I was driving Taylor and Ayden home from our evening activities today and Taylor asked me a string of questions that seemed very out of the blue. Her first question, "Mom, before you and dad had me and boo boo, did you have a lot of free time and was it easier?" We had a discussion around how before we had kids we thought we were so busy but we learned after having kids that we wasted a lot of time. In order to have careers and a family we learned to become really efficient with time. Life is harder but more rewarding. This lead to a whole host of other questions until she finally let me into why she was asking the questions.
Taylor and Ayden watched the first 30 minutes of the second 2008 Presidential debate with us. Taylor brought up a specific question that was asked. She repeated the question nearly word for word then she repeated Obama's response and captured everything he conveyed. The gist of what Obama said was that he fundamentally disagreed with Sen. McCain on the economy. That for many people, wages and income have flat-lined and it is getting harder and harder to save and to retire. That a tax cut for 95% of working Americans would help those who are working two jobs, people who are not spending enough time with their kids, because they are struggling to make ends meet.
"Mom, I just felt like Barack Obama really understood the question and what is happening to people. He knows what people are going through right now with the economy." Then she got really quite and I could tell by her voice that she was about to cry. I asked why she felt so sad and she said to me, "I'm sad that parents don't have as much time to spend with their children because they are working so hard. I know what all those children feel like and how sad it must be for them. I'm just glad to know that Barack Obama understands where children are coming from and how they are being affected by this." What she was trying to confirm was if what Obama had said would hold true for our family, if things are harder now, if we would be spending less time with them in light of the economy and if so the thought of having a President who could relate to children was very important for her.
We continued to talk through out the evening until I put the girls to bed. As I retold the story to Kong all I could think was, "Man, this is my kid. I'm so lucky." I'm so lucky for one that she has a natural curiosity; two, that she would want to watch the debate (we had to force the girls to go to bed after 30 minutes) and three that she would take a debate answer and apply it to herself and other people/children. Obama must have made an impact on her because days later she was still thinking about the responses. Though she is a blessing, this natural curiosity makes it extremely challenging to be her parent. She's been asking us a lot of questions about the market, the economy blowing up and finances so ask me next week if I still feel blessed : )
I don't want to sound like I'm bragging but I am extremely proud of both my girls. Ayden is already displaying a very mathematical mind, just like her dad. She sees everything as patterns, geometric shapes and is always putting everything she sees into number context. You can't eat anything without her wanting to put numbers around the object, what it means if you eat one or two or three more. She can't look at three people sitting around without pointing out that the three people make the three points of a triangle and if one more person were to sit in a particular place a diamond would be formed. Pretty amazing for a 5 year old, right?
Maybe all kids are like Taylor and Ayden. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit. Maybe I'm just a proud parent. Whatever the case, I love them so much and I am so blessed that God gave me these two children that I think are amazing.
On another note, I read this amazing article on msn.com and thought I'd post a link in case anyone else wants to read. It's about people who love each other so much that even death can't separate them. Okay, it sounds creepy when I say it that way but trust me, if you believe in true love then you have to read it.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26980587
We had Taylor's birthday party this past weekend. About 20 friends and family attended the Kuk Sool Won birthday party. Everyone had a great time. At the end of the event every child got a chance to break a real board. Here are a few pictures and video clips from Taylor's birthday party. 
There was kicking, blocking, an obstacle course, and face painting. It was especially fun for the kids to have heir names written in Korean by PSBN Steffen on the board they broke. Taylor's birthday party was the talk of class today.
This weekend was very busy for us. We've been planning a big Sunday School fundraiser the past few weeks and we were able to pull it off with the help of many caring and giving members of the church. We cut and shredded veggies all evening Friday, woke up at 5:15am on Saturday to start rolling egg rolls and frying, then sold the egg rolls in front of Sam's Club until 4pm. It was extremely cold so I was very proud of the kids who stuck it out to the very end. We were able to make $950. We'll be sending a large portion of that to help children in Laos who are less fortunate then we are.
