September
Well I can say this was
one of my favorite yet hardest months in Korea. My baby niece was born!! I
really could have dwelled on the fact that I wasn’t there, but overall I was
filled with so much joy for my family. Leighann Piper Bedford was born on
September 6th, 2012. She’s absolutely beautiful and it’s been
amazing to see my sister and brother in law turn into parents and my parents
turn into grandparents! This little girl has captured my heart and I can’t wait
until the day we meet face to face. Aunties loves you baby girl!
October
This month we celebrated
Cory’s 25th birthday! I embarrassed him at school throughout the
day. He does not like being the center of attention but I wanted to make the
entire day about him. I decorated his chair and desk with balloons and signs
that read, “Happy Birthday.” Also, I made him wear a birthday hat during lunch.
All the kids loved that! The teachers provided a cake for him. I put 25 candles
on the cake which they thought was very strange. In Korea they have different candle
sizes. A longer stick can be 10 years while the shorter ones are worth only
one. Here I swarmed the cake with 25 candles which was very humorous to them. I
guess I ended up teaching them a little American culture while I was at it. I
always love Cory’s birthday because we become the same age and he can no longer
call me, “old lady.” Haha, I love him to pieces and I will always be so
excited to celebrate his life.
Happy Halloween
November
This was also a very
exciting month in our lives. Cory and I were going through our regular routine
with school and home life. Until one day, I was walking to an academy I teach
at once a week. On my way there, I ran into one of my students. To my surprise,
she was holding a little kitten. My student said she found her in a pile of
garbage and simply placed her in my hands. I could tell this little kitten was
helpless and her mom was not around. I didn’t know what to do since I needed to
be teaching my class in 5-10 minutes. I thought I’d put her near a bush and
only hope she’d be there when I came back out. That didn’t work. As soon as I
put her down, she was on the move. I remember looking at her eyes and they were
infected pretty badly. I knew she would most likely not survive if I didn’t
think of something.
I did have help from my two 5th grade students and we tried
a few more things, but she kept scurrying off. I almost called it quits. I
walked into the academy building and to my utmost SURPRISE, I walked passed a
closet filled with banana boxes! The supervisor was trying to organize the
boxes and I asked if I could have one. He had nooooo idea why I would need one,
but he confusingly handed one over. I remember SPRINTING out of the academy
building to save this kitten. One of my students was watching her thankfully
and we put her in the box. When I walked back into the building the supervisor
asked why I needed the box. Now, remembering there is a language barrier here…
he could not understand the word, “cat.” So, I had to mimic a cat… haha. He
understood, I went to class, and before you know it the supervisor came up to
my class and told me he found a better box for the kitten and brought her
inside the building so she wouldn’t get away. I was so relieved!!
After class, I ran home to show Cory and he could not believe how small
this little kitten was. She clearly needed her mom still. Not knowing what to
do, we smashed up some crackers and warmed up milk (later we found out that’s
not a good idea) but she didn’t eat anything. We decided to take her to the vet
the next day and realllllllllly tried not to get attached to this little one. We
didn’t know how infected she was or if she’d survive. The vet took one look and
mentioned how sick she was. Bacteria infections, eye infections…almost
everything you can think of. We decided to go through with the shots to see if
we could save this kitten’s life. The vet was very moved and could see our
hearts towards this little animal. A few days passed and we took our kitten
back to the vet. He could NOT believe her progress! He gave us good news and
told us we ended up saving her life. After that, Cory and I have been attached
to this little kitten. We were NEVER cat people before this incident. But, I
can say now, we love her to pieces. We decided to give her a name; Miso. It
means “smile” in Korean. She always puts a smile on our face. She is our
fighter and we are blessed to have her apart of our little family.
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| Miso the kitten |
Decmeber
The highlight of
December was celebrating Christmas. Cory and I had a very special Christmas
last year. It was our first one as a married couple. We wrote 10 favorite
memories/attributes about each other and put them in a box.
However, this Christmas was a little different. Christmas Eve was so
fun. We decided to go to a coffee shop and have a little date night. I was so
excited for Christmas morning. It is by far my favorite holiday! I wish I could
say we woke up to happy joyful times, but it was the exact opposite. I indeed
woke up Christmas morning with food poisoning. Something I’ve never had before.
I guess this really isn’t a “highlight.” We still opened presents from our
families back home. That was a lot of fun. After that, it was back to bed – the
entire day. Hoping for a better Christmas next year! Thanks again to our
families for sending us gifts from many miles away!
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| Miso's first Christmas |
