At Home with Jin-Ri

Another amazing day yesterday. We were invited over to Jin-Ri's foster family's house and spent the whole day with them. Chi-Yong met us at 1:00 in the afternoon and we took the metro and the bus together to their place. Good thing Chi-Yong was with us or we would have never found it. It was a pretty long trip. When we walked into their apartment, little Jin-Ri was sleeping on her side on the mat on the floor and was a little groggy at first when she woke up. Just like the other day, it took her a while to warm up to us. I think she recognized us from the other day, but she was a little shy in the beginning. She was probably wondering why all these people were sitting there staring at her. I think that would probably make anyone nervous!



So we all just talked amongst ourselves and she was able to relax and come out of her shell. We exchanged some gifts and received a beautiful hanbok for her to wear on her first birthday. We can't wait to see how it looks on her. It didn't take too long before she was back to her normal self, crawling all over, pulling herself up and standing, smiling and giggling. We enjoyed some delicious cheesecake, fruit, coffee and tea....and Jin-Ri tried the whole time to get at the food on the table. She definitely likes to be a part of everything the family does.




We learned that she really loves music, especially music with a beat. She sways back and forth and bounces to the music. She loves being tossed around and raised up in the air. And boy can she jump! She has such strong legs and she just keeps jumping and jumping every chance she gets.

Her foster mom showed us what kind of formula she takes, how to mix it, and her favorite things she likes to eat. It was so great seeing how they take care of her and learning what she likes and doesn't like.



We all went out to a restaurant for dinner. It was located in this really hip area of town with lots of rustic restaurants and clubs. It was the same restaurant from the videos where she is on the see-saw with her foster mom and sister, so we were able to see the exact spots where those pictures were taken. We enjoyed duck grilled over hot coals, sweet potatoes and a noodle soup. It was our first time having that, and it's been so neat to enjoy different foods this time in Korea.






After dinner, Jin-Ri's foster mom and sister took us out shopping to buy some supplies, so we went to a couple of these really big mega-markets, probably the equivalent of a Korean style Wal-mart, but one of the stores had 10 floors of stuff. We were looking for the same type of formula and bottles she uses. We also wanted to get one of those playmats that they have on the floor so she will have something familiar when we get back home. We're going to have one heck of a time getting all this stuff back home!






Anyway, we went back to their place and hung out a little while longer. Jin-Ri was being really lively and entertaining. It seems like she comes to life at night. We knew it was getting late and we should probably get back to the hotel since we were going to see her again in another 12 hours, so her foster mom was nice enough to drive us all the way back to our hotel.

Side note...we switched to a Korean-style room with an ondol floor yesterday. Since they are coming over to visit us today, a typical western style hotel room isn't very comfortable for a baby to crawl around in, so we were lucky to get the only Korean-style room in the hotel for the rest of our stay. What an awesome experience to be able to sleep on Korean-style mats on the floor. But I'm not so sure our backs will agree.

In a matter of minutes, they'll be here!