The Cousins Come & Visit

Right after the Fourth of July, the boys and I drove to my parents' for a fun-filled week with family. My cousins, Katy and Lindy, drove from St. Louis and Chicago with my Aunt Cindy and Lindy's girls. A few days later, my Great-Aunt Pepper flew in from St. Louis and lastly, Uncle Rick. We had so much fun together and it was great to watch the kids hitting it off, too.


Miss A, Walter and Henry hanging out

We spent one afternoon at Como Zoo going on rides and visiting the animals.

Henry warming up for the rides


Walter and Mimi mapping out the day


Miss A gets a turn on the jeep


Miss B riding the train


It was pretty sweet to see Miss A and Henry became friends. Here they teamed up to fight fires. He drove, she put out the fires (all while looking pretty fashionable, I might add!).





The car ride was a big hit.









Walter was the only one who gave this ride two thumbs up.


This is what my kids were waiting for - Cotton Candy! (I was looking for the mini donuts.)



Miss B looking so sweet in her pink sunglasses.

Next was the Sparky the Seal show.











We quickly lost steam after the seal show so we grabbed a quick lunch, visited some more animals, and then tried to get one photo of the kids together - it's not the best, but not bad after a day in the heat and humidity.


Saying goodbye...can't wait for the next get together!

At the Airport

Why all this remembering? I wanted yesterday's pictures to be posted on June 10th, when we celebrated Henry's third "family day," but I wasn't able to get it together. So I decided, it would be nice to have both Henry's and Walter's pictures ready by August 12, when we will celebrate our first year together as a family of four. I wonder if I'll always remember these moments so clearly that it feels like it just happened a few minutes ago...

June 10, 2008
After flying from Incheon to Narita to MSP, we finally landed. The first faces to greet us were our friends, Mary and Patrick, which helped melt the weariness. We went through customs and finally walked through the doors to see...


This is Henry's favorite part: I was wearing him on my back and everybody was wondering where he was. They were happy to see us...

(At this moment, Nate and I were thinking, "Did we just survive 15 hours on an airplane with an 11 month old baby?" You can't even tell that Henry initiated Nate into fatherhood by throwing up on him and his shirt a number of hours earlier - although we do look a little tired!)

But they clapped and cheered when I turned around so they could see this guy...


Greeting his cousins...

A few minutes later, I was strapping him into the car seat incorrectly! Rookie mistake.

August 12, 2010
We flew from Incheon to LAX to MSP. On the last leg, a very kind woman offered her seat to Nate so we could sit together when she found out this was our big trip home. The weather that night delayed us, and I could hardly wait any longer to see Henry again. Mary and Addie (once again, a big encouragement to see their faces) walked with us to the baggage claim, where there were some special people waiting to meet Walter.






It felt really good to walk through those doors.


Just a quiet moment with the four of us.


Henry and Walter getting acquainted.


Meeting his cousins and friends

I did the carseat correctly this time.

One Year Ago

One year ago, on August 9th, Nate and I met Walter and his omma for the first time! It seems like yesterday and at the same time, it seems like he's been with us forever. I'm so happy that the Lord brought MinHo to our family - His perfect timing is amazing. Walter is such a gift to us and I love being his mom.

While we waited in the meeting room, we could here him running down the hall and then suddenly, there he was!

He spent a little time watching us...


Little sweetheart


Sharing treats with Dad




I love this sweet picture of Walter and his Omma.

Remembering

A little over 3 years ago, this was our second glimpse (we first saw them outside while we were picking up breakfast)...it was overwhelming.


It was hard to believe that he was real and that I was actually in the same room with him. (Sorry, you'll have to use your mind to view this picture in vertical form - for whatever reason, blogspot will not post it the right way. Oh, well).



Check out those cheeks!


With Omma - we are so thankful for her!


And 3 years later...


Adoption is full of grief, sadness, loss and indescribable joy. I am really in awe that God allowed us to build our family in this way and grateful for the everyday blessings of being one of Henry's moms.

When I think of all that God has done to bring our family together, the song "We Will Remember," by Tommy Walker always comes to mind. It reminds me that He has done so much more...These are the words:

We will remember, we will remember
We will remember the works of Your hands
We will stop and give you praise
For great is Thy faithfulness

You’re our creator, our life sustainer
Deliverer, our comfort, our joy
Throughout the ages You’ve been our shelter
Our peace in the midst of the storm

With signs and wonders You’ve shown Your power
With precious blood You showed us Your grace
You’ve been our helper, our liberator
The giver of life with no end

When we walk through life’s darkest valleys
We will look back at all You have done
And we will shout, our God is good
And He is the faithful One

Hallelujah, hallelujah
To the one from whom all blessings flow
Hallelujah, hallelujah
To the one whose glory has been shown

I still remember the day You saved me
The day I heard You call out my name
You said You loved me and would never leave me
And I’ve never been the same

(inspired by Neh. 9:16, Ps. 77:11, 12)

4th Of July Weekend

We started the weekend of the fourth at the pool and a few hours later ended up without power in the basement. We were very grateful for the crank flashlight that doesn't have any batteries for Henry and Walter to remove - since that was the only flashlight we had that worked! Thankfully, we were safe and didn't have damage. We decided we had never seen so much traffic in our little town before - everybody must have hopped in their cars to see what the storm had done...there were a few light poles and lots of branches and huge trees down. Since I had just been grocery shopping, we packed up all the food we could and drove to the lake, where we would have power.

After spending most of Saturday trying to get a generator to work (thanks to our dads) and cleaning up the yard (Thanks Mom!), we went to meet our good friends at the Fourth of July parade in Prinsburg. It's always fun to get together with them, and the kids have fun together, too.


Josie, Walter and Henry excitedly waiting for the candy throwing to begin...I knew that expensive popcorn bucket from Disney World would come in handy!



The Crew






Henry enjoyed seeing all the tractors, thought the fire engine horn was really loud, and LOVED getting candy!


Scrambling for more tootsie rolls...

After the parade we drove back to the lake. The next morning the boys had fun fishing from the dock with their dad...and the dogs.



One of my favorite pictures


Henry's getting pretty good at casting.




This is so much fun!


What a catch

Later on that morning, grandma brought out the "Orca with water gun" floaties. These were a big hit and the boys had lots of fun squirting each other. You'll have to forgive me for adding way too many pictures, but I'm a mom.







Kenda managed to ignore most of the water battle while she swam along the shore and fished.











Believe it or not, more orca pictures exist...but lucky for you, they are on Grandma A's camera. They did some swimming and shooting with Grandma and Grandpa A later in the day. Walter even managed to call asleep while floating in the water. It's wonderful to have both of our families closeby so we can spend time with everybody.

Pepper Plants

Each spring, we plant a few tomato and pepper plants that Uncle Dave starts and gives to us. Two weeks ago, the pepper plants started blooming and last week, as we were hopping into the car, I noticed that there were actually little peppers on the plants! Henry and Walter were so excited and couldn't wait to get home so they could see for themselves. Henry reached the plants first and yelled, "Oh, come and see the little baby peppers. They are so cute!" Walter came running and when I reached them, they were trying to locate all the "baby peppers."

Henry looked up at me and proudly announced, "Ooohhh, we're going to be parents!"

Ring of Fire

As previously mentioned, Walter loves Johnny Cash. He went through a phase where he only wanted to listen to "Ring of Fire" when we were in the car...over and over and over. The good news is that he's now open to Waylon Jennings' "This Time" and the Highwaymen singing "Highwayman."


"And your future is brighter than ever!"

My parents gave Walter this musical card to open while Henry opened his birthday presents. It was a big hit (not so much with Nate) and lasted a few weeks before we couldn't understand Johnny at all.

When opened, Mr. Cash was singing, "I fell in to a burning ring of fire, I went down, down, down,..."