the lions den was established to keep people posted on major events happening in our life and to keep a family history, an online scrap book of sorts. we understand our shortcomings in keeping up with family and friends across the country, so this is our attempt to put the ball in your court.
the inspiration for the lions den came from our kids beniah and haneul, we want to be able to share their exciting developments with people who want to know. enjoy.
We had our social worker visit last week to write our one month home report to send back to the foster family. I got to write them a letter about how Haneul is transitioning and I printed off a number of pictures to send them. (I first saw the requirement was 6 pictures and thought that was a lot! Then I counted how many I actually printed...13!) It's been a whirlwind of a month getting settled into our new life as a family of four. It has truly flown by and I realized its been without posting any pictures! There are two reasons for this: one is I can't seem to leave those two alone for longer than exactly 2 minutes and secondly, I left my camera battery charger at my mom's house in Korea.
Haneul has transitioned well to life in the US, her new home, and her new family. Overall we are really shocked with how well she has done. It is completely her personality though, as she is very easy going and social. She loves to be in the action and still wants to do whatever Beniah is doing (which is usually where the 2 minute rule comes into play). She is eating constantly and loves fruit. I was a little concerned with her protein intake, but she has come to eat pretty much whatever we give her now. She is sleeping well both at naptime and bedtime and rarely wakes up at night. She is picking up more and more English everyday although I still talk to her in Korean a lot. This has helped a ton as she is easily frustrated if she doesn't get what she wants right away!
Some have asked if it feels weird to have her home. Dave and I both feel like she is just our daughter. It has been easy for her to transition into part of our family. We are very blessed to have her, as well as Beniah. Enough talk..here are some photos!
in the pool at cousin eric's 7th birthday party!
dance party!
Dave loves this expression on her
fun at the park! We've been to the park pretty much daily because this little girl has sooo much energy!
Beniah is bouncy her on a climbing chain
Papa and Janet visit to meet Haneul
a rare picture of both Dave and I with Haneul!
Sadly our camera lost battery at the park and I've been without a camera for almost 3 weeks! (It took a little bit to realize where it was left..)
We made the trip out to Willcox, Arizona on Saturday morning to visit Apple Annie's Orchard. We had quite a crew as we met Aunt Tyler, the Tucson cousins, Aunt Tyler's sister and boyfriend-Erica & Bryon, and brought Denise & Terrance with us. The kids had a ton of fun running around the orchard, picking apples, eating apples, and playing with each other.
first time really playing together
she liked dancing with corbin
the pre-picking huddle
reaching high for apples!
the future of family photos: me smiling and the kids not. *sigh* i'll get used to it..
denise & terrance
enjoying the apple she picked. these granny smiths were super tart-don't know why she kept eating it!!
erica with "the perfect apple"
beniah trying his hand
still can't believe this boy is 7~he's getting so big!
time to climb the tree!
they had too much fun! good naptime on the ride home
I was really impressed-we enjoyed delicious caramel corn popcorn, homemade fudge (in all kinds of varieties), and apple smoked burgers! There was even a tractor to ride, but we decided to let the kids use their legs. It was a great trip and think we might come back out to Willcox for our pumpkins this year!
Namsan Tower is a popular tourist attraction in Seoul. We didn't do many touristy things since this was Dave's third trip to Korea-instead we did more kid stuff..oh and we shopped a lot. :) But this was one that was on my list for a specific reason.
Dave was planning on editing this video..but he really won't have time for a couple months, so I hope you don't mind the non-edited version. :)
high fives all around
on the cable car: Dave, Haneul, and Halmoni
a view from the ride up on the cable car
our family lock
Psalm 121: the psalm Dave read to me when he proposed
8.24.12 the date Haneul joined our family
So I heard that this tradition first appeared on a Korean drama and since then couples have brought their locks here to "lock their love together forever." Its kinda cute..and when we came to Korea last time we visited Namsan, but I didn't know about the lock tradition till we got up there. I was a little disappointed that Dave and I didn't do one at the time, but now I'm happy that we were able to do it as a family.
a wall of locks-they're really cool to look at
my attempt at a sibling photo.... wah wah..
our lock on the wall, with Seoul in the background
family photo (notice both kids are not smiling. see they were happily running around chasing each other and we made them stop to capture the moment. what horrible parents we are ;) )
Daddy with his kiddos
annnnddd a fun side note. Meet Simon & Martina, a cute Canadian couple that used to teach English in Korea. Now they make videos and blog about life in Korea full time. One of their video segments is called Wonderful Adventure Now Korea or WANK (this is a perfect title as nonsense English can be found all over Korea) where they take an adventure and have challenges. For me its pretty comical to watch, but I do warn you its not 100% clean so no kids around...but they are cute and I like that they love each other and Korea so much. Anyway, for more info about Namsan, here is their WANK to Namsan.
Haneul is a very happy girl who loves to jump around and lives to play. So far she has taken an interest in Pororo, legos, cars, following her oppa, coloring, singing, and dancing. She shouts "ball" (in Korean) anytime she sees one and loves to throw them around (daddy is excited!). In fact, she was yelling at all the red stone circles at Target today and was quite upset that she could not play with them.
fun with daddy
We had to visit Pororo land before we left..both the kids had a blast and we basically had the place to ourselves because we got there pretty late. They ran crazy for almost two solid hours. My favorite part: a replica of Pororo's house that you could play in. The kid's favorite part: the ball pit...something we could find anywhere! lol..
