Thursday, July 23, 2009
Quick Adoption Update
I just received an email from our social worker and she plans to have our homestudy complete early next week. Woohoo! Once our homestudy is finished, it will be mailed off for approval and we will receive our HSTK (homestudy to Korea) date. At this point we will officially be on the waiting list.
A Week With the Greshams
Raleigh's family makes a cross-country trip each year to visit family. This year they left Colorado and their first stop was Birmingham to celebrate the 4th of July and visit Brandon (Raleigh's brother) and Stacey (our sister-in-law). Next they traveled to Florida to visit Raleigh's dad's side of the family. After Florida they drove to Atlanta to stay with us for a few days. Finally, we drove with them to Michigan to celebrate Raleigh's grandmother's 80th birthday. Here are a few pictures of our time with them.
We ordered dining room chairs that were delievered during their visit. Everyone helped out putting them together!
The chairs are all put together and we enjoyed our first meal at our new table!
Enjoying a funny video at Raleigh's grandmother's house.
Raleigh and his little brother Isaac decided to be dress the same for church to be funny! It did create lots of smiles!
Me and the love of my life!
We ordered dining room chairs that were delievered during their visit. Everyone helped out putting them together!
The chairs are all put together and we enjoyed our first meal at our new table!
Enjoying a funny video at Raleigh's grandmother's house.
Raleigh and his little brother Isaac decided to be dress the same for church to be funny! It did create lots of smiles!
Me and the love of my life!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Pictures from Birmingham
We are so blessed that Brandon and Stacey (Raleigh's brother and our sister-in-law) take such beautiful pictures. If you are in need of wedding photography, hop on over to their website or blog and check them out!!
Here are a few of the pictures they took while we were in Birmingham.
Here are a few of the pictures they took while we were in Birmingham.
Korean Tol
Yesterday I posted about one Korean tradition, the wedding ducks. Another important tradition is the Korean Tol, or child’s first birthday celebration. The tradition began long ago when there was a high infant mortality rate. When children reached the age of one, the family has a big celebration, or Tol.
The Tol is typically divided into four main sections.
1.) Prayer and Giving Thanks
2.) Wearing the Birthday Clothes
3.) Preparing the Birthday Table and doing the Toljabee
4.) Sharing the Food with Friends
The traditional clothing for the birthday celebration is a hanbok and I have included a couple of pictures. Many foster families give the adoptive family a hanbok for their child as a gift. When we travel to Korea, we will buy our child a hanbok if we do not receive one from our child’s foster family.
The birthday table can have a variety of foods, but most often has fruit and rice cakes. Many tables often have candy towers. Another part of the Tol is performing the Toljabee. The parents put various items on a special table in front of the child. The tradition states that the item that the child picks up first predicts the child’s future. I’ve listed the most commonly used items below.
bow and arrow: the child will become a warrior
thread: the child will live long
book or pencil: the child will become a successful scholar
money: the child will become rich
ruler: the child will be talented with his/her hands
spoon: the child will be a good cook
We pray that our child will be home before his or her first birthday, so that we will be able to celebrate this as a family. Here is a link to a very elaborate Tol. Obviously it does not have to be this fancy, but I do love the fruit towers!
The Tol is typically divided into four main sections.
1.) Prayer and Giving Thanks
2.) Wearing the Birthday Clothes
3.) Preparing the Birthday Table and doing the Toljabee
4.) Sharing the Food with Friends
The traditional clothing for the birthday celebration is a hanbok and I have included a couple of pictures. Many foster families give the adoptive family a hanbok for their child as a gift. When we travel to Korea, we will buy our child a hanbok if we do not receive one from our child’s foster family.
The birthday table can have a variety of foods, but most often has fruit and rice cakes. Many tables often have candy towers. Another part of the Tol is performing the Toljabee. The parents put various items on a special table in front of the child. The tradition states that the item that the child picks up first predicts the child’s future. I’ve listed the most commonly used items below.
bow and arrow: the child will become a warrior
thread: the child will live long
book or pencil: the child will become a successful scholar
money: the child will become rich
ruler: the child will be talented with his/her hands
spoon: the child will be a good cook
We pray that our child will be home before his or her first birthday, so that we will be able to celebrate this as a family. Here is a link to a very elaborate Tol. Obviously it does not have to be this fancy, but I do love the fruit towers!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Korean Wedding Ducks
One part of our adoption journey is learning about the Korean culture. Raleigh and I want to learn as much as possible so that we can instill a sense of pride in our child about his or her culture. When we travel to Korea, I hope to purchase special items that can be given to our child on birthdays and other special events. One item I hope to find is a set of wooden wedding ducks. There is a tradition of giving a newly married couple a set of carved ducks. One represents the bride (on the left) and the other the groom. After the wedding, they are placed somewhere in the couple's home and their position (placed by either spouse) tells of the couples marital state. Nose to nose means the relationship is good, tail to tail means they are probably having a disagreement.
We know that as our child gets older, there will be questions about his or her birth parents, Korea, and possibly about his or her identity. Will he or she identify more with Koreans or Americans? I pray that God will prepare us along the way for all of the questions that our child may have. One thing that I do know, is that we will celebrate Korea and its culture.
We will be an American family. Our child will never know what it is like to grow up Korean in Korea, but he or she will know what it is like to be Korean American. Our child will be one of the thousands of boys and girls that become Korean American through adoption. Raleigh and I will never know what it feels like to be Korean American, but we want our child to feel comfortable and proud of his or her culture. We will always support our child and cheer him or her on through all of life's adventures!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Our Trip to Birmingham!
We had a great trip to Birmingham over the weekend. We enjoyed spending time with Raleigh's parents, his brother Isaac, his sister Beth, his brother Brandon and Brandon's wife Stacey. We spent the day Saturday at Brandon and Stacey's house enjoying each other's company. We grilled out Saturday afternoon before going to watch the fireworks in Homewood. We watched the fireworks from Shades Cahaba, the school where I taught for two years. It is such a special place and a treasure within the community.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
WooHoo! Keep praying...
The sweet girl I asked you to pray for has a few more days before her file will be returned to China. Yippee...God is good. The deadline has been extended to July 6th because the social worker was out of the office. That means...get on your knees and ask God to soften a family's heart to be open to an older child with special needs. Raleigh and I do not qualify for the China program, because we are not 30 yet. However, there are many families with all of their paperwork complete and they are waiting on the referral of a child. A doctor in the US looked at her file and said there is a lot that could be done to give her a radically different future.