It's been a while... and some news

I took a long break from blogging this summer. Kevin, Ivy and I enjoyed the season and we have wonderful memories of time spent with family and friends. We also spent time thinking about our family and realized that if we're having so much fun with one little girl that, well, we'd double our joy by adding another child to our family! We're thrilled to announce that we're adopting again and we're officially waiting for our second daughter, Lyla Willow, to join us in Madison. Like Ivy, Lyla was born in South Korea and she is now nearly 8 months old. We don't know when her passport and visas will be secured, but we hope to have her in our arms very soon. We'll keep everyone appropriately informed of the exciting turns of events in our family's life and we appreciate everyone sending positive, loving thoughts out into the universe, thoughts of Lyla with her forever family in her forever, loving, home.

I'm going to keep blogging here for a while, but I'm also planning another project that combines my family's stories with my professional passions. Stay tuned for many, many, more exciting adventures, fellow travelers!

Happy Birthday, Dear Cousins!

Ivy sends happy birthday greetings to her cousins, both of whom celebrate their birthdays today! She looks forward to many years of matching outfits and shared adventures. We love you, Mr. Six and Miss Four!!

Our Happy Adoption Day!

Ivy's adoption was finalized on Wednesday, July 1st. We've been an authentic family since the minute we took her into our arms on November 26, but the finalization hearing officially puts our names on Ivy's birth certificate and grants American citizenship. (This is a simplified explanation of the process.)

I've been focused on being a mom to our 16-month-old toddler and really didn't spend a lot of time pondering the significance of the hearing, so I was surprised at the tears of happiness that welled in my eyes as Kevin, Ivy and I sat down in the courtroom with my parents, sister, nephew, niece and Tantes Kimi & Mimi. I was glad that they were all with us on our special day. Ivy happily played with my necklace throughout the 10-minute hearing.

Judge Ebert finalized our friend Natalie's adoption in April and we were glad that we were assigned to him, too. July 1st was his last day serving as a Dane County judge before his retirement and he was thrilled to spend some of his morning with us. He gave Ivy a giant teddy bear that she absolutely adores.

July 1st is an important day; not only is it Ivy's adoption day, but it's also my parents' wedding anniversary and Tante Kimi's birthday. We gathered up our dear ones and enjoyed a celebratory lunch at our house after the hearing. There was so much to celebrate and my sister surprised us with lovely little handmade dolls that look like our family. Readers of previous blog postings might recognize the clothes that the artist painted on each doll.

To our great joy, we're an official forever family.

Thank you to everyone for all the support and love you've given us these past 14 months.

Beautiful Baby, part 1

Last weekend we celebrated Ivy's homecoming and first birthday with an open house for family, friends and neighbors. Ivy calmly handled being the center of attention and received everyone's love and good wishes with grace and good cheer. She wore her hanbok for part of the day, specifically for our toljabee ceremony. This is a traditional Korean first birthday ceremony in which a number of items are laid out on a table in front of a child and the first objects she chooses represent her future skills and talents. We adapted this ceremony and chose items from our home that represent our own lives. These are the items we presented to Ivy for her toljabee:

• Books (Global Babies and Sweater) and a pencil - successful scholarship
• Yarn spun by Ivy's mom - long life
• Money - wealth
• Ivy's great-grandpa's carpenter's ruler and knitting needles made by Ivy's grandpa - skilled with her hands
• Wooden spoon - enjoys cooking and welcoming friends to her table
• Paintbrush - artistic abilities
• Harmonica - musical talents

We placed Ivy on Kevin's lap for the ceremony and then the excitement began. After lightly touching many of the items, the first object she picked up (and put right in her mouth) was a knitting needle:

I was very pleased that she chose this needle that my dad made from lumber from a cedar tree that stood in my front yard for many years until a storm blew it down in the mid-1990s.

And then it was time to choose the 2nd and final item. To paraphrase our friend, Jeff (a wickedly talented photographer and, most importantly, HB's dad), I honestly resisted melding Ivy's mind and did not force her to choose a book for her 2nd item. We faced the table with renewed suspense:

But, what can I say? After lingering over Great-Grandpa Ottmar's ruler, our girl made her librarian-parents proud and grabbed one of her favorite books - Sweater by Kit Allen:

The ceremony was beautiful and touching and we thank Jeff for capturing so many memorable photos of the event. We also thank our other photographers, Eli and Steve for grabbing our personal cameras and documenting the special day. Ivy was surrounded by so much love that it's impossible to describe the entire day in one post, so please continue on to Part 2:

Beautiful Baby, part 2

Ivy's Wisconsin grandparents, Aunt Kersten, Uncle Jim and good friend cousins made the trip to Madison for Ivy's party. Everyone had a wonderful time and cousin Finnian showed us that, even though he had a fever, nothing would keep him from celebrating Ivy's homecoming:

Shortly after Ivy's toljabee we set her loose so she could play with her buddy, HB. They crawled toward each other and HB hugged her and gave her a big ol' kiss on the mouth:

Then HB promptly made a speedy get-away, leaving Ivy in his dust as she struggled to crawl after him in her cumbersome hanbok:

The party ended at the very late hour of 6 pm at which time we all crawled back to our house, where the girls put on comfy clothes and snuggled under the quilt that Grandma B. made for Ivy:

I think that we'll be ready for another celebration in May, when Grandma Pauline, Grandpa Frank and Auntie Christine visit us. Until then, we'll hold fond memories of last week's party deep in our hearts. Thanks to everyone for making our day a special one.

Birthday girl!

Today is Ivy's first birthday and we celebrated all day long.

There were many moments of great joy and laughter.

Ivy had her first taste of cake - and frosting.

Grandma & Grandpa B. celebrated with us and gave Ivy some awesome new shakers.

And we ended our day with a trip to Tar-Jay where Grandma & Grandpa bought us a splendid new stroller!

Today was beautiful.  When it was time to sing Happy Birthday we called Grandma & Grandpa K. in Norfolk and skyped with Aunt Kersten and Cousins Adalia & Finnian in LaCrosse.  Ivy delicately touched the frosting on her cake and then put her fingers in my mouth.  She was thrilled with all her wonderful presents and her daddy is especially excited to try out the new stroller when the weather warms up later this week.  Today taught me that there is more space in my heart than I ever imagined; my heart continues to grow and I continually thank my little girl for teaching me about love and compassion.

With love to St. Paul

We are sending stacking cup-loads of love to St. Paul this morning and are whispering the names Bill and Connie as each snowflake flutters past our windows.  We are sending everyone in the Falvey family peaceful and loving thoughts on this December day and I'm envisioning Deacon Bill sitting down to a feast of coconut ice cream, plates and plates of chocolate cake and as many cookies and sweet treats as the angels are able to hold in their winged embrace.

Love,

Kevin, Shawn and Ivy