Beautiful Dream - Our Kaelynn Rose

I am SOOOO bad at updating things here - good to know most of you hear from us fairly regularly!!! Anyway - We have officially finished Kindergarten!

Miss K is now a 1st grader! Her last day of school was last Friday, and we had dinner out at Olive Garden to celebrate.

Of course, with year round schooling, we didn't/haven't stopped yet, but the days we are on now officially count towards next year!

This week she finished up her Club J after school program for the year - she ended the year with Art, Tap Dance, Aquamania (swimming), and Yoga. We got to see her "showcase" for her Tap class and for Yoga. We also studied Tornadoes and Manta Rays this week!

Anyway - now, on the Summer Solstice we are celebrating by driving to AZ for a visit to Mimi & Fadr. We can't wait!

Here's to me trying to be better at this in the future!!!

Happy Summer!

It is so hard for me to even imagine that another year with our sweet baby girl has just flown by. I sat this morning, and wrote her yearly birthday letter - which she will someday get to read - I think I will give them to her when she turns 18 - maybe with a copy of this journal (if I manage to maintain it) and photo albums.

As I wrote to her, my thoughts, and feelings and memories of the last year, I cried. I cried for her Birth Mother (for her sacrifice, and gift of ultimate love for her, and ultimately to us), for her Birth Father (who might never know she exists), for Omma & Appa - who only get to watch her grow up through pictures, letters, and occasional visits, and for all of us adoptive families who are so truly blessed by the miracle of adoption. I marvel every day at her, at us, our little family - and how perfect it is, and how perfectly it was created!

But the tears were happy too. She has brought so much joy and love to us. We are so incredibly lucky and blessed to have been given the ultimate privilege of helping her grow up and grow into the amazing person she is becoming. Our baby, our toddler, is happiness beyond measure! We couldn't have created a better match - she is, without a doubt, the best thing to have ever entered our lives!

Her birthday was a wonderful, fun-filled, CRAZY day - just like her!!! We were so lucky that Kaelynn and her cousins got to celebrate her 3rd birthday together. She wanted a Tinkerbell party - so we ordered blue dragonfly wings for all of the kids and other Tinkerbell party supplies (balloons, napkins, plates, decorations, and gift bags of course!) and had an awesome party!!!

We made her a traditional cake - Mommy made it from scratch - but bought icing. Then Daddy created beautiful Tinkerbell wings on the cake. We had flower shaped sprinkles and flower candles, and a beautiful Tinkerbell candle. She was SOOOO excited to see the cake when we walked out singing Happy Birthday!!!

After cake, she got her birthday presents - she was spoiled rotten of course - and loved everything she received. She got Mommy & Baby Stuffed Black Lab doggies, a beautiful pair of sparkly purple fairy wings, a gorgeous, all natural dream catcher to hang over her bed, She especially loved the feather!! And a new princess movie - Beauty and The Beast. Her traditional Korean present this year was a pink purse embroidered with butterflies - which of course was a favorite present and needed immediately to have something in it!!! There were a lot of other presents too - including some to come back at home in CA. She had a wonderful birthday!!! A great celebration, for a sweet little girl!!!

Christmas day in Arizona was wonderful. The kids, east coast kids, were, of course, the first ones awake, and they were SOOOO ready to open their stockings! It was definitely hard for their Mom & Dad to keep them busy and happy till everyone else could be wakened and get some coffee/tea.

Santa had brought a VERY special gift for each of the cousins - a Build a Bear animal - white Leopards!!! Each with their own name! We chose ribbons for each of them so the kids could tell them apart. They carried them everywhere and played with them all morning!!!

The East Coast kids ripped through their stockings in about 2 minutes flat, but Miss Kae is the careful, methodical one. She pulled out one toy at a time, looked at it, played with it, and then had to be coaxed back to get the next thing out!!! She loved it though, and was especially interested in the tiny clementine in the bottom of her toe!! Such a little fruit bat!!!

My brother and sister in law - the East Coast Munson's do all the presents in the morning, so, to make it easy ont heir kids, and keep them happy - family presents happened pretty quickly - everyone just kind of ripped everything open. Not at all the way we do it, and Kaelynn was very confused, but we managed to get her to open things.

She got a lot of pretty cool presents - a baby dinosaur that walks, roars, and wags his tail - from Mimi & fader, a mermaid princess costume - handmade by Aunt Jen, The beautiful book Blueberry Girl from Aunt Haidee & Uncle Marek, and even a few gifts from Mommy & Daddy!!

We tried to have an easy "rest of the day" - we played with toys, read books, even got the two little ones down for naps.

Then, we had the "requisite" big, family meal. Paul had worked on the turkey, and it was AMAZING!!! And each of the rest of us made one of the side dishes - which were also delectable and SOO tasty!!! After stuffing ourselves as completely as possible, we got the kiddos off to bed, and spent some family time just talking and relaxing together. We may have held back a few of the "grownup" presents, but I am not really sure, it was all such a big, fast, blur!!! It was fun though, and so special to have us all together in one place!

December was of course, full & busy. Between holiday preparations, decorating, getting our tree set up and then heading to Sedona for Christmas it was pretty crazy!! We decided to have a "faux" tree for our apartment this year since we were going to be gone for over a week in Sedona, we decided maybe it was a better choice for this year. I found a pretty nice one, and once we got it up and decorated it was cool. The only problem was I missed the wonderful pine smell of a real tree - and searching for something to make the house smell like that real tree was a very difficult task! I ordered some scentsicles (little wood sticks you hang in the tree and they worked great for a few days as long as you were close to the tree. I finally found some candles that worked well and put more "scent" out into the apartment. Next year, I will order the Scented Oil Owl that hanges in the tree as an ornament. I've read reviews that says it works MUCH better!!

The cats of course LOVED the tree - which shocked us since it wasn't real - but Puck especially enjoyed climbing around inside of it - and bending all of the branches! Kae had fun playing "hide and seek the Puck"!!

We of course spent LOTS of time seeing Santa - Miss Kae still won't sit on his lap alone - but she gets VERY excited about going and getting to see him and having her picture taken - it's just that Mom, Dad, or both, have to be in the picture with her!! We saw Santa at Disneyland this year. The wait was a long one, but afterwards we got to see his real reindeer - who are waiting for Christmas Eve in a very swanky corral in a very hidden location in Disneyland. They have heated blankets, tons of hay to eat, and are really being treated like the royalty they are!!

Speaking of Santa, Kaelynn found a Santa hat at the local pharmacy and HAD to have it - so I tried on a couple of occasions to take some pictures of Miss Santa Kae - I got a few cute ones, but she was not overly cooperative!!!

Another kind of sad event - bittersweet - came in December. Just before we left for Arizona, literally Just before!!! Kaelynn had what was to be her very last in home Speech Therapy session with her therapist Christian. Kaelynn and Christian had become great buddies and Kaelynn had made amazing progress in her language development with Christian's help. So, on our final day - we made Christmas cookies, and took pictures. We will miss Christian a lot, but Kaelynn needs to move on to the school district to continue her Speech Therapy - so a new adventure - with new friends will begin in January! Christian is getting married, and we wished her many wonderful years of marriage, and gave her a small gift. We hope, one day, we might be able to have her babysit for Kae - once she isn't working for Newport Language Centers and could do so without getting in trouble!!!

That afternoon we drove to Arizona - and just as we pulled into town, it started snowing!!! It was a perfect beginning to our vacation in AZ!!! We took Kaelynn out in the snow, ever so briefly, just for her to feel it on her hands and see it. When we woke up the next morning the whole house and yard was blanketed in snow! We of course, bundled up and went out to play in it before it melted away!

November started sadly for us. Paul's Grandfather, Jerry G. Forest passed away early in the month. Miss Kaelynn was never able to meet her great Grandfather, but he would have loved her to pieces - and she him, we are sure.

And so, we traveled back to Sayre & Waverly to meet with the family for his memorial and for a celebration of his life, and a family reunion (of sorts). It was the first time many of the family would meet Miss Kae, and they all adored her of course, and our little social butterfly loved them too! Almost everyone was there - the first time that the whole family (or almost all of them) had been able to gather in one place since the Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary many years ago. Miss Kaelynn made certain things a bit more difficult then they would have normally been, but everyone there has kids, or at least understands what toddlers are like - so it was all okay!! It was really nice to see the family, despite the sad circumstances, and we all spent the time catching up, reminiscing and just being family.

Unfortunately, both Paul and Kaelynn ended up with the flu - Paul while we were back east, and Kaelynn on our way home, literally as we were trying to get on our 2nd plane for the long part of the trip home - it was a tough trip home!!! Poor things - they had it pretty rough!

The rest of November was pretty relaxed - just everyday playtime, and general life. We had a nice Thanksgiving - again with the Bruton family and Aunt Haidee & Uncle Marek. We made a weekend of it, and spent time at the playgrounds and the beach, as well as just relaxing and hanging out. She got to try out her new travel tent at Gamma Beth & Gampa Al's. It was as always, a wonderful celebration - with lots to be Thankful for!

We are of coure looking forward to the holidays!!!

At the VERY end of September, Kae's cousin (actually dear friends of the family - and family at heart) arrived in Irvine to belatedly celebrate Aunt Debi's birthday and go to Mickey's Halloween Party at Disney's California Adventure. The two little girls dressed as butterflies for the Halloween Party - they were SOOO adorable! Debi & I got some amazing pictures of them of course! We also spent some time at Disneyland, which of course was all dressed up for the holiday!! It was a wonderful weekend. We also took the girls to the Pumpkin Patch at Irvine Park Railroad. The girls had a wonderful time, and Kaelynn picked out a pumpkin just her size - she kept calling it her baby pumpkin, it was so cute! The weather cooperated and was not too cold, we even got to go to the pool and do a BBQ one evening!

At the end of the week, right after Debi, Travis, and Allyssa left Mom & Dad arrived from AZ to spend some time here with us and go to San Diego to see the Lion King. A surprise that my sister, Haidee, and I had cooked up when we saw that the show was traveling to San Diego. They arrived on the 9th of October. They stayed at the Candlewood Suites down the street - so that Dad didn't have to climb 3 flights of stairs to the apartment day after day! We went out to eat at some of our favorite places - The Yardhouse (which actually lost our business that night as they never brought Paul's entree!!! Though the company was delightful!) That weekend, we attempted to take them to Disneyland, along with Haidee, but Dad was having trouble, so we ended up just heading home and hanging at the hotel and watching a movie instead. We took them for lunch to the best Mexican place in town, a family run business called El Cholo - YUM!

We just spent lots of time playing and hanging out at the hotel for the beginning of the week. It was nice and laid back. Mom sat in and observed our Speech Therapy session with Christian on Wednesday, and then we loaded up the car and headed for San Diego! We stayed at Beth & Al's house - since Haidee and Marek are still in the apartment while their house is being remodeled. It was nice to have the big house to ourselves!!!

Thursday afternoon, Aunt Kalin came and picked up little Kaelynn for an afternoon of fun at Amber's soccer practice and playtime. Apparently she was a big hit - trying to warm up with the girls and running all over the soccer field! She was completely worn out and fell asleep on Kalin's couch before we arrived to pick her back up! The Lion KLing was amazing (again) - as this time we had seats right in the orchestra area - so the animals walked right past us during the procession in! And Kaelynn was of course her usual well behaved self for Kalin, so all in all it was a great night!

Mom & Dad left to head back to AZ the following Monday afternoon, and I went back to getting ready for actual Halloween. We went to our first ever Melting Pot Moms event in Ladera Ranch on Sunday the 25th - Kaelynn went as her butterfly again. She had a blast! It was wonderful meeting the new group of Moms, Dads, and kids. It is a really nice group of people.

On Friday, the 30th - we went Trick-or-Treating at Blizzard. They have a 2 hour event for the families & kids of their employees - and boy do they know how to do it up right!!! Kaelynn wore her Kiki the Witch dress (it's first official showing for Halloween) and EVERYONE loved it! They all knew who she was too - so I was excited! She collected a TON of candy, and had lots of fun running around the halls of Blizzard!

The 31st was Halloween - Kaelynn's favorite night of the year - hands down her favorite holiday! She was super excited all day long and kept asking if it was time to get into Kiki and go Trick-or-Treating yet! We finally got her dressed, and headed over to Celeste's house around 5pm

September was a pretty quiet month. We spent time at Disneyland and the beach (two of our favorite places). For labor day we headed down to San Diego and saw Aunt Haidee and Uncle Marek. We had wonderful BBQ at Grandpa Al & Grandma Beth's house too. We spent time with our friends Arianna & Jadon, had a beach bonfire with the adoptive families group, and Kaelynn had her very 1st 3 minute egg with Daddy. She wasn't 100% sure what to do with it - eat it or play with it - but I think she liked it!!!

Her dolls - Iris & Lily became big hits this month as well. Miss K spent a lot of time rocking them, swaddling them, feeding them, etc. She is such a little Mommy!!! And I think we have officially entered the doll stage!

August brought LOTS of different activities for us - never a dull moment around here!

First - Daddy was gone to his conference in New Orleans and Kaelynn and I had MANY tea parties and photo shoot s- so that Daddy could see what we did while he was away. We talked to him at night via video chats, and Kae spent a lot of the time trying to kiss him through the monitor!!

After Daddy got home we had a visit from our friend Wanda. We went to the San Diego Zoo, Disneyland, and just had fun around Irvine. We even had a girls shopping day at the Irvine Spectrum!

Next up was a fancy bus ride (Kae had never been on a "tour" type bus, only city buses in San Francisco) to Blizz Con to pick up Mommy & Daddy's passes. Kaelynn couldn't go to the actual event as they don't allow anyone under the age of 18, but she LOVED the bus ride to and from, and playing in the convention center!!

We also went to Disneyland and California Adventure on our own (just our little family) and went to see Ponyo in the theatre (she sat and watched almost the whole thing quietly!)

it was a busy month - and of course the fall will be just as busy!!!

Thanks for checking in on us!

Lots of love,

Chandra, Paul, and Kaelynn

As always - July was a CRAZY. busy month!! Every year we have my birthday and San Diego Comic-Con, but this year we also had Paul's company picnic -

First we spent another weekend with Koenig family at their beach house, then just a few days later spent the 4th of July with aunt Haidee, uncle marek, and Grandma Beth & Grandpa Al in San Diego. Her aunt Kalyn (yup same name - but just a coincidence), & uncle John had a BLAST taking her down to the water to play while we watched the fireworks from the beach!!! Then she got to have a marshmallow fight on the beach, she managed to hit Daddy twice!!! Pretty good aim for a 2 year old just learning how to throw!!!

Next up on the July crazy calendar was a brand new Tinkerbell Tea Set. She has been obsessed with having "tea parties" for quite awhile now, and we wanted to give her a proper tea set, so we got it in secret and gave it to her as a surprise after a really good speech session. It is working well to help her develop more complex sentences and increase her overall vocabulary as she has her tea parties - it was a wonderful, and inspiring present!!!

Blizzard throws a wonderful family picnic - great food, music, games, and bouncy houses for the kids! Kaelynn spent almost an hour in one! We had a hot dog for lunch, and ice cream and ice pops as treats. She ran around with air hockey balls she found, played with the table tennis rackets, and even tried to climb the rock wall - she actually got part of the way up!!! She was completely wiped out afterwards and slept all the way home!!!

We spent Mommy's birthday at Disneyland - we watched Fantasmic, and went on all of Kaelynn's & Mommy's favorite rides - Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, Teh Carousel, Dumbo, and saw the fireworks over Sleeping Beauty's Castle. We had ice cream cake, and a yummy dinner - and presents too of course!!!

Our final weekend, we traveled to San Diego for Comic-Con. This was Kaelynn's 2nd Comic-Con - and she had even more fun this year, than last. No Backyardigans premiers, but she got to wear her fairy costume - and even met some of Tinkerbell's friends (Rosetta & Fawn). On Sunday we met Raul, Carla, and Raulito for lunch near the convention center - it was so nice to see them. They live in Tijuana - so we don't get to see them as often as we like - but we try to meet up with them every year during Comic-con. We of course spent time with aunt Haidee and uncle Marek - and had lots of fun as always! kaelynn also picked out a special fairy painting for her bedroom. Oh, and she got to see two of her favorite things combined into one thing - robots and Neigh-Neighs (horses) our first day on the floor we saw a figurine of a robot horse!!!! She wanted to take it home and had to spend about 10 minutes looking at it - pointing out it's tail, eyes, and that is was a robot!!! She kept saying robot neigh-neigh over and over again!!!

Next weekend Daddy leaves for New Orleans - for Siggraph - I am so sad that we can't go too - as I have never been, but Miss Kae and I will spend our time having tea parties, and playdates, and Daddy will be home before we know it!!!

Thanks as always for following our crazy little journey - and our sweet little girl!

Hugs to all,

Chandra, Paul, and Miss Kae

The rest of June was filled with LOTS of excitement! Kaelynn learned all about corn on the cob! She loves it and eats it one kernel at a time - sometimes picking each one off - just like her aunt Tiff!!! *wink*

Kaelynn's formal portrait session was a huge success - the pictures are beautiful, and we intend to buy the whole session! The second session was just in a fun Gymboree outfit with lots of beads!! But they turned out cute as well, and our favs will be added to our disc.

Father's day was awesome! We made dinner at home (actually Paul wanted to cook - so he made his own father's Day dinner!) baked cookies (Kaelynn and I) he opened his homemade presents, and a new coffee cup with pictures just of Kaelynn & Daddy!!!! We played in the playground after dark too - we had a great day!!

We visited Grammy (Mimi) and Grosenfader (Fader) in Sedona - lots of time in the baby pool, playing ball (and fetch) with Fader, saw aunt Haidee, and celebrated Mimi & Fader's 49th anniversary!!

Then the last weekend of the month we had two really big events

The first, was that Kaelynn was invited to her first birthday party - her friend Mia turned 3 - and we went to her party at the Santa Ana Zoo. She had a lot of fun playing with all of the other kids and seeing the animals.

The second, was a visit from aunt Kathy, uncle Steve, and the cousins - Lauren, Alex, and Katie - we met up with them at their beach house on Balboa Island. Kaelynn LOVED the house, the water, the candy shoppe - all of it!!! She even played her first game of Wii bowling!!

All in all, a wonderful first month of summer!!!! Next month - Mommy's birthday!!!!

Well - here we are again - another month and I have SOOO much to fill you all in on, and about a billion pictures to upload and no time to do it in!

Kaelynn is growing by leaps and bounds - not size wise - but her vocabulary and overall becoming more verbal and expressive gets more impressive each and every day! She has started to use a few two-word combos - one of the big goals of her Speech Therapy - and Christian - her therapist is very happy with her progress. She now says - got you, shoes off, shoes on, & more please.

She has learned how to jump and can climb across LARGE expanses of space on the playground equipment in the park downstairs - making Mom VERY nervous about her falling and breaking something!!! But she is fearless and VERY determined - so I have to do my best to spot her and let her try!

We spent a day a few weeks ago at the Irvine Regional Park - where she got to ride the ponies (4 times!!!) and a choo-choo train. She had an awesome day - playing in their playground, climbing a tree, etc. But her favorite parts of the day were the ponies of course - Neigh, Neigh - Neigh, Neigh!!! I will try to upload some pictures soon!

She also just recently had her very first "formal" portrait session. she had her picture taken in her 1st Birthday Hanbok (still too big for her!LOL!) and her Adoption Day Dress. We haven't seen the pictures yet, but we get a free print - and will probably buy a print or two of other favorite poses too!

The weather here is also varying between "June Gloom" - where it stays overcast but kind of muggy all day and sometimes doesn't get very warm, to HOT & muggy, and sunny. On the warm days - it has to be over 70, we take her down to the pool and let her swim - she is learning to kick - and even tries to use her arms! She has also learned to blow bubbles!!!

And the biggest news may be that she went to the theatre to see her very first movie at the end of May - I'm sure you could guess - but we took her to see Pixar's UP! She LOVED it!! She wouldn't keep the 3-D glasses on - but we hadn't expected that she would, but she sat and watched the whole movie - chowing down on popcorn and sipping on Mom & Dad's Icee!! We of course forgot the camera on that one - so we plan to make trip to the theatre in a few days to take a picture or two of the outside signs and such. I got one on my cell phone - but it was pretty bad - no flash and only 2mp - so we need some better ones for future scrapbook pages!!!

I think that about covers it for now. I promise to try and upload some photos soon!

Thanks as always for checking in on us - and PLEASE leave us a comment or two - we love to see who has been here!!!

Love & Hugs to all,

Chandra, Paul, and Kaelynn Rose Soo Jin

Hello Everyone

I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to get to this...I have SOOO much to catch up on - The move to our new apartment, meeting new friends, Kaelynn's speech therapy starting, Easter, a trip to see Grammy & Grosenfader, etc....Now if I can just find the time!!!

Everyone is good here, we are finally getting settled in. We are loving having a playground just downstairs - and another even cooler one just a 10 minute walk away! Kaelynn has discovered a GREAT love of Carousels -and the Irvine Spectrum has a wonderful one so we try to go often. The apartment is painted, and "mostly" unpacked!! Now we need to tackle the garage...ummm...read that as temporary storage!! Now we just need to purge, organize, and decorate!! More about the apartment will follow in another post!

Miss Kaelynn has started her speech therapy and her therapist, Christian, comes 2x a week - they have a good time, now that Christian has figured out how to work with Miss Kae and get her to participate (for the most part) the hardest part is that we see her for an hour at 8am on Tues/Thurs and Kae is not used to being awake - let alone active and ready to learn - much before 8 or 8:30!!

We have also connected with a wonderful group of adoptive parents here in Orange County and they are amazing! Truly wonderful people and we have enjoyed an Easter Egg Hunt, a Lunch Playdate, a Strawberry Farm Tour & Picking Day and there is much more to come - I think some of the families will become great friends - with a potential for playmates for Kaelynn!!

Easter was awesome! Kaelynn got to participate in two egg hunts - one with the adoptive moms group, and a private one just for her on Easter. She really got the hang of it this year and it was so funny to watch her. Then she discovered that the eggs open up and she gets stuff from inside them - another totally amusing thing to watch! After the egg hunt we changed out of our nice clothes and planted some seeds for herbs out on our porch. Kaelynn had a blast playing in the dirt/mud and helping Daddy to plant all of the herbs. She has been very excited to see the shoots poking up through the dirt on the one pot of herbs over the last week or so too! The other pot has not been so productive - but at least one worked!!! Can't wait to see which ones we got - since we forgot to label them...OOPS! :)

Right before Grammy (MiMi) Munson's birthday we went to Arizona for a visit. Grosenfader had hurt his knee and we were originally going to help out, but by the time we got there he was well on his way to recovery, so it was mostly just a fun visit - lots of playtime, videos, and fun! We even got to meet our milk donor and her husband and daughters for the very first time! The girls had a BLAST playing together and it was so neat to finally meet such wonderful, giving people, in person - plus they brought us more milk!!! Grammy & Mommy started to work on a couple of Minnie Mouse outfits for Miss Kae, and Grosenfader and Kae had fun playing with Kaelynn's toys and reading books - Grosenfader even ended up with his own toy chest to put Kae's toy gifts into - she's VERY good at sharing!

I'm sure there is a lot more to share, but I will leave it at this for now....I will upload some of the recent pictures as soon as I can find enough time to gather them all!!

Much Love to all - Thanks for checking in!

Chandra, Paul, and Kaelynn Rose Soo Jin

Today is our first day in Corporate Housing in Irvine, Ca. We have just moved from San Francisco for Daddy to go to work at his "Dream Job" working for Blizzard - the game company that makes his favorite obsession!

It is a bittersweet move for us. We have left the home that Kaelynn first came home to, here in America, her first home with us as her Mom & Dad. Not to mention all of the amazing friends we have had to say goodbye (at least temporarily) to. We will still make trips a few times a year to the Bay Area for kids birthdays, to see friends, and to enjoy San Francisco.

On the other hand - we will now have my sister and brother in law only an hour away in San Diego. We are less than 30 minutes from Disneyland and Paul will be less stressed (we hope) have better work hours, and be VERY happy with his job!

So far, Kaelynn seems to be going with the flow - the boxes surrounding her in SF didn't phase her too much, and she was a real trooper on the drive down yesterday.

We'll see how the next few weeks go as we settle in here in Corporate Housing - which, by the way, is pretty fancy!!! And then finding an apartment and getting moved in and permanently settled.

Off to play with the little one!

Today is Kaelynn's 2nd birthday. It has been an extra special day for us. My family is all here in AZ. celebrating with us. My brother Eric, my sister in law - Jenn and their children, Eirene & Tor & my sister, Haidee & brother in law, Marek and of course my Mom & Dad (Jen & Dick)

It started out kind of rough for her as she is teething and was running a high temp last night and had a tough time sleeping.

This morning around 8am she was just all excited, , climbing on us in bed, and laughing and giggly. After a tough late morning her nap seemed to help.

She got up from her nap this afternoon, though, and pretty much jumped right into the celebration!

We had a very traditional Korean celebration - both Kaelynn & Eirene wore Hanbok - the traditional Korean celebratory dress. Kaelynn's was the one Paul and I purchased for her in Korea, and Eirene's was the one that my Mom & I ordered for Kaelynn before she came home from Korea.

We had Bulgogi (Korean BBQ) and rice for dinner, and toasted Kaelynn - she even joined in with a "Cheers" herself.

Then for dessert we had traditional Korean Sweet Rice Cake - with a Tinker Bell candle. It tastes a little like a gritty, sticky, sugar cookie.

After dessert we opened presents - with LOTS of help from the cousins - anxious 5 & 2 year olds after all! Then off to bath and bed.

It was a wonderful day overall - many things to be thankful for.

I can't help but think of her birthmom today, and hope that she has come to peace with her decision. That her life is full of other blessings, and that she is happy, healthy, and knows deep in her heart that her baby girl is with a family who loves her beyond words, and who can never thank her birthmom enough for the gift of Soo Jin (Kaelynn).

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl!!!!

It has officially been 1 year since Miss Kaelynn Rose Soo Jin arrived here in the United States!!!! It was a very long journey to bring her home, a whirlwind trip to Korea, and a difficulkt parting for all involved as we left Korea - but then, she just fit right in. Within days she was laughin and giggling, and it was as if she had always been with us!

I cannot believe that she has been home for a whole year already - the time has flown by. She has changed so much - she has hair! She can walk, run, and climb! She is starting to talk, and we have fallen in love with her more and more each day.

She is our pride and joy - we coudn't have made one better ourselves!!!

Here's to many, many more beautiful, happy, homecoming anniversaries!!!!!

Tonight was Kaelynn's First Halloween with us and first Trick-or-Treat experience. We went to Menlo Park to spend the day with our dear friends (more like family) the Koenig family.

Kaelynn had a WONDERFUL time - despite not getting a very good nap she just loved running through the streets in her ladybug costume - which had been purchased for her by Grammy and even posed for photos in her handmade Totoro costume - that Mommy made!

It took her awhile to get the hang of walking up for trick -or - treating to the doors - but once she figured it out - she RAN to the doors!!!

Kaelynn tried a few different candies - some were hits - like twizzlers, others not so much - like Red Hots!!!!

All in all, we think she had an awesome day - and we can't wait to do it again next year!!

This is just a place holder entry till I can get some pictures uploaded - the site seems to be having issues! But I wanted the site to be available to our friends and family so......

Today, we took Kaelynn to Breakfast With Enzo - a musical show with a local children's singer. He mixes folk music, traditional songs, finger plays, and interactive games into his routine - he is very talented and really gets the children engaged and dancing, singing, and playing along.

He uses a really interesting mix of instruments too - a mouth harp, a banjo, drums, an accordion, and of course more common ones like a keyboard and guitar. His music can be found on I-Tunes if you want to hear some samples. Enzo Garcia is his full name.

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get the pictures uploaded soon!

We just returned home from Kaelynn's VERY first Comic-Con in San Diego - she was such a trooper!! She rode around like the little princess she is in her stroller - amazed by the geeks that surrounded her!

She loved all of the costumes and characters dressed up and she even got to go to her very own panel - a premiere showing of a new episode of her favorite show - The Backyardigans! She LOVED it!!

Of course the highlight of the trip for her was probably seeing them 25 feet tall and running around Balboa Children's park, but she really did have a pretty good time - although 4 full days of that is an AWFUL lot to ask of an 18 month old!!!

I am reminded on these trips of how truly blessed we are - she is a great traveler - in the car, on a plane, whatever we throw her way she takes it with ease and just smiles and giggles away.

She is such an easy going kid - yet strong willed and opinionated - as it should be - and we are beyond a shadow of a doubt some of the luckiest people in the world to be able to call ourselves her parents!!!

Today we took Kaelynn to one of our favorite places for the very first time - Disneyland!!!! We are on a 4 day vacation at Disney with some family friends - another family also with a daughter going to Disneyland for the first time.

We had a REALLY fin time! The girls had a blast and we are all VERY tired now! Pictures and videos will be added soon.

And I will try to update the journal with a more thorough accounting of what our trip entailed when we are home and caught up on some sleep - we're having LOTS of fun though!!!

Much love to all,

Chandra, Paul, and Kaelynn Rose

Today is our sweet baby girl's first birthday! I can't believe we have already had her home with us for three big celebrations - her first Thanksgiving, her first Christmas, and her 1st birthday today!

We celebrated with a traditional Korean Tol - it is a birthday celebration that is of special significance for Koreans. If you'd like to read more - check out this link....

http://www.lifeinkorea.com/culture/tol/tol.cfm

We have had her Toljabee, and prayers were said privately by mommy this morning. She got to wear the beautiful hanbok that her foster parents gave to us - and she looked SOOOO precious!!

I also wrote her a letter that I will give to her on her 18th birthday - all about her first birthday and how much she means to us, how special she is, and how much we love her!

She will get the American side of her birthday when she wakes up from her afternoon nap - turkey for dinner (which is her favorite food) followed by a homemade carrot cake with cream cheese icing and of course ---- presents!!!

Thank you to all of us that wished us a beautiful day - every day with her is beautiful - but today was certainly extra, extra important and special!

We're home!!!!! I will 'blog' the whole crazy trip in a few days - but we are completely exhausted, elated, and so thrilled to finally have her in our arms and to be parents after such a long wait! For now I just wanted to post the update and upload a few photos for everyone to see. Isn't she just the most gorgeous little thing you have ever seen!!!

When we all wake up in a few days - I will chronicle the trip.
For now, we are keeping things very low key - due to her SEVERE stranger anxiety. But we hope that you will all be able to meet her very soon!

Love as Always,

Chandra, Paul, and Kaelynn Rose Soo Jin

We FINALLY received Kaelynn's travel approval - she's really coming home!!!! We leave for Korea on Saturday and will arrive there on Sunday. We will meet her for the first time on Monday and come home on Tuesday. It will be a total whirlwind, and unfortunately we won't be able to see much of Korea, but the most important thing is that she will FINALLY be home with us!!! Wish us luck that the trip is easy for all of us, and that she adjusts to her new home easily!!

Much love to all,

Chandra

WOOOOO-HOOOOO!!! We got our I600 Approval today! This is the Orphan Visa Petition. We have been waiting 3 months for this - it usually takes less than 6 weeks, but no matter - we have the I600 and now all we need is our travel approval and we can bring her home!

Our placement agency says to expect Travel Approval to take anywhere from 2-4 weeks - so while she won't be home in time for Halloween - she should be here in time for Thanksgiving - and boy will we be thankful to finally have her in our arms!!!

We will keep you updated as to when we get the travel approval.

Thanks for checking in!

Much Love,

Chandra, Paul, and Kaelynn Rose SooJin

Well - we got the ICPC straightened out, and then they decided that our 6 month old homestudy had to be updated - remember that the homestudy is supposedly valid for 12 months - unless you move or change jobs - which we haven't.

So we had to contact Adopt. Int. and ask them to do an update to the HS - which they did - basically a short paragraph and new signatures, plus a $200 check. They sent it overnight Fed-Ex to the USCIS Orphan Unit. It's now been almost 3 weeks since that happened - the contact as USCIS said they didnt receive the first one sent - even though the HS agency has a verification of signature from Fed-Ex, so she overnighted a second copy to them and this time I also received a verification of delivery with signature. So, now we are waiting - yet again - for the Orphan Petition - they claim they will expedite it, they even have her picture - to let them put a face with our beautiful waiting baby.

But - I am so frustrated right now. It seems like every time we take a step forward, or feel like we are getting close to bringing Kaelynn home, something happens and we end up taking 5 steps back - that's a deficit of 4 steps - in case you're counting!

The last few weeks have been one issue after another, all having to do with our orphan petition. We have to get approval on our orphan petition so that the gov't. in Korea can issue her exit visa and our travel approval.

Meanwhile she is in Korea, getting bigger and bigger everyday - she is already crawling, and pulling up on furniture - that was a couple of months ago - she might be walking by now - we are missing so very much, and it is breaking my heart.

My baby is growing up without me. We are missing it all.

I know that we will have her for the rest of her life once she is home, but that doesn't stop the pain of missing so many of her "firsts"

I know it will happen, that she will eventually be here with us - but that day seems so, so far away at the point.

Please keep the good thought that our Orphan Petition is approved and arrives in the next couple of days, and that we get our travel approval in the next week or so!!

Thanks for reading my rant!!!

Still no news - I am getting so very frustrated and depressed. It feels as if we are never going to be able to go and get our beautiful little girl! I called AAC the other day and have not heard back from them. She was going to call USCIS to ask if they had received the ICPC = she got no answer, left a message. So I assume she has not yet heard back. I will be calling today to ask, if I don't hear from her. We'll keep you posted - thanks for checking in!

Love to all!

Chandra, Paul, and Miss Kaelynn Rose SooJin

Nothing new yet - We are still waiting on the approvval from USCIS. They sent us a letter that they needed the ICPC for approval - but both the honestudy agency & the placing agency have theirs - so HOPEFULLY USCIS has theirs as well and we will get the approval on our I600 any day now - then it will be just a coouple of weeks until we can go and bring Kaelynn home! We'll keep you posted! Thanks for checking in and PLEASE leave us a comment!!! We love to hear from everyone!

Love,

Chandra, Paul, and Kaelynn Rose

We are still waiting for the TA (travel approval) so that we can go and bring Kaelynn home. It has now been over 1 month since the USCIS received our 2nd filing of the orphan petition and they have not yet sent notice of approval. This is the last step before Korea will issue her exit visa and passport.

Our agnecy keeps telling us that we will be able to travel to Korea in September, but I am beginning to doubt that. I just want oour baby home!!!!