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!

Kyan's first Thanksgiving

Ky had his first thanksgiving yesterday! It was very laid back. We went to my parents house at around 2 pm, ate turkey and other yummy sides at 3pm. My mom makes the best thanksgiving meal! I look forward to it for months and this year she did not disappoint! Everything was so good, I am drooling just thinking about it!

While growing up my mom always had a little craft for the kids to work on after the dinner was over. Having a house full of wild kids running around was not my mom's idea of fun, so she tried to plan something constructive for us to do. This became something that we all looked forward to. Each year my mom would find some kind a ornament for us to make/decorate. This year was no different. After dinner we all sat down to paint some wooden ornaments that were also frames. Here are how mine turned out.

I can't wait for Ky to be old enough to participate (more than just watching from the sidelines!)

After the craft, we had some pie and it was time to head out because it was Ky's bedtime.

It is so cool how holidays become more meaningful with a child. I am so looking forward to the whole Christmas season!

Our Korea Trip

I said a few weeks ago that I would update you all on our trip. Well, it took longer than I thought, but I am finally blogging about Korea. I will try to keep to the "Reader Digest" version, so it will not be a monster blog. (Editors note - it turned out to be a monster blog! Sorry, there is so much to tell!)

Day 1 (Oct 29th- USA time)
We get dropped off at the airport at 6:30 AM, and we get on our flight to Chicago. Once there, we have to go to the international terminal (which means we have to go through security again- so that apple juice I bought and barely drank has to be thrown away!) We get on our flight to Korea on Korean Air. We have a 14 hour flight ahead of us. We each have our own touch screen with movies, TV shows and games. It even updates us on the flight pattern. We also have an extra seat so we have room to spread out! Jason watches Iron man, Get Smart, and Kung Fu Panda. I watch Ironman, Maid of Honor, a Friends episode, and a documentary on J.K. Rolling (author of the Harry Potter books- which I LOVE!) We also get fed 2 meals and sleep some. When we land it is 5:30 pm Oct 30th Korean time. We go through customs, get our luggage, find our driver and rent a cell phone. Our driver leads us to the van and we start the 1 hour trip to the agency. This trip makes me sick and I almost throw up in the van, but I hold it in and we make it to the agency! We get our room (# 508). The driver brings up our luggage and gives us a letter from our social worker telling us what time our first meeting with Kyan (of course his name at this time is Min Kyoo) was and where it would take place. It was set for 9:40 am the following morning. We are so tired that we end up falling asleep at 8:30. I should probably mention here that I had motion sickness from the long flight and the van ride. Also, I had some serious nerves about meeting our child for the first time.

Day 2 -Friday Oct 31st Korean time
We woke up around 6:30 am. We were still on MN time so it was hard to sleep in. But we stayed in bed, and lounged around. Jason playing Spider Solitaire on the computer, and I did a few Sudoku puzzles. We did get up and get ready for our meeting with Kyan. The Korean culture is very formal, so we were told to dress-up for agency business. So Jason wore ties and I wore blazers. Gifts are also a big part of Korean tradition. We were told to bring gifts for everyone who was involved with our son's care. So we also got those gifts "wrapped" in some gift bags. We went down to the Social Workers' office and met with Mrs. Oh, the person in charge of the Visas. She had us fill out some paperwork, and she gave us our travel documents. Then we were lead to an observation room. We were pretty excited and nervous at this point. We were told that the baby would probably cry the whole time since we look and smell so different, so we were gearing up for that. The social worker came into the room followed by the foster mom holding Kyan. He looked very similar to his 5 month picture. The social worker took Kyan and gave him to me to hold. The first thing that he did was lay his head on my shoulder. How sweet. We then went up onto the platform that they had with some toys for Ky to play with. We all sat down on the floor and the foster mom started to tell us all about Kyan and tried to show us all the "tricks" that he could do. Then the social worker gave us 20 minutes alone with Ky. He let me hold him, kiss him and Jason was able to get him to laugh and smile. It was awesome! After the 20 minutes they came back in and we set up our next meeting to be on Monday at 1:30. We were also told that right after this meeting we had a meeting scheduled with Dr. Kim and Dr. Kim the founder of the agency and his daughter who now runs the agency. So we went up to their offices and met with both of them. We found out that it was a Christian-based agency. "Old Dr. Kim" (that is what they call him- I am not making it up) is 93 years old and is the sweetest man that I will ever having the honor to meet. His daughter is a very caring lady who gave us great suggestions for site seeing and shopping. We went back to our room and took it easy for the rest of the day. I was still not feeling well from the trip.

Day 3- Nov 1st
We decided to get out and see Seoul that day! We were ready to brave the subway and try to get on the Seoul City Bus Tour. We got to the subway station, but could not communicate with the ticket agent that we needed a "t-card" (a prepaid card for the subway). I finally heard some ladies speaking English and asked where they got their cards. She helped us get 2 cards and we found out that she was from South Africa. She was teaching English in South Korea. Now that we had our T-cards, we could go any where! We got to the tracks figured out what train to get on and we were on our way down town. We found our stop on the subway, and were able to find the Seoul City Bus Tour. This tour took us around to all the city's "attractions". It had 27 stops in all. We got off at the Korean War Museum, Itaewon shopping street, Seoul Tower, and the Chaggyeonggung Palace.
The Korean War museum was HUGE. It had several different war vehicles to look at from all over the world. Itaewon shopping was a bunch of little kiosks on the street selling clothes, socks, purses, knick-knacks etc. We did not buy anything here, because most of the stuff we could get in the USA.
Seoul Tower was much like the space needle. It has beautiful views of the city. It also had a pretty steep walk up a hill, which I saw Korean women walking up in high-heels. Chaggyeonggung Palace was my favorite stop. It was beautiful. Once you were inside the walls, it was like stepping back in time. It had beautiful trails to walk on and a cool buildings. It was the peak fall time of year for Korea and the leaves were so pretty. We got back on the bus and rode it back to the starting place. It was getting dark and we were heading back to the agency to get some dinner. The bus ride was pretty jerky so I was not feeling well at all. I knew that we had to get back to the room fast, or I would be sick. Unfortunately, I did not make it. I ended up throwing up in some bushes alongside the sidewalk. Probably one of the lowest moments of my life! But it was evening, and no one seemed to be bothered by it. They probably thought I was drunk or something. After that I did feel better, so we were able to make it back okay. Jason went and got some food for himself, we watched a movie, and went to bed.

Day 4 -Nov 2nd
I woke up feeling sick again! I was pretty fed up with not feeling well, and not being able to eat anything for the whole time I was in Korea. Jason and I were also going to go shopping at the South Gate market that day. We had heard that this was one of the best places to go and were really looking forward to it, but I could barley even sit up without feeling sick. Jason went to send out an e-mail asking for prayer for me, and when he came back we decided that we would walk to the market and to a department store (we were told that was were we could find a podeagi). Since I had felt the best when were walking around the palace the day before, we thought this was a good idea. We brought some water with us for our 5 kilometer (one way) hike. Once we started walking I did feel better. The fresh air was good for me. We were able to find our way though Seoul (thanks to Jason's awesome map reading skills), and made it to the South Gate Market. We were able to find all of our gifts for our family here. We then made our way to the Galleria department store. Once we were there, we found the baby section and found the Podeagi. On our way out of the store there was a smoothie shop. I saw and felt hungry for the first time in Korea. I told Jason that I wanted a smoothie, so we got one to share. It was soooooo good! The best smoothie I have ever had. After that smoothie I felt good the rest of the trip. We now refer to it as "the magic smoothie". We walked back to the agency and watched movie. Later that night, we walked to the Baskin Robin Ice Cream shop for some ice cream. Now that I had my appetite back, I wanted some ice cream!

Day 5 -Nov 3rd
We were invited to lunch that day at the agency. They serve a traditional Korean lunch to the adoptive parents. We were able to eat with others who were adopting children, and hear their stories. It was a really yummy meal. I was so happy that I was feeling better so that I could eat it! After lunch we had our second meeting with Kyan. This meeting started out a little rocky. Ky was fussy and started to cry when we tried to play with him or show him a toy. His foster mom seemed a little more on edge that day too. The social worker came in, and suggested that we walk Kyan up and down the hall to calm him down. This seemed to work and she handed Ky to Jason. Jason continued to walk with him and he was getting more settled. When Jason passed Kyan to me he again laid his head on my shoulder and fell asleep. It was so precious. I held him asleep in my arms loving every second of it. We think that he was a little crabby at the beginning, because he was so tired. We found out at this meeting that we would get Kyan on Wednesday (the day that we leave) at 8:30 (the time and we leave for the airport)

Day 6 -Nov 4th
This is our last full day in Korea. We went to Kyobo Book Store, which is one of the largest book stores in the world. We were able to find some books that had Korean and English. Jason found a book about a daddy fish and his son. It has a really cute story about how much the daddy fish loves his son. It is so perfect. I really wanted to find a mommy and son book, but I had to settle for some cool pop-up books. We later went out to eat with our friends Peter and Ashleigh. They were our neighbors at the guest house. They were adopting a boy just 5 days older than Kyan. They are Korean-American, and Peter had family that he had visited while staying at the agency. They live in the Washington DC area. They brought us to a restaurant that serves omni-rice. It was fried rice wrapped in egg (like an omelet) with different things served with it. Jason had a chicken quesadilla style one, I had steak style one, Peter had a cheeseburger style one, and Ashleigh had sweet potato style one. They all were really good. We were able to get to know Peter and Ashleigh better, and felt a real connection with them. It is amazing how God blessed us with friends while we were half-way around the world. We are still e-mailing updates to each other and sharing prayer requests.

Day 7- Nov 5th - Gottcha Day!
It starts out early. We got up at 6:30. We got dressed, finished packing, and headed down stairs at 8:15 to get ready to have the prayer service for Kyan. Old Dr. Kim prays for each child that leaves the agency. They helped us load our suitcases into the van, and then we met with the Foster mom, social worker and Dr Kim for our Prayer Service. This was very special and emotional time for me. I cried the whole time. Peter and Ashleigh happened to be down in the lobby at that time, and were able to take pictures for us, which is so special! After the prayer, we got in the van and the foster mom handed Kyan over to Jason, who passed him on to me. Up to this point I had been really nervous and not feeling well (again!). Once Ky was on my lap I instantly felt better, and my nerves seemed to disappear. Everything was just the way it was supposed to be. We were off on our 21 hour trip home. I blogged about this trip in this post.

It was an amazing trip! Jason and I are already talking about what we want to do and see when we go back!

Sick Daddy

Jason was sick last weekend. He got some sort of flu thing. So that meant that he was in bed all weekend. This was very sad, because he really wanted to spend some time with Ky since he had to work last week and did not get to spend the time that we wanted.

Since Jason was sick I got to be a FULL time mommy, day and night (Jason is really good about helping in the evening and night!) Ky and I stuck together and we got through the weekend. But, by Sunday night I was in some desperate need of some Fawnda time. Ky and I were pretty much glued to each other at the hip (especially since I was using the Hip Hammock) all weekend. It seems as though Kyan and I were protected from whatever Jason had, because we have not gotten sick as of yet!

Ky has been sleeping at night really well. Every night he seems to get a little better. Last night he slept from 8:00 to 6:45! That was awesome! I think that he is figuring out when "night time" is. Now, if I can just get him to figure out when "nap time" is. Since he has slept good at night, he has not been taking any naps. This leads to a pretty crabby baby by the end of the day. But a crabby day with Kyan is better than any day at work! He is the cutest crabby baby I have ever seen!

Tomorrow is our 2 week mark! It is amazing how much I have learned in the past 2 weeks! I know what toys he likes, when he wants to be held (pretty much all the time!), what his hungry cry is, his tired cry, and what his crabby cry sounds like. What makes him laugh, what makes him scared, how to calm him down, when he wants to be in the hip hammock, and so much more. I love him more and more every day! We are so lucky!

7 hours of sleep!

We have witnessed a miracle! Ky slept for 7 hours straight last night. He went down at 10:00 and woke up at 5:00. I got 6 hours because I went to bed at 11:00.

I wish I could say that it was something that Jason and I did in our infinite wisdom, but it wasn't! I believe that it was that prayers from our friends and family so, keep them coming!

I do not think that he has officially changed over to our time yet, nor do I expect him to sleep through the night every night but, it is a step in the right direction. And I am basking the the glory of 6 hours of sleep!