Christmas in Korea 2013

This Christmas, our fourth and final (at least for this tour) in Korea was wonderful! We made so many memories and had tons of fun with our Army family. God continues to bless us with amazing friends each year and I love each and every one of them!

Our last performance of Oliver on the afternoon of Christmas Eve was a hit with over 300 people in attendance. Peter woke up horribly sick that day, but no one in the audience could tell he was throwing up back stage between the scenes! His performance as Fagin was amazing and he managed to come out and do each of his songs and scenes, even while being so ill. He just kept telling himself, "The show must go on!"

Joy and Joshua enjoyed being in another production, this time as orphans in Fagin's gang.

Joy picking Dodger's pocket backstage!

Faith, Samuel and I got to get dressed up and attend the last dinner show of Oliver on Monday evening. It was so fun to be in the audience and enjoy a fancy meal and the theater! :)

Christmas Eve after the show we had our annual party complete with singing carols, Christmas trivia and charades, reading the Christmas story from the Bible, tons of treats to eat and a house full of friends! (Thankfully, by this time Peter  was able to get about an hour nap in between the show and party and was feeling much better....just another Christmas gift and miracle from God!)

One of our friends had his mom and grandparents visiting this week and they came to the party too! :) Grandpa Archer even got up and played Christmas charades with us!

The kids were super tired by the time they got their new pj's on so I didn't get a picture that night of them all together, but here are a few of my favorites from Christmas morning.

Joy was so surprised to get the microscope she's been wanting for a long time! :) 

Joy made her Daddy this awesome, bright felt top hat and he was such a sweet Daddy he wore it most of the day. :)

Tap shoes under her Christmas dress ~ definitely my girl. :)

After Christmas morning of presents and brunch, we relaxed and watched one of our favorite Christmas movies, Elf. Then in the afternoon we had more friends join us for a delicious Christmas dinner. It was a great couple days of celebrating and fun, and a very Merry Christmas for all of us! 

And now....this Mama is tired! I'm glad there's still another week before we officially start homeschooling again. :)

A Doubting Mama Proved Wrong ~ (Another Lesson From My Kids)

Let me start by saying, this is a long one. But I didn't want to miss a detail!

I am SUPER proud of our kiddos. But not for the awesome recital they did with their co-op this week or the amazing job they are doing during rehearsals for their upcoming Oliver musical. Not because they are rocking through their schoolwork or impressing me every other day with the things they have learned in spite of my failings and flaws as a teacher and mother. 

I'm so thankful God continues to fill in the gaps and repeatedly shows me what He can do with an imperfect parent like me!

Last Christmas, to help remind them of what we are really celebrating, we let each of the kids choose something out of one of the missionary giving catalogs, explaining to them that on their birthdays they get gifts so on Jesus' birthday we want to give something to him. 

Of course they asked how we could physically give him anything so we talked about the verses where he says whatever we do for the least of these, we do for him. The kids got it, as simple as that. Why is it so much harder to get things, really get things as an adult sometimes? I remember Joy exclaiming, "So giving to the poor and serving others pleases God. And that is a GIFT to him when we do things that please Him!" Yes it is, my sweet girl! 

So after they picked out their pair of chickens, some bunnies, a water purifier and some bibles we decided to make a goal for the next year, Christmas 2013. We asked them to choose something they wanted to work towards all year saving up for, to give as a gift to Jesus. They chose, a COW. Now cows aren't cheap. But they really wanted to give some poor family a cow in Jesus' name. We read about what having a cow can mean for one of these families that don't have much else. "Cows pull carts and heavy ploughs, and produce lots of fresh milk to drink and sell. Their calves are sold or kept to increase the size of the heard. Having a cow would mean a steady income for a family that might not otherwise have any." They really wanted to give a cow.  :)

We cut the picture of the cow out of one of the giving catalogs and taped it to a jar, also writing "Happy Birthday Jesus! 2013" on it. We decided that throughout the year when we 'caught' the kids, serving one another, being selfless, doing anonymous acts of kindness for their siblings, helping without being asked...basically the kind of behavior that would be pleasing to God....then they would earn money to put in the jar. There was no set amount for the things they would do, it was very random. When I noticed them being particularly loving and selfless I would let them know how happy it made me to see them treating others that way and reminded them that it made God really happy too. And then I would pull a coin, a handful of coins, or a dollar out and let them drop it in the jar. The amount didn't seem to matter to them, it was all going towards that cow! 

Now this doubting mother's heart was a little worried that they might not earn enough to buy a whole cow by this Christmas, but we never counted the whole year through, we just kept throwing change or a dollar bill in here or there whenever they were 'caught' being an awesome boy or girl for God. They began noticing each other's behavior too and pointing out when they caught each other doing things that would please God. Which was really nice for this busy Mama who would have otherwise not known about some of the great things they did. 

For example, one time Joy let me know that she saw Joshua grab our neighbors trash on his way downstairs taking ours out because he saw it sitting in the hall. I waited to see if he would tell me himself, expecting money for the jar but he never did. So I let him know later that night what I'd heard and asked him about it and told him how proud I was to hear of him doing such a sweet thing like that. Our neighbors probably have no idea where their stinky trash went, but his sister saw what happened, and I know God saw it too. 

Another time we had been grocery shopping and I was loading the food and everyone in the car and then realized Joy had disappeared. In the moment I was about to get frustrated and upset that she wandered off when Faithy piped up and told me she was returning a lady's cart for her that was trying to get her little kids and baby in her van that was parked a space away from us. Needless to say, the frustration melted away and I thanked God in the moment for a daughter with a heart like that, who saw a chance to help someone and just went and did it. Even if she should have told me before she walked away from us so that I knew where she was. :)

Well, today was the day. The kids wanted to count. It's almost Christmas and they wanted to see if they had enough for the cow and if not, how much more would they need in a little over a weeks time...Enter nervous Mama saying things like, "Even if you don't have enough, Jesus will be happy with whatever you are able to give him this year." 

We all sat on the floor and dumped the jar that was stuffed pretty full and the kids counted with Mama and Daddy's help down to the last penny.

Not only did they earn and save enough to buy a whole cow....

they had enough in there to buy a COW AND 2 PIGS! 

Talk about humbling for this Mama. They did it!

And without even keeping track or knowing all year long if they were close or not. God surprised me once again, through my children. How many times did they fight and bicker over the last year? How many days did I think, "Are they ever going to get along?!" So many moments I was disappointed over one of them being selfish or hurtful to their brother or sister. And still, out of all of those bad days, God showed me today how much more good there has been in it all. It's so easy to focus on the negatives, the things they didn't do or the disobedience. But the four of them had really been caught that many times throughout the last year in selfless acts or kindnesses to meet their goal...and MORE! Wow. Just WOW. I feel like I got a little glimpse of how God sees us. Even with all of our sin and every ugly thing we do that must surely disappoint him, He is able to see the good and the beautiful in every one of us in spite of it all. How very blessed and LOVED we are!

The kids are still thinking about what their goal for next year will be and this time, I have no doubt that whatever it is, no matter how great, they will reach it. :)

An Update on the Adams Family

It's been a long time since I've posted, ten months in fact! But that's not because this year hasn't been blog worthy, it's just been a busy one and blogging wasn't on top of the priority list! I know the great & grandparents have especially missed it though, so here's an update on the Adams family from the last ten months before this year is over! 

Here are the kids now, getting so big! 

The last time I posted was Faith's birthday back in February, so starting from there...

Later in February I decided to go adventuring by myself with the kids from Korea back to America to visit a few dear friends and surprise my awesome sister and brother in law.

The kids loved getting to see some of their best friends and enjoyed every minute of it!

Then we got to surprise their Aunt Becca and spend some time in Austin...so much fun!

Look how much they've changed since then! :)

We stayed through the first part of March and enjoyed some time in Seattle with my side of the family.

Peter was glad to have us back though after a long month away. The kids were happy to get back home and into our routine again too. :)

April was the beginning of more 'goodbyes' to sweet friends, it seems that's a never ending part of Army life. 

April was also filled with lots of art projects (I let Joy pick a couple of her favorites to include in this post) They always love when Daddy gets in on art time with us. :)

I even got a gigantic drawing for my birthday that they all worked on together. :)

And a handsome birthday date! Lucky Me! :)

May brought Joshua's 7th birthday (how'd he get to be seven already!?)

Peter graduated in March with his Master's of Divinity, but his diploma finally came in May! 

He worked so hard for this, I'm SO PROUD OF HIM! One step closer...

We also had to say goodbye to some amazing friends of ours before we left for another trip to the States because they moved before we made it back to Korea. :( This is Samuel and his best bud Christopher. 

The end of May was great though. We all traveled back to the States for my brother in law's wedding. It was a wonderful time of visiting friends and family in Washington, Missouri and Illinois. 

Here are all the cousins on my side together in one place! :)

It was so fun to see friends that we hadn't seen in years...for the kids it was like meeting new friends because it had been so long, and for us parents, just picking up right where we left off! :)

It was awesome to get to see so much of the Adams side for Stephen and Elena's wedding.

Handsome brothers :)

The kids loved getting to be in the wedding and they were SO stinkin cute!

The boys with the beautiful bride...

And the girls with the handsome groom...

Our family ~ May 2013

Getting to go to the real Metropolis and MEET SUPERMAN was kind of a big deal too! 

In June we went back home to South Korea and began enjoying the beautiful summer that had arrived while we were gone on vacation. One weekend we went on a nice picnic and hike with several other families and saw some amazing views. 

We jumped right into rehearsals in June also for three different shows that we were involved in with our community theater here that we performed in July. The kids were in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Peter was in both The Complete Works of Shakespeare and Kiss Me Kate, and I got to perform in Kiss Me Kate and do choreography for two of the shows. We loved it! The Adamses enjoy the stage! :)

The summer flew by quickly with many events in August. 

The kids got really comfortable swimming with all the time we spent at Splish n' Splash...

Joy had a 'dance' themed birthday party. 

We had a dance class with some of her fellow 'fairy' friends from the Midsummer Night's Dream show.

She decided she wanted a cake made entirely of fruit, so this is what we came up with...

It was tons of fun!

We also celebrated our 10th Anniversary in August! We got to spend the whole day together kid free at Everland (it's like the Korean Disneyland) It was awesome. :) 

No One Has More Fun Than The Adamses!

Peter made me this awesome print, all about us. :)

Aaaaaannnnnd I got to hold a tiny monkey at Everland! 

One of the cutest things I've EVER seen. Loved it! :)

Our school year doesn't really have a start and stop point since we school year round and take vacations whenever we want/need to depending on what's going on in life, but August usually ends up being the time in which we transition to the next levels or grades in most subjects. This year Samuel has a lot of his own 'school' activities to do. He loves joining the big kids in whatever they are doing. 

I also started teaching a ballet class for the girls in our homeschool group. It's so much fun to be teaching and dancing regularly again. 

September and October were gorgeous here this year so we spent a lot of time outside playing, adventuring and hiking. I'm so thankful that the warm days lasted so long this year.

October our baby turned 4! 

He had an awesome pirate themed birthday with lots of great friends to help him celebrate. 

October also was a sad month for us because one of our favorite people had to move away! :(

But I'm thankful that it's not goodbye forever, just 'see ya later'...till we finally get Stateside again.

Also, the children are still regularly stopped and asked to pose for pictures here in Korea by the locals. After almost four years I thought it would wear off, but it doesn't. :) 

And the kids are such good sports about it. 

November was an awesome month! So many things to be thankful for!

BEAUTIFUL weather!

We got to go on some amazing hikes.

Peter was selected at the board this month for the Chaplaincy!

He had to be gone for a couple of weeks and the kids were SO happy when he returned home to us!

And now it's December already. The year is coming to an end and yet there is still so much that will happen before it's over! We have another show with the community theater in a couple weeks. We will be performing Oliver which Peter, Joy and Joshua are all in and I had the opportunity to do choreography for again. We'll have many Christmas celebrations and hopefully official orders soon! That's right, 2014 is the year it will finally be the Adams Family's turn to leave South Korea. We have loved it here but we are looking forward to our next adventure. We have projected orders, but until they are official, things could still change so I can't post about that yet. Exciting things are coming though...Peter finally becoming a Chaplain...a dream 10+ years in the making, moving back to the United States after four years living overseas, being close enough to drive (meaning not an ocean apart) to see family and friends again that we've missed so much, getting to shop at Target and Costco and Trader Joe's, or ordering things online and having it get to me in less than a month, being able to read the street signs, or any signs! and being able to communicate easily and speak the language being spoken all around me...ha! ha! It's the little things! :) So that about sums up the last year for the Adamses, life is good and God is great and there is always, always, always something to be thankful for.