Highlights Throughout the Months - 2012

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 6^th, 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 25^th 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 5^th 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.

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!

Miso's first Christmas