WOW! What a Warm Welcome Home

I sit here not even sure what to type. Greg has been doing all the blogging while we were in Korea and now I sit in front of the computer overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of our family and friends.

We arrived in Atlanta last night with 1 1/2 hours to clear customs and transfer to our flight to Louisville. It took forever for us to get through immigration and then Greg ran to our gate for our next flight. He got there as they were closing the door. The Delta agent working the gate held the plane for us and the 3 of us were able to make it home by 9pm.

The flight was short and fairly uneventful, but after so many hours in the air we were more than ready to be on solid ground. We were the last on the plane and the last off. When we walked through the gates and saw everyone that had come to meet us at the airport both Greg and I were overcome with emotion. When we were close enough to the security check point Josiah came running and Greg and I just lost it. We knelt down as he crashed into us with hugs and kisses all around. Josiah was a little confused at both Mommy and Daddy crying. He still asks me today what was wrong. I don't think he has grasped the concept that sometimes people cry when they are happy.
Again, I have to just say Wow! Thank you everyone that came out and made our homecoming extra special. Mom and Dad H, thanks for watching our rowdy, wonderful little Josiah for us all week and for bringing him to the airport. I can't even put into words how it felt to have him run so fast to meet us and love on us.

Mark and Janna, thank you so very much for the support you have given Greg at work and now at home. The banner and the gifts for my children were a huge blessing. We so appreciate it. Thank you to all the other Humana folks that were there. I would mention you by name, but in my stupor I have to apologise I just can't remember everyone that was there.

The "Zoeler clan" - Chris and Laura how can we ever thank you for your friendship and encouragement during this process. To see you at the airport was an extra special surprise. The poster and balloons are great and Mr Chris, Josiah thinks you are the coolest.

Vonda and John - we just didn't expect that you would be there and were so excited to see you. I am praying that we will be doing this exact same thing for you in just a week or two. We cannot wait to meet Paul and see you holding him in your arms.

Things have been really good so far. Except for Greg and I walking around in a sleep deprived stupor for most of the day and Josiah showing some perfectly normal jealousy, we are all doing well. Naomi slept better than we ever expected last night. We can only hope tonight is as good or better. I know that this can only be the result of so many prayers being lifted up for us. God is truly good.

Coming Home

This is our final post from Korea. We will be leaving for the airport in 30 minutes.
We have had a wonderful trip but we are ready to be coming home.

If anyone would like to meet us at the airport you are welcome to do so. We will be sleep deprived, stinky, stained and smiling.

Here is our itinerary for anyone that wants to follow our flights online. The flightaware sight shows a little dot on the map that moves as we fly (pretty cool stuff): http://flightaware.com/

Tuesday, March 11
Flight: Delta 92
Departs: 5:25 pm from Seoul, South Korea
Arrives: 6:05 pm at Atlanta, Georgia
Flight: Delta 1030
Departs: 7:32 pm from Atlanta, Georgia
Arrives: 8:52 pm at Louisville, Kentucky

Josiah - Mommy & Daddy love you and we are coming home today with Naomi

The Wait is Over

At this point in our journey I am sure some of you are thinking, the pictures of palaces and masks are nice. The stories about wedding ducks and strange food are interesting, but "We want to See Some Pictures of Naomi !!!" Well ... the wait is over. Today, March 10th 2008, at 11am Korea time Naomi Yoojin Hayworth joined our little family - completing our journey of 3 Becoming 4.

Everything at the adoption agency went very quickly, I don't think we were there for more than 30 minutes. While we were there they gave us all sorts of neat little gifts. We got a Korean Flag necklace that has Naomi's Korean name and birthday engraved on the back and a jewelry box to keep it in. We also got some tapes of Korean children's music and a small Korean flag. Naomi's foster mother gave us a Hanbok and lots of pictures on a CD. They also loaded us down with clothes, formula, diapers and bottles. When it was time to go, Teresa Naomi and I got into the elevator with our social worker and we said goodbye to Naomi's foster mother, much like the preview video we posted, with a little less crying.

This afternoon we have done all sorts of regular baby stuff. Naomi took a nap, we walked around the neighborhood, we rolled around on the floor making silly faces and sounds. We were told that Naomi is not yet eating any solid foods, but we tried to give her some smashed up banana anyway ... and she loved it. Teresa thinks that the reason she hasn't eaten any rice cereal yet is that they have been holding out on the good stuff - bananas.

Sleeping Beauty

A Million Dollar Smile
What a quick learner - I think she may be another genius

We Want More Bananas

Sucessful Shopping Spree

Today we had a pretty lazy day. We slept in a little and made yesterday's pictures into a blog post. We finally left the room at about noon to take a shopping trip. Our first stop was the COEX Mall, because it is very close to our guest house. We didn't spend a lot of time there, because this mall is so glossy and modern that it could be found in any city around the world and we were in search of some very traditional Korean articles.

Our next stop today was Insadong, an artsy district filled with galleries, tea shops and lots of traditional Korean crafts. Strolling through Insadong is apparently a very popular Sunday afternoon activity in Seoul, as you can see by the crowd. We could see people making crafts and snacks by hand in the street and lots of people strolling around enjoying the warm spring weather.

The lady that sold us a Hanbok for Naomi was so excited that we had adopted two Korean children that she took extra care wrapping our package in the shape of a flower. Then she gave us a discount and a special gift.
We were able to find:

• A Hanbok - a traditional Korean dress
• A chop - a name stamp
• A Celadon Tea Set - Celadon is a green glazed pottery developed in Korea hundreds of years ago
• Wedding ducks
• We bought the masks from my 90 year old friend in Itaewon, but they helped fill in the picture.

Wedding Ducks are a traditional gift given by the family of bride at her wedding. A couple should display them prominently in their home. When the married couple is happy the ducks will be facing each other nose to nose. If the couple is fighting, the ducks will be facing away from each other. This will help the couple remember their happy wedding day and make up.

Royalty, Riches and Regular Folks

Royalty

Today was a big day of sight seeing for us. We started with the Changdeokgung Palace, which is smaller than the palace we saw last time, but is famed for its secret garden.

This is Teresa outside the main entrance to the palace.

The black sign with gold letters is the doorway to the king and queens bedroom. Hmmm, I think perhaps we should do some more elaborate decorating for our bedroom when we get home.

The Korean Palaces of the Joseon Dynasty have many buildings with this distinctive architecture.

I am most fascinated by the elaborate painting under the eaves of every building.

I am standing in front of a pond in the Secret Garden. The gardens, were pretty brown this time of year, but we could imagine that they would be quite spectacular in full bloom.

This gate is the entrance to the King's library. I liked how the old tree had woven its way right into the architecture.

Riches

After leaving the Palace we hustled through busy Seoul City traffic and train stations to make it to the Theater on time.

At the Nanta Theater we watched a performance of Cookin', which is one of the most popular shows in Korea right now. It is a fusion of Blue Man Group meets Top Chef. It was a very good show that blended the traditional Korean percussion styles into a modern theatrical production.

After the theater we went to a fancy restaurant at the top of the Jongo Tower called Top Cloud. The views were fantastic and the food was wonderful. It was nice to savor one of our last grown-up meals together before we are a full-time family of four.

As you can see from this photo of the Bosingak Bell Pavillion that Seoul is truly a city where the ancient is fused with the modern.

Regular Folks

Most of this trip we have made a point of trying new things that we did not do on our previous trip to Korea, but one of the places we had visit again was the Namdaemun street market. Here dark alley-ways come alive at night with an eclectic array of street vendors, impromptu restaurants and shops. You could buy anything from socks and shoes to squid and ginseng.















The restaurants set up with plastic tables and beach umbrellas on the street;the menu is on full display. It was fascinating for us to see very well dressed people sitting having dinner in these little plastic tents.

While the views from Top Cloud were nice and the menu selections in Namdaemun were "interesting", I think a good old Korean McDonald's is more my style.

Josiah - Mommy and Daddy miss you very much and we are coming home with Naomi very soon. We had some french fries for you while we were at McDonald's. Give Grandma and Grandpa hugs and kisses for us.

After such a full day on Saturday, we are going to take it pretty easy on Sunday and then Monday we get Naomi!!! Only one more day to go...

Visit to Ilsan

We support a special needs child in Korea through Bethany Christian Services and Holt International. Since we were in Korea for our adoption we decided to see if we could visit our sponsored child, something that most people never get the chance to do. While we were making arrangements for our visit we sadly learned that the little guy we had been sponsoring had recently died. The agency was very embarassed that we had not yet learned of his death, but we told them that we understood and that we wanted to continue supporting a child in their program.

We travelled north of Seoul to Ilsan Village, where Holt runs a home for special needs children. Ilsan Village was founded in the 1950's by Harry and Bertha Holt, they were some of the pioneers of international adoption, spurred into action by the many homeless children from the Korean war.

There are currently 260 residents from age 1 to adult living at Ilsan. The residents are grouped into family units with two house mothers that rotate shifts to provide 24 hour care for the residents. It was neat to see the children helping each other as different children were able to do different things.

At Ilsan the children are able to get the therapy that they need. Holt also runs a special needs school attended by Ilsan residents and children who are able to live at home with their parents. As the children grow up at Ilsan they are able to stay or move out as their abilities allow and Holt provides on-sight work programs where Ilsan residents can work and earn money.

It was definitely inspiring to see all that Holt is doing for the children at llsan village and also to see what the children are able to accomplish. We sometimes forget that children with disabilites are people who can learn and grow and make a contribution to the world. One of the highlights of our day at Ilsan was having lunch in the home of Molly Holt, daughter of the founders of Holt. Molly is now in her 70's but she is still a tireless child advocate. Her house is used as the intensive care unit for children who are having problems in their family units at Ilsan. It was interesting to chat with her about parenting and discipline, she has all the same issue at her house as we do at ours :-)

The residents of Holt's Ilsan village are eligible for adoption and each year up to half of the new residents are adopted. But there are still many children needing a Sponsor. You can follow the link behind the word Sponsor if you wish to sponsor a child or even consider a one-time donation. It has been a blessing for us to see all the good work that our money supports and we can confirm first-hand that this organization is making a real impact on the lives of countless children who would otherwise be forgotten and neglected.

Take a look at our slide show of photo's from Holt's Ilsan Village:

The First Big Day...many more to come

Today was our first full day in Korea and it has been full indeed.
After a night of broken sleep we got up early to visit Naomi for the first time. We waited nervously for our social worker to make the last minute arrangements, then we took a long cab ride to Naomi's foster mother's apartment. Then on the 15th floor of a high rise in South Central Seoul we met our daughter for the first time. She is beautiful and tiny (only 15 lbs). When we got Josiah he was a month younger, but he was about 35% heavier.

We got to visit and ask lots of questions for about an hour before Naomi had to go to sleep. We learned that she is a mild mannered baby when she is up, but she does have some problem sleeping. She is usually awake from midnight to 6am. After this trip around the world and some of Josiah's recent wake-up times, I think that we have decided that sleep is over-rated.

When Naomi started to get fussy, her foster mother would step in to try and calm her. This feels strange to have someone reach out to take your baby because she is fussing. It makes your natural parental instincts say, "Hey, I am her Dad, I can handle this." But we experienced the exact same feelings when we got to hold Josiah for the first time and he cried a lot more. Today we learned that we will get Naomi for good on Monday at 11am.

On our long cab ride back to the guest house we alternated between feelings of happiness and Oh My Goodness ... This is really happening. No matter how deliberate a decision to become a parent may be, I don't think you ever feel that you are fully ready.

After returning to the guest house, we made a trip out to Walmart to pick up a few things, like the cable that we needed to download pictures to the computer. Well, we never found Walmart, but we did enjoy shopping at E-mart. It was right next to the ubiquitous Starbucks.

We then ventured into Itaewon, the heart of Seoul's tourist district. We spent time browsing the unique shops. We bought some Masks from a 90 year old shop owner who didn't mind mugging for the camera. After an long afternoon of browsing and turning down offers to have a custom tailored suit made for us, we ate traditional Korean barbecue at Don Valley restaurant. During our train ride back, we got to experience the Asian version of personal space, as we jammed into packed subways.

Enjoy the pictures and leave a comment for us.
Tomorrow promises to be another Big Day.