James 1:27 says, “Religion that God accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” God desires for orphans of all nations to be loved, cared for, and adopted into Christian families-ultimately so they can become saved, and be adopted into His eternal family through Jesus Christ!
Monday- Yes! Isaiah didn't fall asleep in my arms like normal, but he fell asleep pretty quickly after he was transferred to his crib.
Tuesday-Yes! Isaiah took his nap at Nonna's house, but he fought the nap. We were laying on the guest bed pillows and reading books. Isaiah was squirming around a LOT so I told him he needed to lay down and close his eyes. After several minutes of continued squirming I help him in my arms. He was not happy...LOTS OF TEARS! Again he didn't fall asleep in my arms like normal, but AS SOON as he hit the crib sheet he was asleep.
Wednesday-No! I started rocking Isaiah, reading books, and singing songs (our normal routine) around 1:15ish and this probably lasted 15 minutes. Then I told him to close his eyes and I did too. I believe I feel asleep from about 1:45 to 2, but not Isaiah. At 2 when I discovered he was still awake I asked him what was wrong. He said, "diaper" so I checked it, but it wasn't dirty. I decided to put him in his crib and came downstairs to watch a DVR show. After 5 or 10 minutes I checked the monitor and Isaiah was standing up...this normally means he is dirty so I went upstairs to see. Yes, dirty! After changing his diaper I held him in my arms for a few minutes and then laid him down in his crib and I returned to my DVR show. Within the next 10 minutes I could hear him screaming and crying...so I went back upstairs and SOMEHOW his blanket was outside of his crib and he was VERY sad. I laid him down and he requested to go downstairs. Since I wanted to watch the end of the show I said I would rock him downstairs...what was I thinking? Of course he didn't fall asleep so I tried laying him in his crib one final time. After at least 2 hours I gave up on the idea of a nap and went to get him from his crib and ...ah he was dirty again! NO NAP!
Thursday-Nope! I had made plans to meet up with my friend Sarah and her daughter Lily to run a few errands (Babies R Us and Costco) together. My plan was to run the errands and have Isaiah sleep in the car on the way home. Well, after our two errands together I guess I pushed my luck by running into DSW shoes to do a return. As we were less than seconds away from DSW shoes Isaiah closed his eyes. I told him to wait to fall asleep because I needed to run into one final store. It was quick, super quick. I would have loved to go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond or the Storables store to look for a kitchen counter file organizer, but I decided not to because Isaiah was tired. However, once in the car I drove ALL the way home and NEVER ONCE did Isaiah close his eyes. Ah, No NAP AGAIN? At least we had fun with our friends! Thanks Sarah for taking this picture of our cute kids playing on the toy isle!
On Monday evening Isaiah and I went to dinner with Nonna and Pops at Subway before going to look at a house in Newberg and property in Newberg. While we were at Subway there was also some Asian people dining in the restaurant. Unfortunately, I am still not very good at telling whether someone is Korean, Chinese, Japanese, etc. I have to admit that I was drawn to watch them and listen to their language. I noticed that one of the men in the group was also drawn to watch us. After the man walked by us several times he decided to stop and talk to us....it ended up being perfect time as we were just finishing our dinner so Isaiah wasn't distracted from eating.
Here were the highlights from our conversation (perhaps not in the exact order it occurred, but pretty close.) The man asked if Isaiah was a boy or girl. I think it is obvious that he is a boy, but I kindly said boy. Then he reached out and touched Isaiah's cheek and said, "he hoped he lead a happy and healthy life"...it was such a sweet blessing for him to give Isaiah. He said he looked very strong. He also asked where Isaiah was from and I said, South Korea. He responded by saying, "Oh my country!" He asked my parents if they had been to South Korea, and they got to say yes that they had traveled with us to get Isaiah. My mom said it was such a blessing to go to Korea and that it was such a gift to have Isaiah. The man then said, "thank you for adopting him."
We learned that this man and his family were in the states to attend his son's high school graduation, but before the graduation they were seeing the west and golfing. Wow, it was so amazing to get to speak with this Korean man! He was so kind and loving to Isaiah and our family. I was so impressed with how Isaiah did too...he let the Korean man touch his cheek and neck a LOT, and only at the very end did he say no (and I am hoping that the man didn't really hear him as it was said softly).
What a reminder of how much I love the Korean culture...people are so genuine! It makes me want to travel to Korea again...soon! I hope we raise Isaiah to be a gentle and kind young man.
On Monday evening Travis was getting his dinner ready before he headed to class and he and Isaiah were singing songs. I was able to get a video recording of Wheels on the Bus! Sorry the video is a little dark and the volume isn't great, but I was trying to not let Isaiah see that I was recording him, or he might have stopped singing! This version also seems to have the Mommy's saying "move on back" which he doesn't normally say, but oh well...it is still cute!
My class had another field trip. This week on Thursday we got to go on the Portland Spirit. Right now our class is studying bridges, specifically Portland bridges so we got to take a boat trip on the Willamette River to view the bridges. It was amazing weather and we had a great time. Unfortunately... my poor skin had too good of a time.
We finally had warmer weather on Wednesday and Thursday (and today too). It has been in the 70's the past few days, which means we can actually enjoy time outside! Isaiah LOVES his time outside. He always wants to take Sophie out to go potty and he has learned to YELL (not sure why he needs to yell at poor Sophie) but he loves telling her to "Go Potty!" He also loves to talk about and label items (fire pit and barbecue) in the backyard. Isaiah has also enjoyed helping us plant our garden plants.
Yes, Isaiah just gave a love (hug) to our fire pit!
Here are several pictures and a video of our evening of planting trees, (as Isaiah calls our new garden).
I can't wait for yummy produce this summer...strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, and zucchini!
Travis has class on Monday evenings which means Isaiah and I normally get to hang out with Nonna and Pops. This past Monday afternoon Elise had a doctors appointment so we got to hang out and have dinner with the Willis family too. Nonna, Campbell, Isaiah, and I picked up Pops and then we met Elise and Dan at Chiptole. Campbell, Isaiah, and I (I mean I) were a little squished in the backseat!
I love nap time because it means cuddling with Isaiah! Last week I rocked Isaiah in our downstairs chair and my silly boy insisted on holding his phone while falling asleep.
On Monday my class went on a field trip to Franz Bakery.
Our field trip consisted of a brief history of the Franz Family Bakeries. Our first rotation was a half hour tour of the facility.
This is a picture I got from the Franz website because we were not allowed to take our cameras on the walking bakery tour. However, this picture does have our amazing tour guide-Becky!
Next, our group visited the interactive learning centers where there were books to read and mind teaser work sheets to do.
This was a neat activity that the kids seemed to enjoy. The goal was to pick 12 items off the shelf and then practice restocking the shelves. They had to make sure to put the bread packages back in the right location, with the label showing, opening facing the wall, etc.
Finally, we enjoy a snack of bread, butter and apple juice and are given gift bags to take home.
We got a tiny loaf of bread in our gift bag!
We got these fun bread hats!
And we got a new magnet...can you spot it among the gears?
I found a cute Mother's Day card project in my May Family Fun magazine. I had my 3rd graders create these cute tea cups for their moms and then I made a few to share too. It still wasn't the perfect class craft project as there still seemed to be a lot of teacher effort, but I think they still liked them.
I pre-traced the teacups onto the paper. The teacup needed to be on the fold of the paper, which I figured some kids wouldn't be able to accomplish. Then a couple of my early finisher (good cutting skills) students cut out the majority of the teacups. Next, the kids had a choice of two sayings: I hope you have a tea-riffic Mother's Day or You're my cup of tea! that they got to write in their card. Afterwords, they use stamp pads and made finger print flowers (some turned out much cutter than others...I constantly have to get rid of my high expectations). Finally, they glued the pocket and stuffed a tea bag into the card.
Our celebration of Mother's Day included: Travis getting me a yummy doughnut for breakfast, going to church, having lunch, relaxing at home while Isaiah took his afternoon nap, and then we went to Nonna and Pop's house for dinner and crepes for dessert. It was a pretty low key day, but a good day. I was thankful not to be in an airplane and flying this Mother's Day! Travis and Isaiah (but really Grandad since he is helping build it) are still working on my gift. Hopefully I will have a counter stool (see picture below to get the idea) in the near future! Then, Isaiah can actually help me cook more easily.
On May 4, 2010 we met Isaiah in Korea for the first time at 10:30am. We were at Holt for about an hour learning as much as we could about Isaiah from his foster mom. When we left Holt we took a 30 minute subway ride back to our hotel. Isaiah rode in the carrier on me and fell asleep during the subway ride. Once we were back at the hotel we gave Isaiah a bottle, took off a layer of clothing as he was super hot, and began to enjoy our son. We skyped with family and showed Isaiah his cups! We left the hotel again and headed out to have a late lunch. We ended up finding an Italian restaurant (our first meal in a restaurant in Korea since we had only arrived the night before and had eaten the hotel breakfast). After lunch we explored Insadong, a shopping district close to our hotel. An honestly the rest of the days agenda isn't as clear at the morning/early afternoon. I know we were excited to finally have Isaiah in our family, but we were also learning how to be parents- which was a little stressful.
On May 4, 20ll, (just one year later) the circumstances were completely different. We started the day as a normal routine day-we both worked in the morning and Nonna watched Isaiah. However, Travis took the afternoon off so that we could celebrate our first family day by going to the zoo. What a difference a year makes! We still have our days that we are learning how to be good parents, but we have learned so much already too.
This was our third zoo trip with Isaiah. We went last summer, last December for Zoo Lights, and then yesterday. Yesterday, was by far the best trip. The weather was in the 70's and Isaiah had so much more vocabulary that he was able to share his excitement about the zoo.
Here are some highlights from our zoo trip...
We left our house around 1(close to Isaiah's normal nap time). We told him that he could fall asleep in the car and we would wake him up when we got to the zoo. Guess who feel asleep about 10 minutes before we arrived at the zoo? Short nap, but he was in a great mood.
The first animal we saw were the bears. He was very excited to see bears. He said, "hi bear" a lot. He also counted the bears... "one, two" "two bears!"
This was how we spent most of our time at the zoo. Isaiah wanted to walk, and walking for Isaiah means holding hands with both of us. So one person(Travis in this picture) pushed the stroller with his left hand and held Isaiah's left hand and the other person (me) held Isaiah's other hand and then I held the camera my other hand. Yes, our hands were full! I think that is the life of a parent.
In reviewing some of the Korea videos the foster mom told us that he doesn't like baths. I do remember that giving Isaiah baths in Korea was pretty tortuous. He has gotten better, but he still isn't a fan of water in his face. He still seems to be very cautious around the water.
He did love the fish in water though!
At the last part of the Great Northwest section of the zoo there was a cougar. I hadn't even had a chance to tell Isaiah the type of animal and he says, "cat...big cat!" Yes, cougars are big cats!
We are at the money cage and I am trying to show him where the monkeys were. I think he saw them. And then he directed them by saying "lay down monkey". He loves do say "sit up and lay down" to himself, his toys, pretty much as often as possible.
Throughout the zoo trip we tried several times to get a Mommy and Isaiah photo. This was our best attempt and someone seems a little wiggly!
He wasn't any more cooperative with a Daddy and Isaiah picture either.
There were several times we made him ride in the stroller... and he was not happy!
Thank goodness for the stroller because it allowed us to get at least one cute picture of Isaiah since he had to be more still.
Looking up at his silly Daddy!
Singing Matilda the Gorilla (one of his favorite songs) with daddy!
Daddy talking to Isaiah about elephants.
However, instead of looking at these amazing animals...
Isaiah was focused somewhere else. What, you aren't sure what this picture is highlighting? While in the elephant barn Isaiah noticed the fans on the ceiling.
And the best...we were taking a video and talking about the fans when the zoo worker asks if we have any questions. Too bad we didn't think quickly enough to ask... um, yes can you tell me the schedule of your fans?
In one of the Discovery Centers we found a fun place to take some pictures of Isaiah. We actually got a couple smiles.
Towards the end of the zoo trip, in a darker exhibit room Isaiah FINALLY decided it was time to pose and say cheese. Ah, the perks of having kids!
While walking past these rocks I told Travis that we should take another picture here (I was thinking we had taken a picture here during a previous visit). However, after the photo shoot that wasn't a huge success... I remembered we didn't take a picture here, but instead I changed a dirty diaper in the stroller in this rock alcove. Ah, fun times! I am much more thankful for hugs from Isaiah than changing a diaper!
Daddy and Isaiah looking at the hippos!
Isaiah was very excited to see the "G" rafts!
All the fun at the zoo made Isaiah tired, so he took another short car nap.
Poor baby still gets upset when the sun gets in his eyes, but I am glad he has learned how to cope and isn't just crying when the sun gets in his eyes!
We are so proud of how much Isaiah has grown and learned in just one year of being home with us. We love him so much and we are so thankful to have the opportunity to be his parents!
It is amazing to think that just one year ago to this day we were in Korea meeting Isaiah for the first time. We are so blessed to have Isaiah as our son. We love him more and more each day!
Here is a video of our first moments meeting and holding Isaiah while in Korea last May.
Today was such filled with celebration, but I am getting too sleepy for blogging all about our family fun...more tomorrow.
Last month when I was looking in my Spring/Easter files at school I found a paper (from when I taught Kindergarten) that I thought Isaiah might have fun coloring and playing with since there were numbers on the eggs. I made a copy of it, but then kept forgetting to get it out of my school bag and let Isaiah do the activity, until this week.
Isaiah picked all the pink and purple crayons.
He loved my classic crayon holder better than coloring the eggs.
Once I cut the eggs out and he could move the numbers around he LOVED the paper again!
Counting the eggs and putting them in number order.
While Isaiah was napping on Saturday afternoon Travis and I decided it was time to go through our file cabinet and get rid of paper copies that were no longer necessary to keep. This project resulted in LOTS of shredding. We started shredding some before Isaiah woke up from his nap, but we weren't finished so Isaiah got to help with some of the shredding.
Side note: Isaiah loves helping shred our junk mail on a daily basis. However, he LOVED getting to help shred LOTS of papers all at one time!
Here is a video of him enjoying shredding!
Here is a video of Isaiah having a melt down that we can't finish the shredding project because the shredder is over heated and needs a break. Poor baby just wanted to help his mom and dad finish their project!
I get leg cramps, and pretty regularly. I only seem to get them at night while sleeping but they are always bad enough that I have to get out of bed and walk around to make the pain stop. I have been known to get multiple leg cramps in one night and for multiple night in a row.
What can be done to reduce night time leg cramps?
Recommendations include: 1)Increase my consumption of certain vitamins and minerals. 2) Drink more water . 3)Put soap in your bed ... and honestly probably others, but these are just the ones I am recalling right now.
Well, since getting leg cramps isn't really convenient I have tried every recommendation given to me! The most interesting recommendation was the soap theory. However, I did notice less leg craps after I put soap in my bed. Just recently (after several years of soap in my bed) I was changing the sheets and didn't bother putting the soap back into my bed. I guess I wasn't thinking! Well, that first night=leg cramp. Second night= leg cramp, third night=leg cramp, fourth night=leg cramp...each night without soap in my bed I had a leg cramp. After several nights of waking up and dealing with leg cramps the bar of soap was back in my bed.
Guess what...no leg cramps since I re-put the soap in my bed. Myth or Reality? REALITY! Soap is such a blessing, and something I never have appreciated enough!
Recently while searching the internet for other recommendations and before I re-put the soap in my bed I was surprised to discover there is a whole website dedicated to solutions! Perhaps you are interested in this crazy resource...that is if you suffer from leg cramps.
