Missionary

Settling Back In

/ Ali Craft / 1 Comment

Well well well. School is in full swing, and the calendar is jam packed. We had last Tuesday off for Liberation Day, and let me tell you I have never been so glad to be liberated. How do we make Tuesday’s off a thing?

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Judah just started preschool last Wednesday and he couldn’t be more excited. I snuck out of work for a minute to drop him off for his first day. I’m not taking it personally that he didn’t seem to care, told me to stop messing with his hair, and when I said “I love you, Judah.”, he responded with “BYE”. Guess that means he’s ready?? (or ungrateful that I GAVE HIM LIFE.)

Asher and Zoey are still home with our nanny. I think Asher will like having a little more time to himself (and Zoey) but will be thrilled when Judah gets home in the afternoons; they are best buds. Asher is getting a little more stubborn everyday, and it’s a wonder why seeing as how there isn’t even one stubborn person in our home.

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He talks up a storm but always misuses my and I. “My jump” “my get an owie”, butttt you already knew he was adorable. He just turned two in July and is growing in spades. He has a signature big-grin-squinty-eyed smile that will leave you in a puddle. He has also developed a not so charming middle kid defense system of squealing and hitting when not getting his way…but we are working on that.

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Isaac is back into his normal rhythm of teaching 6th grade math and Bible and playing basketball in the mornings twice a week with staff. Oh ya, so there I was in my office a couple weeks ago when I see my principal go to retrieve the first aid kit. I proceeded to ask him what happened and he told me he messed up his finger in basketball that morning. He then quickly said, “but that’s nothing”, pointing to his busted lip. My response was something to the effect of, “oh my goodness, what happened?!”. Apparently my boss’ face + husband’s elbow happened. Luckily, my boss is a good sport.

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Church has been getting busy as we have been taking on more leadership roles, which means we have to get there early. *gasp* I feel like on-time would have been ambitious enough. As we are now leading up the welcoming committee, we are meeting a whole new crowd of people who can actually get places on time.

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We have been so fortunate to have found ourselves forming life long friends here, lately espeically. One of those things with life overseas, is that in some ways you form relationships quickly because “we are all in the same boat”, but everyone is so busy doing their own thing and people tend to be a bit reserved as no one knows how long you will be here. Each year we watch friends leave that have become like family (and you can still talk bad about them on your blog because they say they don’t read ittttt), but new people come. You always just have to secretly hope that you don’t become great friends with people on their way out, so naturally we have a list of people we will hold hostage should they ever try and leave us.

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Also, in my spare time *ha* I am coaching Varsity Girl’s tennis again this year. I will say though that it could be a pretty small time commitment if it keeps raining. Every. Blasted. Day. Apparently monsoon season is a little late just like the Craft family at church. Go figure. Anyone got some indoor courts we can borrow??? Between that and court maintenance, we are well on our way to becoming a Conditioning Team. And please don’t even ask why there are desk chairs etc. in that pile of junk on our courts, my only explanation is: Korea.

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Everything else here is life as normal. Zoey is back to her pre-summer habit of sleeping through the night BECAUSE SHE LOVES US. The boys are still all about her and no one makes her laugh like quite like Judah. She has started eating baby food but isn’t interested in any finger foods yet. I guess Princess Z just likes being fed. She is sitting up like a champ and working on scooting. She will be terrorizing our house in no time.

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We have some longer breaks this year with the way holidays fall, so with any luck and $$$ we hope travel some. I feel a bit like this after doing our summer stock up for our ever growing family of five, but we should be fine as long as everyone pinky promises not to grow out of their shoes.

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That’s all for now. As always, sending love from Seoul.

 

Oh. Also. In my foolishness, in my last post about traveling with kiddos I forgot to give a massive shoutout to all the mamas who have gone before me and shared all their traveling wisdom. My list is certainly a work of collaboration; us mamas are stronger in numbers!!! ❤

Traveling With Kids: The Master Class

/ Ali Craft / 2 Comments
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I should feign humility, but I’d really like to think that if I have any skills at all (besides making babies) it’s traveling with kids. After all, I have spent the last two years conducting some very intensive research on the topic and we have all lived to tell about it. May you find it helpful and if not, take heart, horrific travel experiences make for great stories; consider it your contribution to mankind.

Also, my experience is obviously geared around younger kids, so my advice will be too. I would like to think that by the time my kids are older they will pack and carry their own stuff, watch movies and eat junk food for the duration of the trip, and leave me the mess alone. Don’t you dare spoil it for me.

Some tips and tricks for traveling with (young) kiddos:

  1. Don’t.
    • Ha. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. For real now.

 

  1. Talk up the trip.
    • Build excitement about the trip. Talk about riding in the car/plane and about all the things you will do and people you will see when you get there. Try and make travel days something to look forward to and not to dread.
  2. Wear them out before leaving.
    • Let them play outside or run round before loading up. The last thing you want to do is try and travel with kids with pent up energy. When flying, after we get to the gate we try and let the kids run around, climb stairs etc. for a bit before boarding. Our airport in Korea has a play area for young kids; check to see if your airport has one.
  3. Travel days are SPECIAL.
    • Things that would never fly on a normal day are totally ok on travel days. These are the days that there is no moderation, no balance, and no one is trying to win a parenting award. There are limitless snacks and too much TV, and that is OK. The only people judging you are your fellow kid-less passengers, and they too may one day know just how real the struggle is.
  4. Snacks.
    • “Healthy” (crush proof) snacks: Feel free to pack Cheetos and gummy bears, but eventually you may to want them to stop eating that, lest you want to clean up puke. I try to pack mostly things that if my kid ate their weight in it, I wouldn’t be too concerned. Find the balance between some special snacks and things that will make them be excited but not too sugary/sticky/etc. Ex. pretzels, applesauce pouches, dried fruit, trail mix, cheese sticks.
    • Pack snacks in Nalgene bottles: Still want to take fragile snacks? Can’t live without Goldfish? Fill up an old water bottle with snacks to keep them from getting crushed and spilled in your bag.
    • Ziplock bags: Great to have on hand to distribute snacks and/or collect trash. Each kid gets a baggie to hold their snacks and they can be refilled as needed.
  5. Movies.
    • We also try and bring some device for the boys to watch movies. Make sure to charge devices the night before, maybe load a new movie or two, and bring headphones and a headphone splitter if they are sharing.
  6. Wrap up some new (or even old) toys.
    • Go to your local dollar store or bargain bin and stock up on small/inexpensive toys and grab some cheap wrapping paper to wrap them. We try to space out letting the boys open them so they have something to look forward to. We have even wrapped up some old toys before, so this would be the perfect time to wrap that toy that you loathe, and pray it disappears into the airplane abyss.
  7. Clean crafts.
    • Color magic
    • Stickers
    • Painters tape
    • Magna Doodle
    • Wikki Stix
    • Tongue depressors with velcro dots on the ends for building
    • Temporary tattoos
      • All respectable children should have at least a half-sleeve by the time you arrive.

Driving tips:

  1. Car toys.
    • We have a special basket of toys that live in the car. What makes them special you ask? THEY LIVE IN THE CAR. They don’t come inside, so there is automatic anticipation to use them. #momhack
  2. Landmark incentives.
    • Ex. You can have another snack/open another toy when we cross the big bridge! It gives them something to look forward to and keeps them from running through treats too quickly.
  3. Talk about what you see.
    • When I can tell the kids are getting antsy (“I wanna get outtttt” on repeat) I sadly turn off our audio book and talk to the kids about the scenery. Judah has learned lots about back hoes (and I’ve realized I don’t know nearly enough names of construction equipment to be a proper boy mom) and water towers…and I have only almost driven off the road as Judah excitedly spots them and shrieks “NOTHER BACK HOE, MAMAAAA!!”.
  4. Maximize your stops.
    • Sometimes your kids need a slow, no stress kinda trip with lots of stops, and thats ok, but otherwise, we try and make the trip as short as possible. We try to multitask at each stop, ex. I will nurse Z and Isaac can let the boys run around at a rest stop or Isaac will do diapers while I pump gas and grab food. Road trips are great all, but sometimes it good to just get to your destination.

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Flying tips:

  1. Consider bringing carseats. 
    • We brought carseats on the flight for the first time on our last trip from DFW to Seoul. It was a game changer for us as Isaac was sitting in a middle row of 3 with the boys so there was no way to barricade them both in, and I was one row in front with Zoey. Our boys are pretty good road-trippers, so putting them in their carseats made them seem much more calm and happy to stay in their seat than ever before. I don’t think it is right for everyone or for every trip, just consider your kids ages, temperament, and length of flight. Also, you have to make sure you carseat is FAA certified; it should say on it or have a sticker if it is. 
  2. Get the bassinet seat. 
    • If you are flying, especially internationally with a baby (usually ~1 and under, but it is based on height and weight), a bassinet can be super helpful. At the very least hopefully you can get baby settled in it so you can eat hands free. Check with your airlines as some will reserve it for you ahead of time, and some have you request it on a first-come-first-served basis at check in. You also have to be sitting in the first row of the cabin to use the bassinet. I will say it is basically Murphy’s law that if your baby is fussy and you finally console them and get them to sleep in the bassinet, the the seatbelt sign will turn on and you will be asked to hold your baby. I have definitely gotten to the point of exhaustion where I just want to say, “LISTEN LADY, I assure you that if it gets bad enough, I will grab my baby, but for the love of ALL THINGS, pleaseeeeee don’t make me move them yet.”-the pleas of an exhausted mama.
  3. Cheap toys.
    • We try and bring toys that we wouldn’t lose sleep over if they got left on the plane accidentally, as everything ends up getting spread out over the course of the flight. Again see: wrap up dollar store toys.
  4. If you have small children, bring water on as long as they will let you.
    • Staying hydrated can make all the difference in how you feel at the end of an international flight, so bring water if you can. Usually with young kids, as long as you set it aside while going through security so they can scan it, they will allow it. At the very least bring an empty water bottle to fill up on the other side of security.
  5. Bring empty sippy cups. 
    • Instead of worrying with bringing milk or juice for our kids, we just pack them empty, and ask the flight attendants to fill them. They have always been happy to oblige.
  6. Cabin pressure.
    • I feel like this is common knowledge, but when flying with babies-toddlers, just try to nurse/feed or have them sip something through a sippy cup during take off and landing to help their ears adjust to the change in pressure. Between 3 kids and more flights than I can count, we have never had an issue.
  7. Fly Tot.
    • We also have this thing called the Fly Tot that we love for helping little ones stretch out and sleep. It is basically an inflatable footrest so that they can lay down. You should guess we are all too happy to through money at anything that might help my kiddos sleep. We have been really happy with it. See the Fly Tot here.

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Things to consider:

  • Baggage allowances- most airlines allow for an extra bag as the infant’s diaper bag, a collapsible stroller to be checked at the gate, and then extra allowance to check pack n’ plays, carseats, or larger strollers. Check ahead of time!
  • Some airlines will allow you to select a special kids meal (hot dog, spaghetti, pizza, etc.), infant meal (water for making bottles, premixed formula), or even an older infant meal (baby food, juice).
  • Early boarding- most airlines will let you board before they board the main cabin. This will allow you to get everyone settled and claim your overhead compartment space near your seat.
  • Airports will often let you use express lines for security, immigration, or customs if you have your hands full. Don’t be afraid to ask. I’ll never forget after a particularly horrific day of travel we walked up to the immigration line and it was ENDLESS, and I promptly pushed our stroller to the DIPLOMAT/FLIGHT CREW/IMPORTANT PEOPLE line and Isaac’s like, “…babe…” I responded with, “Isaac our kids are screaming, exhausted, and covered in throw up (I told you…horrific). Leaving this airport ASAP would be public service.” *They didn’t turn us away, they must have seen that glimmer in my eye that told them I was fully prepared to fight someone.
  • JUST ASK! There may be extra seats and often times the flight attendants will take pity on you and give you some extra room. Or you can go as far as asking them to move the people around you so that you have more room…I have totallyyyyy never done that. Survival of the shameless.
  • Always bring a change clothes. If not, you are basically daring someone to throw up. Now I know. See: Why You Should Pack Clothes For Everyone.
  • If all else fails, bring earplugs.
    • You can’t win them all. If you have tried everything, sometimes your kids may just fuss. Crank up your favorite jams, pretend the kids aren’t yours, and try to tune it out. 🙂

 

And just for your reading pleasure, a few humorous moments:

 

When turn around to find your son making a call on the TSA telephone.“Sorry, mom, I’ve got to take this”.

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Or when you are going through security and think your husband has the child, your husband thinks you have the child, and then you hear, “um, excuse me, is that your child over there?”. (See your child running through the airport about 20 yards away.) Nope…never seen him before…

 

When you are so over parenting on an airplane that you literally ask the grandma sitting next to you if she wants to hold your baby…and you get him back 5 hours later. ALL THE PRAISE HANDS.

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When your kid refuses to sleep any during the 14hr flight, and finally passes out…while landing. Hello, unconscious Judah.

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When you are headed off for an international trip and you see a well dressed family and wonder where the heck all their stuff is….(that is only half our luggage).

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When your child makes a new friend because he unexpectedly refuses to get on the escalator and you only realize after he is out of reach. #goodparents

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Well, I’m not sure if I have helped, or actually convinced you to not travel until your kids graduate. So, if you get brave, may we see you in the clear skies or the open road. ❤

 

Summer in the States

/ Ali Craft / 3 Comments

I know you were all waiting with baited breath to hear that we did indeed, by the grace of God, endure our first (and second) trans-continental flight as a family of 5. There were fits, sleep fighting, and tears (only a little from adults). The only saving grace of these flights is that it’s doesn’t have to be pretty, we just have to survive. And then there is jet lag…

…and since we are clearly idiots or experts, a traveling with kids post is coming soon.

We spent the summer around some of our favorite people in the whole world, eating good food, playing outside, and not remembering what day it was. Hello, eternal Saturday.

With Isaac’s family we took a little trip to Atlanta to see the Braves play in the new stadium. Naturally, after driving 6 hours with 3 kids, as we pulled into our parking spot at the stadium it started raining. After a 2 hour rain delay, the game finally began at 9pm. Anyone know what it’s like to try and contain un-napped children in public after they should be in bed? Cue snacks…The boys are getting old enough that things are holding their attention more (HALLELUJAH movies on the plane), so it was fun to see them excited for baseball. We finally made it to our hotel around 11:30pm. I’m pretty sure our summer motto was “What bedtime?”.

We also found time to squeeze in two trips to The Varsity between baseball games and a trip to the aquarium. If you are ever in Atlanta and haven’t eaten there, go. Also see: why our pants our snug.

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After our time with Isaac’s family we swung through our old college town to see our best friends for a few days on our way to Texas. And as if we didn’t know we were best friends before, who in their right mind invites your family of 5 with 3 three and under to stay at their house?

The boys thought they were in heaven between the ducks, geese, chickens, horses, lake, bikes, trampoline, and rope swings. I still have no clue how we got them in the car when it was time to leave.

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Then it was on to Texas to see my family. We took a little trip to Austin, TX for a long weekend. We went to an awesome indoor play place (hello A/C) and children’s museum, and swam at the hotel in the evenings. The boys slept well those nights.

We also made it out to The Oasis on Lake Travis for dinner with friends. The view never disappoints.

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On the way home from Austin we took the long (out of the way) route, to take Isaac on a little tour of Texas. We toured the Shiner brewery in Shiner, TX, stopped by the Blue Bell creamery in Brenham for some ice cream and a quick hello to a cousin who lives there (hey, Stephanie!), and then headed on to College Station just so we could drive through enemy country.

Have I mentioned the best part of both family road trips was that our kids were in the other car with their grandparents??? We didn’t want to deprive them of quality bonding time, after all…

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It was the best summer we have had in a long time. The kids traveled so well and we got to see so many people we love. Now that Nana (my mom) and Nino (Isaac’s mom) have summers off, we just need to find a way to get Grandad (my dad) and Poppy (Isaac’s dad) off work and it will be PERFECT! We survived one more trip over the Pacific and it’s right back into work. School started for teachers last week and kids came this week, varsity tennis starts today, and our schedule is full of catching up with people we have missed all summer long.

What a gift we have to have family all over the world.

P.S. Here are some new pictures of our school! They worked all summer redoing the entrance.

 

 

 

 

{Part TWO} Did we survive? The conclusion of our trip to Jeju island.

/ Ali Craft / 1 Comment

Day 2 of our trip: ~2am in a dark hotel room in Jeju island, Korea:

Isaac- “Are you shaking the bed?”

Ali- “What?? Huh?? No…”

(we were both confused but fell right back to sleep)

It was only when we woke up to a text from my dad asking if we had heard about the earthquake in Japan that it all came together. Luckily we were far enough away to only feel the small tremors, but it was certainly erie to realize that we are all at the mercy of “mother nature”. Anyways, let’s just say that the tone had been set for a day full of unexpected moments…

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Site of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake- Japan’s Kyushu Island

We were up early and headed back to the hotel restaurant for a buffet breakfast, thankfully with plenty of “western options”. You guys, if I have not mentioned before, let me just tell you, of all the things we love about Korea, Korean breakfast is not one of them. Basically, Korean breakfast looks the same as Korean lunch and Korean dinner, and 8am is just a little too early for these people to be eating kimchi.

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After breakfast, we loaded up the vans and were off to a day of adventuring and hiking. Rain had been forecasted so our faithful tour guide suggested that we follow the planned schedule as long as we could, and reevaluate if it started raining. Cue rain.

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Our new plans were announced within minutes and we were off to Aqua Planet: Jeju. Going to the largest aquarium in all of Asia as your back-up plan isn’t too shabby. It was Judah first visit to the aquarium out of utero (and let’s be honest, that view wasn’t the best), so we were excited to take him. We also made it the whole way to the end with Judah and Asher in there respective carriers, which was a major victory; we got to actually look at fish as opposed to herding kiddos.

Luckily, we beat most of the crowds by going first thing in the morning; as we left I am confident that no less than 75% of the population of Korea had shown up.

Then is was lunch time, our favorite. We had our pick of two of Jeju’s most popular foods, black pork (from a kind of pig native to Jeju) or fish. I will say that while in the States, Isaac and I are huge fans of seafood, we generally steer clear of it here as it often refers to squid (don’t think yummy calamari) or “fishy” fish that we have never heard of served with bones. While in America we almost always eat our fish filleted, it is said that Koreans like to eat it on the bone as it seems more fresh. Well, you do you, Korea. So we, and all the rest of our group chose pork which came with a variety of other proteins. It was served in the traditional Korean barbecue style, around a small grill with a retractable vent hood, where we cook the food ourselves.

Sweet baby Asher had fallen fast asleep right as we pulled up to lunch, in true baby form. I just planned to do the mom thing and eat with one arm, but our tour guide asked the waiters if we could make a pallet for him out of the floor cushions in the floor dining section. They happily obliged. When we sat down to eat, all the tables around him were empty, but they quickly filled, and as the ajummas (the name for older ladies in Korean) got seated at the tables near him they couldn’t help but crowd around to take a look and readjust his blanket. It was all in good nature, but thankfully our tour guide made sure that they didn’t disturb him (other wise I would have had to go all mama bear “DO YOU KNOW WHEN THE LAST TIME HE TOOK A GOOD NAP WAS” on them). Crisis averted.

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Next up was the Haenyeo Museum. The term haenyeo refers to female divers that dive for shellfish, seaweed, etc., without the use of diving equipment (their only tools are googles, a basket for their catch, and something to help them balance). This is a tradition that has been practiced for hundreds of years.

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To this day, although the tradition is dying out, there are still many women that continue the trade. The funny thing is that since this kind of work is becoming less popular, the ladies that still participate are even as old as 80+ years. Our tour guide’s aunt is a haenyeo that still practices at the age of almost 70. These women are basically rockstars.

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Sorry, I couldn’t help but put that gif there. Moving right along. By the time we left the museum, it was a full on downpour outside. We bundled up the kids in their carriers, and made a mad dash for the bus, the kids laughing hysterically as they bounced around. We were wet and tired and all ready to be on a plane headed back home. HA. Ha. ha.

We loaded up the bus and were headed to the airport, until the bus pulled over unexpectedly. Everyone began to murmur, wondering why we had stopped. Then there was a quiet announcement at the front of the bus, our flight had been cancelled due to weather. Cue one of the funniest parts of the trip. I turned around to make sure that the people behind me had heard the news; we would not be sleeping in our own beds that night.

Me: “did you guys hear the news?”

Ladies: with two thumbs up and big smiles “ya, we are stopping to get coffee!”

Me: “uhh, ya, but did you hear about our flights?”

Ladies: “wait, what???”

Needless to say I had to be their bearer of bad news, but on the other hand, we now had plenty of time to kill at a coffee shop while people tried to make us new arrangements. Our colleagues and their caffeine habits have certainly helped fuel our “coffee is life” fire.

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Our hosts made us new arrangements near the airport, so off we went to grab a few snacks and dinner before dropping off us at the hotel.

We got to our hotel feeling especially exhausted and whiney, only to find our previous night’s spacious accommodations were a thing of the past; we would be sleeping Lucy and Ricky style in separate twin beds. We made a bed for Judah halfway in the closet, and called for a crib to be sent up, only for them to send the world’s largest porta-crib to our world’s smallest room. The air in the room had also not been switched over from heat to cool yet, so it was a balmy 83 degrees. Opening the window was also not an option because the bad weather brought wind gusts over 50 mph, and the window would just slam shut. We thought we could out smart the wind by propping open the window, only to create a room sized whistle as we channeled that 50 mph wind through our room and under the crack of our front door.

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I only considered breaking the window and using this 5 times.

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You are likely looking for the escape hatch from this post, I too feel your pain. I will stop for now, and if you are looking to put off doing something you hate more than reading this story that will never end, stop on by next time for the real conclusion of our trip to Jeju.

 

P.S. I’m not sure where this should logically go in the story, but it is worth mentioning that as we entered our hotel, we were greeted by a family of giant Asian teddy bears. Ali out. *Mic drop*

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Spring Break: A Story in Pictures (and words)

/ Ali Craft / 2 Comments

We had a great trip to the Philippines a couple weeks ago. We went with 7 high school students, 4 teachers, and our two kiddos; sadly, we were supposed to take two more students but one ended up with the flu and another one’s grandma passed away. They were missed!IMG_6636

Needless to say we were a little anxious to wake our two cherubs up at 3:30am, load them in a car to the school, a bus for an hour to the airport, a plane for four hours, and then another bus for eight and a half hours to our final destination. Hear this people, there is no surer sign that God is good than us making that voyage without mental breakdown. Hooray.

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Waiting on our bus in Manila to Baguio. It was hot, especially compared to the Korean winter we had come from.

 

 

Our days were filled with breakfast at the seminary we were staying at, vacation bible school in the morning at a local school, lunch provided by the wonderful staff, then back to the seminary for Bible time and then some good old fashioned manual labor. The days were long but obviously worth it. In the evenings we would either order food in or clean up and head into town via a jeepney (the most common means of transportation in the Philippines) to grab dinner. We would come back and get our kiddos in “bed” just in time to debrief our day with the team.

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Isaac and I feel very strongly that the main benefit of short term mission trips are to expose the people on the trip to cultures outside of their own, as well as a different way of life, and even just a reminder that we don’t serve an American (or Korean) God, as opposed to the idea that we are providing some sort of life changing aid or spiritual enlightenment. There were even many times this trip as we were teaching VBS that the Filipino kids would finish our sentences during the Bible story. The real value we saw was the impact the trip had on our students. They are very privileged and they were able to witness people satisfied without material things. It was also a great time while they were out of their normal routine and comfort zone to talk more about the role that God plays in their personal life. And not to go unmentioned, the obvious impact of short term missions in our family was to broaden our horizons and to give us a heart to share Jesus with rest of the world.


Being my first mission trip as a mama, the best part for me was watching my kids interact with our students, the fellow leaders, and the local Philippine people. Needless to say, they were the stars of the show. I was told as we said goodbye on the last day, “We will miss…Judah and Asher”. All week the awesome ladies from the school watched our kiddos while Isaac and I taught bible stories. At one point one our VBS students came to me and said, “Mrs. Craft, can I hold your baby?”, I told her that I didn’t even know where he was, to which she replied, “oh, he’s with the security guard.” Well, at least he’s safe, right?

On Monday of our trip, our sweet Judah turned the big T-W-O. We celebrated in style with lots of balloons, love, and cake. Lots of cake. Our awesome co-leaders and the ladies at the school had coordinated to get Judah an awesome double layer birthday cake to celebrate.

This post would not be complete without a proper shoutout to our fellow trip leaders. These rockstar ladies kept all the balls in the air while we changed diapers, feed kids, and coordinated naps/betimes. Not to mention they did more than their fair share of Craft child herding/holding. We humbly refer to ourselves as the Dream Team, but really, we are awesome. (It is critical to know that the sign they are pointing at says DANGER: HOT WORK IN PROGRESS KEEP OUT) It is photos like this that need posting to the internet that validate all my hard blogging work.

Our team was plagued with something resembling the flu and threats of getting acquainted with Philippine hospitals kept things interesting. Four out of our seven students ended up sick but luckily the leaders dodged the bullet. During our last day we stopped off at a local market for a few souvenirs. Naturally the guys on the team had no interest in getting out so they got put on kid duty. Much to their chagrin, moments after we left them alone Judah started throwing up. Bless their high school boy hearts. One of the students managed to find us to deliver the message, “Judah just threw up massively”. Massively; great word choice. The next words out of his mouth were, “I tried to entertain him (the child that had just thrown up) but it didn’t work.” How bizarre, usually you can joke a toddler right out of the stomach flu…bless. Bless. BLESS. We got him home and cleaned up (with our precious driver buying Judah two brand new “I-love-the-Phillipines”-esque  t-shirts so he had clothes to change into. He got sick one more time as we somberly packed up for our 3am departure for our voyage back to Seoul.

We braced for the long travel day ahead, packing extra outfits for Judah, a t-shirt for me, and plenty of barf bags. The vans pulled up at 2:45am and we loaded up, Judah burning with a 102 degree fever. Praise God that his fever broke somewhere between Isaac and I almost throwing up ourselves from our driver’s enthusiastic maneuvering through the mountains and our arrival in Manila. We ended up at the airport with plenty of time to spare, so we set up shop for the next 5 hours.


Finally, we boarded our plane and thought we were home free. In case you didn’t know that God has a sense of humor, as the wheels left the ground I was graced with the sound of not Judah, but sweet baby Asher (the child with only one set of extra clothes) throwing up on Isaac (the parent with no extra clothes). We survived with only one more round of vomiting; I can’t say as much for the handy airplane blankets.

We landed in Korea a little worse for wear but so happy to be home. Let’s just say that when we approached the customs line that ended up taking our friends two hours to clear, I took it upon myself to take my foul smelling and acting children directly to the line reserved for more important people than us and dared someone to stop me. They didn’t. We got through, grabbed our bags and a taxi home, stepping foot into our apartment 20 hours after leaving that morning.

And I know I’m crazy because I would do it all again.

 

Just when you had lost all hope…

/ Ali Craft / 2 Comments

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Well, it is no coincidence that when I went back to work full time, blogging was the first thing to go. We have had so many people asking (demanding, begging, etc.) for an update. I will post this disclaimer again; I feel strongly that unless you birthed us, you may grow increasingly weary reading the updates from our mundane life. That being said, who are we to not give the people what they want, so here we are. I make no guarantee that the posts will be long, proof read, entertaining, or frequent, but I am back and will do my best. Please feel free to email me at alidaniel22 at gmail dot com or post in the comments if there is something specific about our life in Korea that you would like me to share more about. Your comments and words of affirmation are so encouraging. Anyways, thanks for sticking with us…here we go.

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Some things haven’t changed:

Our kids are still awesome.

Being cute.
On the plane home from Christmas.
Yes, that is the stroller seat strapped to our son.

 

And we still live in Korea.

 

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That building in the background is supposed to be the tallest building in Asia upon completion, or so we’ve been told.

And some things have changed:

Isaac voluntarily ate a tofu burger.

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Just out of picture: gun to his head?

 

Asher is 6.5 months and is sitting up, scooting, has two teeth, and is eating baby food! It won’t be long before he is crawling. (Teeth not pictured because prying your babies mouth up for a picture is a surefire way to tick them off). Also of mention, his hair is growing back. No more bald baby grandpa.

 

Judah will turn two in the Philippines next month! We, and two other adults, are taking our circus on the road along with 9 high schoolers for a mission trip. If Judah asks, it’s all in honor of his birthday. Take that, Pinterest inspired parties. Each day he looks like less of a baby and more of a little boy.

Scaring the mess out grandad’s fish.

 

He gave us a good laugh the other day when we had a family outing to one of our favorite local bakeries. As I plowed the way through the crowd with Asher, Isaac followed behind holding Judah’s hand. Isaac was met with some resistance so he turned to see that Judah had stopped to help himself to some Tiramsu. I found a seat and wondered what the hold up had been…until I saw Judah’s face.

 

Anyways, that’s it for now. We have a weekend full of rest ahead of us as I seem to stay sick lately (could be that Korean doctors usually give about 4 days of medicine, just enough to make you think you are better…), Asher has a double ear infection, and Judah has a sinus infection and fever. We are truly the envy of the block. Have a restful weekend, you wonderful people.

Updated House Tour

/ Ali Craft / Leave a comment

It’s hard to believe we have been in Seoul now for 3 months. We worked really hard to get settled before Asher arrived, but we’ve still been making our house a home. I am happy to announce that our clothes are now officially out of tubs/space bags/suitcases!! Now don’t get crazy and assume we have gone so far as to hang stuff up. We have about 20 coat hangers as of now and I keep refusing to buy them at the store because I don’t want to spend money on them. Real mature, I know. BUT, our second wardrobe was finally delivered this week so now Isaac and I both have a “closet”! Most of our getting settled happened thanks to a trip to IKEA…my happy place. I do not think it a coincidence that Korea got an IKEA six months before we moved here. God always provides…

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When we got here we wanted Judah in the room closest to us even though it would eventually be Asher’s room, so we finally transitioned him to his real room today! It feels good to have everyone in the right place. It had driven my OCD self mad to have Judah sleeping in Asher’s room with Asher’s name on the wall, and Asher’s clothes in the closet. So now all is right with the world.

Anyways. Our home is still a work in progress but I figured I would show you around now that we are a bit more settled than in our first post!
After having put so much effort into Judah’s nursery, I hated to leave it all behind so we brought his mobile and letters that spell his name. I also ordered Asher a mobile and his name. There was an extreme lack of an opportunity to nest before Asher was born so these couple of decorations were my attempt at “preparing the nursery”. It’s not much, but it makes it feel a bit more like home.

We are happy to finally have nightstands in our bedroom, as cute as the rubbermaid tubs were. We liked our old comforter, a quilt made from my grandfather’s old shirts, but in this stage of life we can’t have nice things as somehow it always ends up with poop on it.

You can’t really see it but we have a really deep sink that we love. We learned that most Korean homes have sinks like this to use them to prepare kimchi…ya let me get right on that. How about we just use it to pile up a ton of dishes…

I will point out that there is no central air. We have an air conditioner in the living room and a small one in our bedroom. The boys’ bedrooms have oscillating fans. I miss ceiling fans! We have doors on either side of our apartment, in the living room and laundry room, and big windows in the rest of the rooms that we can open for a nice cross breeze. Being on the 6th floor (of 18) helps. Lately there have been many nights where it has been cool enough to sleep with all the sliding doors and windows open. We love being able to open up the doors and enjoy the weather as fall begins to set in.

Our entry way. One day I will be able to use the toddler height shelves, but for now, I will choose other battles to fight.

The guest bathroom.


I am still keeping an eye out for a couch that sits more like a couch and less like a park bench. If you ever find yourself in our neck of the woods, stop on by and sit a spell. In the meantime, I am off to convince myself we don’t need to order in dinner…

Sending love from the future.

PART ONE: Costco, the Hospital, and Other Opportunities to Learn Patience

/ Ali Craft / 8 Comments

Have you ever heard the saying that when you pray for patience, God just gives you opportunities to learn patience? Well, I don’t know which one of us dummies prayed for patience, but the opportunities began lining themselves up…

We have become fast friends with the family in our apartment building that we mentioned have been in Korea for eleven years; it certainly doesn’t hurt to makes friends with people that have a car… Their names are Brooke and Daniel. They kindly volunteered to take us to Costco (yes, COSTCO!) in their car so we could stock up on American staples like peanut butter, mayonnaise, and cheese (how a whole country’s diet exists without cheese is beyond us). So, we all loaded up in their KIA Sorento, “all” being Daniel, Brooke, another pregnant (with twins!!) friend from our school that lives in our building, Isaac, Judah, and I. We were quite…snuggly.

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Behold the land of bulk shopping, my son.

We had been warned that Costco was always crowded, so we decided to go on a Wednesday afternoon in hopes of avoiding the chaos. By Seoul Costco Standards it was uncrowded; by American standards we were approaching “Black Friday crazy”. We would have pictures of the most intense crowds, but we were too busy being curled up in the fetal position…and if it looks underwhelming please take into account this is a 3-story Costco, jam packed with people who have ZERO sense of purpose about their shopping, Costco employees shouting in Korean trying to sell their assigned products (more on this in a future post), with a toddler that had skipped a nap, two very pregnant ladies, all on a deadline (we only had one hour before we had to head out to beat the traffic and pick up Brooke and Daniel’s daughter). Let’s just say after only about 5 minutes of being in the store we were at a near standstill as we tried to make it through the main aisle, my dear husband, Mr. Go-with-the-flow, looked at me with wide eyes and said, “I’m a pretty laid back person, but these people need to move…NOW”. It didn’t take long for Korean Costco bring out Isaac’s fiery side.

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Anyways, we had come for a few specific items but quickly realized we should take full advantage of the trip. We found a good rocking chair for when Asher finally decides to come out (a.k.a NEVER) and a rug for the living room. Living in a big city, they offer delivery for a small fee, so we scheduled to have them delivered to our apartment the next day. We knew we would need to get some more cash out of the ATM for these larger items, since as a great convenience to their customers, they only take cash or Samsung credit cards, so I sent Isaac off to find an ATM while I shopped for groceries. At this point we had 30 minutes to be checked out and on the way to the car…I was a woman on a mission.

I ran around like a mad woman trying to decide what we should get with our limited time. As a general rule of thumb, when offered transportation to the grocery store in a car, we always stock up on the heavy stuff! I finished my shopping with not a second to spare (ok, maybe 5 minutes late…) and I headed to the registers to find Isaac, who had all of our money. This is when I spotted our friends, and they kindly informed me that the ATM had eaten our debit card…perfect.

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They said Isaac was waiting at the ATM for a technician to show up in hopes of getting our card back. So here I was with a buggy full of food (that we may not be able to afford) just waiting for Isaac to find me in this massive store. In the haste of going our separate ways, we never decided on a place to meet up. Cell phones have officially ruined us… I tried to think of where he would go to look for me, so I stationed myself near the checkout and began planning for every worst case scenario…

Has anyone seen my husband? White guy, curly hair, adorable white baby strapped to his back...

Has anyone seen my husband? White guy, curly hair, adorable white baby strapped to his back…

I knew I couldn’t ask our friends to wait for us and risk them stranding their daughter at daycare, so I told them to go ahead. We were almost an hour from home and a taxi ride was less than ideal, but we had no choice. After about 20 minutes, the crowds parted (yeah, right) and Isaac appeared. We were fortunate enough that the machine did spit out our card, but we weren’t about to try to get money again. Our friends graciously loaned us some money so we could at least buy some of our groceries. So here we are in line, people behind us staring at the American spectacle we are, as I decided what made the cut. Cheese obviously, because duh… All of this time Judah had been sound asleep in the baby carrier on Isaac’s back… cue stressful check-out situation to rouse our precious sleeping child from his slumber straight into a public fit of rage. We love toddlers. No, really.

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“Please Lord, let there be enough money for the cheese.”

Since God is kind and loving, our total ended up being about one dollar away from exceeding the amount of cash we had. We quickly bagged our groceries and fled our still half-full cart of unpurchased groceries for some fresh air and the light of day. (Also, amidst all this chaos, Brooke and Daniel found a friend to pick up their daughter.)

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We made it. We were headed home with some beloved American staples, a rug and recliner (to be delivered), one dollar, and a tiny shred of our sanity. And as for learning patience…no one died, so that has to be counted as a victory, right? We were praying that the next outing would be less traumatic…

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t…next post details my stressful trip to the doctor and all the amusing struggles that living in a foreign country brings…

Disclaimer: I am sure by this time you have realized, if you do not have a great fondness for the Craft family, sarcasm, and/or GIF’s/memes…this may not be the blog for you. If it helps, we think we are hilarious.

How are the Kiddos?

/ Ali Craft / 6 Comments

Oh, goody, an update about the mundane details of our lives. You’re welcome.

Well, it has been roughly 3 weeks since any of you have seen Judah (or us for that matter, but like you really care about that). So, here is a quick update on our kids (in and out of utero).

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Judah is learning new words on a daily basis. Some of the new words he can now say are (say is a relative term, he is after all a one year old) ball, thank you, ball, bite, night night, and Bible. Did we say ball yet? That boy wakes up these days asking for a ball.

As has always been pretty evident, Judah is quite adventurous, but lately he is becoming even more independent in his exploring. Two weeks ago, he would happily play at the park but would want mom or dad to hold his hand every now and again; now he climbs up the stairs by himself, waves, sits at the top of the slide, and down he goes. And repeat.

For the sake of being honest, the video we took just before this one was identical…minus the sliding-while-standing technique and landing-on-his-head dismount. A “good parent” is the kind that catches the WHOLE thing on video, right? We are counting on this being a judgement free zone…

As we have said, Judah has been learning to help out with hanging up laundry. He has also started putting his toys away when he is finished playing with them. Basically, he loves to move things from one place to another and say “thank you” each time. We’ll take it.

He also likes to help daddy workout…

Isaac is always looking for ways to make his workouts more challenging.. JK no he’s not.

Here’s to a little resistance training.

He continues to have a larger-than-life personality; he is always keeping us laughing! It is becoming increasingly apparent that we may have an issue during future family photos.

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Asher

Asher is doing great. I am going to weekly appointments at a local hospital and Asher is looking happy and healthy (read:huge). I am due July 25th, but the doctor feels that he is ready and healthy enough to come any day now. The plan is to try to have this baby without a c-section, but if he is as comfortable as Judah was, we may have to schedule one. I am still enjoying being pregnant for the most part, minus sweating 24/7 like a wildebeest, but I’m getting a bit anxious about the details of his arrival. And it should come as no surprise that I do not enjoy not being in control of things. Shut up, Isaac. Not to mention there have been a few cultural differences that have made things a bit more…let’s say interesting, but that’s for another post. In all seriousness, we feel confident in our doctor and her expertise and the hospital is very reputable and advanced. And just to clear things up: fear not, I will take a taxi, not a rickshaw to the hospital.

So far we’ve walked about 30 miles exploring the city on foot in efforts to coax Asher along…

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So, who knows, but one way or the other, we will have a baby by early August! We will keep you posted.

When in Rome… Err.. Seoul

/ Ali Craft / 9 Comments

Everything in Korea is exactly the same as it is in the States. There are no differences whatsoever. (sike!) This is our first of what will most likely turn out to be many posts about the things here that are different than what we are used to. God has a way of using cultural differences to make us more well rounded people (insert pregnant joke here). So, let’s begin.

As we have mentioned before, tipping is basically nonexistent in Korea (with the exception of food delivery, etc.). People do their jobs, and that’s that. Also, as we have mentioned before, it is customary to remove your shoes before entering homes and some public places. It is rude to wear your shoes indoors no matter how good you look in them. As a very pregnant lady at this point, I am making a conscious effort to wear slip ons, as reaching my feet is a skill I lost a few weeks back…

So on to a few new things we have noticed:

Recycling

Koreans recycle everything; even in stores and in parks there are separate trashcans designated for specific items be it plastic, glass, cans, or apparently even small domestic animals…

You had a good run, Spot.

You had a good run, Spot.

Sidewalks

You know the painted stripes in the road which divide traffic? Those are on sidewalks here, too.

Sir, can you please stay in your lane?

Sir, can you please stay in your lane?

Hand soap

We’ve had quite a difficult time finding hand soap for our bathrooms. We finally thought we had found some and bought two bottles of it, but come to find out it was just dish soap with a pump… sigh. There goes our silky soft hands.

Public restrooms

Mama always said, “Korean public restrooms are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” This is a photo of the inside of a stall in the ladies’ room at the family park near our apartment.

Oh, you needed a toilet? Will a hole in the floor due?

Oh, you needed a toilet? Will a hole in the floor due?

And apparently they don’t want you stealing their crappy public restroom soap. Isaac took this picture in a restroom along the river:

That blue thing on the bar coming out of the wall is the soap.

That blue thing on the bar coming out of the wall is the soap.

Markets

There are many stores that have roughly half of their produce on the street so people walking by can see what they have.

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Need some eggplant? No? How about a watermelon?

We also have viewed some interesting practices of food safety…

How do you like your fish? On the street with flies on it, thanks.

How do you like your fish? On the street with flies on it, thanks.

Prices

Taxes are included already in the price you see at the store, so if it says a dollar, you pay a dollar. And like we said about tipping, food prices eating out may look really high, but taxes are included and you don’t tip, so it’s not bad.

We have found groceries in general to be a bit more pricey, especially fruit.

Just for fun

You may be interested to know that Asian Mr. Clean has hair.

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Bosley for men got me great results!

Moving in

In a city like Seoul, most of the apartment complexes are high-rise towers, which makes moving in furniture a challenge, but they have a really cool way of getting furniture up to families’ homes.

Brooms

Of all of the differences that we expected to encounter, brooms were not among our foremost concerns. Our broom is so tiny, Judah thinks it’s a toy. When we brought it home Judah assumed it was for him. Since we are right in the middle of teaching Judah about sharing (you’re welcome, Asher), we now have to wait our turn to use the broom to sweep the floor (I am not kidding).

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Christmas list: one adult-size broom

I expect we will soon look like this:

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That’s it for now…sending love from the future.