April Fools Day!

We started off the day at 10am being paparazzi for Alice and Wade. We were privileged to be able to share and record their gotcha day. Their son Jack is so cute and huge! They really like big babies here in Korea. The foster mom was an older lady probably in her late 40's (so says Milon. I think she looked to be in her 50s). We never saw tears from the foster mom but we did hear her sniffling. What a bittersweet occasion. I was as nervous for Wade and Alice as they were but it did help me to see what was going to happen for us at 2pm. Jack did amazing. He never really cried. He was so tired though. I have a feeling our experience will be different. The reunion ended as we all got in the elevator and the foster mom stood in the hallway. The doors to the elevator closed and that was that. The separation was that quick. I am sure a lot more tears fell once those elevator doors closed. How could you not.

We left Alice and Wade and went to the Korea Walmart. We picked up some bananas, peanut butter and some bread for a traditional Elvis sandwich! Peanut butter was $6! I should have brought some from home. We then stopped by a flower shop to pick up some flowers for the foster mom. $20 bought us this bouquet. I have some chocolates to give her as well.


We ate lunch at the apt and nervously waited for 2pm! I can't believe these are our last few hours as a family of 4! Adoption is such a different experience from child birth and this adoption is so different from Leah's! I wanted to break Leah out of the orphanage but Emma is in a loving home with people she thinks of as Mom and Dad. It is a different feeling and Milon keeps reminding me that the foster parents are not her parents and don't want to raise her. You can feel the love this women has for her foster children. The walls in her living room were covered with collages of all her foster babies and updated pictures of the children. To invest 9 months lovingly caring for a child to let it go takes a special person.

Now, I am updating the blog entry again. We have Emma!

What a heartbreaking but exciting day. We walked into SWS and the foster mom was already in the conference room. She was already sobbing. Emma was sitting there in a dress, with a headband, shoes and ruffly socks. She looked so cute and you could tell the foster mom took extra time to fix her up. She even had a headband on! We handed her the flowers and chocolate but nothing we could have given her would have taken away her pain. Her tears were pouring. Our social worker came in the room and we went through Emma's typed out schedule, asked if we had any questions, signed a piece of paper and then we were off to the elevator of separation. Emma did great though and didn't shed a tear. I really thought the foster mom was going to be fine and Emma was going to cry! Look at the picture below and you can feel her sorrow.

Here is a picture of the final elevator goodbye.

Below is a picture of us with our social worker.

More pictures from the conference room.



SWS gave us clothes, bottles, diapers, formula, and mother of pearl box, a Korean flag, baby food and her favorite toys.



We got back to the apartment and tried to put Emma to bed since it was nap time. She was more interested in playing peek a boo through the crib rails and playing with Milon's belt. She is great at imitating our clicking noises. I changed her clothes since she had 5 layers on and the 9 month pants don't fit! I guess she is in 12 months. Since she was too busy to sleep we played with her on the floor for awhile. She has a very cute personality and likes to play games with us! She even got the sippy cup of water I gave her down pat. I felt like first time parents. We tried putting her in the crib, lying with her on the bed, rocking her to get her to fall asleep. Finally, we decided to put her blanket on the floor and sit and play with her and in minutes she grabbed her blanket and put herself to sleep. Let's hope this continues! She is now sleeping like a baby on her blanket on the floor!
Of course, mommy had to put some new threads on. And the cute hair bow. Unfortunately, most of the clothes I brought aren't going to fit! We might be wearing this outfit again!

Seeing the Sights

Today we tried to cram all of the last minute touristy site seeing in. It is our last day as "childless couples" in Korea! Alice, Wade, Milon and I first took the subway to Gyeongbokgung Palace. The palace was beautiful and we couldn't have asked for a prettier day. It was about 62 degrees and sunny. We saw the changing of the guards and also saw a group of tourist monks! At least that is what we liked to think they were! It was so funny to see them in their monk attire with digital camera!



We tried to go to a Korean restaurant that I read about online, however the line was down the street! So we then stumbled across this Italian restuarant which was wonderful! Amazingly it was Zagat rated. We got pasta and pizza and enjoyed out last dinner with a white linen table cloth!


We then headed to the Seoul Tower. We had to take a cable car to reach the top! The tower has a terrific view of Seoul, however with the smog it is hard to see very much. At the top they have the locks of love where tourist can bring a lock and put it on the wall. This is suppose to symbolize eternal love.


We then headed to the Korean War Museum. We were privilaged with a private tour guide! This 60ish year old man gave us a 30 minute explanation of the Korean War and America's involvement with it. He was so interesting and a terrific storyteller. I learned more in this 30 minutes about the history of the Korean war than I ever did in high school! He said that it is predicted that South Korea and North Korea will be at war in the next year or 2! It is so scary to think it could happen at any minute.


We are headed to dinner at a Mexican Restaurant because they are having a Naked Thursday special. No, it's not what you think. They have $1 tacos and cheap beer on Thursdays!

Spiced Out

I am so tired of spicy food! I really want a cheeseburger and never thought I would say that! We went to dinner last night at a restaurant and once again would up with spicy noodles! I am not sure I can take one more day of spicy noodles! Doesn't the color of these noodles say it all!


Today we went to a deondang market and saw a popular river walk in Korea. Here is a picture. There were men standing in the river cleaning out debris. They keep everything so clean here.


We aren't sure what this is but it was near the river and looked really cool!!


We then ate lunch at the Namendam market at a place that makes fresh noodles. Here is a picture of the poor lady making all of the noodles! The soup was very good but once again so spicy!


We then finished getting all of Emma's 18 gotcha day gifts.

Korea is so Americanized! Milon thought it was so funny to see a guy wearing an A's hat. All the girls here carry Louis Vuitton purses!


Our friends Mindy and Lee got there baby today. We haven't spoken with them yet to see how they are doing. We are planning a "playdate" in Alice and Wade's hotel on Friday afternoon when everyone has their babies. How funny will that be! We are all quite nervous about being in a foreign country with a new baby! I am sure she is not eating spicy noodles so feeding her will be a challenge, although apparently she likes sushi rolls so who knows maybe she will like spicy food!

Some Much to Do

Yesterday we went to a Korean BBQ with our friends Alice and Wade. We all got the Bulgogi and it was delicious. Basically they cooked the meat on a bed of hot coals.

We then walked to the Korean Walmart called E-Mart. It had a bit of everything in it. I got the kids some learning chopsticks. Leah got Helly Kitty ones that light up. They are connected on the end to help the kids learn how to use them. I realized I should have bought a pair for myself!

On the walk back we noticed the sign below. It said "The Style Gym" and had a picture of a big fat American eating popcorn. We all got a huge chuckle out of it!


We all went to dinner (Alice and Wade and Mindy and Lee) to a mall nearby. We ate at a Noodles and Garlic Chicken at a Chinese Restaurant. They have Sbarro, coldstone and TGIF at this mall!


I took a Lunest and 2 Tylenol PMs last night and wound up sleeping from 9:30pm to 9:30am. For me that is a record! I feel much better today. Here is a picture of the coffee shop that is our daily morning ritual.


The other couples got to tour the reception center at the social welfare center. Alice said there must of been 40 babies on one floor waiting for foster homes and there was another floor of them below. The social workers each have 90 babies on there workload and there are 5 social workers in the office! That's a lot of babies. Milon and I were in the elevator yesterday with a group of 15 pregnant teenagers.

On a lighter note, I love Korea. It is so clean, safe and the people are very friendly. I am amazed at how tall the people are! Apparently, Koreans are the tallest of all Asians. Milon said that this is so much different from China. He said the people here are much more social and a lot more speak English.

Today, we basically ate and shopped our way through the Namendam Market which is the largest shopping market in the nation! We are beat from the walking and the cold! We bought a ton of gifts for Emma and the kids.


Here is me in an underwear frenzy. I think the man with the microphone was saying the underwear was free based on how many people were in here! I wound up buying nothing here! Can you pick me out! Look for the only one with light hair!

We saw a huge line for some kind of dumpling so we got in line to try one also. We must have waited 30 mins for one of these! They were delicious. They were filled with noodles, cabbage, carrots and a bunch of other stuff. Some poor old lady was working so hard to make them!




Then we saw another long line and hit up that one. These were filled with meat and cabbage. They came in spicy and nonspicy. They were delicious as well. I can't believe how much rice, noodles and fried food they eat here! Not to mention how spicy everything is!



Here are some other scenes from the market.


Here is a picture of all the loot we bought at the market! The funniest thing is the hat with the fake hair! Do you remember the referral pictures with the fake hair! When we saw the hat we had to buy it!



Here is a picture of Emma from the picture album the foster mother gave us. See Davis and Leah! I sent a care package over with photos and she took a picture of Emma holding it! She even gave me pictures of her at 2 months old!



Now for the strange happening of the day. Milon and I were in the subway station heading home when we see a lady who looks like our foster mom. We stand around waiting for her to turn around and she does and it's her! She recognizes us and we start to talk (although she only speaks Korean!). She had a different baby with her! She tried to tell us where Emma was but we didn't know what she said. We are assuming Emma is at the baby reception home where we are staying and she has a different baby. I don't know. It was so strange because she lives an hour away! She must have been here for some reason. Maybe we will find out on Friday.

By the way, did I say we get Emma on Friday at 2pm? I am so worried about feeding her because the FM said she ate a ton! How am I getting chicken and rice! The E-Mart did have packets of rice that you heat up so I bought one but the chicken might be hard! We are going to have to make a trip back to pick up some food. I thought babies ate baby food at 9 months but apparently not!

Little Miss Emma

Isn't she adorable! We met the social worker at 9am and drove for 1 hour to the foster mothers home. She lives in a condo and greeted us with Emma as we got off the elevator. Emma was very tired but was fascinate by us. We probably didn't help by pulling out the camera and shooting a million pictures of her! She is crawling now and cruising on furniture. The foster mother says she can even climb on the couch. She says she is a great eater....finally one that likes to eat! She weighs 20lbs. After a few minutes of playing with her she let me hold her. The foster mother says she is very social and talkative. She doesn't like loud noises like the vacuum and she wasn't sure how well she would do on the airplane with the noise.

Emma doesn't like her bottle and eats rice and chicken for lunch. She has 2 bottom teeth and chews very well. We even saw her eat a whole strawberry. Apparently, they don't cut things up like we do in the U.S! She goes to bed at 1am...yes 1am and sleeps until 11:00. That will definitely have to change! And she take 2 naps. She said when she was tired she goes to her pink blanket, sucks her thumb and lays down! In fact, looks at the picture below and you can see her laying on it!


After we were done playing, we gave the foster mother her gifts and she gave us some. She gave Emma her 1 yr old Hanbok, some Korean figures and gifts for Davis and Leah which were Hanboks as well. The best gift of all was a huge photo album she made with a million pictures of Emma since she was a baby! She captured everything and hand wrote captions which were translated into English. Here is a picture of all the gifts. The 2 wrapped ones are for the kids.



I could go on about how fine of a person her foster mother is. Emma is her 9th foster child and our social worker said she is getting another baby. You could see how much Emma was loved and how much Emma loved her. Friday will be a very emotional day.



Our social worker is very nice. She has 2 young kids of her own and has been working as a SW for 15 years. She said that Korea has been trying for the past 50 years to close intercountry adoptions but it hasn't happened and she doesn't see it happening any time soon. She said they have a hard time finding foster families. High school kids in Korea go to school from 7am until 10pm! She said that the guest house we are staying at is used for adoptive families but adoptees can stay for free if they want to return to visit Korea.

We met another couple from Kentucky staying across the hall. We were walking out of our room and she opened the door and said I thought I heard English! They are a very nice couple that have 2 girls (5 and 7) and are adopting a boy. A few hotels away is another couple that are adopting a boy also and have 2 girls at home. In another hotel is another family from Goldsboro, NC that is adopting their first child. We met everyone at SWS this morning! It is so nice to have people in the same situation! We are going to be doing some sightseeing and eating together.