Thursday, February 17
We saw Olivia and her Foster Mom and 3:30p Korea time. It was absolutely amazing. Olivia did a sweet little jerky bow when Foster Mom said An nyoung (hello) to us. So very very cute. We moved from the lobby in to a little conference room. We sat there and talked to her while our Social Worker gave us papers and had Dave fill out the escort papers - my favorite question was "Experience escorting" - none... We got our pre-flight paperwork, which thankfully answered most of our questions. We gave our gifts to Social Worker and Foster Mom. Foster Mom gave us some of the clothes we had sent Olivia that still fit and her toki (bunny) we had sent - he is pretty well loved on. Thankfully we have 2 more, just in case. We also got her hanbok and some cute shoes and pictures and the camera that we had sent - it doesn't take focused pictures any more - seems someone might have thrown it. :)
Then Olivia started walking around, so we moved to the floor. Foster Mom gave her some crackers and asked her to share with us - Olivia immediately went to Dave and gave him a piece of cracker. Then she was supposed to give me one, but it went to Dave too. Then I got one - just the sweetest. Then, my favorite, Olivia gave Dave a piece of cracker from her mouth and he ate it! Just made me love him even more. And the best part, as I was sitting on the floor, I held out my hands and she came a plopped right down in my lap - wow!! Not many more details beyond that - we kept having snacks and playing - but it was amazing. Then I hugged Foster Mom and she held on to me really tightly and started talking. We believe she was praying for Olivia and (hopefully) us. Our Social Worker was hold the camera for this, so we do have it on video - someday I'd like to know what she said.
Our hour quickly ended and we said goodbye for now. We went back to the hotel and dropped all the stuff off and just talked about how much better the meeting went than we thought it would. Our previous meeting was with a just up from a nap baby who wasn't so sure about strangers. So this was beyond our wildest expectations.
Thursday night we went out to Namdaemun and walked around. Got socks for Olivia, me, Mom, Niki, Jordan, Sydney, and Gina; and t-shirts for Dad and Bryan. Felt strange to buy an XXL for my Dad - who is so not an XXL...Then we walked over Shinsegae Department Store and went up and down the escalators - just a really interesting fancy place. We were hoping to find some food there, but we are a little picky sometimes - if we don't know what it is, we don't get it. We finally ate at Pizza Hut near Hongik Station - Bulgogi pizza. Then back to the hotel and sleep - complete and utter exhaustion from excitement and jetlag.
Friday, February 18
We woke up early this morning and laid in bed talking about our excitement and nervousness and thinking how Foster Mom must be feeling. Today was the day we've been waiting for and the day she must be dreading.
We had several hours before 3:30p handover, so we had breakfast at Paris Baguette again...sadly not as good as the first time. Then we went shopping for a bit. First stop - Grand Mart where we bought a cute memory foam bunny pillow for 30,000 won (silly, but it's turned out to be nice behind our backs in the glider rocker). We checked out baby stuff, but decided we didn't really need anything. Then to the Hyundai Department Store - Dave wanted to try and find a nice shirt to wear today. We found the men's department and a girl tried to help us find a dress shirts. Another girl came over with a measuring tape and measured Dave to see what size - when she got to his arm measurement, the tape ran out before Dave's arm did. That caused some giggles and head shaking - so no shirt for Dave. Oh well, off to Lotte Mart to look for snacks and stuff for Olivia. We picked up some crackers and chips (we found Korean bugles) and a sippy cup for Olivia. We must have bought more, we spend 35,000 won. Then, hungry again, we roamed around Seoul Station until we found something to eat - Burger King - but it was good and it was food. We took a taxi back to (close to) the hotel - our first successful taxi - we've taken the subway everywhere.
Back at the hotel, we went ahead and started packing the stuff we knew we wouldn't need. Then we couldn't wait anymore and headed over to Eastern. We got there about half hour early and Foster Family was in the lobby - but no baby...hmmm, had she run away? We visited for a few minutes, then Foster Mom went over to the stairs and was calling for our girl - very strange...but then some young girls brought her downstairs with chocolate on her face, oh dear. Then Dr Kim came down and said the blessing over the babies, adoptive families, and foster families. Here is the prayer translated (I stole this from someone else's blog). We have it recorded, but again it was all Korean, so I'll someday get it fully translated, because she did mention each child and family.
"Precious lives, our angels, we send away these lives to foreign countries, with scarred memories of their homeland. Please forgive our sins and allow Korea to be a better country, so that we will be adopting children from other countries, instead of us always sending ours away.
We send them for care. So please protect these lives and help them lead a happy life in their new homes. Always provide them with grace and intelligence, lead them to live by the rules of Jesus Christ, to have luck, to help benefit others, and to return the glory to our Lord.
It is our sincere wish that these lives will not forget their home country and the love of the people who took care of them. Father, please remember the foster families who worked hard whether it is favorable or unfavorable conditions to protect these lives, and give them blessings for the benefits they provided with. By your blessings, these adoptive families will be full of love and be under your protection.
Now the children are leaving: Please make their way as easy as possible, lead them to the most pleasant life.
In the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen."
Then suddenly we were sent to the van to go back to our hotel. Foster Mom and Dad followed us out - they were so very emotional, we were emotional - it was the strangest feeling walking off with a baby. Olivia sat on my lap all the way to the hotel - she just looked around and took in everything. The driver even seemed surprised about this. We got to the hotel around 4:30p and things were good for a bit; we did a quick skype with Nana - she was pretty excited. After that, Olivia started looking for her Foster Mom and the crying/screaming started. Dave walked around the hotel room with her looking in every corner. Then we went out in the hall and walked in circles for what seemed like hours and hours. As long as we walked, she was quiet - no walk, scream. She would peer around each corner as we got to it. There was a door to a room open, so she checked it every time we walked by too. Then we decided to go out. We put the baby carrier on Dave's back and got it adjusted and put Olivia in it - that calmed her right down. We headed out to check out Sinchon Station area. We walked and walked, she loved it - the lights, the noise, the people. Dave found a little eating area by a KFC that had trees with little blue blinking lights - Olivia loved them and giggled (thank goodness for that!). We stayed there a while, then walked more, and she finally fell asleep. We were starving by then and went to McDonalds for dinner. Then back to the hotel - as soon as tried to take her out of the carrier, the screaming started again - so more walking around the halls and building. Back in the carrier...to the laundry room, up and down the elevator, to the lobby, and finally the coffee shop - where Olivia flirted with a young man who was obviously on a date. Dave was ok with it because he was well-dressed and looked like a nice young man. Olivia walked around and visited everyone, then ran right back to us (yay!!). Then back to the room for more crying...so sad and pitiful. So we walked around the room taking turns holding her, bouncing and rocking. I think we were about to lose it - we were crying with her. I was so tired a was leaning against the wall and bouncing - my eyes were just about closed. Suddenly about 12:15a, she fell asleep. I carefully sat on the bed, still holding her - Dave put pillows behind me so I could sit up, and there I stayed. We have no pictures of this night - this was our private time together - so memories in our heads :)
Saturday, February 19 (the day of 2 Saturdays)
Olivia woke up around 3:30a and we got a new diaper, and went to the fridge - she grabbed a pack of milk out, so milk she got, and back to sleep until after 7a. She wakes up slow, so it took from 7a to 9a before we got her truly awake.
In the meantime, we took turns showering and packing our stuff - which had exploded from the previous day. We finally got it all packed and went to grab some lunch by then - McDonalds again. Olivia had milk, 1 chicken nugget and a bunch of fries. We walked around quite a bit too with her in the carrier - her daddy is awesome!
Finally back to the hotel to check out and wait for the Eastern van - much easier than catching a bus with a baby and all the stuff we now had. Olivia was great - she sat in the seat with Dave and looked around some more, then fell asleep. Easy check in at the airport and easy through security - much nicer than here...We got to the gate and there was a play area right there, so Olivia and Dave did some playing for a bit while we waited.
Then we got on the plane...we had a bottle prepared, so right before take off we stuck that in her mouth and hoped for the best since it was almost nap time. Thankfully she fell asleep pretty quickly; unfortunately it was only for about 1.5 hours. Then the crying and screaming started. So walk around the plane we went. Then we stood and bounced and rocked. Then we walked. Then we tried a bottle. And around and round we went. I can't believe how many wet diapers I changed on an airplane. The flight attendants were great though - even when the fasten seat belt sign came on due to turbulence, they let us hang out near the galley jump seats and bounce and rock. One flight attendant even took Olivia for a bit and walked her around the galled so we could rest - Olivia got to have waffle and fresh milk and didn't cry the whole time. Finally after lots and lots of crying, screaming, bouncing and rocking, she crashed and slept the last 3 hours of the flight - did I mention the flight was 10.5 hours?
After all this time, we landed at LAX (Saturday morning again) - the plane stopped, we all stood up, we all sat down - the plane had to the towed to the correct spot. We all stood up, we all sat down - ICE came on the plane and gave some people preferential deboarding. Finally off the place, show our passports to ICE (still wonder what the were doing) and head to Immigration lines. I love this one - we asked the person directing people which line we should go to for a new immigrant and we got "just go the US line and they will send you somewhere else if they need to." Didn't like that answer - it looked like 200 people in that line, so we asked the next person, and got Line 1 - very important to know. Got in Line 1 which was much shorter, passports to the Immigration guy - very nice - then we had to take the super secret envelope to another desk and stand in no line to hand the guy the envelope. Then go get our luggage and come back and sit. Finally we were ready to go and stand in the Customs line (lots of lines here). We rechecked our luggage and then hiked outside from Int'l terminal to terminal 7 (4 terminals away) for United.
United check in to get our boarding passes was not pretty. Dave (who was carrying the baby on his back) just about came unglued at the United rep...We were told to self check in and ask someone behind the counter if we needed help. Unfortunately no one is actually behind the counter that can help you and if you ask, the people just seem to walk away and never come back...but we finally got all 3 boarding passes and headed through security again (not as nice here as Korea!!). This time Dave had to take Olivia out of her carrier to carry her through Security and the baby carrier had to go through xray - seriously??? Whatever...
Then we found our gate, got some food and took turns walking Olivia around the terminal to wear her out - it may sound bad, but we didn't want her screaming for 2 more hours on a plane - a much smaller plane. It worked out - about 30 minutes before boarding, we got her in the carrier and she fell asleep. We had a bottle ready and when we got on the plane (thank you Christina for allowing us to Priority board) we stuck that right in and she stayed asleep all the way to Colorado Springs!
Finally we got home and there were our friends and family to meet us - Nana and Pawpaw (my mom and dad), Teresa and Jason (great friends), and Laurel (most awesome social worker and friend). Olivia walked out of the secure area herself and showed everyone how big she is - it was darling. Then she took to Pawpaw right away and we lost her to him...and the escalator and the elevator...finally we had to track him down so we could leave.
A quick stop at Village Inn for food - we were all starving. Then a stop at Nana and Pawpaw's house to drop them off and pick up big sister Jessie (our sweet Cattle Dog). Then home - finally...Nana came on over and spent the night, just in case, which was great. That first night was hard for all of us. Jessie lost her spot in the bed. We got woken up by crying. There was a diaper change. All sorts of new stuff for us all.
Sunday, February 20
At 6a we got up and Nana took her and told us to sleep, so we did for 3 more hours, which was awesome. Nana played with her and took a little nap, then got breakfast ready. For Olivia, Nana had made a ton of sticky rice for us. Not thinking too clearly, I dug through all our suitcases and found the seaweed FM had sent - so rice and seaweed it was. She had 2 little burritos out of that and maybe something else (but seriously, I can't remember, I was so tired).
Sunday ended up being very busy. Aunt Gina and Uncle Bryan came by for a while, and then Pawpaw came over to get Nana and we had a late lunch out. Then Miss Shelley came by and brought pizza for the grown ups, snausages for Jessie, Cokes for Dave, cookies and flowers for me, and a balloon for Olivia - which she absolutely loved! Miss Shelley is the best :)
