Family Day!

On Tuesday we went to the agency around 11:00 a.m.  First we met with Dr. Kim, the director of the agency and then we had lunch with other adoptive families.  Then we had one last visit with Charli's foster mother and father before we took custody of her.  On our first visit I could tell that Charli called me something other than Omma (the Korean word for Mommy) so I asked the social worker what it was that she was calling me.  Everyone in the room who spoke Korean laughed and then they said she calls me "mi gook omma" which means American Mommy.  We got Charli around 2:00 p.m.  Taking her from her foster family was as painful as we thought it would be.  Watching them stand on the street crying while Charli wailed for them in the van as we pulled away is an image that will be forever burned in my brain.  Charli cried herself out and then slept for some of the drive to our hotel.

Once in the hotel Charli's grieving continued.  She wouldn't let me put her down but did eventually nap with the help of the baby carrier and a children's Korean music station on the T.V.  When she woke she was willing to eat a little and started to enjoy us.  She LOVED it when Daddy pulled out the bubbles.  She was very anxious and wouldn't let us take off her shoes or her jacket.  I think removing her shoes makes her think that she is staying and she was not ready to commit to that.  She also didn't want to leave the hotel room and would become very anxious whenever we tried.  After three attempts we managed to go to the food court in the mall and get something to eat.  We got a fried rice dish that she seemed to like.  We also hit the little grocery store for some fruit and drinks for her.  We went back to our room and she fell asleep easily and slept all night except for the time she fell out of bed (oops).  All in all I think this day went better than we expected.  We had to wake her at 7:00 a.m. to have some breakfast before heading to the airport.

 Charlotte Yeong Eun and her foster family.

 A sad little girl.

 Hmmmm.... These people brought bubbles.  They can't be all bad right?

 Toys and snacks too?  I guess they could be okay.

 I love the view from the hotel room.

 I also really like to have my picture taken!

Breakfast with Daddy before airplane day.

Almost home...

A picture of Phil and Yeong Eun playing peekaboo waiting for lunch in the Chicago airport. Should be in Rochester by 1:30.

Beginnings and Endings...

Tomorrow at 1:30 Charlotte Yeong Eun Germann will begin a new life with us.  She will become the 4th child in a busy, crazy, happy American family.  She will instantly have new parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends who love her.  We have waited so long and are so excited to begin this next chapter in our story.  But as much as tomorrow is a beginning for Charlotte it is also an ending for Yeong Eun.  Tomorrow she will say goodbye to the only family she has known.  She will say goodbye to the mother, father and sisters who love her so.  I imagine that Yeong Eun's foster family is terribly sad tonight thinking about tomorrow's parting.  We are sad for them and know that tomorrow and the days ahead will be difficult for them as silence fills the space where Yeong Eun's giggles used to be.  We are so grateful for the wonderful care Yeong Eun received from them.  We wish we could spare them the pain ahead but without their pain we can't have the joy of having Yeong Eun with us.

Tonight is an anxious night.  I worry so much about how Yeong Eun will handle this transition.  She is not quite two and certainly can't understand what is about to happen.  What will she think when we take her from the agency?  Will she think it is temporary and that we will take her back in a little while?  Will she wonder when her foster mother is going to come for her?  Will she feel kidnapped by us?  When we met her she was such a happy fun little girl.  I worry that this will break her.  That it will break her heart and her spirit and that what is left will not resemble the girl we met last week.  Will we be able to rebuild her heart and her spirit?  Will we be able to help her understand that we love her and will never leave her?

We meet at the agency at 11:30 tomorrow to meet with the director Dr. Kim, have lunch and then say our final goodbyes to the foster family and take custody of Yeong Eun.  Tonight we will pray that she will be comforted by us and that her transition into our family goes smoothly.

Cheongdeokgung Palace and the Secret Garden

After visiting the temple we did some shopping in one of our favorite areas in Seoul, Insadong.  We spent most of our afternoon today at Cheongdeokgung Palace and Secret Garden.  It was a huge place and we did lots of hiking.  We are enjoying our last day in Seoul being tourists.　Tomorrow we go back to being parents.

This is a store in Insadong.  We thought Gabe would get a kick out of the name of it.

Buddha's Birthday

Today in Korea is a holiday in honor of Buddha's birthday.  We went to Jogyesa Temple to take in some of the festivities.  It was crazy crowded and we couldn't get close enough to see much of the action.  We believe the President of South Korea was there in the mix and saw LOTS of secret service type agents and lots of media coverage.  The crowd was intense.  I got shoved around a lot, mostly by little old Korean women who were 6 inches shorter than me.  Do NOT stand between devout Buddist women and their temple.

Happy 9th Birthday Abby!!

It is May 27th in Korea, the day our oldest daughter was born.  We are sad to be away from her on this special day.  Abby we hope you know how much we love you and that we are celebrating with you from afar.  So here are the top 10 things we LOVE about Abby:

1)  Her artistic abilities.
2)  Her sense of style (Abby always looks cool).
3)  Her ability to make Gabe or Ellie laugh through tears when they are sad.
4)  The way she can almost out eat her Mom and Dad (where does she put all that food?).
5)  The way that she is a friend to everyone.
6)  Her budding softball career (GO HORNETS!).
7)  Her love of books (even if she does stay up too late reading).
8)  Her enormous and constantly growing collection of stuffed friends.
9)  The shows (singing and dancing) that she directs and puts on with Ellie and Gabe in the basement.
10)  The massive collection of danglies on her backpack (they really tell us a lot about who Abby is).

Happy Birthday sweet girl.  We can't wait to celebrate with you when we get back!

Love ya lots,

Mom and Dad

Alleluia in any language...

Today we played tourists.  We first went to the Myeongdong Cathedral for 10:00 Mass but we didn't get there on time.  We haven't mentioned yet that not many streets in Korea aren't marked with street signs.  It makes it difficult to locate places even if you have a map.  The directions to our food tour were, "exit the subway station and walk straight for 5 minutes."  In this case we could see the Cathedral but couldn't figure out how to reach it.  We eventually spiraled to the center and found it.  By then it was 10:40.  They have Mass on the hour almost all day long on Sunday.  The only English Mass was at 9:00 and clearly we didn't make that so we sat through Korean Mass.  Amen and Alleluia are the same in either language so we participated some.  Fortunately Mass is the same everywhere so we at least knew what was going on even if we didn't understand the words.

After Mass we made our way through the Myeongdong fashion district to N Seoul tower.  N Seoul tower is the highest point in Seoul though much smaller than the Willis tower in Chicago.  It is still a good vantage point to see the city.  We took a cable car to the top.  We went to the observatory and took pictures.  We also ate lunch up there.  There is a tradition at the tower that people leave padlocks on the tower.  It supposed to be a demonstration of your love that will last forever just as the padlock will remain on the tower forever since you throw the key away.  We placed a lock in honor of our family and our adoption of Yeong Eun.  We also saw some cultural demonstrations.  They used big swords and cut stuff violently (Gabe you would have loved it).  We then walked down the GIANT hill rather than riding the cable car.  Boy are we out of shape.  After a few hundred stairs my legs were shaking.  We got back to the hotel by 5:00.  This is the earliest we have gotten back to the hotel since getting here.  I think we may try to have a quiet night.