Taegeukgi

As we wait for our littlest to come home we are learning about his birthplace!  As we learn, we'll share with you some interesting facts.

The South Korean flag is known as Taigeukgi.  Some of the meanings behind the crisp and clean S.Korean flag...
The background of the flag is white in order to symbolize the cleanliness of the people.  The "yin and yang" or Taegeuk represents the origin of all things - like all positive (red) and negative (blue) and the balance of the good and bad.  The four trigrams each represent (from the top left going clock-wise) heaven, water, earth and fire.  Heaven and earth are across from each other and water and fire across from each other again, causing balance.

Image used from here.

They get it!

Remember this post?  Well, before I even wrote that my sister-in-law and mom both had already gotten Norah two asian dolls!  I love that they get it and know that we desire diversity in our home.  I want to get Norah more dolls of color but I don't want to spoil her (or do I?)!  Oh yeah, I also saw an African American doll at Gymboree of all places!  I was happy to see that they are catching on too.  Here's some pictures of my cutie enjoying her new friends Gia & 아기 which is pronounced "ah-gee" - the Korean word for baby!

*Please note how my adorable daughter crosses her ankles regularly on her own!*

 Gia & "ah-gee"

The end

We had a wonderful end to 2010 with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Blomgren!  They came to explore Spokane and hang out with us for a week.  We did so many fun things both with them and also left them a few times with Norah!  The night they arrived David and I planned a festive meal using our nice dishes... I even made pie!  It was so fun to have guests to serve and to do Christmas at our place.  We/Norah opened many wonderful gifts including a fun kitchen to cook at!  

While they were here we also did the Spokane city drive (a fun loop around the whole town), went out to breakfast at one of our favorite local places, showed them around the base as well as David's office, did a little post Christmas shopping, David and I went skiing and on a date, we also were able to celebrate New Year's eve with our dear friends from home group!  Mostly it was just wonderful having them in our home and watching them chase Norah around the house, she loved it.

 

 

 

And... a new year's eve celebration...

 Kelly, Kathleen, Amy, Sarai & Mel (we were missing Kari, Amy & Tara!)

Jonathan, David, Dan, Jeff, Derek, Jason, Sam & Aaron (missing Joel & Travis!)

I am missing hanging Norah's diapers outside instead of inside on the rack...  I am missing the summer heat and using the deck for meal time but...

 

We are so blessed by this glorious view during the winter months!  God knows we need change sometimes and has blessed us with the different seasons.  

 What's your view where you're at?  I'd love to get a sneak peak :)

T-SHIRTS, T-sHiRtS, t-shirts

We are overjoyed to release our adoption t-shirts to the world!  As one of our main fundraising efforts we want to thank Ben Malley who played a huge role and spent many hours being our artist!  We gave him our ideas and he hit the ground running.  Thank you Ben, you have blessed us beyond words.  Our goal to sell 200 shirts seems overwhelming, but we know with your help we will be able to do this!  Each shirt cost us around $10 to make and we are asking for a $25 donation (or whatever you feel led to give--there are no restrictions on the donation!) per shirt.

American Apparel Grey Shirt!

American Apparel Blue Shirt!

To order a shirt copy and paste the below form into an email and send it to kelly.blomgren(@)gmail.com.
To pay, simply donate to our adoption by clicking on the give anonymously widget on the sidebar or send us a check (we'll email you back with our address)!  Thank you for helping bring our baby(s) home from S.Korea and for supporting orphans in need.

Name:
Address:
Paying by check: Yes or No
Grey Shirt: Tell us how many you want!
Size: Unisex small through extra large or women's small through extra large
Blue Shirt: Tell us how many you want!
Size: Unisex small through extra large or women's small through extra large

116 shirts sold as of July, 2011 -- Praise the Lord and let's keep it going!

Shirts still left to sell:

  Blue

    Women's: small or medium

    Unisex: small or medium

  Grey

    Women's: small (only one left!)

    Unisex: small (only one left!)

Christmas Happenings!

We hope each of you had a blessed Christmas with family and friends!  We were so blessed here Spokane and wanted to share about our special times with you.  And a few pictures, of course!  We are so thankful to have been invited and welcomed into our friend's parent's homes for Christmas Eve and Christmas day celebrations.  On Christmas Eve we were invited to the Hook's childhood church and then to Amy's parent's house for clam chowder, a few games and a Christmas story.  We had so much fun celebrating Jesus with the Hooks!

Norah in her adorable Christmas best.  I had to quick do her hair in the parking lot (it now fits into two pony tails in the back!)

 

 

It's hard to get a decent picture of two mom's with two little chicks under 2 years old :)

  

 Ethan, Amy & Jono winning the "blow the ping pong off the edge of the other side of the table" game

 And, the losing team :)
Dave, Tammy & David

 Jonathan & Clara, David & Norah

And, a bedtime story for the girls

On Christmas day we enjoyed celebrating with a smorgasbord of friends!  We were at the Randall's parent's house along with other friends from church and new military friends.

 Andi & Kelly

 Amy & Hollyn & Sue (our host)

 David & Erik (he goes with Andi)

 Parker (Amy's son) and Dan and Norah looking a little silly!

 We have a mistletoe in our house (of course!) and Norah LOVES to ring it's bell.  Merry Christmas with a kiss!

 

 And a cute picture of Nors as she chatted on the phone with her Nana today!  She's totally into mimicking us these days, and talking on the phone is no exception.

And finally, we are still slightly under the weather!  It's been a long two weeks here healing and feeling sick.  When Norah feels icky she just wants us to wear her around the house or hold her, so we do!  I think it's adorable.  So, this is a picture of just that... and a really messy kitchen which is just how it is when you're sick! *massive amounts of kleenex not pictured*

And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: 'Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people, Unto you is born this day a Savior which is Christ the Lord.  -Luke 2:11

Merry Christmas y'all!