Peek a Boo!

Grace loves to play peek a boo! She is always hiding in different places and calling me to come and find her. Grace loves to say her ABC's and count to 11. She knows her colors and shapes.

This past week Grace had RSV and Connor has roseola. It was a pleasant week at our house...but we are getting back to normal. Poor Connor...he has not even been her a full month and he gets exposed to 2 illnesses.

I took this picture of Connor and forgot I took a picture of Grace almost a year in the same towel.

A welcome bouquet from my friend Corrie! She has started a business making cookie bouquets. She was so sweet to welcome Connor!


We are having so much fun with 2 kids! Grace and Connor love to have horse rides on daddy's knees....here is a picture right before bed....nothing like getting them excited before bed time!

Double Trouble!


Connor, Come On.....you can do it!

Good job! Climb, Climb, Climb....this makes mommy very nervous!

We're almost to the top!







As you can see I have my hands full! The gate is now back up on the stairs. Connor is a very fast crawler... faster than Grace was so I have to keep a close eye on him. Since we have been home he has started to say mama and dada. We have had no attachment issues....it is like he has been here for all 10 1/2 months.
We have had another great week of friends bringing food to us. We have been so blessed with all of this help!
I will post more later.
Krista

Connor is finally sleeping through the night. :)

Grace has really been having fun with Connor. Today she was brushing his hair and wanting to put bows in his hair. It was so cute!
Another funny thing Grace did today was she put her cheese to sleep. She was eating her cheese and then all of a sudden she laid the cheese down on the table and said, "Night, night. Go to sleep!" It has been so fun watching the kids play. They play so well together.

Thanks again for everything that everyone has done for us. We have had some wonderful food, great company, and lots of friends lending us a hand! We couldn't have done it without you! Thanks!
Krista

Party all day and night at our house!
That is what we do around here. Connor still hasn't adjusted to our time yet. He sleeps from 9:00pm until 12:30am and then stays awake until 5-6:00am.....fun, fun, fun! I have tried to stay on Korea time with Connor and John has adjusted back for Grace.
We have had so many friends and family bring us food and gifts!
It has been wonderful. My friend Ashley even made us a train cake! It is adorable.



Also many of you have asked if I got Connor's room done....well it is complete and we love it! The train runs perfectly!

We made it!!!!
And everything is going great! Connor seems to be adjusting very well. And Grace just loves him to death. Please forgive me. Krista is asleep with Connor upstairs and Grace is in bed. I am on my way to bed as soon as I get done with a quick post. I don't know how to layout the pictures so I will just post a few of the kids after this note.

The bottom line is that we are all extremely happy. We got home last night and Grace was so excited. I have never seen her so animated. She was all smiles. She kept saying Connor!Connor! She kept trying to give him a hug. It was very cute. So the kids are happy. Krista and I are happy. Here are a few cute pictures of the kids.
We will post again soon.
We want to thank everyone for all of the thoughts, prayers, phone calls and emails. We know we are very fortunate to have such wonderful friends and family.
Thanks you so very much!!!
More to come. Stay tuned.
John, Krista, Grace and Connor

Well we are now a family of 4. We got Connor about 6 hours ago. What a wonderful feeling. It was exactly how we expected it. Sad and happy at the same time. We did not spend to much time saying good bye to Mrs. Cha. She was very upset. Just like we thought, everyone was crying. Connor sure was a trooper though. Tough, all the way until we got to the hotel. It was like he was trying to be strong for everyone else. What a tough little boy. We are already so very proud of him.

When we got to the guest house he cried for about an hour and a half. Then he just gave out. Exhausted. We took about a 2 hour nap. It was a great nap. We were all drained.

He is very clingy. You can tell he was held constantly. We are not complaining. He even holds on to your shirt when you are holding him.

When he laughs, he laughs hard. Wait until all of you hear it. It is a contagious laugh. You can't help from laughing when he is. It has been great. He actually has laughed alot the last few hours.

We are with out a doubt in love with this little boy already. He is the perfect fit for our family. Life is good.

We will be home soon. Can't wait. We are excited for our family to be together again.

Love
John, Krista and Connor
Our last night in Seoul!

Today we had a city tour and then we were able to go to a doctor's visit with Connor. He checked out great and he is ready to come home! He arrived at the office sleeping in his "eggy poedegy". I bought one of these carriers....I thought I could put Connor on my back and hold Grace on my front....sounds pretty convenient to me. haha! John said I will probably fall over.
Just like Grace, Connor was not interested in having the doctor check him out. He fussed the entire time.
We brought 3 pairs of shoes for Connor to Korea....all 3 do not fit. We tried them on him today. I bought a pair of shoes that I thought would fit him next year....and those were the ones that fit. So Grace and Connor wear the same size in clothes and shoes. That should be easy for me to remember!
Well in less than 24 hours we will have Connor for good. We can't wait to get him and come home!
More tomorrow!
Krista

We wanted to give you some info on how the first meeting went with Connor. He is perfect.....it was amazing. We were not nervous at all. When we met Grace for the first time we had so many questions. When does she eat? When does she sleep? All of the things we deal with as a parent.

Connor was a little nervous at first but after a few minutes he seemed to really warm up to us. Could you tell by the pictures how big he is? He is big. Not sure if many of the clothes we already have for him will even fit. We found out from the Foster Mom that he is a daddy's boy. He always wants to be with his Foster Dad. Which makes John pretty happy. He has 8 teeth and likes to cruise the furniture.

We are going to be able to take Connor to the hotel with us on Tuesday at 3:00pm. We tried to change our flight but unfortunately out airline does not fly to the US on Tuesdays. So we will still be leaving on Wednesday.



Stay Tuned!
John and Krista

It is Sunday morning about 5:30am. We have been awake for about an hour or so. Still have not adjusted to the time difference yet.
Yesterday we spent all day walking and shopping.

We went to Dong Dae Mun Market which is in an old stadium. It was kind of like a flea market. Not to many souveniors but lots of junk. We did find a guy who makes wooden stamps. We had him make a couple for the kids.


As it got closer to lunch time the street food vendors started showing up. If you remember a year and a half ago I made a comment that they can do anything with a hotdog here. Well, we saw something new, a corndog with french fries on it. Very interesting. Everyone was eating them. Of course we tried one. It was really good. Wouldn't mind having another one today.

It was still very cold yesterday. We rode the subway everywhere. It was a very good day. Just wish we had Grace and Connor with us.
We have another day and a half before we see Connor again.
We will post again later.
John and Krista

Check out my Slide Show!

Well we just got back from walking......funny funny funny
First of all it is very very cold. I know we both grew up in the north, but we have been down south too long. We can't handle the cold. We were bundled up from head to toe. I even had earmuffs on. We decided to go towards the agency to see just how far it is. We got about half the way to the office frozen to the bone and decided that we would get a cab to meet Connor. When we got back to the hotel after making a stop at Paris Bagette, 7-11 and a street vendor for an egg sandwich and some kind of fish stick we asked the front desk about getting a cab to Holt.

The young girl said "Do you know where it is?"

Krista "Yes, way down the road! And it is freezing"

Front desk "No, no you make a left out the door and it is just down the street on the right, really really close"

Krista looked at them puzzled.

So the girl asked her co-worker just to make sure. Yep "right down the street on the right"
As we walked away (smiling) I am sure I heard "Those lazy Americans."

We made it!!!
Flights were fine. Long of course but what do you expect. We checked in to the hotel and logged on as soon as humanly possible. We got to see and talk to Grace. Thank God we have a web cam. I don't think Krista would be able to make it without seeing her. We have a few hours to kill before we meet Connor so we are going to check out the hotel and walk around a little outside. We will meet him at 2pm local time this afternoon. We are so excited. As we were walking through the airport every time we saw a little Asian boy we wondered it that is what he looks like. So check the blog in the morning to see Connor.
More to come.
John and Krista from Seoul