Kyler's 10th Birthday October 8th, 2011

Hi all ! It's been awhile, but I have had computer issues and we have been busy !

What a beautiful Thanksgiving we had ! We celebrated Kyler's 10th Birthday on October 8th at East Side Marios ! Yummy ! Kijin tried out his first ice cream cone !

Kyler had a great day with family and scored some nice and cool gifts too ! The coolest gift was his "Ripstick" skateboard !!!

We then headed to Kitchener Waterloo to see the Marshall family for Thanksgiving Dinner and to check out their parade ! The weather was soooooo great, shorts, no jackets and as far as I can remember, the warmest day for a parade !!!



A great weekend !!!!

We hope everyone had a great and wonderful Thanksgiving !

K.E.K.K. Wiersmas

Fun with the Wiersma Boy Cousins Club !

Us Wiersma's had some backyard fun on Friday ! Grandma and I had all the boys for the day , while the men went for a golf game !

Uncle Rob, and his boys Orion ( 7yr )and Percy (3yr)just arrived from Germany to live in Canada. They are excited and happy little boys , taking in the warm weather and enjoyed seeing most of their cousins-including meeting Kijin for the first time!

They all had a fun filled day, ending it by eating great pizza, chili and ice cream cones !

Dedication Day-Fathers Day June 19th, 2011

June 19th, 2011, Father's Day. Kijin gets Dedication at our church, C4 in Ajax. He wore his Hanbok and did great in church ! Kyler had to speak a bit on stage with the children's pastor before she began to Dedicate Kijin. He told the church when Kijin came home with us, about being a brother, and what "Kijin's" name ment in Korean. ( Korean Truth ) Kyler spoke well on stage !! Good job Kyler ! Thanks C4 for your prayers and blessings for our family on this wonderful day ! Happy Fathers Day everyone !

Karen, ED, Kyler, Kijin

1st Year picture day

Picture Day ! I took Kijin to Loblaws this morning to get his 1st year pictures done in this outfit and his "Hanbok" ( thanks for that sugesstion Belinda and Barb!)
That was fun ! Not! LOL ! WE get to the photo shop and get ready to take his photos- and man was he ever fast and up and ready to take off on us ! The photographer and I had to tag team it and get him to sit still for his photos ! Then it was time to do them in his "Hanbok"
He was now slippery and fast ! The fabric is like a silk--and he did not want to sit in the chair for that photo ! But he kept smiling and we got some great photos ! Now it was time to pick , 2 poses out of many many good photos ! I picked the best 2, and hoped to pick them up before the weekend parties !! Whew !!!!! Glad that went well and its over !!!!
Thanks Pickering Loblaws ! :)

New shoes, castle building continues, and Kijin turning 11 months !

Hello all ! Kijin gets his first pair of walking shoes ! He is taking many steps on his own already ! I don't think it will be long before he is walking ! He will be 11 months this week and almost home with us for 2 months already ! How time flies ......... He had his second needle last week....EEEK ! He did well....no reactions and no problems ! YEAH !

Kijin after all has taken a different "Soother" usually now at nap times or at night or when he is having a bad teething day....which seems to me , all the time now.....but it looks like he has overcome his old soother attachment and has moved on...I am thankful for this !

Kyler and Ed have almost finished the "Castle Project", which I will post once its finished. ! What a project ! My goodness ! I have been talked into doing some touch up painting on the castle...had to dust off my craft paints and find my craft brushes ! This should be fun. Kyler for sure will be directing me on how or what to paint on his castle. There is a "Castle" viewing on Tuesday at his school. I have also promised to take him to "Casa Loma" as well....I have not been there in years..... stay tuned......

Otherwise all is well..... :)

Enjoy your weekend and especially your long weekend !!

Many Blessings :)

K.E.K.K. Wierma

Doctor Vist--First needle in Canada--so it begins

Hi all !!! Kijin had another doctor appointment today. We had to see a Pediatrician who specializes in international diseases in children. He has worked in the Toronto Sick Children's Hospital Unit for awhile and now has his own practice in Ajax. My personal doctor recommended Kijin to get checked just in case to make sure that the shots he already got in South Korea were updated and accepted in Canada. So today, we saw the Pediatrician who was very happy to see Kijin in good health. He was also thankful that I had brought all Kijin's health paperwork and that he was up to date in his shots up to this point ! Now it begins to get all his mandatory shots in Canada before he goes to a day care or school. Kijin was also weighed, measured and checked over. All is well :) He did get a needle today- brave little guy just sat there and did not peep at all ! Made me feel much better ! However- hopefully he does not react to any of them and we will have to keep a good eye on him after each needle. We will return to the Pediatrician's office some time in July and think about what he recommended. HE advises to get Kijin's blood work checked to make sure the shots he got in South Korea are working and to make sure nothing is found inside his little body to cause a concern. So all in all it went well ! Whew ! But in a week or so , we will go back to my doctor for another needle ! UGH !! I sooooo remember doing this with Kyler. He hated it ! Screamed in the car all the way home from Scarborough to Oshawa ! He did react to one of the first needles , then he was fine after that. :)

The Pediatrician does not see many adoptive children who come from South Korea and who are cared for in a Foster Home. He usually sees children who come from orphanages with much more minor health issues. So thank goodness for doctors like him who are able to do this and specialize in this field !!! Kijin is napping now !!! YEAH !

Karen and Kijin

Home with Kijin

Hi all !!! WE are home with Kijin and trying to get our sleep and time back ! Ugh ! I'm soooo tired ! We are getting better though !

Sometimes Kijin is pretty close to his schedule and sometimes he is way off ! He is sleeping a lot though--when he sleeps we try to sleep or take shifts keeping up with him when one of us needs to sleep! He is drinking and eating well. Loves to play with Kyler when he comes home from school ! I have taken him on a walk each day and so far he has fallen asleep as soon as I hit the sidewalk ! He needs his "soothie" in his mouth every time he needs to sleep. Once it falls out, he is up and wondering where it went, for awhile we were up every 2 hours in the night because he keeps popping it out of his mouth ! Oh well, as long as all of us are getting some sleep, and he is happy , we are not complaining !!! We hope by the end of the week, he will have his days and nights in order and Ed and I are back on our own time zone !

The first picture was taken in Seoul- We took him out for a walk to the POSCO STEEL office building. This building was awesome. Inside the lobby, were about 100 TV Monitors hanging from the ceiling, playing a video over and over again with office music. The TV's were placed all together in the shape of 3 Christmas Trees !!! The centre of this building was a HUGE indoor water fish tank. It was about 2 floors tall. Beautiful sea fish , sharks, and turtles were swimming in this tank right in the middle of this large office building!!! It was about a 30min walk from our Guest Office room and it was a great place to show Kijin ! He stared at those fishes for a long time.

Also on the main floor of this building was a fantastic museum- on what POSCO STEEL has been working on for the past years, and what they are working on for the future ! Little miniture sculptures of what they plan to build in space, on water and placing all public transit above the highways. Amazing !!!

And of course the 2nd picture of Kyler finally holding his new baby brother Kijin ! So happy Kyler is !!!! Kijin took to him right away ! Kyler will be a great help- he still insists he will NOT help us change him, but will play with him and feed him ! :)

Right now, Kijin went to bed at 7:00pm--We hope he will sleep at least 8 hours, up a bit to play then back down to bed. Poor guy could not hold up his head anymore. He starts to put his head down on the floor , closes his eyes and falls asleep. He is also teething- biting on those fingers and putting everything in his mouth.

Well, now that I have a few moments, I can blog this stuff ! I will keep at it as long as I can :)

I am taking Kyler to get new shoes ! Yeah !! I get to finally get out for a drive !!! Shopping !!

LOL--

Talk to you later !

KEKK Wiersma !!

Seoul Day 6- Day 2 with Kijin

Hi all !

Today was Day 6 for us, the final full day in Seoul South Korea! Ed and I enjoyed touring around Seoul, and learning about Kijin's birth country. Of course the whole high-light of this amazing trip was to come and take Kijin home with us :)

Day 2 with Kijin was a good day. We took another walk earlier this morning and another one in the evening with him in our front pouch carrier ! He was very content, just enjoying the fresh air ! We are just packing and getting ready to leave very early in the morning. We hope Kijin's feeding and sleeping schedule will last us until we get home to Canada. !

Today we bought some Korean children and Korean cook books from the Hospital and dropped off our gifts to the doormen and for the nurses who look after the babies until they can be placed in a foster home. Thank you for taking good care of us !!!!

We enjoyed our stay here at the Guest House ! We did not see any other families staying here- but for those who are coming, good luck and have a great trip !

Thanks for following our blog up to this point ! I will post more pictures once I get home !

See u in Canada !!!

Karen , Ed and Kijin signing out from Seoul, South Korea

Seoul- Day 4

Hi all !
Day4 for us started bright and early !! So we decided to walk some more and head to the Bongeunsa Temple. This temple is very beautiful and a very nice experience to see it. It was so quiet, so early in the morning. It is one of Korea's most traditional Buddhist temples built under the name of Gyeonseongsa. We took many pictures and felt we needed to be quiet and respectful of our surroundings. Many people came to pray and bow to their Buddhist Gods. The picture below is the Main Temple ( Daewoongjeon) It is the most important temple of Bongeunsa and the centre of all religious activities. The Korean's are mostly Christians here and many believe in the Buddhist as well.

Since the CoEx Mall was right across the street from the Temple, we decided to hang out, eat and do some more shopping. Ed bought a lovely Tea Set and we found the popular Porogo? childrens toys - trucks and cars for Kijin - the only place we could find these toys was in the Aquarium Gift shop.

Now it was time walk back to our Guest House !!! So once again , we find ourselves, having a much needed rest since we have walked many miles today !!!!

Seoul- Day 2- We meet Kijin Woo Cho Wiersma

Hi All !

Here is our picture holding baby Kijin for the first time !

Our Day 2 started off first meeting our Social Worker, Ms Park,Mi Mi up the street at the HAN SUH Hospital-7th floor. Once met, we gave her a gift and thanking her what she has done for us. She told us we were going to meet Kijin and his foster family at their home, 30min away.

A driver drove us to Kijins foster family's home. Ms Park took us up the apartment and there we met , Kijin and his foster mom ! Kijin was sitting on the floor , playing with his toys. We said our hellos, took off our shoes and sat down on the floor.

We sat a bit away so he could see our faces, hear our voices and get use to us there. We grabbed a few toys and started to play with him. His foster mom had our photo album that we sent to them many weeks ago ! She pointed to the pictures, to indicate to him, his mom, his dad, and brother Kyler ! The teether we sent to him was also being used and we saw our family recordable book on the tv shelf.

While playing with him, we asked our questions to our social worker and she translated everything to the foster mother. She then repeated everything to me and wrote it down for me , to get it all later in a written english report. Baby Kijin, is very cute !!!!!!!!!! He is not so big as we thought ! The pictures they sent us , make him look much bigger and older. :) We fed him a baby cookie while trying to get him to being held by one of us. He grabbed Ed's hands and pulled himself up !!!! WOW ! He may be an early walker !

His foster mother served us tea, cookies, and strawberry's. She held him while she fed him cut up strawberry's. We were able to take a few photos and a mini movie from my camera. When the hour was up, we gave Kijin's foster mother a gift bag from us, which was full of Canadian gifts to her and her family. His foster mom then provided us a lovely "Hanbok" for Kijin's first birthday (Ton ).

They came down with us in the elevator to wave good-bye to us ! We were to meet our social worker again on Friday March 25, 2011 at 10:ooam at the HAN SUH Hospital where we will be given Kijin's all his things and then he will be with us forever. What a blessing to look forward too !!

It was a fantastic visit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We can't wait until he is ours forever !!!!

We now have a few days to shop and get to know Kijin's birth country until we get him on Friday. What did we do today ?? We walked to E-Mart !!- ( got a little lost but we found it ).

What is E-Mart ?: Sort of like a Walmart ! It was a 2 story grocery store with isles all over the place with all their signs written in Hangul. This was fun ! We basically walked around and tried to figure out what we wanted to buy. We decided to buy food !!! We bought pop, water, a large bag with 8 mini bags of chips inside, baby cookies for Kijin, Jam, Bread and manderins ! ( cost about 24$ in Canadian ) We forgot to bring our grocery bags !!! The cashier provided us with 1 bag and the rest we carried. For those who will be heading to Seoul and visit E-Mart, bring your own bags !!!!!!

Domino's Pizza !!! Why not? It was on the way back ! So we ordered a medium cheese pizza !! Yummmmm !!! We wolfed that down flat !!! Don't worry, we will try something "Korean"!

We are now just chilling out and just planning the rest of our days before we get Kijin!!!

Talk to you all later !!!

Karen and Ed