Finally an answer!

Hello Everyone. I finally got an answer from Firstgiving and they were able to extend my web page until December 2009. If you were waiting to make a donation it is now possible! Thanks again to everyone helping raise funds!

Water fund: Important info on dontations

Hello, if you were trying to donate on www.firstgiving.com/elenawilley, they have closed the page as of 31st. I'm not sure what happened, maybe my mistake but the set end date for the fund raiser was listed as Dec. 31st, 2008 instead of 2009. I have contacted them about extending the date and opening the fund raising page again. I hope to hear from them on Jan 2nd and will post again once I know what to do. For those of you who were trying to donate, hold on! And check back again in a day! Sorry for the mishap.

Also, thank you so much for all of you who have contacted me about wanting to help with the fund raiser! I am so encouraged that this has captured the hearts of other people too. There are some great fund raisers in the works and others who have contacted me about donating at different times in the year. Change will happen when we work together!

Two proud boys

Yesterday the boys changed their Tae kwon do belts from yellow to green. As far as I understand, to move to the next belt they need to turn in the cards that they receive for participation and knowing most of the current moves. They were so proud and excited. Brett wanted to make sure Joe and I were both there to see them receive there new belts. I have never seen another parent there, the children either get picked up by the bus/teacher or walk themselves. The other children love to talk to us when we are there. They are trying to speak to us in English and I'm trying to speak to them in Korean! They boys thoroughly enjoy going to class. Ian asks every weekend when they don't have class why they can't go. The classes not only involve the Tae kwon do moves but also running, stretching, jumping rope, tumbeling, and respect/etiquette.

Green Eggs and Ham (or granola, in my case)

In the story of Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss there is a man being followed, badgered, and annoyed by Sam. Sam is convinced that the man will like green eggs and ham if he only tries it. Many times I feel like Sam. Recently Brett asked for granola. It is not readily available in any store around here so I planned to buy the two hefty bags at Costco when I visited this week, only to be appalled that the price had jumped from $16 to $22! I decided I would try to make my own granola. The next day I whipped up some which I thought tasted pretty yummy. I was excited to greet Brett in the morning with a bowl for him only to be shot down with "that doesn't look the same" "why does it have nuts in it?" "I wanted the other granola" Brett, you may like it... Try it, try it and you may... If you know the ending of the book the man does try it and discovers he likes green eggs and ham, thus the ending to my story as well.
I have a vague memory of my mother saying she wished I had a child like me one day. She got her wish! Oh, how the tables have turned and now I will be the persistent Sam I am.

Clean Water Fund

Imagine tomorrow waking up and not having running water anymore and the only available water was more than a mile (or kilometer) away in a small pond. And that pond was also the water hole for animals (you can bet there would be some feces in it!) No showers, or coffee to start the day, only a hike carrying buckets to fill and then carrying them home--roundtrip about two hours. You could only carry about 10 gallons each time, how dramatically life would change. This is reality for millions of people in the world, bacteria are rampant and people are dying just because they don't have access to clean water, yet how quickly we are able to access water everyday for every purpose. When I read about this in a World Vision Summer 2007 magazine it forever changed my life. (Articles: Just Add Water, Water in a Child's Life, and Splashes.) I have been wondering what I can do. I am setting a challenge out to raise the money needed for a deep water well to be dug in a community by the end of 2009. The cost is $18,000! I know most do not have that kind of money but as a group of people we can raise that over the course of a year. With your help, we can make a difference together in the lives of many! I will be working on this all year, would you join me in thinking outside the box to help others around the world? Get creative and get others involved. Give a donation as a Christmas gift, a birthday present, or anniversary gift. Do a fundraiser, walk-a-thon or bake sale or help raise funds. Please pass this along. Change happens when a group of people work towards the same goal!

To learn more click on the "First Giving" widget on the top right of this page.

Celebrating 9 years

It's hard to believe we've been married for so long, yet it's gone by so fast. We had the wonderful opportunity to get away just the two of us (thank you Bruce and Susan for watching the boys!) and headed to Namisam island about 2 1/2 hours bus ride from here. The island is known for Winter Sonata, a romantic T.V. drama that filmed there. It is 5k of beautiful nature and with the season being fall, many, many colorful trees! My favorite season is the fall, probably because growing up in AZ I never saw the leaves change colors. The first year I experienced fall I fell in love with the beauty of it and look forward to it every year. As you can see we took a lot of photos of the the trees.

Tae kwon do

Tae kwon do is a big deal in Korea. There are studios in every apartment complex and it seems that all children participate in it at some point. We have been toying with the idea of Brett taking it for awhile and finally decided to start he and Ian in lessons. They will be going 3x a week. Most places do not start students until they are 5 but this place starts at 4yrs and it is directly outside our apartment. Today was our first class. There are about 7 other kids ranging from 4-8 years old. The teacher speaks a little English and between his broken English and the boys limited Korean they were able to understand. Of course all they really need to do it follow along with what everyone else is doing. I thought this would be a great way for them to be hearing and hopefully learning some Korean, meeting other kids from our apartment/neighborhood and getting some energy out. I stayed to watch and just today we learned the words for master(teacher), right and left, hand, foot and go. The kids did stretching, running races, jumping rope, and tae kwon do poses. Ian was disappointed at the end of the hour when it was done. They look so cute in their uniforms, don't you think?