Korea: Thursday, Friday, Saturday

I'm trying to catch up on our time here. Here are a few pictures from our trip to Korea.


Thursday morning at Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. We left my parents' house at 5:30 a.m. so we woke Henry up to say goodbye and asked if he wanted to come to the aiport with us, but he wanted to stay in bed. My dad dropped us off and our friends Mary, Addie and Patrick came to see us off - which was a big encouragement!


We landed at Chicago O'hare around 9 a.m. and made our way to the Korean Air gate. This is our plane getting loaded up for our 12:35 departure to Incheon.


"I paid $9 for this sandwich?!?" While we waited we tried to find something to eat for lunch. We did see a medium sized bag of peanuts M&Ms that was $13...or was it $17? Either way, it was too much (as was the sandwich!).


Flight 38 to Incheon


Saturday: Our first stop was the National Museum. You'll notice the umbrellas which have come in handy. There are lots of great things to see here.


Ater we arrived Friday night, we stopped at our favorite convenience store - which is next to the guest house - and picked up a box of Frosted Flakes for breakfast.

We met Walter!

We had a very full day today. It started with getting ready to meet Walter. It's hard to describe how we felt just before meeting him, but it was a combination of nerves and excitement. First, we had to do some paperwork with our social worker for the trip home. Then we headed upstairs to room 205, got the cameras ready and we could hear him running to the room with his foster mom behind. He is a slender little guy and such a sweetie!

I honestly just had to stare at him for a few seconds because it was hard to believe it was him and he was such a cutie. He was a little hesitant for a few minutes and stuck close to foster mom. She is a wonderful woman and we are so thankful that Walter has been with her for all these months. After a few minutes, I took out the Gerber Puffs and suddenly we weren't quite as scary as before! :) Pretty soon he was feeding the puffs to Nate and a few to me. He likes Nate more - who wouldn't? (He's so much fun.) Walter has a lot in common with Henry. They both like: dancing, apples and bananas, toy cars, removing the cars' tires, going down the slide, running (yikes), and being outside. We could have some problems because, apparently, Walter knows which toys are his and doesn't like it when anyone plays with them...sounds like someone else I know!

Our next meeting is at 2:30 on Wednesday, when we will have his blessing ceremony and then his foster mom will place him in our arms and we'll have to say goodbye.

We leave Thursday afternoon, so our trip is quickly coming to an end. We spent the rest of the day shopping in Insa-dong and then had a nice dinner together at Outback - not very Korean, I know. But we had an incredible Korean lunch at the agency after we met Walter and then with Dr. Kim (the president of our agency).

Anyway, I know what you really want to see is pictures:




Sharing Gerber Puffs with dad.


He really liked throwing balls around the room.


With Walter and his foster mom.

We made it to Seoul

It is 7:30 on Saturday evening, here is Seoul. The internet was down so we weren't able to work on the computer until tonight.

Both of our flights went well. We sat next to a delightful 11-year-old on the flight from Chicago to Incheon. We spent a good part of the 13 hours hearing about the Boy Scouts, playing video games, watching movies, asking questions, and trying to sleep. The meals were pretty good but we were ready to get off when we landed.

The driver from our agency picked us up and drove us (very quickly) to the agency and showed us our room. Nate hadn't slept at all on the flights so he crashed for an hour or so and then we walked to the convenience store to get some cereal to eat. I woke up before 2 a.m., and wouldn't you know it, I couldn't fall back asleep. After Nate woke up we did some planning for the day and headed out.

Since it was pouring, we decided to get together with another family from MN at the National Museum and looked around for awhile. The rain stopped so we thought we'd head outdoors to N. Seoul Tower...but it started pouring as we walked out the door! Coex Mall was our lunch stop. We did a little book shopping (the teacher in me). The rest of the afternoon, we spent finding some of our favorite places from our last visit. We were going to meet 2 families for a Baseball game but we'll have to wait until Sunday night because of the rain.

We miss everybody at home. I'll try to add a few pics tomorrow.

Cousins

We're getting ready to fly to Seoul tomorrow, but I wanted to share some pictures from a trip to the Splashpad in St. Louis Park. We went with my sister Megan and met our 2 cousins there, along with their kids. It wasn't very sunny but Henry had a great time and loved playing at the park afterwards. Henry really likes having cousins!










Obviously not related to the splashpad, but this made me laugh. I sat down to do a little writing and Henry pulled out his laptop and sat down next to me (he was doing mazes).

A Good Read

Henry crawled up into the comfy chair and Mama and Boppa L's house for a good read. Once you start reading the DirecTV guide, it's hard to put it down! At the end of every page he would say, "Aaah, perfect." We hear this a lot, along with his other favorite phrases:
"Where is everyboby?"
"What is _______?" (example: What is Iowa?")
"I do, I do." (Anytime he wants to do something.)
"That's different." (This is reserved for anything he doesn't like.)
"Where's Mama/Grandma?" (He asks this 10-20 times a day.)

Anyway, back to reading...


"Well, look at this. Interesting..."


"Hmm..."


"Aaah, perfect."

Henry is 3 - Part II

We also celebrated Henry's birthday at my parents' house. It was a birthday weekend since we were able to celebrate my mom's and sister's birthdays, too. The Mimis and Mama L. took him to Toy Story 3, where he loved getting popcorn and Sprite. This was such a fun birthday because Henry knew what was going on...and he loved every minute of it!


Getting ready to open presents - Can you see the excitement?


Wow! The toys from Toy Story. These have gotten a lot of use at our house.


Trying on his Buzz Lightyear pajamas. I'm not sure if he liked these or not...


With Mimi #2, Mama L., and the cakes.


Pushing the buttons on his Space Ranger uniform...


...which released his wings.


Thumbs up (and a wink).


Blowing out the candles


I had to include these for myself so I don't forget his "Thumbs-Up-Phase."

Henry is 3!

Two weeks ago we celebrated Henry's 3rd birthday. We can't believe how much he has grown and learned since last year. Our sweetest memories were hearing Henry say, "I love you!" and "I missed you!" for the first times. It is such a joy to see more and more of his personality and abilities. We look forward to seeing what the Lord has planned for him and are praying that Henry will have a tender heart for Jesus. Here are a few highlights from his birthday party with Nate's side of the family at George Lake. Henry has become quite the little swimmer and loved spending the day in the water with his daddy and going on a pontoon ride.


OK, so this was at our house. He opened his presents before church and was very excited to tell our pastor that he got a fork for his birthday...we did give him some other things, too!


Trying to steal some frosting off the cake.

Henry discovered his cousin Charlotte's goggles on the pontoon and had fun trying to wear them. You can tell from the chocolate on his face that he was also snacking on a cookie.