Days 2 & 3

Jetlag is starting to catch up with us, so instead of blogging, we've been sleeping. Day 2 in Korea was very rainy and cold. We had lunch at an east meets west restaurant called the Urban Sheriff. All of the waiters wore jean shirts with cowboy hats and gold stars. We had to wonder if that's what they think sheriffs really look like in the States. That evening we went on a food tour with our new friends and got to try some wonderful and some interesting, traditional Korean dishes. We got to try some rice flour treats as well as some traditional rolls and dumplings! The dumplings were so good. One of our favorite foods was a fried donut filled with cinnamon goodness. Amanda was brave and tried blood sausage. It was definitely not her favorite and she won't be eating it ever again. We ended the night at a great BBQ.

Our tour guide was amazing. He is an adult adoptee and who now lives in Korea. He owns O'ngo Food Commnunications and writes for several food publications. He's also met Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods!  He had a lot of great insight into Korean culture and many adoptees now living in Korea. He recently opened a pizza restaurant so we will all be returning there tomorrow for dinner to celebrate our court hearings being completed!

Day 3 was a sightseeing day. We visited some of the traditional markets like Namdaemun. We also visited the National Museum of Korea, which is enormous. We enjoyed seeing Seoul Tower and visiting some of the palaces. Needless to say, Seoul is a huge city with so much to do. Hopefully, we'll get to do a bit more sightseeing before we leave and as long as the weather cooperates.

We will write again a about our second meeting with Bennett and our lunch with the president of ESWS.

Until then, here are some pics from our good tour!

Here are some photos from sightseeing too! 

This photo is for my dad! Got to love the shooting range add!

Day 1 in SK

To my coworkers, you will enjoy this......contrary to popular belief, I do not look like a Fay-sian (fake Asian) to the people of South Korea!  I thought people in SK would take one look at me and know I am a Fay-sian! However, the only thing that's really given any indication is the fact that David is with me.  He is definitely the minority. It's so funny how everyone assumes I know what they are talking about. They rattle off Korean and I just give them this blank stare. It started on the flight to SK. All of the Korean stewardesses spoke in Korean and it has continued from there. I'm learning a little, but it's a very difficult language. I've mastered the currency. Food however has been a challenge. As much as I want to eat some authentic Korean, it's difficult when the entire menu is Hangul. There aren't even pictures for me to point to. Therefore, we've been taking it slow with food and have only had Pizza Hut and Popyes Chicken. We found more restaurants in a college district near our guest house that have both English and Korean so the food should improve tomorrow. We also found this great pastry shop called Paris Baguette. Best pastries I have ever had! Tomorrow we are going on a street food tour with some of our adoption friends. I can't wait to tell you all about it! 

Our first meeting with Bennett was great; very laid back. Our social worker spoke very little English, which made our visit a little challenging. We were supposed to take some of this visit to ask questions to help us with the transitions on our pick up trip. However, with the language barrier it was difficult. The social worker initially left us all alone which was also awkward. No introductions, just take your shoes off and go in this room.  The foster mother was talking up a storm in Korean and I just smiled and nodded.  I wish I knew what she was saying. 

The FM showed us pictures of Bennett's second birthday party. He is definitely loved by her family. He loved David's cell phone and kept acting like he was talking on the phone to someone. He has a great imagination and naturally is a very busy two year old. He loved going down this small slide. He would laugh and giggle everytime he slid down. He would let David catch him and then climb back up and slide down again. He even sat in my lap and colored a picture for us (thanks Nana for sending the crayons). We have our first piece if artwork from our little one; just one of the things so easily taken for granted. A piece of paper with a bunch of scribbles :) We get to see him again on Monday and will also have a lunch with the director of the agency. I hope to have better pictures at that time. He moves so fast. It's hard to get good photos.

We volunteered with the babies at the agency this evening. It was exhausting! There were about 10 children under the age of 1 and 5 toddlers in one room. There was one worker in our room. It was a sad sight. Most of them were sick with colds and left in cribs or on play mats. The room was so hot too; about 85-90 degrees. The babies were sweating, We were sweating! David hung out with the toddlers and helped feed them. I stayed with the little ones and helped with feedings and put most of them to bed. Many of them were also teething so there were a lot of unhappy little ones. Hopefully, they will get to go to a foster family soon. There was another room that had all of the newborn babies. They were so tiny and precious; just waiting for their forever families.

That's all for now! Love and hugs to you all!

Amanda 

Korea Here We Come!

I needed a break from packing so I wanted to have one more blog posting before we depart. I cannot believe that we will meet our son on Friday! I've had constant heartburn for the past few weeks and a lot of sleepless nights thinking about this trip. Anxiety and stress is high, but it is all worth it.

We are sad about leaving our pups, because they have been our babies for so long. However, we know they will be well taken care of. We're worried about Frank because he stops eating when we travel. Annie will be okay, but poor Frank hates being away from family.

We will have WiFi during our trip and will be keeping everyone updated via our blog and Facebook. However, we will be 15 hours ahead of ya'll. You can keep track of the time here: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=235.  If there is an emergency you can message us for free through Kakao Talk, which is a free chat/instant message app (like texting). We'll be using this to communicate with our friends in Korea and back at home. You can look me up by my cell phone number or David's cell phone and we can chat from there.

So far we have a Korean street food tour scheduled in addition to our meetings with Bennett. We're looking forward to meeting some of the other adoptive families we have met online too.

Please keep us in your prayers as we embark upon this journey of a lifetime!