Long time, No Blog!

It's been a while since I have blogged! My last post was in MARCH! A lot has happened since then!

Micah completed 5th grade and I still can't believe he will be entering Middle School in 2 short weeks! Last year he played on a select soccer team and it was a huge commitment. Micah realized soccer took a huge chunk of his time (and ours), therefor he/we (rather mutual) will take this year off. He enjoys soccer, but is not sure it's what he wants to do exclusively. This year he wants to do flag football and golf, and though that sounds like a lot, it still will not take as much time than select soccer did. It will be A LOT CHEAPER, TOO! :)

Also, with the start of Middle School and Micah being placed in 4 accelerated classes (Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Sciences), that the best thing is to slow down on those extra curricular activities because his school work load is going to increase greatly.

Another change for Micah is that he will be attending the local public school for 6th grade, instead of going to private school. Micah was tired of living a double, sometimes triple life when it came to his circle of friends. When we lived in Dallas our church was 9 miles North of our home, while his private school was 11 miles Southeast of our home. We now attend a church that is less than a mile away and the Middle School is even closer. Micah has made close friendships with neighborhood kids as well as at church (the two intermix greatly)and asked if he could go to the local school for 6th grade instead of the private school. When Micah asked us this, he did not know that Soowan and I were already discussing moving him to public for the exact same reason. Through prayer, interviewing the school and talking with neighbors and fellow church members, we have complete confidence this is where Micah should be for 6th grade!

Amanda is still my girlie girl, but at the same time she will have no hesitation in challenging you to a game of Ninja! She's joyful, spunky, inquisitive and stubborn! Amanda must always wear a dress or skirt and loves to accessorize her outfits with bracelets and necklaces. If I put shorts or pants on her she tells me, "Mommy, I'm not a Princess today." LOL! She cracks us up!

Amanda will be going to preschool this Fall, 3 days a week. Her speech is progressing well but is not up to par with her peers. I will be taking her to be reviewed through the county in September, but we have a feeling she will not get in, once again. She talks your ear off but half of the time we have no idea what she is saying. :) She has a large vocabulary, but when she puts all those words together in sentences, it all falls apart and it sounds like she's talking gibberish. We work with her on slowing down constantly! If you have/had a three year old, you know they don't slow down very easily! Amanda has come a long way considering that March of last year she only said 3 words! If she does not get accepted into our county's speech program, we will do private speech therapy.

Soowan is doing great! Works is good. We love the family/work life his company allows. He does travel more than he did with his former employer, but when he's not traveling he has the option to work from home and on the days he's in the office he's home by 5 o'clock. :)

As for me I'm doing well. In March, I started having some eye issues. It all began when my left eye started to water profusely, to having pain and pressure and eventually my left eye began to protrude. At first the doctors thought I had a growth behind my eye and I had several MRI's and ultra sounds done on my orbital to see what was going on. The only thing they could determine was that the tissues behind my left eye were very swollen. The next thing to test me for was Thyroid Eye Disease, through blood work. My blood work for two months showed my thyroid levels as normal, but my antibodies were very high, my iron was very low and platelet levels were low as well. Then the doctors tested me for all sorts of blood diseases/cancers and the tests came back inconclusive each time. I saw more doctors and had more blood work done in two months than I think I've had in my entire life! Oh... I'm pretty sure I've mentioned on several occasions that I'm deathly afraid of needles and each time I had a MRI I had to have an IV inserted. But on a good note, I never passed out like I have in the past! ;-)

Finally in late May, I saw an endocrinologist and he diagnosed me with Thyroid Eye Disease as well has having chronic thyroiditis. He believes I have had chronic thyroiditis for a couple of years now (this is what caused my antibodies to be high), but my symptoms were mild over the years and apparently it's hard to diagnose this disease, due to my thyroid levels constantly going up and down.

As for my eye, it will stay like this for 3-5 years. It is the high antibody levels in my system that is causing the tissue behind my eye to swell and it will take several years for my body to absorb these antibodies. There are no meds to take to decrease the antibodies either. My eye could get worse, it could not. It all depends if the antibodies decide to attack my eye tissue again. It's all autoimmune related.

On top of all of this, I also have many character traits of having Lupus, and I'm currently being tested for this autoimmune disorder as well. This may take longer for diagnosis/rule out because there is not a Lupus test, per say. It's more an elimination process of other disorders/diseases that Lupus mirrors/mimics. My sister has Lupus and autoimmune disorders run in my family therefor my Doctor says that I have an 80% of either currently having the disorder or developing it later in life. FUN! FUN! FUN!

So I now go in every 4-6 weeks (depending on how I'm feeling) and get blood work done. The doctor then adjusts my medicine according to my TSH level. The goal is to get it to a normal range, but the tricky part is everyone's normal is different. The side affects in tiredness, muscle fatigue (some days I feel like I've ran a marathon the day prior, but in reality I did NOTHING!). Oh... and my hair is falling out, too! :)

Other than all of the above, I'm doing good! My focus is and has been centered on Christ and I'm thankful that this is not something serious! Soowan has been a wonderful helpmate through all of this! I thank God for a husband who is prayerful, patient, gentle and compassionate. He's an amazing man! I've also been blessed with amazing neighbors, friends (both near and far) and an amazing church body who have been wonderful, compassionate, gracious and comforting. Not a day has gone by that someone has not stopped by or called to pray with me or who has been willing to help with the kids when I have a doctor's appointment or when I'm having a physically rough day. I live in a TRUE community, and I'm extremely grateful for God's provision of this community of believers.

On a lighter note, we took a three week vacation to Arizona and California! It was a wonderful reprieve for our family and we had a fabulous time! Soowan and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary while we were in California. My good friend, Belinda watched the kids so Soowan and I could have some alone time. We took a stroll down memory lane and stopped by the church we were married at, our first and second home, as well as the hospital where Micah was born. It was the BEST anniversary/family vacation EVER!

So that's the update and now here are some pictures from our vacation!

Celebrating Life!

Today is the day we celebrate my wonderful, thoughtful, supportive husband's birthday!!! Today our family will celebrate that he's 37 years young!!! I love, love, love celebrating my husband's birthday for so many reasons! First off he's an awesome husband, father, friend and around all great guy! He's loyal, humble, compassionate, hard working, a lover of God! What is there not for our family to celebrate?!! I will admit that at times I'm overly excited to celebrate Soowan's birthday, because of the lack of birthdays that were not celebrated in the past.

See, we really don't know when Soowan's 'actual' birthday is (but find comfort that our heavenly Father does!), because he was found abandoned in a field somewhere in South Korea as an infant. His adoption paperwork states that he was found by the property owner and he took Soowan to the proper authorities in Seoul, South Korea. There he was given a guesstimated age / birth date upon intake. Soowan spent 3 years in an orphanage in Seoul and was labeled 'failure to thrive' by the Korean social services.

At the age of 3 1/2 Soowan was adopted by an American family. Upon his arrival to the United States, my husband weighed 19 pounds (at 3 years old mind you!), had a double ear infection, blew one eardrum on the flight over and his parents were told by the escort that he screamed and cried the entire 12 hour journey from South Korea to LAX. Mmm... possibly the double ear infection, a blown eardrum, along with having no idea what an airplane was and where the heck he was going might have had something to with it!!

Soowan's parents did not celebrate / acknowledge birthdays because of their personal beliefs, therefor he did not learn his actual birthday until he was in Junior High School when he had to provide proof of age to participate in athletics. Even after learning when his birthday was, Soowan didn't acknowledge / celebrate his birthday because it was something he knew nothing about or had ever practiced within his household. He attended birthday parties of his friends when growing up, but thought that theirs were 'worth' celebrating.

Then Soowan met and fell in love with me! he he! I was in complete shock when I found out he had never had a birthday party, or a birthday cake. No one had ever sang the 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' song to him. He had never blown out candles or ever been given a birthday gift! On a side note, I came from a family who had outrageous, over the top, full of friends and family birthday parties and I COULD NOT COMPREHEND THAT HE NEVER HAD ANY OF THE ABOVE!!! Not even a smidgin!

Because of my great love for Soowan and of celebrating birthdays, along with LOTS help from Soowan's roommates at the time, we put together a BIG SURPRISE birthday party for Soowan!!! He was completely surprised and humbled that we would do such a thing! Truly he had no idea what to do with himself and how to accept all the blessings and well wishes thrown at him that night. That evening Soowan was given his first birthday party, had a birthday cake with his name on it, had the 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' song sung to him, blew out his first set of birthday candles and opened his first birthday gifts on his 24th birthday!

To this day Soowan is very humble about his birthday. He truly expects nothing on his birthday, but graciously accepts what myself and the kids do for him. I don't make it a huge spectacle like I did for his 'first' birthday party, but we try and make it special for him, because he's very special to us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!!! We love you with all our heart!

Thanksgiving In Hawaii

We spent 12 beautiful days on the Big Island of Hawaii! The vacation was splendid, wonderful, relaxing and energizing. Each day we were there we found a different beach to relax, swim, snorkel or buggie board on. We did take one non-beach day to visit the Volcano National Park. The kids had a blast and they even adjusted to Hawaii time, unlike our last visit to the islands. Seriously, last trip they both woke up around 4:30 AM everyday!!!

Some friends of ours from California, The Dickie Family moved to the Kona, HI area a few years ago and we were blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving Day with them! Actually we spent several days with Brad, Julie and CJ eating, swimming, playing cards and dominoes while we were in Kona. It felt like old times, but only while on vacation! :)

Micah... Our Official Tween! YIKES!

Micah turned 11 years in November as well! I love it that our kiddo's birthdays are a week a part from each other! Micah is a smart, joyful, motivated, methodical, compassionate and confident young man.

Amanda Makes Three Look Good!!!

Our Sweet Girl turned three years old in November!!! She is such a joy and a blessing! Amanda is a happy, silly, joyful, charming little girl!

Prince Charming

Thought I would share something that melts my heart, but makes Micah roll his eyes! Everytime Amanda watches Cinderella she runs to the screen and points to Prince Charming and yells, "Micah! There's Micah!" It's so adorable, but Micah can't stand it. LOL! So what's your opinion? Do you think Micah might have a gig at Disneyland or Disney World in about 10 years? ;-)

Playing Catch Up

It's been a while since the last time I have written on my blog. We experienced, what seemed to be the longest summer ever. YUCK! We had 65+ days of 100 degree weather or higher! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! It was miserable to say the least. Then school started (with the heat) and I was not inspired to do much, let alone write much because I'm sure it would of come out very negatively. Now that Autumn is here, with lots of rain and cooler temps, I'm inspired more or less to share what's on my heart and mind. :) So here's an update on us.

Soowan has been busy at work. He's been traveling a lot more than I would prefer, but we're all adjusting to it. Soowan will start working out of the house in January, which will be interesting. I'm so bad about distracting him when he's home, so I will need to be on my best behavior. :)


Micah started the 5th grade in August and so far, so good! He loves all his teachers and has adjusted well to moving from classroom to classroom. I love that his school doesn't have a one size fits all curriculum for elementary/middle school. The kids are able to do curriculum to their ability, even if the student is the only 5th grader in a room full of 7th and 8th graders. :)

Micah is also loving his new soccer team! The commitment level and expectations of playing on a select team has not only challenged Micah skill wise, but also character wise. We are blessed that Micah's coaches are godly men who challenge and minister to the boys both on and off the soccer field. Plus their example on how they coach and conduct themselves on and off the soccer fields is inspiring to us all! It's very disheartening watching how some coaches yell, curse and demean their players at some of our games and tournaments, while their parents concur with this type of coaching. Our prayer is that our team will be a light to others in both conduct and ability. So far, we see God moving in this area. :)














Amanda started preschool in September! She goes 2 days a week and is LOVING IT! Amanda is still doing speech therapy through our county's program, and sadly this will end in 2 weeks when she turns 3 years old. Amanda loves her speech therapist, Mrs. T and we are thrilled that she lives in our neighborhood, so we know we'll still get to see her often. Amanda was denied continued services through our county (long story, but budget cuts has lots to do with it), so we will start private speech therapy at the beginning of next year. We have already found a therapist that Mrs. T recommended and our insurance will cover 70% of the cost!

Amanda is loving anything and everything girly! She loves to dress up, everything Disney Princess (Snow White is her fav) and playing with her kitchen and tea sets. It's so much fun to watch her play pretend and use her imagination. It's very sweet and makes me smile. :) With that said, there is also a very active, sporty side to my girly girl as well. She can already dribble kick a soccer ball and strike a pretty mean goal for her age and size. I think all the hours we spend a week with Micah's soccer team, she's catching on. She can also swing a bat pretty darn well too! So I see both soccer and softball in her future, if she desires to do so. :)


As for me I'm doing much better now that the weather is cooler. :) I'm back out in my garden, planning and preparing new flower beds and enjoying every minute my hands are in the soil. I'm meeting new friends within our neighborhood and new church. Once again God is faithful to provide these friendships for He knows that He created me as a very relational being. I must admit I miss, miss, miss my friends and church family in Dallas (and CA) desperately, but God has us here for a reason and he's slowly showing us the reason why, layer by layer. This move has been extremely hard for all of us on so many levels, but we're trusting in God and His faithfulness as to why He moved us here and finding healing in both the new and the old.



I will most likely post more often as we have a lot to celebrate and share in the near future! Both of the kids will turn a year older next month, along with a much needed vacation coming up, and the holidays are right around the corner as well. The upcoming birthdays and holidays will be tough, for they will be the first one's we'll have without my Mom. So please keep us in your prayers that our sorrow will not overwhelm the joy in all that we will be celebrating in the near future. Thanks.