In the Spotlight

As winter rolls in here in Seoul, it's hard to believe that just a few weeks ago we were wearing short sleeves and enjoying the sunshine. Here are a few pictures from one of our trips to the park up the hill before the weather changed...somehow I'd forgotten about them, but there are a few good ones I wanted to share.

"Let's go this way, Mom"...who wouldn't want to take a picture of this cutie?!

As an example of the attention our kids get here, I will share a little story from this particular outing: the four of us were standing at a fork in the path trying to figure out which direction to go. The kids wanted to go up the hill because in the past Eric had mentioned going into the cafe in the park and getting a snack or a drink for them. We didn't have much time before dinner, so the adult vote was to head in the other direction toward home. As we were having this discussion, an older Korean woman was up the hill watching us and taking our picture. As she approached, she tried to get a close up picture of Cade. He wasn't up for it on this day, though, and kept hiding behind Eric's legs.

Most days I don't really mind this. I feel like it is part of what we signed on for as missionaries in this country. They don't see white, blond-haired kids very often (even I am considered blonde here!), and therefore I should allow them to take pictures of us as long as it doesn't bother the kids. I'm going to choose to believe that it was Cade's reluctance to have his picture taken that resulted in my irritation because I am never irritable for no reason!  [Editor's note: did you know that blond spelled with the "e" refers to a female with blond coloring...I wanted to look it up to ensure I was using the correct spelling and ended up learning something new...hence my use of the word "blond" with two different spellings.]

2 out of 3 looking at the camera and smiling isn't bad, right?!

Eventually, we continued down the hill in the direction of home, and there we found the same woman now recording a video of us with her phone! Not only that, but she had attracted a crowd and others were also taking our pictures by now. Eric was the good sport and picked up Cade and tried to get him to smile and talk to the woman while Kennedy and I walked on ahead and tried to pretend like it was happening. Every day is an adventure here. Seriously.