The luckiest week
This last week was really the luckiest week we have ever had. I kept joking with M that we should go buy a lottery ticket. 
Not just Jessie, but amazing Kristin found us with photos she had of our adorable Henry. And, she had a VIDEO! I’ve watched it about 30+ times already.
Apparently Henry and Kristin’s daughter were ‘boyfriend and girlfriend.’ How cute.
These photos and video make me so happy because he still looks like a baby – he has looked so grown up in some of the photos we’ve received that it was a relief to see those chubby cheeks and that he still very much looked like a new toddler.
I’m now to the point that I can watch the video without crying but it brought tears to my eyes for the first several viewings. The depth of the love his foster mom has for him moves me, how sweet and content he looks moves me, and the sadness in the eyes of the other foster mom in the video, who is preparing to pass her foster daughter on to her parents, breaks my heart.
I wish we could post the video, but I don’t want to publicly post photos or video of our foster mom without permission. I’ve included the photos but cropped her out. I’d love to show you her beautiful, smiling face but want to respect her privacy.
It’s such a beautiful minute clip. We are so, so, so thankful for the traveling moms who have sent us such amazing gifts. We are so, so thankful for Henry’s foster mom and foster family for their love of Henry Jin-wu. Words are not enough to express our thankfulness or the love we have for their family. We are so, so thankful for the adoption community. We are so, so thankful for our handsome son and this beautiful journey.
Best surprise in the world
Two new photos of Henry from a traveling mama who recognized him from the forums.
<3 <3 <3
I am so, so thankful. Look at those cute little legs! (He’s wearing an outfit we sent) And he’s not losing his baby cheeks after all! I can’t wait to smooch on that sweet face and hug him.
What a treat, what an amazing, amazing gift. We’ve already agreed we’re taking photos of every baby we see when we are in Korea so we can make someone as happy as Jessie made us!
Thank you Jessie and thank you God for the uncanned look at our sweet baby.
We sure love you Henry.
First Mother’s Day weekend – Sunday
On Sunday my mom came up to celebrate Mother’s Day with us. We exchanged presents, went out to lunch and spent the afternoon shopping at an antique store. It’s always so nice to see her and it was a wonderful day.
Mom brought a load of goodies for Mr. Henry when she came up! She brought us an awesome antique wagon that we plan to use to hold some of his toys and books (and give some in house rides in). And best of all, she brought us this beautiful elephant that she made. He goes so perfectly in his room and I love that we can tell him his grandma made it for him. Thanks Mom, we love him! (This stolen-from-Facebook photo doesn’t begin to do him justice):
On Saturday, Dad and Val threw us a beautiful shower! It was so lovely. Look at the adorable decorations:
The sweet banner says ‘Hurry Home Henry.’ The table even had Henry confetti. Awesome.
It meant so much to us that so many of our family members and family friends came to help us celebrate Henry and his eventual arrival. We are so blessed and so is Henry.
Mike and Dad.
Uncle Tim
Paula
Mary and Kenny
Grandma and Great Aunt Pam
M, me and M’s mom and dad
M and his mom
Checking out Henry’s adorable new hat.
WordPress is causing major issues, so you’ll have to tilt your head – but opening the wagon and envisioning so many wonderful trips to the park. You can also see our awesome new car seat behind it.
M expressing joy at our antivirus program that came with our new laptop! Yay! Now we’ll have a way to email lots of photos during our trip to Korea.
I should have taken more pictures at the shower – I don’t even have one of us with Dad and Val – dang it – or my aunt and uncle that drove down to celebrate with us, my aunt Glenna and my adorable cousins.
It was a beautiful evening filled with family and friends, yummy food, thoughtful presents and everyone wishing Henry was with us.
We and Henry were so spoiled. We had such fun unloading our packed car and putting Henry’s things in our closets, in his toy box, on his bookshelves. We are so, so thankful for everyone’s support and love throughout this process. Thanks to everyone who came, and thanks especially to Dad and Val for the beautiful party and all of the love for Henry!
First Mother’s Day weekend (Friday)
I got home from work on Friday and M had brought me a stunning bouquet of flowers and the sweetest card. It was a wonderful first Mother’s Day, although I can only imagine the joy that next year will bring with Henry here too. Tears sprang to my eyes. I am so excited to be a mom and can’t wait for the ins and outs of every day parenting!
Friday night we also made homemade dumplings (mandu) – approximately 130 or so. It took forever but was pretty fun, and they tasted yummy! Much better than our meager rolling skills allowed. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, we learn a new Korean recipe when Henry turns another month older. So, happy 16 months baby boy! We love our little dumpling.
M showing off our labor.
(And for those interested, we used this recipe more or less – we added shrimp to it too: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/mandu)
I had posted about our entire weekend but WordPress ate the rest of my post. I will update you about our wonderful baby shower and actual Mother’s Day as soon as I get the gumption to start again.
New picture!!
I have so much updating to do on here and I am so behind. We had a beautiful shower, celebrated Mother’s Day and remembered Henry’s birthmom, made dumplings – I will catch up soon!
Until then, we were thrilled to receive a new photo of Henry yesterday evening! We were grinning from ear to ear. Our sweet Henry Hwang Jin-wu, you are beautiful! And growing so very fast.
Foster parent month
Our agency shared the other day that May is foster parent month, so it seemed like the perfect time to share our gratitude to Henry’s two foster families.
One we’ve never seen in pictures but know some information about, one we’ve seen in pictures but know very little about. Both will forever be a part of our family.
I think about them often, wondering what they are doing, how Henry’s doing, whether our little Jin-wu is an easy going child, how many times he cried in the middle of the night …
He was with his first foster family for the first 3 months or so of his life. I wonder what kind of baby he was, I wonder what the woman looked like who rocked him to sleep at night, had his tiny little hand wrapped around her finger, nuzzled his cheeks.
Afterwards he went to his new foster family in Seoul, who he has been with for about 13 months now. For more than a year they have put him to sleep at night, woken him in the morning, bathed him, fed him, nourished him to the thriving, sturdy toddler he is now. They have cheered on his first steps and first words, played with him, dressed him. They have taken him to countless doctors appointments and, on office days, dressed him in clothes we sent knowing we might get a picture.
Their love for him, and their sacrifice for him, brings tears to my eyes when I think about it. To raise a beautiful child as yours, knowing you will have to say goodbye when he goes to his forever family. To experience the sleep deprivation, the neediness of an infant, the tug of their sweet face on your heart knowing it is temporary must be an extraordinarily rewarding and extraordinarily difficult thing to do.
We know that his foundation in life has come from them – his attachments, his dependencies, his curiosity, his experiences of love and comfort will have come from these amazing people. There is no way we can ever show them how thankful we are, or truly express how much their families mean to us, and we are sure mean to Henry.
The wait is getting long. With no photos this last month to tide me over, it’s getting harder. Two days from now will be 7 months since we requested his files, three days from now Henry will be 16-months-old, and 11 days from now will be 7 months since match. I am praying we are more than halfway done with this wait.
Dad is throwing a shower for Henry/us this weekend and we’re very excited to celebrate Henry with our family. The shower falls on Henry’s 16-month ‘birthaversary.’ In keeping with tradition, we will attempt making a new Korean dish and bring it for our families to try. We’re going to make mandu for the first time and I’m excited to try! (And if it doesn’t turn out, we’ll buy some frozen ones on our way to his house lol)
One of the ingredients called for in the mandu recipe was buchu, or 부추 in hangul. Buchu is a Korean herb, a garlic chive. Needless to say, hard to find around here. So imagine my surprise when one of my colleagues posted a picture of this herb growing in her garden. She is so generous and gave me several of the plants to put in my own garden. I can’t even tell you how excited this makes me. One, I like gardening anyway, and it’s a unique feature, and two, it will make it that much easier for us to make some of the Korean recipes we want to try. Thank you, Sarah! She also very generously volunteered to help me with my pronunciation with some of the Korean we’ve been learning. I’m thankful for her!
The nesting instinct has re-kicked in, and I’m glad. We cleaned out a couple of the closets pretty thoroughly this weekend, making room for Henry’s stroller in our living room closet, and his sheets and towels in the linen closet. Probably boring for everyone else to read about but it makes me happy to start making room for his things and stocking our shelves with the items he’ll need.
I also had lunch this week with a great new friend I’ve met through this process, who adopted from Vietnam through our agency. She is so, so much fun and I’m very glad our paths in life have joined. The friendships we’ve made throughout this process mean the world to me and hopefully will one day mean the world to Henry.
The next post, hopefully I’ll be sharing photos of our beautiful mandu 
, and a wonderful shower celebration with our family.
Children’s Day
Yesterday was Children’s Day in Korea!
What’s Children’s Day?
(From Wikipedia) In South Korea, May 5 is officially recognized as Children’s Day (어린이날). Parents often give presents to their children, as well as spend time with them. The children are taken on excursions to zoos, museums, and various venues of children-oriented entertainment.
So it only seems appropriate that yesterday Henry got, well, spoiled.
M and his dad and brother went to a Sporting KC game, and M’s mom and I did damage in a bunch of children’s clothing stores. We may or may not have come home with about 12 outfits for his next care package.
Henry doesn’t know it yet, but he is so blessed to have so many family members that love him already. (And we’re pretty blessed, too.)
New WBC (but no picture)
I was excited to see Henry’s April WBC in our email today, but have to admit disappointed to not get a picture of our sweet boy. I know we’ve been luckier than most so far so I really have no right to complain, but I’m dying to see his sweet face again! I know some families have received pictures up to several days after they received their WBC, so I’m hoping one is still coming.
Anyway, on to the WBC!
Henry is now 31.6 inches tall, so he’s grown about 1/2 an inch in the last two months. He’s 27.33 pounds, so he’s gained about 1/3 of a pound in the last two months.
His newest accomplishments are drinking out of a cup, being cute and chubby, and having a completely closed ‘baby soft spot.’ He’s still right on target developmentally.
I also realized I never shared his stats from his March WBC (I was too excited about the photos).
In March, Henry was 31.3 inches tall, 27.1 pounds. His accomplishments in March included kicking a ball forward and helping to dress himself (!).
We love you sweet boy and miss you more than we can ever tell you.
