A Tree for Tae

On Sunday we invited our neighbors to our front yard for a tree planting in honor of Tae. We wanted to celebrate our new family addition with a symbol of Tae's rootedness in our family and neighborhood:

Before we planted the tree, Mike cut off a bracelet I had been wearing for the last few months that some dear Ministerial Association friends had both given and worn themselves as a reminder of my connection to Tae even though he hadn't yet arrived in our arms. It was my "umbilical cord" to Tae (and a Chinese belief called "the red thread" -- that there is an invisible, unbreakable red thread that connects all those who are destined to be together), but since Tae is now in our arms, we cut the bracelet off and buried it under the tree -- new life for everyone!

Here's the tree going in the ground (it's a beautiful Coral Bark Japanese Maple):

Neighbors and friends, especially the kids, helped put dirt on the tree and water it:

Afterwards we all had a toast to Tae. He loves watching people clink glasses, so we used real wine glasses for everyone and kept clinking and toasting and Tae would smile!

The tree will grow as Tae grows, reminding him he is rooted in his family forever:

Thanks for watching our little family grow, too!

One month home!

Today we celebrated one month together as a family. We brought Tae out for dinner and he was amazing -- he ate everything we fed him off our plates and intently watched everything happening in the restaurant! We are thankful beyond words for the gift he is to us.

Tae had lots of firsts this week! Here are some photos:

First corn on the cob:

First hair cut from our good friend Leslie:

First tooth coming in since he's been home (now he has 7)! Thank goodness for teething rings:

First time in a Johnny Jump-up:

And though not a "first," another cute photo:

Summer blessings to you from the 3 of us!

Jana, Mike, and Tae

How time flies...

I now understand the common feeling of adoptive parents when we talk about the wait for our children often feeling excruciatingly long, yet when they're in our arms time seems to go at warp speed! We've been home with Tae exactly three weeks and we can't believe it! Yet they've been delightful weeks. Here's a bit of what happened this past week:

Tae had his first doctor's visit in SLO. The doctor wrote about Tae on the form for our adoption agency, "very healthy, alert infant, excellent disposition." We knew that already, but it's nice to hear it "officially!" We also had our first post-placement visit from our adoption social worker, and she gave us all a thumbs-up! Yea!

We've had lots of walks in the stroller and in the Ergo carrier around town. Tae loves being outside, though he's not a fan of the sun...and unfortunately not a fan of hats, either!

He likes playing on our back deck (which is getting more and more complete!) and eating oranges on our tree -- literally on the tree -- he'll take a bite of an orange while it's still hanging on the branch! The day he did this we also got this cute photo of him with a hat on before he ripped it off!

We're thrilled that Tae is an excellent eater -- he has loved almost everything we've fed him. His very favorite food so far has been -- get this -- Copper River salmon. Good thing the season is over or else we'd have to take out a loan to afford it!

And most importantly, Tae has stolen his grandparents' hearts. My (Jana's) parents were here for three weeks and left on Sunday. They were so good to him -- and us -- during their visit, and we don't think we could have begun this journey nearly as well without them. (Thank you so, so much Grandma Sharie and Grandpa Rod!). We're so excited to introduce Tae to his GrandMary Jane and Grandpa Don and all his aunts and cousins later this month/early September.

Tae does continue to grieve the losses he's experienced, and life isn't always easy for us day to day -- I came down with a cold on Sunday which makes parenting even more challenging trying not to get Tae sick. But overall we are overjoyed with our new little family. Thanks for checking in on us! We'll try to post an update about once a week.

P.S. We did decide on his name (Carol..."Tae Gyu" will work fine! :-) )

Tae (first name, pronounced "tay")

Gyu (middle name)

Schofield (second middle name)

Isensee (last name)