Rough Riders Game

Last night we went to the Rough Riders Game. Every year our church purchases a huge section of the ballpark for our church family to attend. The children's choir was able sing the National Anthem (on the field... Hey it's a really big deal to the 4 year olds) and they also were able to sing one of the songs from their spring program as well.

The game was really slow and long, so we didn't stay until the closing fire works. Micah was a little disappointed but the evening wasn't at a loss for him, because he caught a foul ball! This is the third ball he has caught at a game. Twice at the Rough Riders and once at a Rangers vs. Angels game. That ball was actually hit by Vladimir Guerrero, Micah's favorite player from the Angels. We're hoping to get the ball signed by him the next time the Angels are in town.

Last night we finally had a chance to use our new camera! I love it!!! Here are a few (or should I say, "A few too many") pictures from our time at the ballpark!

NKOTB Are Making a Come Back

My sister sent this video of NKOTB performing on the Today Show. It's kind of funny seeing them all grown up and singing their old songs on stage. Kind of creepy seeing them up there performing. What's even creepier is seeing all the women, MY AGE... getting all worked up as if they were some teenager. EEEEWWWW!!!!

Apparently NKOTB are going on tour, but you won't find me at any of their reunion concerts. I really prefer not to be found in the mix of the 'desperate, still stuck in the 90's, and I'm in my mid-30's complex'. Nope... I left my junior high and high school ways far behind me.... THANK GOODNESS!!!

I will admit I really liked the group back when I was a freshman in high school. My sister and I listened to their music and would try to win concert tickets on the local radio stations, etc. It's fun to hear their music and remember the fond and not so fond memories of yesteryear... but I'm not going stand in the rain at Rockefeller Plaza, screaming in excitement because I'm watching these has-beens preform. Maybe it's just me... I don't know.

What do you think of the group's come back?

This Past Weekend

This past weekend was full of fun, good friends, laughter, hard work, one huge migraine and lots of love and kisses from my husband and kids.

Friday night was spent at Blue Mesa (YUM!) along with all my close, dear friends who I serve in Children's Choir with at our church. Each May, after the Spring concert is done, we gather together to reflect on what the Lord has done throughout the year. God surely revealed himself to all of the children and to us leaders as well these past 5 months!!! We had fun sharing stories and learning how God worked behind the scenes in each choir. (there are 4 choirs in all). We also get to eat yummy food and spend time in fellowship with one another. I have made life-long friends within this ministry. Each woman I serve with in this ministry are incredible women of God who inspire me, challenge me and bless me every time we are together. GOD IS SO GOOD!

On Saturday we worked out in the yard! YAY! I love, love, love to garden. We purchased new plants and flowers to put in the front and backyard, and moved some older plants around so they can flourish and grow in a better setting. Micah had a friend come over and they swam throughout the afternoon. This is the first time using the pool this year! The water temperature is already in the low 80's, without having to heat it. We almost never use the heater for the pool really, only to heat the jacuzzi in the cooler months. ;0)

We had gone to the grocery store earlier in the day to get some food for Soowan to BBQ for dinner. Unfortunately I was not able to share in eating dinner with my family, because shortly before dinnertime I started to get a migraine. This is the second one I've had in a month. I usually get one every 2-3 months and there really isn't any rhyme or reason when or why I get them. This particular migraine persisted until early in the AM on Sunday, and the residual effects after it ended lasted throughout most of the day. =0(

On Sunday morning Soowan and Micah made me breakfast. I managed to eat a bit of the breakfast, but still feeling fairly nauseous from my migraine... food didn't really sound very appetizing. Soowan took the kids to church and I stayed home to lay in a quiet, dark room and took a little nap. When they returned we all cuddled on the living room couch and watch The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe... MY CHOICE!

Amanda took a long three and half hour nap (I think it was God's Mother's Day gift to me. =0) ), which allowed me to lay down and catch a few more Z's before dinner. Soowan had made reservations at my favorite restaurant Terilli's per my request. Thank goodness I started to feel better to make it to dinner. The food was delicious and we even sneaked in a little dessert for us all to share! YUMMY!

Sadly, I don't have any pictures of our weekend to share this time around. Soowan did go out and purchased a new camera this weekend though. We are saying that it's both my Mother's Day gift and his Father's Day gift combined. ;0) We ended up getting the Nikon D40. (Thanks Rachel for you advice!) Soowan was hoping to take some pictures on Sunday, but when we finally took the camera out of the packaging, we learned that the battery needed to be charged for up to 18 hours prior to using. Oh well!

Despite me having a migraine this weekend... I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Thank you to my sweet husband and wonderful kiddos for making me feel loved, not just one day a year... but every single day the Lord grants me to have with you. I LOVE YOU ALL VERY MUCH!

My New Favorite CD

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE MY NEW CD... 'Roots Run Deep' by Jadon Lavik. The CD is the artists interpretation of classic hymns. His music has a acoustic, jazzy feel to it. Just thought I would share my new find!!!

Before I was a Mom...

I made and ate hot meals.
I had unstained clothing.
I had quiet conversations on the phone.

Before I was a Mom…
I slept as late as I wanted.
And never worried about how late I got into bed.
I brushed my hair and my teeth every day.

Before I was a Mom…
I cleaned my house each day.
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to lullabies.

Before I was a Mom…
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunisations.

Before I was Mom…
I had never been puked on,
Pooped on,
Spat on,
Chewed on,
Peed on,
Or pinched by tiny fingers.

Before I was a Mom…
I had complete control of my mind,
My thoughts.
My body,
And my time.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom…
I never held down a screaming child,
So that doctors could do tests,
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
Watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom…
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put him/her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces.
When I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom…
I didn't know the feeling of having my
heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to
feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and child.
I didn't know that something so small
Could make me feel so important.

Before I was a Mom…
I had never risen in the middle of the night
Every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
The joy,
The love,
The heartache,
The wonderment,
Or the satisfaction of being a
Mom.

I didn't know I was capable
of feeling so much before I was a Mom!

- Author unknown -

The non-mom mom... WHAT???

***EDITED TO ADD***

When viewing the link to the contest (mentiond below) the category now states "The Adopting Mom". After much pressure from families on the forum I frequent (and I'm sure hundreds to thousands of many others outside of our little forum as well), let NBC know that grandmothers, step mothers and mother's of adopted children are not Non-mom moms. I'm happy they changed their wording, but I'm still not hot on the whole idea of categorizing mothers in the first place. I'm hoping to watch the Today show (if I have the chance) tomorrow and on Sunday (when they announce the winners), to see if NBC will apologize to all of us 'Non-moms' and to our 'Non-children' for their orignal, idiotic choice of wording. Grrr!!!


***MY ORIGNAL POST***

It was just brought to my attention on a adoption forum I frequent, that NBC considers many people (including myself) a Non-Mom. The Today Show is having a Mother's Day contest and they have selected different categories for people to enter. This is strait off their website


The non-mom mom
Grandparent, step mom, or mom to adopted children, each one raising and loving a child. A priceless gift for everybody.

The contest has other categories such as Military Moms, Single Moms, Working Moms and SAHM. To me all of the above are MOMS! Why categories them? As if there is not enough tension between SAHM's, single and working mom's. Why continue the division??? In a whole MOST MOM'S (and Dad's as well) are doing the best they can!

Another thing that completely irritates me is the way NBC quotes some of the Mom's stories.

Jennifer Keller
Home, KS
She was an adopted child who is now mom to her own daughter, plus six adopted children who started life as "meth babies".

Why can't NBC say this women has 7 children? Why say this woman has "her own daughter,plus six adopted children"? I mean seriously... do parents honestly think they "own" their children? Do parents see their children as a commodity? Something to acquire? To collect? To trade? Who cares that this woman has one biological child and the other 6 were adopted. She is parenting all seven of them with a open heart and open mind.

Most adoptive parents will agree with me that they don't adopt to "save" their children, or adopt to wear some badge of honor. Not all adoptive parents are infertile either. Some can very well get pregnant, but they choose to adopt. It's the way that GOD has built and/or is building their family!!! You don't accidentally adopt (like many people claim they 'accidentally' get pregnant). Come on if you're a willing participant and doing the deed... there is the possibility you will conceive a child. And I'm not trying to say that adoptive parents 'wanted' their children more than biological parents wanted their children either. I'm just sick of the division society makes of the two. (i.e. this non-mom mom malarkey).

I'm a mother to both a biological child and a adopted child. The love is no different. There is no division for the love I feel for each child. I don't put my role of parenting my children into two different categories. I don't "own" one of my children and have the other child on lend. Sounds ludicrous... Right?

As one person on my adoptive forum put it... "If you are called mom- then you are a mom."

Another person on the forum looked up the definition of Mother and found this.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
moth·er1 Audio Help /ˈmʌðər/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[muhth-er] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. a female parent.
2. (often initial capital letter) one's female parent.
3. a mother-in-law, stepmother, or adoptive mother.
4. a term of address for a female parent or a woman having or regarded as having the status, function, or authority of a female parent.

Adoptive mom's, step mom's, grandmothers, foster mother's, birth mother's, SAHM, working Mom's etc.... DON'T ALLOW NBC TO CATEGORISE YOU. WE ARE ALL MOMS!!!

Shame on you NBC! Shame on you!

IT'S ABOUT TIME!

Today we finally received Amanda's passport. We applied for her passport way back in mid-January. We even paid extra $$$ to have it extradited! Soowan has been calling the Passport Offices down in Houston for the past month in a half and all they had to say was, "The passport is still being processed."

We did not apply for a passport because we're planning to leave the country or anything like that(although somewhere far and tropic sounds very nice at this moment). It's because we can't file our taxes and claim Amanda as a dependent until we have a U.S. Social Security Number for her. Since we did not get her passport on time we had to file an extension, something we've never had to do before. It's really not a big deal to have to file an extension, but it has everything to with dealing and waiting on ANY US government agency to get ANYTHING done... THAT is the headache. I'm serious!

When we finalized we received Amanda's U.S. birth certificate, but apparently that's not good enough to prove U.S. residency to get a SS#. So we were told to get a U.S. Passport (to prove she's a US citizen... Umm... HELLO... When we finalized she became a U.S. citizen!!!) then apply for a SS#.

Tomorrow we will head off to the Social Security office and get Amanda a SS#. This will help out tremendously with filing claims with our health insurance agency as well. It has been such a pain that I don't have a SS# for her,to write down when sending in a claim and then have to go through the whole shmeal of "We adopted her from South Korea and we do not have her SS# yet... Yada...Yada...Yada."

Our next and last step of paperwork (even though our adoption has been finalized and Amanda is ALREADY an official U.S. citizen already) is to apply for a COC (Certificate of Citizenship). In all honesty I'm not sure why we need this, but we've been told it's good to have. I think it's all because the left hand of our government has no idea what the right hand is doing, so this covers all areas in between to prove Amanda's U.S. citizenship. I think it has something to do with the government will only recognize Amanda as a legal resident (which is different than being a U.S. citizen) if she does not have a COC. WHATEVER!

So it's HAPPY-HAPPY-JOY-JOY time (NOT!) once again. I loath the USCIS office here in Dallas. They are slow as molasses and I seriously don't think anyone there knows how to do their job. And it's not just me! Other international adoptive families in the DFW area share my sentiments. ;0) OK vent is over. YAY for passport... Boo we need to deal with the USCIS again.

It's comforting to know all this doesn't matter to our Heavenly Father. We are his children without any formal paperwork, stamp of approval, etc. PRAISE GOD!!!


For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
~Philippians 3:20

SUMMER IS ON IT'S WAY!!!

Having Micah home sick for a couple of days this week (see post below), made me think about how awesome SUMMERTIME is going to be. Those two days I was able let my sweet girl sleep soundly without having to wake her up to take big brother to school! She slept in until 8:30 both days!!!

So out of my pure excitement and complete selfishness of loving my sleep and not having to be rushed each weekday morning, I decided to put up a ticker in honor of Summer officially starting for our household! Ahh... only 29 more days left! YIPPEE!