thankful in bavaria.

Bavarian Alps anyone? Yes, please--I'll take a long weekend in the alps.

We had a marvelous weekend in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at an Army lodge called Edelweiss!  It was honestly so wonderful - the whole thing.  We drove down (about 5 hours) on Thursday morning and walked straight into the lodge for our Thanksgiving feast!  We had all the delicious Thanksgiving food without any work.  We were very much missing family that day and may have mentioned it a few times - love you Moselles & Blomgrens!

Evelyn & David enjoying some turkey.

We were mostly nervous about the hotel stay at night with the littles in the same room as us.  We weren't sure what people do - leave them there (we brought a monitor), go to bed (no way!), or do what we did and try to watch a movie while they went to bed!  It fortunately worked pretty darn good.  We just had the tv on and turned all the lights out and then once they were quiet we popped our movie in and enjoyed a little down time.  In the mornings we drank coffee, ate pastries and played around the room...

At night, we took it easy...

On Friday we decided to start exploring! We drove down this beautiful quaint road (below) and right in front of us was the ski jump from the Olympics held in Garmisch in 1936 - what a scary looking jump!

Once we parked we took about 3.5 hours exploring the Partnach Gorge.  The girls both took naps in the Ergos while we walked and we were in awe of the beautiful waterfalls, aqua water and lots of icicles.  It was very loud and windy and we had to walk through these super creepy long tunnels where there were no lights - quite the adventure!  We're sorry we didn't get a great picture but you get the idea...

 

Once we were through the gorge we took these stairs about 25 minutes up to a high mountain village where we ate a little German white sausage (Norah loved it), a pretzel, and German beer. It was a stunning view.

That evening we took it easy and ate at the lodge again and then watched a friend's kids for a bit so they could get out and talk!  It was so easy having 7 kids (they had a movie on so really, it was easy!)!

The following day we drove to another nearby village to check out a beautiful catholic monastery. It's still being used daily and has monks living in the quarters connected to the worship center.  This is one of the interior of the worship center.  One more interesting thing - the monastery has a brewery.  This makes me laugh. They make beer and liqueur and sell it.

This is Norah's "smile". Whenever we ask her to smile for the camera, this is what we get - it's kinda fugly (funny and ugly all at once).  I keep telling David - at least she looks and posses instead of running away or turning her head!

Eating in bed and cartoons - gasp! - what parents allow that?!

On the final day, on the way home, we stopped at Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle that Disney modeled their Sleeping Beauty castle after. We took a bus up to this lookout area and got some good pictures and continued the walk to the castle for a tour.  The castle is unfinished because Ludwig II died before it was finished being painted etc (although the 1/3 of it that is complete took 17 years!).  Ludwig had another castle within walking distance (see below) but this castle was much more magnificent.  We were not allowed to take pictures of the interior but it was stunning and detailed and very well preserved with wood carving, painting, mosaics and chandeliers.

The front door to the castle and view from the opposite side.

You can see one of his other castles there on the hill.

We took a carriage ride down pulled by horses and Norah was elated. She just kept talking about horsies this and that (we couldn't understand what she was saying), it was so fun to see her that excited.

Evelyn, getting more expressive as the weeks pass!

norah dances & sings.

changes.

One of our walks in the woods.

David. He's mostly good.  As the leader of our family I know he's feeling the weight of all the changes we're experiencing and feeling somewhat responsible for some of the hard stuff. Of course, he's not responsible--he's the strong one sorta holding this gang of girls together!  Work is going well. He's figuring out the rhythm of things in his office and the new medical lingo. He had his first speaking engagement almost two weeks ago and did a great job. He'll speak to medical providers at bases around Europe, filling them in on new medical legal things to be aware of as health care professionals.  He's also been hard at work on our crazy yard. We have a lot of bamboo and each year we will have to chop it all down, shred it and ditch it somewhere!  There are a lot of other yard things to tend to and David's made a great effort to keep up with the German standards. Oh, one more thing... David's also been the driving force behind getting settled. I think it has something to do with the fact that he's been here for over four months!  He's encouraged us to put our clothes in the dressers (haha, you think this is simple?!), to paint our living room (exciting photos to come), to hang pictures (that hasn't actually happened yet) and still take advantage of the outdoors while it's still warm enough to explore!  I'm more than thankful for David and his amazing role in our family. He's an amazing partner and Daddy to my girls.

Another walk in the woods!

Kelly. Me. I'm, well... struggling/stuck/sad/fine. It's such a weird blur of life we've had. Literally months of transition and, I know, I have a ton of stuff to catch y'all up on. I'm not sure how but we'll get there. Anyway, I guess through all the months pre-Germany I knew I wasn't processing what was happening, but instead was coping and had emotions about it all but not exactly able to deal with things while holding things together during the move/adoption/single-parenting thing. Now that life as we knew it has totally ceased, it's all catching up with me and it's hard stuff.  I feel all over the place emotionally - not like crying one second and laughing the next...ummm, okay that has happened a few times (thank God for kids!)! Anyway, suffice to say I'm not even sure where to start with me. I think I've done an okay job with staying verbally positive and moving forward by physically putting myself out there (MOPS, Bible study, coffee with the neighbors) but emotionally I feel stunted. I do have a sense that I'm in this new place in the last few days even... sort of accepting this change and wanting, no needing, more from my new life and (non) community.  Does that catch you up on me?  Again, David has held me crying or sat across the room or on the other end of the phone many times as I process and grieve (him too) what's been changing in our lives.  The move has been hard - the adoption has been hard and both combined REALLY hard to handle all at once. I keep thinking... Lord, do you know what's you're doing here?!  Okay, I hope I'm not too much of a debbie downer just trying to keep it real here. Thanks for hanging in there with us and please keep praying if you think of us!

Norah. Even though I think these changes have been hard I look at Norah and feel refreshed or sometimes I look at her and feel worried.  She's really been enduring some hard times, too.  We aren't sure if her changes are due to her age, bringing Evelyn home, or the loss of life as she knew it in Spokane (all three?). I know kids are very versatile and she'll bounce back but she has been grieving some too.  She's never been too picky of an eater but the last few weeks she's been not eating much. We've tried to bribe her (is that wrong?!), make it fun or silly, sing, threaten, anything we can think of to get her to eat more but it just hasn't worked. Evelyn eats at least twice as much as Norah and she's not quite as big as Norah so it does concern us some.  Also, Norah's been a fairly good sleeper in the last year but since the move she's been "sleeping" 14 hours a night and about a 3-4 hour nap!  Now, I say "sleeping" because during the night she wakes up screaming and crying and we can't tell if she's having nightmares or afraid of where she is - it's all such a guessing game as parents.  We've been trying to keep things as routine as possible but things haven't gotten a lot better.  On a positive note, when she's awake (sans meal-time) she's very happy and herself. She's talking a lot, loves calling family on the phone, bossing Wrigley (and sister) around, plays very well with her sister and continues to read books all the time.  One more funny thing - she keeps taking her diaper off!  I am almost "afraid" to put her down for her nap without a onsie on because I've found her booty in the open more than once. She'll go to the bathroom and then promptly remove the diaper - I know this is a sign of her getting ready to potty train but I'm almost positive she's not actually ready (but I did buy a toilet seat cover for her!). Exciting times as a two year old!

Our little princess for the halloween office party!

Evelyn. The littlest, by only a little!  Our "baby" is seriously coming into her own skin. It's beautiful to see her really coming out of her shell and feeling at home with us. It's not that we haven't seen her happy before now but it's been a slow thing for Evelyn.  Like I mentioned earlier, she eats a lot and still takes a bottle before bed (mostly for bonding). I do remember Norah at this age seeming to eat snacks and meals through the whole day, Evelyn is no different.  One thing though, Evelyn is stubborn. She likes to be in control and likes to feed herself. She's can't quite do a spoon yet so when it's a spoon meal she's pretty resistant to letting us be in control of the intake.  She loves playing around with (or without) Norah and seems fascinated by simple things. She too looks at books a lot and continues to find Wrigley and Norah hilarious.  She is 16 months today and definitely not interested in walking at all but we keep trying to encourage her a bit (although we don't mind that they aren't both running away from us yet!). She's definitely talking a bit - not sure what she's saying but a lot of things sound like phrases Norah says like "hi sister!" She'll use the same inflection but not actually pronounce it. It's cute but scary if she starts to talk :)

 In other news...
...we are uncle, aunt and cousins for the second time!!!! We are so excited to help announce Kristin & Keith's little guy.  Micah was born Sunday November 13th weighing 8lbs 10oz. What a joy!  We cannot wait to meet him next summer.  Stay a baby Micah!!
...we were supposed to go to Paris this past weekend but we decided to get sick - really really sick.  First David got it and we ended up in the ER to get him some fluids (that was Monday) and then Thursday night we were packed and ready to hit the road Friday morning (Wrigley was already at the sitters) and I got it. So, we went back to the ER on Friday instead of Paris. It's took the whole weekend, plus some, to get back to functioning motherhood.  I'm thankful we didn't get this virus while we were away and more thankful that the girls haven't gotten it.  I would be heartbroken!

falling into place.

The past two weeks have brought on many new things for us!  Here's a bit of what we've been doing...

• Letting Norah be creative and pick out her clothes - some of the time :) 

• Having coffee & tea with our american neighbors!
• Visiting churches in the area. There aren't many english speaking options so I'm sure we'll know which one will be our home church soon!
• Taking as many walks as we can before it's way too cold

Nanzdietschweiler behind us, our house is right above my head. I love that we can sometimes hear the cows mooing from our living room!

• Started attending a women's study of the book Fearless by Max Lucado
• Went to an adoption support group. It was nice to just be with other people who get some of the hard parts of adoption - this part, post placement, has by far been the hardest part for us and I've been craving a friend to relate with on it all. I met a new friend at the meeting - hi friend, if you're reading! - and we even met at the park yesterday! Feeling blessed by that connection.
• Went to MOPS here on base. I am currently on the wait list as they don't have enough room for everyone that is interested so... when ladies are out of town etc those on the wait list get an invite and I did this time around. I'm still hoping some room opens up for us to go but if not, at least I've met a few ladies through the group already.
• We took the girls to the pool on base and they both seemed to love swimming with Dad & Mom!
• Taking our neighbors cookies in hopes of connecting with some of them. We found out there is another JAG on our block - a family that has already lived here 2 years so that should be great!

• Evelyn had a pediatric appointment and she's doing great. It was nice to meet the girls doctor even though we don't know if he'll move soon and the girls will get another doc.

She was tired, can you tell? Such a great picture of them though :)

• We went to Ikea (about 45 min away) and got a load of stuff for the house. Mostly storage type things since the Germans don't have closets (WHAT?!). We're still figuring out where to put everything and how to keep it organized!
• I've been cooking a ton still. Finding a load of fun recipes from pinterest and really having a great time doing it!  The only downside to me cooking most nights is LOTS of leftovers for lunches. Oh well, at least most of the recipes have been good.

Quinao burgers - really good!

• Took the girls to a German musik class (kind of like Kindermusik which was created here). The class was held in this lady's home and was all in German but it was so fun, even if we were a little lost with the language barrier!
• Evelyn has been doing really well. She's usually content these days - bits of laughter (usually at Norah or Wrigley) and independent play.  She's been signing "more" and "all done" which makes mealtime a bit easier (mealtime with two toddlers is not really my favorite thing).

seoul - take two.

August 25th - walking tour of Seoul
26th - Gyeongbokgung palace, Insadong and... met Evelyn!!!

25th
After visiting Holt and hearing the awesome news about the visa interview we went back to our guest room. We were already tired and it was only lunch time! Oh jet lag, we tire of you (hahaha!). We decided to try and nap but we were way to excited to see Seoul and couldn't get our minds off of meeting Evelyn the next day!  We stopped by a traditional Korean restaurant where you grill the meat at your table. It's called Korean BBQ :)  Since we were the only one's in the restaurant we were nervous, we couldn't watch anyone else to see if we were eating our food the right way.  We also were searching and searching our Lonely Planet and couldn't find the answers we needed for etiquette - after the fact, we found them and yes we did eat our food wrong but at least we ate!

After lunch we started a walking tour that the Lonely Planet suggested. It took us about 2.5 hours to complete as we stopped and looked at the city along the way. It was a great thing to do as we saw many things but it wore us out!

The Cheonggyecheon stream. This stream starts in the city and flows into the Han River eventually. 

Along the way we stopped at Itaewon Market and got a scroll made for us. It's made of water color and says "Blomgren" in Hangul (the official Korean symbols) as well as all of our first names. It's beautiful.

We also walked through Namdaemun market - a street market where many of the city folk buy clothing, shoes and food.

Near our guest house & Holt

A food stand at the market - we decided to pass :)

The walking tour ended by bringing us to Seoul Tower. It was beautiful and unfortunately we didn't start up to the tower early enough to see the sunset but the view was still spectacular!  At the top (the highest point in Seoul) you can see most of the city - both directions.  To get to the top you can go up hundreds and hundreds of stairs, or take a cable car. We opted for the cable car because of the heat and being so tired!

We were SO tired in this picture but having a great time anyway!

On top of Seoul tower is thousands of locks. It's really neat to see these fences of locks and "tree's" of locks in all directions. Putting a lock up on the fence is meant to symbolize a promise for endless love.

There's our lock of love!

Can you see ours?  It's the Master lock that says "Love" on the side - it has our names and "forever family" on it as well.

We were back to our room at 10:15pm and crashed! Our goal was to stay up all day to try and get our bodies adjusted and to be able to sleep through the night - goal accomplished :)

26th
On Friday we met up with a tour guide from our agency. She was a very sweet Korean student getting her MBA at a university in Seoul.  We took the subway to Gyeongbokgung Palace. The palace grounds are HUGE and we only saw a portion of it but what we saw was really beautiful.  And, it's really neat that the palace is right off of the downtown area. It was nice to have the tour guide to tell us more about the history of the buildings and what things symbolizes, how the old life style is or isn't incorporated into Korean culture now.  We ended that part of the day with a walkthrough of the folk museum--again, well put together with beautiful instruments and clothing on display.

One of the buildings that has been restored to show how beautiful and intricate the painting on the wood was.

The guards at the entrance.

In the "back yard" of the palace where they did some of the worshiping.

After the palace we walked through the Insadong market. It was a very nice "market" with a lot of shops - almost like an artsy strip mall but with upper class stores.  Very classy. The prices were high and we liked a lot of stuff we saw but didn't buy anything.  I think through the whole trip we struggled with what to buy. We were interested in what we were seeing and learning but also so very distracted by the reason we were there and had a hard time focusing on "touring" when our minds were with both our girls and the massive life change ahead of us. Back to the day... we ate another traditional Korean meal with our guide and talked about her life in graduate school.

Neat architecture in downtown.

After lunch we stopped by a massive underground bookstore called Kyobo. It was so fun to walk around and it just is so neat to thousands of books in another language - a lot of the books we recognized but couldn't read!  We bought a few books for the girls that were traditional Korean children stories (in english) but have CD's that teach how to say some of the Korean words in them. We also bough a DVD of Pororo but it hasn't worked in any player we've tried (something about the DVD being made for another type of player since it's from another country?). Oh well.

Mei (tour guide) & myself at the end of our tour.

We headed back on a bus to our guesthouse. We got ready... TO MEET OUR DAUGHTER!!!! :)  I cannot describe the pure nervous excitement we were feeling - aaaahhh, it was insane.

We were like little kids. We felt so dumb but we were asking the social worker, "okay, so will she just walk in or will she knock or will you have us walk in to the room, etc."  It was awesome because you could tell the social worker knew it was a big moment for us all and loved how excited and nervous we were - I'm sure this is what she looks forward to, uniting families! Back to the main event. We wanted to get the meeting on video but we were left in the room to wait and then all the sudden they walked in!

We quickly stood up and could tell Evelyn was asleep in the baby carrier on the foster mother. Mouth open, head back, drooling asleep - adorable.  The foster mother didn't speak any english so the social worker interpreted everything for us. The FM wanted to take Evelyn out of the carrier so we could hold her and we were quick to stop her! We thought she should sleep and we could start in with our long list of questions!  

Right away we just started asking all about Evelyn - what she ate, when she ate, how she slept and for how long, does she like it dark or light, cold or hot and what scares her or makes her happy or soothes her, etc. We were anxious to here about her from the woman who knows and loves Evelyn so well. We thankfully got everything on the video so we can reference it later. We also asked the FM if she would sing any special songs that she sings to Evelyn, but she was too shy and wouldn't do it.  It was such a special time to have with the FM and have it not be the same day we were going to take Evelyn from her -- there are so many emotions for us all.

Totally in love with her Daddy!

Evelyn woke up, finally, and the FM tried to hand her right to me and Evelyn just started to cry. I gave her right back - I didn't want to scare her.  After a few minutes they set her on the ground to play and she went right over to David and was very happy to have him pick her up! It was such a sweet daddy-daughter moment(s).  When I actually held her, she didn't cry but I sure did and so did the FM!

Evelyn had a long day as she had already seen the doctor (she threw up that day), went the embassy for her visa interview (takes a few hours) and back to Holt to meet us and see the doctor again to see if her temperature was okay. Poor girl was so tired.  We felt so blessed to spend that hour with her and the FM - truly, something I will never ever forget.

After all that excitement and bliss - we went back to the guesthouse and just talked about it all and tried to grasp the fact that we just met Evelyn! Such a fun fun day!!  So, the only downer of the time at Holt was when they told us the visa wouldn't be picked up until the middle-to-end of the following week.  We knew, from the embassy, that they visa would be processed within 24 hours but Holt has to pick it up. They are not in close proximity to the embassy and said they only pick the visas up in groups so they wait until the whole group's visas are processed. We were discouraged but praying things might change.

While we were processing in our room (after meeting Evelyn) our social worker called to say they would make an exception for Evelyn!  You see, the foster mother already had another foster baby in the home and was feeling very overwhelmed and since we were already there and ready, they were able to make an exception for us.  God was ironing it all out!   We are more than grateful to the amazing Holt workers who went the extra mile during this process to make sure we could bring Evelyn home as soon as possible. We never even got to thank the person who made this extra trip for us - if you're out there - thank you, from the bottom of our hearts!

In Hongik area looking for some wifi and a place to eat.

After all this excitement we were tired but oh so hungry! We headed out to Hongik University, near Holt, and had some coffee and dinner. Hongik area is very fun at night and later in the week we revisited the area when we had more time and energy!

I'll keep working on the update. Thanks for hanging in here with us and supporting us. We have been struggling to keep up with life so please - know I'm trying my hardest to keep you in the know!  Bless you all :)

norah turned two (sept 20th).

Norah.Nors.The Great Norooney. Our Baby Girl.

You're two years old!

You started life by surprising us all, arriving a bit early and eager to meet your Mama :)  We hung in there the first 10 weeks without Dad but made it through with lots of help from friends and family who wanted to visit you in Colorado!  Once Daddy came home you really started to shine showing us your beautiful smile, rolling over and progressing as a healthy baby girl from then on.

This last year of your life has certainly been awesome! Your personality shines and I think EVERYONE loves you :) You've always been the "baby" that goes to anyone, even strangers, and I have to say - it warms my heart that you are so trusting and truly loving of others. Your time in Spokane, building your first of many friendships, was so beautiful to watch. We love that every time we got in the car you said "Clara! Amy!" (your best friend) wondering if we were about to see Clara & Amy :) 

This last year we watched you try your hand at some art projects, LOVE your music class, start to "talk" and whine, request reading books with us at any down time, ask for kisses (even in the middle of a meal or conversation), sing and dance. Your tender heart really has been a true blessing to this mama.  The many many times you've seen me cry through the last few months you stopped dead in your tracks, walked over to me and said "it's okay mommy?!" and offer a kiss and a hug and look in my eyes again and repeat "it's okay mommy?" Your love for others is so Christ-like and has been such an encouragement to me.  

This year you've also welcomed Evelyn into your life. Each time you wake up the first thing you say is "sister doin?" It's awesome. If we give you a snack or something to eat (before Evelyn) you promptly say "sister some?" or you walk over and give her what you have and then ask for more. You're very generous. And, even though evelyn cries a lot - you seem to always want to make sure we know (like we don't hear it?) she's sad - "sister's cryin.'"  Anyway, it's great to know you care so much about Evelyn and truly love having her around. She sure does thinks you're hilarious (even though you don't realize she's laughing at you).

Things our two year old does:

• says please and thank you for almost everything.
• says "sorry mommy/daddy/sister" when she didn't even do anything wrong!
• if we're listening to music, in between songs she says "more please" - she loves her music
• has started to talking in short sentences
• LOVES to talk on the phone - she walks around like she owns the place with the phone to her ear and mostly repeating what the other person is saying - example: her grandma says "how's your sister today?" norah responds "sister doin'?"
• struggles with meal time - acts like we need to feed her and baby her (probably due to Evelyn needing help with food)
• for a while there we thought you wanted to potty train - always asking about going potty etc. but for the last month you've said nothing... until this week, you said "Clara goin' potty" as if Clara is the only one that uses the toilet. So, we're waiting until you're ready and things are more routine before we introduce that challenge.
• absolutely loves shoes. she puts on all shoes and mostly big people shoes and walks around the house... rather well too!
• sleeps in, most days, past 8 (or 9 if i let her)!
• LOVES purses and putting things in them and gets very upset when she can't bring her purse to meal time
• Explores. She is a very curious little girl and isn't afraid to make your home hers... you might find her in your tub or in pulling open your dresser drawers. What? She's just exploring! :)

Norah's favorites at the moment.

Music - party like a preschooler - a truly FUN CD that i love too :)

Toy - well, her purse and babies... she's always having her babies go to sleep and eat

Food  - pretzels

Drink - juice from mommy's juicer

Book - Tumble Bumble

Person - daddy! or clara, parker, griffin, hollyn or either amy :)

Video - any Word World show (we had dvd's)

2 weeks old.

 

First time you met Daddy! 10 weeks.

Always such a happy bundle of joy. 6 months.

12 months old and just moved to Spokane, WA

Trying out some new activities at co-op. 18 months old.

More fun at co-op. 18 months.

 

Monday play-dates with Rachelle, Soso, Amy, Clara, Iah & Mommy. 

Hanging with Clara after a bike ride. 20 months.

You loved the bows Amy made for your sister before she came home! 21 months.

Having fun with Daddy! 23 months.

 

Celebrating your LIFE with Kathy. 24 months - birthday!

Opening presents at your impromptu party a few days before leaving Spokane. 23 months.

Saying "yeah!" you loved yoru slippers Nana made! 24 months + a few days.

At your first German fall festival with mommy. 24 months + a few days.