No, I'm not going horseback riding...our school district has finally succumbed to some major budget cuts, so next year I will be going back to the classroom. For a short time, I thought that I was being displaced from the campus, meaning the district was going to place me at a random campus to fill a spot. Truth be told, I was nervous especially since I'm certified to teach up to 8th grade. Luckily, I will get to teach second grade at the current school I'm at, which is the grade level that I taught for 8 1/2 years before I became a CIT. I am pretty thrilled about that. I'm also happy that I will get to stay at my current campus. This year was our inaugural year, so to leave would have been pretty disappointing. Although I will miss my current position, I do look forward to having "my own class" and having the opportunity to continue to work with some pretty amazing people. :0)
P.S. This weekend I went to a friend's birthday party and her sister, who happens to be a junior in high school, talked about some peers of of hers which happen to be former second grade students of mine, YIKES! I am getting OLD, lol!
This past week we went to our favorite Korean restaurant, Ilsong Garden. I LOVE it! I could literally eat there every day and every meal. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but I know I could definitely eat there more than once a week. As usual I had my fav, which is bi bim bop, and then even though the ban chan are essentially the same I had to eat them, too. Of course, as tradition has it I will always try to convince Matt to eat something coated in the kimchee sauce, but he learned after visit number two which dishes to avoid, LOL! I have a friend who says that a different Korean restaurant, Kiku Garden, is better. Since we haven't been there yet, I can't say, but I really don't need an excuse to go and eat Korean food.
This week the adoption community was sad to learn that Dr. Kim Duk Whang passed away. He established Eastern Social Welfare Society. I would consider him the founding father of international adoption in Korea. He is the gentleman who helped facilitate my adoption. This wise gentleman was beloved and will be greatly missed.
One of the many ways that Dr. Kim, Duk Whang (founder and former Chairman of the Board of Eastern Social Welfare Society/ESWS) demonstrated his fatherly devotion and dedication to each child in Eastern's care was to pray a special blessing over each child prior to his/her departure to their new adoptive family.
As for adoption news...that's right, we are still waiting! I think maybe our i600a will be approved around our anniversary?!?! Once that form is approved then we are really in the running for a referral. I learned this week that you need that approved before you can move on.
One more thing...after looking at how many different topics are in this post, I'll try to post more frequently. :0)
Today we went to get our fingerprints scanned. I wish there was a funny story or something to share about the experience, but we essentially went in, only had to wait about 5 minutes and then we were done. It's just one more thing that we can check off the list. It's supposed to take about a month for approval for the I600a...and I know I keep repeating this phrase, but now we are waiting, again until the next thing we can cross of our list. :0)
A Korean Culture Tidbit: Tomorrow, May 5th is Children's Day in Korea. "Children's Day (Eorini nal) is a South Korean national holiday celebrated on May 5. It was founded by the Korean children's writer and storyteller Bang Jung-hwan in 1923 as a way to instill in the children a sense of independence and national pride. Children's Day highlights the dignity of children and their need for love, care, and respect. It is also a day to honor adults that have contributed to improving the lives of children." http://www.dodoland.com/childrenday3.php Happy Children's Day!!!
Of course, on Sunday is Mother's Day. I wish all mothers a very Happy Mother's Day! The picture at the bottom of my post is when my mother first held me in her arms after I was escorted to America.
Last weekend we went down to Port Aransas, Texas to see Sandfest. It was pretty amazing seeing all of the different sculptures. We weren't able to see what the sculptures looked like at the finish, but what we did see was pretty fabulous. One thing that we noticed while walking around was they had gallons of glue by each entry. Not exactly sure how they incorporated that... They also had an amateur contest, which looked very professional. While at Sandfest we had the chance to eat some really fun food like fish tacos, Texas fries, cheese cake on a stick, deep fried Oreos, etc... We were able to visit with friends and family and were treated like royalty at my parent's house. I'm sure we will all be back in Port A. sometime soon. It was a wonderful weekend made with special memories.
...and the story continues...I told Matt that I thought I heard something in the ceiling. He told me I was just hearing things, LOL. Well, later on he called me to come downstairs and listen...and yup, there's nothing like hearing something crawling around on your ceiling. Don't you just love the little claws click clacking away? EWWWW!!! You would think the dogs would react to a raccoon being in our house especially since I've seen two of them tug an oppossum between them like a toy, but they just went to sleep. Today a pest control company came out and told Matt that we have damage on our roof thanks to a raccoon. They left a trap, so hopefully the little guy will be captured soon...we tried to look in the trap tonight, but we coudln't see a thing.
Adoption Update: The major thing we are waiting for is a referral, which won't come until the end of summer or early fall. Some of you may have noticed people asking about what number we are in line. Well, we may be numbered. However, our agency does not tell us what number we are, especially since they have said the referral of a child does not necessarily go in order of when home study was received. So, there is a chance we could get a referral before my predicted timeframe. When we got home from Port A. we did have a letter from immigration letting us know our fingerprinting will be scheduled soon...and today we got a letter from our agency officially letting us know that our Homestudy has been Sent to Korea!!! We hope you have been enjoying some beautiful spring weather and have a very Happy Easter!
Today we received an email telling us that our homestudy is approved!!! Here is a quote from the email, "...BIG milestone achieved." Wowee! It's beginning to sink in, that we are really going to become parents. :0) Somewhere in Korea, our baby is being taken care of by their foster family, waiting to be assigned to us to become their forever family. We know you're probably wondering, what's next? The next major step will be a referral, which is when we will get matched with a baby. When will that happen? My guess is probably not until around the very end of summer.
Last night I had the chance to talk to a fellow adoptee who is also adopting from Korea. Sad to say she lives on the east coast, but we have plenty of reasons to visit the east coast so I know that someday we shall meet! Anyway...she also received some exciting news. She and her husband received their referral!!! I am thrilled for them! It would have been awesome if we had been able to travel at the same time, but I am extremely happy that this momentous step has occurred in their journey. Our chat must have brought good luck to both of us, so maybe we'll have to chat more often!!!
I think it's always nice to have a picture with a post, so today I chose one where our family was celebrating. This was a picture from my newphew's baptism. It also happens to be his dad's birthday. Happy Birthday Joe! We hope that you had a wonderful day and now April 5th will always be a special day for 3 special reasons! :0)
When one of my principals would say,"someones' been drinking the water", the staff would know that someone was going to have a baby. I believe we've had 8 people who must have "drank from the same fountain" this year. One of the special ladies was our guidance counselor. A few of us gathered to make these sweet treats, AKA cake balls for her shower at school. First, my friend baked one box of cake and then mixed it with a half container of frosting. Next, we formed the cake balls. My friend is very artistic. I consider her the "craft queen" of our group. Going to her house is like going to Hobby Lobby/Martha Stewart's studio. While we were forming the cake balls, she had melted candy coating and was piping flowers onto wax paper. It's a good thing she did, because her beautiful flowers had to hide my attempt at trying to dip the cake balls into the candy coating.LOL! I admit, that after dipping the cake balls I thought I would never do it again. However, they were so tasty, that I know sometime in the future there will be another cake ball making session. (There are probably some steps I'm leaving out, so you'll want to google cake balls before making them)
By the way, if you love the beautiful photos in this post, as well as some of the photos in the last animoto I created, please stop by my talented friend's photo site: arg photographs We are all very proud of her and know that she will have much success in her new business venture!
We went to a beautiful wedding a few weekends ago. Everything was absolutely perfect! We were thrilled that we got to share in the joy and happiness of this special couple's wedding day. If you get a chance to glance at the animoto, you will see how the beautiful pictures that were captured by the couple's friends and family are "worth more than a thousand words" and how they are "simply priceless!"
No, I'm not going horseback riding...our school district has finally succumbed to some major budget cuts, so next year I will be going back to the classroom. For a short time, I thought that I was being displaced from the campus, meaning the district was going to place me at a random campus to fill a spot. Truth be told, I was nervous especially since I'm certified to teach up to 8th grade. Luckily, I will get to teach second grade at the current school I'm at, which is the grade level that I taught for 8 1/2 years before I became a CIT. I am pretty thrilled about that. I'm also happy that I will get to stay at my current campus. This year was our inaugural year, so to leave would have been pretty disappointing. Although I will miss my current position, I do look forward to having "my own class" and having the opportunity to continue to work with some pretty amazing people. :0)
