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!