Gung Hay Fat Choy

Look what we did today...

A friendly Korean church about an hour from us

invited Korean adoptive families to a Lunar New Year Celebration.

They made Bi Bim Bop

and it was so good!

Charlie preferred the oranges.

Reuben slurped three bowls of tofu soup.

Peter enjoyed the main dish.

Oops, too close.

The woman in the brown shirt back there...
She has been waiting to be matched with a Korean child for three years.
She and her husband started the process the same time we did for Charlie.
We feel so blessed to have Charlie home with us.

After lunch we began our instruction on how to properly bow to our ancestors.

Here's Reuben practicing his bowing.

I didn't do any bowing, but it felt awkward and

kind of wrong to be bowing down to anything other than God.

When we were in Korea to adopt Reuben we happened to be there for the Lunar New Year and we saw WooSeok's parents create a shrine/alter to their ancestors and bow to it/them.

It's a piece of their culture that I don't fully understand.

On to a Korean hacky sack competition.

These Koreans are very enthusiastic game-players,

including kids and adults in their sports.

I only hackied the sack two times.

Holder of the hacky sack.

Hold on.

I'm going to look up the Korean name for it...

Jaegi.

But, you should have seen Paul!

He pulled out his secret jaegi skills.

A Korean man said to me, "I bet he's a really good soccer player."

Ha.

Ha, ha, ha.

He might be.  He probably is.

Of course, he would actually have to play soccer in order to find out.

Paul was clearly the best nonKorean jaegi player.

And he was very handsome.

Fun day.

As for the Gung Hay Fat Choy title... when I taught first grade I was handed some curricula and asked to teach about Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year.  It said you're supposed to shout, "gung hay fat choy!" and it means "happy new year!"  Fast forward to that one time when we lived in China... when Lunar New Year came around I confidently called out a hearty gung hay fat choy to my Chinese friends and they had no idea what I was talking about.  Sorry to all those first graders I totally misguided.  I hope that was one of those lessons that nobody remembered.

Today's Family Portraits

Just some highlights from today.  More tomorrow - I have to get back to all the people here!

Sibling Pic 2013

(plus a sleeping Hallee and a future niece/nephew)

 Nicole, Tiffany, Carly, and I

on an early morning Target run

sans kids

so fun

 The Char and I

pregame

 The David and I

midgame

 The Craig and I

postgame



And the current situation

Cousin Time

Saturday afternoon...

David's family arrived first and while we waited for Carly and Craig's families, we played outside.

Peter's drawing Brody's outline in chalk.

 Charlie sharing with Hallee.

 Gigi and I and the vintage 49ers sweatshirt I found in my parents' guest room closet.  It's very red.

 David gets the box.

 Cute boys.

 Getting smashed by the bottom of Brody.

 Ah, Chase, Carly, and Cadence finally arrived!

 It started to get chilly so we went in for tea.

 And billiards.

Peter and Cade

 So fun to all be together. 

 On to s'mores

Gigi and Riley, both five years old. 

 Brody, Gigi, Riley, Charlie in the front

with Pete and Rube in back

and Cade and Granpa playing pool.

Sweet boy

 Poker lessons with Uncle Dave

And they're still playing as I type.

So Here We Are...

...in California.  And I'm just going to tell you that it's sunny and warm.  Warm.  Like, so warm Reuben wanted to know what winter was like in California.  "Um, Reuben, this is winter in California."  His cute reply:  "Then let's move to California."  That Reuben is a smart one.  So I informed him that people in California already know about Jesus and if they don't they can access the resources to learn about him.  Sorry Bud, but I hear Chicken is nice.

Let's move on to pictures.

This was a morning bike ride.

The jacket came off quickly.

The back of Granpa's truck is exciting and fun.

See all that sunshine?

My Dad was about to cut this box down to recycle

when it was rescued and redeemed as a toy.

They played with it for a long time.

Reuben's inside with a pillow and blanket.

We flew helicopters controlled by my Dad's iphone.

Maybe you can see the helicopter at about 11 o'clock from Reuben's head.

And maybe you can see my Dad's shoes?

They're kind of hard to spot.

The boys got to drink some of Granpa's Powereade.

Super exciting.

Rube seesawing with my Mom.

 Going up the parallel bars.

Charlie has organized these Jolly Ranchers about a zillion times.

I won't let him eat one so he consoles himself by lining them up and counting them.

Fun time, yes?

But wait for it.

More and better is to come in just a few hours now.

My sister's fam arrives first, then my brother's, and then my other brother's.

And we're all sleeping here for a couple days.

I've been on the brink of happy tears all day.

This is such a rare event.

So thankful to be here!



Here's What I Know

• Our temps have dipped below zero.  They're back up now.  Still freezing.  And I think I feel especially cold because we've been listening to The Long Winter, a Little House on the Prairie book, and they are having a terrible time.  Holy canoli.  They are freezing.  Every day.  And only eating bread and potatoes each day, but now they're out of wheat and they ate the last potato.  Meanwhile Almanzo and his brother are feasting on stacks of pancakes and syrup and some kind of pork meat item.  We are listening to this story in the car and we haven't gone anywhere for a few days and I'm aching to know if Almanzo made it back from his 40 mile trek to find wheat to save the town!
• Paul just found a Culver's gift card from this summer with a $11.63 balance.  If you're cold, you might as well eat ice cream.
• I emailed our local live theater and asked if they would like to have my wedding dress and veil.  And they said yes.  With exclamation points.  I changed my mind.  I'm going to keep it.
• As I was going through my sewing things tonight I got emotional and sentimental about a seam ripper.  It was my very first seam ripper and it was given to me by my Great Aunt Phyllis.  I didn't even know what a seam ripper was before she took me under her quilted wing.  It is an essential sewing tool.  Here's an example:

 It's like 3 inches long.  We're not storing much when we move, and we're bringing just a few suitcases with us when we go.  And yet I feel as if I should save the seam ripper.  Never mind the footstool Paul made me when we were long-distance dating, made from walnut harvested from his father's farm.  Stow the seam ripper.  That's when I knew it was time for a break from cleaning out the upstair's room.

• I'm going back to California.  Next week.  With three children and no husband.  Know why?  It's the 100th Day Extravaganza of the Successful Stem Cell Transplant.  It's the anti-funeral.  My Dad has recovered from the ordeal, has not a bit of leukemia in him, and we're going to celebrate.  All of us.  Except for Paul.  But everyone else.  My Brother.  And my other Brother.  And my Sister.  And their families.  And galleons of aunts, uncles, cousins, and relations.  (Not that they're pirates, but galleons just seemed the word to use.)  It's going to be fabulous.
• When I told Peter about this trip and I started listing all the family we'd be seeing, he got a super cute grin when I came to Cadence.  He said, "I've been waiting so long to see her."  Sweet boy.  I had no idea.
• And the 49ers are in the Super Bowl.  Isn't that wonderful?  Kind of neat for the city of San Francisco - first the Giants win the World Series, now the 49ers.  If only I cared for the Giants.  Which I don't.

• Well, I think that's all I know for now.  We're making peanut butter for math tomorrow.  Reuben squealed with delight when I told him.  Then he hugged me and said he loved me and 'thank you!!!'  I hope it's as exciting as he's planning it to be.