Culture Campers

Recently, we found out about a culture camp for children that was sponsored by the Korean Presbyterian Church in Raleigh. Since the camp was a week long, we could not justify spending the entire week so far from home. The director invited us and several other adoptive families to attend the celebration at the end of the week. It was a wonderful experience and we are so glad we could attend.

Traditional Korean cuisine. Bulgogi, Kimchi, sticky rice, Japchae (?) and several familiar yummy, spicy dishes with a Korean twist.

The children were allowed to play several games and joined in a Tae Kwon Do demonstration.

The perfect picture of hilarious was little Stephen going through his series of punches and shouting "hi-yah!" Here he is showing off the board he promptly split in two. Who knew?



This was Stephen's personal assistant while he was there. Her name was Kae. She was the first person we met in the parking lot. Kae walked straight up to Stephen with a bag full of "Pe Pe Ro" (snacks) and began jabbering away in Korean. I carefully watched Stephen's face to see what, if anything, he understood. He appeared to be sifting through her words and suddenly just smiled and bowed right to her. I just stood in awe. It just amazes me that after 8 months of being totally submerged in the English language, that he can still understand enough Korean to manipulate some snacks. :-) Kae took a real strong liking to him. The rest of the afternoon she made sure he had a sack full of popcorn, candy and plenty of whatever his little heart desired. He had Kae right where he wanted her..




Highlight of the day: seeing Anna ShinAe again. The princess in the white ribbons was one of Stephen's roommates in the Moon room at AMSA in Korea. It was such a blessing to live close enough to see ShinAe and her precious family again.

When it was all said and done, I believe our kiddos had had all the culture they could stand for one day. Until next year.....

There's no place like home...

Well, we made it. After three flights taking us over the top of Mt.Fuji, the Bearing Straight, Colorado Springs, and Wichita...we finally arrived home at 1030pm Thursday night. What a long Thursday! On the cab ride to the airport Stephen began to wave frantically out the window and say "bye bye, bye bye" so innocently. The cab driver (who had not spoken a word) turned and said "bye bye, Korea" in broken English. I felt a knife stab me straight in the gut and realized the impact of what was happening at that very moment. Our son was leaving everything he had ever known.

He did wonderful on all of the flights. I was so relieved. Such a trooper! By the time we transferred in San Francisco he had figured all of the security measures and would clap and say "yay!!" when he got his shoes back off of the conveyor belt. Several times he and I would finish getting through before Jon (laptop, belt, etc) and he would turn and scream "Appa!" as if to say, "Come on, already!"

He did sleep most of the way back to the US and some of the next flight. When he was not sleeping he was happily eating the wonderful airplane cuisine or playing with his new "Korean Air " plane set. Not one whimper until late in the day and he was tired of the seat belt.

Our plane was a little early and so the family came rolling in right as we got outside the airport in J'ville. As tiny as it is..we were hard to miss..the only ones standing outside. Stephen was a bit overwhelmed at all of the excitement and was trying hard to understand what his Omma was saying to him in her best Korenglish. Wilson offered his new brother some candy and that sure seemed to break the ice.

Once we were home, the kids began showing him all over the house and took him to his room. They spent over an hour just playing cars and getting to know one another. At one point my sister must have won his heart (like she does with all of the others) because he offered her a small bus to play with and smiled from ear to ear as if to say "Hey, you are alright. Have an offering of my acceptance".

Finally, at 2:45 am I decided I could no longer be in those same clothes and or stay awake and went in to take a shower. I was followed by one small boy who began to watch my every move. Before I could ask if he wanted to join me..he began to quickly disrobe. Next thing you know there were two naked boys in my shower (Wilson sheepishly admitted that he would sleep better if he was soothed by the shower *wink, wink*) and we began a small circus of sorts. First of all, Stephen had not quite gotten his land legs back and slipped several times from the shower seat. He thought this was hilarious each time I caught him mid-crash. *Sigh* It was a moment we will never forget and just as funny as you are imagining. Please forgive me for not posting photos..huthem. But, I will post the one of what happens when you stay up late with four kids..

This was taken by my sister at around 10:am this morning..notice Jon had gone upstairs by then to get some sleep..LOL

Needless to say, we were all starving and followed Jon's craving for a greasy cheeseburger (poor kid). We had had enough Kimchee for the next few meals. Stephen was not too sure at first, but eventually decided to join in the fun. Boy, talk about early over stimulation. Ooops!

Did I mention that I have the cutest kids in the world? Sheesh! I could take a bite out of them. Notice Stephen making the peace sign next to his face. In Korea (and Asia) this is almost customary of a candid photo. There are several like this from our trip. I have yet to find out what it means exactly..

Hmmm.....did they wash their hands?

Warming up to the family and getting very sleepy as the afternoon progresses...

The girls just wish I would leave and let them be his mother..I see rottenness in his future.

Speaking of being noble..Austyn laid still for over thirty minutes while he blew rasberries on her tummy. As if that was not funny enough..he then invited (insisted) everyone in the room to blow on her belly, too. She was loving his affections.

Did I mention that I did not see one dog in Korea? This might explain why he was not too fond of Chaya at first. He wanted to be near her, but then he would put a death grip around my neck. Here we are saying "Ohhh, love the puppy. She is a sweet girl." I wanted to communicate that she does not always look so bad or smell so bad..but the groomer has been quite busy. Don't quite think he cared..

Here, Landon is just trying to breathe without offending her brother (always the diplomat). He was all smiles.

Okay Stephen, Lesson one at the Lucas house: Real men play video games. I am not sure he knew quite what to think of all of the boys piled on the bed staring at the TV, but it did slow him down a bit. Well, may be more than a bit....

It might take more than a day to adjust to his new life hours. Amen to that..we are all feeling the woes of international travel.

Well, maybe it is just plain exhausting being a new brother and getting one..

Well, thats the end of his first day at home as a member of the Lucas family. It is so strange..to me its like he has always been here. I am sure for him it feels much different, but for now, we could not love him more or be any more thankful for our complete family and look forward to each new day of learning about each other.

There are no words...

Never in one day have I experienced so many emotions all at the same time. The lack of sleep is catching up, so I will just post the highlights for now. First of all, Jae Ho is absolutely adorable. I am completely taken with him in every way. I was not expecting to be so instantly smitten.

Looks like someone else is a bit smitten. Appa and Jae Ho "getting to know" each other. It didn't take Jon long with his silent teddy bearness to draw the little guy right onto his lap for a better view.

I was surprised that as he got more and more comfortable, the more of a ham he became. He teased us and even fed us some good noodles (Jon, too) right from his fork. Can you tell from this photo how dreamy he is??? I cannot wait to bring him home to meet his sisters and brother and the rest of the family. It is truly surreal.

Posing for the camera.

Daddy and Jae Ho and Joon-Hee playing on the floor. Sarah..we got so much video of Jung Woo. He is quite the charmer and crawled all over us while we looked at photo albums. I kept sneaking in a pat or a small hug and saying silently, "Your mommy loves you".

My eyes are literally crossing as I type, so I will post more later about all of the events. Just know that this has already been an amazing experience and we are thrilled to have a new son, named Stephen JaeHo.

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The view from our window. It is amazing that so many buildings fit in this space. There are people everywhere..Seoul has a real NY city feel to it..only cleaner and the people are much nicer.

All packed and ready to go. (I waited until the end to post a few "other photos" of our trip)

The last photo taken as a party of five. Landon was none too happy that both of us were leaving that afternoon. She has had a harder time than we expected. We miss them all soooo much and can't wait to see them on Thursday!! Thanks mom,dad,Mel and Meme for holding down the fort and allowing us to be here...you are amazing!!

We meet him again tomorrow and then he should be with us forever on Wednesday.

We just like the sound of that: forever.

Overwhelming!

After a 5.5 hour flight to San Francisco and an 11.5 hour flight to Korea and a NASCAR simulation taxi cab ride to our hotel: We made it!

We are exhausted and will post more later, but for now I just want to say I was not prepared for such emotion in regard to little Jae Ho's birth country. The moment we landed on his native soil I could not think about anything else, but how one day all of this would no longer be familiar to him. I am trying to just take in every smell and every sound so I will be able to vividly recount it one day for our dear son who had his beginning in this precious country.

For now I am going to try and get some sleep (yeah, right), as we meet our son in just twelve hours. Wow. I cannot believe that this appointed time has fully come.

Austyn, Landon and Wilson..we love you and miss you so much already. Check your emails first thing Monday when you wake up.

Progress report

Today we got a new progress report for Stephen. Every so often the social worker in Korea does an evaluation for the children to mark their progress in each area of development. I arrived home today to a new one, which made my day, because I had not gotten any updates in what feels like forever. Jon had opened it and read it and forgot to tell me. What? I get so excited over the tiniest bit of information on him...it is all we have of him to feel like he is close. So, if you don't mind, I will be HAPPY to share.

Here are a few highlights about our sweet boy:
-he is sick today, threw up earlier (that was hard to know)
-goes to preschool from 9-1 daily
-language therapy 2x a week/language is improving
-makes sentences, 2-3 words-they think he is catching up :-) -leader with younger children/helps care take younger children
-has one special friend (Jung Woo)/love each other,then fight -puts train together
-cuts with scissors, does well
-tries to cut on lines
careful boy, sits and follows directions

It also states that his fine motor and gross motor skills are right on target. We are thrilled that he is doing so well.


Everyone is asking for a time frame on when he could possibly come home to us, and I have to admit, we truly do not know. It could be somewhere in the next few weeks or as long as into the beginning of 2008. I am praying he will make it in time to be a Lucas for the holidays. What a blessing that would be. You feel free to pray for him by name (Stephen-Hebrew for crown, Isaiah-means salvation of the Lord and my personal favorite book of the bible, Jae Ho-Korean for Big prime minister) and pray that his mommy and daddy can hug him soon.
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, for when he has passed the test, he will receive the crown of life for which God has promised " James 1:12

Adoption: love/hate relationship with the USPS!

Sometimes the mail is a beautiful thing. Today was one of those days! I received a package in the mail from Jenn in Michigan. She is the mother of Joon Soo and she just got back from Korea in June. She was able to copy some video of our guy and sent it to us today. You should have seen me running from neighbor to neighbor looking for a VCR..we no longer own one. It was pouring down rain and I was frantic!

The video is just a short glimpse of them eating lunch and riding home from school that day. It was adorable and so current, which seems to be a luxury. Most of the videos I have of Jae Ho are so dated.

Here are some photos she sent:

Joon Soo and Stephen Jae Ho

An older photo. Stephen reportedly loves and cares for the younger babes.

Apparently, he and Joon Soo are very good buddies. It breaks my heart to think what must have gone through his mind when his little friend just left one day and didn't return. Thank goodness he will see him again one day.

Thank you Jenn for the much needed photos and video!