Changdeukgung Palace – pictures

 

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Protected: Pictures of our first days in Korea

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Our first day together

Today was the day!!! Of course I couldn’t sleep all night – I don’t know why I tried! I tossed and turned, anxious about our big day, until it was time to get up to get ready to go. When I got up I discovered grandma and grandpa did the same thing. So we were all very, very tired today.

At 9:10 a.m. we met the social worker at the children’s hospital and she took us to the foster family’s home. It was about an hour drive from where we were staying in Seoul. We met Jaden’s foster mother and foster brother, and of course, Jaden. It was a very emotionally exhausting day. We were warned by the agency that Wednesday – the day we pick Jaden up at the hopsital –  would be the day for emotions, so I’m not sure we were fully prepared for the level of emotions today.

There are new pictures posted to the “First visit” tab. Jaden is more adorable than ever! He is definitely well taken care of – he is a little roly-poly. He has such big hands and a big smile to go with them. He loves to put his feet in his mouth. He is on a very regular sleeping and eating schedule, and unfortunately we were visiting right in the middle of nap time, but he handled it like a champ. 

His foster mom gave us a hanbok, which is traditional dress for special occasions. The first birthday of a Korean child is a very special occasion, so we will dress him in his handbok for his birthday and hopefully we will have the foster family’s address to send them pictures. 

His foster brother and foster mom were very sad. It is the first time they had a foster child and they have grown very attached to Jaden. The foster mom said that she is very sad that he will be leaving but she is also happy that he will be our son. It made me so sad for them, but it really was wonderful to see how much they love him, and how well he was cared for while living with them.

The social worker spent some time asking the foster mom a ton of questions about Jaden so that she could put a report together to give us on Wednesday when we pick him up – what he is eating, how much he sleeps and when, what he likes to do, etc. We didn’t get a new weight or height yet, but we will get that on Wednesday. I have a feeling he’ll be well into 12 month clothes by now! The agency told us that “Korean babies are fed well” and we see the proof of that in Jaden’s adorable cheeks and his heart-warming smile.

After we left the foster family’s home and made our way back to the Guesthouse, we were able to go to see the children’s reception home, which is in the same building as the Guesthouse. The social worker took us in to see where the babies are cared for until they are around 4-5 months old and a foster family is identified. It is where Jaden spent the first 5 months of his life. There were so many babies – all so tiny – and all crying for their bottles and to be held. I was surprised at how many babies were in the reception home. 

After that, we went to our room and just about crashed. We later met up with my colleague who is originally from Korea, and is now spending 6 months in Korea, teaching here at a university on a grant. His hospitality was indicative of his Korean heritage. He took us to a palace in the northern section of Seoul, where the last king lived. It is close to the president’s “Blue House.” The intricate paint work on the palace was incredible. We have many pictures to share, and once we get a chance to load them in we’ll include them here.

We went to another traditional Korean restaurant for dinner – this time a popular one for the locals. We learned that kimchi is actually a generic name for fermented food and it doesn’t have to be spicy. Sometimes it is not spicy at all (which made Dad very happy)!

We are ready to crash, and they are starting a game of bananagrams which I can’t miss due to my bananagram addiction (I think I need BAA- LOL), so I’m signing off for now. I guess it is Monday morning there…..have a great week!!!

Jet lag rots

It is 6:45 a.m. on Monday morning September 29th in Korea and I have been awake since 5:00 a.m., yet yesterday we were completely wiped out by 6:00 p.m.–I guess this is jet lag at its best.

Yesterday we were fortunate to have a tour of Seoul and experience a variety of traditional Korean foods. Neville’s colleague’s brother-in-law, Mr. Lee, picked us up around 1:00 and first took us to “Korean Restaurant Chil-Ryang.” There we met his two adorable daughters and his beautiful wife. His daughters are ages 9 and 10 in Korean years, which is ages 8 and 9 in U.S. years (in Korea you are considered a year old the day you are born). They were all so friendly and hospitable even though we had met him only on Saturday when he picked us up from the aiport. They made us feel like we were old friends reuniting after many years. They presented both Neville and I, and Mom and Dad with pottery; two exquisite, handmade cups. It is something we will cherish from our visit, and I am sure Jaden will too as it serves as a remembrance of our trip to Seoul to pick him up.

Mr. Lee’s daughters go to International School and spent 4 years in Canada, so their English is excellent. There were no communication problems whatsoever, and we managed to learn a lot about the Korean culture, foods, and lifestyle. Unfortunately I cannot tell you everything we ate since all the names were Korean, and for we American’s it is difficult to remember all of the syllables -(I’m still trying to get ‘please,’ Pu-di, and ‘thank you,’ kam-sa-ham-ni-da, down pat) – but I can tell you we had two types of kimchi. One was soup-style and the other was traditional kimchi. It was very, very delicious and very, very SPICY.

The restaurant’s brochure says “Traditional Korean Formal Cuisine with Celadon and Dishes.” The restaurant is also a ‘pottery restaurant’, selling master pottery pieces of Mr. Chung, Yoon-Seok and his son Young-Kyun. From the brochure: “The meisters are handy crafting potteries with natural enamel by Traditional way in Chilryang-Myun, Kangjin-Kun located in Southern peninsula.” They ferment all the different types of food in the pottery, which “develops a rich and deep taste.” There was some gorgeous pottery there, and we were able to take pictures of the pieces in our private dinner room.

Speaking of pictures… we took most of the pictures yesterday with Dad’s camera, and didn’t realize until we returned to the room last night that he does not have a cord to download the pictures to the computer. This afternoon our job is to find the subway, take it to the CO-EX mall, and try to find a cord. In the meantime the rest of the pictures we will take with my camera since I have the connector. We’ll post the pics from yesterday as soon as we can find the connector.

Our experience yesterday did not end with lunch (which consisted of so much food it really turned out to be like an early dinner). After we ate, our hosts took us to the north side of the River Han. We drove past the President’s house, which is known as the ‘blue house’ because of the blue roof. We weren’t able to stop there because there is no parking, and there was so much traffic in the area that we would have had to walk miles from where we finally found a parking spot. We did get to go to the Insadong shopping area, which consists of tons of shops, restaurants, tea houses and coffee houses. It is famous for its antiques, travel clothing, art galleries, and Koryeo Celandon pottery. We could not believe the sheer volume of people there, both in the local area and walking throughout the Insadong shops.

Mr. Lee also took us to a tea house to have some traditional Korean tea. It was outstanding. I want to go back for more. I may get the chance- we hope to get to the Insadong area again before we go home since there were so many great shops to buy souvenirs, and we’d really like to pick up some items to have for Jaden as he gets older, until we can plan another trip back to his home country.

It seems no one slept well last night. Either it was the jet-lag, or the excitement over going to visit Jaden’s foster home this morning. We have a 9:10 a.m. appointment with the social worker at SWS. I best get ready before they all leave without me. I hope to have time for another update later today (Monday morning in NY) with pictures of our visit to the foster home.

We made it!

After two and a half movies, 42 games of solitaire, a half-dozen naps, 2 meals, 4 snacks, an accidental ingestion of a meat-filled roll (mistaken for roll filled with peanuts…don’t ask… chalk it up to the first minor communication breakdown between the flight attendant and myself), immigration, customs, cell phone rental, and currency exchanges, we made it through the14 hour flight and are just now getting our room at the Guesthouse set up. We are so happy to be here – and exhausted at the same time. Neville’s colleague’s brother-in-law picked us up at the airport so we already received a mini tour of the city, and experienced the tremendous hospitality of the people in South Korea. We’re watching the sun come up now. It is 6:33 a.m. in Seoul (5:33 p.m. EST). We’ll write more soon, but wanted to let you all know we arrived safely and managed to deal with missing out on Friday completely.

Forever family

Every once in a while the excitement just bubbles up inside me and makes me want to jump up and down yelling “We’re going to Seoul!!!!! We’re finally picking up our son!!!!!”

Last night Neville and I realized it was our last weekend as a ‘dual income no kids yet’ couple.  It was during one of those “overwhelming excitement” moments.  We’re moving on to a new phase in our lives – one we have waited and waited for – one that we’re so happy to be entering. It is almost hard to believe. Yet, here we are!

We confirmed our flights and started making our packing list. Yesterday I spent a few hours with Mom’s and Dad’s help decorating the nursery. It looks so adorable – I’ll post pictures soon. There’s a lot to get done this week – we have to pick up the loaner crib (our furniture is not in yet) and set up a makeshift changing table for the time being. I need to figure out how to operate a car seat and a jogging stroller. We are completely in the dark about what they are feeding Jaden right now – we’ll find that out when we visit the foster family’s home next week, so there’s really no planning for that at the moment. We don’t even have an update on how big he is so we’re guessing based on the last medical exam we have information for, which was in May. Our SW tells us that they “feed babies a lot in Korea” so since he’s about 8.5 months now, we should be prepared to put him in 12 month clothes! 

The baby shower could not have happened at a better time. We made a list of everything we need to get this week at BRU to be completely set up for bringing Jaden home – it is a short list. We realized that after thinking for so long that we were adopting from Vietnam (where the babies tend to be about 2 months younger but much smaller) that Jaden’s closet is full of clothes for 3-6 and 6-9 months. We received many shower gifts that were sizes 12 months and up – so that’ll help a lot – but we have to do some clothes shopping this week too (poor me – how I hate to shop for baby clothes -jk -LOL).

Our plan is to arrive in Seoul on Saturday, tour the city Saturday and Sunday, visit the foster home on Monday to meet the foster family and Jaden, tour the city on Monday afternoon and Tuesday, then meet the foster family on Wednesday to take Jaden back to the hotel with us. 

It turns out that Neville’s new associate at work is from Korea, and his family has asked to meet us while we’re there. I just found out last week that I have a colleague that is teaching there for the semester – he is also from Korea – and he has offered to meet us at the airport and show us around Seoul. It is uncanny how these things come together.

We were lucky enough to get the two bedroom unit at the agency’s guesthouse. It is quite a lot less expensive than a hotel in the same area – so we’ll have plenty of Korean won left to spoil Jaden with. LOL 

We are jumping up and down inside, and nervous at the same time. It’s the first time we’re taking a 14 hour flight, no less to pick up our first child! We’ll be flying back 14 hours with an infant – which would probably be a challenge for any first time parent. (Heck, flying 14 hours is going to be a challenge for me!)

I don’t have the details worked out yet as to whether or not we’ll have regular access to the internet, but I’ll try to keep posting while we’re there, and adding pictures to the blog. I realized last week that there is a way to do as slideshow directly in the blog- if I can figure out how to post one I’ll do that rather than add in the snapfish links. It might be easier on your end to just flip through a slideshow.

Thank you everyone for all your support and the wonderful, heartwarming comments and emails. It is so great to hear from all of you and to know that you are following us through this unbelievably exciting, life-changing journey.

September 18th, 1:17 p.m.

We got the travel call!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot believe it!! Although, I guess I should believe it – I’ve been moaning about it for weeks.

Actually, the call ended up being an email. The agency called our home number, but I wasn’t home. I was in class this morning. I’m glad she didn’t give up and she sent me an email saying “please call me.” I am still in a daze. It is amazing. Things always happen when you least expect it….

My mind momentarily thought “I wonder if we’d be able to make it on a flight tomorrow?” but then sanity returned as I remembered everything I have to accomplish before leaving. So we have a temporary hold on flights that we’ll head to the airport for next Thursday night. We are waiting to hear from our U.S. agency as to whether or not this schedule is acceptable for the agency in Korea. They will let us know in the morning. Once they let us know, we can finalize the flights.

And now the running around begins — I have to figure out how to get ahead in my lesson plans, rearrange the schedule for all my classes, and figure out what I’m packing. We don’t have the crib or changing table yet, so we have a call in to the store to pick up the ‘loaner’ crib they promised us a while back. Hopefully we can pick it up this weekend. Of course we’re still decorating the nursery, so we will try to finish that this weekend as well, and then head to BRU to pick up anything that we still need (which isn’t much, after the shower!) We still haven’t finished getting gifts for the foster family, social worker, and the agency personnel, so guess what else we’ll be doing this weekend…

We haven’t received an update yet on Jaden’s height and weight, so I have no idea what to pack for him yet. I’m hoping to get that information before we travel, or I’m just going to have to take a guess at what to bring.

Next week is going to be an interesting week trying to teach and keep up with the house and work when I am sure my focus will be solely only on boarding that plane!

As it turns out, I have a colleague at work who is currently teaching in Seoul. We were in touch this week and he has offered to show us around Seoul. So I’m sure we’ll have some wonderful pictures to post once we do get there. By the way; his description of Seoul was that it is “a crazy place with a lot of people in it.” Sounds familiar!

Password please

I am slowly removing password protection from most of the posts on my blog. I figure there’s really no reason to password protect a blog in which I am not using our real names. It’s like wearing an invisibility cloak even though you’ve taken Polyjuice Potion. That’s just so “Hermione.” Those of you who have not read the Harry Potter Series, you have no idea what you’re missing. Yes, yes, I know – I am a fanatic. Our kids will probably hate HP because we love it so much.

In any case, it becomes cumbersome to password protect and use blog-names. Any posts with pictures or links to our pictures will remain password protected, otherwise not. I’m still a little paranoid about the pictures since I heard about another family who found their pictures splashed all over a website that was written completely in a foreign language, so they had no idea what the site was about. I am still not sure they ever learned the details. So for now, pictures will remain private. 

No, unfortunately we have no adoption news to report. I am getting antsy. We are well past the timeframe we thought we’d be dealing with, especially since the beginning of the process, after the referral, went so smoothly. I guess I should have been prepared for a delay because of Chuseok (Thanksgiving) in South Korea. I’m trying to convince myself that I should contact the agency to ask what’s up. Yet, I’m sure if they knew anything they’d let us know, so I don’t want to be a pest about it. I guess since I haven’t heard from them in weeks it would not be a bad thing to call. Maybe tomorrow.

Stay tuned… as soon as we do get the travel call you’ll be the first to know (after us and the immediate family, of course).

All kinds of miscellanea

I love rainy days. I don’t know why. I just do. As long as I don’t have to go outside, that is. If I have to go outside, then I prefer clouds but no rain. Odd, right? I am. Maybe that’s why I picked Luna for a blog name. I wonder if there’s some underlying reason for picking Neville….

No news yet. I keep wondering whether or not we’d actually get a call on the weekend. The offices in Korea are closed during the weekend, but then again, it is thirteen hours ahead of here, so technically it is Monday there while it is still Sunday here. Assuming they open at 9:00 a.m. Seoul time, it means that we could get a call any time after 8:00 p.m. today, if my Sunday-afternoon-I’m-feeling-kind-of-foggy math is right. 

I thought I had given up jumping every time the phone rang. I proved myself wrong on Friday when I pulled a hamstring trying to get to my cell phone, which was charging downstairs while I was upstairs getting ready to go out. It was Neville. Imagine my surprise.

Then yesterday I decided I was going to stop waiting for the phone to ring, and that I won’t risk any further injuries by running to pick it up before it goes to voice mail. Now it seems I have replaced the obsessive phone-ringing habit with a habit of keeping an eye on the clock and counting the hours until the office opens again in Seoul. *sigh*

The hamstring pull didn’t bode well for our planned 23 mile run yesterday afternoon, although it wasn’t the hamstring that did me in. We ran along the Cape Cod canal  - great place for a long run – but we only made it 19 miles before my plantar fascia gave out. I’m not convinced we’ll be able to run the entire marathon in October. I might have to cut it back to a half-marathon or risk another stress fracture to my hip.  After a year of physical therapy and another year of sitting on my butt waiting for my hip to fully heal, I really don’t want to chance it again. Add that to the fact that I’m 30 now so I have to be cognizant of how my age affects what I am capable of.

 

On another (final) tangent…. I’ve been wanting to post pictures of the beautiful favors that mom and sis made for the shower, but as busy as it has been I haven’t had time to take pictures, no less post them. I’ll get those going soon…

Protected: Baby shower

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