brood

brood
the only time these feet are still

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Korea...part 3

So there we were in the hotel the 3 of us. It was nap time according to our pre-flight report, so we decided to see about getting him to rest. Of course this was with the idea that the better rested he was the better it would be for his grieving. WELL, I forgot how they said he was independent and he was having no part in a nap. Commence the wailing and crying and standing at the door, begging the best he could to go out. Poor thing had realized that this was not just a fun playdate, and he wasn't happy. On top of the sadness, he is quite determined and was able to open the door to the room. Talk about panic, that's what we need...come here, traumatize this little guy, then have to chase him around the hotel.
So we threw on the backpack and went for a walk. He liked the backpack, settled down and fell asleep. He fell asleep so we decided to walk some more so he could rest and find some lunch. Well, it started to rain! Of course it did. And not just sprinkle, really rain. I wussed out and got McDonalds, I really wanted some comfort of the known for what I knew was going to be a hard evening. So we trekked back in the rain, my soggy McDonalds, Stephen's noodles. When we got back to the room, we tried to lay him done, by all means, he was OUT. No dice, as soon as we laid him down, he started to cry and jumped up. So we decided to be grateful for the little rest he got and try something different...food. This boy likes some food, he will certainly fit right in with the C clan. His mood improved, he ate some food, turned his nose up at my french fries and began to show his personality again.
And he has some energy!!! He was climbing on the coffee table and running around. That lasted for a good while. Later that night, we joined another family in their room for a playdate. Their little girl is only a couple days younger than M and watching them play was very informative. When the little girl screamed, M ran to me and sat in my lap, WHEW!! reassuring. Now she still wasn't the fan of S, but we will get there. We headed back to our room to get to bed, and more grief...lots of it. Sobbing and crying and calling our to his foster family. I sat and rocked him and faced him away from me, until he fell asleep sitting up. I have to be honest, those moments make you wonder what you have done to this sweet boy. He didn't ask for this, he doesn't understand that his loving foster family, was just that, a foster family. We will be his forever family, we will love him and protect him. I had to keep reminding myself of that. He slept all night, with a couple whimpers here and there, but overall pretty restfully. S and I not so much. We got up early and he continued to sleep. This was our last full day in Korea. We realized that he had lots of wonderful things in his bag, but he didn't have a Hanbok. Now all the other kids did and he didn't. So we talked about heading out to get one. S volunteered to go alone. But honestly, that scared me on every level. He would be without any way to communicate and well M might not be so easy to entertain by myself. So we decided to venture back to the same market. It was a quick, easy trip, nothing too scary. We found a Hanbok for him and headed back. There was a tropical storm nearby, and I was NOT getting caught in the rain again with him.
The most important thing I haven't mentioned is how great his mood was when he woke up. He was definitely well rested and happier than the evening before. Naptime and bedtime went better Thursday. Friday we were heading home, so we tried to get our stuff together to make things easier. Unfortunately, neither of us slept, thinking about getting out on time and the flights in general, over 15 hours total!!
We were up in the 4am hour, and started getting stuff organized. We hit the road (or bus really) before 6 and it was pretty smooth sailing to the airport!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Korea pt. 2...the meeting

So, needless to say I found the Hanboks for the kids and we even easily found our way back to our hotel.  We were pretty exhausted so the rest of the day was not that exciting.  Wednesday morning we decided to get up early and head to another market within walking distance of the hotel to check it out.  We got there early, like 6:30 and there were still people at the booths.  We found a couple more things to purchase and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for our trip to Eastern.  We had met another sweet mom and granddad there also heading to Eastern at the same time, so we planned to meet them and make the trek together.  We were early, VERY early.  We originally thought about taking the subway, but again the humidity made us decide otherwise.  We were told to get there a little before 1pm, we arrived at about 11:30!  There is a cafe setup there which benefits single mothers, so we had a seat and S ordered a smoothie and muffin.  Soon another family came in that was also meeting their little one that day.  We sat around and talked about our wait, the weather, colleges...pretty much anything to pass the time.  I started to notice foster moms passing the window and wondered if any one's child had arrived.  Then there HE was.  Smooshed up against the glass door of the cafe.  I was frozen, I just said "S, it's him."  But I didn't want to want to do anything I wasn't suppose to, so we smiled and waved.  His foster mom looked in and recognized us and smiled pointing to us and saying something to M.  We eventually got called out of the cafe and well I think this is the funniest part of the story.  Here we are in the cafe with another American family and no one else....and we get locked in!  The people outside are pulling on the door and it is caught on something.  We are tugging and still stuck.  I can't believe I am merely feet from our little guy and we are locked in, just looking out this glass door.  Finally, someone comes from the back and shows us the other way out, through the playroom. 

M's foster mom quickly comes over to us and tells us that she has M and of course we knew that.  She tries to hand him to S, saying "appa, Appa" to M (that is daddy in Korean).  He isn't really that impressed, nor is he interested in being held but strangers, or anyone really.  We sat down at a table with them and he proceeded to be goofy and climb all over the table and throw the toys.  Boy has some energy!!  So for the first time on my blog....here he is (yes a blur)!!



Eventually, we left him to meet with the Director of the agency, where she talked about the history of Eastern and about the culture changes in Korea.  The meeting went a long time, and finally she said, "Oh right, your children! You want to meet them!"  (We were the only lucky ones to get to see our boy before this meeting!)  We headed into the playroom to learn more about M and his routine.

More watching him play and be silly, he is a ham!  The meeting was fast...and I couldn't think of what all to ask, how can you.  It is pretty crazy, in 1 hour I am expected to ask and learn everything they have known about him for over a year.  Plus, he is quite distracting, dancing and laughing.  I did a pretty poor job of getting much info!  But he is a cutie so here are more pictures:


I got a couple great pictures of his sweet foster family, but I didn't get their permission to plaster their face all over the blog world so I will refrain.  We were lucky enough to remember to ask about signing a release in order to exchange info with his foster family, so hopefully they will check out our blog and see where M has come.

The foster dad is a cab driver and during our playroom time, the social worker told us that he would be driving us back to the hotel.  How kind!  Normally, you take a van with the other families, but I found it very special that we would have this time and they could see him off.  So we stepped out of the meeting for a quick prayer by the director, all the while M was wiggling around and running away from us and foster mom.  When we finished, the social worker whisked us outside and into the cab.  We got a glimpse of the other families loading into the van.  I could see some sad foster moms and thought about the huge sacrifices they have made and how difficult this must be.  I did note though, that M's foster family were all smiles.  My perception was this was not the 1st time they have done this and they knew the best thing for M was to be excited and happy for all of us.  It worked.  When we got to the hotel, foster mom smiled, kissed M and handed him over.  I was so grateful!  Foster dad got the bag they had packed for M full of snacks, clothes, even gifts for our other kids!

and there we were, just us and him....finally.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

A Korea recap

What a whirlwind trip that was.  I have to say that we only experienced part of Seoul, and that part involved the subway and shopping.  That was about it.  Oh Yeah and the Humidity!!  Wowzers, it is humid there right now. So where to start.  There was a 14+ hour flight there.  I do not enjoy flying, triggers some major (read MAJOR) anxiety.  Not really sure why, but it does.  Thanks to a prescription I was able to get through the flight.  It certainly helped to have S with me (his hand is recovering).  We left here at 8am, flight was at 1:35pm Sunday and we arrived at about 5pm Monday in Seoul.  It was a little disorienting and I think being sleep deprived didn't help.  We found our way, on the AREX train (grabbed a coke, of course) and away we went.  When we got to Seoul Station (our stop) we had not yet learned the lesson about exits from Korean subways.  That made our walk to the hotel about 20 minutes longer than necessary.  Nonetheless, we made it.  Did I mention it is humid there right now?  Lugging 4 suitcase, I certainly got some exercise in!!

   We got to our room and it smelled like smoke, oh and we couldn't get the lights on.  We figured out that you must insert your key into a slot to turn anything on in the place.  The room was actually an 800sq foot apartment.  So for energy conservation purposes I guess they had that key thing.  Pretty interesting idea.  S went to see about getting a non smoking room only to learn that they don't differentiate, so it is what it is.  Oh well, we were tired.  We didn't even eat dinner.  Stopped at the 7-11 and grabbed a snack and crashed.  S was up at about 4am, I pretended to to sleep longer. 





  Tuesday morning we decided to head out and explore and shop.  We had learned we would be meeting and taking custody of M at 1:30 Wednesday so we wanted to get all our shopping done so we could just stay in and focus on him the rest of the trip.  We headed to the subway and fumbled along.  The subways are amazing.  The important thing to know~?~?  there are many exits and if you don't pick the right one then you end far from where you intended.  We went to an amazing market with huge buildings, wall to wall merchandise.  Like floors upon floors.  It was like a maze.  Shoes and purses...thousands of them.  Each booth appeared to be individually owned, some maned with people who were sleeping or reading the paper, having breakfast.  Some with no one there.  All that merchandise just sitting there and it appeared totally safe.  Very different than here.

The advice we had gotten was don't stop at the first booth, because you may find a better price further in.  So we explored, and explored and explored, until my feet hurt and I was sweaty.  Air conditioning not nearly as readily used in Korea as the US.  We found some souvenirs we had been searching for and gifts for the kind people who were watching over our other cherubs at home.  Then we were in search of Hanboks, traditional Korean formal wear for the munchkins.  We thought M would probably have one in his stuff he brought home, so I wanted to get them for everyone else.  They are beautiful colorful satin outfits traditionally born for formal occasions like the 1st birthday and weddings.  I felt these were true tokens of Korea for the kids to cherish. 
WE COULDN'T FIND THEM....ANYWHERE.  I was pretty bummed.  We decided to head to the COEX which is another, more "mall like" shopping venue in hopes of finding them there.  So back to the subway and stare at the map.  Thankfully a nice woman approached us and told us which train to take and where to go.  At the Coex it was a completely different shopping experience.   Indoor and air conditioned, designer stores.  Crazy clean.  We found a couple little toys for those kiddos at home, but no Hanboks!  Again I was so disappointed, and exhausted.  So we decided to give up for now, head back to the hotel, eat and maybe come go to a different market we had heard of later in the afternoon.  Because we were out of hotel by 6:45am, it was now only a little after lunchtime.    So...back to the subway.  And again while staring cross eyed at the map a middle aged gentlemen asked, in very good English, where we were headed.  We told him and he said after looking at his watch "I will take you, just stay with me."  On the subway ride, the man (never got his name) told us all about how grateful Koreans are for the assistance America gave their country and what it is like to live in Korea.  He had traveled the world and had even been to Virginia!  He was so kind and proud and I really enjoyed all that he shared with us.  I figured he would maybe know about Hanboks, so with renewed determination, I asked him where we might go.  He asked "Do you have a guide to go with you?"  No, I said.  He again looked at his watch and said, ", I havew time, I can take you."  As we exited at the SAME stop we had originally stopped at, he said we needed exit 14.  AHH, the error, we had taken the wrong exit earlier.  On the way through the hallway, he stopped and bought some Korean rice cakes to share with us.  Now, these are NOTHING like what I think of when one says rice cake.  For starters they are not crunchy, or flat, or any of that.  they were green and looked a bit like the end of green pepper that had seen better times.  They were sticky and sweet with a sugary icing in the middle.  Yum, wish we could have brought some home for the little ones here to taste.   He took us up the stairs and pointed to a large building.  He said goodbye and headed back into the subway.  One of the things he shared was that senior citizens can ride the subway for free, what a great thing to offer them. 

And in this building...HANBOKS!!!!!!!  Gorgeous ones, beautiful colors in adult and kids sizes. 

OK, that is all I can fit in today...more soon.  This post has already taken hours to write.
 

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

We are here

After an incredibly long flight, we made it to Seoul. Such a difference from good ole VA, but the weather is similar...read:humid!! We brought a wireless travel router so we would have Internet in the room, but alas it doesn't work. I'm sure everything things I'm quite odd wandering around with an iPad looking for wireless service. Found it in the lobby, so hear I sit while S is trying to rest. Neither of us have eaten today, time difference had him up at about 4am and me at 5. The good news is we were off to conquer the subway by 7. At first it was very confusing but I learned quickly if pulled out my paper map and stood still long enough, someone would stop and help! So grateful for that. We met the nicest man who bought us rice cakes (nothing like the dry ones in the US) and went out of his way to take us to the area of shopping we couldn't find on our own. Tomorrow is the big day...still seems surreal. By this time tomorrow MR will be in my arms. Can't wait. Cannot.wait. For now, food....it has to happen if we are going to make it til tomorrow. It is so hard, I don't eat spicy food, so I am terrified of what I will get. FYI, the outback in our hotel doesn't appear to serve outback food at all. Very interesting. We have seen: McDs, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, KFC, TGIF, Uno's, and about 3 trillion coffee shops! So that's where we are...until my next lobby break....

Friday, July 13, 2012

It's go time...

Well, we have arrived at that important moment...Travel Call!! We leave this weekend and will be back at the end of next week. Stress??? You betcha! T fell off of her bike earlier this week, biting through her upper lip. What, did it infected you asked? Well OF COURSE it did. Back to the doctor yesterday for antibiotics. Today, my last day of work, S has a horrible headache, something that never happens. He has been in bed basically all day. Nothing is helping and that is stressing me out and giving me a headache. My dog went stupid yesterday, giving me a bit more gray hair. But we are almost there. We have some more things to grab, and that is on my agenda for tomorrow. Then we are out of time. Did I mention my ridiculous.irrational. Insane freak of flying??? Oh no, well there is that too. So I am terrified, nervous, excited, thrilled, you name it. Most of all I am thankful. Thankful for this opportunity, thankful for the amazing support we have gotten from our friends, family, co workers, etc. REALLY THANKFUL for my neighbors who are entertaining my kids tonight so I can update my blog!! I hope the next time I post we will be on the other side of the world meeting a sweet, sweet boy!