My Korean girls

Lydia and Trixie Lu both really like their hanboks. Lydia thinks hers is very pretty and scratchy too. Trixie likes that she can put lots of rocks in the matching purse. :) Regardless of why they like them, the girls look adorable and both of them think they may where their hanbok to the airport when Henry comes home.

Last Day in Seoul

Beth and I had fun on our last day in Seoul. We decided to try and find a Korean Antiques market and we did! It was very cool. There was an area that had two buildings filled with little rooms. Each room was stuffed with antiques from China, Tibet and Korea. Some things were very expensive, and others pretty reasonable. I found a couple boxes that I loved and Beth found a really cool little tabletop wall. I don't know how else to describe what it was. We asked how old our purchases were and casually told 100-150 years old. It's really old to us, but it must not be that old here in Korea because they were so cheaply priced. Other things we liked were much older and much more expensive. Then we headed to Insa Dong. At first we couldn't find the right street so we asked a young girl -- who turned out to be in her 20's. Everyone is so young looking here! That sweet girl said she would take us there and walked us 3-4 blocks to Insa Dong which was the opposite way that she was going in the first place. I was not totally surprised because I have found the Korean people extremely friendly and helpful and willing to go out of their way to help. Well, Insa Dong was great! I took a few pictures of the street we ate on, one of us in a restaurant where 2 young men asked us questions for an English report and recorded our answers and took a picture of us (I hope we don't wind up on Youtube one day!), and one picture I thought was cool because it was an old style Korean building with all the modern high rises behind it. We have seen many Starbucks over here, but the one in the picture is the first to have "Starbucks" written in Korean over the door -- the others had it in English over the door. We found some great souvenir/gifts in Insa Dong and this is someplace I will definitely come back with Brent when we pick Henry up. On the way back to Eastern we stopped in a Dunkin Donuts (tons of them here, too) for hot chocolate -- it was FREEZING today! Well at 6:00 p.m. it was hopping! We had to go upstairs and barely found a table. Who knew Dunkin Donuts was the place to be on a Friday night?

This has been an incredible trip and I will always treasure the memories and pictures from this adventure. I LOVED seeing Seoul and my Henry Joon Seong -- can't wait to go home and see the rest of my family. Brent, Lydia and Trixie Lu here I come! :)

Sweet, sweet Henry

I so looked forward to my meeting with Henry today. I just couldn't wait to see him again, yet I also dreaded my meeting with Henry because I knew I wouldn't see him again for at least a couple months. I was really hoping this meeting would go better than the first -- and it did!! I think he may have remembered me because he didn't cry when he looked at me. :) I brouhgt shakers for him to play with and he promptly tried to stuff them in his mouth. He played with me and whenever he would crawl over to his foster mom she would push him back to me. After a while the foster mom and Mrs. Shin left the room and it was just Henry and I (and my faithful videographer Beth) and things were sailing along great. I even got a little cocky and thought how quickly I was able to win him over - ha! In the next second he looked at me and started crying. No matter what I did I could not distract or console him and he was crying pretty hard. I stood up and swayed with Henry and just started talking in a low, calm voice about anything and everything. He wasn't crying and I couldn't believe that he was interested in what I had to say, seeing as how he doesn't understand English! Then I heard snoring -- Henry had fallen asleep on my shoulder!! I loved it! He was so snuggly and sweet and I couldn't believe he was comfortable enough to fall asleep on my shoulder. That was perfect. It also helped extend my visit. :) When the foster mom came back in she didn't want Henry to wake up so they let him sleep on my shoulder for 20-30 minutes!! It was fun talking with Mrs. Shin and the foster mom while Henry slept on me. I found out Henry is a good sleeper and a great eater. Then Henry woke up in a great mood and smiled several times at me and then when I played "mousy mousy" with him he giggled!! That is a sound I will never get tired of. I raced over and picked up my video camera and the foster mom kept making him giggle so I could get it on video. :) Things went so much better than I thought.

We did get to meet Dr. Kim today. She is articulate, kind, intelligent, compassionate, and altogether lovely. Then we went up to a meal of bee bim bop that had been prepared for us. It was one of the best meals I'd had so far. I got to sit by Dr. Kim and she is just delightful to visit with. She also gave honest, direct answers to my ep questions and I respect that.

After all that, Beth and I went to Kjongdong market where Brent and read that it would be a good place to get hanboks for the girls. He was right, the snacks were fantastic -- we tried some! It was an extrememly different and interesting place up on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors (once we found the stairs!) and I did get hanboks for good prices. Thanks Brenty! After the market we went to Brothers Bulgogi to try the famous Korean barbecue. Deeelicious!! It was also a really nice restaurant with great atmosphere tthat cooked the food for you at your table. Dr. Kim reccommended it to us and we loved it. I tried soju for the first time -- I didn't love it so much! I'm not sure why Koreans think so much of this drink. Great, great, fantastic day and off to Ins Dong tomorrow....

Gus Tae Ho

Today I got to meet the adorable Tae Ho. He is the son of my friend Vanessa and his foster mother was kind enough to let me meet him. He is a doll!! Evidently he's usually quite friendly and happy, but today he was pretty serious and too much looking at me made him cry. I couldn't resist taking some pictures of him crying because he's so adorable when he does. Vanessa, I have more pictures from my camera that I'll get to you when I get home and your foster mother gave me a CD to give you. It has many pictures on it including pics of Gus Tae Ho's 100 day celebration. I also took some video footage of him that I hope my computer whiz husband can put on a DVD for you. Enjoy!!

Exploring Seoul

After Beth's meeting with Jee Min, which went amazingly well, by the way, we went exploring! We mastered the subway and went to Namdaemun market (even though it was raining). We were surprised at all the neon lights and how lit up everything was. We ate in a little Korean restauran for lunch and had lettuce wraps and a potato pancake that was delicious, but I have no idea what it was called. After dark we noticed that food vendors brought their carts out and lots of people were walking around. We then took the subway to Dongdaemun where we went in the high rise "Doota" mall. It was crowded and had upbeat music playing -- it was a happening place. We went to another Korean restaurant where food is cooked right at your table. We had the sirloin steak for 44,ooo won -- that's just under 44.00!! It wasn't even a big piece. Luckily we split it and with all the extra food they bring you we had more than enough food. Outside there were more food vendors and even a couple stages with people singing on them and we even saw a carnival ride. Who knew things would be so hopping on a Wednesday night! What a fun city. Tomorrow I get to meet with Dr. (Mrs.?) Kim, meet Vanessa's son Gus, and my last meeting with Henry -- can't wait!

Meeting Henry!!

I landed in Seoul at 1:00 today and met Henry at 4:00 today! The foster parents are wonderful. The father made a special effort to be there and he gave me 3 disks filled with pictures and video of Henry's life so far. Mrs. Shin, the social worker, said that Henry is a daddy's boy. Henry must be teething because everything he touched went straight to his mouth -- even the big rattle you see above. Henry has 4 teeth and whenever he is teething he bites on his father's shoulder -- which he was doing some today. I got to be alone with Henry some. I expected that he would cry the whole time, but he didn't!! He played quietly beside me for a long time and then I even got him to smile!! He kept sticking his tongue out (evidently that's his new habit that he does all the time right now) and I stuck my tongue back out at him. After several times of me sticking my tongue out Henry smiled!! Of course, when he started looking at me too much he cried. I did, however, get a kiss from him when I held him one last time. Don't be too excited -- the foster mother and I forced him to do it. :)

Tokyo

These are pictures from my night in Tokyo. I arrived at my hotel around 5:30 p.m. Although I was tired I had to do a little exploring and eat a Japanese meal. Since I didn't get any Japanese money I found a restaurant that took my credit card. It seemed to be the Japanese equivalent of our American diners. No one spoke any English, but I was able to point to a picture of chicken on a stick (I don't know how to use chopsticks) and said the word coca
cola and I was set. After a short walk back to my hotel I was in

bed by 7 p.m.