Twas a month before Christmas

Twas a month before Christmas, our apartment was bare.

No Christmas decorations could be seen anywhere.

It was time to break out the tree and lights

and make our new home look outta sight!

Out comes the Christmas tree from a big box

Not from a tree farm but from Cost - co

Stand it up tall, the braches all flop

Our job is to spread them from bottom to top

For Jennifer this expereince is new

No live tree or 'snow' as Ervins usually do

But she's learned to be thankful for the tall scratchy tree

A fake tree is better than deocorating nothing.

While Patrick and Jennifer set up the tree in a snap

Zachary woke up from his afternoon nap

With eyes spread quite large and a smile oh so wide

He could not believe what mom and dad brought inside

The tree was all sparkly with beautiful lights

It looked just like the stars twinkling at night

Special ornaments from home in one small plastic bin

Place them onto the tree, it's time to begin

Zachary soon found Elmo and friends

He hung them side by side like little book ends

Our tree feels like home with the memories we brought

Gifts from friends, family, and students we taught

Our home and our tree is now far away

But it reminds us of you, and then we're okay

The stockings are hung on the bookshelf with care

No chimney in this apartment anywhere

Patrick's done a great job filling our house full of cheer

In hopes that our friends and St. Nick will come here

Christmas will be different that we all know

No family, no 'old' friends, and no special tree snow

But no matter where we are on Christmas Eve night

We will still celebrate the One True Light

Our Savior was born so that we might have life

Abundant and full, but not without strife

Our God is still good, even far from home

He always goes with us where e'er we roam

Jesus is the reason we celebrate this year

For He is the one who has brought us out here

Our apartment is home and our new friends will hold dear

We can't wait to celebrate with them this year

It is now time to end this poem I write

So 'Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!'

Spreading the branches

Our 'full' tree- I don't think I have ever had a real tree this full :)

Zachary giving instructions where to hang the ornaments

Isn't he handsome?

Zachary decorating the Christmas tree

God cares about green bean casserole too

Okay so here is the green bean casserole story. It is too good not to share.

Oddly, green beans are hard to find here. You can find one brand of canned beans and they are not the very good but we eat them every now and then. Preparing for Thanksgiving was a little stressful for me and I had become pretty emotional. Missing home combined with some work issues and the stresses of never having cooked a turkey before was pretty overwhelming. Friends were bringing food to our Thanksgiving but no one was bringing any green vegetable. All I wanted was some good green bean casserole but I figured it would have to be missing from the Thanksgiving table this year.

As I was cooking the turkey and stuffing, I went to borrow some celery from Sheila Norton, our pastor's wife. She has been my cooking mentor you could say since we have been here as they live across the parking lot. She was asking me how my turkey and cooking was going and I told her my story along with the fact that no one was bringing vegetables. She got so excited because she told me she had a whole green bean casserole that she had made the night before for their thanksgiving and they forgot to eat and had left it in the oven. It was ready to be eaten and she offered it to me! I began to cry right and told her how I had really wanted to green bean casserole but didn't think I would get it. I guess God allowed her to forget about eating it for a reason Thursday night because he wanted to bless us with it.

God is so good! It is such a comfort to know that He doesn't just care about the big things in our lives but He wants to comfort us in those 'green bean casserole moments' too. Thank you God for friends and green bean casserole.

Thanksgiving 2007

Thanksgiving was very different for us this year. Being in Korea we couldn't be a part of the traditions back home that I don't think I have ever really missed. No dinner at Nonna and Pop-pop's or lunch at Uncle Rackley's. The school was having a joint Thanksgiving celebration with our sister school up in Suwon on Saturday but we didn't want to take Zachary up and deal with the long day and possible meltdowns. So this year Thanksgiving was up to us.

We decided to invite people over to our house and attempt to cook a turkey. I have never cooked turkey outside of the crock pot or microwave! Everything turned out find despite a little smoke during cooking because my pan was not big enough to catch all of the turkey drippings. We had a delicious meal; turkey, made from scratch stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole (a gift from God and a whole other post), two kinds of rolls, honey biscuits, chicken curry and of course pumpkin pie.

Our Thanksgiving was very international as well. We had Americans, Canadian/Chinese, Indian, and then Patrick and Zachary (a bit of everything).

Back row: Johnny Wong, Ellen Sligh, John, Silas and Heather Willoughby, Zachary, Liz Harder, Jennifer and Patrick

Front row: Meredith Bird, Sarah Willoughby, Nikita Dhinarhin, Cynthia Dhinarhin, Nina Willoughby

We had quite an evening. I am very thankful for the evening we had with our new friends in Korea. It was nice to be with a small group of friends. It's not the same as home but we definitely had the opportunity to thank God for all His goodness to us and enjoy where He has brought us. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

For more pictures of our evening, check out our friends Flickr site with pictures. We didn't take many pictures of the evening. Glad our friends did!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21051142@N03

You know you're a parent when....

You know you're a parent when you You know you're a parent when it is 7:10 in the morning and you have already been awake long enough to watch ALL of "Finding Nemo."

You know you're a parent when you go to the bathroom with your child sitting on your lap the whole time.

You know you're a parent when wiping someone's snot off their face with your hand because you can't find the tissues doesn't bother you.

You know you're a parent when you can hear your name called at least 50 times in a 2 minute period before 6:00 in the morning.

You know you're a parent when your at home and in your pjs or comfortable clothes by 8:00 every night.

You know you're a parent when hearing a little voice sing "Lord We Thank You" at the dinner table does your heart good.

You know you're a parent when you love a little person so much you are about to burst even though your life has completely changed in two years and you don't even care.

Zachary and kimbop

This week Zachary has officially become a resident Korean. Zachary was the only child in the ELC who had not jumped on the bandwagon of eating kim (seaweed) and rice like most kids living in Korea. Well, this week, things have changed. Zachary is very much a follower and will do almost anything the other kids do in his class. His new favorite food is kimbop or kim (seaweed) and bop (rice). He can't get enough of it. He can even put his own rice in the kim and roll it up himself. I had a video but it is too large to send from my phone and I can't figure out how to download it onto my computer yet. But trust me, he can :). Mom still hasn't jumped on the seaweed bandwagon but at least we can always get Zachary some food wherever we go as you can always buy kim at any little store. His Daddy is quite proud of our little Korean boy.

100th Day!

When I taught first grade, the 100th day of school was always a big deal since one of the objectives was to be able to count to 100. In Korea, the 100th day is also a big deal but not the same reason. When babies are born here they are often kept in their homes until their 100th day of life. In past years, many babies did not survive to see the 100th day so there was often a celebration when they would make it to the 100th day. Now the 100th day is celebrated in relationships or any other special occasion.

It is now our turn to celebrate a special 100th day, our 100 days in Korea. It is hard to believe that we have been here for 100 days already. We have learned so much in these 100 days. We all can speak a few words of Korean, have learned to eat a variety of Korean foods, and can even find our way around Daejon to certain stores without using the taxi cards.

Our first 100 days of living in Korea has been easier than I ever thought it would be. God has been so faithful and helping us through this transition. As we move into the holiday season, I know the next 100 days will probably be much harder but I am looking forward to all the things God has in store for us.

Happy 100 days!

Play ball!

This week our house got a makeover. When coming home from school one day, Mommy and Daddy said our house would look different. When we walked in the walls were different colors. Mommy said it was something called wallpaper. I guess the people in Korea don't really like to use paint.

I went into my room and it was so cool. The Blue's Clues was gone and so was the yellow wallpaper. Now my room was blue with clouds all over it! Today my mom made it even better. Grandma had sent Mommy some special border to hang up. Guess what it was! All kinds of balls! My favorite! Now my room matches my bed. There are soccer balls, basketballs, baseballs and footballs. My room is so cool. Want to come play?

Sorry about no pants :) I love to run around without them.

I kicked the ball to make a goal!

A Sound to Remember

I have done many things in my life that I am proud of but being a mom is the most precious thing to me. Zachary has blessed our lives more than I can ever imagine. He has become our joy and our daily entertainment.

As I watched him play the other day, I sat there in awe of the miracles God brings to us and how I want to try and remember every moment of Zachary's life. Sadly, my memory is already pretty bad so I started thinking of what would be the one sound or memory that I would never want to forget. Zachary saying 'mommy' or "I love you" top the list but my favorite sound of his is his laugh. My heart fills with joy when when I hear my little guy laugh at his toys, playing with his daddy or asking to be tickled. When I hear Zachary laugh, everything is perfect for that moment in time. I hope I never forget the sound of his laugh and his big grin to go with it. My heart overflows when I watch my two boys play with each other and laugh like crazy. I am so blessed to have a husband who loves his little boy as much as I do and enjoys playing with his son.

Just so you can enjoy his laughter, I am attaching a a video of Zachary laughing in bathtub. Sorry it's dark but it was the sound I was going for. I missed the really good laughter but these are pretty good. (Please don't freak out about the bath crayon- I know it gets close to his eye)

I am also attaching a video from maybe a month or two ago of Zachary and Daddy playing peekaboo and Zachary getting the giggles. I hope Zachary's laughter makes you smile as much as me. What is your sound that you want to remember?

Happy Halloween!

Halloween in Korea is quite different from Halloween back home. What can be so different about a holiday where you dress up and knock on doors for candy? Well for starters, Korean's don't really celebrate Halloween so it is all up to us crazy Americans. We are at a Christian school so many of the staff here don't celebrate Halloween then there are some of us who are just in it for the silly costumes and free candy! Those who wanted to participate signed up to be on the trick or treat route. We signed up for the fun and began our Halloween in Korea adventure.


Since I hadn't thought in advance about Halloween for Zachary, we had to borrow a costume. Zachary was a bumblebee this year, a pretty cute one too I might add :). We've got a few pictures to proove it.

What did you put me in mommy?

Freeze!!

We started out the evening trying to explain to Zachary what he was going to wear and how we would knock on doors and say 'trick or treat'. Once we got him dressed and opened the door to leave he immediately started kocking on the door across the hall (a Korean family) since that was what we told him he was supposed to do. Luckily, no one was home to see our little bee.






We then went to meet Mrs. Laura, Kacy and Sarah and their grandma's house to walk around with them for the night. Later, we met up with Mrs. Lisa, Mr. Kirk, Hayley and Seth.One teacher provided a map of teacher's and dorms who were on our trick or treat route. We still don't know where everything is so we wanted to tag along with friends. Of course friends make the evening so much more enjoyable than dragging your own kid around in the cold who woke up at 4:45 that morning, when he really has no idea what is going on. (AND truthfully, I forgot my map so we really did need friends :) )

Zachary and Kacy

Zachary and Seth

Anyway, we met up with princess fairy Kacy for the evening and headed off to the Ward dorm and Hansup apartments to trick or treat. There we picked up Princess Hayley and Pony Seth. Halloween in Korea requires A LOT more walking. Everything is so spread apart and we would visit one family in one building and one in another. Aartment buildings range from 6 floors to 15 floors. They are built long ways so there are 6 apartments on one floor built side by side with three entrances for two apartments to share an elevator. Even if families lived in the same apartment building, we would still have to ride down the elevator and go to another entrance to ride back up to another apartment. I think we spent most of our evening in the elevator. Which of course the kids enjoyed so they could push buttons. But when you have four kids who all want to push the buttons, it can get kind of hectic.


We trick or treated for about 1 1/2- 2 hours and made it to maybe 10 houses. It is not like living in a neighborhood. My favorite part was getting to see so many different apartments and how families have decorated. :) I also enjoyed the candy at the Price's house, Reese's Cups she got off base. I hadn't seen one in three months!! I'm saving it for a really bad day for a great pick me up. Zachary enjoyed the variety of suckers and wanted to eat his candy at each house we went to. His favorite was the popcorn from Ms. Souba's house.

Zachary was pretty tired but the time we got home. He dragged behind the last few houses and even conned mommy and daddy into piggy rides or shoulder rides. Of course the one part of Halloween that is the same is that the kids had fun. Friends definitely made the night more exciting. I don't Patrick and I would have made it far without them. We are looking forward to more trick or treating fun next year! Hope your holiday was just as fun. :)

Riding on daddy's shoulders- see how I grab onto his hair to hold on! :)

Popcorn my favorite. Thanks Ms Souba!

Wow look at all my candy!

Trick or treating at the Nortons, our pastor;s house. Sorry it is kind of dark but I didn't have much light. At least you can hear him say trick or treat.

Fly little bumblebee!