Seeing the Sights in Seoul

It was a gorgeous day in Seoul today. We had clear, blue skies and it was nice and sunny, although quite chilly and windy out. But it was a nice change from the last few days of dreary, rainy weather.

We spent the entire day out and about in Seoul, on our city tour which Holt provides for as part of our visit. Even though we've visited Seoul twice before and have seen just about everything touristy there is to see here, we decided to go anyway and just have fun...maybe meet new people. There was another couple from Milwaukee who met their baby boy for the first time at the same time we did yesterday and they're leaving a day ahead of us. We had 2 tour guides, Yuri and Song, who took the four of us around.

We started out at Holt and headed to Gyeongbokgung Palace, where we caught the morning changing-of-the-guard ceremony. After that was over, we walked around the palace grounds, enjoying the beautiful architecture. Admittedly, it all started to look the same after a while and it was easy to get turned around, but it was really gorgeous, especially on such a pretty day.




Then we all hit Kyobo bookstore, a really fabulous bookstore that also sells lots of gifts, stationary, music, dvds, etc. After we were done there, the other couple and the second guide ended up splitting off at that point to go do their own thing since this was their first time in Seoul.

So Yuri took us around for the rest of the day. We walked along this interesting new canal/stream that they recently built through Seoul, walked around Namdaemun market, and checked out what has become of the famous Namdaemun gate that sadly got burned down by a crazy old man and is currently undergoing restoration.







At that point we were starving and ended up at a tiny little restaurant trying budae-jongol for the first time ever. It was a very interesting combo of ramen noodles, sausage, ham, and hotdogs in a very spicy broth. Strange, but tasty and cheap, and it sure hit the spot.



After that, we browsed around Myeong-dong and ended up in Insa-dong, one of the hippest, coolest areas of Seoul, and found a place to sit and drink coffee. It was getting pretty late at that point, so we decided to call it a day...we were pooped out.



After we got back to the hotel, we received such a lovely surprise. I had mentioned to Yuri that I was looking for Hangul fridge magnets and we weren't sure where to look for them. Well, I got a knock at the door and it was a hotel guy delivering a gift from Yuri...Hangul fridge magnets! I'll definitely need to get her email from Holt so I can thank her. They're exactly what I was looking for.




Well, we had planned on meeting Chi-Yong tonight, but we are so tired from being out in the cold all day, and I think the jet-lag is starting to catch up with us. John's currently zonked out as I write. So tomorrow, our plan is to meet Chi-Yong and head over together to the foster family's place to meet the rest of the family and Jin-Ri. It'll be so much fun to see Jin-Ri in her familiar home setting where she's totally comfortable, playing with all her toys and crawling and standing for us. We can't wait!

We met her!

What a day we had! Since our days and nights are switched around, we had no problem waking up early this morning, in fact, John woke up at 4:30 am. We got ready, had a nice, leisurely breakfast and left the hotel about an hour and a half early for our 10:00 appointment...just to be on the safe side. It was quite a challenge communicating with the taxi driver, and so even though he dropped us off at the old office (Holt recently moved office locations), we got out anyway and figured we'd find our way to the new office somehow. We walked a familiar route to the reception center/guesthouse, where we'd visited during our last trip to Korea, and once there, we found a nice old man who walked with us and showed us how to get to the new office.

Holt reception center & guesthouse


Even after all that confusion, we still arrived early. Good thing, since it gave us a chance to relax and get our bearings before Jin-Ri arrived. We were a little nervous and couldn't believe we were about to meet her in person!

New Holt office building




Jin-Ri was a little shy and reserved at first, but she let us hold her and play with her. She loves playing peek-a-boo, but in Korean, you say "Jin-Ri op-da.......Ka-Koong!" What a cute smile she has! The social worker was very nice and was great with Jin-Ri. She translated for the foster mom, and we learned lots of information about what she likes and doesn't like, how she sleeps, what and how much she eats and drinks, what soothes her, etc. Jin-Ri got a little upset when the foster mom left the room for a few minutes, and we were all very glad when she came back!




After our appointment, we ran into the foster mom in the building a few times while we were getting ourselves ready to leave, and she offered to drive us back to our hotel. It was lots of fun watching Jin-Ri and playing with her in the car, until she zonked out. Her foster mom says she enjoys car rides, and we can certainly tell!




While we were on our way to the hotel, we called our friend, Chi-Yong, who offered to meet us there, as he lives nearby. We all ended up going to lunch at the Korean restaurant in our hotel. It was so great to see Jin-Ri and the foster mom in a more comfortable setting, where Jin-Ri was able to relax and be herself. She was every bit as cute and funny as she has been in all the videos we've seen of her. She was all smiles, and she entertained us by doing her funny "an-nyong-ha-se-yo", and bowing. It cracks us up. So, on a day where we'd normally only get an hour with her, we saw Jin-Ri for about 6 hours today! What a great first day!


Tomorrow, we are going on a guided tour around Seoul with another adoptive family, and will meet up with Chi-Yong afterwards. And on Sunday, we'll meet the whole family at their place. We're really looking forward to it!

We're here!

Well, after about 24 hours of travelling, we finally made it to our hotel! From Atlanta, it was one very long 15-hour flight, but we can't complain. We were able to lay back and stretch out, watch movies and tv, and relax all the way there, so it wasn't too bad. Our plan now is just to go downstairs and enjoy some Korean food (over here, they just call it food) and catch up on our sleep. We meet Jin-Ri tomorrow morning at 10:00 am!

Korea here we come!

We're sitting in one of the executive lounges in Atlanta waiting for our flight to Seoul to start boarding. We got up at 4:30 am, left the house around 5:30 am, got to the airport around 6:30 am, left Cleveland on-time at 7:25 am, and arrived in Atlanta around 9:00 am. By the way, the Atlanta airport is pretty awesome. Anyway, it feels like it's already been a long day, but we're just getting started. I'll post again when I get a chance.

8 months old today

Jin-Ri turned 8 months old today! It's been so amazing to watch her grow and develop over these past 3 months since we've been matched. We're so thankful that her foster family has enabled us to get to know her through these videos, pictures and e-mails, and more importantly, that we'll have so much to tell her about this part of her life.

Aqua Girl

We've been wondering what Jin-Ri has been up to the last few days while we've been busy making plans. Well, we received this adorable video of Jin-Ri today. She's just fascinated by this aquarium and loves watching the little fish. Make sure you have your sound up, because she's being very talkative.

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So excited!

Hard to believe that in just 4 days, we'll be on a plane on our way to Korea to meet our daughter! It's hard to put into words what that feels like, so at the moment, I feel a bit tongue-tied. This weekend, we'll be cramming to finish getting the house ready, buying last minute stuff for our trip, and trying to figure out what to pack to make Jin-Ri as comfortable as possible on her long journey. Little does she know what's about to happen...

Here are a few pictures you haven't seen yet. Her foster family took Jin-Ri out for a little winter trip a few weeks ago. Her foster mom has her all bundled up at the seaside.



And here she is looking too cute in her carseat.

Dancing Queen

We received this funny video of Leah dancing while she's watching the TV. She starts when she hears music and stops when the music stops. She is certainly mesmerized by the TV. And she's also discovering her voice and loves making loud screeching noises. I think we're going to need to get some ear plugs!

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Travel Call: Take Two!

Big news! We got our official travel call today! Our ICPC issue was resolved in 3 days instead of 3 weeks. So I guess the squeaky wheel does indeed get the grease. I had a feeling they were going to get moving on this thing, but wasn't expecting it to happen this fast. We're really relieved there will be no more delays and that everything ended up working out in the end. So now we can officially get excited about making the trip to Korea! So much left to do, so much left to plan, and we can hardly wait.

Look Ma, No Hands!

Check this out. Leah Jin-Ri is standing with no support! Pretty amazing for a baby less than 8 months old! We have no doubt she'll be an early walker. We think it's pretty funny how she and her foster sister are just hanging out in front of the TV, like it's no big deal.

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Here she is again standing on her own, and she looks really excited. She's just squeaking and squealing with joy. It's a little nerve-wracking to watch, but she's learned how to drop herself down. Her big diaper bottom is funny. In this video, we're also seeing her crawling up on her hands and knees for the first time, instead of creeping like before. And it's neat to see how easily she's moving back and forth from a sitting position to her stomach back to sitting or crawling. Towards the end of the video, she keeps trying to grab the little pictures on the mat.

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