Happy Gotcha Day Kylan

Our referral picture of Kylan this was the very first picture that we saw of him! 2001

This is the 1st time Kylan and Kevin meet at the Tulsa airport! 2002

2002 first time Kylan and I met in Korea

2002 hanbok photo

2002 tired mom with 2 kids

2002 with Papa

2002 at Connie and Brian's while Kev and I were on our 10 yr anniversary cruise

Dressed as Peter Pan for Halloween 2003

2003 playing in the snow

2003 cowboy Kylan

2003 playing with bubbles

Pumpkin pic 2004

Playing on the beach in Hawaii

Trying to shave like daddy 2004

Eating pancakes while camping 2005

2005 Yellow Balloon Preschool

2005 they could both fit in the golf cart at the same time!

2006 kids choir FUMC of Owasso

Skatepark 2006

Easter 2006

WDW 2006

2007

2007 Christmas with broken arm

2007 Durango Mountain

2007 craft-turtle

2007 WDW

2007 Sea World

2008 Cruise to Mexico

2008 skatepark

2009 sledding

2010 Osage Hills State Park

Today is a day to celebrate that Kylan has been with his Forever Family for 8 years! It's hard to believe that it's already been 8 years but it has! Time flies when you have kids that keep you busy. What a blessing he's been to our family we can't imagine life without his sweet smile or his ornery ways. Here are some pics of him growing up over the past 8 yrs. I also want to let you know that if you are on the Internet searching for adoption info here is a link to Dillon International they are the adoption agency that we used 9 yrs ago to adopt Makenzie and 8 yrs ago to adopt Kylan. They truly were a blessing to our family and helped change our lives forever. Once you get the child home they don't just leave you either they offer post adoption and pre adoption support and they also have Korean Camp during the summer, cooking classes, support groups and many other things that help make the adoption option a very smooth transition! If you have any questions please email me at kenziekylanmom1@cox.net.

To read more info and about Kylan and his gotcha days
7th gotcha day post go here
6th gotcha day click here
5th gotcha day go here

Going Home trailer

We found out about this documentary through some friends that have already seen it and they said it's "AMAZING". It's the journey of a young Korean adoptee that journeys back to South Korea in search of his birth family. I know that I will be moved to tears because this could be my children sometime in the future. It feels weird to think of my children searching for their birth family but if that's what they want to do then I will support them and be happy for them if they choose to search.

GOING HOME Trailer from ThirdCat Productions on Vimeo.

Visit Seoul.net for more info on South Korea

Happy 7th Gotcha day to Kylan

This was the very first time I met Kylan. He was not a happy boy and was scared of me. I only had 1 hour with him that first day and he cried for about 45 min of it.

This was pure bliss...holding my son for the VERY first time. I had been dreaming about this day for months and months. After so much paperwork, days of crying and praying for this child the day had finally arrived!

Yes, he finally calmed down enough so I could hold him!

This is the board with the babies names that are leaving Korea
Kylan's foster mom saying goodbye to him. It was really hard on her to let him go and she cried a lot. We are very thankful that she took such great care of him while he was waiting for us to finish up all of the red tape (Paperwork).


The moment he was placed in my arms before we were leaving Korea. This was his "Gotcha" moment for me. This is what I think of on his special day. Yes, I am crying...notice the time 12:35pm in Korea. We arrived home the same day but it was actually about 30 hrs later due to travel and time changes and crossing the International date line and everything


Now, I am not crying just happy that he's finally in my arms and we are leaving for the US pretty soon!

Kylan in his white hanbok that we bought for Connie and Brian's wedding








Kevin and Makenzie dropping me off at the airport for my journey to South Korea to pick up Kylan and work for 2 weeks on a MOMs mission trip with Dillon International

7 years ago today I woke up in Seoul, South Korea anticipating the moment when Kylan's foster mom would place my son in my arms and I would be able to get on an airplane and bring him home to meet his daddy and sister and the rest of our friends and family for the very first time. The moment he was placed in my arms was a feeling that I will NEVER forget, it was such a miracle adoption and when the moment that we had been dreaming of had finally arrived I was overcome with joy, and just started crying and thanking God for this little miracle boy.

This is such a happy day for us but I have noticed that the older my kids have gotten the more questions they seem to have on their gotcha day. I know it's a happy day for them as well but in some ways they seem a little sad too. I just pray that we can answer all of their questions to the best of our ability and that Kevin and I are sensitive to their inquisitiveness about their adoptions, foster families and especially about their birth family and the reasons that they were not able to stay in Korea. We do try to teach them as much about Korean culture as possible and they go to a Korean culture camp every summer (which they LOVE). They learn Korean songs, dances, Tae Kwon Do, Korean games, how to eat with chopsticks, Korean food and many other things plus they built friendships with other children that were adopted from S. Korea. Every time we pick them up at camp and I look out across a sea of black haired children I am thrilled that our adoption agency has this opportunity for our children. They come home talking about how all the kids at camp look similar to them and I can see that this excites them and makes them happy. OK is not a very multi-cultural state so when the kids see other Asians they always ask me if they are Korean too and I wonder if it bothers them that in most of our groups (except our adoption friends) they are the only ones that are not Caucasian.

If you have questions about International adoption please click here. To read what I wrote about Kylan's 6th gotcha day in 2008 and read about the other end of the trip which was the arrival in OK click here.

For more info on Korea go to Seoul.net