finalization!

The day is finally here. Our "adoption process" is over.

Its crazy to think back on all that we've been through in the past two and a half years while we were bringing Haneul home. Our family experienced significant life changes while "in process". There was joy, happiness, new memories, and new opportunities. But there was also immense pain, anxiety, exhaustion in waiting, and frustration. Through it all our saving grace was we could hear God's voice clearly. Looking back on it now, I can see His plan for our life unfolding perfectly.

As is said often in parenting, the days are long, but the years are short.

While seeing family in Korea we stopped at an adoption office and I gazed into the rows of little babies longing to be held.  I remember begging to start the adoption process soon after Beniah was born, but waited patiently until Dave felt the timing was right. From the homestudy to fingerprints to biometrics appointments, I waded through the paperwork that seemed to never end! Once we got her first set of pictures I memorized every detail of her face and felt a love grow inside of me I never had imagined. Beniah asked time and again when his sister was coming home and it broke my heart to tell him that I didn't know. I longed for our travel call for over a year, but knowing I had to wait on the Lord's timing kept me from going crazy.

Those days were definitely long, but she has been home for almost a full year it has flown by! After our trip to the lake this summer I think we've accomplished all our "firsts" with Haneul. Here's to building many more memories in the years to come!

We were blessed to have friends show up to witness the court hearing. Since it was held on Monday morning the timing did not allow for many people to come. We know you were with us in spirit!

Looking through Haneul's photo books

While waiting our turn Beniah created this masterpiece

Haneul looking through her photobooks. She pointed out her foster family and all of us.

We shared our finalization day with a couple that attended the U of A with us. How fun to see them and share in their celebration!

The courtroom

The hearing was simple-it went over the facts of our names, her name change, and that Haneul would from this day forward seen in the same light as our natural born child. It was to the point, but still brought nearly everyone in the room to tears to hear!

Our social worker attesting to ability to raise Haneul.

During the hearing our social worker asked Beniah if he'd like to tell the Judge anything. We had talked about "going to court" at dinner the night before and tried to explain in 4 year old terms what that meant. Beniah was prepared with a statement and told the Judge, "I want Haneul to be in my family forever and ever." He smiled and responded, "Thank you, I will definitely take that into consideration."

Our judge was fantastic and truly excited!

U of A IV Alum

 We followed the hearing with a lunch celebration and our cousins stopped by for some fun!

stuff people say to transracial families...really.

While we found ourselves chuckling at this video, we thankfully haven't experienced a lot of this..yet. In general, I am very comfortable answering our friend's questions about our adoption. Obviously, it is very different talking with people we know and trust versus a random bystander at the grocery store. I know this will morph as Haneul grows older and we will need reevaluate what we share. It is after all, her story. I found this blog post, written by one of the cast members of this video on asking questions, and wanted to share along with this video. Overall great lesson-focus on the family instead of the child.

dinosaurs!

My dad joined us to take the kids to "Discover the Dinosaurs" at the TCC. At first Haneul was afraid of them...but after awhile she realized they weren't going to attack her and she was content keeping her distance. Beniah however loved looking at all the different dinosaurs and enjoyed learning lots of facts! His big take away: dinosaurs with flat teeth eat plants and dinosaurs with sharp teeth eat meat!

Papa and the grandkids

I love his expression!

checking out some teeth

Digging for bones

"roar!" her best dinosaur impression

coming out of the maze together!

stuck

more mother teresas

adventures in arizona: tucson botanical gardens & butterfly magic

In February we took short morning trip to the Tucson Botanical Garden to check out Butterfly Magic. The botanical gardens has been on my list of things to do for awhile, so when our friend Becky asked if we'd like to join them I jumped at the chance. It was a very chilly day, but the butterflies had it made in their warm greenhouse made complete with ponds and beautiful tropical flowers.

It took the kids a while to find to butterflies as they flew about, but once they spotted them they had fun looking at them with magnifying glasses.

A volunteer points out a butterfly to the kids.

This butterfly landed on Becky and couldn't quite let go of her sweater! A volunteer had to come assist  it!

"Show me your magnifying glasses"

I think we'll take a trip back to the gardens during the spring. The butterfly magic part was fun, but the rest of the gardens was essentially all winterized. I imagine its very beautiful when everything is in bloom. April is the last month of Butterfly Magic so I'd head over to check out the beautiful butterflies!

Video Update: Roller Skating & Being Two

I took Beniah on a mommy date on Monday night. He wanted to go bowling, but we convinced him to try something new since he has been bowling a number of times. He has shown some interest in ice skating because we watched some hockey-based race on tv recently so I settled on roller skating (I can't ice skate). I used to go roller skating every week when I was in elementary school. Walking into that skating rink brought me back in time.

Showing off using his brake

Watching the fast skaters in the big rink

We laced up his skates, stood him up, and then I realized, skating is pretty hard! I was worried he would be disappointed and of course I always want my mommy dates to be fun (Dave got to take him to a monster truck rally..... but, of course, we are not keeping score) so I helped him onto his feet and we took our time. After about an hour gaining some confidence on the carpet, he wanted to try the beginner area. That floor is super slippery, but he kept at it and soon asked if he could go without me holding his hand. He was a trooper and kept trying and trying.

At the end of the video, he fell pretty hard and hit his face. Of course the only video I recorded he hurt himself at the end! But the important thing to note is, after taking a minute to recoop in my arms, he decided to go back-alone.

Haneul is definately two. She wants to do everything on her own and one of her favorite words is no. Exhibit A.

She walked off and asked Daddy for help. I guess he wasn't offering so she didn't have to say no. :)