A weekend of Firsts!

Hi All!



Our little family had a weekend full of FIRSTS- some good and some not so good...



First, last Friday C had his first Dr. appointment here in the U.S! We have an excellent pediatrician and I was very impressed with the office even though it is 30-40 minutes from our house! C has grown since he left Korea- he is just over 20 pounds and is OVER 3o inches TALL!!! Dr. Chan said that he is very tall and skinny for his age and that is her guess as to what his structure will be his whole life! C really liked his dr. but wasn't so thrilled with the shots he received before he left. Korea is a very Westernized country when it comes to medical stuff and he did receive most of his immunizations there before he came home; however, he was missing one of the biggest in our country- the one for meningitis and so we had to get those immunizations started that day! Poor little guy- it hurt so much and this first time mommy had a hard time watching him get those shots! Nana, my mom as she is now known, was super impressed with how good C did and it was so nice to have her there with me!



Second, this past weekend C had his first softball experience! We went to watch Daddy play in a tournament for a bunch of church teams- this tournament had 19 teams (!) with a few from Oregon and one all the way from Alaska! C had a lot of fun- mostly playing with the grass and trying to put it into his mouth, BUT he also got to meet some of A's family members (Aunt Ann, Amy and Todd) and he had a lot of fun with them too! My dad, Papa which he is now affectionately known as, came to watch a game on Saturday with us and was impressed by how well C was behaving at the game- he told C that he better get used to that lifestyle! Poor kid, we are already predispositioning him to be a ball player! ;-) I mean how can he not be with daddy and papa????? I was impressed with how well C paid attention to two men warming up next to us on Saturday morning- more than anything he wanted them to throw him the ball also- TOO cute!



Unfortunately the weekend ended on a slightly bad note... First of all, A's team won 5 out of 5 games on Saturday and was put into a higher bracket for Sunday's games- they lost their first two and were done after that- bummer for Daddy! On top of that, we received our first negative comment about our family in public from one of A's teammates. When C and I got to A's game Sunday evening we went up to A to say hi. As A and I were talking, one of A's teammates came up to us and said, "Oh look! That must be the milkman's baby! Hahahaha!" I was shocked to say the least and just looked at A. A was quick on the draw and said back, "Hey now! That's MY son you're talking about!" After I walked away I tried to forget about the man's comments but I just couldn't. I don't think that he was trying to be mean; he thought he was being funny more than anything. However, this experience really made me think how people's comments can hurt and it made me hurt thinking about how much that would have hurt C's feelings were he able to understand. We are well aware that we are going to get many more comments (and stares) from strangers in the future and I know that C (and our future adopted child/children) will be watching for our responses and finding strength and belonging in the ways that we choose to respond. I had prepared myself to get these comments because many people don't know what to say about the way that we have CHOSEN to have a family. I had even prepared responses to many possible things that could be said- however, once the time came to say something I just couldn't. We have found such joy in having C as our son and I guess that I was just taken aback that someone chose to not see that joy that exudes from us! I am sharing this experience with all of you so that you can pray for A and I to really make our son strong in who he is as a person and to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God meant for him to be our son and to be a part of this family! Please also pray for the way that A and I respond to future comments- we only want to protect our child and we want to be able to do that in the BEST possible way!



Okay, now for the last, but defiantly the BEST first that we had this weekend! On Sunday night, I was rocking C to sleep and feeding him a bottle. Generally C just stares at me when I do this, but on Sunday night C was so SWEET! While C was drinking, every once in a while he would stop, pull the bottle from his mouth and then smile at me!!! It gets even better! After a few times of this, he then let me take the bottle from him and he gave me kisses!!! Once he finally finished his bottle (normally he is asleep at this point) he gave the bottle to me, smiled once more and then curled into my body and fell fast asleep very quickly! It was the BEST! I couldn't stop thinking how lucky we are to have C for a son and I quickly offered up prayers of thanks to God for being so faithful to us in giving us the EXACT child he wanted us to parent. What a huge blessing! "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift" 2 Corinthians 9:15



~M~