Snugglin' it up on a snowy day

2 Months Old

Well, Ezra ate and slept his way through October and November and he has gained almost 5 pounds to show for it. Today at his 2 month check up, he weighed almost 12 pounds. I'm thanking God for helping us through the last 2 months. I said many a prayer asking for His help and I always said I would give Him all the glory if the baby ever learned how to nurse properly. Don't mind if I do give myself a few little pats on the back too though. It hasn't been easy chubbing this baby boy up.

My Cowboys

Memaw and Dee Dee Take Seoul

A month ago we had a wonderful visit from Ryan's mom and grandmother who came all the way across the sea to welcome their new great and grandson into the world with lots of love. They hit the town while they were here too. Ryan had them walking up mountains, riding the crowded subways and eating kimchi. He didn't hold back on their Korean experience and I think they had a pretty good time. They were really good sports throughout all their experiences and even humored Ryan and I's request to dress in traditional outfits at the palace.





Memaw was mingling with everybody around, making friends with strangers everywhere we went.



She was much braver with the camera than I've ever been able to be. It was awesome. She was getting people to pose for her and everything. Here are three girls in the typical get-up.



Of course, most importantly, they spent lots of time loving and cuddling their little Ezra, who loves them already.

So We Don't Forget the Skinny Legs

I took these a couple of weeks ago after I put Ezra in his crib to get his swaddle blanket ready. He just looked soo cute! I never want to forget these skinny little legs. He's already so much bigger than this now.

Mimi Visits

This is my lovely mother at Passion 5 (swanky bakery in Seoul) on her birthday. She was here for a couple of weeks and her presence is now dearly missed. It was so wonderful to have her here to: cry to about breastfeeding, keep the house tidy, and keep her eye on the baby so I could: get dressed, take showers, sleep and eat food. Without her I pick one of the above four activities and you know I also choose food.



We didn't take enough pictures while Mimi was here and she will no doubt not appreciate that she has on no make-up in this one. She still looks beautiful though and it shows her sacrifice in letting some of those things go in order to help.



This is Ezra's halloween costume. He slept through the entire putting on and wearing of it.

Lil' Ezzy and I are on our own again. He's not into swings or any activity where he's not in someone's arms. I keep reminding myself that this is the most important thing in my life now. I can stay in my pajamas all day and allow my house to be a wreck temporarily while I nurture this little boy. He's worth it all. I do have some new tricks for getting him to sleep and I've thrown out everything that tells me not to use them. Oh yeah, I'm talking pacifiers, vaccum cleaners, rocking to sleep...and all three of these at the same time. You do what you gotta do and he needs his sleep.

Settling In & First Visitors

Some of Ezra's first visitors were three of Ryan's former students & current members of his discipleship group and the co-leader of the group, "Aunt" Menya. It was such a sweet and thoughtful visit. The kids collected money to buy Ezra some gifts and went shopping after school for him. They gave him books, a kids Bossa Nova album, a blanket, little stuffed dog and best of all..a baby book with messages from students to Ezra. Some were serious and some were less. One example being; "I give you your gansta name, "Lil Ezzy".

They presented Ezra with his first Bible





and took turns holding him, very nervously.







It was such an encouragement to have them here.

We had so many kind visitors bringing us delicious food. We feel so blessed to be surrounded by people who care about us in Korea. I can't imagine what we would do if we were here without friends.

This has been one crazy week. Even though we "knew" that the first few weeks of taking care of a new baby are very challenging, we didn't know. I don't think anything can prepare you for the highs and lows of being totally responsible for the well being of a little baby. Every morning feels like a new, fresh start and God gets all the glory for that.

Home from the Hospital

Our little Ezra Young is now 10 days old. We've been home from the hospital for one week today. It seems like so much less time. I don't know where all the hours in the day go. We've had some hard nights, but mostly we've had so much joy taking care of this little one. Every day is getting easier.



little "owl eyes" in his hospital bassinet

The nurses at the hospital were so helpful and loving; having a baby in Korea was a really good experience. One day when I was frustrated with breastfeeding, I started crying and the lactation nurse cried with me. It was really sweet and was good for me to have an experience like that here....to see how much she really cared about us.



We were a little bit nervous going home, considering every time he woke up needing to eat, I had to call the lactation nurses to help me. Fortunately, things got a little better the morning we left. It was a strange feeling to be at home for the first time with our son. Here we were with no real clue how to take care of a baby...all alone.





in his bed at home for the first time



Not 20 minutes after we arrived at our apartment, I was trying to feed him. I took all his clothes off of him except his diaper because it was pretty warm in our apartment. Right when he started to eat, the fire alarm in our building went off and there was a message on our speaker (yes, we have "announcements" in our apartment building. we never know what they're about.) Ryan went out in the hall and said it was smokey. I had to wrap Ezra in a blanket and run out. Since we live on the 10th floor, we had to take the elevator, because of my c-section. When we got outside all the residents were there and we saw that an apartment on the 5th floor had smoke pouring out of it. Firemen were already inside putting it out. We were outside about an hour waiting. Lots of our neighbors who have never spoken to us before, came to look at the baby. Praise God, Ezra slept through the whole thing! It was a good first day home. Everyone was kinda in a good mood outside and it forced a little bit of community, something that we often feel is lacking here.



sleep deprived and unshowered of 5 days waiting for the smoke to clear



recovering from the chaos back inside

It has been so good to be home. It's amazing how God gives you the strength to keep going when you have stayed up all night worrying etc. It seems like every time we feel like we can't keep going like this, He gives us a new burst of energy and golden moments with our son.

Baby Ezra has arrived!

This morning at 10:44 we welcomed our little son, Ezra Young (영) Dixon into the world! Mother and child are doing fine. We wanted to pick a name that represented Ezra's family back home, and the fact that he was born in Korea. Young was Abby's grandmother's maiden name. It's also a common Korean name (영).



We are very thankful, and very much appreciate your prayers. We are also thankful for Dr. Choi.

Ezra was born on a cloudy day. I'm sure that means something symbolic. He was also born in the year of the White Tiger, which means, in Korea, that he will have good fortune. I think it was a pretty enough day to be born. You can almost see our apartment through our hospital room window.





We thank God for blessing us with such a lovely baby boy, and can't wait to introduce you to him soon.

It's only been a year since the last update

I'm not a good blogger. Things that take other people 5 minutes on their fancy apples, take me about 30 on an old dying Toshiba. Ryan and I never take pictures either. One of us needs to get into gear before the arrival of the baby in the next few weeks. We know that people can deal with not getting updates about us, but something tells me they won't be so patient and kind once the little one is in the world. We'll do our best.



Baby is officially due on October 5th (but as we learned in our childbirth class, that means "sometime in late september to mid october). Right now the little one is head up with his feet in the pelvis. Some breech babies can be safely delivered, but when they are feet first, it's considered very risky. In the meantime, I've tried all manner of natural ways to get him to flip: crawling around on my hands and knees, playing music through headphones at the pelvis, elevating my hips higher than my heart and most recently, acupuncture and moxa*. So far, he hasn't budged. We have a c-section tentatively scheduled for Monday, October 4th. We'll go in Sunday night and if he's still head up, he'll enter the world via c-section the next morning.

*Moxa is the burning of mugwort near pressure points. In my case, the outside of my little toes. They put little suction cups with incense sticks in the middle on you and let the mugwort burn for 15 minutes. This was ok, but it smelled just like marijuana! I've been smelling this in our apartment everyday, trying to convince Ryan our neighbors are smoking pot. It takes a little scandal out of my day to know it's just mugwort.