We tried sleding today

Jason was really excited to play outside in the snow with Ky.  He even rigged up this sled so that Ky could ride on it, being pulled by Jason.  We know that it looks a bit redneck but it suited our purpose so we used it!  It is The Kings sleigh!  

Here is the result. 

So Jason tried sledding down the hill holding Ky... 
Not much better.  Poor Jason... he wanted to have some winter fun and Ky was just not ready for all the excitement of it.  

I tried to go down with Ky REALLY slow and he seemed to tolerate it, I would not say that he liked it, but we are moving in the right direction.  
It seemed like Ky had had enough of the cold so we built a fire.  He really liked that.  He was mesmerized by the flames.  

While we were out in the yard we found these footprints by our porch... we think it may be a possum or a raccoon.  What do you think? 

Christmas Morning at the Normans

Happy Day after Christmas to you!

This year was one of the most FUN Christmases EVER! We woke up around 8 AM (Ky woke us up! But I was the one who wanted to open presents!) and went down stairs to open our gifts!

Jason got his birthday wish, which was to stay in our Pjs all day long! Even when my parents came over we were still in our Pjs! But I think we looked pretty cute! Here is a pic:

It was a very laid back day, which are Jason's favorite! Ky loved the wrapping paper the best and had fun playing with that!

We hope your Christmas was a great as ours!!

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve and I'd like to leave you with my favorite version of the 12 Days of Christmas! Enjoy!

The Norman Christmas Letter

We are going green this year! Usually I will write a letter to print off and send in our Christmas card. This year I am saving the paper and writing it here!

January we attend PreAdoption Classes (PAC) We had submitted our preliminary application, and gone through some screening to get into the Korea program during Sept-Dec of 07 and were finally able to attend PAC. This was a very informative 2-day session on all things adoption. Jason and I leaned a lot and have hopefully retained most of that information. We also were part of a PAC group of other parents who were adopting from Korea. It has been fun to keep in contact with them and support each other through the process.

In January Jason got promoted from assistant controller to controller at his job at Belair Builders. Jason has worked there for 3 years now, and still enjoys it most of the time!

Leaving PAC we got some "homework" (it was actually the REAL application) It had several personal questions about ourselves, our families, our beliefs, etc. It took us over a month to get through all the questions and we submitted the homework at the end of February.

We were than assigned a social worker (SW) who would be doing our home study and working with us through the whole process. We had two meeting with our SW. The first one was at the agency where we were asked questions based off our answers of our homework. This went really well and Jason and I felt very comfortable with our SW. The second was at our home. We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned! We also talked some more and were officially approved and completed the home study on March 5th. At that time, we were told it would be 0-5 month wait for the referral.

In April, Fawnda turned the horrid 30! Jason threw an AMAZING surprise party with a Korean theme. Fawnda was so surprised!

In June, Fawnda finished one of the toughest school years that she has ever had to teach. She was so happy to have the summer break and took on more hours at Pier 1 where she had been working part time as an assistant manager.

On August 1st, we received our referral for our beautiful baby boy. We were able to tell Fawnda's family when they were all in town. Fawn's brother, Justin lives in the Czech Republic, and her sister Karly (along with her family) live in Connecticut. It was so fun to be able to share the good news with everyone while they were at home. We were able to call and tell Jason's family the good news and they were so excited for us!

On October 24th we got our call to travel. Fawnda was at school during first hour when she got the call. Needless to say, not a lot of teaching went on after that! Jason made travel plans and we were set to fly to Korea on Oct 29th!

We Arrived in Korea on Oct 30th, and had our first meeting with Kyan on Oct 31st (Halloween!). We had our second visit on Nov 3rd and took custody of Kyan on Nov 5th. We were able to do some site seeing in Korea as well and fell in love with the beautiful country!

We have been home with Ky for about a month and a half and are loving parenthood. Everywhere we go people tell us that we are beaming - so we must be showing our joy! Ky has such a fun personality and keeps us on our toes. He is not crawling yet, but is showing signs that it will be soon (either that, or he will go right to walking!)! 

We were also blessed with 2 nieces and 1 nephew this year. They will be a little younger than Kyan (who was born on Feb 10th):
Callie Elizabeth was born Feb 18th to Brent and Sarah, (Jason's brother)
Saylor Grace was born March 27th to Paul and Karly (Fawnda's sister)
Mathias Joseph (Matty) was born April 17th to Joe and Nikki (Jason's sister)

Our year was very busy and mostly revolved around our adoption process. We hope your year has been a blessing to you and your family!

Love, The Normans- Jason, Fawnda, and Kyan

Taking Korea home

We loved our trip to Korea. The best part was of course meeting and getting our son, Ky, but we loved the city of Seoul and the Korean culture. We have decided to try to bring some of that culture home with us. Here are a few things that we are going to try to take on.

Koreans Dress Up
The people we saw in Seoul were very fashion savvy. They dress in suits and dresses, and look fabulous most of the time. We really liked how this looked as we were walking around the city. We liked how everyone looked their best. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have weakness for clothes, so this is not a stretch for me. Sometimes I wonder if I should have been Korean! So, don't be surprised if when we show up to an event Jason and I are dressed up!

Koreans Give Gifts
I LOVE gifts. I love to give them and receive them. When I was reading about this part of the Korean culture, I thought, "now here is something that I can get into!" This is another reason I thought that I should be Korean. Jason and I have been talking about how we want to be more generous and appreciative. Koreans bring gifts to others when they go over to their house, meet them for lunch, or when someone has done something for them. If you go out to eat with someone from Korea, good luck trying to pay for it! With the Christmas season upon us, this is an easy one for now. We hope to keep it up all year.

Koreans are Friendly and Helpful
When we were at the airport looking for our driver, several people asked us if we needed help. One man even called the agency on his cell phone to find out where our driver was. I don't think that this would have happened in America. Seoul is a very safe city, where you can walk around at night and not feel worried! We want to bring this attitude of helpfulness and thinking of others to our house. I want this to be a model to our child(ren).

We also loved how easy it was to get around the city with their subway system, but I am not sure that we can bring that home with us. . .

These are part of Kyan's heritage, we hope that you will embrace them as we have!

On a side note:
We tried to go to our Doctors Appointment yesterday, but on the way there we encountered 4 accidents, which really made traffic a mess. We were 20 minutes late and they made us reschedule (for January 9th! seems a bit late for me- we might try to get him to a pediatrician before that) This was very frustrating for us as we woke up extra early and woke Ky up early (and you never wake a sleeping baby) only to be turned away! I wonder if we were in Korea, if we would have been turned away. . .

Trust Issues

My parents used to always tell me: "Trust is one of the hardest things to earn and the easiest to lose" Those words have never been more true to me than right now.

From our perspective, things worked out great for us. We got the CUTEST baby that we have been waiting for!

But from little Kyan's perspective... he did not ask to be given up by his mother, put into a foster home, be taken away from everything he had ever known by strangers (who look, smell, sound, act totally different). It is easy to see why he need some time to trust in Jason and I as his parents.

That being said, I think that Kyan is having some trust issues with us. The time that this is shown the most is bed time. When you think about it, it makes sense that he would get anxious before bed. I know that I, as an adult, have a tough time sleeping if something in my life is off. During the day there are plenty of distractions to keep your mind off of what is bugging you, but at night, or at nap time, it can be the only thing on your mind.

Ky will not go to bed without a lot of reassurance from Jason and I. It was getting to be that when he was nearing the end of his bottle he would get really fussy, cry and be pretty much inconsolable. We think that he was getting nervous about being ALONE in his crib. So now we try to have some really good quality time with him right before bed. What has worked the best (and is what we are doing right now) is for me to lay down with him and snuggle with him for an hour to an hour and half until he is in his deep sleep. Then, I move him to the crib. He wakes up around midnight, I give him a bottle, we snuggle some more (1-2 hours), and I move him back to the crib. He wakes at 5 AM for another bottle and after snuggling he sleeps until around 8:30-9:00. So, he is getting a good night sleep. I am not always getting the most quality sleep, but it is worth it for my son to feel comfortable enough to sleep!

It is funny how God works things out. I hate to sleep alone as well...so why would I expect something different from my own child! On the plus side, I love to cuddle before bed and Jason does not, so now I get my cuddle time!