Travel Call

2014 is going out with a bang because this morning we received our travel call!! Our court date was December 12, we got PA (preliminary approval) December 26. Our agency schedules our visa interview before we have final approval (FA) since it is always the same amount of time from PA to FA. We have FA on January 12, which is when we get custody and then January 15 we have the Visa Interview. So this first paragraph is really for the timeline stalkers because unless you are deep in the process you won't care about it at all but when you are in process you want to know what happens when to the second. Other peoples blogs going through the process and SWS and In Process FB groups have really gotten me through this 2+ year wait!

We leave next Thursday and I could not be more excited! I honestly have nothing left to prepare really as his room is done, his closet is stocked and we even have snacks ready for the trip. And his suitcase already packed. Can you tell I have been waiting on this call for literally years!!

Our First Trip to Korea & Court Date

Let me first say I am so impressed by those of you who blogged throughout your trips to Korea, I loved reading them and I honestly don't know how you did it. When I had free time in the room I spent it sleeping!
Anyway Korea!! We left from our town early on the morning of Saturday, December 6 (and left ATL for ICN at noon that day) and we arrived in Korea the next evening. The flight was 15 hours long and they are 14 hours ahead. The flight wasn't too bad and Olivia didn't act up at all! Once we arrived we took a van cab (too much luggage for a normal one) to our hotel. We stayed at The Gand Intercontinental Parnas (which is connected to the Intercontinental Coex by the underground Coex mall which there is an elevetor to in our hotel). The mall just reopened and is great but not cheap. I said yes to buying a small stuffed animal (made in France) for Olivia before I realized it was $70us. There is a nice food court (think delicatessen not like a US mall food court) that had very good Korean and Western options.

DAY 1 in Korea

We woke up VERY early, around 4am. We decided to do something fun for Olivia so we took the subway to Pororo (pronounced Pololo) Park. There was one two stops away, on the very easy to navigate subway, at Lotte World. Olivia loved it though it is more suited to children 18 month to 3.5 years old. She is four. It has a massive ball pit, a play area, a small kiddy train, a bounce area, a cafe and a baby area just for very small toddlers/babies. It is a little pricey for what it is and the ticket only lets you in for two hours. It was worth it though for her to have a fun time!

DAY 2 in Korea

This was the day we had been waiting for, we got to meet our son! He is 17 months old, adorable and extremely attached to his foster mother. It is going to be such a tough transition for him! We are with SWS and the first visit is always at the foster mother's home. It is such an incredible opportunity to see exactly where and how your child is living. I am so glad we had this opportunity and wish that the trip was longer with more mandated visits since I think they will only help the child in their transition. He was shy at first but eventually opened up to us and especially my husband.

DAY 3 in Korea

Another early wake up! After we woke up we went to Coex Aquarium (conveniently located in the mall attached to our hotel. I was actually very surprised by how large and cool the aquarium was. But you may want to take my recommendation with a grain of salt as the aquarium in my town isn't that amazing.  After the aquarium Olivia and I took a nap and then we headed out to the Namdaemun markets. They were pretty neat, similar to outdoor markets in Hong Kong. It was so cold though so we didn't stay long. The picture above is of the market.

Day 4 in Korea

We had our second visit with Garum (pronounced Callum which I wish we would have known before choosing his English first name). Today the visit was in the SWS playroom. Garum seemed to like me less but still liked my husband. Before the visit we got to see the SWS baby reception center, where the children live before they are found foster homes. It was sweet and sad to see the children there.

Day 5 in Korea

Court date! This was the day I had been dreading. We had the Friday female judge, Judge Kim. We had heard horror stories but she was nice and kind to us. She asked some fairly tough questions but it was quick and relatively painless. My daughter behaved and that is what I was most worried about. After court we went out to a nice lunch with three other couples who were at court with us and who we had been chatting to on Facebook for months. It was really nice to meet them all in person and hang out with people going through exactly what we are. After lunch we crashed out at the hotel. I got food poisoning and was ill that night/the next morning. We flew home the next day and since I was up all night the night before I slept most of the flight home.

I am happy to be home but would be even happier to get a call telling me to get back on a plane tomorrow to pick up my son!

One Week Till Korea

Only one week left till we leave for Korea!! I am so excited and feel pretty ready. Everything is booked, days are planned and we are ready to go. Grayson's room is nearly ready, all that is left is to hang the pictures on the wall. My husband put together a cool train table that I hope he will like, though he will probably be a little young for it when he gets here.
I am a little worried about the court date and our judge as she apparently audits a lot of cases and sometimes requests more information and even more psychological testing. I am hoping we are approved quickly and get back to Korea a month after our first trip. Also nervous about my four year old and a 15 hour flight, at least she is a pretty seasoned flyer.
On another note I am pretty proud of myself for getting the Christmas tree up and decorated today. We usually don't decorate this early but with a trip to Korea in early/mid december I did not want to leave it till we got home. Here is a picture of our tree and Grayson's room.

Court Date!!!

We are going to Korea, it is happening folks!!!!!!!!! Yesterday I got the call that I had been waiting for. When I saw the caller id I knew it was it. Through my tears and shaking I was able to make out that we do in fact have a court date in Korea on December 12th!!! We meet our son Dec. 8th! I am so excited and there is a big weight off my shoulders of every day waking up wondering and waiting living in limbo. We have booked the flights and the hotel and are bringing our daughter too. I am so incredibly happy to meet our son this year and hopefully have him home in January!! Now to find some cold weather clothes for the trip...

Submitted to Court!

It has been over five weeks since our EP was approved and we learned today that we were (finally) submitted to court last week. This has been one of the longest waits because it felt like we were waiting for no reason, it was in our Korean agency's hands and due to them being understaffed are taking a long time with court submissions.
I am very happy to know that we are now submitted and that in the next few weeks it will be truly any day we could get a call. Now if I don't get notified of a court date in the next five or six weeks I will probably get a little crazy...and we were told by our agency it can take 4 months (worst case scenario). There are four Judges, each with very different time schedules and it is completely luck of the draw who you get assigned. One judge takes four months and one has assigned a date in as little as two weeks. Back to the waiting game, you would think I would get better at it but it just gets harder and harder.

Care package #3

Happy Choesuk everyone! We had a great weekend celebrating the Chinese Autumn Moon Festival. It falls the same time as Choesuk every year so from now on we will incorporate Choesuk traditions as well!

Today I am sending off our third and maybe final care package to our son in South Korea! I found lots of fun gifts for his foster family while in England and Paris this summer so I was glad to not have to send more random soap type stuff to them. I am so ready to not have to mail things to my son half way across the world, ready to have him home.

Last week we received updated pictures of him and even a video of him at his first birthday party. He is such a handsome fellow, I wish we could share the pictures but it is against the policy of the South Korean government. It was amazing to see how he has grown! Thankfully he was recognizable from his previous pictures.

Here are some photos of the things we sent in out care packages. We sent a gift to our social worker (teas and chocolates), chocolates and nuts for the SWS staff, gifts for the foster family and for our son. We even recorded a video of us introducing ourselves to our son (my four year old stole the show) and put it on a USB drive. Anyway here are the pics:

Working on my Korean

I have been working on learning Korean over the past few months but really only started a big effort yesterday. I had been using iPhone Apps, I have a few but so far most like this one: http://www.codegent.com/apps/mobile/learn/korean/. Well yesterday my Elementary Korean book came in the mail so I started in on the first chapter and 30 flashcards later I feel like I am making progress. I have come up with ridiculous ways of remembering words, but hey it works for me, here is an example:
Please / boo ta kam ni da. For the life of me I could not remember this consistently. Until I started thinking ok boo, like boo I scared you, Please don't scare me. Please = boo. And once I remember the boo the word comes to me. Ridiculous I know, a peek into my weird mind :)
When we get Grayson home he will probably be around 18 months so he will understand a lot of Korean (and no English) so I am trying to learn all that I can! My goal is to study Korean one hour a day/ five days a week. Not looking forward to lesson three which is the Korean written alphabet, Hangul.
One of the good things (the only?) about the very long wait is that it has given me time to really research Korean adoption and adoption in general. After reading the adult Korean adoptee blogs I feel like I will be a better adoptive parent. I have also researched and learned more about transracial adoption and Korea in general. If the adoption had only taken six months (as opposed to closing in on two years) I never would have had the time to all of this. So thanks for that Korean MOHW but I think we can get this show on the road now :)