Getting used to this whole "Stay-at-Home Mom" business

You'd think I'd be more "in sync" with being a stay-at-home mom since I get to do it every summer when school lets out; so it must be the addition of another child that's throwing me for a loop. I can't seem to get into the mind set that this IS my job, and I need to work hard to be successful at it. So, I guess I need to set some goals and plan steps to achieve them. Darn...that means I have to give up eating bon-bons and watching TV. I guess my biggest issue is keeping the house clean. I just discovered something I never knew before...the house gets messier if you're home during the day. You would think that if you're home during the day, you could spend more time cleaning, but in actuality, you just spend more time messing it up! (I mean the children spend more time messing it up). Sophia is so good at finding new places for every item she picks up. She firmly believes that the puzzle pieces look much better strewn across the floor and has taken it upon herself to quickly put them there each and every time I put them back on the shelf. Jacob's mission is to see how many different ways he can make a mess that can be vacuumed up. It's just not good enough to vacuum the regular dirt from the carpet. No, he needs to test out his vacuums on things like rice, tiny pieces of paper, and outdoor dirt. Then, when the vacuum needs to be emptied, it only makes sense to empty it in the middle of the living room so he can vacuum the mess up again. Last night he informed me that he wants to vacuum other people's houses for money so he can buy a new Hoover Featherlite. It's a good thing he's going to preschool twice a week and swimming lessons so he can realize that the earth doesn't revolve around vacuum cleaners!

Oh, my point was, how can I get better at this "stay-at-home mom" thing? I'm also convinced that once allergy season is done, I'll be much better able to function. I've spent the last two weeks feeling like my head should explode from sinus pressure.

No more excuses! I will be "super mom" today and at least get the dishes done!

I love sharing new, cute pictures of Sophie! I've been known to take pictures of her for no other reason than she's wearing a new outfit! Here are some pictures of the kids in Stillwater. We went to the Teddy Bear Park with friends, Sadie and Emma. We also stopped at the apple orchard. Sophia continues to amaze us with her easy-going personality and her happy, smiley attitude. Last night I watched her fall asleep in her crib and spent some peaceful moments in prayer for our new child. What a blessing and privelege it is to be entrusted with the raising of a child.

Adjustment still going well!

Sophia is still getting an A+ when it comes to adjusting! Chris and I have been so blessed with a smooth transition since Sophia joined our family! She is sleeping well and eating well and exploring and happy and cute!!! At home, she's pretty comfortable walking around, playing with toys, picking things up from one spot and dropping them in another. When we go to a new place, she is expectedly a bit clingy and worried about all the new faces around her. We have stayed pretty busy instead of secluding ourselves, so I'm really happy with her level of ability to "go with the flow." We've had so much fun introducing her to family and friends!

We finally had Jacob's party for his 5th birthday. We went with a lawnmower theme, which was a bit hard to get creative with, but still managed to have lots of fun! The rain had to dump on us though, so we were a bit crowded in the garage and house. Jacob's favorite present was a new wet and dry hand vac from his cousin, Michael. When he opened it, he screamed, "OH MY WORD!!!" It was pretty hilairious!

Adjusting to a New Life!

It seems like today was the day that Sophia decided she belonged here. It probably started with finally figuring out that 3 am is really not daytime. She slept through the entire night for a total of 12 hours! (I slept for 11 hours)! The next milestone she accomplished today was sitting by her brother in a cart while shopping at Cub. She thought the whole excursion was fascinating. She also decided that the car seat really isn't that horrible of a place to be and promptly fell asleep on the way home. But the most exciting news of all is that Sophia found the joy of walking again!!! Ever since we got her last Thursday, she has screamed if we tried to let her feet touch the ground, but today, she finally felt comfortable enough to venture off of my lap and walk around her room. Then she was walking down the hallway; then she was pulling books and puzzles off the shelf; then she was climbing on the coffee table! She has been a happy toddler today which makes my heart so full of joy! The saddest thing we've had to go through during this process was the sorrowful look she had on her face most of the time for the last 5 days. Today she's a different girl and it's so encouraging! I know there is still a long process ahead of understanding our language and establishing more predictable patterns, but we know we're heading in the right direction. Here are some more pictures from the last couple of days.

I wanted to include a picture of Jacob with his favorite new vacuum. It's a USB powered mini vac!

Home at last!

It's so good to be home! The whole time I was in Korea, I kept thinking, "I'm glad I get to soak in all the sights and culture, but I just can't wait to be home with my baby." I don't have time right now to give a detailed description of our trip, so I'll just summarize. The flights we took to Seoul were on time and uneventful. It's a painfully long trip when you factor in the time spent waiting around the airports. We were basically traveling for 20 hours with about 14 hours in the sky. We stayed at the agency guest house in Seoul and met some other nice couples who were adopting as well. One couple lives in Blaine, so I'm sure we'll plan to get together with them in the future. We got to meet Sophia on Tuesday. It was confusing and awkard and special. We got to see her again on Wednesday for a special birthday party they had for us. It was so cool to be a part of the Korean traditional birthday celebration. The foster mom gave us a photo album with pictures of Sophia. It made me cry. On Thursday, we met with the founder and his daughter (of the adoption agency in Korea). It was pretty formal, but wonderfully touching. Then, at 4:00, the foster parents all came (there were 7 couples picking up chidren) and the founder said a blessing. Then we went up to our guesthouse room where the foster parents tearfully said goodbye. The foster mom helped put Sophia in my backpack carrier, and then she left. Sophia proceeded to cry so hard that she threw up on my back! She cried hard for about an hour, and then fell asleep in Chris's arms. She was up for a few hours in the evening, but was very sad. Thankfully, she slept through the night. We had a grueling journey home, but overall, Sophia did pretty well. She threw up on the plane at one point, but didn't seem to be sick, just upset. During that plane ride the thought crossed my mind that this is probably our last child because I'd never want to go through it all again. When we got to Minneapolis, my sister, Sue, along with Jenny, Jackie, and Jacob met us at the airport. When I got through immigration and walked into the baggage area, I just stopped short and cried. It felt so good to be home! We came home to a home cooked meal by Sue, a banner of special messsages from friends, and the company of Chris's mom, sister and niece for the weekend. They have been so helpful in entertaining Jacob and helping us celebrate his actual birthday today by going to Chuck E Cheese. Sophia is slowly adjusting. She was very fitfully asleep and mostly awake all last night which was pretty much a nightmare. She doesn't smile very much and she is extremely clingy to me. She doesn't want to get down and play or walk yet, so we're still looking forward to getting to know the "real" Sophia soon. Here are some pictures!

Korea, here we come!

GREAT NEWS!!! We just got our travel call this morning, so we booked a flight to leave Mpls on Sunday, August 17. We'll spend the week in Korea, then fly back on Friday, arriving in Mpls on Saturday, August 23rd (Jacob's birthday). Jacob literally gets a new sister for his birthday present!!! His birthday party will be postponed until Sept 6. More details later!

Happy Birthday Sophia!

What a strange feeling...knowing it's my daughter's first birthday, but not knowing exactly what to do about it. We are still waiting for that all-important travel call, and I was feeling pretty patient until today! We really don't expect it for another week or two, but since it's Sophia's birthday today (August 3rd), I've been thinking about her all day. I decided to make "birthday cinnamon rolls" for breakfast. Jacob sang "happy birthday" to Sophia while I took a video. At church, Amanda marked the occassion by giving us a hand-made quilt for Sophia! It is beautiful, and just what I needed to help me feel like it was really my daughter's birthday. Then, after church, Chris, Jacob and I went to a Korean deli for lunch. (Jacob has decided that he doesn't like Korean food...we'll have to work on that). I'm so glad that we'll have a life-time of birthdays to celebrate from now on!

We've been enjoying our summer by doing some typical summer activities. Last weekend we headed up to Roseau for the annual county fair. We always have fun taking Jacob on rides, playing games, watching the derby, and most of all, eating the food. We also found time to hang out at a great little beach on Lake of the Woods.

Last week, we went to the Minnesota Zoo for a day with Amanda and her friend from Iowa, Michelle. It was the first time we've seen the new rennovations with the fun fountains, and the new Grizzly Bear exhibit.

We also made it out to Elm Creek Park for a swim on Friday. Jacob loved playing in the water with his friends Sydney, Josh, Chloe, Caleb, Sadie, and Emma.

Vacationing in Virginia

What an adventure! Over the 4th of July weekend, we flew to Virginia to see my brother, Tim, and his family. What made it so adventurous, you ask? Most of my siblings and my mom and dad also made the trip, so altogether, there were 17 of us "Wallaces" blissfully enjoying each other's company! Our first stop when we arrived in Virginia was to tour the Air and Space Museum in Dulles. We got to see some amazing historical aircraft. I thought the coolest part was the Shuttle and spacecraft exhibits.

The next day was the 4th of July. There were big plans on Tim's army base for Independence Day activities, including a concert and fireworks. Tim has recently become the conductor of this army band and this was to be his first big concert. We all went down to the field as activities got under way with food vendors and activities for children, but as we lingered, waiting for the concert to begin, stormy weather rolled in. It became obvious that the weather wasn't going to blow over anytime soon, so the concert and fireworks were cancelled. It was a huge disappointment for everyone, especially Tim and Mom and Dad. Tim even had canons set up to go off during the "1812 Overture." We did our best to move on with our vacation...what good does it do to fume about things that are out of our control?

On Saturday, we had birthday party fun! We decided to celebrate all of the kids birthdays together because we never get to celebrate with Connor, Ella, and Laney (Tim and Cindy's kids) and a lot of the cousins have summer birthdays. So, we went mini-golfing and go-cart riding and then we came back for an awesome supper Tim made and a "Hawaiin Luau" party complete with a Volcano cake and pinata.

We decided to go to a beach on Sunday. We drove to a little beach by Historic Jamestown where the kids could swim in the ocean without too much concern about the tide. We had a great time splashing and playing with water guns and digging in the sand. After a picnic lunch, we spent some time exploring history at Jamestown. We saw a reinactment of the glass-blowing trade done in the 1600's when the first settlers came from Europe. We went back to the army base and settled in early so we could be well-rested for our big day in Washington D.C. on Monday.

As I think about what to write about our day in D.C., I'm realizing that I'd rather not relive all of the sorted details...I'll just point out a few life lessons I learned: you can't trust Mapquest; the subway was more complicated than I remembered; 17 people can't get anywhere quickly; you can get lost on an army base; and never, ever do I want to be a contestant on "The Amazing Race." Now I'll choose to focus on the positive. We got off our trolley tour at the Lincoln Memorial. There's something about walking up those stairs and into that huge room with Lincoln's statue that is just overwhelming. Even with a "not-so-impressed" four-year-old, I was able to take in a moment of awe at the importance of Lincoln's presidency. My personal highlight of our day in D.C. was our next stop, the Korean War Memorial. It wasn't there when I went with Close-Up in 1990. Also, with our upcoming trip to South Korea, it had an intensely personal connection for me. If South Korea was overtaken by the Communist forces, there would not be any international adoption program and we wouldn't be getting our Sophia, so I just stood there, looking at those soldier statues, thinking, "Thank you...thank you..." After that, we walked over to the Vietnam War Memorial, which was also very meaningful since Chris's dad, Chuck Rose, fought in that war. It's so overwhelming to see all of those names carved in that long black wall.

We flew back home the next morning, relieved to be getting back to a regular schedule and our own personal space. It's so important to realize that even when things don't go as planned, we still have so much to be thankful for. We treasured our time with my youngest brother Tim, who we are so proud of; and Cindy, his wife, who made us all feel welcome and comfortable and at ease; and their kids, Connor, Ella, and Laney...such fun cousins for Jacob to play with!

Thank you, Ted, for driving us to the airport and thank you, Amanda, for picking us up. We are so thankful for great friends! Thank you Sue, for figuring out the trolley situation...that was very enjoyable for our family. Thank you Pete and Paula for figuring out how to get us from point A to point B. Mom and Dad, thank you for putting up with our ambitious plans without a single compaint. Tim and Cindy, thank you for letting us invade your home, eat your food, and for all of the driving you did. You are wonderful hosts!