What We've Been Up To Lately

Joe Sung Min is a walking machine.  Every day he is more sure of himself, walking a little faster, stopping to pick something up or turn around a few times.  He is definitely proud of his accomplishments and is sleeping VERY well since he tires himself out with all of his laps around the house.  He still isn't sure about walking in the grass, but he is getting there.  One of his favorite things to do is play "Where is Olivia?" (or "Where is Sissy?"), where Liv will run out of the room and "hide" just around the corner.  He will come to look for her, she will jump out and yell "here I am!" and they both burst in to giggles.  I can't wait for the day when Joe-Joe tries to hide too!

In other news, we've been getting ready for Liv's birthday party.  She is having a "tie-dye" party and decided she wanted to have a tie-dyed birthday cake.  Naturally, I thought we should make a test cake before the big day.  After all, I've never made such a cake and wanted to work out any possible kinks before making THE CAKE.  So, I found some directions online and we got to work.  It was a lot of fun and the end result was pretty impressive, not to mention tasty.

I was very pleased with the way this cake turned out and was excited to make it for her party ... until she decided she'd rather have an ice cream cake...

Let's Play Outside!

The past few days, the weather has been unseasonably mild, beautiful even. We've been trying to get Joe Sung Min used to being outside - after all, summer will be here before we know it - and his big sister Liv is always asking us to go play outside.  Our efforts have had mixed results.

The first thing we did was head over to Grandma and Grandpa's house so the kids could swing.  We wanted to see what would happen if we put him down on the grass.  It was about as expected.  First, he bent down and picked up a piece of mulch and tried to put it in his mouth. Figures.  Then, he stood, paralyzed.  He would not move. (Have we mentioned how stubborn this child is?)  This was his experience:

We tried getting him to walk over to the swing - big, dramatic tears from Joe Broadway himself.  Once, however, he was strapped in the swing, he changed his tune.  We absolutely love this boy's laugh!  He and big sister Olivia had a great time swinging together.

After the swing, we thought we'd try the little slide.  He wasn't quite sure what to think of it.  Liv thought is was more fun when she was 2 or 3 or maybe 4... but she was a good sport and went on it (you know, for Joe's benefit).  Surprisingly, he didn't seem to mind sitting in the mulch.  We'll try grass next, but at least this wasn't too traumatic for him.

Joe Sung Min is officially a walker now.  He'll crawl if he gets tired, but for the most part, he is motoring around on two feet, taking no prisoners.  And he is just too cute!

  

We also had some good news this week -- it looks like his strabismus surgery is officially a success.  His doctor was very pleased with the results - and so were we!

Stay tuned for more on Joe's progress!

Introducing Joseph Sung Min Switalski

Today marks a new chapter in our lives: the day Joe Sung Min's adoption was finalized.  What an incredible journey brought us to this place; we've seen more than our share of heartache, grief, disappointment as we tried to have a second child, tempered with the joy of our sweet and charming daughter.  We jumped through numerous flaming hoops, filled out forms in triplicate, were fingerprinted multiple times and laid our lives open for our adoption agency and the US and South Korean governments to review.  We were finally matched with a darling little boy and waited what seemed like an eternity to get the call that he would come home.


It is hard to believe that just over six months ago, I traveled to Korea - and finally met my friend Amy, with whom I traded text messages, emails and phone calls daily as we waited for the good news.  We met Omma and Appa and their family, celebrated Joe Sung Min's first birthday and toured his orphanage - and of course saw the sites, shopped and ate some incredible food during this trip of a lifetime.


Finally, his finalization day is here, and so many feelings and emotions are bubbling to the surface.  Excitement, relief, joy, nervousness (what if I answer a question wrong?), peace. We are ready.  Ready for this chapter in our life to be over, ready to start a new one with our son.  


The finalization itself was quick and relatively painless.  I spoke with the Judge, then Brian, our social worker and finally we were all ushered into the court room together.  The Judge enjoys these types of cases because everyone leaves the court room smiling and full of joy.  Today was no exception.  We were thrilled to be at this point in our lives, and for Sung Min Kim to be officially recognized as Joseph Sung Min Switalski.


His Korean (foster) family will always be a part of his life, our lives, his story.  We look forward to continuing to share his story with them and the rest of our family and friends.  We thank you for your friendship and for being part of our story.


(and thank you to Grandma Fuehrer for joining us on this special day and for having your camera ready at all the right times!)

Patiently waiting for our proceeding to begin

The family with our social worker

Liv with Joe's teddy bear welcoming him as US citizen

Yay!  Our first official picture (with the Judge even!)

This-n-That

Once again, please accept my sincere apologies for the delay between posts.  It has been a combination of things being incredibly busy and not much new and exciting going on (except for the fact that Joe is *almost* walking all the time.  Or that he is very impatient when it comes to food.  He wants it and he wants it five minutes ago).   But, enough about that.  For your viewing pleasure today, here are some pictures of Joe Sung Min in is baptism outfit as well as some silly videos we took when we finally figured out my webcam.  Silly pictures may just be next!  Thanks for tuning in - and I promise to post more frequently, even if it is just a picture of the cutest. kids. ever.