1 Year!

It is truly hard to capture all that has gone on during one full year, 365 days, or eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours approximately (leap year...whatever).

That is the amount of time we have now spent on this little peninsula. Once before known as a small country with little relevance to our lives, has now become a home to us so rich with culture and memories we can't imagine leaving it after such a short period of time. We had our plane tickets set to venture into the unknown unaware of what was waiting for us on the other side.

What we discovered has been, so far, too complex for my meager writing ability. A few things we have discovered though...

Korean food is extremely underrated. I was worried we weren't going to like very many dishes and we would be stuck eating them out of necessity. Well, thankfully, this was not the case. We absolutely LOVE the food. Donkas, dolsot-bibimbap, kimchi, dalkabli, dukgalbi, sam gyeopsal, bulgolgi, kimbap...I could go on and on really. Anyway, the food, like I said, does not get enough credit.

Kids are too easy to love. We knew coming out here we would grow to love the children in the school. We, however, had no idea how much they would truly impact our lives. I guess you could say we were slightly unprepared as to how heavily the kids would hang on our hearts. We just had the kindergarten graduation at a banquet hall in Seoul with the other two BIS campuses. It was quite a production to say the least. During the ceremony and shortly after we both felt such joy from seeing the kids so proud of themselves for working so hard and accomplishing so much during the short year.

I may have at times expected too much of them, been too quick to correct, or just been too impatient. Have they not stopped learning, stopped playing, stopped loving? The spirit of a child does not have an equal. It has no comparison. I don't have a defense to the unconditional love and unwavering persistence of these children. I cannot hold a candle to their positive outlook. To say that I was the teacher during this experience would be a very subjective skewed point of view.

Family is SUPER important. Whether it be father, mother, grandparent, brother, sister, cousin, aunt, uncle, or friend. These individuals and groups serve as pillars in our lives. We count on you for support, and can't thank you enough for the extended comfort and strength you have provided. We don't want the many miles between us to separate us - we are always here for you, despite being far away.

We're excited to see what 2010/2011 has in store for us. The Lord has been our rock this year and we trust that He has a plan for us here in The Land of the Morning Calm.