Seoul Tower and Namdaemun Market

Friday night I think I slept the best yet!  We were both still dealing with some jet lag and also recovering from the whirlwind of emotions this past week. Saturday we stayed around the apartment in the morning and decided to head out to visit Seoul Tower later in the afternoon.  We knew it would most likely be crowded as Seoul Tower is visited by many tourist and very popular at sunset to see all the lights surrounding Seoul.  We decided to take the cable car to the top instead of hiking since we were "recovering and relaxing" that is what we told ourselves.  It was still daylight once we made it up to Seoul Tower.  Below the observatory area there are gift shops, cafes, and restaturants. We decided to go ahead and grab dinner at the "Best Burger in Seoul".  It was pretty delicious and the restaurant had great views of the city.  We finished dinner and headed on up to the observatory packing into an elevator.  The observatory is amazing.  You can walk around the circular design and see all of Seoul.  You can't appreciate how large this city is until you see it from Seoul Tower.  The sun began to set as we took pictures and then we were able to see the city at night with all the beautiful lights.  It began to get really crowded so we headed back down.  At the bottom of the tower there are still amazing views.  There is an area designated for "locks of love".  Significant others come to this area and leave padlocks with written messages on the locks declaring their eternal love.  There are thousands and thousands of locks on display.  Brent and I did not end up bringing a padlock so we did not participate.  However, we did have some quite time just sitting together and taking in the views.  On our way back to our apartment we stopped in Namdaemun Market, one of Korea's largest and oldest markets.  We browsed around the streets that are filled with vendors selling food, clothing, and handmade goods.  You literally walk shoulder to shoulder with each other in market, people are out and about everywhere in this city!   We look forward to touring more of Seoul and learning as much as we can about Korea during our stay.

 

Court Appearance!

We met early in the morning at our agency with the other families and loaded up in two separate vans. It took about an hour to arrive at the Seoul Family Court.  We enjoyed the ride through the busy city of Seoul.  We also enjoyed this time getting to know other families.  Once we arrived at court it was very structured.  Our personal items were placed in a locker and we sat in a particular order of court appearance.  Sitting outside of the courtroom waiting you could just feel the anxiety amongst all the families.  Brent and I were the second family to appear before the judge.  We were ushered into the court room to our seats.  Before sitting we greeted the judge in Korean "anyong-haseo" and bowed.  We have been practicing our Korean greetings with each other for a while now and in some way I am sure it sounded somewhat southern :)  The first question was to Brent about the sports he played when he was younger, and about me playing softball. We discussed how softball could be considered harder to hit the ball due to the distance from the pitcher's mound to home plate is much shorter in softball versus baseball.  This gave us a since of relief!  Now we can both talk sports!  The second question was for me about my job and why I chose to work with older adults.  The third question was back to Brent why he chose engineering when he enjoyed history in school.  The fourth question was about Brent's job defining exactly what he does on a day to day basis.  The translation in Korean seems so difficult it makes for general conversation very difficult and awkward. So even though the questions themselves were very easy and straightforward the translation between the judge, translator, and Brent and I was difficult.  Brent explaining his job duties seemed to take forever and caused much confusion for the translator and the judge because what Brent was describing just did not translate well.  It's very similar to the difficulty we had in our meetings with Charlie's foster mom.  The last question was to us both he wanted to know how we are enjoying our new house.  After the previous confusion it was nice to end with such a casual question.  We responded we are enjoying having more space and a fenced back yard.  He wanted to know if it was an existing house or newly built house.  Brent explained it was an older house however we did some remodeling and updates.  He smiled and told us there were no concerns with our paperwork and he would be issuing preliminary approval Monday!! We were so relieved court was over!  We gave a thumbs up as we walked past the other waiting families outside the room.  After all the families had appeared we loaded back up into our vans and the agency dropped each one of us back to where we were staying.  Brent and I had a late lunch close to our apartment and just relaxed the rest of the evening as we were so thankful and relieved the whole court process was behind us! One step closer to having Charlie with us.  Oh the things we have gone through for this boy,  but totally worth each and every step!

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. 

Meeting Charlie HyeonWoo!

I woke up about every two hours and could not sleep. Between jet lag and the anxiety of meeting our son for the first time neither one of us slept very well.  We finally got out of the bed around 6 am and began getting ready and gathering all our gifts and children's care packages sent from other waiting families.  Our meeting was scheduled at 11:00 am and we ended up leaving two hours early! Which we are glad we did because even though we had our handy dandy wifi egg and phones it still took us a while to figure out which bus to take and which subway to use to get to our agency.  We arrived at the agency about an hour early and they have a little cafe in the bottom floor.  The cafe is staffed by single mom's who were able to keep their children and by working at the cafe allows them a source of income to be able to provide for themselves and their baby.  In Korea it is very difficult for single moms to keep their babies as culturally they are not given opportunities for jobs, many times their family turns against them, and even unable to continue with their education if they were in school.  There is also not much support of single moms from the government. It is absolutely heart breaking the choice these mom's have to make to give up their babies.  In my mind and heart this is the most selfless act possible to give your child life by birth but then give your child a future through adoption.  We will be forever grateful for Charlie's mom.  We do not know her exact circumstance but we do know she chose life her son and it was her hope to allow him to grow up to live a happy life with adoptive parents. We promise to fulfill her hope and have already loved this boy with our whole hearts since the day we saw his face 20 months ago.

I couldn't even really drink my coffee I was so nervous!  My hands were shaking as I would try to take a sip.  After attempting to drink our coffees we walked over to the office still about thirty minutes early  to let our agency know we were here and waiting in the lobby. We stood around for a few minutes and then I looked over to the door.  Bouncing up the steps outside came our son!! We walked through those double doors like he owned the place!!  The foster mom nor he saw us and turned left toward the office. Brent and I looked at each other in amazement!! A few seconds later one of the social workers walked the foster mom and Charlie over to us and said, "you can play here in the lobby, this is your son." I can still hear those words in my mind, "this is your son." Those were the sweetest words I have ever heard. Charlie starred at us for a few seconds and I really think he recognized us from our pictures, then he ran over to a power wheels car they had in the lobby. We greeted the foster mom who speaks absolutely no English, and of course we do not know any Korean.  So we held hands for a few seconds and I tried to thank her the best I could.  From this point on I felt like the world stood still and there was no one else there except the three of us.  Charlie needed help to get in the toy car so I reached down and picked him up!  Even though holding him for less than 1-2 seconds that moment was worth every second we have waited in this adoption process over the past three years.  He kept looking at us with occasional grins, we pushed him in the car, gave high fives, clapped, helped him buckle himself in the car.  He would interact with us but about every 5 mins would yell out for the foster mom "umma"to make sure she was close by, she would respond and he would keep playing.  This went on for about 20-30 mins and then we headed up stairs to a meeting room where we spent about an hour playing, tickling, giggling, and eating snacks.  I was also able to ask the foster mom with the help of social worker about Charlie, what he's eating, bed time routine, potty training etc.  In the mean time Brent was throwing Charlie up in the air with squeals of excitement.  At one point while I was attempting to talk with the foster mom, Charlie came over climbing on my back grunting and pointing to a light switch he wanted to turn on and off  :)  The communication was really difficult even with the social worker present due to the language barrier so the questions had to be short and simple.  I was so hoping to express our gratitude to the foster mom but it's just not possible.  At first I thought it was my southern accent that the social worker had difficulty understanding me but after talking to other families this seems to be just the way it its! We had some of the sweetest moments with our boy, I will always always cherish and remember these sweet first moments.  So many giggles and wiggles from this boy! Once the meeting was over we said our good byes until the next meeting scheduled for Thursday.  We watched as he bounced down the steps and turned and waved telling us bye.  We left the agency and just wondered through the streets of Seoul. We were just trying to process all that had just happened.  We finally just sat down on a bench, talked, and looked at pictures we had taken and then I just began to cry.  It was a happy cry, a cry of relief and gratefulness. I think all the moments leading up to meeting Charlie finally hit me at that moment.  We are so thankful for God's sovereignty in all of this.  It is absolutely amazing, we are so grateful to the Lord to be chosen as parents for this precious boy.

Travel Day!

We both agree even on this travel day it really hasn't hit us that we were traveling to Korea to meet Charlie.  Brent's parents picked us up early and drove us to the airport. We both seemed to have that feeling of nervousness to make sure you check in on time and make your connecting flight.  As we said our goodbyes to Brent's parents it seemed odd most likely the next time we would see them they would be grandparents again and we would be a family of three!! Everything went smoothly with our travel.  We made our flight to Atlanta on time and then to Korea on time as well.  Our flight from Atlanta to Korea was about 15 hours!!  I'm not going to lie it was rough!  Neither one of us seem to be able to rest or sleep well when flying.  I like to stay moving and even though we would get up and move around it was still rough, BUT we are SO thankful there is a way to fly across the world and have the opportunity to be in Korea and of course meet Charlie!  We would do it over and over again if we had to :)  Once landing in Korea immigration and customs went super smoothly and actually very quickly.  We exchanged some money, figured out which bus we needed to take to our apartment purchased bus tickets, and also rented a wifi router (called an egg).  Thank goodness for this little egg!  It was a life saver to be able to use our phones to figure out the subways and bus routes to get around the first day.  Again we are so thankful for modern technology, there is no way we would have been able to find our way around the first day in Korea. We made it safely to Korea and we cannot wait until we meet Charlie.  Tomorrow is the day we have dreamed about for years now!! 

Court date assigned!

We finally received news of our court date hearing, it has been scheduled on December 18th!!  We are required to travel to Korea and appear before a judge.  During this trip we will finally get to meet our son!!  We are awaiting final details on meetings, and looking to book our travel and accommodations soon.  Brent and I are hoping to be able to stay for a few weeks until we can bring Charlie home and to do one trip versus two.  The weeks and time between court and custody depend on the judge.  Some times the judge chooses to send cases to public posting depending on the information provided in our case.  If there is no public posting usually the time between court and custody is shorter and would allow us to stay in Korea. We will not know for sure if this is the case until after our court hearing.  Thank you all for your continued support and prayers!  We are going to Korea!!!

Showered with gifts, love, and relief

We were notified this week 9/21/2015 that we have been granted Charlie's emigration permission! We have been waiting 17 months to hear this news! Talk about a relief!  In the weeks and days before this we were literally hanging on by a thread mentally and emotionally, seriously a thread!  Four days later 9/25/2015 we were notified our paperwork had been submitted to court!  Now we wait to hear for one FINAL step of when our court date will be, this will be when we travel and get to meet our precious boy!  We are *hoping* for a court date at least by December but we shall see!

We continue to get settled in our new home and this has kept us very busy this summer with renovations and updating our home study once again.  We have Charlie's room all ready which again has been a fun project.

One week prior to home study!

Mad props to my husband he has worked so hard!

Day of home study!

No cabinet doors yet but we passed!

Charlie's room :)

My best friend Joy's mom Wanda, made this beautiful quilt for Charlie and gave it to us at his birthday party.  Very very special!

Earlier this month my co-workers hosted a surprise (dual) shower with another co-worker that was expecting her little sweet one at the end of this month.  It was a fun time shared with my wonderful co-workers who I appreciate and love so much! I was really surprised and felt very honored.  Our family also insisted on throwing us a shower this past week in preparation for Charlie coming home in the near future, it was a special time with our family and close friends.  Charlie has scored some awesome outfits, books, and toys. Thank you all so much, we continue to be so grateful for how much we have been loved on and how generous those in our lives have been to us.

Work shower with Ann

Charlie's shower hosted by our family

Thank you all so much! (Thanks to my sister Emily for the great pics)  We love you all!

Charlie continues to be doing very well, is now 29 lbs and 36 inches!  He ask for his blanket when ready for bed, falls asleep while talking to his foster mother (oh boy), and will share his food with others but not his toys (at all).  CANNOT wait to meet this boy!

We have been asked a lot about his name lately, how we decided on Charlie and about his given name.   Since Brent and I have been married we always wanted to name our child whether it was a boy or girl Charlie. The city Charleston, SC has a very special place in our hearts.  We were engaged and married in this wonderful, beautiful city that holds so many wonderful memories for us. Brent's agreement with the name Charles was contributed by his interest in Charles Spurgeon, a British preacher in the 1800's known as the "Prince of Preachers".  As you read about Charles Spurgeon you learn he was a pretty awesome man and actually founded an orphanage.  Charlie's birthmother gave him the name HyeonWoo which means wise and helpful, we want to honor her and him with the name she chose for her son.  So there you have it, Charles HyeonWoo.

Magnolia Plantation Charleston, SC

Battery Downtown Charleston where Brent proposed 1/4/2006