Wahe's World

Back @ Work :-(

Stefan Here.

Today I had to go back to work. Here is what I missed about being home:

1. Alex’s Non-Stop Energy: If you ever thought Michelle keep me on the move, it only pails in comparison to trying to keep up with Alex. Where as it may be tiring, the activities and conversations he is capable both entertain and amaze me.

2. Michael’s Smiles: The transition these children endure is a traumatic one that is just one of the steps on a life-long journey. For Michael to be able to open his eyes in the morning and great Michael and I with a smile is a very precious thing to me.

3. Michelle: Marriage and parenting is a partnership. After spending 21 odd straight days traveling, recovering and parenting together has brought me even closer to Michelle. I doubt that they will be able to finish my sentences for me at work.

Other things I will miss will include napping with Michael and Alex, having lunch around the kitchen table, a sense of accompishment in getting those small projects done around the house and just being able to enjoy every moment with my family.

Over the years I will have many chances to take time off work to enjoy my family. I will love every moment of it!

A Great First Day in Seoul

It is always a good day when you can get your son to smile.  Especially when he doesn’t really know who we are yet. We made it to South Korea without any problems.  Today was our first full day in Seoul.  We spent the entire day at Eastern.  They are the one’s who process our adoptions.  Our day was full of meetings, events and yes emotions.  We of course first visited with Michael and his foster mother. We then had lunch we other adoptive families and met the President of Eastern. Then we were lucky enough to vist Alex’s foster mother. Finaly we got to spend time in the nursery with the new born babies .

The time we spent with Michael was magical.  He gets over his stranger anxiety with a little bribing by Michelle’s Gerber Baby Puffs (well kind of).  He spent most of the time on his foster mother’s lab but let Michelle feed and sooth him.  We spent a lot of time asking questions about what Michael eats, how he sleeps and his favorite things to do.  But most importantly, we found out that he has a foster sister living with them.

It sounds like he does well standing his own ground with his foster sister.  They play nice and share. We hope he can do this with Alex.  Michael is walking on his own.  He is saying a few words such as  omma, oppa and caca which means he is hungry.

Michael celebrated his first birthday this past weekend.  The first birthday is a very important milestone in Korean culture. Typically six or so items are presented to the birthday child.  Each item represents the future career or personality of the child. Micheal selected the pencil from the other objects. The pencil signifies that he will become a scholar or a lawyer.

We get a second visit with Michael on Monday afternoon.  And on Tuesday afternoon he becomes ours forever.  We hate to rush our time while in Seoul, but we can’t wait for Tuesday to get here.

The meeting with Alex’s foster mother was amazing.  She was hoping that we brought Alex along on the trip.  She truly enjoyed see the pictures of Alex and watching the video of him playing with his friend Ally. We could truly see how much she still cares for Alex.  She was proud that he is doing so well.  She knew that he was smart because as a baby he was always observing.  She was amused by the stories of Alex alwasy asking, “what’s that?”.  We truly appreciated her taking the time to visit.

This being our third visit (and most likely the last for the next several years) we finally to the time to comfort babies in the nursery. It was amazing to hold such a young child in our arms.  I tend to forget how small newborns are compared to the nine month old we brought home almost two years ago.  Michelle comforted two little guys for the 90 odd minutes we were there.  I was the guy who was handed the little criers. I would finally get the little guy quiet and asleep and then the caretaker would  take him and give me another crier.  I was four for five on getting them calm and back to sleep.

It was a very busy and emotional day.  I can’t say thanks enough to the women and their families who take care of these children. We are very thankful of there open hears as well as all the great workers at Eastern.

I am probably forgetting many details from the day.  Michelle and I fill in the blanks when we post more about our trip over the next few days.

And Now We Are Four!!!

Michelle asked me what I wanted for my birthday a few weeks ago.  For once, I really didn’t have an answer.  But Michelle and I both got the greatest gift in the world.  We received a referral for Song Lee earlier this week.  Today we met with our social worker to see his pictures for the first time and to review his paperwork. When we saw the first picture we immediately fell in love with our new son. Pictured is Song Lee at five months.

More pictures can be viewed at https://wahe.us/blog/v/SongLee/Scan1_0001.jpg.html

After we we wrapped up with our social worker we were off to the next step of the Amazing Paper Chase (Round II).  I have to brag that we probably set a record for completing the paperwork at this stage. This stage entailed the following steps which we completed in 6 hours:

1. Acquire our adoption bond (insurance)
2. Complete 16 different documents with various levels of complexity
3. Stop at the bank
4. Visit our pediatrician to make sure there wasn’t something we were missing in Song Lee’s medical records.
5. Deliver the package of paperwork to FedEx by 8:00 tonight to be overnighted to Chicago.

This last step was the most important.  If we got the paperwork to Chicago tomorrow morning, there was a good chance that the agency could get the paperwork off to Seoul the same day. Hopefully this would get us on the list to get our travel call sooner.  The typical travel call comes in 4 to 6 months. So the sooner we get the paperwork to Seoul the sooner the 4 to 6 month clock starts ticking.

Michelle and I were making great time in steps 1 through 3.  Luckily we were able to find a babysitter for Alex to help make all of this possible. We stepped out of the bank at 4:00 needing to be at the doctors office at 4:30. The problem, we were on Madison’s west side, the doctors office was on the east side and it was snowing.  We just needed sunglasses, some candy cigarettes and a police cruiser instead of the minivan to make it a good movie.

This was Madison first snowfall.  As anyone in the upper Midwest could attest, the first snowfall is always the worst to be on the roads in rush hour.  But the saints were smiling onto us. Our doctor was able to push the appointment back. He waited for us to snake along the belt-line to the East Towne complex. It was after 5:00 but it only took him a few moments to review the pictures to give us the thumbs up on Song Lee. He had already reviewed the paperwork. We the talked through all the things we talked about with Alex. But it was good to cover.

We  picked Alex up from the sitter, came home, fed Alex, made sure all our T’s were crossed and I’s were dotted and off to FedEx I ran.  In displaying my appreciation and amazement at the clerks guarantee that the package would get to its location by 8:00 AM tomorrow I realized that the FedEx people do this everyday. Like many things, it’s no longer magic.

Alex has always answered in the affirmative to the question, “do you want a brother?”  He now has a face to put with the concept of “brother.” The picture will be on his dresser next to his two sets of grandparents and his cousins so when he asks “who’z that?” he now will know.

A Busy December

We hope that everyone has had a happy and safe holiday season.  Alex, Michelle and I have been very busy over the past month.  We have moved Michelle’s business, we have had two family Christmas, I celebrated my birthday, we found a day care provider for Alex.  But … most importantly we have finalized Alex’s adoption and started the process to adopt his brother or sister (also from South Korea). Alex actually had a very busy morning the day before Christmas Eve.  He visited with a judge, social worker and a day care.

We have posted two new photo galarie.  One shows pictures from the Rutta ans Wahe Christmas celebrations.  The second is an assortment of pictures from December.  Check out the ones of him playing with the bin of yoyo ballons. You can view the albums at https://wahe.us/wahepics/main.php.

We all with you a great start to 2009.  I know I told a friend today that I was not making any New Years Resolutions, I will state that ,y resolution for 2009 is to learn how to post video clips to our blog!

Happy New Year!

Time Flies……

Michelle Here.

So sorry for the lack of posting.   I feel like I’m just recuperating from Thanksgiving, and it’s already Christmas!

Alex has had a lot of ‘firsts’ in the last few weeks; most notably…..HE TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS!!

He has consistently been taking 3 steps at a time.   Life as we know it is no longer.   Our busy little boy will be running around the house before we can say.

He also is jabbering up a storm.   I’ve noticed that his sounds have been sounding more like English syllables.    Maybe it’s just my Mommy Imagination, but in my mind, it’s real.    His first words were ‘ball’ (what a surprise, right), and ‘book’.   He often looks at us and jabbers, like he’s telling us something.    We speak back at him, and he jabbers and points some more.

His comprehension is amazing to us.   We can now speak to him in sentences, and he can understand us.     Along with this, he is pointing like crazy.    Whenever we walk into a room for the first time together, he is pointing at everything he notices.    Also, when a new person walks into the room, he immediately points at an object (usually a ceiling light) while he looks at that person.

He has also been eating finger foods, and will refuse to eat his pureed kale and beets (wink) unless he has something he can feed to himself.   Now it’s my challenge to find healthy foods that are ‘whole’.   It was easy to hide healthy stuff when I was pureeing.    I just mixed the dark green stuff with the yummy orange stuff (sweet pototoes, squash), and woola, he ate it instantly.

We celebrated the Rutta family Christmas this past weekend, and it didn’t take him long to learn from his cousins…..how to open presents.    It was fun to watch him watching the older kids.   Then he would try to do what they were doing.      Later this week we’re going to visit with Stefan’s family, and he’ll get to learn a lot from his 4 year old cousin………

Our future snow shoveler

So I was looking through the pictures that I posted of little Alex more closely.  In this one I found something very interesting and hopefully a little foretelling.  Notice what he is holding in his hand as he is watching the snow fall.  I guess he did want to come out and help his Dad shovel.

Looking to shovel snow

Thanksgiving Weekend in Review

Alex and his Turkey

Alex hosted his first Thanksgiving Day gathering.  Between Dad’s side of the family and Mom’s side of the family, Alex had 16 people to keep entertained. And he did just that.  He was a gracious host who prepared a great dinner that included cranberries, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, ham and a giant turkey as well as a whole lot more.

Alex played well with his cousins.  He even took a few great pictures with them.  He visited with his Aunt Stacy and Uncle Jim.  He kept both set of grandparents entertained with babbles and play. He visited with our friends Adin, Yealyes, Helene and Adrian.  The only thing he didn’t do was to take he afternoon nap.  But as you can probably guess, he was too excited not to be with his guests.

While Alex was entertaining guests Michelle and I were both being very thankful to have Alex in our lives.   We are thankful that Alex is a happy, healthy little guy. We are thankful for every inch Alex grows and every pound he gains.  We are thankful for every time he goes to sleep and wakes up with that big grin on his little face.  We are thankful for our son, our family and of course each other.

The day after Thanksgiving was our annual visit to Millers Christmas Tree Farm in Rio, WI (http://www.treerex.com/).  This year Alex was there to help remind me that we didn’t need a giant tree.  He, and Grandpa Rutta, kept me in check.  Alex got to walk through the field of light snow and he got to see Santa from a distance.  He got to see little ponies eating grass and big dogs chasing balls.  He got to see his Dad and grandpas strap a tree to the tops of the car.  And he got to eat cheerios all the way home.

The third day of Alex’s big four day holiday weekend was dedicated to his first photo shoot.  We had an appointment with Funky Monkey: Photography with a Tale (http://www.funkymonkeyphoto.com/).  The photographer was great with Alex.  Or should we say he was good.  He was not as full of smiles but was still a delight.  We hope to have gotten a few real good photos to add to our walls and share with our friends. Alex also treated Mom and Dad to a little sushi dinner.  He was the hit of the restaurant.  He even made friends with another little girl also treating her family to a non-turkey meal event.

And on this, the fourth day, Alex will be getting a good amount of rest.  He seems a little board with Just Michelle and I. However, later today, he will be helping us put up his first Christmas tree.

You can view photos from Thanksgiving at https://wahe.us/wahepics/main.php?g2_itemId=791&g2_fromNavId=xb1bbad63.

A Note from Dad

Play time!

I  can’t believe how long it has been since I last wrote in this blog. Thankfully, Michelle has been doing great at keeping you up to date.  But since little Alex is napping and Michelle is grocery shopping for Turkey day, I thought I would write a couple of quick lines and give you the link to the new photo album pics.

Michelle and I are having so much fun being parents.  And to speak for Alex, he is having so much fun being our son :-)  Alex is so happy playing with all those toys that have been given to him from family and friends.  He is lucky that there were so many boys who had some hand-me-downs for him to play with.  He can go from toy to toy to toy for hours upon hours.  We are very thankful for the kindness of others.

Alex has been practicing his long throws.  He tosses the ball and chases after it.  He is a very proficient crawler.  That is why we think it will be awhile before he take those first steps.  He does well standing and playing with his toys on the coffee table and foot stool.  He will cruise along the couch.  He will even stand on his own and clap if he doesn’t think about it.  But when going from point A to point B it is drop, flip and crawl at light speed.

We are very excited to have his grandparents, aunt and uncle and his cousins come for Thanksgiving.  I’m looking forward to seeing how he interacts with everyone being here at the same time.  Both sets of grandparents have been staying with us off and on while Michelle spends a few days at work.  He has been very good for them.  Eating well, sleeping well and playing well.  He has enough smiles to go around and invest the extra for later.

It has been a few weeks since we posted pictures to the gallery.  So check out the latest album at https://wahe.us/wahepics/main.php?g2_itemId=704.  There are pictures from a trip to Michelle’s parents house.  Pictures from a visit from my parents.  And odds and ends from birthday parties, dinner time and play time.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

I’m in Love

I have an additional love of my life, and his name is Alex.

I so much love being his Mom.

I miss him when I’m away, and I feel grateful when I’m with him.

I love the way he eats his teething crackers…every dainty bite carefully ‘chewed’ with his 6 teeth.

I love the way he teaches me to live in the moment.   My new life with him no longer consists of how many emails I’ve answered, how many phone calls I’ve made, and how much sales revenue is coming in.   It simply consists of the joy we are living…..now.

I love witnessing his love for his father, my husband, Stefan.

I love the way he examines every inch of each of his toys.    Over and over again, day after day.

I love the sounds he shrieks out….sometimes in happiness, sometimes in contentment, and sometimes to get my attention to say ‘hey…..I need another Cheerio’.

I love the little smile he gives me when I say ‘no’ to him when he reaches for the dog’s water bowl.

I love the extra little breaths he takes when he gets excited over discovering a new piece of lint on the carpet.

I love to see him when he’s in public.   He loves to watch everyone and everything around us.

I love his CONFIDENCE.   He exudes it.    He has a confident energy coming from him, and it is often preceded with peace.    Chaos can be happening all around him, and he remains calm and collected.  His ‘being’ is all about who he is, and not what’s around him.

I love the smile he gives me when I come into his bedroom after a nap.

I love showing him off to friends and strangers.    I love telling people of our journey.

He is teaching me more than I would have imagined.

I love being his Mother.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

Yes, us……but what’s keeping us busy?     Our busy little boy!   Alex’s foster mother described him as ‘busy’, and she really meant it!

Alex is a busy little boy.     You may think that means we’re going lots of places….well, that’s true.     But the busy part is when we’re home.  When Alex is awake, he is always on the move!    He isn’t happy unless he’s exploring the house.   He crawls everywhere, nearly constantly!    His favorite past time is taking a ball (or any round object), throwing it, and crawling after it.   He then rejoices in getting the ball, and the sequence starts over again.    It’s so fun to watch.    We’ve tried to contain him to the living room and sunroom (about 400 square feet mind you), but he’s always escaping into the rest of the house.    He’ll get himself caught in our baracades……we’ll hear him grunting, and we know he’s in the process of squeezing, crawling over, or maneuvering through  whatever new baracade we’ve devised to keep him contained.     At that time, Stefan and I exclaim to ourselves……Alex “1”, Mommy and Daddy “0”.

Alex and I were taking advantage of the nice weather yesterday.   While I did fall cleanup of the garden, he sat in the grass and explored the dirt, the blowing leaves, and blades of grass.   I soooo much love to experience life through his world.   Everything is a new experience, waiting to be explored.   There’s shear joy when he discovers something new.

Well, gotta go.  Our busy little boy is done napping.   He’s been recharged by sleep,  and I have to go and get my running shoes back on……