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)

Tae's 100 day photo

Today we received a digital copy of Tae's 100-day professional photo taken last December. We thought it was so beautiful we needed to share it with the world! Tae continues to be such a joy and delight. Today we all met Mike at a park downtown for lunch since he started back to work today. Tae had his first swing on a swingset and fell asleep in the stroller on the way there and back.

He does continue to grieve, especially late at night, though he is so comfortable with us, and now with his Schofield grandparents as well. We are happy and grateful for this amazing gift of our son!

P.S. Here are some park photos:

Tae's Big Day Out!

Since Mike goes back to work on Monday (*sigh* from both Jana and Tae), we thought today would be a good day to celebrate being a family of three living near the ocean, so Tae and his parents and grandparents spent the day at Avila Beach. He did great! Granted, he did sleep and eat most of the time, but he also had fun in the sand and sea. Here are some photos:

Ah...this is the life:

Yesterday, as you can see below, was a day of thinking, playing in water on the deck, and eating:

A cute eating story:

We've been giving Tae "Cheerio kisses" where he takes an "O" from between our lips with his mouth. Tonight I said "give mommy a kiss" without a Cheerio in it, and he did! It warmed my heart! I, of course, tried it over and over again and he didn't do it again without a Cheerio...but there's always tomorrow! :-)

We do feel like Tae is doing extremely well adjusting...enough to be fussy with his parents when he wants to! He's still on a bit of a crazy sleep schedule (different every night), so there's still adjustment to go, but we are beyond grateful to God and the rest of our support system for helping us get to such a good point already. Thanks to you for thinking of us and checking in!

Some more photos of our sweet boy!

More photos...and your questions answered!

We are happy to report that we've had a good couple days -- Tae is feeling more and more comfortable with us, and he is continuing to be more comfortable exploring his new surroundings. And we are completely smitten with him -- he's a delight, even when he's not! He's had less crying episodes, and usually they're related to teething. And as new parents who have prepared so long for this day, even the crying (mostly!)seems like music to our ears. Tae has already poured loads of joy into his parents' and grandparents' hearts. Here are some more photos of our Beautiful Star, and your questions answered below:
Tae stealing grandpa's glasses:
Tae "helping" daddy build the backyard deck:
In emails and conversations we've had great questions from people about Tae, and since we thought others might be wondering too we decided to post answers here:

Name
We've decided to keep Tae as his first name, and we're deciding on a middle name. We'll keep Schofield (my last name) as a second middle name and Isensee as his last name, but we're still deciding on a first middle name, whether the rest of his Korean name (Tae Gyu) or an American name.

Walking?
In one photo on our last post, it looked like Tae was walking. He's not quite walking yet - but it won't be long! He can pull himself up and use the furniture to walk a few steps. We assume that he'll be walking by his first birthday (August 31).

Sleeping
We've decided for the time being to co-sleep with Tae on a futon mattress on the floor of his room. He co-slept with his foster mom (the norm in Korea) and has never been in a crib, so we decided that now is not the time to start when he's going through so much transition otherwise. Nighttime is the hardest for Tae, when he's most aware of his foster mom's absence, so being able to comfort and quiet him immediately has been so helpful. Plus, like every baby, he truly looks like an angel when he's sleeping.

Last night he was in bed over 12 hours, but up two short times and one long one...though I (Jana) did end up getting 8 hours of sleep...a nice treat.


Skin
Tae has very light skin -- even the director of the Holt agency in Korea said he looked "white." However, just like Caucasians, Koreans have many variations in skin tone, and both of Tae's birthparents were full Korean. His skin may turn darker as he grows, but for now we actually have similar skin tones as him.

Caring for him
Until he's feeling more bonded with both of us, we're not having others (even the patient grandparents!) hold/feed/bathe/change him yet, and we're still sticking close to home so that he's not overwhelmed by too much more newness. He's played on the floor with grandparents and a couple others, but for now we're doing all we can to ensure he feels fully comfortable with his new parents before enlarging his world even more. We are so grateful for the remarkable steps in his comfort level he's made in the past few days, but we still have a journey ahead of all of us. Yet it's one we're walking with joy!

Many thanks for your thoughts and prayers! We'll post again in a few days.