Henry's Adoption Party

On Saturday, Nov. 6, we celebrated Henry's adoption with a Korean party! We are fortunate that we live in an area that has several adoptive families so I invited them plus a few other friends and family members. Since Henry was on his way to becoming an American I wanted to honor his Korean roots and give everyone a little taste of some of the Korean food that I had enjoyed so much on my trips to Korea. Many children wore hanboks, there was a lot of Korean food, and Lydia, Trixie and I even performed a song for Henry. Then we showed the video Brent had made for Henry's first birthday and it was fun to see how excited Henry got when he saw himself on the screen. Poor Brent and his mom came down with that terrible stomach flu the morning of the party so they were banned from the party. :( Brent made one brief appearance at the party because I desperately wanted a family picture from the day. I made him promise not to touch or breathe on anybody. I have tons of pictures from the party ~ enjoy! (I'm wondering if any of my bloggy friends or dear friends in Korea recognize some of these people and children.)

Where did the time go?

Yikes!! With the holidays and some family trips it seems that I've blinked and 2 months have gone by! Our family has been busy living, having fun and making memories. Henry is changing at lightning speed and he is such a dear boy. Our girls have shot up and grown so sweet in the blink of an eye. I want to share what we've been up to, so I'm going to go back to where I left off right before Thanksgiving. I'm going to enjoy this little walk down memory lane. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was a little different and very relaxed for us ~ we had absolutely nowhere we had to be until suppertime. What a welcome respite in our very busy life. We decided to go to IHOP for pancakes and then go to the Botanical Gardens. Every year the Botancal Gardens does a very elaborate train display and I really wanted Henry to see it. Henry has been getting interested in trains lately and I knew all the trains would be exciting to him. Henry was so excited he could hardly contain himself. He tried to climb up to the trains, he darted around from train to train, and once he got so excited he just dropped to his knees and stared. Lydia and Trixie also had a lot of fun with their grandparents who came along and looking for hidden shapes and figures from a scavenger hunt that the Botanical Garden put together. Our trip was a big success!

Later in the day we went to grandparents house where Brent's brother's family came into town and Henry got to meet them for the first time. He met his 3 yr. old first cousin, aunt, and uncle and had a grand old time. Henry does not know a stranger and he immediately took a shine to his relatives. Henry followed his cousin around and laughed a lot. It was a great day and I'm thankful for it!

N600 application

To get the ball rolling towards Henry's citizenship we have to fill out an application called N600. I've been very busy and hadn't really gotten around to downloading and filling out the paperwork. Well, my friend informed me that the application fee was going up significantly at the end of November. You can guess my reaction -- I dropped everything and got to work on the N600! The forms were a bit confusing, but thanks to good friends I figured them out, I got Henry's 2x2 pictures taken, made all kinds of copies of required documents and had everything in order to send off by Monday. I was a little nervous that with Thanksgiving this week the mail might not get the application there in time for the form to be processed before the deadline. My friend suggested that Brent drop the application off at the immigration office since he works so close to the office -- great idea! Brent takes the packet to the immigration office and the man behind the desk tells Brent that you must have an appointment to turn in an application. Brent told him that he was just dropping it off instead of mailing it and that he didn't need an appointment. Brent watched the man just drop our envelope on a desk and ignore it, so Brent got worried that the packet might not be passed to the correct person. I got all worked up and tried to call USCIS and of course all the numbers I tried were not working numbers. I was working myself into a tizzy and was ready to go in the next day and storm the office or at least make an appointment to make sure that our packet was not lost. I discovered on theUSCIS website that you really do need an appointment just to turn in an application in person (just like the man told Brent). Brent convinced me to give them a few days, and I nervously agreed. Well, surprise! The very next day we received and envelope from the USCIS immigration office with a receipt for our application. I was so relieved and surprised. That man at the office not only took our application packet when he shouldn't have, but he took care of it so quickly that the mailman delivered our receipt the very next day! I find that amazing, and it is something that I've added to my long list of things that I'm very thankful for this year. :)

Halloween 2010!

Bobbing for marshmallows

Trixie playing "pass the pumpkin" with her friend (with whom she has marriage plans, by the way!)

Henry couldn't wait to eat a treat!

Trick-or-treating

Ready to go!!

Trixie with her class in the Halloween parade

Storytime friends Lydia and Henry (can you believe their names are Lydia & Henry?!) with my Henry and Trixie

Playing the autoharp at the Halloween party in music class

So proud of his painted pumpkin!

Henry really enjoyed painting his pumpkin!

We've been having a ton of fall fun this year! We started out by picking out our pumpkins. Then Henry and Trixie decided to paint their pumpkins. The rest of us carved our pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns. All that got us ready for the big Halloween Party we had at our house. Of course there were also school parties, music parties, and trick - or - treating, too. Lydia dressed up as Laura Ingalls Wilder, Trixie Lu was Jessie the cowgirl, and Henry was Mickey Mouse. Henry not only loved playing with the big kids at our Halloween party, but he had the best time trick-or-treating. He very quickly figured out how things worked and he would hop out of the wagon and run up to the door with his sisters. Then he would often try to go inside the house and when he was given a piece of candy Henry would try to give another piece back. It was adorable! Henry was also very fascinated with all the Halloween decorations and lights at the different houses. He's not going to know what to do with all the Christmas decorations. :) We had such a great Halloween this year!

Random videos

It's been a while since I've posted. Work, family sickness, and 2 big parties 2 weeks apart have just about gotten the best of me, but life is calmer now and I'm back! I'm putting on several different videos I've taken over the past couple months. They're fun little videos and I think our friends in Korea will especially enjoy getting to hear Henry's sweet little voice. :) Enjoy!

The adoption is finalized!!!!

Henry's adoption is final and he's officially Henry Joon Seong Kohlenberger!!!! He's not a US citizen yet, but he is irrevocably ours. :) We went to the courthouse in Nashville, IL where we, along with another family, went through court proceedings with our attorney and a judge. The whole thing was very quick and the judge was very kind. Henry was his adorable and friendly self throughout the whole proceeding. He had a tough time staying in one place and wanted to explore the whole courtroom. When Henry escaped from me and I went to go after him the judge said to let him go and that he was fine. Later, in the middle of the attorney's questioning, Henry got a huge grin on his face and started waving and shouting "Hi!" to the judge. The friendly judge just smiled and waved back at Henry. When both families had finished everything the judge came down from his bench and took pictures with us.

After we were finished at the courthouse we went outside and there was a local Farmers Market set up on the sidewalk. When one of the women at a cookie table saw the kids in their hanboks she sized up the situation and gave all 3 of the children a cookie pop as an adoption gift. The kids were thrilled and I was touched. Then we went across the street to a little pizzeria for a celebratory lunch and it was delicious. Nashville, IL may be a tiny town but it was perfect for our family's big event. It was a lovely time all the way around. :)