Kaitlyn's silliness

My, my, my- how time does fly!

Living in Louisiana you would begin to think I am used to the rain, but I am NOT. Today was cloudy until after lunch, then the rain, lightening, and LOTS of LOUD thunder. Kaitlyn wanted to sit outside in the rain to watch the lightening, but there was no place to sit and stay even remotely dry, so she had to sit inside and watch thru the windows. The dog was another story! Poor old Prince-he ran around the house trying to jump into a bed (any bed but his of course! lol) or jump into our arms/laps, etc.

We are trying to gather items to pack for a trip to Korea-only Kaitlyn and I will be going this trip-in hopes of either completing an adoption that was begun 3 years ago, or to help find Jin Ha a family in Korea...please keep this in your prayers. In the meantime, Kaitlyn is busy memorizing the days of the week and the months so she can figure out when we will be leaving; she can sing the months (a song she learned from "Pooh Bear") but cannot recite them unless she sings. She can also sing the days of the week, but don't distract her and ask which day comes after Tuesday or before Wednesday...lol. She knows PWOC is on Tuesday and Ballet on Wednesday and Church on Sunday, so she gages every other day according to her "known schedule".

We managed to strip all the beds today, only to have Kaitlyn walking around the house and explaining to Prince why he could not climb up onto the "squishies" (fake feather bed toppers) and why "the sheets need to be changed honey". Sometimes she talks to the dog as if she, Kaitlyn, is 80 years old-guess it is a "southern" thing :-)

Miss Katie climbed up into my lap a few nights ago-only to snuggle. She is very affectionate, but lately says she is too old to snuggle, so this surprised me. During her snuggles, she mentioned the "little sister God told her we were going to get"-she insists she and God talk, after all she is a former angel! She has said multiple times that "God told me I was getting a little sister". She has tried this on daddy, only to have his respond with "well, I want a boy, so no sister for you!" Smart little booger pipes up with "Well, God told me a little sister and you want a boy, so guess we are getting TWO little babies!!! You didn't know that did you!?!" Just too funny. Anyway, while snuggling she suddenly decided she could not have a sibling, either older or younger. With aligator tears streaming down her face she commented "mama, I don't want you to stop hugging me, so I told God not to give us any babies or any other children". I could not believe this nor can I figure out where it comes from; she says she does not remember being in the Orphanage, and yet this is exactly what used to happen- if a "cuter", or younger child came in- the others were shoved to the side and no longer were the "cuddle bunnies".

She may claim to not remember, but she was 2 years old and we continued to visit the orphanage for 2 more years post placement- so if nothing else she continued to see this happening and often asks about children from the Orphanage. There was one little boy, 10 days older than Katie that the orphanage "Ommas" called her "yobo" or boyfriend- they were also known as "virtual twins". We wanted to adopt Joon also, but he was deemed "unadoptable" until recently, when a friend of mine was able to begin the long, drawn out process to adopt him! We are praying this legal fight with Eastern Adoption agency ends soon and they send the paperwork to the Family Courts (the paperwork was ready nearly a year ago, but Eastern keeps dragging their feet).

Well, I guess I will end here- just a note as to the Green color-Kaitlyn says "the rain brings green grass mama" so here is to green grass! I will leave you with a few pictures of what I found when I went to get her out of the tub...Well looks as if the pictures decided to add at the beginning, so I leave you with: prayers for sweet dreams, a desire to learn more about the Awesome God that blessed me with such a sweet little girl-knowing I did not deserve it-Thank You God for loving me SO much!

Joun Pome day say yo- good nite...

Singing His Praises!

Today we are singing the praises of our wonderful Lord~Kaitlyn's passport has arrived! Under "Nationality" it states"United States of America!! We have been working to see this for nearly 3 years and have been told on more than one occasion that there was a large possibility it would not happen, but as we know- God is Bigger!
Needless to say, Daddy and I cried a few tears. Kaitlyn says "mama, it makes my heart hurt to see you cry". I had to explain that they were tears of happiness and of course she wanted to know if they were "like the tears you cried when God and Jesus said you could be my mama?!" I had to admit, not quite the same-but these were pretty close! ;-)
To celebrate, we went out to eat-not many choices around here, but it was Katie's call-so we ended up at Pizza Hut. We could have gone to the rinky-dink PH here in town (about 6 miles away), but the food is nasty and Katie cannot stop talking about the lady with the rotten teeth that were worn down to nubs- felt bad when Katie asked her "what happened to your teeth, you didn't brush them before going to bed?" lol Anyway, we drove 20 miles to the next town and ate at PH/WingStop...actually was pretty tastey! Before going to Korea I hated PH, but in Korea Peejah Haut-lol- is awesome and we learned to like it. Well, we had some great pizza tonight that was not greasy, some good hot wings and salad. We ran the poor waitress ragged I think- and she is due to have a baby next month! Kaitlyn ate more food than she weighs I think~having consumed 6 wings (large ones), a large scoop of pineapple chunks, 2 thick slices of "Larry" (cukes-Larry is the name on Veggie Tales), 4 large cherry tomatoes, and 2 rather large slices of pizza with cheese stuffed crust; it is no wonder she says "I think I ate too much and will squish food out my nose!" lol
We stopped at Wal Mart and bought 8 sets of the kiddy valentine's day necklace and bracelet sets for only 50 cents each! These will be shipped to some of the little girls at Kaitlyn's orphanage-she is excited to share a few items with them. We also found a few Premie outfits on sale for a definite "bargain" price to send ot my niece Tina for her newest additions-Caedyn (boy at 4lb 9oz) and cyla (girl, 3lb 6 oz) who are doing really well for having been born about 7 weeks too early!
The rain and thunderstorms we were to have today have held off until only a few moments ago- so we had many things to be thankful for today. Kaitlyn said her "Thank Yous" during her night time prayers and here are a few of the things she mentioned: "My US cizens, my family, for playing in my room and watching "Word World", for my dog that barks too much, and for you kept me in your heart and loved me so much-God you bless me too much and love me so much and I say Thank YOU!" I think I will have to agree with her- He loves me too much, but I am going to accept it and Thank Him!!!
Hope everyone else sleeps as well as we will tonight- there is something to say about the Peace one feels knowing their children are now protected by the US Consitution and a citizen of one of the greatest if not THE greatest Nation in the World-for all the problems our Country has- it is still BLESSED!
Hugs and good nite~

a very Pink day

Whew! What a day!

We started out with an appointment for Kaitlyn to have a physical as the one from Oct 07 has "myteriously fallen out of the computer system". Hmmm, and we are to trust this computer system that is DoDDs wide??!! OOOOOK~!

Well, Kaitlyn was NONE to happy to overhear one of the nurses and I discussing "immunizations" and she immediately piped up with "Mama, I AM NOT going to get shots! am I???"" Well due to some up coming plans, I let her get off without the immunizations- felt kinda bad as she tried SOOO hard to not let the alligator tears overflow her little eyes, but overflow they did and left huge wet spots on her red sweater...then we walked into the Dr.'s office and she screamed..."Mama, a BONEY is in here!" There, against the far wall was a life-size skeleton..."Mr Boney". I laughed, the doctor looked at me like I had 4 heads and wondered if he should call CPS...I had to explain that when she first came home we placed a small skeleton in her brother's bed when he came in drunk on SOJU one nite...he woke up screaming, thinking he was sleeping in the subway with a dead man...we laughed until we peed our pants but for some reason Jeongah is afraid of "Mr Boney" now.

We spent 20 minutes, yes, 20 minutes, explaining that it was not REAL bones, and that it showed where all of our bones are - so it was a GOOD "Mr. Boney"...she was NOT buying it...she said he had ugly bones and as she was an angel from Heaven, her bones HAD to look better, so she still did not like him.

Iam happy to announce that our "little" Kaitlyn is now 42 inches (she was 24 at age 2) and 38.6lbs (18 at age 2). Ok, so she has been bouncing between 36 and 38 lbs for nearly a year- but she is cute as can be and the Doctor was pleased with her weight- she is still in the 50th percentile, compared to the "does not show on the graph" when placed with us at age 2...

Many of you have noted that I use a color to show what we are celebrating that day....yes, PINK has a symbol for today! Kaitlyn had her first Ballet/Tap dance class today and thinks she is going to dance like the angels and float like a "Nabi" (Korean for butterfly)...Daddy and I were SO proud of her. I happened to be dropping off her Physical at the day care registation office when I heard they had a Ballet class open up-of course they were supposed to have called several of us, but-we got in today after missing only one class last week. Lucky for us Wal Mart carries Ballet apparel! Kaitlyn HAD to have Pink with black slippers. We already had a pair of "footless tights" that she loved, and in pink, so we added the "velveteen" leotard, a mandatory pink skirt (only mandatory as Kaitlyn says "ballerinas can't dance unless they have a skirt mom! I know this already") and the "oooooh so comfy" black ballet slippers.

We arrived at the children's gym for class and the ballet instructor asks 2 of us (parents of new students) "Do you have Tap shoes"

"Uh, no. We were told Ballet and we jumped to get them for class today, why do we need Tap Shoes for Ballet?"

"Oh, we do a 50/50 here"

"ok, but where are we to get Tap Shoes in this town of "no shopping"?

"You order them from me, I get them at a discount for ordering in bulk"

"OK, if we have to get them from you, and we are new to the class, why ask if we have Tap Shoes?"

"Well, do you".

"Did I order then already?"

"NNNNNO"

"Oh, I guess we don't have any then" (by the way..."Heeere's your sign...")

"Do you want a pair"

"Don't we need them?"

"yes"

"I guess we want a pair then" (and I am trusting my daughter with this woman, to teach her Ballet, with the door shut where I cannot watch??!! Does this blonde stuff "rub off"!!??)

"Miss Katie" had tons of fun, has been practicing her "butterfly run" all over the house and is happy as can be that she will "learn to dance like the angels"

Yes, today was a very PINK day!

Bubbles, Korean church, and Piano lessons

These first pictures show how the weather has been these last few days- warm enough to wear t-shirts and capris while blowing bubbles, some days ya just gotta appreciate what Louisiana has to offer! We have not had rain for about a week now- and as tomorrow is PWOC (protestant women of the chapel), a weekday get-together for women where we have fun, do a little bit of Bible study, and the kids get to spend time doing "kid things" (per little Miss Katie!) while the Mama's play- it will probably rain-lol. Seems like it rains every Tuesday around here.
Yesterday we finally attended a very small local Korean church- supposed to be "Full Gospel" which I thought meant a little on the contemporary side, but it was far from contempary, and very much on the "small" side. Including Kaitlyn and I, the American associate pastor and his family (wife and 2 children) there were about 15 people in attendance- with the youngest being Kaitlyn. There was no special service for her, so she had to sit with the adults-she kept the two elderly Korean "Halmonies" behind us entertained-they kept reaching up to stroke her hair and pat her head. I kept her mouth full of candy so she would not talk so loud, and she had fun standing up to "read" the hymnal and look over the Ajumma's shoulder in front of us. The music was "dry" and the associate pastor must be used to teaching foreign children- but all in all we survived. Near the end of the service I noticed a few more attendees- about 15, come in and have a seat; I soon found out why! A Korean lunch is served immediately following the service. Kaitlyn was in heaven and soon forgot she was the youngest at the table as she began "chowing down" (her words, not mine! lol- but she did!!) on a totally awesome soup of Kimchi-daenjong Chigae, some fresh make kimchi (yes! no MSG), some fresh sauteed spinach, and authentic (it is made by Koreans it must be authentic!) Galbi. This little one ate more than the grown man sitting next to and in front of her! While I was washing her kimchi (rinsing in water to remove some of the "gochu" or red pepper to remove some of the spiciness) in an attempt to keep up with how fast she can stuff it in her mouth- either she dropped a piece of kimch or I did. All I know is we all heard a pitiful "OH MAMA! I dropped a piece of kimchi!" Jokingly I stated, "Kaitlyn, we must not waste kimchi" (it is very expensive here in the wonderful state of Louisiana so we have pretty much "rationed it" since moving here)- next thing we know the pastor's wife is standing over us with a container of kimchi and a HUGE plate of kimchi- "would you like some kimchi to eat, and would you like to take some home?". Kaitlyn was all too quick to chime "Mama, can we PLEEEEEASE take some home?!" How can I refuse perfectly wonderful, healthy kimchi??? (remember, NO MSG). We ended coming home with about 12 dollars worth of kimchi, enough of the wonderful soup for 2 meals, galbi, spinach, and enough fun to make us want to go back. The only 16 year old in attendance, a Korean/American whispered "come at 12 O'clock and you only have to eat!" I nearly choked on my kimchi...lol.
Kaitlyn was so happy to help dry spoons and chopsticks after lunch that she danced and had all the ajummas laughing and singing in the kitchen. We were ready to go home when we were suddenly escorted to the "free music lessons". Below you will see Kaitlyn patiently waiting for her 15 minute piano lesson. I have been trying to tell her that the Violin is NOT the only instrument in the world, and until she had this lesson she did not agree with me.(oh darn, the one with her waiting her turn seems to have disappeared!).



She came away having learned that her thumb is "one" or "Eel" (phonetically speaking) and that each finger has a placement that does not change. As we got into the car to come home she sang "mama, the Violin makes beautiful music and makes me happy, but I think the piano can do it to". She spent much of Sunday afternoon and today practicing her 5 finger postions on her little keyboard (ok, so it is only a Disney princess one she got a year ago for Christmas, it does the job!). I think next Sunday we may try to find the Korean church that has "maaaahnee" children- otherwise this church will probably be a one a month visit for the wonderful fellowship we were able to partake of.

Well, this is how our weather has been for the last few days- sunny and warm enough to wear t-shirts and capri pants while blowing bubbles! Some days ya just gotta appreciate Lousianna! Kaitlyn kept herself fairly busy blowing bubbles while I fixed lunch-we were blessed with "left-overs" from a Korean church we attended yesterday; some Kimchi-daenjong chigae, some "homemade" kimchi (no MSG!!!), some "bap" (we got to make it fresh this morning) and a few pieces of galbi-even the dog was joyful for the Korean church as he gets the bones from Kaitlyn's galbi-lol.

As previously mentioned, we-Kaitlyn and I- attended a Korean church yesterday for our Sunday worship. We had been invited by one of the ladies that runs a local dry cleaning business to attend the Korean Full Gospel Church about 2 blocks away and also have been invited to attend another Korean church somewhere in town. As we are not sure where the one in town is, we elected to attend the Full Gospel one. This is not a service we will frequent- partly as there were only, if we are lucky, 10 people in the service and none were Kaitlyn's age. Near the end of the service, during which poor Kaitlyn had to sit with me-a few other people showed up and we soon found out why-lunch is served immediately after the service! We were very blessed to dine with about 23 friendly, loving Koreans and 2 American associate pastors. We could not have asked for better fellowship adn Kaitlyn was so engrossed with feeding her "Korean food deprived" body that she no longer realized she was the only person under the age of 16 in attendance :-). This little girl ate more than the grown man sitting next to her. I of course did the kind mama thing and washed her kimchi so it would not be so spicey (washing it in water to remove part of the "gochu" or red pepper) and as she was stuffing it in, or "chowing down" as she says-she dropped a small piece of kimchi on the floor. I heard "OH MAMA! Look! I dropped some kimchi!!" I told her we needed to be careful and not waste kimchi- of course I was joking but she did not think so-kimchi is expensive here in the great state of Louisiana and we have essentially "rationed" it for the past few months. Suddenly the pastor's wife is standing over us with a plate of two kinds of kimchi- piled higher than I would dare to pile any plate and asking "would you like to take some home too?" Kaitlyn looks at me and asks "mama, can we PLEEEEEASE take some home?" I, of course cannot refuse to take the precious comodity home and we were blessed with about 12 dollars worth of wonderful kimchi and some soup and galbi...so hence we had a terrific lunch while daddy ate "BBQ" pork sandwhiches :-).

Another great aspect of the Korean church was the free "music lesson" given after the luncheon-

blog frustrations, but at least the day was dry!

Ok, so it is Monday, but does the blog page have to act up too?? My side bar won't stay put, my links are somewhere on the page...sheeze oh pete!

On a Brighter note- today was 73 degrees, fiercely windy, but warm and DRY!!! The sun was playing hide-and-seek behind a "gazillion" gray and black clouds and of course the wind just helped ol' Sun Ajumma out! lol Kaitlyn calls the moon "Moon Ajushi" and says he is cold and the sun is hot like fire, so it is called "Sun Ajumma" Is she trying to say something about men and women here? Ya never know with her.
Around 1030 AM Kaitlyn asked "can we go out for lunch". I tried to explain that we were going to make sandwiches and go eat with daddy at work. "but mama, can we go out to eat". "Kaitlyn McIntyre! I just said we were gonna eat with daddy" "I know mama, but can we eat OUT?" It finally dawned on me, she meant to eat outside! lol
We took a plastic Starbucks' mat (compliments of our Korean Starbucks beauties in 2005!), a sandwich for each of us, apple juice for Kaitlyn, some chips and of course- some cookies. "Mama, can we have a banana too?" so one lonely banana came along for the ride.
We met daddy and "ate out". Kaitlyn has this strange LOVE for the wind- so she ate with the wind blowing INTO her face, smiling and laughing the entire time. She only ate part of her sandwich, but she fought dad for the banana. The poor ol' mini choco-chip cookies had to ride back home in the lunch bag...
After lunch we went to the fish pond and she tried to feed dried berries to the fish. "mama, I don't think they have very good teeth to eat dried berries, do you think they have soft teeth?" "No Katie, they don't have teeth"
"Mama, why did you not put bread or cereal in the car for the poor fish? Now they are saying "Katie, your mama is gonna make me hungry! Tell her to bring us some cereal tomorrow" so it looks like tomorrow will be spent feeding the cereals "Miss Katie" refuses to eat to the fish (poor fish! the cereal is soooo stale!).
We went shopping for me a few blouses or shirts (oh yeah! Wamart here we come again!). Instead, we found some really cute sweaters and shirts marked down to $3.99 to mail to the orphanage in Koera...we are excited to get them in the mail tomorrow afternoon.
Then, mysteriously- it was 1530 (3 PM for some of ya!) and we just HAD to go to sonic for a "half price drink". Did you know that sonic charges 0.10 cents for each "add" to a drink? My usual $1.79 lemon-berry slush ended up, at half price, costing $1.80!!! Ok, so I added extra lemon (30 cents), 2 shots of cranberry (20 cents), some pineapple (another 20 cents), plus they charged for the strawberries that normally come in the "lemon-berry" slush! So much for "half price drinks"! Not to mention, with all the fruit, I had to eat it with a spoon...guess I will think of something else next time :-). Kaitlyn had her usual, a "vanilla dish" and a small rootbeer.
We got home and it was still warm so we played in the front yard (still flooded, but we can use the sidewalk). The wind had blown twigs out of the tree and Kaitlyn decided she was a "moose or a deer with antlers"...she held up two large , branched twigs and yelled "mama! Look! I have the best antlers in Lewzanna!" lol
Well- time to make a bed time snack, do some school work, and fold the last load of laundry...hope you have a great nite's sleep and many sweet dreams!

We had a good day!

Oh what a day! The sun was shinning brightly, we had NO rain, and after spending the day yesterday wondering if we would drown or be blown away by a tornado-I would say THIS WAS AN IMPROVEMENT! :-)
Kaitlyn was happy that daddy had to go to a work luncheon as that left her and I to go out to lunch. I had planned on sandwiches, but she said we have had enough "of those things" for this week. I happened to agree a little to readily! We had heard that one little "cafe" in town was a decent place to get Korean food and so I figured we would try it.
We walked in and Kaitlyn does her obligatory bow and "an young ha sae yo" as do I. We are greeted by a Korean woman about 50 years old and one about 65 that look at me like I must have found a lost child; "oh, who is this baby?". I ignore the comment and begin reading the menu board. I see NO other Koreans in the small room, so I begin to wonder if we will get "real" Korean food or a poor imitation as we had a month ago at the "Kalbee House" (oh my goodness- THAT one is a whole other story!). I don't see her favored "Daen Jeong Chigae and state as much-and the ajumma (Korean for "woman" or "auntie") does not say otherwise. She insists we want the "special" and so Kaitlyn and I both ask "what is the special". In typical Korean fashion they answer: "it is fie dollah niney fie cent and tax".
"No, I mean what is served on the special?"
"it only from 11 to 2"
"aguessumnida" (meaning I understand) and of course they look at me just a tad bit different..."how you speakie Korean langagee?"
"Well, my daughter is Korean, I spent a few years in Korea, and I try to keep up the little bit I know". so here we go again...."what food items are served on the daily special?"
"AH! you want to know what you can eat on special?" "yes, ajumma"
Big smiles and then "fied wice, bulgogi, thwee yaki mandu". "OK, we will take that and some Kimchi". Then I realize the menu board has some American type items so I ask "do you have Korean or American Kimchi".
"Oh, Korean kimchi opso" (there is none). We have American cucumber kimchi for baby" looking at Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn of course joyously yells out "mama, mama, we can eat that! I love Kimchi, but I want cabbage kimchi too". I explain there is none today and we will eat cucumber kimchi and some "kong namul" or bean sprouts - of course they ask "you want Korean or American?" Kaitlyn says "ajumma, we only eat Korean, we no want American here!" lol (she is picking up her Konglish again!)
after having to run down the street to get some cash to pay for the upcoming lunch-we sit down to TWO plates of lunch special with "we fix it on two pate so aeggi can have own pate". Kaitlyn says "kam sa hamnida" and she DIGS in! We had some tolerable American style Cucumber Kimchi (yes, Shi, we ate enough for you too!), and the absolute BEST bean sprouts we have had since leaving Korea!! The rest of the meal was ok, better than what I have been cooking-lol. I watched as others got their meals- we had at least double their portions and we were only charged for "one portion". Kaitlyn stopped eating just before her "tummy popped" and we were able to get some "kong namul" to bring home.
We made a run to the next town over so we could go to a better walmart (lol, the ONLY shopping available for 45+ miles) and stopped at Sonic for a fast drink -one small rootbeer for Kaitlyn to go with her "vanilla dish" (she likes the two separate!) and one lemon slush with pineapple and double cranberry...not too bad I guess but I think I will find a different combo next time!
Our story tonight was "Cold Paws, Warm Heart" a story about a polar bear who is cold on the outside and inside due to not having any friends or any contact with anyone other than himself. A little girl befriends him and he soon warms up (also thanks to Hannah's scarf, a cup of hot chocolate, and hugs!). Kaitlyn says "mama, you keep me warm with hugs and I will never , NEVER stop loving you!" As I kiss her goodnight, she says "mama we had a good day, you know that?!" I had to agree. :-)