Chuseok 추석

Now that everyone has recovered from their Thanksgiving turkey comas (and I've recovered from being sick), lets talk about the Korean version of Thanksgiving.  Its called Chuseok.


Chuseok is a three day celebration of the harvest celebrated in Korea around the autumn equinox (more specifically the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar).  This year Chuseok was on September 12th.  Next year (2012) it will be September 30th.

Like the US Thanksgiving, Chuseok is a family celebration centered around the idea of thankfulness and includes a big family meal.  Meals generally consist of a lot of grains and fruits since these are part of the harvest.  One of the common foods served on Chuseok is Songpyeon, which is a rice cake that contains either red beans, chestnuts, jujubes, powdered sesame, or just brown sugar. 

Songpyeon made by Soo

Another important part of Chuseok is to honor your ancestors.  Gravesites are visited and tended, and memorial services are often performed.  Part of thanksgiving to a Korean is being thankful to those that came before him to make the harvest and life they have possible.

For more information on Chuseok, try these links:

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=811650
http://www.allkpop.com/2011/09/a-detailed-explanation-of-chuseok

A new gift for Samuel

I got this from my sister Julie today.  Her 2nd grade class has been following this blog and decided to write letters and draw pictures for Sam.  Julie put them together in this book:

Here's what a few of the kids wrote:

Dear Sam:
I hope you have fun with your new family.  I hope you get youst to Amercka.  And I hope you have fun with Rio and Blanco.
Love Trystin

Dear Sam
I hope you had a good dol.  Sam what is your favrite color.  I hope you have a good chrismas and plese be good for Santa.  I was wondring what you are going to get for chrismas.  I think you will get a esl (easel) and it comes with mrakrs so you can draw and color.  I hope you get what you want for Chrismas.
Warmly, Megan

Dear Samual
I hope you have a good dol.  I wonder what you will pick for your dol.  My favoret thing to do in America is righ about you.  Wat's your favoret thing to do in Korea.
Warmly,
Mandy

Thank you kids.  We'll make sure Sam gets your letters.

So what are we waiting for?

What's going on?  When do you get to pick up your son?  These are the questions we get a lot these days.  I'll try and explain here briefly where we are in the process and how long we have to wait.

At the moment we are waiting on two things: I-600 approval from US Immigration and an emigration permit from the Korean government.  The I-600 is a "petition to classify an orphan as an immediate relative" so that our son can get a visa to enter the US.  We expect the I-600 approval will come in a matter of weeks.

After this, we are just waiting on the emigration permit (EP).  This permit is issued by Korea so that Sam has permission to leave the country and live in the US.  Unfortunately the EP is going to take a while and it's really hard to guess when it will be issued.  There are still a lot of adopting families in line ahead of us and it just depends on how quickly they are processed.

Once the EP is issued, the process starts picking up speed again.  There is a process Sam has to go through (including blood tests and medical checkup) to get his Visa and passport.  Once he is approved for a Visa we get the call that he is ready to travel.  Then we freak out and find the quickest way to Korea!

So when will that be?  When do we finally get to hold Sam in our arms?  The best guess we have right now is April.  But like I said before, it's hard to guess.  We'll know more as time progresses.  And when we know more, we'll post it here.  So stay tuned!

In the meantime there are things you can do while we wait:
1.  Learn about Sam's culture - the language, history, food, the country, there is so much to explore:  http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/index.kto
2.  Become an advocate for adoption.  There are so many orphaned kids out there.  Even in Korea which is a pretty developed nation, there are thousands of kids in orphanages that will never have a mom or dad.  Make a contribution to Holt International http://www.holtinternational.org/ or another adoption agency or charity.  November is National Adoption Awareness month.  There are many ways to spread awareness: http://national-adoption-month.adoption.com/
3.  Write Sam a letter.  You can write to him and let him know you've been thinking of him and give it to him when he's older.  We've been keeping a journal.
4.  Most importantly pray for Sam.  Pray for his safety, his health.  Pray that his foster parents will give him the love and care he needs.  Pray that the adoption process will go smoothly and quickly so that we can all spoil him together soon!

Care Package #1

We're sending some things to Korea!  We learned that Holt allows adopting families to send gifts to the foster family via Holt, Korea, so we prepared a package.  We included some clothes that he may have grown out of by the time we get him and some other gifts.

Here's a list of what is going:

1.  A photo album with pictures of us, the house, and family and friends.
2.  A bottle of kids shampoo and diaper rash ointment (we're told its really expensive in Korea).
3.  A stuffed toy rabbit.  Thank you Julie.
4.  A CD of lullabies that I played on the piano.  Cover is personalized for Sam.
5.  A sweatshirt.  Thank you Janelle.
6.  Monkey overalls and shirt.  Thank you Jerie.
7.  A fantastic knitted sweater and hat that Alena's mom made us.  Thank you Althea!
8.  A letter translated to Korean of thanks to the foster family.  Thanks for translating Junggi.

We've noticed that some foster families will send back pictures with the gifts so hopefully we'll get something back too.  I'll post if we get anything back.  Thanks to everyone that contributed!

Happy Anniversary Julie!

My sister Julie became a part of our family on this day 26 years ago.  She was adopted from Korea through Holt International.  So Sam will have an Aunt with a lot in common.  She was escorted to the Portland airport where my family came to pick her up.  The moment is documented on this video that my dad took with one of those awesome 80s VHS camcorders!  Quality's not too bad after all these years!

Now Julie is happily married and living in Redmond, OR.  She teaches the 2nd grade where I understand her students are learning about Korea and watching this blog.  Hi kids!

She is planning on accompanying us to Korea when we finally get the call to go to Korea.  This will be an incredible opportunity for her as she has never been back to Korea since she was adopted.

Have a happy day Julie!

Well Baby Clinic Update

We get monthly updates from the doctor on Sam's development.  We just got one today.  At 1 year old he is now 21 lbs and 30 inches long.  It always lists his appearance as "cute and fine", which I guess is better than ugly and coarse! The big news though is that he can now stand on his own and walk a few steps!  It also says that he can wave bye bye and can play ball with the examiner.  Its not clear whether "playing ball" is basketball, baseball, or football.  I'm guessing baseball since other balls would be a little big for him still.  We better get him a baseball glove.

We're getting ready to send a package to Korea.  More to come on that later...