New Friends and Looking forward to tomorrow..

Post from yesterday...

We are now just waiting to head over to Eastern to pick up Jackson. We have about 2 ½ hours before we leave. That’s the beauty of waking up very early each morning. There is plenty of time to get everything done. Our Hotel here has been wonderful. I think I’ve said that a number of times but, they really have. Yesterday, KJ talked to them about bringing JJ back here today. They offered to move us up to the top floor which has very few guests and moved us into a larger room. That move helped us get organized and packed up. The room is now JJ ready.
This morning we’re doing some last minute prep, cutting up fruit JJ’s Foster Mother gave us for him, and just enjoying each other’s company.
Our last day/night out in Seoul was great, we walked around for a good part of the day just taking in the city. For dinner, we met another couple who works with our agency back home. They are also here picking up their first son. We met in front of the gate at Topgal Park and then headed out to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. The guys agreed they had had their share of Korean food and were ready for a steak. We found this so funny. They were in full agreement with each hoping the other was ready for a little change of pace with the food. Don’t get me wrong, we all LOVE Korean food, we were just ready for something different. I enjoyed some shrimp pasta and we all had a nice cold beer.
This meeting with our new friends was great. We talked about our journeys to this point and the days, months, years to come with our new families. We had so many thoughts in common and enjoyed great conversation. After dinner, Staci and Craig showed us where in the Insadong market that had bought their son’s hand carved name chop. A name chop is a traditional Korean seal. Instead of signing their names, Koreans stamp important documents with name name chop. We thought this was a great keepsake and wonderful souvenir to bring home for both of our children so, we had one made for Jackson and Gracie. We got to choose the stone and then watch as they hand carved their names in Korean into them.

Huge plus, the sun came out today. We’ve missed it 

Prayers Please

This may or may not be our last post before we head home on Saturday. Of course, tomorrow we are going to be a little busy entertaining our son.
Today’s meeting went fairly well. Jackson is shy and extremely attached to his Foster Family. He played with us for a short time but, wanted nothing more than to leave with his Foster Mother, who is simply amazing! She gave us another CD filled with pictures, bags of snacks she knows he likes, formula and his 1st birthday Hanbok. ….it’s beautiful. We took very few pictures this meeting because we really wanted to be down on the floor and hands on with him. He sat with just us for awhile playing with knobs and putting balls into a Disney toy. He’s very intelligent and cute as can be. He had to be in charge the whole time though and be sure his Foster Mother didn’t go far.
We have a quick request for everyone…
Please be patient with us as we transition at home and work together to help Jackson through his time of grieving.
Please understand we are going to play it by ear, go with the flow…all while trying to recover from jet lag and establish a new norm for our family. (routine is key ;) )
Although, we have wanted this for so long and have been preparing for this change, Jackson will have no idea what is happening to him. He will be taken away from everything he knows, everything that is familiar to him, and the only people he has ever known. We all knew his time with his foster family was temporary but, he has no idea.
We are ready to start this transition and do everything we can to make it go as smooth as possible. Please keep our sweet little guy and our Gracie in your prayers as we work to become a happy family of four. Thank you for all of your love and support!
We also ask that you pray for JJ’s foster family and all those who foster children. They love and care for these children all while knowing that one day they will have to send them on to their forever families.

Enjoying Seoul Some More..

Yesterday was another great day here in Seoul! The best part was knowing that tomorrow (today now) we get to see Jackson again for a few hours in the morning. We can’t wait!!!

To start off the day, we headed over to the Itaewon area. This is most westernized (Americanized) area we’ve seen so far. It is close to the US Army base and is known for shopping.

We walked up and down the main shopping street, stopping in quite a few shops. We came across some great finds. One of my favorites being a big plush Pororo for Jackson. We bought Gracie a Hello Kitty dressed in traditional Korean attire at the Insadong market yesterday (grandparents don’t tell her ;) ). So, we were really happy to find a cute matching snuggly animal for JJ today.


The shopping street and grabbing a diet coke..


We had some time to kill before our shuttle returned so; we walked around looking for an interesting place to have lunch. We ended up having our favorite Korean dish, bibimbap, at a trendy Korean restaurant just off the main shopping street. It was delicious, as always.

We do seem to be doing a lot of shopping and eating, huh?

From Itaewon we headed to the downtown business area. We had intentions to go to another market but, spotted the Deoksugung Palace. The Deoksugung Palace is smaller than the palace we saw yesterday but, just as interesting and so full of character. It is fascinating seeing this ancient palace right in the middle of large business buildings. All that tradition mixed in with business suits and Dunkin D*nuts....so interesting. The best part of the visit to this palace was our timing. We just happen to walk up right at what we thought was the charging of the guard.




As we were exiting, people were starting to gather with cameras outside the entrance to the palace. We weren’t sure what was going on at first and then saw the guards marching up the street followed by a full procession with instruments. We realized this was the full changing of the guard reenactment. We have a great video but, can't get it to upload. So here are some more pictures....

Enjoying Seoul

Yesterday we got in some great sightseeing. We've been waking up quite early, ready to go. But, have to wait until things get started. There doesn't seem to be many shops, marts, or even coffee shops that open early but, everything stays open late. This gives us some time to update the blog and get in some computer time.

Our hotel is great! Everyone speaks pretty good English and are more than gracious. The concierge almost laughs when we approach because we ask so many questions about getting around before we venture out. :)

We started out the day taking the Hotel Shuttle to a subway stop about six blocks away. Since it was raining, we decided to take the shuttle rather than walk. It's been raining pretty steadily since Monday afternoon but, luckily it's a light rain and we can still get out without getting soaked. We took the Subway to Gyeongbokgung Palace. This is a sprawling palace just on the edge of downtown Seoul. It's beautiful!



After walking around the palace for awhile, we decided we were going to walk over to Insadong, a nearby market. We knew it wasn't far but, it was quite humerous trying to find our way there. We just kept asking until we got there. Our last inquiry was at a nearby hotel. We finally found the entrance behind the "big brush"......ahhh the "big brush". We were so excited when we spotted it.

Insadong is an artsy neighborhood of Seoul that is known for it's huge market. It was pretty empty when we got there. I think because of the rain. By the time we left, the rain had let up a bit and it was packed. We shopped and just browsed around. The people were all so accomodating and welcoming. We stopped for coffee and then lunch after a few more hours of shopping.

This market seems to attract a young crowd. The tweens seem to like us American tourists (or maybe they are just laughing at us....ha! ) . They would wave, giggle, say "hi" or "hello" and then giggle some more as they ran away. We even had some older students ask us if they could interview us for their English class.

Here they are posing after KJ's interview.

After a great afternoon of shopping and taking in the culture, we walked back to the Subway and then walked back to the hotel for a short rest. We needed it after all that walking around.

Our next stop of the day was the Seoul Tower. This is a great sightseeing spot at the top of Namsan mountain. You can see all of Seoul from the tower...every direction for miles and miles. It's incredible.

On the gates and "lock trees" surrounding the tower, you'll find thousands of upon thousands of "love locks". People place locks on the gates symbolizing that they will never seperate.....locked in love forever. We knew about the locks and hoped to place one on the gate for our two children. Sadly, we didn't bring any locks with us. I guess we just assumed we could buy locks there but, couldn't find any. We hope to make it back to the tower but, not sure if we'll be able to.

One of the highlights of the tower, is the observation deck. That's located in the big dark circle you see near the top of the tower in the pictures.

Here are some pics from the deck...

While we were up in the tower, we decided to go ahead and have dinner in one of the restaurants located up in the sky :). We chose a great place that serves Italian cuisine...yes, Italian....although we love Korean food, it was nice to have something a little different. Pictures of this restaurant could not do it justice. So, we took a little video, you'll see below. Our tables were attached to the windows facing out to the amazing view the entire time.

After dinner, we headed down the tower and we're delighted to find it all lit up.....just beautiful!

It was really an amazing day.

We are saving all our pictures here. There are quite a few so, you probably don't want to bore yourself. But, if interested...feel free to check them out!

Quick Rewind back to the Flight

It was a bit of a whirlwind when we got into Seoul and we were so very tired so I didn't get a chance to post this earlier.
Our flight experience was quite nice. We flew Korean A*r. This airline is incredible. If you're like Kirk and I and have a really hard time sleeping on a plane, you'd wish every airline was this accomodating. Some of the highlights include warm, scented towels before meals, full meals with actual silverware, a large selection of TV shows, Music and movies, and slippers and toiletries. The flight attendants are always walking around offering juice, water, snacks and wine with dinner. Since we didn't get much sleeping in, we watched quite a few movies and really enjoyed our Korean meals in the air.

Our Flight Tracker 10 hours in ....almost there..

KA is known for their eloquent and prestigous flight attendants. They are extremely beautiful and very gracious. Here are a few pictures I pulled off the internet. They really all look exactly like this and keep those heels on the whole flight. :)

If you're going to be on a long flight, this is the way to go. We know our flight home is going to be much different and much less relaxed but, we are not complaining and looking forward to going home with our beautiful new son and to see our sweet little lady.

We met our Son!!!!!

Wow, I don't even know where to begin. We are filled with so much happiness right now. Our first meeting with Jackson (Yongkee) went better than expected.

We arrived at Eastern way earlier than we anticipated but, we had no clue our hotel was a short 10 minute cab ride away. For some reason, we thought it was more like 45 mintues away. But, we planned our route to Eastern after a 12 hour flight and no sleep for 24 hours. We will venture out later today and figure out the subway for future trips and sightseeing excursions. We were a little nervous about getting there early. We had been told by other families that there is really no waiting room if you arrive early....which is true because they are so busy at Eastern. Babies, Foster families, new adoptive parents, are constantly coming in and out. What wonderful, amazing people these Social Workers are. They are just go, go, go. Anyways, we decided to just to go in and see if they would take us early. This worked out quite nicely, they let us fill out our paperwork and then sit with a few other couples while we waited for our turn to meet our son.

When we first walked into the room, he was scared and clung to his Foster Mother. It was very clear, he has a tight bond with her. She is so loving and happy and full of life. She quickly tried to hand him off to us and kept exclaiming "Omma" (momma) and "Appa" (Dadda) but, he was having none of this and wouldn't stop crying. So, she went and pulled in his Foster Father and and to our surprise, his Foster Brother...we had no idea he had a foster brother....more on that later...we really hope to find out who his adoptive family is at some point. That little boy is going home to his family next month.
He then sat in FFather's lap, he seems more attached to him. FFather pulled out some snacks and I pulled out a toy car we had brought. After some more crying and questionable stares to us, Jackson started to calm down a bit and just looked as curiously for awhile. His Foster Mother took this opportunity to pass on some information about Jackson. She said he is very smart and loving. He likes to wake up early and is a great eater. She said he has been calling our pictures Omma and Appa and points to his Gracie's pictures. She then pulled out FOUR jammed packed albums filled with pictures of their time together. We couldn't wait to get back to the hotel and scour through them. We have looked at every sweet one. It is so clear how loved this sweet boy is and was during all the time they have been together. Words can't even begin to express the gratitude and love I feel for this family.....so amazing!!
After playing and snacking while keeping us at a distance. He started warm up and run around with his foster brother. They are really sweet together....all boy. We took this time to jump in and get close to him. You'll see from the pictures, he was feeding us his snacks (oniony Funyun type rings and baby cookies) and getting close with his toys. I also tried some Puffs and Yogurt bites we had bought but, he didn't want them. We are going to pick up some recognizable snacks for him before Friday. He was sure to keep his Foster Family in his view but, but we got some smiles, laughs out loud, and even managed to grab some quick hugs before we left.

Enjoy these pics, I know his hair is going to bring you some smiles.




Not so sure of us yet...(look at those cute spikes)


Warming up to Daddy..

feeding Mommy...

...and playing

Sat for a bit in Daddy's lap....

Starting to smile and move around happy...

he loves to smile for the camera.. "Kimchi"
:)

and play some more..

Our meeting was pretty short today because we had to head into our meeting with Dr. Kim, the director of ESWS. We sat in the Chaplain room with eleven other families and two Korean Adoptees. She gave us some background on Eastern and adoption to the States and Australia. She talked about the baby hospital; which we learned is currently holding 5o or so babies :( until they are placed with their Foster Families; she discussed the push for domestic adoption and why this is difficult. We then ate lunch at Eastern with the other families. We enjoyed this time. It's so neat to hear other's stories and how they were led to Korean Adoption.
We meet Jackson again on Thursday morning with his Foster Family and then on Friday morning we will pick him up. He will spend Friday and Friday night with us. We fly home mid-morning on Saturday.

Happy Mother's Day to my Amazing Mom and all the wonderful Mommies I know!

Travel Call!!!

We got it yesterday! We are so very excited and nervous all at the same time.

We will be leaving this Saturday and meeting Jackson for the first time on Monday (which just so happens to be my birthday, not that I get excited about birthdays anymore.......but, what a day that will be)

I know I will never forget Mothers Day or my bday 2011. We are all Smiles today...