Lilybug – Our spot on the web.

The bags are getting unpacked, the laundry washed, and we’re slowly getting back into normal life.  That is, except for the sleeping part.  Everybody is on their own schedule, and it seems that bedtime for the adults starts around 5am.  Daniel is still adjusting his clock, so he is sleeping when the other kids are awake.  I think we’ll start having nap shifts so that we can get some much-needed sleep.

I just found one of the two cameras yesterday, so I’ll have some travel pictures up soon.  I know everybody is dying to see something more than what I posted many days ago.  I’ve been a bit busy snowblowing the neighborhood due to all the snow we received.  (BTW, thanks to my brother Mike for the big snow machine, it is being put to very good use!)  We sure are glad we travelled when we did.  I guess God knew what he was doing when I was pricing tickets for the trip.  The days we travelled (8th-17th) came to about $6,400, and the 9th-19th was $25,000.  Had we gone, we would have been stranded at the airport in both directions.  Funny how things work out like that, huh?

Yup, we’ve been home for an hour now.  We rolled in at about 2:30am Michigan time.  That makes for a trip that lasted about 31.5 hours.  We learned a few things about Daniel, and he learned that no matter what he tried we weren’t going to leave him.  But now we have kids to feed and put to bed, so I’m not going to type anymore.  But we are all here, safe and sound.

All right, before the events of the day, a few things.

1) The thing I forgot on the last post was that I was asked by Kae-Dong and Simon’s foster dad to try Soju at the big dinner.  This is the poor-man’s alcohol.  Not to insult the elders, I agreed to try it.  All I can say is that if you were to imagine opening a bottle of rubbing alcohol and taking a drink, you’d know what I tasted.  Kaylee had a sip and liked it – I guess she is meant to be married to the poor man (sorry Mac, guess you’re going to have to not play for the Red Wings).

2) Kimbop is like a California roll.  It is rice, carrot, meat, yellow stuff all rolled up in a dried sheet of seaweed.  Very good, I pop them down by the dozen.  Cook them up in some egg in the morning and you have a breakfast food.

Now for today.  Since we still had to shop, we met Jin-Myung and her boys at Namdaenum market.  I told Simon we had enough cars and that the Wall-E toys he wanted were too much (truthfully they were, at $40).  So Noah decided to have the meltdown first.  These boys are just not meant for shopping, guess we’ll have to leave that solely to the women from now on.  After finding everything on our list, we headed to Kyobo bookstore again.  Alecia said if she could have a cot in the corner and my credit card, she’d be happy for awhile there.  Then it was time to head back to the Guest House so we departed and said our goodbyes to the two boys since they couldn’t play hookie from school for a 3rd day in a row.

We stopped at Burger King for lunch on the way back, only because we knew Simon would eat and be happy.  That kid knocked down a 6-piece chicken meal and then asked for another one to take back with him.  I enjoyed my 2nd and last bulgogi whopper.  Going to miss those!

The girls stopped at a stationary store while I took the boys back up to the room.  We had to get ready for our travel meeting with Daniel.  He didn’t just bring his foster mom this time, but his foster dad and foster grandma too.  He’s drooling up a storm, so it looks like we’ll be doing the teething things on the way home.  Alecia was able to get him to smile the biggest I’ve seen so far.  We kept the kids up in the room for most of the meeting, just so Daniel and Simon and Noah wouldn’t get over-stimulated.

As soon as that was over, we headed out to visit the bakery and flower shop for our departing gifts.  We wanted to hurry so that we could make it back in time to meet Simon’s foster parents again in a few hours.  We didn’t get but a minute down the street when his foster brother chases us down.  Guess there was some ‘lost in translation’ directions somewhere, but we were glad to not have missed them.  Simon gave some big hugs, especially to his foster sister.  I think he really likes her.  Since they were just saying some goodbyes, we were able to get on to our errands with plenty of time for a quiet dinner of spaghetti up in the kitchenette.

Yup – after dinner is the event we dread: packing!  Alecia is in charge of this event, because she is the organized one and knows what she wants where.  I washed dishes, ran to the store for some bottled water for making formula bottles, and the blog update you are reading now.

A busy day tomorrow for us.  Jin-Myung is going to meet us at the airport, for she has the finished ceramics the kids did a few days ago.  This will be her chance to meet Daniel, which I know she is anxiously waiting for.

So everyone pray that the weather is good for landing in Chicago.  Also cross your fingers we can do immigration in the two hours we have in San Francisco.  And really pray that we can keep all the kids happy at our 3-hour layover in Tokyo!

See everybody soon!

Now before I forget, I failed to mention a few things from my Sunday post.  First, while at dinner with both families, I challenged Min-June (eldest son of Kae-Dong Choi who is about Madeline’s age) to a Kimchi eating contest.  I thought he’d beat me, but apparently I can eat more of it without taking sips of water than he can.  He was gulping drinks by the bowl full and was apparently rather sick this morning.  I’m so sorry Min-June.  Second,  I forgot and will have to come back to it.

Today was our laid-back day.  The plan was to keep the boys from becoming over-stimulated.  We met Jin-Myung and Min-June near the CoEx (big mall) and visited the aquarium.  The biggest part of it was watching the shark tank feeding.  Simon loves Sea Rays.  For the first time in three trips to Korea, we finally ate at a McDonalds.  I’ll confess that I like Burger King’s version of the Bulgogi burger a lot better!  Since Alecia was feeling pretty yucky (sinus cold that Kaylee shared with us) we called it quits and headed back to the Guest House.  I then took Kaylee and Madeline out to Itewon to get the all-important name scrool for Daniel.

We had a dinner of spaghetti, showered the boys, and now everybody is in bed but me and Kaylee.  She’ll be hopping onto this computer when I’m done and staying up until some unearthly hour to instant message with her friends.

Tomorrow is the last day to do anything.  The plan is to head to Namdaemun Market for the third time and meet up with Jin-Myung and do some real shopping.  I will keep the boys on the outskirts of the market, because Simon has a meltdown to buy toy cars every time we’ve gone.  We have like 4 boxes of cars now in the attempt to settle him down – it isn’t working.  Next will hopefully be Kyobo bookstore (BIG bookstore) again for some more book buying.  Then we’ll head back to the Guest House and pick up some flowers and bakery items for Daniel’s foster mom.  We meet Daniel for the second time at 3pm and get our “how to take him home” instructions.  After that, Simon’s foster family wants to do something with us.

Then we have to pack and have everything ready to go.  At 8:30am Wednesday morning we have to have our stuff in the lobby ready to go.  We’ll have 30 minutes to make the Daniel integration (like that term?) and we head to the airport at 9am.  Then we go to Tokyo, San Francisco, and finally Chicago.  Then we pile into the Suburban (which is now close to being too small for us, can you say Ford Club Wagon?) and plow our way back into Michigan.  Good thing I spent the $1300 to have the family cruiser in top-running shape before we left!

Okay, the whirlwind is over for now.  It’s Sunday evening, 9pm, and we’re all ready for a little breather.  Since I can’t remember what I told you about and what I didn’t, just read on and ignore anything you already know.

The big adventure started Friday aftternoon.  It started with the meeting with Noah’s foster mom.  Turns out her son took the name Daniel when he was baptized Catholic.  Lots of remembering of Noah, in how he likes to suck his thumb when tired (yup, he still does that!).

Then we had Simon’s meeting with most of his foster family.  The daughter was working, so she couldn’t come.  But we did get to finally meet the son.  They also had their current foster baby with them.  Alecia and Kaylee both remarked afterwards on how tall and cute the son was.  Hmmm…  Anyway, they brought sandwiches and fruit for us and we invited them up to the kitchen to share.  We were really suppose to be packing and getting onto the subway to head to the Choi’s home in Suwan.  But Simon is very special to them because he is their first foster child, and we didn’t feel 30 minutes was enough time.  We barely had the fruit cut up before the foster son was calling the Choi family to tell them that they would drive us to their house – a 1.5 hour drive on the weekend.  We now had 10 minutes to pack for an overnight stay.

We arrived in Suwon, where we were treated to a very nice dinner at a restaurant.  This was our chance to finally see the entire Choi family since they left the USA a year and half ago.  How big the boys are now!  After dinner, we piled into two cars and drove to see one of the gates in Suwon.  It was dark, but it was very beautiful alongside the mountain.  This one still has the wall going around the city, where in Seoul it is just the gate that remains.  Then it was off to their apartment.

The next morning (Saturday) we were met by Jin-Myung’s parents.  We met them on the last trip when they took us out for a very fancy dinner.  He is now the president of something in the ceramic industry here, so he wanted to take us to his company’s “Lets do the dishes” location (two hour drive).  We met up with Jin-Myung’s brother and his wife and two kids there.  So we filled a table and they all painted some ceramic pieces.  After that, we headed to a bulgogi restaurant and had a very good lunch.  Then it was back to the Choi’s apartment.  We thought we’d be heading back to the Guest House…

But no, they really didn’t want us to leave yet.  So they talked us into spending a second night with them.  So all the girls went to the grocery store to get some peanut butter for Simon (we were out of supplies of food that he would eat).  They came back with peanut butter, asian pears, grape juice, Coke, and everything to make Kimbop.  Kaylee and Madeline received another cooking lesson in making Kimbop and I was able to eat plenty of samples.

Now I’m finally up to today (Sunday) and it has been busy busy busy.  We left early to head back to Seoul.  Kaylee and Madeline went with Jin-Myung and MinWoo (their oldest) on the bus and subway.  The rest of us went with Kae-Dong in their car to head back to the Guest House.  We did a quick re-supply of the diaper bag and met the girls downtown to ride the Seoul City Tour bus.  First stop – Namdenum (sp?) for some quick shopping.  It was quick, Simon needed to eat lunch.  So we ate a quick lunch and headed back to the bus tour.  Next stop off the bus – the Traditional Korean Village.  After that, there wasn’t much time for another stop so we just finished the tour on the bus.  Why?  Had to meet up with Simon’s foster family again.

Now the plan changed every time we talked to somebody, but it finally turned out to be an invite for dinner.  We took a few taxis back to the Guest House and met up with everybody.  From there we drove to yet another bulgogi restaurant.  The Choi family remained with us, to help in the English/Korean translations.  A wonderful dinner with the two families we will always have as friends in Korea.  And we have now eaten a year’s worth of beef in the course of a weekend.  We’re full!  Headed back to the Guest House, where Simon’s foster family had some gifts for the kids.  We took some pictures, and they would like to see us again before we leave (probably Tuesday night).

Tomorrow we’ll be meeting up with Jin-Myung and heading to the CoEx.  It is going to be a slower-paced day, for the boy’s sake.  We’ll be seeing the aquarium.  On our way there, we’ll be trying to get the name scroll for Daniel.  This is one of our ‘must dos’ and we’re running out of time.

Whew, I better get back to the room and help get the boys into bed…

It’s Sunday morning, and this will be quick.  We spent a 2nd night with the Choi family.  We are now heading backing to Seoul with them to take the City Tour bus and do some shopping at the markets.  Then at 5pm we will be meeting up with Simon’s foster family for dinner.  After that, who knows!

I know, I know – I posted pictures and then it seems like we disappeared.  Not quite, we have just been very very busy.  Yesterday morning (Friday) was going to be a busy day with visits from the foster moms.  So we headed out early to visit one of the palaces.  We grabbed some quick Burger King for lunch, only because I need to have at least one Bulgogi burger this trip and Simon needed a quick protein burst.

Alecia prepared the gift bags for the foster moms, then it was pretty much time for the visits (30 minutes each).  Our plan was to pack for our overnight stay in Suwon right after the visits.  Ha ha – keep reading!  First was Noah’s visit, 30 minutes of sharing pictures and things she remembered when he was a baby.  Then came Simon’s visit, which we knew 30 minutes wasn’t going to be enough.  Not only did his foster mom come, but his foster dad and foster brother (who is now out of the Army so we were able to meet him for the first time).  His foster sister was working, so she couldn’t come.  She also brought the baby she is currently fostering (#11, Simon is #1).  We shared pictures, gift, and Simon gave TONS of hugs to everybody.  They also brought some food to share, so we went up to our kitchenette and started to share with them.  Once they learned of our trip to Suwon, they insisted that they drive us there instead of taking the subway and bus.  So we had to rush and pack.

They dropped us off in Suwon, where we had a nice dinner with the Kae-Dong family.  They drove us to the gate in their city for us to see at night, since it is more of a castle with a surrounding wall of the city.  We spent the night at their house, and this morning Alecia is helping to prepare breakfast.  They have an entire day of activities planned for us.  So much fun!

That’s the quick synopsis, as I don’t want to spend too much time on their computer.  I’d rather be visiting!  Stay tuned for another update, probably when we get back to the Guest House.  I’ll also fill in some more details that I’m sure I missed.

Here’s one: Have you ever packed on vacation, then had to do a mini-pack to stay somewhere else while on vacation?  It’s very interesting deciding what to take and not take, when you already decided that you needed the items for the first part of the trip.

Had our first meeting with Daniel.  Simon took over as the big brother and tried to teach him everything he knows.  The only thing that upset Simon was that Daniel didn’t know his name.  But other than that, things went very well.  I won’t keep you in suspense any longer…

Me and my new mommy.

Daniel with Robert

I can stand up!

Good morning!  In just under two hours we get to meet Daniel!!!!  After that, we meet Dr. Kim and then have our Korean lunch with the other families that are her.  Then we have a full day of activities planned with Jin-Myung.  She came over last night after defending her thesis and took the girls out for a little shopping.  Looks like she is going to be our personal tour guide for the rest of the trip.  I think we’re even going to be spending Friday night out at her house in the country.

Yesterday we took two walks, the first I already told you about.  Then later we walked down to the Sokeyo (sp?) which is where we stayed on our first trip for Simon.  Alecia wanted to find the place we ate at a bunch of times on the last trip, just to make sure it was still there.  We picked up some Kimbop off a cart for Kaylee, and Simon decided he wanted a waffle off a cart.

I’ll have more later, but now I have to get back upstairs and get the girls moving and eat breakfast.

This morning we did not get a chance to meet Daniel.  His foster mom did not bring him in like she was suppose to.  Simon and Noah were upset, because they thought they were going to meet little brother and were very excited.  It is now rescheduled for 9am tomorrow.  I filled out the paperwork today and have his passport and travel papers.

After lunch we took a walk on a mission – to find some more ‘luvies’ for Noah.  We hiked on down to the Hyundai and checked every floor.  It appears the baby department is no longer, and that is where the originals came from.  With Noah upset (he really wants some new ones) we used the subway exit to cross the street and check out Grand Mart.  No ‘luvies’ there either.  So back to the Guest House we went, as the boys were getting tired.  They are still adjusting to the time change.

We still get to meet our Korean friends this evening!

For you Michigan snow birds, we were walking around in just long-sleeve shirts or sweaters today.  Winter coats, hats, and mittens all stayed in the room.  This beats the hot muggy summer from the last two visits.  Hopefully the weather stays like this for the rest of our trip.