Happy Birthday Camden!

Hopefully our little guy is sleeping soundly right now after what we hope was a very enjoyable day for him.  In Korean culture a child's first birthday is met with much fanfare.  Long ago in Korea, the mortality rate of infants was quite high due to a number of circumstances.  According to my research, if a child made it to his/her first birthday the likelihood of him/her living a long life greatly increased, thus the first birthday was a very joyous day for Korean families.  Although the same issues of infant mortality do not exist today, the first birthday (or Tol as they call it across the pond) remains a very important day and cause for quite a celebration.

Our hearts ache that we weren't able to be with our guy today, but we were assured by our agency that his foster family and the adoption agency both will celebrate his big day. 

Him not being here doesn't mean we aren't celebrating, because we are.  The kids are going to be making cards for Camden and we have a delicious cake that we are anxiously waiting to cut into after dinner.  If he were here, we would have pulled out all of the stops and celebrated in traditional fashion. 

Take a look at what a traditional Tol celebration looks like in Korea...

The table the child is seated in front traditionally houses up to 12 different kinds of rice cakes, accompanied by a bowl of rice, various fruits, and sea mustard soup.

The traditions don't end there. Along with the food on the table, there are also a number of other items that the child will be able to pick from.  The tradition of picking from the items is called Toljabee.  This is the tradition I would have liked to experience with all of our kids, as Koreans believe the order that the child picks the items will predict his or her future based on the meaning behind each item  (and who doesn't want to see into the future?).  

The items include:

Bow and arrow: the child will become a warrior

Needle and thread: the child will live long


Jujube: the child will have many descendants


Book, pencil, or related items: the child will become a successful scholar


Rice or rice cake: the child will become rich
 Ruler, needle, scissors: the child will be talented with his/her hands


Knife: the child will be a good cook

Since I haven't had the pleasure of meeting our little Camden yet, I will be very interested to hear how he picked.  Although our other little ones never got to experience Toljabee, I have a pretty good feeling I know what their first pick would have been...

Parker - Book or pencil...the kid is smart

Lleyton - Bow and arrow...we could have this event every single day and Lleyton would pick the bow and arrow every single day

Addy - Rice or rice cake...Not sure how she is going to get rich but if I had to guess I would say I like her chances for ending up on the arm of a wealthy athlete or musician

We miss our little guy (if it's possible to miss someone you have never met) but we are excited to celebrate his birthday without him while taking plenty of pictures to share with him later on down the road. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMDEN!

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Pictures from today's festivities...

Family pictures are in!

What better way to reveal our newest little addition to the family's face than through some really fantastic pictures that we had taken a couple of months ago. 

All images by Lizzie Loo Photography, http://www.lizzieloo.com/

You see a pretty little girl...I see TROUBLE

Can't forget about the boys...our hands are pretty much guaranteed to be full with them as well.

Busy week...in a good way.

The first week of July used to only be significant thanks to Independence Day.  That has changed for us over the last calendar year.  Now, the 4th of July has taken a backseat to two other very important days that we are looking forward to celebrating this week.  Coming up on Saturday (July 2nd) our little guy half a world away will be turning 1.  First birthdays are a very big deal in Korea, so we are hopeful that his foster mom will have a traditional celebration for his big day.  We will be having our own celebration here, with a delicious cake and we may even take a stab at making some Korean food.  Should be fun. 

The following day (July 3rd) will mark Addy's one year anniversary of being home...which would also be the one year anniversary of Sara and I swearing that 3 kids was it (we obviously changed our minds. we blame that decision on the jet lag, Addy screaming in our ears for 16 hours straight, and Emirates Air not giving us bulkhead seats from Dubai to New York).

Then there will be the 4th of July...

Then we are off on vacation for the rest of that week as we make our way to Florida.  Who doesn't love last minute decisions to take the family to the beach.  Thank goodness we got into a minivan last weekend (which for the record is the best decision we have made in a long time).  We LOVE our new ride.

Hope everyone else enjoys their upcoming week as much as we plan to enjoy ours.

Future Major Leaguer

Lleyton made his baseball debut last week during his first tee ball practice.  We were pleasantly surprised to hear that one of his best little buddies is on the same team, yet at the same time we really felt for the teams coaches.  Having to corral these boys at daycare is a tall task for the teachers, but they have the benefit of having four walls around these two.  The coaches don't have those walls to rely on. 

I wish I knew what these two were scheming about when I snapped this instant classic.

This little guy is looking to shine this coming weekend during his first real game action.  Should be nothing short of very interesting.





Help find Lauren Spierer (www.findlauren.com)

For a number of reasons I can’t seem to get my mind off of a family I have never met before in Bloomington, IN.

The family of Lauren Spierer has been on my mind for a couple of weeks now. In case you don’t know, Lauren is a 20 year old sophomore at IU who disappeared in the early morning hours of Friday, June 3. I have been following along on Twitter ever since (@NewsOnLaurenS) in hopes that the next time I check she will have been found safely. That news has yet to come.

I have spent countless enjoyable nights out on the town in Bloomington over the years. Not one of those nights did I feel unsafe. That’s one of the reasons the story of this disappearance has captured my attention as it has.

Another undeniable reason this story has affected me is that I know someday Addy is going to grow up and likely head off to college (she may even follow in dad’s footsteps and head to Bloomington).   Probably not much unlike the feelings Lauren's parents had when she left for college, I feel that when I am with Addy I can protect her, but when she takes off to school it will be hard not to be concerned about her safety.

Sadly, the Spierer's concerns have become a reality.

A request was made today via Twitter asking for help continuing to spread the word about Lauren. When you have a minute, jump over to www.findlauren.com or follow @NewsOnLaurenS.

Somewhere someone knows something that can help in this search.

The thoughts and prayers of our family are with the Spierer family.

SUPERMAN is back!

Thanks to the many folks that have requested we sell the shirts again, we are opening our sale back up for the next two weeks.  This sale will work just as the last one did, you can order via this site or if you would rather email your order to me and send a check through the mail that could work too.  The email address is abrotherforlleyton@yahoo.com.

Any and all money raised from our sale, and any other fundraisers we do in the future, will go directly towards bringing our little guy home.

Buy them quickly. We will only be selling them for two weeks. We will take all of our orders after the two weeks and get all of the shirts printed at that time. We should receive them within about 7-10 days and we will then send them onto you as soon as we get them...and shipping is FREE!

From our experience and what we have heard from others that have already purchased from us, the shirts may run a tad bit small, so you may want to keep that in mind while ordering.

Our models will be happy to see themselves sporting their good looking shirts on the internet again...

Interview with Parker

I took the day off today to get some things done around the house and decided to pick Parker up from daycare and take him wherever he wanted to eat lunch.  My guess was he was going to pick McDonald, BW3's, or Beef O'Bradys.  I was correct.  After surprising my initially and picking Chipotle, he quickly changed his mind and decided on Beef O'Brady's.  Over a delicious lunch I asked him a range of questions.  The transcript follows:

Me: What is your favorite thing about being in America?
Parker: Having a mom and dad, grandmas and grandpas, and a brother and sister.

Me: What is your favorite possession?
Parker:  My mom and dad and brother and sister...and my basketball goal.

Me: What is your favorite memory over the last two years?
Parker: Playing sports.

Me: What is your favorite memory of Ethiopia?
Parker: Eating injera.

Me;  What is your favorite time of year?
Parker: Summer

Me: What is your favorite thing about school?
Parker:  Recess

Me:  Who is your favorite singer?
Parker:  Nobody....wait, wait, wait...it's the people that sing that song Lleyton like so much, Stuck Like Glue.  (For all of you non-country listeners, he is referring to Sugarland)

Me: What is your favorite movie?
Parker: Megamind

Me: What is your favorite holiday?
Parker: Christmas

Me: What is your favorite food?
Parker: Injera

Me: What is your favorite American food?
Parker:  Chicken nuggets and fries...and Doritos...and Cheetos...and chips.

Me: Who is your best friend?
Parker: Nathan

Me: What is your favorite sports team?
Parker:  In baseball it is the Reds.  Football it is the Steelers.  Basketball it is the Lakers.

Me: What is the one thing you would like people to know about you?
Parker:  I love baseball.  I love basketball.  I love my mom and dad.

2 years home for our big guy.

Two years ago today we landed at CVG with our newly minted soon-to-be six year old son.  He was a very small, meek, scared little boy that was about to go through a very difficult and challenging transition from life in Ethiopia to life in a family here.  The adjustment process with Parker unbelievably hard.  Sara and I went through countless days wondering how we were going to make through each day.  As time went on he learned how to speak our language, he learned what was expected of him, he learned to respect us, and he learned how to love us. 

We are so proud of our ever-growing little guy and can look back on the past two years with smiles knowing that we made it through the tough part. 

We made sure that most of this past weekend was about Parker.  We did some of his favorite things, ate some of his favorite foods, and celebrated the fact that we have a really incredible little guy that we get to call our son.

We love you Parker!

Slip and Slide with Lleyton



The boy loves all things cake and candy, so I combined those for him through this delicious Reese's Cup cake.

The horses are back, so we made a quick stop to say hello (well, the rest of us said hello while Lleyton proceeded to kiss the baby horse). Addy wasn't a big fan at first, so it was very cute watching her grab onto Parker for dear life.

The kids and I were excited to get over to Grammy and Pop's house to see cousins Nick and Drew and take a spin on the new boat.  Maybe I was a bit too excited, as I got a speeding ticket on the way...ces la vie.  We missed Sara during the trip to Grammy and Pop's as she had to again jet set her way across the country for work. 

What was Lleyton's favorite part of the new boat?  The rearview mirror.

Our navigator.

Let the waiting begin.

What’s the toughest part about international adoption? If you ask me, it’s the waiting. There are plenty of tough parts…the unknown, the finances, the adjustment, the paperwork, did I mention the finances?


Waiting is the toughest.

With our previous adoptions, the waiting has been full of unknowns…when will our paperwork be done…when will we get a referral….when will we be submitted to court…when will we travel…etc. etc. etc.

This wait will be different. We know going in that there is quite a bit of time between now and our trip to Seoul (which we are already planning…looks like a stop in Hong Kong for a few days could be in our future!). All of our paperwork should arrive at our adoption agency on Monday. At which time they will turn around and send it on its way to Seoul. Upon our paperwork arriving in South Korea, our spot in line will be secured and the wait shall officially begin. Due to the large backlog of cases submitted before ours that have yet to travel, we have been told the wait will be anywhere between 12 – 14 months. That means it will be at least one year before we can welcome our little guy into our family.

Knowing he is over there and we can’t go get him is tough. Realizing with each passing day a stronger bond will be forming between he and his faster mother is daunting (don’t get me wrong, we are happy he is with a foster mother rather than in an institution). Thinking about bringing a 2 year old that isn’t used to living with young siblings into our sometimes crazy household is difficult. Not getting to celebrate his first and most likely second birthday with him is saddening.

Even with all of that being true, we are so excited to be moving forward with the process.  Getting the paperwork and our fees sent out in the mail is a big, positive step. 

After all, we have three ever-growing little ones at home right now that won’t let us dwell too much on how long the wait is going to be.

Superman shirts are on the way!

We spent quite awhile last night packing all of the shirts and I helped the nice lady at the post office meet her quota for items shipped in a day today. 

Hope everyone that is expecting a shirt loves it.

Thank you again!

More baseball related pictures...

This Spring has definitely featured a lot of baseball, most of which has involved us hanging out watching Parker gobble up grounders out of the corner of one eye while trying to monitor Lleyton out of the remainder of our eyes.  On top of that type of baseball we also took the boys to watch the pros in action a couple of weeks back.  We joined a number of Parker's teammates and their families for  a night out at Great American Ballpark.  And of course we have pictures to prove it...

(Lleyton has recently become more opinionated regarding what he wears to school, hence the Carson Palmer jersey and cowboy boots.)

Win, Lose, or Draw

No matter the outcome of the game, these kids are always smiling.

They gave their best all weekend and didn't come out on the smiling side on the scoreboard this morning in the championship game, but you wouldn't know it looking at this picture.

I'll admit, I was dreading spending the lion's share of our long weekend at the park watching 7 year old baseball, but these guys made it very enjoyable (the fact that frothy adult beverages were offered for sale didn't hurt either). 

Addy and Lleyton were troopers throughout all of the games as well. 

Here are a few pictures from our weekend of baseball...

Future Star?  At least he looks the part.

Yankee cheerleaders.

I hope he never wants one of these.  One good thing is that he knows he can't have one just yet, because he was adament about toys like this one being for men, not boys.

Looking the part again.

Rally cap time late in the Championship Game.