Lotte Mart and 2nd meeting with Charlie HyeonWoo

Yesterday we had the day off with meetings. We finally slept through the night and took our time getting ready through the morning time. We talked and caught up with our families and finally unpacked!  We ended up eating lunch at a little cafe close by, there are coffee shops on every corner which is amazing! We ventured out riding the subway to Seoul Station to check out the surroundings since this is a larger subway station.  I had read about Lotte Mart which is similar to Walmart or Target.  We walked probably 300 ft from the subway and walked right into Lotte Mart!  This place was crazy! There were so many people but we ended up walking around just checking everything out for about two hours!  There were three floors packed with everything you would every need from groceries including fresh meats and produce, to electronics! We decided to go ahead and buy some groceries and a few items for Charlie for his Christmas gift as we were planning to give to him tomorrow at our second meeting.  It was fun to pick a few items out for him.  A coloring book with crayons, sticker book, Christmas PJ's, bubbles, and a Pororo book in Korean (which is Korean cartoon character that all the kids seem to love).  Even in our meeting with him Tuesday, Charlie took his little finger and pointed out Pororo in our meeting room introducing us to Pororo! We did not end up taking any pictures at Lotte Mart, I think we were too amazed on all that was going on around us! We had a good time exploring even though it was similar to Walmart :)

The second meeting with Charlie was in the afternoon.  But before we met with him and his foster mom we were scheduled to meet with Dr. Kim the president of the agency followed by lunch with her and the other families. The meeting and lunch were both wonderful.  She explained and spoke a lot about the history of Korea and the adoption agency. We also really enjoyed the time with the other families to be able to talk with and share stories.  There are five total families attending court all together on Friday. It seems pretty amazing how you share a unique bond with other adoptive families so naturally.  The lunch was delicious! We were served Bibimbap which is a signature Korean dish. Brent was complemented on his use of chopsticks, it was a proud moment for him :)

After lunch we went back downstairs to the cafe and waited with other families until our second meeting with Charlie.  We had a feeling the foster mom would be early again so Brent peaked out into the lobby and sure enough bouncing in again came our Charlie HyeonWoo!  Our social worker was finishing up with another families meeting so we had another 20-30 mins again to play in the lobby.  We played with the power wheel car again but that didn't hold much attention!  Charlie ran back to his foster mom again calling out to her to make sure she was close by.  We followed him into the agency office where there are a few toys in the reception area.  We put together puzzles, stacked rings, and then he grunted and pointed to the door while sitting on a push toy wanting Brent to push him out to the lobby :)  Using his pointer finger and grunting (this went on for another 10 mins) we pushed him around on the riding toy at his demand :)  During this time he both let us hold and carry him around checking out the cafe that had an intriguing small Christmas tree and snowman. It was then time for our meeting so we went back upstairs to the meeting/play room.  We gave him his Christmas gift which was fun.  He LOVED the bubbles and we have the cutest video of him cracking up at the bubbles.  He played his Pororo sound book a few times, played with stickers and crayons,  and of course we all shared another snack :)  He would share his snack by throwing goldfish at us! Overall it went very well  and that hour just seemed to fly by.  We did see a little more of his grumpy two year old self as he seemed to be more tired since it was later in the afternoon.  He wanted to do everything "himself" and would get grumpy at times if you tried to help.  He also did NOT want to put on his gloves and coat when it was time to leave.  We have no idea what the foster mom told him but with a raised voice whatever she said he stopped immediately and obeyed her :)  The foster mom told us his best time was in the morning.  We were thankful for this as we needed a reality check at this point to remind us that this process isn't always going to be sweet and fluffy, we know we are going to go through some really hard times ahead.  It was tough saying good bye again and we already miss him so much.  But we know the next time we see Charlie will be custody day and he will FINALLY be in our arms forever.