Our second day of Emersyn!

Oh my goofy kids at home!  I can't wait to see them this weekend!  I miss them so much!

Another fun filled day in Seoul!

It started with little bundle sleeping in!  She was tired!  Slept till after 9am!  She sleeps exactly like I did as a baby!  Little hiney up in the air!  Yesterday at our meeting while we were waiting for her pre-flight checkup, a bunch of the foster moms watched us interact together and told DJ that Hui-a and I look a lot alike!  It is very true...I have a lot of baby pictures that resemble Em!  

She woke up, looked right at me and gave me a big smile, then jumped right out of bed and got busy playing again!

After getting to Skype with family, we had the chance to meet another adoptive mom who is living here with her daughter until all the proper paperwork is completed and she gets her official travel call.  They are both so sweet and staying in the same hotel, and we may try and hang out again on Friday before we leave this weekend. :)  Emersyn did okay there, got a little territorial with toys and then started getting restless because she was hungry.  She doesn't really cry, rather she grunts and yells 'baaaaah', which I guess is baby slang for let's go in Korean!

So we decided to head out to Namdaemun, my favorite!  I never tire of the sights and sounds of Korea.

Got lots of shopping done and Hui-a was a trooper riding on my back in the Ergo and even took a long nap while walked around.

Was tempted to go check the prices in this Canon shop!

After a delicious lunch at a small restaurant (Em ate like a champ and even though her FM said she didn't eat meat, she seems to be eating quite a bit of it with us!  When she was done and waiting on us to finish, she flirted with the man sitting behind us!) and several hours of walking and shopping, including new glasses for both my brother and I, we headed back to Insadong to pick up our finished name chops.  They turned out beautiful!  And of course, they can tell when you've just adopted and throw in the ink free of charge.  My brother wasn't so lucky, they made him pay! lol!

We then made our way back to our hotel.

She has to push the buttons when we get in and out of the elevator and then she runs inside and holds onto the bars for dear life!

Spotted a little taste of home outside our hotel!

We decided to take Emersyn on a little walk to burn off some energy, and boy did she ever!  I can barely keep up with this girl, especially with my camera in hand!

She stepped in THE only puddle in the entire area with BOTH feet so we had to head back to change her socks and shoes before going to eat.

We ate a little place right by our hotel and had delicious triangle kimbap (the only way I know how to describe it!) and some noodle bowls.  Em devoured the one with spam that we ordered her!

Came back up and let her play, splashed and thrashed (literally!) in the bath again, and then walked her around the dark hotel room on my back in the Ergo just like last night and now she is once again sleeping next to me as I blog. :)  

She is definitely showing a little more resistance with me today, throwing a bit of a fit when we had to go back inside after our walk...she also decided to pinch my cheeks as hard as she could during a cab ride and actually cut open my face!  I don't think she did it on purpose, but I can tell she's pushing the limits a little more today!  Butt overall she continues to still be doing very, very well!

Now off to bed for me as I'm exhausted yet again! (I've decided single parenthood is not meant for this crazy toddler!)  Headed back to Holt in the morning to meet with Zoey's foster mother!

I just have to thank my brother for taking this trip with me.   We were very close before hand, but I so appreciate everything he does and how he respects the bonding with Em and I.  Though his jet lag is rampant (he barely sleeps at home either), he's been a trooper and has done great with just taking the back seat and letting me order him around and carry my bags! LOL!  I know what a sacrifice it was to buy his plane ticket and leave his family for a week, so just wanted to thank him for being part of this journey with me. :)

Good night from South Korea to all!

Today was the day!

Sleeping beauty rests next to me as I type!  Little bit of crying at bedtime but nothing a little walk around the dark suite in the Ergo didn't cure...she's fighting a little illness which is making her snore away in our bed!  I'm not even sure she would have cried had it not been for her pulling the door over her tiny toes as she attempted to escape from our room to go play. 

I am amazed.  She has done remarkably well and I'm not sure I could have asked for anything better.  I expected the worst and hoped for the best, and today I got even better.  

I just so happened to spot her and her foster mother on their way to Holt as my brother and I sat at Tous Le Jours Bakery killing time before our meeting.  He ran out and snapped this pic from afar (she walks fast, lol!) and that's when reality hit me.  There went my newest daughter and I was about to meet and hold her and take her home with me!  (That's them under the umbrella lol! Ignore the guy in the bottom of the pic who thought my brother was crazy!)

When we walked into Holt and went up to the second floor, I recognized her right away as the busy toddler playing with a worker in the hallway.  She ran up to me as I bent down to greet her and her foster mother stepped around the corner and pointed me out as omma.  A huge smile came across her face and she started interacting with me right away!

DJ led us into the meeting room and Emersyn immediately got busy.  Climbing, running, pulling, playing non stop! This girl is crazy active!  I have never seen anything like it!  And she kept it up not only thru the entire meeting, but till the minute I put her into the carrier to rock her to sleep tonight!  

The foster mother seemed very engaging, eager to answer all my questions and just very comfortable with the whole meeting!  I even asked DJ if this is how Emersyn normally is when she comes into Holt and she told me that she seemed to be extra outgoing and excited today!  She asked the foster mother why that was and she said that she told Hui-a she would be meeting her omma and sahm-chon today and to be extra nice and friendly at our meeting to which Hui-a responded with a big ole head nod!

The meeting went wonderfully.  I learned a lot about my little girl and when we headed down to get her pre-flight checkup with the dr, she was the life of the party!  Asking the workers to put her in the exersaucers that were clearly too small for her, dropping her candy wrappers on the floor as she stuffed them two at a time into her mouth and only sitting still long enough to have the dr check her out one last time!

She's been a little under the weather, so they sent us with meds but she should be cleared up by the time we board our flight home this weekend...

DJ and her foster mother walked us out after we had everything we needed and both said goodbye at the cab.  I got in first and her foster mother then handed Emersyn to me and told her goodbye.  She stood, very strong and waved as we drove away and Hui-a waved back and mumbled a goodbye in Korean.  Thankfully, I held it together and didn't go into the ugly cry, but words will never be able to express my appreciation and love for this wonderful woman who has taken care of and loved my child this last year.  I am and will always be, so grateful, as well as to her first foster mother.

The cab ride back to the hotel was surreal...never shed a tear.  Somehow seemed to actually understand what was going on.  She rolled the window up and down, dug thru my purse for snacks and toys and we played a game of ga-ku as she took turns holding my hands over her eyes, then mine.

She ran all the way to the elevator, then jumped up and down as it climbed the floors, and sprinted to our door to check out what was inside.  For the next several hours, she tore.it.up.  No other way to describe it!  She got into everything, climbed everything and ate everything.  I would like to have a quarter of her energy!  Don't let these mellow pics fool you!  I took about a million to get one where she wasn't on the go!

She got hot and asked me to take off her sweater and then later, after she used the bathroom, (she's about half way potty trained, not fully, but incredibly good at signaling when she needs to go!) I kept her pants off and then after she spilled something on her other shirt and I took that off, she thought it was bath time and proceeded to take her pull up off! too  So off to the tub we went, which is also an event I can't describe!!  She thrashed and splashed and hammed it up!

She ate and ate and ate...and ate!  See the toasted seaweed all over her face? 

And the fist full of puffs she stuffed in her mouth?!?

Needless to say, I am exhausted!  I have never met a more active little 20 month old ever in my life!  It is insane!!  Her foster mother said she sleeps well thru the night, so I tried to just lay down with her but she proceeded to get up and head straight for the door!  That's when she stubbed her little toes and let out a little cry, but was asleep in no time as I carried her around on my back and then laid her down in our bed, where she is now sound asleep. :)

She has allowed me to kiss and hug her, tickle her and hold her, and she enjoyed having a few Skype sessions with her daddy and sister!  She is very interested in my brother as I believe it to be the first white person she has ever seen up close and will walk by and rub his leg and arm hair and stare at his bald head! LOL!  She is just a delight and I cannot wait to bring her home to the rest of her family waiting...she is a perfect fit!

I must say this entire trip so far has continued to be surreal for me.  I feel as though this little girl has always been mine.  There was a time when my husband and I thought twice about adopting a toddler...and many times this long wait took it's toll on us...but this is that moment when it all melts away and nothing else matters but having your child in your arms.   

I feel incredibly blessed to be so lucky as to have three of the best children in the world call me mommy!  I can't wait to have them all under one roof. :)

Now off to sleep, if today was any indicator of how the next three days will go, then I better get all the rest I can!

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers...clearly they are working!

We have arrived!

Just a quick update to let everyone know we (my brother and I) made it!  That flight was a doozy for the both of us.  We were ready to get off at about hour 8!  We were lucky enough, after originally being assigned seats that weren't next to each other, to get window seats with one empty in between us!  Uneventful, everything on time, cleaned our bowls of bi bim bap and made it safe and sound to the DMCville!  Showered and changed and just ran up to the restaurant that is here in the hotel and had a quick meal of japchae and spring rolls.  Back at the hotel room now and feeling the affects of jet lag for sure!  Hoping to get in good nights rest as tomorrow is already the day to pick up Emersyn!

It hasn't seemed to really hit me yet that I am back here in Seoul!  Maybe the jet lag is doing that?!?!  But I can assure you how much I love this city and am so happy to be back.  Both my girls were born in the same month two years apart and here I am back in Seoul almost exactly three years later in the city I was born to pick up my youngest...

Missing my kiddos and husband at home, but knowing this week will fly by and we'll all be reunited as a family of 5 soon!


Before I left, I made signs for Braedan and Zoey to count down when Emersyn and I would be home.  Danny promised to take their picture in front of it everyday so I could 'see' them every day I was gone!  He emailed this one to me while I was in the air from yesterday!

Danny asked the kids what they wanted to tell mommy... 

Braedan: 6 MORE NIGHTS!!! We miss u! 

Zoey: Hurry up mommy and Dafe! 

(Zoey's way of pronouncing my brother's name Dave!)

More tomorrow as it's the big day!!

We ask for prayers for Emersyn and her foster family as things are about to change for both them in a huge way...she has been with them a year now and this will surely be a hard goodbye..

But for now, good night from Seoul, South Korea!

Leaving on a jet plane!!

Well, on Sunday anyway. :)

Tickets are purchased, hotel is booked, bags are getting packed and my to do list keeps growing!

But, I will have my baby girl in my arms in just a matter of days!  It is still hard to believe!  We have been scheduled for an early pickup because Holt is closed mid week, but we certainly do not mind that. :)

We (my brother and I) were fortunate enough to get the hotel of our choice that even offers a great discount for the two room suite, so we'll have plenty of space to stretch out and have home-like amenities...

I'm just not sure it's really sunk in yet!

Back to Seoul...back to Holt...get to meet with one of Zoey's foster mothers again...get to hug and kiss on Emersyn!!

Still so surreal after all this time!

If you feel so inclined, we would appreciate prayer!  Prayer for health and safety and uneventful travel.  Prayer for sweet Emersyn who is about to encounter the biggest change of her life.  Prayer for her dear foster family who has cared for her for a year now.  Prayers for the staff who are working tirelessly to get babies home.  And continued prayers for all the families still waiting...

This is finally it!  

TRAVEL CALL!

Wow!  I woke up this morning feeling a little discouraged as once again, I made the call to the DC center to find out if Emersyn had been scheduled for her visa interview or even made her embassy appearance, and a nice lady named Cookie, gave me a big, fat NO!

I had changed the ringtone on my phone for when Holt called 'just in case', which I still thought was a looooong ways off, and as I was driving out of the Walmart parking lot, my phone rang (at 12:31pm to be exact!) with that new ring tone and the caller ID read 'HOLT'.  I literally said out loud to myself, 'What?!?!?'  I picked up the phone and answered as though them calling me must be a mistake!!  Sweet Katy at Holt simply said, 'Just calling to let you know that Emersyn is ready to come home! This is your travel call!'  I literally screamed, 'WHAT?!?!' as I could NOT believe it!  I really wasn't expecting anyone to get TC till at least next week, with the possibility of maybe a few by the end of the this week!  But certainly didn't think it would happen like this!  So many aspects of this process have been so unpredictable, that the way this travel call happened just seems fitting. :)

We are feeling beyond blessed and very grateful.  She will begin her 21st month of life here at home with her family!

I continue to think of and pray for those still in process with these long waits...while we have waited 11 months since referral, we know there are so many others who have not only waited longer, but continue to wait for an undetermined amount of time...our thoughts and prayers go out to these families and we hope to see lots of babies united with their families soon...and I will certainly be on the lookout for any cuties I may run into while at Holt!

Emersyn, we're coming!!

11 months ago!

We saw this sweet face!  Oh I dream of kissing those squishy cheeks soon!

She will be 21 months old this month and we hope we'll be spending that day with her in our arms!

First game of the year.

Baseball season has officially begun at our house!

And while I should be saying something macho or baseball related...I'm just gonna say, how cute is this kid in his uniform?!?!

He did a great job, especially considering this is his first year of coach pitch and while he's only in 1st grade, the majority of his team is made up of 2nd and 3rd graders!

What I love the most about him is while he didn't get a hit tonight, he didn't care.  He just kept on going and was still jumping for joy for everyone else's hits, every RBI and every good play. :)

Just love him to death!  He is great kid and big brother already, and I know he'll be just as awesome with Emersyn!  Let's hope this is the last game without her there to cheer him on!