It’s been awhile. But I’ve missed blogging so much.

Some things have changed.

But all for the better. We have 11 amazing and healthy children.

Chloe is 24 and simply doing amazing! She is graduating with her Bachelors degree in May from Ohio Valley University.

Blake is 19 and is starting his own business as well as being a little TikTok famous as Blvke.

Camye is 18 and has started college at OSU and is wanting to be a flight attendant.

Gina is 18 and is graduating with honors in May. She will go to OSU in the fall. She has a puppy, Noodle.

Sage is 15 and doing amazing! She is in speech therapy and is speaking so well. She did get her hearing aids as well. She has a puppy, Kimchi.

Avah is 11!!! Unbelievable! She is so smart and so beautiful! She has a new puppy, Dumplin.

Mia is 11, going on 23. She has always been an ‘old soul’. She loves Jesus, singing hymns and making slime.

Cade is 9. He is amazing and loves his mama! He loves all things science. And his new liver is working amazing.

Brynlee is 6, lovable and sweet. She loves dolls and gymnastics. We are starting to see some issues with her liver as she and Cade both have biliary atresia.

Lilah is 4 and ever so sweet. Loves her daddy. She is super smart. She enjoys playing with peppa pig toys and magnatiles.

We did feel our family was complete until we had a stirring this past year in a few situations. We are excited to see what 2020 brings for us all! Leave me a comment I’d love to hear from you.

I have been very interested in North Korea since adopting from South Korea. I have read many books and learned how sad it is.
However visiting the DMZ and seeing the efforts of South Korea for unification….I left with such a sadness for the North Korean people.

Ribbons hung by families who were separated from the Korean War, decades ago. Yet they still hang and still haven’t been reunified.

A train and tracks from a once connected Korea….now does no run at all because of the divided country.

Unification is mentioned almost everywhere you look.

Excuse the young man in front of the map…oblivious to our tour guide showing us the details of the 4th tunnel. He was an awesome guide, so very knowledgeable.

This was the only actual picture of the tunnel before we entered that was allowed. I highly recommend getting in shape before going on this 4 mile tunnel underground. And hello take off your coat…Wear THE HARDHATS they offer. I am 5″4 and hit my head several times. I saw several women in the tunnel without a hat. I know they had to have hit their heads many times. Forget your hair…wear the hard hat. I was very scared…Blake led the way. Several times I tried to back out… I mean Hello…we are in an underground tunnel…built with North Korea hands with the intent to attack South Korea from underground. Dynamite markings were everywhere. My chest was so tight. Blake several times said..for the sake of homeschooling…keep going mom. So I did. But alone..I would have bailed.

Peaking throught the whole at the end of the tunnel to the North Korea side was UNREAL.

A few shots outside of the tunnel…not sure what this said.

Again…reunification is the entire point of the DMZ on the South Korea side. This statue says it all.

Our super cool tour bus….

Unification…yet again.

Some other Americans were at the DMZ…love that they had the American Flag there.

North Korea is beyond the binoculars. Unreal to me.

Cameras were only allowed so far.

Again…reunification.

We were told only the tallest and most handsome male soldiers are placed at the DMZ. This was a train station the US helped South Korea with to again….help reunification along…didn’t really worked. No one was there to go to Pyongyang…hello can you blame them?

I did pay for the passport stamp to enter North Korea…50 cents….they recommended not putting it on your real passport since some countries wont allow you to reenter with a North Korea stamp on your passport. So I just put it on my ticket.

Nice to have a good ole American President represented at the DMZ.

Just a cute one of my little two….chilling on the bed. On the other side of that mattress behind Mia is another child. HyunSoo knew exactly what he was doing..he could throw items at just the perfect spot to bounce off the wall and into the next bed. Fabulous! He is a smart kiddo!

Not sure why but they had changed his I.V. location from leg to arm…

Cade, his hospital caregiver, Ms. Ko (the social worker who took us on this visit), and Blake

I have decided to leave my thoughts and feelings about this hospital caregiver off social media.

My baby boy still sucks his thumb…be still my heart. I love it!

Family photo..he was waving to us goodbye…well sticking out his tongue acutally. But we will take what we can get.:)

And this was a little more accurate of a partial family photo….HyunSoo and Appa joking around!

When we first visited HyunSoo it was in ICU. He was alone and verybsad little guy.

But our second and third visit was with HyunSoo in his room shared with 3 other children.

On these two visits.. Amsa(his orphanage) were with him. They were incredible. Friendly. Recognized Avah. Interested in us. They stayed in the room to keep hyunsoo feeling safe with familiar people around. Those visits went perfect.But after these care takers left.. A caretaker from the hospital arrived and HyunSoo knew her and felt safe with her but for some reason she was afraid of us and apparently we may be scary.. Imagine that! Haha

Anyway.. Hindsight is 20/20… And i think it was cultural differences which i can respect and let go. And i will. It just made a trip i had been anticipating for 18 months not go as planned.

As soon as my jetlag lifts.. I will complete that blog. Continue reading →

Yesterday when we arrived at the adoption agency I knew something was wrong. I felt like we had the plague or something. This is so odd. We have always been embraced by our Korean Agency but I just felt like something was wrong.

Then I realized our appointment had been wiped off the dry erase calendar .. I started feeling sick. I even emailed our agency director in the US… To see if she knew what was up.

HyunSoos social worker which happened to be Mia’s social worker and great Facebook friend.. Walks over and says we need to tell you something before we leave. My stomach dropped.

I felt sick.

Then she told us he was in ICU and had vomited blood. Long story short.. He suffers from hyper portal tension due to the veins being so large around the cirrhosis still pumping blood and one had ruptured. I am sure my liver friends could explain this better but this was my understanding yesterday after meeting with the … … Head of the liver clinic and his team who has always had HyunSoo in care.

The first time we only visited for 20 minutes and he was pretty much out of it. In fact I am sure he was drugged.. He is an active little boy and I can’t imagine he sits in ICU quietly.

Here are some photos that I haven’t shared yet.

A quick blog to show photos and video of Avah and Mia’s foster mom meeting.

We hadn’t met Avah’s foster mom before since she was living at Amsa at the time. She was so sweet and Avah was her last foster child. She brought many photos and loved all over Avah.

Of course Mia’s foster mom and dad and new little foster baby came and loved all over Mia!

Sleep didn’t come until 1am.

Alarm at 3am.

So many emotions….

I am already fighting the tears.

Mia is thanking me over and over for taking her back to see her foster mom.

Avah ecstatic about life. Thanking me for being the best Omma ever.

So many memories flood my mind.

The longest 21 hours of my life after getting Mia… So hard.

The overwhelming happiness and open arms that Avah received us with. Yet still loves and yearns for her Korea so much.

Jin Joo… A name I have heard out of Avahs mouth every single day since coming home. And then to receive this photo mere days before traveling.

This is Jin Joo. Avahs very best friend… We pray for this sweet girl every day. She is looking at Cade in this photo.
Unreal. I pray Avah gets to see her again.

I received this next photo on the same day. This photo speaks volumes from my heart. The story I could write from one photo.. This would be it.

My sweet boy peaking through a window.. Yet behind him the very room we met him… Avahs room at the orphanage… Also the refrigerator that he ran into and got hurt…. Which caused our meeting.

I have been in such a blogging lull the past several months. I have been numb and hurt from this process that seemed never ending. But I can see the light… It’s time to meet our son, again.

I am in country now and have so much to be thankful for.

A final decree.

A Visa appointment

Two countries caring very much for son’s health.

My incredible son.

Sneak peaks from home of a few of my loves.

Shopping like the locals. I love digging through $3-$4 bins of Korean kids clothes.

Time with my husband.