For Lydia and Trixie Lu

Girls, even though we're in Korea, Daddy and I think of you all the time. When we were exploring today we saw some things that we knew you'd be interested to see. On our walk along the Cheonggye Stream we saw this beautiful golden princess carriage. We knew that if you saw this, Trixie, you would sing about how beautiful it was and climb right up in it and play princess.

Lydia, I knew you'd be surprised that they have Smoothie Kings over here! That's one of your favorite places to get a treat when you're with Papa. Do you see how the name is written in English and Korean both?

I took this picture of Daddy for both of you donut loving gals. He bought this from a person selling donuts on the street and it was humongous! I have never seen such a huge donut.

The other picture I took was of a bridge we walked across over the Cheonggye Stream. It has 3 white hearts that say "Love In Seoul". You 2 would like walking across it and if you were with us I know you would call it the "fancy bridge".

I miss you girls and think of you constantly. When you think of me remember, "I love you more!" :)

Walking the Cheonggye stream

We started exploring Seoul today. We decided to walk the Cheonggye Stream. A few years ago this stream was cleaned and sidewalks and landscaping were added to the 6 km long stream. It was a huge renovation project and it is enjoyed by many people. We passed and came upon many families, children and young people on our trek. Along the way we saw a huge display along a wall of handpainted tiles that were a copy of a historical picture of a long ago royal procession of a queen and her son going to visit the grandfathers burial place. I didn't get a picture of that (I wish I had!) but I did take a picture of another cool tile display called the "Wall of Hope". This wall of tiles were all hanpainted tiles from 20,000 people showing their hopes and dreams. It was beautiful and interesting to look at. Some tiles showed baby announcements and baby hand & feet prints, some were wedding or anniversary tiles, and some were in honor of loved ones who have gone on to Heaven. There were also a couple places along the stream where you could walk across rocks through the stream to the other side. Fun! On our adventure today we also walked around a huge plaza that was across the street from the US Embassy. It had a big statue of King Sejong. There was also a huge grassy area that had beautiful flowers planted along the perimeter and in each corner. At the end of that grassy knoll was an unusual, but neat looking, building that we think was the Gwanghwamun Gate.

Along our stream hike we stopped at the Kwangjang Market and ate some of their food for lunch. There were tons of booths with food cooked in the middle and little benches all around them for sitting and eating. The food was delicious and cheap. You can see some of the food in the picture. We chose to have seaweed wrapped sushi. The sushi had red and yellow peppers and some type of very mild sausage wrapped in rice and then seaweed. It was actually really good. While sitting and eating the guy next to me took it upon himself to greet us and talk with us and help us. He really enjoyed that. At this market there were also a lot of hanboks on the street and there was an upstairs that had hundreds of booths with bolts of silk and patterns you could choose to have a hanbok made to fit you. It was beautiful -- like looking at a rainbow with all the different colored bolts of silk and hanboks on display. Those were very good quality and very expensive. Down on the street the prepackaged hanboks were much cheaper and I did a little bartering to get an excellent price on a hanbok for Henry and one for a friend of mine. Brent was impressed that even though the ladies didn't speak more than 5 words of English I was able to use a calculator to bring them down to the price I wanted to pay.

After all that walking and exploring today we found that during supper we hit a brick wall. Tiredness just suddenly overtook us. I was a bit revived by supper, but Brent is currently sound asleep on the couch. He wanted to watch TV and stay up a little longer so he could get on Seoul time, but he didn't quite make it. I hope he gets well rested so that he's ready for our next adventure tomorrow!

Well, we made it here! About 6:30 a.m. Thursday morning my father in law (I like to call him Stormin' Norman) picked us up in his minivan to take us and our mountain of luggage to the airport.

Everything went really smooth getting on the plane and making our connection in Chicago to get on Korean Air. Every seat had its own video and music screen. Brent was setting up his music play list when his computer screen crashed. In his attempt to repair it he accidentally hit the stewardess call button several times on his remote control. We had just taken off and the seatbelt sign was still on, and a not so happy stewardess had to pay him a visit. All was taken care of and no more incidents occurred. We were very happy with Korean Air, but I had a bit of a scare at the baggage claim in Seoul. I have a pink suitcase that is very pretty, but Brent has always given me a hard time about it. It stands out in a crowd, though, and is easy to spot. Well, in Seoul we had gotten Brent's black suitcase (that looks like everyone else's) and the stroller but there was no pink suitcase coming. We waited till the very end and then I went to talk to the airport man about my missing luggage. He made some phone calls and there still was no suitcase. He wrote down all the information and I was resigning my self to the fact that I would hopefully get my suitcase tomorrow. Well, after about 15 minutes they came running to me with my suitcase. Hurray!! Go figure that the standout pink suitcase got lost but the standard black one didn't.

We took a bus to our hotel -- Somerset Palace. It's beautiful and so very nice. It's in the Insadong area and across the street from a Buddhist Temple. As we were walking we passed several monks in their golden robes and heard some Buddhist monks singing. Beautiful! By now we were running on fumes and I was starving. We walked around a little and ended up eating at a quaint, and quite delicious, Italian restaurant -- AGIO. I'm a little embarrassed that here we are in Seoul and we eat Italian food. Oh well, it was good and I know we'll get our share of Korean food.

When we left home we had not received any word from Eastern about when to go there, so I was just going to give them a call on Monday morning. By the time we checked in at our hotel there was a message waiting for us from Eastern asking us to be there at 9 a.m. on Monday morning. No problem!!

As I write this I've been up since I left home about 24 hrs. ago. I slept a little on the plane, but not much. I think I better go get some sleep so I'm ready for more fun tomorrow. Annyeong-hi gyeseyo!

Travel Arrangements

We finally have our travel arrangements all made. We went back and forth on how long to stay in Seoul. We have decided on a week. We leave this Thursday and return the following Thursday. Brent called Korean Air and we got the adoption discount and we're pleased with that.

Next we needed a hotel because the Eastern Guesthouse is full. :( I was hoping to stay there again, but since Seoul is such a huge city finding another place would be a piece of cake. Wrong!! After doing a lot of research to find the right hotel for us Brent discovered the hotel was full. So were the next 2 that he tried. Then our friends Jill and Vanessa gave us a link to a great guy who could help us find affordable hotels (hotels are really expensive in Seoul). The hotels that he tried to book for Brent were all full. Crazy!! How could all these hotels be full? Turns out that April is peak travelling time in Seoul. By now we're pretty nervous. It's 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday night and we don't have a hotel room booked and we leave very early on Thursday morning. This man, Philip, had one last reservation he was trying to confirm for us. We got an email at 11:30 p.m. that the hotel was full. Yikes! But we found out that Philip had found us a room at Somerset Palace for just a little more than we wanted to pay. I am so relieved!! We have a place to stay and we don't have to pay hundreds of dollars per night to keep it. Turns out that Eastern recommended Somerset Palace to another family who is travelling at the same time as us and we'll all get to stay together. How funny! This does look like a really nice place to stay. :)

My suitcase is packed and I'm ready. If only Brent could say the same ...

Details

Now that some of the craziness has subsided I'd like to document our Travel call. In all honesty I really hadn't expected it yet. Since Henry's visa interview was Thursday I was thinking the call may come Wednesday, Tuesday at the earliest. Funny that after everything has taken longer than it should have, the Travel Call is the one thing that surprised me by coming early!

Since it was Easter Monday, Lydia was at home because of no school. We were busy. The girls played all morning while I was working on thank you notes from Trixie Lu's birthday party. I needed to finish the notes so that then I could start doing some things to get ready for the travel call that would come on Wednesday or so.

The girls were sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch and I was still working on those pesky thank you's when the phone rang. It didn't even enter my mind that this could be THE CALL. Carol, our social worker, said hello and I just screamed right in her ear. I was jumping up and down and had to let another yell out before I settled down to listen. I continued to jump and twirl and talk way louder than normal. I must have been quite a sight because Lydia stopped eating to laugh at me and Trixie started crying (my reaction must have scared her). Once I got off the phone I immediately called Brent at work. He was shocked to say the least. He'd thought we would be travelling in 2 weeks instead of 2 days! After I got off the phone with Brent I officially told the girls our news. They both got up from the table and started jumping up and down and screaming and hugging each other. Luckily I had the presence of mind to grab the video camera -- it was really cute! Lydia wanted to be the one to tell Grammy, so I videod Lydia as she called. I couldn't make out what she said, but I definitely heard Grammy's loud reaction over the phone.

I was quite scattered the rest of the day. I'd start something and then get distracted and start something else. I did make a few phone calls, too. We received so many well wishes and offers of support that I went to bed feeling overwhelmed that God would give me such a great life -- a call to pick up my son and so many friends and family to support me.

No way -- TRAVEL CALL!!!!!!!!

I can't believe it -- we just got our travel call today at 12:30!!!! I thought it would come tomorrow, so I was totally not expecting it! I'll have to write more later -- I have some packing to do! I just wanted y'all to know. :) WE'RE GOING TO SEOUL!! WE'RE BRING OUR SON HOME!!!!!!

Visa Interview

Well, Henry's visa interview was scheduled for today, April 1. Since April 1 was already over, I went ahead and called the National Visa Center (NVC) to see if the interview had actually taken place. For the first time I actually received good news -- yes, the interview took place.

Many friends have asked me how Henry could be interviewed since he's only a year old. It does sound funny, but no, Henry is not expected to answer any questions. The foster parents probably have some questions to answer, but they do need to take Henry with them. This is a relatively new rule. It used to be that the child was not required to be at the interview. I kind of like the fact that Henry had to go to the interview. With him in the room there is no question that he is the correct child for the papers they have in front of them -- no chance of getting the wrong child!

I had to include this picture of cupcakes. My very *sweet* friend Jill (who's been through this process herself) made these cupcakes for me because she knew I'd be calling the NVC today. Notice that there are 5 cupcakes -- the number of people in our family when we bring Henry home. :) And of course she put Henry's initials on the cupcakes. What a thoughtful gal! Everyone got to eat a cupcake in celebration of the good news from the NVC. If I had not heard good news I think I would have eaten all 5 cupcakes myself!!

Our social worker told us that our Travel Call (TC) would probably come in a couple weeks. I have been looking at the timelines of people who recently brought their child home from Korea and for all of them the TC came 4 - 7 days after the visa interview. Here's hoping ...