Latest Adventures! Updated with Pictures

Well, it is Thursday afternoon in Seoul. I have a little bit of time to fill you in on our Wednesday adventures before we leave to go get Christopher forever.... Yeah Family Day!! :o)

Wednesday again started with a wonderful buffet breakfast at the Somerset complete with made to order omelets! Because it is so ridiculously cold outside (negative numbers with the wind chill factor) we decided to find some fun indoors. We traveled to the COEX mall for the day (thanks Eden's mommy). The mall was HUGE! There had to be hundreds of stores and restaurants, a movie theater, aquarium, and multilevel department store. It was surprisingly crowded considering it was the middle of a Wednesday afternoon, and we were amazed at how many people were working in this mall! In the department store for example, each booth, counter, or table had several people working it, and there was someone situated at each opening of every isle... literally thousands of employees in the department store, it was crazy! They were all so helpful and friendly, and all dressed to the nines...suites etc. Quite a change from the average Michigan department store where you have to work to find someone to help you out, and they often blend in with the shoppers in their day to day clothes. We have been so impressed with this city! We purchased some books and Disney DVDs that play in both Korean and English for Christopher. We walked until our feet were ready to fall off, then made our way back to the hotel for a nice afternoon nap. We had been awake since 3:30am so we pretty much collapsed for a couple hours. Once we were a little better rested we decided to go to a traditional Korean musical play called "Miso" at the Chongdong Theater. It was fantastic!!! I would highly recommend it to anyone planning to travel in the coming weeks or months!! It plays Mon-Sat every evening at 8pm. We arrived at about 7:15 to get tickets. We paid about $30 each for the "mid level" seats, but the theater only held about 100 people, so the seats were fantastic! It was wonderful! The traditional costumes were so beautiful, and the dance scenes were separated by traditional music and a very interesting and spirited drum line! At the end of the show the drum line guys were showing off their balancing skills with some sort of spinning clay plate. They were throwing it and had the audience divided cheering for who they thought did a better trick. Then one of them came up into the audience and pulled me out of my seat and on to the stage!!!! I was so embarrassed but had so much fun at the same time! He transfered the spinning plate to me and then had me toss it to the other man. I had to balance it on a pipe that he kept moving away just as I was getting it balanced to make the audience laugh. I couldn't help but laugh too! At the end of the segment they had me do a little dance move with them that they taught me at the back of the stage while another unsuspecting tourist had to put the spinning plate between his legs at the front of the stage. At the end I bowed with them and he presented me the skinny pipe as a souvenir. I had a blast! What a memory! It was just too bad that we didn't get a picture since there was no photography allowed in the theater. I hope I don't have any trouble getting the pipe on the plane!


We were pretty tired at the end of the show, so we opted for a snack food dinner that we bought at the shop in the hotel lobby and microwaved in our room. We tried lots of unknown Korean snacks and everything was great! Hopefully we will be able to locate a Korean restaurant once we get home. Well, we are leaving in just a few minutes to go get our son. Next time you hear from me we'll be a family of three!!

Busy Days!

I am finally getting the chance to fill you in on our Tuesday adventures (I may have to fill you in on Wed after a good nights sleep)! Tuesday morning we were met by two very nice tour guides who took us on an all day tour of the city! We had a wonderful time and really saw a lot. Our first stop was a beautifully painted palace (I'll have to look up the name) and our guides gave us the history behind it. Pretty interesting stuff!

They then took us to the South Market for some great shopping. It was so helpful to have someone to translate for us, and they even bartered to get us a lower price on our purchases. We got a lot of great gifts, and a scroll and painting to hang in Christopher's room. We even bought a tiny painting of Seoul all covered in snow to remind us that we were here for the biggest snow storm to hit Seoul in over 80 years!! We visited many other sites around town before stopping for yet another amazing Korean feast! I have loved everything we have tried so far (though I am sure it helps to have a Korean speaking person picking out the best things on the menu)! We took a bus after lunch all the way to the Seoul Tower and took the elevator to the top. What an amazing view of the city...and what a HUGE city it is! We were quite impressed!


We finished our day with a little more shopping at Isadong Market near our hotel. It was a great tour (though it would have been a little more fun if it wasn't so darn cold!)
We came up to the room to warm up after our tour, and we both ended up falling dead asleep! I woke up at 3:30am on Wednesday fully awake and ready to start the day...a bit of a setback in my time zone adjustment, but since we are heading home in a couple days I am sure it will be ok. I'm going to head to bed now, but I will fill you in on our Wednesday adventures when I can see straight! Goodnight from afar!

Excited about his talking book!

Christopher loved to make the book "talk" by turning the pages, and he was so excited when it did, that he would do this little dance and spin around! He did this over and over for about 20 min...we were all in stitches!

Amazing Day!

Ok...I'll warn you all this is going to be very long... Here we go... :o)

Today started out with a wonderful breakfast in the hotel, then a couple hours in the room getting ready for our trip to Holt to meet Christopher. It has been snowing most of the day, and it is very clear that this city is in no way prepared for snow removal of this magnitude! We learned early on that the taxis were not running due to the roads (we never did see a plow all day), so we decided to take the subway. We left about an hour early, and the walk to the station was very interesting....I have never seen such creative methods of snow removal! Shop owners and employees were all out front cleaning the sidewalks of snow using anything from brooms to signs to unfolded cardboard boxes, small (digging) shovels etc....we even saw bakery using cookie sheets! They moved the snow into the streets which just made the road situation worse!


We arrived at Holt a little early and had a very nice chat with Ms. You. I can't believe how much she knew about us off the top of her head, you would think she memorized our file! Christopher came in with his foster mother and father a short while later. He is without a doubt the most adorable little boy! His pictures definitely didn't do him justice! He is so smart! his foster family is amazing!! We had sent two disposable cameras with his gift packages, but they informed us that they didn't use them. Instead he made for us an 8 gig memory stick full of pictures and videos of his last 11 months!!! We also received professional photos taken at his 100 day celebration and a daily journal in both English and Korean that they have kept from the day he came to their home!! What an amazing gift! The foster father went to school in Toronto for a time, so his English is fairly good. They were concerned that Christopher would be very shy since he doesn't generally do so well with strangers, but he was fantastic! He sat with Phil and I for a long time and played with his car. He seemed mesmorized by my husband's beard! We found out he had to have his checkup prior to leaving today, so we followed behind to watch his check up. Lets just say he is not a fan of doctors...he screamed the whole time! That was the only time he cried all day! He is very mellow and content! :o)
There were tons of foster moms there with babies for checkups and my hubby was a big hit! One little guy even reached out and touched his face. His foster mother said we were the first caucasians he had ever seen! It was just so cute to see them all trying to process the appearance of these crazy looking people!
After his checkup the foster family expressed that they would like to take us to lunch to get to know us a little better! They drove us to an amazing Korean bar-b-q restaurant and ordered us a feast! The drive there was scary; we slid around a corner and nearly got hit by a bus! Luckily everyone was going at idling speed, so it wouldn't be too bad. We probably would have just sort of tapped bumpers! I have to say though, I was a little nervous about the method of transportation for babies. His foster mother was "wearing" him on her back with her coat over the top to keep him warm. When we got in the car she sat down just like that! She was literally sitting on the edge of the seat with her head on the windshield so she didn't squish him!! Yikes!
I hope he can adjust to a car seat quickly! He was very content on her back and she said that he will often ask to be carried on her back by name (which I will have to write down on Thursday so I remember what it means when he says that). The lunch they ordered was quite the spread and everything was so tasty! It was great to get to know them and for them to learn more about us. We learned so much about our little man. He loves to control the remote and loves to turn the tv on and off. He loves music and books and almost all "new" toys. His favorite foods are cheddar cheese and bananas and he takes lots of naps. He wakes once during the night for a bottle, but she only gives him water at that time, so that is good news. There is so much more that I can hardly remember it all, we tried to write down the important things.
After the wonderful lunch the family invited us to their home. We went with them to their lovely home and spent the rest of the evening playing with Christopher on the floor! They had the most amazing heated floor (I'm going to miss that!). We met his foster grandmother and had dessert. They presented us with so many wonderful gifts that they ended up giving us a second backpack (we already had one that we carried all our gifts and donations in) to carry it all home in! They gave us some gifts made by an artist friend and his Hanbok, a set of Korean Drums for him to play with once he is older, a fancy bottle of alcohol from his grandmother that was aged to a significant date (though some of that was lost in translation). Two large bottles of the yummy beverage we had at lunch (some sort of carbonated fruit beverage he said was like a pear). We were then joined by another family friend who happens to be a professional photographer, and he presented us with some amazing large prints of Christopher in his Honbok for his Dol (first birthday celebration) with birthday wishes written in Korean. What a special and amazing gift! He came to say his goodbyes too...it is very clear that this little boy is well loved!! We had so much fun with him today! He is so smart and so expressive. He had us cracking up for hours! In his Christmas box we sent him the recordable story book from Hallmark "The Night Before Christmas" and it looks like he has "read" it a thousand times! He likes to turn the pages himself, and whenever our voices started talking, he was so tickled that he made it talk all by himself, he would spin around in a circle on his bottom and laugh! He did this over and over! I wish you could have seen the look on his face when he realized that the voices in his book were ours! Priceless! I got to snuggle him and feed him a bottle before we left. I am just giddy!

The foster father dropped us off at the subway station at about 7pm (it was far too dangerous on the roads for him to drive us back to the hotel) and we are now back in the room. I think I am just so exhausted from the excitement of the day that I will be asleep in no time (Phil is already out like a light on the couch). The agency is taking us on a city tour tomorrow and we have to be up early for that. Thanks for hanging in there for my very winded entry. It truly was an Amazing day!

It's snowing!

After a long night in a sauna like room, we woke up this morning to a pretty heavy snowfall! The City is beautiful with all this snow! It was so hot in our room last night that we had to leave the windows open just to make it bearable, so we are starting to accumulate some snow on the window ledge! We are quite used to snow in west MI, but I don't think the city here is used to so much at once. Most of the people we can see clearing snow near the hotel are using small shovels and brooms...even to clear the parking lots! We had a fantastic breakfast in the Hotel hospitality room, and Phil was happy to have a Starbucks in the lobby! (coffee snob!) ;o)
We met a lovely woman in the elevator from California who was returning to her room for boots, and a hat because she was told at the front desk that the taxis weren't running because the roads are so bad! Guess we're taking the subway for sure today! Hopefully there won't be a problem with Christopher's foster family getting to the agency today... another family here from MI was supposed to meet their daughter this morning and their appointment was canceled! We hope they can reschedule for the afternoon, I am sure they are a bit of a wreck right now! We have the cameras ready....can't wait to see our little man!

We Made it!

Well, we are finally here! it has been a very long two days of travel, but overall we survived just fine! Our day started at about 4am on Saturday. We arrived to the airport 3 hours early just in case there were delays from the recent events in Detroit....it took us a whopping 4 minutes to get checked in and go through security! I have to admit, I was a little unnerved that no one even asked us for ID and they had to turn on the X-ray machine (since we were apparently the first ones there for our airline)! I am hoping they were a little more on top of the ball as the morning went on...Scary! We spent the next few hours relaxing (it was nice not to be rushed) before boarding our first flight. It was a little sad as we departed....there were at least a dozen Army soldiers that boarded our plane and it was gut wrenching to watch them say goodbye to family and friends and in some cases their children...tears all around (myself included)! What an amazing group of young men and women (and I mean young, most of them looked like they were 15!) ...Stay safe everyone! Our flight to Chicago was great! Smooth and short! We actually spent longer taxiing around O'Hare than we were in the air. We had plenty of time to re-check in (this time they did check our passports) with Korean air and we spent our wait walking up and down the halls to stretch our legs. I have to say, I can not imagine taking the looooonnnngggg flight to Korea on any other airline! Korean Air was great!! We each had our own entertainment center/tv, the food was great (first ever for an airline) and the service was amazing! I watched 4 different movies I had been wanting to see, listened to soothing music while I slept, and played a little Tetris when I got bored. I have never really been able to read on a plane without getting sick, so having this type of entertainment was heaven sent! The only bad things about the flight (other than overall time) was the fact that I sat next to what appeared to be the only "sick" person on the plane....coughing and sneezing the whole way, but the topper was when the lady in front of me put back her seat and knocked over the very full glass of sprite that was on my tray all over my lap! I had to sit the last 6 1/2 hours of the flight with a soaking wet lap and seat!! Quite embarrassing to walk to the bathroom looking like I messed myself! The flight attendants provided me with a blanket to sit on, but the damage was done. I never really did dry completely, and didn't have relief from the sticky wet jeans until we got to the hotel!! Oh well...never thought I would be so laid back over an entire glass of pop in my lap! The Somerset Palace (our hotel) is fantastic so far! Lovely room and beautiful view of the down town area. We can see a place to ice skate outside from our room that appears to be very popular. Maybe we will find time to get down there one evening this week! What we could see of the city was beautiful, all lit up down town for the holidays. It is amazingly crowded on the streets, the population of New York City in 2/3 the space! I am so looking forward to tomorrow! We'll have breakfast in the hotel then on to Holt to meet Christopher!! I can hardly believe this day is finally here!! I will try to keep everyone posted and take lots of pictures. I have rambled enough for today, and I can hardly keep my eyes open, so off to bed I go!

Happy New Year

Hard to believe it is 2010!! That always seemed like such a "futuristic" date when we were kids! Weren't we supposed to have flying cars by now? We had a quiet but fun New Years eve at home. We missed the ball drop by about 5 seconds by the time the dish loaded, but we got to see the crazy New York party goers in time square! What an exciting year this is going to be! I can hardly wait to get things rolling! We will be leaving for the airport in 18 hours!!! Ahhhhhh! I still have a long way to go before we are ready, and I have at least one shopping stop to make today, so this may be a long night....maybe that is a good thing though, I might be tired enough to get some sleep on the plane. We are supposed to get upwards of 8 inches of snow in the next 24 hours, but hopefully it won't affect our travels out of Grand Rapids; Chicago is supposed to be all clear. Luckily we are used to lots of snow in West Michigan, so I think things will be ok (as long as our plane doesn't get delayed on its way in to MI!)
This will be my last post stateside.....next time you hear from me I'll be half way around the world! I will try to post pictures when I can! Happy New Year!