Home Sweet Home

Sorry for the lack of posts!  We did make it home and trying to settle into a "normal" life!  Many have asked, how was the flight home.  It was good.  Vivian was not scared at all or at least did not show signs of being scared.  The only issue, she did not like to have her seatbelt on.  This was fine for the majority of the flight, except for a few spots with some turbulence.  Then she excercised her lungs a little and acted as an alarm clock for those around us.

She really took to Matt on Sunday and preferred to be with him or close to him for the majority of the trip.  She would get quite worried if he was not within eye sight.  When we got home, she walked into the house and acted like she had lived here her whole life!  She pulled the little red rocking chair up to the coffee table and started drawing.

Then it was time to go to bed . . . bedtime is still a difficult time for her.  She is allowing us to comfort her when she is upset, but she still gets upset before bedtime.  She was able to sleep through the night Monday night, but every other night she has been up multiple times.  We can usually get her back to sleep within a few minutes.

Yesterday she said her first english words!  Puppy and Apple.  It is fun to watch her attempt to figure out the words we are speaking and try to repeat them.  She is quite a vocal little girl, so when the words start flowing, we are going to be in for a treat!

Vivian has grown very close with her big brother Evan the last two days.  It is fun to see how gentle he is with her and how she responds to him.  She has decided that sleeping with Levi in his bed is where she wants to be.  Levi does not mind sharing and we are just happy that she is sleeping!

We are enjoying this adjustment period . . . well, most of it.  It is fun to see her personality come out more and more each day as she is a little more comfortable with us.  We do know that she is going to challenge us and be a very active little girl!

We will update you again soon on this journey that we are traveling.

A New Day

Good morning!  We wanted to update you on the night.  As we expected, Vivian was quite sad last night.  We understand that this is part of her grieving process, but she does not want us to touch her or be close to her when she is sad.  That is very hard because all we want to do is hold her and tell her it will be ok.  Finally, she sat on the bed and literally fell asleep sitting.  Matt laid her down and she slept from 9pm until just after 8am!  She was exhausted from yesterday and needed her sleep.

We did not know how she would feel when she woke up.  She was sad, but she did not cry!  What a huge blessing.  She let us give her breakfast and get dressed.  There was even a moment this morning when she was sad and she came to Krista for a hug on her own!  We know the progress will be slow and we pray that we can continue to support her how she needs us to.

Last night, I kept thinking about the foster mom and how she must feel today.  She took care of Vivian for 22 months and I cannot imagine how hard it was for her to say good bye.  Yesterday was her birthday and the day that she had to send Vivian off with her new family.  What a difficult thing to do.  We are forever grateful to her foster mother for the care that she provided when we could not.  She even made Vivian some of her favorite food to have for the next couple of days.  What an amazing gift to have such a wonderful person to take care of her.

We are going to the market today to pick up a suitcase.  She has more to bring home than we thought!  We are hoping that she continues to learn to trust us more each day. 

Gotcha Day

What a day.  I am not sure that words can even express the feelings of the day.  Our meeting with Vivian was at 1:00pm so we decided to go to Insa-Dong (a market area) for the morning and walk around.  It was a very relaxing morning and we enjoyed browsing through various shops.  We met two other families that had just picked up their adopted children.  One of them is from Minnesota and they are on our same flight home on Sunday! 

Then it was off to our meeting with Vivian.  We met at 1:00pm and played with her in one of the meeting rooms.  Then we were instructed to go down to the lobby where the president of the ESWS met us and the foster family and said a blessing over Vivian.  Then we were ushered to the van.  We got in and Vivian was handed to us and the door closed.

The next 45 minutes were the most difficult.  Hearing her cry and scream in anguish tore my heart with each passing minute.  It was what she needed to do to grieve but there was nothing we could do to comfort her. 

When we arrived at the hotel, she calmed down a little, but was still very upset.  We gave her space and waited. 

While it may not be very poetic, the turning point was when Vivian had a bowel movement.  She sat in the bathroom for a very long time while we waited patiently for her to finish.  We kept asking if she was done and she would shake her head no.  Finally, she grabbed some toilet paper and handed it to Matt.  Then she allowed us to put on her pull-up and for the first time in 2 days, she let me pick her up. 

The hours since that have been filled with getting to know each other.  We are learning more about her personality and she is quite spunky and independent!  She has taken to Sylvia and they go everywhere together.  Their relationship has started and we pray that it will only grow stronger with each passing day.

We were able to go out of the hotel for dinner and we found out that Levi has met his match!  Vivian can eat!  She is not picky at all and ate everything we put in front of her and lots of it!

Today was a rollercoaster of emotion from the heartache of hearing her cry all the way to the hotel to the pure joy of hearing her laugh for the first time. 

Soon we will be going to bed.  We know that this will be a difficult time for her and we continue to pray that she will be comforted that we are now family.

Continue to pray for us as we continue the path of transition.  We know that this is not easy on her and we are trying to comfort her with what we think she needs.  The language is a bit of a challenge, but Krista's brain is getting a workout trying to remember as much Korean as possible to communicate at a 2 year old level!

Thank you all for your support.  We do appreciate it, even from the other side of the world.

Visit with Vivian

Today was a busy day!  We started the morning making our way to the Eastern Social Welfare Services office for our one hour visit with Vivian.  Matt and Krista stayed for the visit while Grandma Sandy and Grandma Polly took the other kids on a walk. 

First, we met with Vivian's social worker and we received all of the immigration paperwork that we need to bring her back to MN.  Then we were taken to a room where Vivian was with her foster mom.  She was very shy and stayed very close to her foster mom. 

We played with her and she started to open up a little, but would always run back to her foster mom.  By the end of the hour, she was giving Matt "high fives" and smiling at us a little! 

The hour went by very fast but we were happy to have the time with her.  When she was leaving, she even gave us hugs and kisses!

As she was walking out with her foster mom, they ran into our kids waiting for us outside.  Immediately she smiled at them and waved!  That was encouraging.  If she did not warm up to Matt and I in one hour, she immediately took to the kids! 

Tomorrow we go again to meet with her at 1:00pm for one hour and then we take custody of her at 2:00pm.  That will be a difficult time for her as her foster family leaves her with us.  Pray for the transition and for the wonderful family that has been taking care of her for 22 months.  We can see how much she means to the foster mom and we want to reassure her that we will take good care of Vivian.

After our meeting, we had lunch with several other families that are also in Korea to pick up their child.  One woman was from Minneapolis picking up her second adopted son.  It was fun to connect with her and share stories.

When lunch was over, we went to Yonsei University.  This is the University where Krista studied during the summer of 1994.  It has changed quite a bit from when she was there, but the dorm where she stayed was still standing (at least the half she lived in). 

Then it was off to Incheon to the Star of the Sea Orphanage.  This is the orphanage where Krista stayed before being adopted.  They have a new building on their campus which looks beautiful.  All of the kids were sleeping for their afternoon nap so we could not walk around in the buildings, but it was fun to show the kids where Krista stayed for several months when she was a baby.

It was a full day!  We got back to the hotel and rested for a few minutes and then went out to grab dinner.  For the second day in a row, Levi fell asleep before the food arrived.  We have tired out the kids, the grandmas and ourselves!

Pray tomorrow for the transition.  We will have our one hour meeting with Vivian where the entire family will be with her.  Then her social worker will say a blessing on her and her foster family will leave.  We are not sure how she will react to all of this change and we are praying that she will learn to trust us quickly. 

A Little Luggage Laugh

Last night was a long night of waiting for our luggage!  We were told that it would arrive by 10:00pm.  When 10:00 came and went, we started to get a little worried.  I went down to the front desk to ask if they had heard anything from the airline and they had not and were not answering their phone any more for the evening.  I also asked when the nearest Department store opened up so we could get "presentable" clothes for our meeting.  We are suppose to dress up and our attire was less than appropriate.  The Department stores open at 10:00am.  We need to be at the office at 9:50am.  That would not help our situation.

I went back to the room to share the update with Matt and our phone rang.  Our luggage had just arrived!  What a huge answer to prayer!  Thank you to everyone that was praying for this situation.  We were able to keep a positive attitude for most of the day but were starting to feel discouraged.

When we picked up our bag, I noticed this tag . . .

It did make us laugh and wonder, if our bags had a "RUSH" tag on them . . . we feed bad for those that have their bags sent via the normal method!  It was good to be able to laugh about the situation.

All of the presents were in our bag and we are off soon to our first one hour meeting with Vivian.  Thank you for the continued prayers for today.  We find out at our meeting what time we get to take custody of Vivian tomorrow!

What a beautiful day it turned out to be in Seoul.  This morning it was overcast, but by noon, the sun was out and it turned out to be wonderful weather.  We went to Namdaemun Market this morning and walked around.  You could buy anything you needed or wanted at the market.  We had a wonderful Korean lunch at a restaurant in the market and then went to Gyeongbokgung.  Gyeongbok is a palace located in the middle of Seoul.  It is a beautiful palace with wonderful gardens.  The picture below was taken in the garden.

Unfortunately, yes, those are still our travel clothes.  No luggage yet, but we are being told that it should be delivered to the hotel tonight by 10pm. 

Tonight we ate at a Korean BBQ.  We enjoyed Kalbi and Bugulgi.  Sylvia said it was the best food so far!  She has been struggling with the food assortment and was pleasantly surprised tonight.  Evan and Levi are suffering from a little jet lag and both feel asleep at the dinner table before the food was served.  Maybe they will be able to enjoy it another day before we leave.

Tomorrow morning we get to meet Vivian for the first time!  We are very excited and a little nervous too.  We will be up bright and early.  We do not want to be late.  We only get one hour and we want to make the most of that time.  Hopefully tomorrow, we will have pictures of Vivian to post for this blog!

Every Adventure has a Surprise

Greetings from Seoul!  The flight was uneventful and the kids did a great job enteraining themselves and were very well behaved.  Levi was able to celebrate his 5th birthday on the plane and a very nice flight attendant gave him a large bowl of ice cream covered in chocolate sauce and a huge strawberry!  He also got his wings and is quite proud of them.  He was able to "enjoy" Kimchi for his birthday dinner but did not enjoy it as much as he thought he would!

We made it through immigration and customs, even though some had thought we were going back to Korea because Krista was being deported :-).  We went to pick up our luggage and were waiting and waiting.  There were hundrends waiting, then dozens, then just us and about 18 others.  We were in denial that our luggage did not make the treck with us, until Matt confirmed with someone working the baggage area that all of the bags had been unloaded and our was not there.

We just found out this morning that our bags landed in Tokyo, Japan instead of Inchon, South Korea.  We should be getting our luggage sometime today.  Please pray that we do! 

Today we have a day to tour the city.  It is a little overcast and drizzling, but we will make the most of it!  We might go to a market and a palace and who knows what else.

Tomorrow at 10am we get a one hour meeting with Vivian and her foster family.  That is when we will find out when we get to pick her up on Friday and keep her with us forever!

We will keep you posted on our day!