We're Home!

I'll put the pictures first. :)


Our wonderful Social Worker, Walter's Omma, and Walter before the prayer.


Nap time in our room. He loves his tiger pillow.


First supper together.


Having fun running at LAX airport with Dad.


Henry waiting with his cousins at the airport.


Too sweet. Henry and the "Welcome Home" sign he helped make.


Meeting some cousins and friends.


Henry and Walter taking a look at each other.


Already enjoying Grandma Berg's sandbakkels.




We finally spent our first full day at our house as a family of four. We spent the last few days in Seoul shopping and visiting a few places that we wanted to see. On Wednesday morning we made a few stops in Sinchon and near Ewha Women's University, had lunch and then headed back to our room to get ready for our last meeting.

We headed down to the first floor a little early - there came a certain point when I couldn't stand waiting in our room anymore. Our Social Worker showed us to the room and then came back with Walter and his foster mom. Once again, we could hear him running down the hall! I won't go into all the details, but Wednesday was a very emotional day. How do you thank the incredible woman who has loved and raised your child for over a year, knowing the day would come when she would have to say goodbye?

After Dr. Kim said a prayer for Walter and the other children leaving that day, we hugged Walter's foster mom and he was placed in our arms.

We were thankful to have one night with him before we flew out on Thursday. He took a good nap and enjoyed a dinner of bananas and soup with noodles. We headed out to dinner around 7:30 and Walter enjoyed the walk, too. He loves trying to go up and down stairs - I might be getting into better shape quickly!

Our plane left on Thursday afternoon from Seoul. Walter spent some time crying on the flight, but we were impressed with how well he did. We went through customs in LAX and then headed to Minneapolis. He slept almost the entire flight, which made for an easy flight but we were anxious to land!

It was wonderful to finally be home and see Henry and our friends and family! We drove home last night (Friday) and are trying to get into a normal sleep schedule. Henry and Walter are also adjusting. They had a great time chasing each other around the house and porch tonight after dinner. We went for a nice walk and read some bedtime stories together. Walter's favorite thing so far has been throwing a ball to Gus (Megan's dog) - he squeals every time Gus goes after the ball. He also loves imitating Henry. Henry's not so sure what he thinks of this yet. :) I left home, thw mom of one, thinking my three year old was a little boy and got off an airplane one week later and realized that he was much older than I realized! How did that happen? I'm convinced he grew taller and got older in one week...and now we have 2 boys to watch grow!!

Seoul: Monday

After we got to meet Walter and his foster mom on Moday (and after a delicious lunch at the agency) we headed out to our favorite market, Insadong. We picked up a few things for both of the boys and then stopped at a bookstore before heading back to our subway stop and dinner at Outback.


We watched at the shop in Insadong as Walter's name chop was made. I'll have to take a picture of it because she did a beautiful job!


As we walked to the bookstore we took this picture. South Korea is full of old and new, right next to eachother. It's one of the things that makes it a beauitful and interesting country.

Korea: Sunday

We had so much fun on Sunday!


We started the day by taking the subway to meet our family friends who live here in Seoul. They met us at the Subway and we got a chance to visit at a Starbuck's before worshipping at their church, Youngnak Church.


We attended the 10 a.m. traditional IWE (International Worship in English). It was really wonderful to be able to be there and we are so grateful to J & R for inviting us!



After visiting at church, we were treated to a delicious lunch of bibimbop and japchae at a local restaurant! Yum!!

We were going to attend a baseball game with a few friends from our agency on Saturday evening, but it had rained all day, it was unbelievably humid, and it looked like it might rain again...so we decided to go on Sunday night. Baseball in Seoul is very different from a game at home, but it's really fun! I had to draw a picture showing how many tickets and what ticket selections we wanted - people here are so helpful and patient with us!


There is a lot of food outside of the stadium. Here is a sample of the selections (kind of hard to see, but there is some kimbop, dried seafood, and so much more!).


Baseball teams here have cheerleaders. The crowd really gets loud, they sing songs, and bang those plastic noise makers together!

We sat on the Samsung Lion's side of the ball park. Here is there mascot and cheerleaders.


The LG Twins were on the other side of the stadium. Hopefully, you can see their mascot walking around.


Before the game you can buy meals from Burger King or KFC, complete with beverages and a bag to carry it into the stadium.


It was crazy hot so we took a break and looked around. Here are the views of the Olympic Stadium and the mountains from the baseball stadium.



We found this photo opportunity inside the subway station. We're standing with some "players" from another team, the Doosan Bears.

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).