We are moving our blog...

I am so sorry to move our blog. We have loved this address and used blogger for years. A few months ago, I started to have problems posting comments. More recently, I was unable to upload any photos. We use our blog primarily to share photos with grandparents and loved ones far away like Anna's foster family. Without the photos, the blog is not very functional for us. I apologize for moving our blog. Our new address is:

manyhappyhens.wordpress.com

We look forward to seeing you there!

Happy birthday, David!

Our dear son recently celebrated his seventh birthday!



David doesn't like cake so he's pictured here blowing out his candle in a dish of ice cream. This year, he really enjoyed opening his gifts and played with them right away.




On Friday, we met friends at a Blackberry Farm. They have a train, farm animals, pony rides and a merry-go-round. David loves the "Early Streets Museum" area most of all.





Sunday was the anniversary of David's adoption placement. It's often called "Gotcha Day" and so we celebrated with a trip to the aquarium. The aquarium is David's favorite place in the whole world!



I'll spare you too many photos of fish, whales, dolphins and penguins. Instead, I'll just show you how the kids felt about the day.




Happy birthday, David! We feel so blessed that God's plan for our family was our two children. We love being their parents!

Sometimes the best adventure is your own backyard

The university where we teach has a unique summer schedule. They have longer Monday through Thursday work hours but close school on Fridays. When David was in school at the teaching school on campus, we started a family tradition of "Friday Adventures." We've kept those adventures up this summer. We've seen trains, we have been to a children's museum (twice) and have taken some trips to places like the pool. With all of the go, go, go, it's easy to forget how much fun it is to stay. Some days, we just stay in our own backyard.


Peekaboo on the back deck


Play in the sandbox


Sprinkler


Wading pool


Our sliding board



Learning to blow bubbles

We will still have fun Friday adventures. It's nice sometimes to just stay home.

Forever family

Today we took one of the final steps in our adoption journey. We went to court and finalized our adoption. We started this journey almost three years ago. Since that day, we have learned so much and have been so blessed.

We are blessed by the addition of our dear daughter in our family. (That probably goes without saying...) Anna is an amazing child. Truly, she is happy, busy and loving. She's perfect in absolutely every way.


100% Korean and 100% US citizen!

We are blessed that we have gotten to see David grow into a big brother. He is a great child and has always been wonderful! We now have a new sense of how wonderful he is. Seeing the children together brings me joy that I can hardly describe.

We have also been blessed by the support of family, old friends and new friends. We could not have gotten to this point without you!

Thank you very much!

Trains trains trains

We have two train-loving children. As a result, we spend a lot of time on our family adventures visiting places that have trains. We spent the morning at one of David's favorite spots. Anna loved seeing the trains!




David and Anna on the "handcar"


I love this photo. If you look closely, you can see that the train is a "Joy Manufacturing" train. Perfect for Anna!






I think this photo of Anna captures her personality exactly. She's exploring a train car here.


We will keep posting on our blog. I'm sorry that it's taken so long to get a new post uploaded. I hope to get vacation photos posted in the next couple of days...

Up to a little mischief

From the day that she arrived home, Anna has been a very busy child. She is always on the go. She explores and examines her world. Lately, this exploration has blossomed. With that new passion for exploration has come mischief.

I don't want you to think that I'm complaining about the mischief. We love Anna so much that I can't imagine complaining. In all honesty, I'm a little secretly proud. Her antics show cleverness, problem solving and determination. Some of them, however, have been a little embarrassing. I'll get to that in a second...

Before the mischief, I'm going to start with some of the really cute things that she does.


Anna is a very affectionate, loving child. She loves to give kisses, blow kisses and give hugs to her family.


She prays with us. How cool is that? She folds her hands and babbles along when we pray.


She also explores in ways that are perfectly, completely acceptable. She loves the sandbox in our yard. She'd stay there for hours.


Anna's figured out how to get things off of the table. She uses a placemat, twirls it around until what she wants is caught on the placemat and then pulls the placemat to her. See the giant container of pretzels? She can get this off the table if it's out of reach. Oh my!

Anna, in the time that it took for me to walk across the room and answer the phone, got past our child proof lock, opened the DVD cabinet and pushed buttons on the remote control. In a matter of seconds the entire set up for the DVD player was changed. I'm still uncertain that I've gotten the settings back to their original controls.

She also has shockingly good fine motor control. She can open anything. In a store, she was able to break into a container of trail mix in seconds. She's been able to figure out how to lock door locks in our house.


Anna feels entitled to assist us with any task. As you can tell, not all of her help is helpful.

She likes to help at the grocery store. Last week, she helped me select apples. She did so by removing her shoe, throwing it at a display of apples and sending about six onto the floor.



Anna also has a strong sense of modeling what other children are doing. In the first photo of the pair, David is selecting rocks to throw into the water. In the second, can you see how intently she watches to learn what to do? The funny part is that Anna is also 100% her own person. Instead of throwing rocks, she throws dandelions.


We love Miss Mischief. She certainly keeps us wondering what the day will bring...

Wordless Wednesday: Picking out a hat for the day

A week in review...

I went from the family room to the kitchen to put a cup into the dishwasher. When I returned, my children were sitting on the sofa, holding hands and reading books. It brings tears of joy to my eyes to see these easy, spontaneous displays of affection.



David and I had a fun outing to a forest preserve. We threw A LOT of sticks into the river. A LOT.


There was a hot air balloon that flew over our neighborhood. Both David and Anna LOVED the balloon.



Anna and I got to play at the playground. Even though she managed to go face first down one of the slides, I foresee many playground adventures in her summer.


The best Mother's Day gift of all...

Whose Ark Is It?

My dear son has a beautiful, Christian heart. When he was about 18 months old, he rode through the grocery store telling everyone we passed that they should, "Smile! God loves you."

At two and a half, he shared a message at Easter in a similar way. That time he told everyone at the grocery store, "Jesus died on the cross for all sinners."

(In the interest of honest disclosure, at 3, he told everyone at the grocery store, "Daddy got his teeth cleaned at the dentist's office.")

At almost four, he wandered through a department store singing "Onward Christian Soldiers."

From time to time, his complete faith shines in unexpected moments.

The other day, David and I went to our local Christian bookstore. While we were walking around, I saw a toy Noah's ark. Thinking that I was a clever mom, I thought I would use this as an opportunity to work on possessive pronouns.

I pointed to Noah and asked David who he was. He replied, "Noah." The toy's Noah looked a lot like Noah from our ark toy set at home so I was not surprised by the recognition.

I then pointed to the boat, "Whose boat is it?"

David looked at me and said, "God's."

I was working on pronouns. I thought David would say "his." So, I tried again. "David," I asked, "Whose boat is it?"

"It's God's," David replied more emphatically.

Silly Mom that I am, I tried one more time. Pointing to Noah, "Who is this?" David replied, "Noah." "So whose boat is it?" I asked. "It's God's boat," David said. And that was when it hit me. I was the one missing the point. He wasn't failing to use possessive pronouns. He was telling me that Noah followed God's plan when he built the ark.

You're right kiddo. It is God's boat. And, it's also God's amazing plan for a wonderful, smart little boy.