Red Rider BB Gun, Lucy-style

You know the movie "A Christmas Story"? About the kid Ralphie who really really, with almost obsessive focus, wants a Red Rider BB gun for Christmas? Well, Lucy's version of the Red Rider BB gun was a Barbie car. This kid really really really wanted a Barbie car. She talked about it ALL.THE.TIME. She reminded us, "Remember what I want for Christmas? Don't forget: I want a Barbie car." She talked about it, she planned how she would play with it. She just really really wanted a Barbie car. Lucy is just so darn cute and funny and sweet. OF COURSE we got her a Barbie car. Actually Santa got her the Barbie car, but we passed on the message to him.

Seeing her Barbie car for the first time early Christmas morning.

Remember how I said she had plans for how she would play with the Barbie car? This is what went on at our house tonight. A few Barbies, a miniature American Girl doll, and, oh yes, that is a horse hanging out the driver's door. Does this look safe to you? Looks like Barbie version of wild and crazy spring break to me...

Guess who likes spaghetti and meatballs?

Charlie is most definitely a member of the clean plate club

Happy Birthday Jin-yeong

Jin-yeong's birthday is Christmas Eve. He was born at 11:55 am on 12-24-2009 in Seoul, South Korea. He was 41 weeks 2 days' gestation and weighed 3280 grams at birth, which is 7.2lbs. Seoul is 14 hours ahead of American EST, so his time of birth would have been 21:55 on 12-23-2009 in our neck of the woods. I was on call at the hospital delivering babies at this time. The girls were home asleep, and Sheref was packing our suitcases as we left the next morning (Christmas Eve) to drive to Murfreesboro TN to visit my sister for Christmas.

This year we were also at my sister's in Murfreesboro for Christmas, and also for Charlie's birthday. Shannon (my sister) was so sweet and planned a party for Charlie. She arranged 2 cakes and lunch from our favorite barbeque place in Murfreesboro, the Slick Pig. We ate barbeque, potato salad, and cake. We toasted with (really crappy $2.99) soju that we had bought at H-mart, a Korean grocery store, in Atlanta the previous day. Charlie wore the hanbok his foster mother had given him, and looked so handsome!

What? A party for me?

All the kids at the party table. My nephew Cooper is next to Ella, but you can only see the very top of his head!

Charlie's super cute cake

The "smash cake," which was thoroughly enjoyed by Jin-yeong. He actually cried when I took it away after he had eaten probably 1/5 or so of the cake...

So cute! I thought he might be bothered by the hat, but he didn't seem to mind it at all. I think he knew he totally rocked his hanbok:)

Charlie with Mama

With Dadda

Pop (my dad) was making faces and noises off to the side, which is what Charlie is so entertained by in this picture

What a beautiful little guy

Love this kid!

We plan to send photos of Jin-yeong in his hanbok to Holt, one packet for his birth mom and one for his foster mother. His foster mother will get the photos for sure, but we don't know about his birth mom. Holt keeps a file on each child for the birth mother, who can, if she desires, come look at the file at any time and get whatever the adoptive family may have sent. We have no idea if our birth mom will ever go to Holt again, but if she does, we certainly want to have photos and keepsakes of Jin-yeong for her.

There is a concept in Korean adoption of "Third Mom," meaning that the "forever mother" (adoptive mother), even though she is the child's real and final mother, is really his or her third mom. First he had his birth mom, then his foster mom, and finally his "forever mother." We want Charlie always to be aware of his first two mothers, who provided him such a healthy, loving and wonderful start to his life.

Seoul by Night

The night before he was to meet Charlie Jin-yeong, Sheref decided he should take advantage of his last baby-less night in Seoul and get out to explore the city by night. He said he was absolutely exhausted and tempted to go to bed, but thought, "Wait, no, I'm young, strong, fit. I'm in Seoul, South Korea. There is no excuse for me not to go out and explore this city." So he walked, and he walked, and he probably took the subway, and then probably walked some more.

He walked past cars, and a blue bus, and lots of bright lights.

He walked past some sort of temple (? -- I'm sort of making this up, since, as we all know, I wasn't there)

He walked past more bright lights, and past cool young Korean people

Until he came to the Seoul Tower

Sheref and I had both heard and read about the Seoul Tower, and, quite frankly, it sounds pretty cheesy. Now I admit, I'm not exactly the touchy-feely cheesy type, but the Seoul Tower (per what we had heard) is a tower (duh) that people climb to the top of in order to place a lock on the gate, or some part of the tower. Something about hearts, and love, and locks. Also, there is a Teddy Bear Museum at the top of Seoul Tower. Again, I admit, I rank quite a bit lower than average on the touchy-feely meter, but still. Sheref said he felt the same, but thought he should at least check it out. Turns out, he said it was one of his favorite moments in Seoul. He said the Seoul Tower really does have sort of a magical atmosphere, especially lit up at night. I really love the above photo, and looking at it, I can actually imagine how special the moment was (for the record, I still wouldn't have visited the Teddy Bear Museum)

Did you think I was making up the part about the Teddy Bear Museum? Think again.

Cool image of the Seoul Tower

More bright lights. Sheref is no country bumpkin and has been in his fair share of major cities, mind you, but he said Seoul is by far the BRIGHTEST place he has ever been.

Can I play with the Nutcracker?

This question comes out of Rose's mouth quite frequently. We have a fairly large traditional-style red Nutcracker that I got from Dabby (my grandmother). It pretty much stays in a drawer until the holiday season, when it comes out and is displayed on our mantel. A good blogger would have taken a picture of said Nutcracker, uploaded it to the computer, and put it in this post. Yeah, well, that just seems like way too much effort right now. Anyways, Rose always asks if she can play with the Nutcracker. Tonight: "Can I play with the Nutcracker? I want to open his mouth." Umm, no. You may not play with the Nutcracker's mouth.

So you can imagine how excited Rose (and Lucy) were to go see a REAL production of "The Nutcracker." I took the girls to this last year, and they went with their school class this year. I was working, of course, so I couldn't go. Sheref, however, is off with Charlie for 3 months, so he went along and took Charlie with him.

Yeah, this photo is horrible quality and Rose & Lucy look weird. However, Charlie looks pretty cute and it's the only one I have of them getting ready to leave for the theater!

At the theater.

They were so excited to get dressed up and go to the Nutcracker with their school friends. They told us over and over what a great day they had. Cute!

A Boy & his Dog

Willie is the family member who had the hardest transition with Charlie's arrival. Seriously. He wasn't quite himself for weeks. Willie is sort of like a neighborhood celebrity. Sheref walks Willie a lot, and always walks Willie to pick Ella up from school. Consequently, it seems like EVERYONE in the neighborhood knows Willie. If I take him for a walk, inevitably I pass several people, who say, "Oh hi Willie!!" They don't even look at me, just talk directly to my tiny dog. Little old ladies, kids, even big gruff looking guys comment "Hi Willie!" or "your dog is so cute!" Which is a funny thing to hear come out of a large tattooed guy's mouth, when referring to a 4lb dog. Anyways, 5 weeks after Charlie's arrival, Willie's coming around now, is back to his cute cheerful self, and actually seems to really like Charlie.

Willie's favorite toy is "Chippy," a $6 stuffed chipmunk. Chippy is just slightly smaller than Willie himself. Willie loves to carry him around, bite him, throw him in the air, bite him some more, etc. Charlie has figured out that Willie will jump around, bark and "fake growl" if he (Charlie) grabs Chippy. So Charlie grabs Chippy and swing him around, Willie goes nuts, and Charlie laughs. It is hysterical to watch.

Charlie and the Gourds

It is uncharacteristically cold in *** right now. For those of us who originally hail from the North, it's mildly amusing to see people freak out about frost. That said, it is pretty cold, which has caused these pumpkins/gourds to shrivel up and dry out. They are being thrown away tonight, so in honor of this year's gourds...








Charlie enjoying the last of the fall weather...













About to leap off the porch. Thank goodness Daddy stopped him...
















Huh?

Things that crack me up

Right now I'm supposed to be working on a decision tree to analyze cost-effectiveness of delivering a certain type of twins preterm versus...argh, I can't even stomach typing the whole thing out. Suffice it to say, I'm NOT really working on that. Instead, I was looking through Sheref's photographs of Seoul. And cracking up at these photos. This is outside the palace (note the guards in traditional royal dress). And, yes, they are indeed mingling with 21st century gigantic-headed cartoon characters. And, yes, they are outside a Dunkin' Donuts.

Do you love Seoul or what? I do.

And just in case you didn't feel you saw them up close enough...

Random Image

This is Charlie's foster mom bundling him up to leave the Holt offices with Sheref. She did see Charlie again, that night when Sheref took her, her husband and sister & brother-in-law to dinner, but I still think in her mind this was a good-bye. I love this image, how sweetly and carefully she is getting him ready.

Enter the Way Back Machine

I was just looking through my photographs, and this one was way too cute not to share. This is a photo of Rose, Lucy and my nephew Cooper (who is 4 days older than Rose & Lucy) at my parents' place in Florida. They are 2 1/2 here. I was doing a "photo shoot" with them, and they kept cracking each other up. Cute!

Garden of the Martyrs

Having taken Charlie to mass for the first time this evening, it seems like a proper day for this post. Sheref met and "got" Charlie on Thursday, November 4th. His meeting at Holt was in the afternoon, around 3pm. He met Charlie, his foster mother, and DJ, the social worker, exchanged gifts, chatted with the foster mom, etc. Sheref was planning to take the foster parents and the foster father's brother and his wife out for dinner that evening. DJ, the social worker, was gracious enough to come along to facilitate language interpretation. She is quite an amazing woman, but that is another story.

So Sheref had a few hours to burn between the time he "got" Charlie (I just can't come up with a better word..."got" just sounds wrong) and the time they all met up for dinner. I know my husband, and although he is generally super laid-back, I know he must have been fairly emotional and contemplative at that moment. DJ had recommended he visit the Garden of the Martyrs (I am writing this post from my memory of Sheref relaying this story to me several weeks ago, so the names and facts might not be entirely, uh, accurate, but the gist of it is correct!!), which is within walking distance of Holt. So Sheref set off, Charlie in his carrier (Sheref says that he got a lot of looks, since apparently only women "wear" babies in carriers in Korea...oh well) in search of this destination. The Garden of the Martyrs is a cemetery for the Christian missionaries and martyrs in Korea over the past centuries. Since I wasn't there, I can't tell you much more than that, but I know this must have been one of the most special moments in Seoul for Sheref. He said that he was feeling very contemplative and just a slight bit anxious at having just been handed a new child, who at 10 months of age had never met him before. He said that visiting this cemetery gave him peace, and a sense of calm.

Entry to the cemetery

I love this photograph (below). Beautiful lines, no?

I can't really "narrate" these photos, since I wasn't there, but they are beautiful pictures, and I'll just let them speak for themselves.