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English Village has the feel of the last week of school. You know the feeling… it’s the end of May, the weather is beautiful, everyone is signing year books and talking about summer plans…

The village opened at the end of February last year, so many teachers are finishing their one-year contracts this week. We returned from our vacation to a flurry of good bye parties and the arrival of new faces. The mood is very bright as those departing look forward to their next adventures and newcomers bring in optimistic anticipation. There was a big blow-out party the night we got back, I went to a girls’ gathering last night, and tonight we’re going to stop by an “out with the old, in with the new” barbecue.

The weather was gorgeous today. It was in the 50’s Fahrenheit. We slept in. I knitted (I am sooo close to finally finishing the sweater I’ve been working on since December) and Adam worked on some school work. Then, we got up and took a hike up the little mountain down the road. It’s the first time we have been hiking here, which is ridiculous since we’re surrounded by mountains. But, the mood and weather were perfect, and we tackled the mountain. It was a great Lofbomm-sized hike, and we feel really good now. There are some gorgeous crests overlooking Paju, the dried-up rice paddies, the river and the North Korean mountains in the hazy distance. We plan to go back up the mountain a lot. It is so refreshing to stand on top of a mountain, even a small one.

We’re still feeling the jet-lag, and Adam’s napping. I think I’ll go join. Maybe we won’t be making it to tonight’s barbecue.

-Jessica

Well, we had a great time at home, and now we’re home in Korea.  It’s nice to have three homes, maybe more.  It feels good to be back.  We have come back to a beautiful Spring in Korea.  It smells really good outside.  We’re about to jump on the motorcycle and get dinner down the road.  Dubu (tofu), yum.
Happy Spring!

-Jessica

This is a message worth sending on to your friends and colleagues. Copy this link into an email: http://lofbomm.com/2007/02/23/to-bless-a-friend/

Adam and I sponsor Felicia, a little girl in Moldova through a wonderful charitable organization called Sweet Sleep based in Tennessee, USA. We became acquainted with Felicia and Sweet Sleep in 2005 when I helped my company, EMI Christian Music Group, organize a huge Christmas charity for orphans in Moldova.

EMI CMG donated a winter coat for every child in two large Moldovan orphanages, employees and friends bought warm clothes and gifts, donated money for new beds, wrote letters to children, many employees (including myself) reached out to sponsor a child, and a few of our employees actually went to Moldova in January, 2006 to deliver these awesome gifts to hundreds of orphans. It was incredible. My friend, Brian McKay from the EMI CMG mail-room was one of those who went to Moldova, and his life was changed.

Last week while we were in Nashville, Adam and I visited the office at EMI Christian Music Group. We stopped in to say hi to old friends, including Brian, and he handed me an exciting letter:

Dear Friends,

There is something exciting happening in the McKay house and we want to share it with you! The dinner table in our home currently seats the two of us, our 14 year-old son Colton, 6 year-old daughter Hope, and 4 year-old daughter Kailyn, as Prince Tubby the basset hound patiently awaits falling crumbs. But things, they are a-changing!

As some of you know, over the last 13 months Brian has participated in 3 mission trips to Moldova, a small country about the size of Maryland, which lies between Romania and the Ukraine. To those of you who have supported those trips through prayer or donations, we extend our heartfelt thanks. Through these trips and letter writing, we have met and come to love the three beautiful girls pictured here with Brian. The Gritenco sisters, 16 year-old twins Marina and Diana and 14 year-old Viorica have lived most of their lives in the largest orphanage in the capital city of Chisinau with about 600 other children.

Orphanages in Moldova currently house over 12,000 children. The children live in dormitory housing and attend school there until they turn 16 or complete the 9th grade. At that time, they are discharged, only to attempt to make their own way in a society that has no use for parentless children.

The statistics for these children are heartbreaking. 10% of these teens will commit suicide in the first year after being discharged from the orphanage. 70% of the young men will either join the mafia in search of a “family”, or will be imprisoned due to their desperate attempts to survive. 80% of the young women will either be sold or forced into prostitution.

God is calling on our family to give the Gritenco sisters hope for a future. We can change the world, as they know it, by adopting them. We are commanded in James 1:27 to care for orphans in distress. We are praying for a miracle to make this adoption possible. The estimated cost associated with adopting these girls is $75,000. This includes adoption agency fees, travel expenses, Moldovan taxes, and too many other expenses to list.

With your help, and the help of others like you, God will provide. The church we are members of has offered their overwhelming support by establishing a fund to receive donations for this adoption. Your donations can be tax deductible if sent payable to New Joy Fellowship, 625 Spring Creek Road, Lebanon, TN, 37087. Please notate “adoption fund” in the memo line of your check. You can also help us by forwarding this letter to some of your friends, or by writing one of your own. If you don’t feel led to make a financial contribution at this time, we welcome any notes of encouragement, and let us know if you would like to receive updates about our journey.

Lastly, but most importantly, we ask you to pray. Not only for our growing family, but for the hearts of those children we can’t bring home.

In His Love,
Brian and Sarah McKay

Brian and his family are seeking 1,000 people who will each donate $75 to help in adopting these three sisters. Please help. We’re giving $75, and we also wanted to use this platform to encourage others to give.

You can send a tax-deductible check (if you are abroad, you can send a cashier’s check) payable to:

New Joy Fellowship
625 Spring Creek Road
Lebanon, TN, 37087
USA

Please notate “adoption fund” in the memo line of your check.

Adam and I try not to ask too much of you, our readers, but Brian is a good man, and Marina, Diana and Viorica’s lives can be changed. Let us know if you want to help but cannot send a check.

Thanks. We appreciate you and wish you all the best!

-Jessica

Hello from West Chicago.  It’s 2:30 p.m., and Adam and I are still in our pajamas.  I love vacation.  He has been working on his homework all morning, and I’ve been catching up on some emails.  Just thought I’d say hi.

-JLo

I’m ‘zausted.  We are at the end of the Nashville leg of out trip, and it has been great.  Tomorrow evening we’ll fly to Chicago to spend several days before we return to Korea on Saturday.

Usually, I like to editorialize and not just list events, but eh.  I’m sleepy, and I at least want to share a few nuggets of our time with you.  We’ve had a wonderful week.  Here are a few highlights from our time in Nashville:

On Tuesday, we had coffee with Genesis and her new mom, Heather.

On Wednesday, we had lunch with our former employers and then celebrated Valentines Day with KC and Gene’ with a feast at Maggiano’s.

On Thursday, we went to Thursday Business Lunch at church, then visited with Granny.

On Friday, we had a party at KC and Gene’s house and served our friends some Korean treats and a meal of kimchi, dokkboki, mandu, curry and dubu.  Everyone loved it.

On Saturday, my parents arrived from Chicago, and Adam’s mom served up an awesome feast for us at brunch and again at dinner.  It was a great family day.

On Sunday (today), we went to church, and I sang a solo.  We had lunch with Brandon and Lesley Ann.  We spent the evening hanging out with family at Granny’s house.

Tomorrow, we’ll have breakfast at Pancake Pantry, hang out with family and then be on our way to Chicago.  Bon voyage.

-Jessica

On Tuesday, we had coffee with our dog Genesis (now named Jenny) and her new mom, Heather. Heather is great, and they’re both so good for each other. :). Heather told us that shortly after we left for Korea this summer, she brought Gen to the vet for a check-up and found out the she had heart worms! This can be fatal for dogs, but they caught it early, and after three months of treatments and a lot of money, Genesis was cured of heart worms.

Adam and I never go to the doctor, and we almost never brought Gen to the vet. If we still had Gen, we probably wouldn’t have caught her heart worms until she was too sick. Another lesson in parenting: check-ups matter. Thanks, Heather for taking care of our girl.

-Jessica

What do the Lofbomm nerds do while on vacation? We go to our favorite coffee shop and sit silently at our matching iBook computers for hours, that’s what. Mmmm. We’re back in Nashville, enjoying the chai lattes and East Nashville atmosphere of Bongo Java. Mmm. Love it.

enjoy your day…

-Jessica

Adam referred to this trip home as a victory lap, and it definitely feels like that. He’s in Nashville right now, and I’m in Chicago, and we’re both having such a good time with our parents and seeing a few friends.

My mom and I have particularly spent a lot of time together, and it has been so good. We’ve had great conversations, we’ve done some old favorite things together (like visiting Grandpa, having lunch at Town House Books, shopping at Geneva Commons, and seeing a chick flick movie), and we’ve done some great new things. We cooked, which we never do together, and made my Grandma’s lasagna recipe. It was fun to work in the kitchen with her, and it tasted delicious. We also got up yesterday morning and worked out at Curves. She has been pretty regular working out, and she has made awesome progress. She looks great. It’s fun to have my mom coaching me on exercise machines.

It has been a good trip, and I’m glad we still have two weeks to go.

-Jessica

Wednesday, February 7, 2007 was the longest day of my life. Literally. I have never before experienced a 39 hour day. We flew from Seoul to Tokyo to Chicago, and with the time differences, we watched the sun rise and set twice on the same day. Weird.

Now we’re recovering from jetlag, but I wanted to say hi. We arrived safely in the states. We enjoyed a lovely evening with my parents in Illinois, and this morning Adam went on to Nashville. We’ll spend a few days with our respective parents, and then I’ll head to Nashville too.

Adam’s dad’s surgery seems to have gone well yesterday, and he’s expected to be home by the time Adam arrives there today. Hopefully Adam will write an update.

That’s all for now. I’ll write more soon.

-Jessica

One of my very least favorite things is packing.  I had to write it into my calendar yesterday, and then I still didn’t do it.  Last night Adam made a really good start of it despite my whining, but tonight there’s no escaping it.  Our clothes are packed, our gift suitcase is packed, and now it’s the never ending odds and ends: camera cords, laptop cords, iPod cords, books for pleasure, books for work, books for school (at this very moment, Adam is tearing a few chapters from the binding of one of his school books… “It’s too heavy.  I thought it was an elegant solution.”), kleenex, gum, non-sharp objects, you get the picture.

In related news, we’ll be home soon!  Tomorrow we will leave our apartment in the loving hands of Cheryl and her cat Elvira.  We’ll spend the day and night in Seoul (Maggrite exhibit with Annie and Sung Sook then visit with Stanton and Melanie), we’ll wake up Wednesday morning and take the subway to the airport.  We’ll leave Seoul at noon, and after 17 hours of travel, we’ll arrive in Chicago at 2:23 p.m.  Weird.

We’re really glad to be able to take a break and spend time with our family and friends at home.  It’s going to be a great trip, and it’s definitely the right timing.

This may be our last post until our arrival in Chicago, and if so, have a great few days, and we’ll see you on the other side of the planet!  (Even if we do post again, you can still have a great few days…)

Okay, time to finish packing.  See you soonish.

-Jessica