Just Beachy

This is playing a little blog catch-up but it was a summer highlight so I can't not post about it, even if it did happen a few weeks back!

A dear friend (and mentor) of mine planned a family beach trip and invited Caleb and I along.  It was our first time to the ocean in Korea!!

Now, the ocean is absolutely one of my favorite places EVER and this particular family is a family we all love being around so there was no way we weren't going!  It was still pretty "early" in the summer so we held our breath for good weather and the Friday we went turned out to be great.  It was still fairly cool and somewhat overcast but it wasn't raining and wasn't cold so we were good to go!  We packed in their big van, drove an hour and half of beautiful mountain scenery and arrived at the beach around 10am.  We had a total blast. Caleb never stopped playing and running, barely wanted to stop to eat lunch and tried to grab fist-fulls of sand "to bring home and play with later" when it was time to go at 5pm!

Caleb and Aaron

Caleb and Morgan

Caleb and "the boys"

Caleb and Elijah

Beach Basketball with Luke

Look at those purple lips - cold water!

Wet and Cold, warming up

Jordan

The mommies 

"bye bye Ocean!"

Caleb's only regret of the day was that we had to leave and he "didn't find the Nemo Fishie."  He has a book about Nemo and was sure he would meet Nemo Fishie at the beach!

Seoul Zoo!

Last week we left Songtan early in the morning, headed to Seoul and spent Steve's day off at the Seoul Zoo in Seoul Grand Park.

  I think it was one of my favorite outings we've done in Korea yet, for sure up in the top 10!

The Seoul Zoo was a lot nicer than I was expecting.  It was huge and full of all kinds of animals, with lots of room to run, climb, swim and hop.  The zoo itself was nestled in the mountains, so we were completely surrounded by beautiful landscape and felt separated from the city itself.

I'm really undecided as to if I enjoyed the mountains and surrounding scenery or the actual zoo more....

 The other great thing about this zoo was how active all the animals were!  I'm not sure what is wrong with the animals in all the zoos I've been to in the States but these animals actually were doing things and interacting, not just laying around!  The hippo's swam over to us, the bears were fighting over food, the ostriches and flamingos were running around, the tigers were fighting and prowling around, the giraffes were eating and playing and so forth. I've never seen so much activity at the zoo before.

Not zoomed, this is how close we were!

Caleb was a little nervous about the dolphins at first....

baby elephants!

"Hi Caleb Giraffe!"

Caleb's "victory" signs 

These monkeys were not in cages, just out hanging around!

The other fun and unexpected thing about this zoo was that they had feeding times scheduled throughout the day and you could go watch the different animals get fed (or feed them yourself in some cases).  We were able to see the tigers and lions get thrown whole (dead) chickens and chunks of red meat, the bears were given their daily fruit, the dolphins fed fish and we got to feed the giraffes!

 "Come here giraffes, giraffes, giraffes" C uses the plural 

Steve got licked.

It was pretty cool getting to see, touch and feed them up close! Caleb hasn't stopped talking about it or pretending to be "Caleb the Giraffe" which comes in quite handy when trying to get him to eat his green leafy veggies!

Trying to join a hogwon

Making friends

Caleb the Tiger

the "zoo tram"

Pretty much sums up the day!

Happy Anniversary

Steve,

Tomorrow we celebrate our 4 year anniversary and I couldn't have asked for a better man to spend my life with.

As I look back on the past four years, it's hard for me to believe how much has changed but more so how much I've changed.  For the better.  I praise the Lord for the patient, compassionate, loving, honorable man of character that you are and the many ways the Lord has used you to gently show me my own sin and areas of weakness and desperate need.  Steve, you have stuck with me, patiently pointing me to the Cross and loving me despite myself.

I also can't believe the many ways you have changed.  You were a great guy when I married you, I don't know many people that don't like you - you're pretty hard not to get along with (so long as it's not your younger sister).  But the ways I have seen you grow, mature and change in the past four years have been truly incredible.  I've seen you "step up" and lead increasingly each year.  I've watched you turn from self to Christ more and more.  I've seen you "grow up" and mature daily.  I've seen you work hard to care for and provide for me and our growing family.  I see you stay up late working because you took some time to come home in the afternoon and give me a break from Caleb.  Or do the dishes.  Or clean the porch.  I've seen you pour yourself into students and ministry and Church and small group and other people's marriages and struggles and hurts, often (literally since we don't have a car) running from event to meeting to home and back to Church.  I've seen your heart growing for the nations and this world, for the fatherless, for the hurting and most of all for the unbelievers and those who have never heard.  I've seen you grow in Christ-likeness and love for others, as you simultaneously care less and less for yourself and your wants and needs.  Steve, you are a man I look up to and respect, a man who is the same in the house when no one is here but your family as you are in Church or out of the house, you are a man of honorable character and you are a man I am abundantly blessed to call my husband and a man I earnestly pray our sons follow closely. I couldn't have asked for a better man to spend the rest of my life with and I am filled with praise to the Lord for blessing me with you this year and always.  

Happy 4 year Anniversary!  I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you!  Yours Always, Sarah

Adoption Update

Where are we at with our adoption?  It's been a while since we shared much of an update and that is mostly because there hasn't been much to share!  We finished our home visit with our social worker almost three weeks ago and we are now waiting.  We are waiting mostly for some final documents to be returned (our certified birth certificate, our back ground checks and certified marriage certificate).  I am also waiting on my husband to finish his personality inventory (hint, hint).  We are nearing the end with this and mostly just praying for speedy return of our documents and a smooth process as we complete the home study and begin completing our dossier.

Meeting with our social worker

We are still really excited about adopting and the little one the Lord has for us.  He/She is often in our thoughts and prayers.  But we are beginning to realize what a lengthy process this will be and I think that stifles our excitement just a little bit, knowing it will likely be a while before we see this little one into our home and family.

Please continue to pray for wisdom for us in this process and for the Lord's guidance.  Pray for the process, pray for the child, pray for our hearts in this and for the Lord's leading.  Also, please continue to pray that the finances will come in and please consider donating.  We will need about another $2,000 once our home study is closed out so we can pay the agency fee and move forward.

Thank you for your continued questions, excitement, support and prayers.  They really mean so much!