It's been Awhile!! Update!

Pictured above: 1.Hannah on her first Birthday showing how big she is
2. All four kids in their Easter best!
Pictured below: 1. All of us, with the Judge, on the day of Hannah's finalization 2. Hannah on the day of her Baptism


Well, It's been a while since I have updated things here on our blog. We have had a very full life since Hannah has come home! Let's see our last post was in October when our dog George had gotten killed the night before Hannah's baptism. Quick summary (o.k. pretty long) - Hannah did have a beautiful baptism -full immersion -wonderful big sacrament!! Josiah had his sixth birthday in early December and celebrated with a party with his friends here at home and a catapiller cake! We then celebrated Christmas - Hannah's first Christmas! One of the highlights of Christmas was Gabriel figuring out how to play "We Three Kings" on the piano all by himself (by ear).

January brought on Hannah's first birthday and we celebrated with a "Tol party" (traditional Korean party thrown for one's first birthday). It was a day full of memories we will treasure as Hannah was dressed in the traditional hanbok, Lea-Ann made a complete Korean meal, and set up a Tol table display. We marched Hannah around the table and she grabbed a spool of thread and a pen which signifies she will live a long life and be a scholar! We then had the traditional American first birthday cake and ice-cream!

Before we knew it Hannah was toddling around the house saying Ma-ma, Da-dy, and ba-ba as well as signing (sign language) please and more/want. All the kids enjoy watching her learn new things and get so excited when she reaches a new milestone. However, all of our ears quiver at her high pitch screeeeeam, when she is frustrated! She is "fiery", as they said in Korea!

After Christmas we ferociously began working on finishing up the renovations on our house to try to get it on the market by March. Framing, drywalling, sanding, painting, etc., filled our "free" hours. In the process we got back into our schooling, preparing Gabriel for his first communion, trying to stay warm in the cold fridged winter of Minnesota, and keep the kids from undoing everything we were trying to accomplish on the house.

In late January we got the honor of greeting our newest niece at the airport as Lea-Ann's sister and brother-in-law brought her home from Vietnam. That was a very exciting and long awaited day, as they had fought an uphill battle against many obstacles to bring her home.

Skip to March, Marie Elizabeth turned four! She is a delight one minute and quite the handful the next - full of sugar and spice!!!! She has been working hard on getting control of her emotions and her frustrations. As well as "using her words" instead of her hands, if you get what I mean. Nothing beats her big hugs and kisses though - she is our snuggle bug! In March we also welcomed little Cameron to the family - Lea-Ann's sister's first baby. It is so amazing watching a little newborn only a couple days old - what a little miracle! Mari-Pat told Marie Elizabeth the baby finally popped (Marie Elizabeth would always ask when the baby was going to pop out?)!

We continue to work, work, work on the house.......March comes and goes and April is upon us! Surely we will have the house ready soon!!!! Jon turns 33......wow, and still in college...hmmmm! He worked very hard fulfilling all his requirements of his last semester in nursing school - his immersion experience brought him to the cardiac ICU at Abbott Northwestern hospital. He thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of working there and absorbed all that he could! On April 26th we went down to the Dakota County Courthouse and finalized Hannah's adoption and she became a US citizen - yeah! In late April Gabriel made his first reconciliation and first communion. Jon and I both had to fight back the tears, realizing how fast he was growing and how proud we were of him! He has really turned a corner this year and it is a delight to watch him take on new responsibilities .

May arrives.....we have to get this house on the market!!!!!! Jon graduates with high distinction carrying a 3.91 GPA. We are all so very proud of him - he has worked so hard! We also found out that we are going to be stationed at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX after Jon spends three months in CA for some additional military training. We worked around the clock for almost two weeks after Jon graduated, with the aid of many of our friends and family...thank you, to finally get our house on the market! However at the tale end, the day before pictures were suppose to be taken on the house, Jon sliced his hand on the table saw and cut through the tendon and nerves on his left thumb. He spent an afternoon in the emergency room and then a morning in surgery reconnecting his tendon and as much of the nerves as they could. They expect him to recover most of the range of motion of his thumb but will have impaired sensation. This has put a monkey wrench in things as they now won't commission him until he is recovered...three months!

After a little bit of trying to figure out how this was going to affect things, we found out that the Air Force would reassign him to his training in Sept. at Lackland where we will be stationed. So the silver lining in all this......is that Jon won't have to be away for three months and we will be able to move all together down to Texas in September (as long as our house sells - we are trusting the Lord for this)! His commission will be held off till August when we hope he will get a doctor's note saying he can be back on full military duty without restrictions! For now, he's working in the ROTC office pushing papers. Our house is finally on the market, and we spend our days trying to keep it picked up in case we get that call saying someone wants to see it! That's the melodrama of our life!