Day 1 (Oct 29th- USA time)
We get dropped off at the airport at 6:30 AM, and we get on our flight to Chicago. Once there, we have to go to the international terminal (which means we have to go through security again- so that apple juice I bought and barely drank has to be thrown away!) We get on our flight to Korea on Korean Air. We have a 14 hour flight ahead of us. We each have our own touch screen with movies, TV shows and games. It even updates us on the flight pattern. We also have an extra seat so we have room to spread out! Jason watches Iron man, Get Smart, and Kung Fu Panda. I watch Ironman, Maid of Honor, a Friends episode, and a documentary on J.K. Rolling (author of the Harry Potter books- which I LOVE!) We also get fed 2 meals and sleep some. When we land it is 5:30 pm Oct 30th Korean time. We go through customs, get our luggage, find our driver and rent a cell phone. Our driver leads us to the van and we start the 1 hour trip to the agency. This trip makes me sick and I almost throw up in the van, but I hold it in and we make it to the agency! We get our room (# 508). The driver brings up our luggage and gives us a letter from our social worker telling us what time our first meeting with Kyan (of course his name at this time is Min Kyoo) was and where it would take place. It was set for 9:40 am the following morning. We are so tired that we end up falling asleep at 8:30. I should probably mention here that I had motion sickness from the long flight and the van ride. Also, I had some serious nerves about meeting our child for the first time.
Day 2 -Friday Oct 31st Korean time
We woke up around 6:30 am. We were still on MN time so it was hard to sleep in. But we stayed in bed, and lounged around. Jason playing Spider Solitaire on the computer, and I did a few Sudoku puzzles. We did get up and get ready for our meeting with Kyan. The Korean culture is very formal, so we were told to dress-up for agency business. So Jason wore ties and I wore blazers. Gifts are also a big part of Korean tradition. We were told to bring gifts for everyone who was involved with our son's care. So we also got those gifts "wrapped" in some gift bags. We went down to the Social Workers' office and met with Mrs. Oh, the person in charge of the Visas. She had us fill out some paperwork, and she gave us our travel documents. Then we were lead to an observation room. We were pretty excited and nervous at this point. We were told that the baby would probably cry the whole time since we look and smell so different, so we were gearing up for that. The social worker came into the room followed by the foster mom holding Kyan. He looked very similar to his 5 month picture. The social worker took Kyan and gave him to me to hold. The first thing that he did was lay his head on my shoulder. How sweet. We then went up onto the platform that they had with some toys for Ky to play with. We all sat down on the floor and the foster mom started to tell us all about Kyan and tried to show us all the "tricks" that he could do. Then the social worker gave us 20 minutes alone with Ky. He let me hold him, kiss him and Jason was able to get him to laugh and smile. It was awesome! After the 20 minutes they came back in and we set up our next meeting to be on Monday at 1:30. We were also told that right after this meeting we had a meeting scheduled with Dr. Kim and Dr. Kim the founder of the agency and his daughter who now runs the agency. So we went up to their offices and met with both of them. We found out that it was a Christian-based agency. "Old Dr. Kim" (that is what they call him- I am not making it up) is 93 years old and is the sweetest man that I will ever having the honor to meet. His daughter is a very caring lady who gave us great suggestions for site seeing and shopping. We went back to our room and took it easy for the rest of the day. I was still not feeling well from the trip.
Day 3- Nov 1st
We decided to get out and see Seoul that day! We were ready to brave the subway and try to get on the Seoul City Bus Tour. We got to the subway station, but could not communicate with the ticket agent that we needed a "t-card" (a prepaid card for the subway). I finally heard some ladies speaking English and asked where they got their cards. She helped us get 2 cards and we found out that she was from South Africa. She was teaching English in South Korea. Now that we had our T-cards, we could go any where! We got to the tracks figured out what train to get on and we were on our way down town. We found our stop on the subway, and were able to find the Seoul City Bus Tour. This tour took us around to all the city's "attractions". It had 27 stops in all. We got off at the Korean War Museum, Itaewon shopping street, Seoul Tower, and the Chaggyeonggung Palace.
The Korean War museum was HUGE. It had several different war vehicles to look at from all over the world. Itaewon shopping was a bunch of little kiosks on the street selling clothes, socks, purses, knick-knacks etc. We did not buy anything here, because most of the stuff we could get in the USA.
Seoul Tower was much like the space needle. It has beautiful views of the city. It also had a pretty steep walk up a hill, which I saw Korean women walking up in high-heels. Chaggyeonggung Palace was my favorite stop. It was beautiful. Once you were inside the walls, it was like stepping back in time. It had beautiful trails to walk on and a cool buildings. It was the peak fall time of year for Korea and the leaves were so pretty. We got back on the bus and rode it back to the starting place. It was getting dark and we were heading back to the agency to get some dinner. The bus ride was pretty jerky so I was not feeling well at all. I knew that we had to get back to the room fast, or I would be sick. Unfortunately, I did not make it. I ended up throwing up in some bushes alongside the sidewalk. Probably one of the lowest moments of my life! But it was evening, and no one seemed to be bothered by it. They probably thought I was drunk or something. After that I did feel better, so we were able to make it back okay. Jason went and got some food for himself, we watched a movie, and went to bed.
Day 4 -Nov 2nd
I woke up feeling sick again! I was pretty fed up with not feeling well, and not being able to eat anything for the whole time I was in Korea. Jason and I were also going to go shopping at the South Gate market that day. We had heard that this was one of the best places to go and were really looking forward to it, but I could barley even sit up without feeling sick. Jason went to send out an e-mail asking for prayer for me, and when he came back we decided that we would walk to the market and to a department store (we were told that was were we could find a podeagi). Since I had felt the best when were walking around the palace the day before, we thought this was a good idea. We brought some water with us for our 5 kilometer (one way) hike. Once we started walking I did feel better. The fresh air was good for me. We were able to find our way though Seoul (thanks to Jason's awesome map reading skills), and made it to the South Gate Market. We were able to find all of our gifts for our family here. We then made our way to the Galleria department store. Once we were there, we found the baby section and found the Podeagi. On our way out of the store there was a smoothie shop. I saw and felt hungry for the first time in Korea. I told Jason that I wanted a smoothie, so we got one to share. It was soooooo good! The best smoothie I have ever had. After that smoothie I felt good the rest of the trip. We now refer to it as "the magic smoothie". We walked back to the agency and watched movie. Later that night, we walked to the Baskin Robin Ice Cream shop for some ice cream. Now that I had my appetite back, I wanted some ice cream!
Day 5 -Nov 3rd
We were invited to lunch that day at the agency. They serve a traditional Korean lunch to the adoptive parents. We were able to eat with others who were adopting children, and hear their stories. It was a really yummy meal. I was so happy that I was feeling better so that I could eat it! After lunch we had our second meeting with Kyan. This meeting started out a little rocky. Ky was fussy and started to cry when we tried to play with him or show him a toy. His foster mom seemed a little more on edge that day too. The social worker came in, and suggested that we walk Kyan up and down the hall to calm him down. This seemed to work and she handed Ky to Jason. Jason continued to walk with him and he was getting more settled. When Jason passed Kyan to me he again laid his head on my shoulder and fell asleep. It was so precious. I held him asleep in my arms loving every second of it. We think that he was a little crabby at the beginning, because he was so tired. We found out at this meeting that we would get Kyan on Wednesday (the day that we leave) at 8:30 (the time and we leave for the airport)
Day 6 -Nov 4th
This is our last full day in Korea. We went to Kyobo Book Store, which is one of the largest book stores in the world. We were able to find some books that had Korean and English. Jason found a book about a daddy fish and his son. It has a really cute story about how much the daddy fish loves his son. It is so perfect. I really wanted to find a mommy and son book, but I had to settle for some cool pop-up books. We later went out to eat with our friends Peter and Ashleigh. They were our neighbors at the guest house. They were adopting a boy just 5 days older than Kyan. They are Korean-American, and Peter had family that he had visited while staying at the agency. They live in the Washington DC area. They brought us to a restaurant that serves omni-rice. It was fried rice wrapped in egg (like an omelet) with different things served with it. Jason had a chicken quesadilla style one, I had steak style one, Peter had a cheeseburger style one, and Ashleigh had sweet potato style one. They all were really good. We were able to get to know Peter and Ashleigh better, and felt a real connection with them. It is amazing how God blessed us with friends while we were half-way around the world. We are still e-mailing updates to each other and sharing prayer requests.
Day 7- Nov 5th - Gottcha Day!
It starts out early. We got up at 6:30. We got dressed, finished packing, and headed down stairs at 8:15 to get ready to have the prayer service for Kyan. Old Dr. Kim prays for each child that leaves the agency. They helped us load our suitcases into the van, and then we met with the Foster mom, social worker and Dr Kim for our Prayer Service. This was very special and emotional time for me. I cried the whole time. Peter and Ashleigh happened to be down in the lobby at that time, and were able to take pictures for us, which is so special! After the prayer, we got in the van and the foster mom handed Kyan over to Jason, who passed him on to me. Up to this point I had been really nervous and not feeling well (again!). Once Ky was on my lap I instantly felt better, and my nerves seemed to disappear. Everything was just the way it was supposed to be. We were off on our 21 hour trip home. I blogged about this trip in this post.
It was an amazing trip! Jason and I are already talking about what we want to do and see when we go back!
1 comment:
Fawnie and Jason,
Love the going back line! More adorable babies!!!!!
Love,
Auntie Jill
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