The One And Only Cherrios.O.O.O

She Will Play With This For As Long As I Let Her

New Food

She did not think she was going to like cantaloupe but once she did try it she gobbled it up.

Unhealthy Addiction Or Sweet Baby Love

Isabella Eun Jin will not play with baby dolls. She has several of them. She throws/pushes them away from her as fast as she can, kinda like she is scared of them.
She will carry this "baby" around the house though and kiss it. She gets so excited when she finds it. She points to it and says baby, baby.
Joelee saw her doing it and told me that in school they had watched a news program about South Koreans being addicted to the computer and how it is unhealthy. She is worried that Isabella Eun Jin will have this problem.
She is willing to play with a box from a computer game as a doll but not a real doll.
My mom thinks she carries it around though because it looks like Joelee with blonde hair and blue eyes. Isabella just loves her sister so this may be the explanation!

Toys

Just throw them all out...

I Love Olives

Cute Kids-I Love Their Matching Hats!

Finally...

Contrats T. Have a wonderful next few days meeting your daughter. Relax and enjoy every single moment!

Bye, Bye

So If You Only Had One Thing On The Planet To Make You Happy...

It would be her brothers kitten.

I Love Baby Tricks

First you get the cute little "Indian" then she says chee for cheese and pritee for pretty. She usually says pritee and puts her hand up on her hair. She associates her hair with pretty...Funny though her hand just would not quite get up there with her being somewhat camera distracted...

Completed-Second Adoption Update For AAC And Eastern

Here are the first two photo albums I sent to foster mom. I love, love, love how they turned out. The first one-(the black one) I did in December. It turned out so cute I could not bear not to have one of my own.
I committed to not get attached to the pink one I just did for January...I lied to myself. I love the hot pink and the picture of her looking at her bracelet from foster family so I am going to have to make one for myself as well.
I cannot believe how heart wrenching it is to go through photos and complete the update questionnaire. My love for you is beyond amazing. I can't stand to part from the pictures of you.

"They Remembered Me" A Korean adoptee learns that human nature doesn't always follow perceived "best practices." by Hollee McGinnis

by Hollee McGinnis

Article in Adoptive Families Magazine

Adoptive Families Magazine
39 West 37th Street, 15th Floor • New York, NY 10018

I did not search for my birth family; they searched for me. I was adopted from Korea in 1975, as one of the first generation of Koreans to become Americans through adoption. When I was 15, my adoptive parents received a letter from my paternal grandfather asking for pictures of me. After much debate, my parents took the advice of an adult adoptee and waited until I was an adult to show me the letter.

It was during October break from college, when we were all sitting around the dinner table. The atmosphere turned serious, and my dad said, "There is something your mother and I would like to talk to you about." My mind raced as I tried to think of a parking ticket or something else I might have "forgotten" to tell them about. I was not prepared for what they showed me. My mother was afraid I would be angry that they hadn't shown me the letter when I was younger, but I was simply overwhelmed.

Coming to life
That night, as I stared at the blurry photo of my biological grandfather and grandmother, my mind kept returning to one thought: They remembered me. Every adopted person thinks about the man and the woman—ghostlike figments—who gave her life. But that night the characters in my adoption story came alive. They were no longer figments of a dream, but flesh and blood people—people who shared my blood.

It took four years of exploring my American, Korean, and adoption identities before I embarked on a journey back to my birth country to meet my birthfather and his family. The night before I left for Korea, I sat with my parents on our back patio. I feared the only parents I knew might feel I did not love them if I met my birth family. But my dad dispelled my worries. He said, "We always knew we had family in Korea."

Another twist
During the trip, two days before I was going to meet my birthfather, the director of my orphanage surprised me with a phone call. "Hwa Yong-ah," he said, using my Korean name. "I decided to look for your umma—your mom—and I found her. You want to meet her too?" I had four years to prepare myself to meet my birthfather, but I never thought I would ever be able to meet my birthmother.

Two brief days rushed by as I met not only my birthfather, but my birthmother, half-siblings, grandparents, and cousins. I thought I was prepared for the reunions, but the experience was filled with surprises.

Years later I was able to meet the priest who started my orphanage, a man who really understood the human heart. He said he had always expected that the children he helped to place overseas would come back to Korea. Old practices of secrecy have set the expectation—for some, a reassurance—that internationally adopted people will never encounter those connected to them by blood. But human nature does not always obey laws or follow the perceived "best practices." That was why, I believe, he didn't hesitate to send on the letter from my biological grandparents, and then respected my parents' decision to wait to tell me.

Eight years later, it seems the journey has only begun, and I'm not sure how the story will continue to unfold. I continue to travel to Korea, exchange e-mail with my half-siblings, and attempt to learn the Korean language. But meeting my biological family has in many ways strengthened my relationship with my adoptive family; I have a future now with my birth family, but nothing can take away the years of nurture my parents gave me. Meeting my birth family answered some questions I had while growing up, but it also raised new questions that I may never be able to answer.

Hollee McGinnis, also-known-as Lee Hwa Yong, is the policy & operations director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

Outside

C Is For Cookie

My sister made these delicious cookies for me.

We Have Such A Good Cat

Our little cat is so tolerant of our kids. She gets picked up by the neck, her hair pulled and just loved right to death and she still does not strike out at the kids. We are lucky this little cat came to our home.

Look Who's Walking!

We are so proud of this girl. She is such a cute little walker. She loves to do it now and can stand up right off the floor without pulling up on something. When she is ready to do something she does it all the way.

Baby Cocoon

just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterly~proverb

After her bath Isabella Eun Jin likes to scrunch up really small in her towel like a little caterpillar in her cocoon.

Showing Off My Cute Pink Outfit From Grandma