Easter 2008

Easter is earlier this year than I ever remember it being. I hear it won't be this early for another 220 years or so. It came less than a week after St. Patrick's Day, before my March 31 birthday, and before the cherry blossoms and spring flowers have even bloomed. Strange! But we did the celebration anyway, by inviting some of our favorite young adults (our surrogate children in Seoul) to join us for lasagne dinner and Easter music and discussion. And then we brought out the cookies to decorate! We had a friendly competition to see which egg John would choose as the winning entry...and he picked one of mine! That's quite an accomplishment, considering that 3 of the competitors (Lumina, Krisanne, and Karyn) are professionally trained artists! Good food, good friends, good times, and the greatest event of all time to commemorate: the resurrection of Jesus. Norm and I had also participated in the beautiful Easter program that the choir performed at church that morning. Since it was gray and rainy all day, I am grateful we were not in an outdoor sunrise service!

More St. Patrick's Day pictures

(The bottom photo is Ambassador Murphy and wife Lillian)

Temple Time at last!

Lumina came to Korea in summer of 2005, and lived with us for awhile. She moved out on her own and got a good job, and kept extending her contract to teach at a school in Bundang, south of Seoul. We have talked, over the months and years, about going to the temple, and she finally made it happen on March 1, 2008. I felt such joy for her, like she is my own daughter. Her middle name in "Infinite." So, she is a bearer of everlasting, or infinite light. She's a good person to keep close! We love her, and are so happy for her. Here are a few photos in front of the Seoul Temple.

St.Paddy's in Seoul!

This was the year of at least one interesting and fun discovery---We learned that there are enough Irish and Irish-loving folks hanging out in Seoul, to justify a big green parade and party for St. Patrick's Day! We decided to see for ourselves, after I met (at SFS British school) the day before, Lillian Murphy,the wife of the Irish Ambassador to Korea. We joined all the thousands of others wearin' the green, to celebrate long-awaited Spring, and Ireland, far from the US or the Emerald Isle. Koreans seem to love taking on whatever festival they can find, if it promotes business!

And, I decided to have a St. Patrick's Day dinner with a couple of my favorite families living here, so I made the corned beef and cabbage dinner, and a big pot of beef stew, some Irish soda bread muffins, and put on the Celtic music. Daniel had just returned the week before, from a visit to Ireland and England, and Michael was celebrating his 25th birthday the same day. I delivered Michael in 1983 on St. Patrick's Day in Stuttgart, Germany, and if he hadn't decided to arrive that day, Norm and I would have been celebrating St. Paddy's day at our neighbor's house in Heilbronn.