Friday, March 20, 2009
We're home! Updates to follow...
We made it home safely, but haven't had time to post yet since Jin-Ri is keeping us pretty busy. We're all sleep deprived and jet-lagged, but so happy to finally be home with Jin-Ri.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Calm Before the Storm
This morning, we met Jin-Ri and her foster mom at Holt for her pre-flight medical check. It lasted all of 5 minutes and then we got some time alone there with Jin-Ri. She was smiley and cute but definitely trying to keep an eye on her foster mom's whereabouts.
We decided that we should probably not force things today with her. We didn't want to stress her out again since she's definitely starting to figure out that something's up. Her foster mom says she's becoming even more anxious lately and won't let her out of her sight or even let the other family members hold her. So our strategy today was to keep the visit short and not to ask too much of her. Even with all this careful planning, it's inevitable that this abrupt change in caregivers is going to be very painful for her, so we decided it's probably best at this point to just give her one more easy, relaxed day before her whole world turns upside down.
We drove back to our hotel and Chi-Yong met us there. We hung out in the room for a while, where Jin-Ri was being her cute, funny, entertaining self.
After spending some time there, we decided to go out for lunch, and we ended up at an Italian restaurant in the hotel since the Korean restaurant was too busy. She seemed pretty nervous when we left the room since she wasn't sure what was happening, and lately she's on edge when we're on the move. We noticed she is much more at ease in the room and we're glad she's getting used to this setting so when we bring her back here tomorrow, it will be familiar to her.
After lunch, we just had a short visit in the room and then it was time for her to go home. We wanted to give them the rest of the day to spend together. Our thoughts are with the foster family tonight. We know this must be a really sad and difficult night for them. Tomorrow will be a really painful day for everyone, especially Jin-Ri. We'll do everything we can to get her through it.
Chi-Yong and the foster mom decided to take a separate elevator down to the hotel lobby after us, and John managed to carry Jin-Ri without her protesting, and luckily, right when she started frantically looking around, her foster mom re-appeared. What an accomplishment after the other day!
Since this is our last night in Korea for a while, we hit the town with Chi-Yong. We decided to go to the Myung-dong area since we spent a lot of time there on our last visit. We walked around Lotte Department store and we checked out the baby department and the food hall in the basement. The baby stuff in these stores here is so beautifully displayed. They have such nice quality things here. And that food hall is one very impressive, upscale grocery store. People probably thought I was weird to be taking photos there, but I always love getting these interesting travel shots.
After that, we walked around the streets of Myung-dong, had some delicious Italian ice cream at Cafe Pascucci.
And we retraced our steps back to the little, tiny Japanese-style business hotel I stayed at for a while during my last trip while I was alone and scheduled to appear on the KBS Achimmadang search & reunion TV show. The little hotel looked exactly the same, but those nice people I remember from then are probably no longer there.
We had an awesome dinner at Nam Po Myun Oak, a quaint, rustic, traditional style Korean restaurant where we sat on the floor at low tables to eat. We're getting used to that on this trip. Chi-Yong took us there during our very first trip to Korea 7 years ago and we remembered it was really good and wanted to go again. We had the exact same stuff...something called Abok jengban, bin dae duk and mandu. Delicious!
Anyway, that was pretty much it for today. It was a nice, easy day, and we figure it will probably be our last day of freedom and peace and quiet for a very long time. In less than 12 hours, we'll have Jin-Ri for good! Wish us luck!
We decided that we should probably not force things today with her. We didn't want to stress her out again since she's definitely starting to figure out that something's up. Her foster mom says she's becoming even more anxious lately and won't let her out of her sight or even let the other family members hold her. So our strategy today was to keep the visit short and not to ask too much of her. Even with all this careful planning, it's inevitable that this abrupt change in caregivers is going to be very painful for her, so we decided it's probably best at this point to just give her one more easy, relaxed day before her whole world turns upside down.
We drove back to our hotel and Chi-Yong met us there. We hung out in the room for a while, where Jin-Ri was being her cute, funny, entertaining self.
After spending some time there, we decided to go out for lunch, and we ended up at an Italian restaurant in the hotel since the Korean restaurant was too busy. She seemed pretty nervous when we left the room since she wasn't sure what was happening, and lately she's on edge when we're on the move. We noticed she is much more at ease in the room and we're glad she's getting used to this setting so when we bring her back here tomorrow, it will be familiar to her.
After lunch, we just had a short visit in the room and then it was time for her to go home. We wanted to give them the rest of the day to spend together. Our thoughts are with the foster family tonight. We know this must be a really sad and difficult night for them. Tomorrow will be a really painful day for everyone, especially Jin-Ri. We'll do everything we can to get her through it.
Chi-Yong and the foster mom decided to take a separate elevator down to the hotel lobby after us, and John managed to carry Jin-Ri without her protesting, and luckily, right when she started frantically looking around, her foster mom re-appeared. What an accomplishment after the other day!
Since this is our last night in Korea for a while, we hit the town with Chi-Yong. We decided to go to the Myung-dong area since we spent a lot of time there on our last visit. We walked around Lotte Department store and we checked out the baby department and the food hall in the basement. The baby stuff in these stores here is so beautifully displayed. They have such nice quality things here. And that food hall is one very impressive, upscale grocery store. People probably thought I was weird to be taking photos there, but I always love getting these interesting travel shots.
After that, we walked around the streets of Myung-dong, had some delicious Italian ice cream at Cafe Pascucci.
And we retraced our steps back to the little, tiny Japanese-style business hotel I stayed at for a while during my last trip while I was alone and scheduled to appear on the KBS Achimmadang search & reunion TV show. The little hotel looked exactly the same, but those nice people I remember from then are probably no longer there.
We had an awesome dinner at Nam Po Myun Oak, a quaint, rustic, traditional style Korean restaurant where we sat on the floor at low tables to eat. We're getting used to that on this trip. Chi-Yong took us there during our very first trip to Korea 7 years ago and we remembered it was really good and wanted to go again. We had the exact same stuff...something called Abok jengban, bin dae duk and mandu. Delicious!
Anyway, that was pretty much it for today. It was a nice, easy day, and we figure it will probably be our last day of freedom and peace and quiet for a very long time. In less than 12 hours, we'll have Jin-Ri for good! Wish us luck!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Nobody said it was going to be easy
Today, we spent another 7+ hours with Leah Jin-Ri and her foster mom. Thank goodness we have our friend Chi-Yong available to help us communicate. Our foster mom and Chi-Yong have been so generous with their time during our visit, we are so grateful for that.
They visited us in our Korean-style hotel room, which was a perfect setting since the furniture in the room is very small-scale and low to the ground, and we could all slide around on the floor. Leah Jin-Ri is so active, she never stops moving. She free-stands for a really long time without support, and we noticed she can even go from sitting to standing without needing furniture or anyone to help pull herself up. But you do have to watch her very carefully because she's still pretty wobbly, especially since she likes to turn all the way around to see who's watching her. She's actually getting callouses on the top of her big toes from standing on them like a ballerina as she tries to get her footing.
We had fun again, observing her, playing with her, feeding her, making her laugh, all while trying to give her more time to get used to us. We had lots of toys here in the room, most of which were the ones we sent her beforehand. She loved the tall mirror in the room, and it was fun watching her look at herself and play in the mirror, grinning and smiling at our reflections.
But after lunch, we made the mistake of trying to take her out for a test-drive in our new Beco baby carrier. We thought it might be useful to try to take a walk and get out of the room for a while. So I put it on and we strapped her in, but she totally freaked out and screamed her head off immediately. Red face, tears running down her face, it was horrible. There was no way around it...we quickly switched the baby carrier from me to her foster mom, and she was still upset at first but calmed down a bit while we all took a walk through the hallways. Once she seemed somewhat calm again, John wanted to give it a try, so we switched her to him, and she protested a little less this time but he was able to calm her down by whispering in Dutch. She actually fell asleep for a while in the baby carrier and we were all quite impressed!
Later on, back in the room when she was totally zonked out, he tried to lay her down in the crib, but she immediately woke up and started screaming again. He tried comforting her using the same technique but it didn't work this time. Reality set in and we all realized that there is not going to be any easy way around this, even with all this advance preparation. She's an intense, active, expressive little girl who is so attached to her foster mom and family, after having already lost her first foster family, so she's definitely not going to take this separation lying down.
Well, once she was calm again, she was back to herself again, laughing, smiling and entertaining us for the rest of the day. Around 6:00 or so, her foster mom had to head back home to avoid rush-hour traffic. Jin-Ri was really tired and it was an emotional day for her. I'm sure she fell right asleep in the car ride home.
After they left, we went out to dinner with Chi-Yong. We decided to go to COEX mall, where we'd been many times in the past to watch movies. We were craving more Korean food, but we forgot that it's kind of hard finding Korean food at COEX. There were mostly western chain restaurants there. That's definitely the place to go if you are craving anything BUT Korean food. We ended up finding a small place and having yet another bibimbap, but that's never a problem for me and I could eat that every day. We checked out a big bookstore and picked up a new Korean drama to watch, too.
Tomorrow morning, we'll see Jin-Ri again at her pre-flight medical check at Holt. Since it was a difficult day for her, we all decided we should probably meet up again for a while tomorrow to see how it goes. We'll hang out a bit with her and her foster mom and have lunch together. Then we want to give the foster family the rest of the day to spend with her alone. And after that, at 10:00 am on Wednesday, we'll take custody of her and spend the rest of the day and night in Korea before we fly home. It's going to be one long, difficult trip home, we're afraid.
They visited us in our Korean-style hotel room, which was a perfect setting since the furniture in the room is very small-scale and low to the ground, and we could all slide around on the floor. Leah Jin-Ri is so active, she never stops moving. She free-stands for a really long time without support, and we noticed she can even go from sitting to standing without needing furniture or anyone to help pull herself up. But you do have to watch her very carefully because she's still pretty wobbly, especially since she likes to turn all the way around to see who's watching her. She's actually getting callouses on the top of her big toes from standing on them like a ballerina as she tries to get her footing.
We had fun again, observing her, playing with her, feeding her, making her laugh, all while trying to give her more time to get used to us. We had lots of toys here in the room, most of which were the ones we sent her beforehand. She loved the tall mirror in the room, and it was fun watching her look at herself and play in the mirror, grinning and smiling at our reflections.
But after lunch, we made the mistake of trying to take her out for a test-drive in our new Beco baby carrier. We thought it might be useful to try to take a walk and get out of the room for a while. So I put it on and we strapped her in, but she totally freaked out and screamed her head off immediately. Red face, tears running down her face, it was horrible. There was no way around it...we quickly switched the baby carrier from me to her foster mom, and she was still upset at first but calmed down a bit while we all took a walk through the hallways. Once she seemed somewhat calm again, John wanted to give it a try, so we switched her to him, and she protested a little less this time but he was able to calm her down by whispering in Dutch. She actually fell asleep for a while in the baby carrier and we were all quite impressed!
Later on, back in the room when she was totally zonked out, he tried to lay her down in the crib, but she immediately woke up and started screaming again. He tried comforting her using the same technique but it didn't work this time. Reality set in and we all realized that there is not going to be any easy way around this, even with all this advance preparation. She's an intense, active, expressive little girl who is so attached to her foster mom and family, after having already lost her first foster family, so she's definitely not going to take this separation lying down.
Well, once she was calm again, she was back to herself again, laughing, smiling and entertaining us for the rest of the day. Around 6:00 or so, her foster mom had to head back home to avoid rush-hour traffic. Jin-Ri was really tired and it was an emotional day for her. I'm sure she fell right asleep in the car ride home.
After they left, we went out to dinner with Chi-Yong. We decided to go to COEX mall, where we'd been many times in the past to watch movies. We were craving more Korean food, but we forgot that it's kind of hard finding Korean food at COEX. There were mostly western chain restaurants there. That's definitely the place to go if you are craving anything BUT Korean food. We ended up finding a small place and having yet another bibimbap, but that's never a problem for me and I could eat that every day. We checked out a big bookstore and picked up a new Korean drama to watch, too.
Tomorrow morning, we'll see Jin-Ri again at her pre-flight medical check at Holt. Since it was a difficult day for her, we all decided we should probably meet up again for a while tomorrow to see how it goes. We'll hang out a bit with her and her foster mom and have lunch together. Then we want to give the foster family the rest of the day to spend with her alone. And after that, at 10:00 am on Wednesday, we'll take custody of her and spend the rest of the day and night in Korea before we fly home. It's going to be one long, difficult trip home, we're afraid.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
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!
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
