Seriously Silly

There are some things that you can't know about a person until you see them face to face. Now that we have the joy of having Anna home, we are starting to learn a lot more about her. She is seriously silly. That is a good thing. She'll fit right in around here.

She likes to try on shoes but hates wearing socks or shoes. Little gives her more glee than pulling off her socks.

She likes to pretend to make phone calls. When a person actually makes a call, she likes to lie down on the person's feet.

She licks everything. It's as if touch, sight and sound are simply not enough input to really understand the world. Life must be tasted.

There are a lot more things that I could say but that will follow when there is more rest in our house. At this point, I'll just say that the transition process is going very well for where we are at in the process.

I'll also leave you with some photos...


She's always on the move when she's awake. She LOVES this old truck that was David's. Bless his heart, he's been really great about letting her play with his toys and even take books or toys right out of his hands.



Both the kiddos enjoyed the recent snow. I'm not sure that Anna had been sledding before.


One of her favorite loves is splashing in water. Her whole face lights up when I put her down to wash her hands.

The journey home

This post is our long overdue "trip home" post. At this point, I owe everyone that I know an email. I'm so sorry! At some point, I will catch up.

In the meantime, here's a photo-heavy blog post.


This photo is from the hotel. We had a lot of sadness initially. After that sadness, Anna started to play and show her curious side.


Anna misses her foster family a lot at night time. After a night of "sleep," we took a walk. Anna and I are shown here in the lobby of the hotel. She LOVES Christmas trees.


When we got to the airport, we thankfully were able to check in at Asiana's "Mommy's" counter. Bless them. They had a short, separate line for those of us traveling with small kiddos. They even put "priority" tags on our luggage so it came out first. Whew!

Anna was amazing on the plane. After running around at the airport for a few hours, she took a nap as we were boarding. She slept through take off, woke long enough to play and eat, she then slept pretty much the rest of the flight. The kindly Korean man one seat over gave her a little round of applause when we landed.

At customs, we got halfway through the line and they bumped us to a special, shorter line. So helpful!!

Uncle Dan picked us up and drove us home. At home, we opened some presents from family.


Anna adored her Daddy instantly! That was so helpful as Anna had slept on the plane but Mom and I were completely exhausted.


It turns out that Anna LIKES presents!




We are clearly still settling in and looking for our "new normal." I have yet to be able to get a photo of Anna and David in the same place at the same time. That will happen.

For now, Anna is really transitioning well. She misses her foster family very much. Even with that burden, she is a joy and a truly happy, happy child.

We are so blessed!

Merry Christmas from our new family of four and visiting Grandma!!

Second meeting with Anna

Our second meeting with Anna was just before our meeting with President Dr. Kim and luncheon. We had another amazing visit. Anna is a smart, happy child. She is already immitating play sounds (like water running or slurping a drink) and very curious. She can even zip zippers.

During our time together, she was very interested in sticking a ball into a block, the slide, Thomas, and a fuzzy puppy backpack toy.

Anna's foster mother is so wonderful. From photos, she has trained Anna to look at me when she says Omma. Anna is completely in love with her foster mom and the feeling is mutual. This transition will be hard for all of us.

We get Anna tomorrow forever. We are so looking forward to that event and yet we feel profoundly sad about the cost of the transition. Please keep Anna, David, the foster family, and my family in your prayers.

Here are some photos of my dear girl. Please keep in mind that I don't have software. I normally crop and edit before posting... As a result, some of the best photos are not going to be blogged until after we return to my own computer.

Seoul Sunday

This morning, Mom and I set off to meet a dear friend, her husband and son. We've been walking the same path in our adoption journey and ended up in Seoul at the same time. The problem is that my Korean is bad enough that the taxi driver took us to the wrong park. We never got to meet our friends in person. We did, quite by accident, find this charming park in Jongno-gu.

The park is called Tap Gol Park. It has this amazing history area that shows the story of a revolution. It was quite lovely.

Here is the entry gate for the park.



This pavillion was just lovely. It's in the same style as the palace that we visited yesterday.



See... It was just a lovely park to spend an hour exploring!



It was a little bit warmer but not as sunny.



I love the color schemes in these palaces and parks. It's stunning in person!



Here's Mom at the center pavillion.



When we'd spent a little time there, we realized that our signals had been crossed with our friends. We walked across the street and stood outside a Starbucks (no, really) and logged on to my iPod. I was able to send a quick email to my friends.

We then sat down in McDs to warm up for a minute and re-group. We took out a trusty map of Seoul and tried to decide what was next. We decided, based on the look on the map, to walk to Dongdaemun Gate. There are two gates in Seoul that are both famous: Dongdaemun and Namdaemun. During our visit here, I wanted to see one of them. From the map, it seemed like Dongdaemun was closer.

We set off and walked over to the gate. It was about three miles (no, really). At one point, we stopped to look at the map again. A kindly older man stopped to ask where we were going. We were, indeed, going in the right direction. He then made a gesture that essentially said "a very LONG way" and pointed.

We made it! Here's the thing... It's essentially a rotary circle (no, really).



Yes, it's amazing and beautiful. I'm not sure that I would have WALKED three miles to see the gate though. Oh well! It was a fun adventure.

While there, we stopped into a department store called Doota. Pretty fun place to window shop. We also walked a bit in the open market. This market did not touch our fancy the way Insadong did.

We had a great day! Full of fun and great story to tell about the day Mom and Grandma walked three miles to see a traffic circle. ;)


EDIT- When Mom and I returned to the hotel, we posted the adventure of our day. I then had a chance to do a little research. It turns out that Tap Gol Park has AMAZING historical and cultural significance to Korea. It is considered the "Birthplace of the March 1st Movement" as it was the place the Declaration of Independence (from Japan) was first read. The park also houses Wongak Temple 10 Level Stone Tower (National Treasure #2- in glass behind pavillion in photo 2) and DaeWonGak Sabi (National Treasure #3- in the pavillion in photo 3). The "amazing history" area that I referenced is actually the monument to the March 1st independence movement. Although we thought we were just enjoying a lovely park, we were steeped in historical significance. Who knew?

Spectacular Seoul (part 2)

After the tour of the palace, we walked to Insadong to an outdoor street market.

We got this photo on the way there.

I love this photo because it's all about Seoul. Ancient and modern all at once.

The open market was exactly opposite of the palace. It was fast paced, bustling and very modern (including street performance to US rap music).

Here's a bit of the market...




Because it's almost Christmas...

The Salvation Army and chestnuts roasting on an open fire.




After Insadong, we had a lovely dinner at a bulgogi restaurant. Quite a day!!

Spectacular Seoul (Part 1)

Mom and I ventured out to explore Seoul on Saturday. Our first attraction was Gyeongbokgung Palace. Constructed in 1394, the palace is one of five in Seoul. As my husband could tell you, I've been nearly desperate to include this palace in my "Seoul to do" list. We made it and it was even better than I imagined.


Check out one of the first views of the palace as you walk in the gates!


Guards in traditional dress


The detail work on a giant drum



I don't know why I loved these carved figures. I took about a dozen photos of them. They were always in pairs guarding the side rails on stairs.


Throne room



You can't see them too well but these are dragons on the ceiling- remember, 1394... It's not like those colors came from a Home Depot.



The roof tops have these parades of critters. I was also a little neurotic about taking their photo.





The details were just spectacular!

We loved visiting the palace. After the long, slow walk through the palace, we headed to a street market.

Our first meeting with Anna

Mom and I got to meet Anna this morning. Frankly, I'm not going to post many of the photos because our foster mom is in them. I didn't ask her if I could put them on the internet and so I won't.

I will post a couple with just Anna and I!

She is perfect. We are so amazingly blessed that this is our daughter. She's a happy, pleasant, curious baby. She was very comfortable with me quite quickly. We learned that her foster parents are active in their church and so she is around a lot of people. She is used to making friends fast. She also has attended many gospel choir practices and does "hallelujah" hands. :)

She's also beautiful. You can see that for yourself so I won't go on and on (I could though... That's how completely in love I am!)

Mom and I love Anna's foster mother. She is a spectacular person! She was very sad that we asked to have Anna Tuesday night. I think it's best for Anna to get used to us before the flight but I feel sad for her foster mom.

And here's what you came for... Some photos!








This cute little fish face was made just before giving kisses. Yup. I got KISSES! How about that!

The old saying...

There's an old saying that every journey begins with a single step. For Mom and I, we'd probably say that it began with turbulence. ;)

We started our travels with about three hours of sleep. We were out the door by 3 a m US CST. It's now almost 10 p m the next day in Seoul. We napped on the plane but haven't really slept.

So, I will happily update you soon. I think it needs to be after a night of sleep.

Oh, and while you are sleeping, I'll be meeting Anna. Friday, 10 a m to be exact.

Hooray!

Welcome to our new (blog) home

If you clicked through from our old blog, thank you! Please consider using the "follow" button to keep up with our adventures as a family of four. If you've already been following along, here are some bonus photos of my dear boy. How cute was it that he was singing "Deck the halls with boughs of Santa?"