Adopting Sam

I've been wanting to post for some time to provide an update and to wrap things up on the blog, but it's been difficult to make the time to do it. Usually when I start, I end up with a toddler in my lap! We reached a milestone this summer which closes the book on our adoption story. In June we received papers from the circuit court of Oregon that makes our adoption final. Sam is now legally ours! We also received a note from Holt (our adoption agency) saying that it was a pleasure working with us and if we needed anything else to let them know. What a weird feeling to be done!

For Sam it means that his journey to find a permanent family is over too. We are actually the fourth family he's had - birth mom and two foster families before us. A term that Holt uses a lot is "Forever Family". Even though we did not conceive him, we are his real mom and dad now, and will be forever.

Today is the first day of the new year according to the Korean calendar. Today ushers in the year of the snake! Us westerners see the snake as a symbol of evil and many are afraid of them. In Korea the snake is not to be feared, but respected. The snake is wise and cunning. They are associated with long life, protection, and good fortune. I think they can be kind of cute too. Look at the picture we took of a snake statue as part of a Korean zodiac displayed outside the National Folk Museum of Korea:

We celebrated the year of the snake with my sister's 2nd grade class. We took Sam along and dressed him in his hanbok. Julie's class had been following Sam's adoption through this blog and were very excited to meet him for the first time! The kids had practiced how to say hello in Korean and greeted him saying this and exchanging bows. Many of the kids also gave Sam gifts.

Along with getting to know Sam, the class participated in some Korean culture.

Here Julie is making Hotteok, which is Korea's version of a pancake. It is a common food served by the street vendors in Korea.