine for him.

 We went to the garden to pick some romaine lettuce.

Also brought in some herbs.

Oregano and thyme there.

Sweet basil and cinnamon basil on the top.

Oregano, rosemary, taragon, and thyme across the bottom.

We chopped them up and put them in my tea thingy

and added them to my pot of simmering beans.

The wafting aroma makes me want to walk around

with my mouth open and drink it in...

 

...like a whale gulping for nanoplankton in the ocean.

Then it was time to rotate the sunning laundry.

And here we are at the computer,

blogging.

Now, it seems, I must attend to my children

who are actually present.

Reuben was too tired to pick up the toys,

so I put him to bed to take a nap.

Now he's in bed whining and force-crying

that he's hungry.

Which need to I meet?

Which need is real?

A snack and then back to bed sounds right.

Peter.

Peter doesn't know what to do.

Oh, nevermind.

He found the driedel.

 I.

I have a headache that I'd like to treat with caffeine.

Only all my tea is decaf

because I avoid caffeine.

A snack and a nap for me too.

Convening Christians

Here we are at the North American Christian Convention.  I had never heard of it either.  Until I moved out here.

Peter is having a great time going to the kids' program.  He said it's like VBS without the crafts.  He sang songs in the car all the way to the hotel.

Rube surprised us by wanting to go to the kids' program too.  We had packed a Bag O Tricks to keep him occupied so he could quietly stay with Paul and I at the adult workshops.  But he got to ride bikes and play with beach balls and eat snacks.  A four-year-old dream land.

Paul and I have connected with ministry people from days of yore and walked away with two new mugs from our beloved HIU.  Go...  Oh gosh.  What was our mascot?  Nice mugs anyway.

Here's my question that maybe you know the answer to.  I'd really like to know, so I hope you know.

You know when someone is praying in front of a large group of people and he gets to the "Amen" part, but instead of just saying "Amen" he says, "And everybody said..." and the crowd is supposed to take the cue and respond together with a hearty "Amen."  Ever experience that?

Why do they say that, "And everybody said...?"  It's like he's referring to a past event when there was that one time when everyone said "Amen."

When did everyone say "Amen?"

I'd like to know.


No news on Jae-min.

Eight days until his first birthday.