2015 Korean and adoption Christmas ornaments round-up

(Grrr Blogger....apologies for all the crazy font variety in this post. It wasn't intentional and I can't figure out how to fix it!!)

Another year flown by and I realize that I've been a totally lame blogger. I really miss writing. Miss sitting down and having time to think and reflect. It's good for me. Slows me down a bit.

So a quick update on our past year. We are JUST starting to feel settled after our big move to Portland last September. New jobs for both of us. Temporary housing in an apartment with all our belongings stored until we could find a house. Another move (moving twice in a year is NOT recommended). Another school change for the boys. Little Man turned 5 and started kindergarten this year. Little Brother turned 3. 

And me...I'm started to breathe again. Starting to think about how I can try and fit in a little more time for myself, but many days it seems that we are barely holding this ship together. People say life will get busier and crazier as the boys get older. Sheesh...I can't imagine.

Last year's holiday ornament post was popular, so I thought I'd try to do another. I think many of the links for last year's finds might be good still, so be sure to check them out.

As always, Etsy totally rules for finding Korean ornaments. I'm totally loving this satin/fabric ornament from OrnamentDesigns on Etsy. Made to order for $25. Seller says it's created with Hanbok fabric purchased on a trip to South Korea in 2014.

Craftmaker LifeStitchedTogether has these very cute (and inexpensive!) maps, though I'm not sure they would be done in time for the holidays. $13

And check out these simple but sweet outlines of South Korea from WDShoppe for $11.50.

One last find on Etsy worth thinking about---these cut wooden ornaments that feature South Korea from PalmettoEngraving. Laser cut from birch and can be custom engraved with names/dates. Super steal at $6.99!

Be sure to check out Amazon. A simple "korean ornament" search led to this porcelain ornament.

http://amzn.to/1lqd2pg

Also discovered on Amazon were these beautiful traditional norigae, typically worn to adorn hanboks, but I think they would look fantastic on the tree. These are not likely to be here in time for Christmas, but maybe next year? http://amzn.to/1XCWR48

Cafe Press and Zazzle both have quite a selection of custom printed ornaments. I have no idea of the quality but you can even create your own designs. Here's a selection from Cafe Press.

Mandy's Moon also has a great selection of ornaments and cards that reflect multicultural families, not just Korean adoption families. They have customizable options for skin tones on ornaments, cards, etc. 

At our house we really love creating our own decorations and keep them from year to year. This year we'll be doing a paper doll craft, based on this free pattern. http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/paper-dolls-world-asia-XII/

The dolls also might look cute tucked into a clear class Christmas ornament with strips of Korean Hanji paper and glitter. Or something like that.

Single motherhood in Korea, KUMFA holiday gift drive

Mission complete! We just filled Korean Unwed Mothers Families’ Association last requested donation for a single mother and her five-year-old daughter in Korea. I can't tell you how happy that makes me! This program advocates for the rights of unwed pregnant women and unwed mothers in Korea. It was started by single mothers themselves!

The majority of children placed for adoption from South Korea are from single mothers. Think back to the taboo of unwed childbirth back in the 1950s in the USA. There's that type of stigma (though I think it's much worse) that still exists in Korea today.

This is a complex topic to understand. It's so culturally ingrained in the society that it's really difficult for a woman to buck the system.




Eat Your Kimchi posted this great video about the topic. One stat they had that blew my mind. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2007, out of 100 pregnancies by a single woman, 96 of them will have an abortion (though it is illegal there), and only 4 will give birth.

Of those four, three children will be placed for adoption due to social discrimination and financial difficulties.

One in 100 single mothers actually are able to keep their children! So heartbreaking.

Single mothers are ostracized, keep their status secret or they can be fired from their jobs, are alienated from friends and family, and there is no source of public funding available to help them. Children of a single mother are also treated sub-standardly.

There are some uncomfortable stats and information in the video about adoption.  I can't deny these make me squirm a lot. I have to acknowledge that adoption agencies do have a part to play in the messed up culture of unwed motherhood in Korea. Of course don't condone a practice of coercion by adoption agencies in getting these women to place their children, but the alternatives (abortion, for one) is heartbreaking too. More on that in another deep, philosophical post.

Anyhow, be sure to watch the video for more insights on single motherhood in Korea. And also check out this excellent post about KUMFA and their programs to support single mothers.

And if you are interested in donating too, here's the links:

• To donate to KUMFA or Heater, a home for unwed mothers/children (international): Paypal kumfa.volunteer@gmail.com
• To donate to Ae Ran Won, a program that helps provide counseling, job training and financial assistance to unwed mothers/children: http://www.aeranwon.com/help-us.php 

For more about single mothers, read our previous post "Forever family and single mom's day in Korea".

Sources for Korean Christmas Ornaments

Our 2014 family ornament from HERE.

Christmas is right around the corner! I'm trying not to panic! I'm using too many exclamations!

We aren't big-fuss holiday folks. Maybe that's because it's been just the two of us for most of our 20+ Christmas celebrations together. But I LOVE decorating the tree. We have boxes of ornaments, most of which were given to us as children. We ooh and ahh as the memories come back. Those ornaments are like tiny time capsules. The special ones from Iran given to The Man by his Aunt Shirley. The salt dough gingerbread man from my childhood who has survived for 40 years. The yellowed and frayed angel that my sister and I used to fight over every year.

We hang those ornaments on our aluminum tree, and somehow, all the Christmas love of the past is magically brought to the present. It's one of my favorite traditions.

Since the boys came home, we've been giving them ornaments each year too. We have some really fantastic ones that represent their Korean heritage, as well as a reminder of things they are interested at this specific age. Throughout the year we keep our eyes open for things that can be used as ornaments, writing the boys names and dates on them.

This year's special ornament was ordered from Etsy seller Geraldandkellyhong. It's a beautiful porcelain design in a light green glaze. It reads "family" and commemorates Little Brother's homecoming this year.

Another adoptive mama (Hi Yvonne!) was recently searching out sources for Korean-themed ornaments. They are hard to come by! So I thought I'd do a round-up of all the different adoption/Korean Christmas ornaments that I've been able to dig up.

We haven't ordered from most of these retailers, so I cannot speak about quality. But if you try them out or have favorite retailers of your own, please comment!

I LOVE these tag ornaments from EthiopiaDad. They are made from laser-cut wood and priced reasonably. He's taking pre-orders so if you like them, you should hop to it! There are also Korea-specific ornaments, but I really love this one. There's ornaments for plenty of other countries too such as China, Africa, and Guatemala.  http://www.ethiopiadad.com/collections/405960-korea-ornaments

Bronner's Christmas Wonderland in Michigan carries this blown glass South Korean flag.
http://www.bronners.com/product/korean-flag-glass-ornament.do

Etsy has a great selection of hand-crafted decorations. Try a variety of searches such as 'hangul' or 'korea christmas', 'korean ornament', etc. I LOVE these porcelain ornaments made by seller geraldandkellyhong. This one says 'family'. https://www.etsy.com/listing/170789641/korean-family-ceramic-ornament?ref=related-0

There's a waiting list for this adorable nativity scene made from Etsy seller mysakuraprincess.
I'm guessing you won't have it for this holiday but maybe get your order in for next year? There are other selections such as the three wise men. https://www.etsy.com/listing/167812432/korean-nativity-set-hand-painted-6?utm_source=OpenGraph&utm_medium=ConnectedShop&utm_campaign=Share

Seller rusticcraftdesign has these wooden ornaments which say 'I love you' on the front and can be personalized with a name or date on the back. https://www.etsy.com/listing/120351718/korean-i-love-you-with-heart-rustic-wood?ref=sr_gallery_20&ga_search_query=korea+ornament&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

This little polyresin ornament features a girl in Hanbok. There is also a version with angel wings. http://www.afk.com/catalog/Detail.tpl?command=search&db=afkstore.db&eqSKUdata=ORN302W&cart=1415745177192566

This ornament features a girl in Hanbok, made out of resin. Sold at Mandy's Moon.
http://www.mandysmoon.com/store/korean-girl-christmas-ornament

These miniature Korean drums aren't necessarily Christmas tree ornaments, but they would look great on our tree! http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Korea-Drum-crafts-macrobian-drum-4-h-p01622/919551590.html

Adoptiongiftsonline.com has a few ornaments tucked into their selection. You have to dig through and they look like they are printed on ceramic by Zazzle. http://adoptiongiftsonline.com/korea-adoption-gifts/

Zazzle has a huge selection as well and they are fully customizable. They are printed metal but look to be a bit more ornate, depending on the design. http://www.zazzle.com.au/korean+ornaments

CafePress has a huge selection. They are flat aluminum ornaments with a printed design. http://www.cafepress.com/+korea+ornaments

Don't forget to check Amazon and Ebay! I found this hand-painted Korean fan dancer on Amazon! 

Korean Fan Dancer Hand-painted Glass Ball Ornament

And, one last thought. You can trim your tree with home-made ornaments! Here's a few ideas:

Knotting is a very popular artform in Korea. Here are instructions for a good luck knot. http://doitandhow.com/2013/06/21/good-luck-knot/

Or you could have the kids make a Sam Taeguk fan. This would also be pretty cute made out of salt dough clay! http://www.incultureparent.com/2011/04/korean-craft-make-a-traditional-sam-taeguk-fan/

These beautiful paper lotus lamps are typically used to celebrate Buddha's Birthday, but they would look fantastic on a tree! The center of the flower has a paper cup to hold the traditional candle, but you could cut a small hole and push a tree light through there for the same effect. http://www.incultureparent.com/2012/05/lotus-lanterns-for-wesak-buddha-day/

Asian and multicultural dolls for kids

Hi all.

Just a quick note. I recently learned about this great company called Pattycake Doll Company, that specializes in dolls that aren't...mainstream.

You know, boy dolls. Asian dolls. Multicultural dolls.

I haven't purchased from this company so I can't vouch for the quality. But I know that hunting down dolls of color can be a challenge.  In our house we only have one doll set, the Plan Toy Doll House Asian Family. I think it's important to have dolls that reflect a variety of faces and cultures, but our boys tend to prefer animals at this point.

Here's the link to Pattycake's Asian dolls page: http://www.pattycakedoll.com/asian_dolls

Have you ordered from Pattycake before?

Helping children learn Korean

We are plugging along on our Korean language here. I'm in my second semester of Korean at the local university. It was really easy to learn to read. And from there, super easy to memorize lots of words (animals, colors, things, etc.). But after that, putting together sentences....not so easy!

Little Man, however, is soaking up things at the rate of a dry sponge in a pool. I can't believe how fast he memorizes words. He's constantly asking me how to say things in Korean and keeping me on my toes!

Our recent Korea trip reaffirmed my belief that it's really important to help our children learn to speak Korean. Little Man's foster family was overjoyed that he was learning Korean, and people were delighted when he said please, thank you or good-bye in his native tongue. He has many more words than that, but he's a bit shy about talking to strangers.

I found this great blog where another family is working bringing more language into their home as well, and she had a great idea of using Korean words in familiar texts. Eric Carle books are among Little Man's favorites and this blogger has replaced words he knows with the Korean translations. Awesome!

Be sure to check it out and download the free .pdf to get started on your books!

http://keeperofthepark.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/korean-school-resources/

Our Korean Adventure: Traveling in Korea, adoption and other random tidbits

The fourth and final installment catching you up on our first trip to Korea. Figured I'd better get all this in before we our off for our second trip.

We had some awesome experiences that brought Korea nearer and dearer to our hearts. Our Korean school teacher here in Wisconsin had arranged for a dinner for us. SJ is from Seoul and she said a friend of hers would like to make dinner for us. It was sort of awkward for us because we weren't really sure we wanted to commit to spending time with complete strangers. But she really wanted to do this for us, and so we agreed.

Mr. Kang's restaurant was really lovely. It specialized in fusion Japanese-Korean cuisine, mainly seafood. The seating and style is very traditional Korean with floor seating and ondol heating. He was waiting outside when we arrived by taxi and it was only about 5 minutes from our hotel. He gave us a very nice tour, but his English is very rough. We mostly communicated with one or two words and a lot of smiles. The restaurant was closed and he opened it up just for us!

Then SJ's two sisters arrived to join us for the meal, and they had their teen daughters with them. Little Man was starting to feel some of the travel strain so he was a bit of a handful but really, the dinner was one of the highlights of our trip!

The meal was about 5 courses (the food just kept coming!) and because we are vegetarian, he had two different meals---one for our family and food for the other families. One of the sisters spoke pretty good English, and our Korean teacher SJ was translating from Milwaukee via text.

One thing we kept coming back to again and again is the extreme kindness of Koreans. I know we might be biased, but it's just so amazing to us how generous and kind they are. One example is in the subway---it's an amazing system and really easy to use, but our first time back to the subway we were studying the map and trying to remember how to get around. A man saw we looked confused as we were buying our trip ticket. He asked if he could help and consulted the map with us to figure out where we needed to go. He watched as we bought our tickets and then waved us to follow him through the gates and onto the subway. We thought, how nice, he's going the same direction we are.

When we arrived at our stop (about 3 stops down) he popped up and waved at us to follow him out. I thought, wow, he was going the same direction we were! We followed him out of the turnstiles, he watched as we returned our subway card for a refund, and then he pointed to our exit. He waved good-bye and turned back to buy a new subway ticket before running back to the loading ramp. He went so far out of his way for strangers!!

This happened again and again. When we might look lost or in need of help, someone came and offered it. We were so grateful.

Finally, one of the best parts of this trip was meeting other adoptive families. There's something really powerful about being on a similar track together and it builds and instant camaraderie. One of the greatest joys for us was connecting with a family from California. Mama T. reached out to us via our blog and so happy she did! Our families have so much in common! The California family was also returning to Korea for their second child and their first child is Little Man's age. Through the weeks of preparing for travel we were tearing up the email lines, comparing lists of things we were bringing, what we were wearing and trying to figure out logistics like phone and internet service.

Meeting them in person was wonderful and the boys got on well. Little Man was bossy and emotional but their California-cool even-keeled boy took it all in stride. Watching the boys play helped me relax a bit and gave Little Man something to look forward to. It was a great friendship condensed into a few days and I have a good feeling that we'll be in touch for a long time to come.

One particularly great memory will be after the stress of our court date. Following court, we joined the California family to celebrate (and make good on a bribe for the boys to be good in court) with ice cream. As we headed to ice cream shop, we ran into another family we met in court (NY family), so they joined us too. We had the shop to ourselves for quite a while and the boys ran wild. We huddled in a corner and talked openly and candidly about our adoptions, thoughts, hopes and fears. (The NY family has since been united with their son and doing great! Yay!!) I just love how we can come from all corners of the country, all different backgrounds and experiences, and yet, hanging out with them was so easy and natural.

We also met the families of two women I have met through my Facebook support group who were traveling at the same time! In that group, we cheer for one another at each tiny step of the way. When the three of us found out that we'd be traveling at the same time, we were able to compare information, figure out hotels, and figure out the logistics of our trip together. What a help! One super sweet family even met us at the bus stop to guide us to our hotel and help carry luggage. Incredibly awesome! And, since we'll all be bringing kids home at the same time, I know that we'll be able to continue to support one another as we work through the transitions together.

The crazy ups and downs of adoption: we have a visa appointment in Korea!

Oh my gosh. There really aren't enough words to tell you how different this adoption process is from the first! The only words I can use to really describe it is ROLLER COASTER.

This whole adoption has been filled with long waits, breathless anticipation, feeling like you aren't making progress at all, only to be catapulted forward and have things move so quickly you can hardly catch your breath.

On Wednesday, our social worker emailed (?!) and told us the good news was that we had received preliminary approval from the courts in Korea on 2/7/14 and had officially entered the 14-day waiting period. Yay!

She then followed it with the bad news---the courts had closed and were not processing final adoption decrees or hearing any new cases. The closure was for an unspecified amount of time but we were now on hold, likely not traveling until the middle or end of March.

We were sick. We have spent the past two months living with the unsettling feeling that "any minute now" we'd find out about something--first waiting for our court appearance and now waiting for our return. It's been hard to settle and relax when all we could think about was when are we going?  And now, when it seemed that we'd be heading out the door any day, we find out that we still had weeks to wait.

My parents had already begun the 5-day drive to reach Wisconsin. Based on estimates, we figured that our case would be closing on February 24. Of course, no guarantees, but because most families are only given 2-4 days notice before having to return to Korea, we opted to play it safe and have them here. The new timeline meant that they'd be hanging out in Milwaukee, able to enjoy all it's Polar Vortex gloriousness. I called my folks and told them not to hurry.

I cried that night. Felt the lowest I've been throughout this whole 18-month process. I moped around and then slowly started trying to find the bright side of things. We'd have more time to prepare. Maybe Mom and I could sew some curtains for the boys room. I started making lists to help keep me busy for the next few weeks.

And then, we received a huge reminder just how crazy this whole process is. On Thursday, The Man started calling and texting me. CALL ME!! Less than 24-hours after we were told we weren't traveling,  we received another email (really, isn't there a better way to notify us than email?!) telling us that we had a visa appointment in Korea and we needed to be there next week.

WHAT?!! Seriously??

Of course, the social worker didn't tell us exactly when our visa appointment date was or when we had to be there and we frantically tried calling her. After 30-minutes of busy signals, someone finally answered and told us that our social worker had sent the same email to 7 families and we were all calling. Duh. Not like we've been waiting months on end for this or anything.

I reached out to other families who had court dates the same date as us. Two of them had received the same info on Wednesday, followed by the same shocking announcement on Thursday! One family has a March 6 visa appointment, and the other has a March 10 appointment.

About 4 hours after the email, we had answers. As of February 26, we were officially Little Brother's parents! In addition, we have a March 11 visa appointment and so, need to be in Korea next week. We had a little more notice than some of the families, which is greatly appreciated. But it's definitely not the 2-week notice that our social worker had told us that "every one of their families had been getting". (Thank goodness again, for our networking group. I knew that most families have only received 2-4 days notice, so was fairly sure our social worker was mistaken.)

What was really awesome is that my folks pulled into town just hours after we got all the great news! So....it worked out just great. Thank heavens! We've had a wonderful few days together. Time to wrap up work. Time to take care of details that will make life after we return a little easier. And possibly, a little time to breathe!

We head to Chicago on Wednesday. Fly to Seoul on Thursday morning. Arrive on Friday night. A few days to recover and we'll take custody of him either Monday or Tuesday. And Tuesday afternoon, a visa hearing.

Can't wait to start the next phase of our life. And so very happy to be getting off this roller coaster! We are coming, Little Brother!!

Care Package #2! Sending love to Little Brother in Korea

You know, one of the most unexpected riches about being an adoptive family is the many wonderful people we have met! I met my friend Jane through a Facebook support group for mom's who are adopting from Korea. Jane and I got on very well right away, and she brought her son home just before we brought Little Man home.

When we went to Korea to bring Little Man home, we carried a package to the agency from Jane. It was filled with photos and thank-yous to the foster family that cared for her son.

It was super awesome when we found out one another we adopting again. Jane and I are both at the upper end of the age-range, and we joke about being the "old ladies" in the group. We have commiserated, cried and griped to one another during this very long process. Because of our ages, we had to begin our adoptions at a time of extreme change in the Korean program. Which meant a lot of ups and downs and a process rife with angst.

Jane was matched with a girl last March! I remember crying as I read her text and feeling so overwhelmingly happy for her. So can you imagine how happy we are that Jane is in Korea RIGHT NOW MEETING HER DAUGHTER!? So very thrilled for them all!

And...in a nice turn of events...Jane is carrying a package to the agency for us! We were able to send Little Brother another package, this time with a few things for Christmas. It helps to keep feeling hopeful, to keep our spirits up as we shop for things for the package and prepare special things to let him know more about us.

So, here's what we sent! (top, going clockwise)

Until We Hug Again bear by Hallmark:
We debated on this because we sent another tiny stuffed animal in care package #1. But this one has 30-second recording and is oh-so-soft. We thought he'd be more likely to play with this and hear our voices than with a recordable book. The 30-second recording feature gives you plenty of time to say sweet things. Little Man offered up "I love you baby" and Anyonghasseo (hello) all on his own!

Melissa and Doug Peek-a-Boo Barn:
This tiny sized toy was perfect. Babies can open the barn doors to see animals inside.

Snowflake Photo Ornament:
Thanks to my super good friend Carol who knew I was going nuts trying to find a Christmas ornament with a photo slot. She picked it up at Target and had hubby deliver it to our house! (You are the best!) This ornament is for the foster family.

Baby toothbrush/teether:
We sent a teether in the last care package, but had this cool one with a toothbrush on it too. Never too early to start!

Robot T-Shirt:
The boys' first matching t-shirts! We found this at Crazy-8 and bought one for Little Man and Little Brother.

Family book:
We made a little family book. The photo book we sent in our first care package had limited slots. In this one, we have more photos of us, but it's mainly filled with pictures of grandparents (who will be here caring for Little Man when we come home with Little Brother, and The Man's mother will probably be out later too) and photos of the rooms in our house. We wanted things to look familiar to him. The photos are labeled in Korean (yay for all the things I learned in Korean class!!) and are laminated to handle baby drool.

Engraved Heart Ornament:
What to send a family (strangers) who are caring for your baby?! Since we don't have any idea what type of family they are, but we did know they are Christian (this was referenced in our referral) we decided to send an engraved ornament. We wrote something in English, and then signed Little Brother's Korean name. Hopefully they have a tree, but it's really beautiful so it could work hanging anywhere, throughout the year.

Thumb drive:
As with our first package, we sent another thumb drive with videos of us, our home, and when we sang Happy Birthday to Little Brother.

Sooo...doubly excited that Little Brother will be receiving this, and so very hopeful that we'll be in Korea soon. Just like Jane. About to embark on the next phase of our lives!

Care Package!

This here internet thing is truly wonderful! I belong to a few groups of mamas who are waiting to bring children home from Korea. Another adoptive mama that I met on Facebook announced she was finally heading to Korea to bring her daughter home (yay!!). I quickly asked if she'd carry a care package for us and she agreed!

The MPS (Mama Postal Service) comes to the rescue once again. Some agencies allow waiting families to ship packages to Korea, but ours does not. They also do not carry packages, so the only way for us to get something to Dongsaeng is to send it with another traveling family.

We needed to get things together quickly and be thoughtful about what we were going to include. Because someone else is carrying this in their luggage and then has to lug it over to the agency in Korea, it needs to be small and compact. Somehow the gallon ziplock bag rule came to be a MPS standard  (I think it was a requirement from another agency).

But our main goal was to send him some things that would help him get to know us, let him know we love him, and that will help him make the transition. You know...pretty much stuff the world into that tiny plastic bag.

After much laboring and debating and shopping, here's what we decided to send:

(Bottom left, clockwise)

• B. Hellophone: My good friend M. gave Little Man one of these phones shortly after he came home and he loved it! It has plenty of buttons to press and you can record a short message. LM decided to say Annyonghasayo (hello in Korean) to his new brother!
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar Soft Book: One of LM's favorite bedtime reads in a soft, chewable edition.
• A very special flannel blanket made with love by Grandma!
• A new outfit from Gymboree. Couldn't resist the cheesy Little Brother onesie!
• Sophie The Giraffe Teething Ring: Little Brother is cutting teeth, so this tiny-sized Sophie was just right.
• Knuffle Bunny: A tiny plushie From the Elephant and Piggie book series.
• Sassy Look Book: A photo album. Personally, I think this tiny look book is a bit on the small side, but space was getting tight! It has 8 pages so there are photos of us and our home here for Little Brother to look at. We'll be sending more photos of us in our next care package.
• Disposable Cameras: Of course I had to send something to take photos, but really, most Koreans are way ahead of Americans in terms of technology so this is sort of like sending a stone tablet to write on. However, it's an easy way to send the message that we cherish and value photos. We did the same with LM and his foster mother used the disposables, but she also shot a ton of photos with her great camera and had them printed and put into a giant photo album. Hope Little Brother is as lucky!
• Thumb drive: We included a thumb drive (see the tiny white thing?) that has videos of us on it. We were hoping that they will have a way to play this for Little Brother so he'll be able to get to know us a bit better.
• Foster family gifts: Oh yeah, and when that ziplock was filled to the gills, I also included a package of Starbucks VIA and two giant gourmet chocolate bars. And a thank-you letter (which we had translated) thanking them for caring for our son, and introducing our family.

I couldn't help smiling as I packed that special package. Thank goodness I got my super packing skills from my Mom! Every square inch of that bag was stuffed.

And while I packed it, I started to get very excited. Dongsaeng would be holding something we had actually picked for him! Our journey to him has been filled with stops and starts and anxious worries. He just seems so far away and I haven't really felt connected to him yet.

Shopping together for the care package and talking about what Little Brother would like made me feel like this is actually going to happen!! It started to seem tangible and real. And finally, there is finally a connection between us than just paperwork. I just feel so happy thinking about him snuggling with his new blankie, or hearing Little Man's voice on the telephone.

Little Man gave the bag one last hug before we shipped it out to the traveling mom, and on Oct. 10, she hand delivered our package to SWS in Korea! 

Hooray for the MPS!!

And in the Something To Look Forward To category...another good friend who is waiting to bring her daughter home from Korea will be traveling soon. Starting to gear up for care package #2! Any ideas???