Special Delivery and a Scary Trip

Ky has not been sleeping well and gets really gassy. We think that it may be from the iron in the formula. I tried and tried to find no iron or low-iron formula, but with no success (not even online).  So, Jason gave it a shot. He found the same formula that we got from Korea that Ky was on before we brought him home... so he tried to order it... there was just one little problem... the site was all in Korean. We still are not fluent in Korean, so he found a program to help translate the site. It translated about 1/3 of the site, but we knew we were buying the formula and we knew that we were paying $35 for the formula and $60 for the shipping. The shipping said that it was for 10 kg (that is about 22 pounds) so we knew that we were getting more than one jar... but how many??? It was a total risk. We could be paying $95 for 1 jar of formula or we would be getting up to 10 jars. It could either be the best or worst deal we have ever done! We also did not know how long it would take to get here. Jason got a tracking email, but it was all in Korean... We really need to learn Korean!
So the package arrived on Saturday. It was not big enough for 10 jars, so I was little worried. It worked out to be 3 jars of formula. And Jason had a $35 credit on his account where he ordered it from, so we got 3 jars for $60... which is $20 a jar... not bad. We just hope that it is better for Kyan's tummy!

On Sunday, as I was walking down the stairs holding Ky, the heel of my boot got caught in the cuff of my pants and down we went. I knew right away that I was going to fall so I tried to shift my weight towards the wall. that helped slow me down. I put one hand down on the stairs to slow me down some more... but I did have an extra 24 pound weight that turned me into a tumble. I tucked Ky under me and I rolled down the stairs. We are OK! There was an angel behind me slowing me down. Jason came running down the stairs to see what happened. I just sat there crying... Ky was totally fine, he was scared but that was it. I was terrified of what could have happened, and it took several minutes to stop shaking. I have some good bruises to show for my trip and a REALLY stiff neck. I don't think that summersaulting down the stairs is a 30-year-old activity! I, now, take the stairs VERY carefully, I hold tight to the railing and walk very slowly. I thank God that we were both able to "walk" away from this!

Joy, Peace, and Hope

With a new President in office there are some people looking for joy, peace and hope this year. Here is what Joy, Peace and Hope look like in our family! : )

And the winner is...

Karly! Hooray!

I will be making her the cards this week (hopefully) and sending them off. Jason and Ky were present for the drawing to make sure that it was fair! - Yes- Ky is still up! He was asleep for about an hour and now will not go back to sleep so he is sitting next to me playing with blocks.

Thanks for all the great ideas! I hope to be saving TONS of moola in the future!

My new part time job- and a contest!

So, my full time job, is taking care of my family, my new part time job is going to be saving us money. If we ever want Ky to have a sibling we needed to start saving for them yesterday!

Here are some ways that I have started to work on saving us money:

• Plan meals out for 2 weeks instead of 1 week. that way I can buy my meat in baulk and get more bang for my buck- Sarah (my SIL) taught me this. She plans for the whole month, but I need to start small.
• Shop at Aldi for some of my groceries. I saved about $40 by doing this last week. If I remember to bring my own bags, cash, and a quarter for the cart, I will have a successful trip. Jeannine told me about this idea

What are your ideas?

For each idea you give me I will put your name in a drawing for a set of 4 monogrammed blank stationary cards with envelopes made by me. Just leave your comment with a list of ideas and a way to contact you. I will mail to US addresses only (Unless you are Ola, than I will mail to you!) The drawing will be held Tuesday Jan 20th at 9PM (central time)so get your comments in before that! Good Luck!

Jeannine and Sarah are already entered in to the drawing once for their ideas posted here... But they can post more ideas... each idea gets another entry! Post early and post often! :)

2 months

Today I have been a mom for 2 months. It might look like I have for longer since I have an 11 month old, but I haven't!

Today marks the 2 month mark since Ky came home. All I can say is "WOW! where does the time go?" It feels like it was just last week that we got home. That being said I have learned a lot of things in the past few months.

Ky has learned some new things since coming to America.

• How to whine, he has a high pitched sound that he makes when things are not going his way, I did not hear it at all on the plane or for the first few weeks that he was here.


• How to clap, it is THE CUTEST THING EVER


• How to wave, he is only doing it to a very select group of people right now (mostly daddy- not mommy) and most times it is with both hands.


• How to make funny noises with his tongue and mouth. He makes a snorting like noise (I don't know how else to describe it) by bringing his two lips together. He also makes noise while putting his tongue back and forth in his mouth.


• He will mimic Jason and I (mostly Jason) Very cute!


• How to throw toys- we may have a baseball player here!


• How to get into things, I think he knew this before but he is really good at it, he gets into EVERYTHING! And he is not even crawling or walking yet!


• He can walk if you hold his hands. He thinks that this is pretty cool.


• How to make HUGE splashes in the tub, I now have to put a towel over me so that I don't come out as wet as he is.

I still can't believe that next month is his 1st birthday!

2009

It is 2009! I love the idea of the new year... it is a new start! What a great reminder each year of the new start that God gave us by sending his Son to earth to die for us. I also like the start of the new year and all the hope of what is to come. Hope is such a powerful thing and having faith in Christ gives us such great hope!

2009 is full of wonderful firsts and possibilities for Jason and I. Some firsts that I am looking forward to include:

• It will be our first FULL year of being parents.
• It will be Ky's first birthday.
• It will be the 1st time we will celebrate 28 birthdays just in our immediate family. (Can you say "holy gifts Batman!")
• It will be the first year that I don't leave the house to go to work (anyone who does not think that staying home taking care of a child is work can stop reading and find another blog now!)
• Our first time finalizing our adoption
• Our first time claiming a child as a dependent on our taxes!

Some possibilities for us include:

• first night that Ky sleeps all night (I am not holding my breath for this one!)
• first day or night using a babysitter so Jason and I can go on a date!
• First time that Ky walks
• First time that Ky speaks English (He does say "eomma" which means mama in Korean, and "mama" which means food in Korean, he also does the baby sign for fan.)

I know that there are going to be a lot of firsts this year with Kyan, and I am looking forward to most of them (I am not looking forward to his first injury or first really bad sickness- but I know that they are coming).

As I sit here and think about 2009, I still can't believe that we have Kyan home and he is here to stay with us! It brings such joy to me to be a mom! Also, I keep chanting "2009 is going to be fine" in my head, I know that it is pretty cheesy but I think that it is true!

Jason and I sit down every year and make goals for ourselves for the coming year. We write them down and put them in a safe place so that we can look at them and see what we have/have not done. I am looking at my goals a little differently this year and I hope to blog about those soon!

I hope that your 2009 is going to be fine! : )

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