We're home

California Tallies:
TWO LAA vs. the sox games (both losses for the sox, one after 12 innings).
One unbelievable Fillet Mignon - that I couldn't finish.
Many walks by the Ocean.
One horrific plane ride to CA (don't ask!)
One wonderful flight home (thanks to a godsend of a flight agent who got us a seat for Levi)
Four mornings up between 4:30 - 5:30 a.m.
One dinner at Kari's parents - good food and lots of laughter
Lots of hours hanging, talking, laughing
One run to Trader Joes. Seems I can't live without them anywhere!
Three, maybe four cats to entertain Levi.
Lots and Lots of memories!

Away

Headed to California today with Levi. Using airline credit to see a very good friend. We have sox/angels tickets for Thurs. Back in a few days with lots of good photos and great memories...

We did it!

We walked ALL of the 20 miles. I started, my family joined in and Steve finished it up! There ended up being buses to take us to the finish line at every checkpoint, so meeting up ended up being quite easy. The best news is that, after all the tallies are in - we collected $504 to fight hunger in Massachusetts. One of the things we liked the most about our walk is that there are signs all along the route that teach us more about Project Bread and about the work that they do. Here is what we learned...Through project Bread, $100 provides 5 families with groceries for a week! $50 buys 250 lbs of food for local soup kitchens to feed hungry people. We were shocked to realize that YOUR $500 will supply 25 families with groceries for a week OR will buy 2500lbs of food (THAT'S OVER ONE TON) for soup kitchens across MA. Great work on helping us meet and exceed our goals. Our kids are ready to walk next year and would love friends to join us! :)

We enjoyed some time on the Boston Common (including ICE CREAM) after our walk. It was a wonderful day! (And thankfully the weather was perfect!)

Also - check out the T-shirts! We got such rave reviews on them throughout the walk and after the race! Our family had a lot of fun tie dying them and adding our family logo!

Sometimes life is just funny...

I had someone run across my blog about the Walk for Hunger who wanted to help us get it published in the local newspaper. She asked for my permission. I said yes. And about a week later - we found it in the Natick Tab. I couldn't find it online, but I scanned it in for you to see. You probably won't be able to read it from this scan, but it's as close to being "published" as I've come thus far. And - despite our crazy busy lives, we've collected $150 for the Walk - I'm sure we owe a lot of that to this article. We've reset our goal to $200, and we don't walk until 5/3, so you still have time to send it in! Our kids are loving this more than I could have expected. Thank you for helping them to learn such a valuable life lesson!

April 17th - Levi's Tol

Our family photo

Mini cake...

For the rest of us.

Edamame salad (I'd intended to photograph more beautiful Korean food, but this is all I made it to for pictures - however, the food was quite yummy!)

Handsome in a handbok

The Tojabee Event:
In this event, the birthday child goes around the table and picks up items that attract him or her. The child's future is predicted according to the what he grabs. After placing the child in front of the table, the first and second items the child grabs are considered the most important.

A knife is the winner! It means "The child will be a good cook!" And mommy couldn't be happier about that! :)

A close second was the jujube (red dates) meaning "you will have lots of descendants".

Juliette & Levi
Waiting for our American tradition - cake!
Singing Happy Birthday.


A little help is needed for blowing.

Ooo...cake?

A little help from Ben. What are big brothers for, if not for teaching you how to stuff your face!

April 15th

No cake yet...until the party!

But ice cream is the next best thing.

Ella, Mommy, and the birthday boy.

In the clear...(for now)

Levi is doing great! Our VCUG and ultrasound yesterday were a "piece of cake" compared to some of the test we had to do when he was sick. We are so thankful. The even better news is they saw NOTHING concerning on either of his tests. YEA! More tomorrow, on April 15th as we celebrate Levi's First birthday!

You need a date??

So - I realized after some great feedback on our walk that many of you were wondering when we are doing this walk!? Oops! In all my excitement, I forgot to mention that we are walking:

Sunday, May 3rd

Anything else I left out??

The Power of One

This will be my third year participating in Boston's Walk for Hunger! It is a 20 mile walk through Boston and it's suburbs. I started doing it because I enjoy the walk and the city "tour". But the walk raises money for Project Bread - the states leading antihunger organization. Money raised through The Walk for Hunger funds more than 400 food pantries, soup kitchens, food banks, and food salvage programs in 128 communities across Massachusetts, including our ownn here in Natick!

This year, we are trying something a little different. Some might argue that we are doing something a little crazy. We can't disagree. Steve, Ben, Ella, Levi and I will be walking as "Team Gerrard". While we are not walking all of the 20 mile course together (that would be crazy), our hope is to combine our efforts to complete 20 miles and cross the finish line together. We want our kids to know that even one person (or family) can make a big difference.

We know that times are hard and many of us have been struck by this bad economy. However, we also know that even one person can make a big difference. Sometimes it feels like our efforts are so insignificant when we see them on the small scale. Think about it - When you are trying to loose weight, would you expect to see huge results immediately? No! It comes off one pound at a time. When we are trying to save for a big expense, we don't wait to have a pile of money to start - we save it $1 at a time. So - we are asking everyone we know to contribute one dollar. Just one. We have a giant money jar (photo above) that we'll but putting it in. Our hope is to collect at least $100 for this great cause. With this project, our kids will be able to tangibly see that lots of "ones" can really add up! Will you help us? If you want to help, please send me an email at gerrard.angela@gmail.com and I will send you our mailing address. We hope to collect dollars from friends at the playground, at church, at the workplace - everywhere, so if you are local, just look for us around. :)

We look forward to walking together to help fight hunger. We hope that you will join us! Stay tuned to the blog when we unveil our WFH family T-shirt! Steve it designing it, so it is BOUND to be a hoot! :)

Also, if you are interested in donating to our Walk for Hunger (beyond the $1), please visit my walk webpage here where you will be able to donate via credit card. For more information on other ways to help, please email me! I'd love to tell you about it.

Levi...

Hello all,

For those of you who follow...Levi is lookin' a lot better! He's back to his normal, happy self. However...the doctor has deemed antibiotics for 7 more days and more tests on Monday, April 13th. He turns one on Wed. next week! So, we are happy to get it out of the way before his birthday - but I hear the tests he's having done are not so fun. (To say the least.) We are headed to Children's Hospital in Waltham. They will do an ultrasound of the kidneys (to check for blockage), and a VCUG to check for reflux in the urinary track. I won't even pretend I know what either of those things are! However, I will keep you posted...we are hoping it was just a fluke!

On a positive note, these photos are of bulbs popping through the ground in our front yard. Dear friends of mine surprised me in the fall, and came over to plant them with hopes that by the time we saw them peeking though, we'd be loving our time with Levi as well. Don't I have the most amazing friends??

Stuck

Ok, so I debated about wheter or not I should share this, but frankly, it's a very good story.

Picture this: It was a cool, rainy Saturday morning - not spectacularly awful, but we were moving slowly... It was about 8 a.m. and I had just gotten into the shower and Steve was downstairs with the three kids. I heard Levi screaming downstairs in a way that I hadn't heard him before. He tends to cry vigorously at most things, so I wasn't panicked, but decided to give the "shout out" just in case. I climb out of the shower, open the bathroom door and yell "Is everything ok?" To which my husband replied "I need help!" Uh...ok...I shut off the shower, wrap the towel tighter around me and run, soaking wet downstairs. When I find Steve and all 3 kids in the office I wonder why Levi is crying. And then I see why. His head is stuck in the elliptical. He wasn't in danger - just totally stuck with no way out. Umm...and how did this happen? Steve told me that he had been on the computer, and Ben and Levi were crawling around. Ben calmly said to Steve "Levi's head is stuck." And Levi, upon realizing that it was really stuck started freaking out. At this point I ran upstairs to put real clothes on, and when I returned, I started comforting Levi while Steve ran to get tools. Yes, tools. He was REALLY stuck. I told Steve I was going to call 911 because I wasn't sure we'd be able to get him out of this ourselves and Levi had been stuck for 10 minutes or more and was pretty frantic. When I explained to the operator what was going on I just said me might need "a little help."

Steve found the tools he needed and quickly got to work! Just as he was unscrewing the last bolt, every firetruck, ambulance, and police vehicle in metrowest pulled up to our house. No less than a dozen men in uniform came blasting in our door. Turns out you can't just ask for a "little help." (As a side note: Ben and Ella were very brave, opening the door, getting pacifiers and popsicles and remaining calm. However, the rest of their day was imaginary play involving 911 emergencies!)

Despite our obvious embarrassment, one of the men helped Steve pull apart the elliptical and Levi was free! Relief...embarrasment...gratitude...you know, a typical Saturday morning. :) Levi, I'm happy to report, is doing just fine. However, I guess that means Steve and I are out of the running for the "Parents of the Year" award. Bummer.

Grafted in...

My dearest Levi,

When I think you, one word jumps out - Determined. I see it in you every day. You are determined to get through the safety locks (ok...they are rubber bands!) on the kitchen cupboards. You know that whatever is inside is worth the extra lockdown, so it must be good. When I put you down on the floor, you head right for the stairs to see if the gate is up. (And you will usually find that it is not!) But, interestingly, you will not go up them until I am looking at you. You wait, ever so slightly to make sure that I am watching you do what you know you shouldn't. It's as if you want to challenge me to stop you before you reach the top. You are amazing. I pray every day that we can help you foster that gift of determination as you grow in faith and statue. We pray that you will be determined to stand up for what is right, that you will be determined to love deeply, and you will be determined to follow your God-given passions.

You bring utter joy to our lives. You are so happy, so full of energy and life, and your personality has been evident since the day we met you. There is something so sweet in hearing you call me "mama" and Daddy "dada". It is a daily reminder that family goes beyond blood and heredity. We feel amazingly connected to you...and we love you more than we could ever express on paper.

Today, life with you is blissful and easy. You don't see that you are different from us. You know nothing of the challenges you will face down the road. To be honest, we are cherishing these moments because we know that they can't and won't last forever. When the time comes that you do notice these things, we want to give you full freedom to explore you identity, to discover what it means to be Korean, to be American, to be adopted. We know that we, as parents, are bound to make many, many mistakes, but we hope beyond all hope that you will know how much we love you. We pray for you each day, that God would give you wisdom.

Someone wrote this verse in a card that they gave us when you arrived. I'm not sure why, but it speaks to me. Ephesians 2:19-20 "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone". We know that this story of this amazingly beautiful and happy baby being grafted into our family is our story. My sweet son, we can't wait to help you build your life - story. And to help you discover who you were meant to be. We thank God for that privilege.

We love you always,
Mama

First, an update...

So before I can post anything fun, I should update y'all on where we've been. We've been on a remote tropic island in the Caribbean enjoying the sun and nothing but lazy days of playing and swimming.... Oh, wait. That's in my dreams. :)

We've been sick. As a mom...I'm SO tired of evaluating. (Can I get an "amen" from other moms out there?) My brain hurts from all the info swirling in my head. Is she sick enough to keep home from school? How long has this fever lasted? When did he last eat? When was the last time I gave her Motrin? How long has he napped today? Did I call the school this morning to let them know she won't be in? Sick...sick...sick.

Our biggest and most concerning illness has been with Levi. Without going into graphic detail, he's been very ill. Fevers topping at 105, vomiting, and needing us constantly to hold him, often falling asleep in our arms. To know Levi, is to know that this is very out of character for him. After 5 doctor visits in 3 days, we've learned that he has a Urinary Tract Infection. Luckily, though it appears he has a severe infection, we caught it before it spread to the blood. So - we opted to treat it from home, but it has required us to take him in to receive a series of three shots of antibiotics over 3 days in our pediatricians office. Not surprisingly, he now hates the doctor. The very sight of an exam room will send him into hysterics! And if you've never had to watch them draw blood or catheterize your infant...consider yourselves very lucky. Tomorrow we'll talk about next steps if his fever doesn't go down to normal, and also to try and discover the root of the UTI, which is uncommon in infants, particularly in boys.

So, now you know why we've been missing. On to better news...

Am I becoming a latent poster?

I know, I know. I am one of those bloggers. You know, the kind that are gung-ho when the start and quickly peter off until they post that they've had a baby (that you didn't even know they were pregnant with), they're pregnant (and somehow you didn't even know they'd gotten married) or that they are moving. We are, thankfully, none of these things. So I think I am safe for now.

However, I do owe a letter to Levi. I know that. I've been composing it in my mind for quite some time now. I spend time at night thinking about it too. It's my next post - I promise.

For now, we are doing fine. And I do mean to use that word. "Fine." It's so non-descriptive. But, in some ways, it describes where we are at. We've hit that stage where Levi is no longer a "novelty" but part of our family. Most days that bring me tremendous comfort. Other days, I feel antsy for more. I did go back to work last week, and I'm very glad. I'm blessed to be able to work part-time, from home, doing my dream job. I direct and lead our family ministry at church. It's fulfilling, life-giving and at the end of the day, I feel my work really matters. It fills my soul.

Onto baby. I *totally* forgot how selfish I am and how much a baby brings that to the light. I am not ashamed to tell you that I have had more than one "woe-is-me" or "pity" parties since Levi has come home. I start thinking that somehow I work harder than everyone else in my family. Scratch that...harder than anyone I know. Scratch that...harder than anyone in the world. You get my drift. Luckily, by number three, they are not feeling that a long walk, reading, a nap, or (at last resort) chocolate will not fix. But the feelings are still there, as strong as ever. Some things just don't change. Fortunately for me, I'm managing it better day by day.

Levi is doing awesome. We're still having some sleeping issues...teething, nap schedules, colds... All in all, we are counting our blessings. I think he felt celebrated by his homecoming party. Mostly, I think he liked the cake! We have the best friends in the universe who loved Levi the moment we showed them his photo. In lieu of gifts, we asked people to bring something to send to Korea (list provided by Love the Children, our agency). I was thrilled to ship 32 lbs of diapers, clothing and other baby supplies to JFK to send on over to Korea. Thank you dear friends! I'll leave you with those photos. Oh, and I promise to post before we decide to move. :)

Video for Levi's "Coming Home" Party

Some friends of ours are lovingly throwing a "coming home" party for Levi tonight. Well, that is, if it doesn't get cancelled because of the snow! I thought a slide show would be a nice way to introduce our son and the process to our friends at the party. So I started one in Picassa. Simultaneously, I began to research how I could download the hours of video footage we have from the last 8 years onto DVDs that could be played and saved. With the purchase of a firewire cable, I found out that it was quite easy - so my slideshow evolved into a much bigger project once I realized I might actually be able to include the video from the airport.

I wish I could tell you that I have become an expert at Windows Movie Maker with all the hours I have invested into this project, but I realized this morning that somehow in creating the DVD I have lost the content of the video on my computer. I was able to recover the content from the DVD, but as you will see, it was meant to be the start of a project, not the final result. I won't be able to edit the content of the current video without remaking it. I am thrilled however, that I didn't loose everything. This video is just under 8 minutes long. Hope you enjoy it!

New Photos of our 3 kids

We went to Portrait Simple last night and had photos taken of the kids...Enjoy!

O sweet sleep...how I've missed you.

Levi is SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT. Wow. 3 days...and not that bad if you ask me. Worked like a charm. We are praising God that he is sleeping. Life is so much better on 8 hours. ;) I'm not sure that it is related - but we've seen him have more separation anxiety over the last couple of weeks. Not that we've left him anywhere for very long, but if we leave the room for even just a second when others are around, he calls us back in. Luckily, he doesn't freak out when we leave the room at home, or anything of that sort. So, we are counting our blessings. Actually, we count it all joy since he's attached enough to us to care that we are leaving!

Clearly I've not been blogging with my new found energy, but I HAVE done a lot I assure you. Well, how about if I tell you.

1) I've prepared my 2008 taxes and sent them off to the government. It's always so much more fun when you are getting a refund! Adopting an April 15th baby (his birthday, anyway) will make tax day much more fun every year!

2) I sent out 90 adoption announcements. I spent much of the time compiling addresses from Christmas cards this year that fell off my "to do before baby comes" list since he came sooner than expected. But they are (mostly) done.

3) And I started an adoption video for Levi. I'm about 3/4 done. I'm hoping to unveil it at his homecoming party on 3/1/2008 that some friends are throwing us. It's coming along well. It includes video and photos from our entire process. It's been quite an emotional project for me. While I've enjoyed doing it, the learning cure has caused many, many frustrations. Hopefully, the end product will help me justify the hours I've spent on it. I'll be sure to post when I have it complete.

I'll finish this posting by adding his announcement. I didn't get a perfect scan, but you'll get the gist. I'll try to post Levi's letter soon. It will give you a little taste of his personality (it's amazing what you can learn in just over a month!). Also, we are headed to the pediatrician tomorrow and we'll get some stats. Will let you know!