Last Day at Hyundai Foreign School

Tomorrow will be our last day at Hyundai Foreign School. I am sure there will be many tears, hugs, and laughter on my part. I know that we will miss this place so much.

When I first found out we were coming to Korea, I had no idea what life would be like. But there is this place that makes things so much easier. It was my child's school.

There I found friends, encouragement, support, and love.

There we were surrounded with excellent, supportive, loving teachers who challenged our boys to go beyond what they thought they could do.

My younger son is on the autism spectrum. He is high functioning, but he still has meltdowns and frustrations. He has been blessed to have wonderful teachers who cared for him as much as we did. Never did I ever dream that my child would have a teacher who would be drawn to tears when talking about his success and how far he has come.

And his success is because of them. Never did I ever think my child would have these angels called teachers, from places all over the world, who would love him and care for him in such a way that is beyond words. My child has been called precious, handsome, and special. He even has a young Korean man who became his safety net. Even when I could not console him at times, I witnessed my child run to this precious man to feel safe. I don't know if I will able to find teachers like these for my kids ever again.

My oldest child has been challenged and loved all at the same time. Even though he is high spirited and has trouble suppressing his emotions, his teachers all call him "one of a kind".....in a good way. They have sparked his passion in so many things. He has experience an education that very few children have had. He has made friends around the world.

I, too, have been changed by this place. I was blessed to be able to serve the last two years in man classroom settings. I have had more precious hugs, smiles, thank you's, and encouragement from people of all creeds and nationalities. I will never be the same.

Thank you to each and every person affiliated with Hyundai Foreign School. You took a redneck from Mississippi who had never lived more than 90 miles from home, never flown in a plane, and never thought she'd live in a foreign country.....and lifted her up, loved on her, supported her, laughed and cried with her.

I will so miss the greetings from children......."Mrs. Karen! JC's mom! Micah's mom!" I never thought I would love so many children in such a huge way like I love these kids here.


Tomorrow will be one of the hardest days of my life. You all, teachers, parents, children, staff....will forever have an imprint on our hearts.

What a year!

What a year it has been! We have only made it through almost 7 months of this year, but it has been busy. So sorry I didn't post anything! I hope to make up for it the next few months!

See, we are closing up our project with Noble in September. We are still awaiting word on where we are going. The boys' school will end this Friday. After that, we are still going to do some "school" in the mornings and JC and I will be starting a new project. I am going to have him go around with me and interview....showing some of our favorite things about Ulsan. I don't want to forget any detail.

So get ready for a lot of posts (hopefully). Here are a few pics we have taken since the first of the year. Micah has made so many advances and JC has grown so much with another great teacher who happens to have come from New York. :) And she and her husband like the Dallas Cowboys! :)