Good morning everybody! It's 9:25 p.m. here and we're getting ready to call it a day! We're really upset about the calling card. We've tried everything and just can't seem to get a call to go through. (Laura, you can put this on the blog if you want)
We managed to conquer Seoul's subway system today! What an adventure! We went to Namdaemun market today. This place was huge! It's a place that has a lot of shops on the street and vendors in the middle of the street. Brian and I are guessing that the market covers about 8-10 square city blocks like we have in Spfd. It's packed with people walking shoulder to shoulder. We got some souveneirs there and got Emalee a hanbok (traditional korean outfit) to wear for her 1 year old pics.
The people here are very, very nice to us. They all dress very nice too. We actually feel kind of scummy in our jeans and t-shirts. They all wear suits, dresses, slacks. Almost all the women wear heels...even with all the walking that they do here! We were on the subway when high schoolers got out of school. We noticed that they are very "in" to their clothes, shoes and ipods...just like our american teens.
When walking on the sidewalks people are very pushy, but other than that we have no complaints. In the stores they are very helpful and eager to please. We can tell that they have a lot of pride in their work. In the dept. store that we were at early today there were so many employees ready to assist us it was amazing! They literally stood waiting to apply customer service. A quality we don't get much in the U.S. anymore.
We met 2 Canadians today. One teaches english in a university here and his father was here visiting him. It was nice to speak to someone in English today. We also met a few of our service men here. They were helpful in giving us directions.
Well, off to bed for the night!
Love you all,
Heather and Brian
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
News from Korea
We made it to Korea! Our original flight to Chicago go cancelled so we were rerouted to Dallas and flew from there to Seoul. By the time we made it to Seoul we had been awake 24 hours straight. I think we each dozed on the jet maybe 1-2 hours each. It was so hard to sleep because we were so excited!
It's noon on Saturday here. We get to meet Emalee on Monday at 10 a.m. (Sunday at 8 p.m. Missouri time). Today we went to the adoption agency she's been cared through (Eastern Social Welfare Society). We each got to go to the baby nursery and hold and feed babies. Heather got to hold a girl and she looked a lot like Emalee's referral picture. It was a very emotional time! Brian got to hold a boy. Both babies were so sweet and couldn't have been much older than a couple weeks. There are about 25 babies in the nursery waiting for a home. Very heart breaking. The nursery workers remembered Emalee after we showed her picture to them.
We went to the Hyundai Dept. store awhile ago. It's very high dollar. We also found 7-11, Outback steak house, KFC, Pizza Hut, Dunkin' Donuts, etc. I don't think we'll starve. Everything around here smells like kimchi and isn't setting well with Heather's sense of smell.
Well, we're very tired. We'll write as much as we can. Thanks for the prayers!
Love,
Brian and Heather
It's noon on Saturday here. We get to meet Emalee on Monday at 10 a.m. (Sunday at 8 p.m. Missouri time). Today we went to the adoption agency she's been cared through (Eastern Social Welfare Society). We each got to go to the baby nursery and hold and feed babies. Heather got to hold a girl and she looked a lot like Emalee's referral picture. It was a very emotional time! Brian got to hold a boy. Both babies were so sweet and couldn't have been much older than a couple weeks. There are about 25 babies in the nursery waiting for a home. Very heart breaking. The nursery workers remembered Emalee after we showed her picture to them.
We went to the Hyundai Dept. store awhile ago. It's very high dollar. We also found 7-11, Outback steak house, KFC, Pizza Hut, Dunkin' Donuts, etc. I don't think we'll starve. Everything around here smells like kimchi and isn't setting well with Heather's sense of smell.
Well, we're very tired. We'll write as much as we can. Thanks for the prayers!
Love,
Brian and Heather
Hello from Seoul, Korea!!!
Hello Everybody! We made it here. It's 8:25 a.m. right now here in Seoul on Saturday. So, it's 6:25 p.m. on Friday for you. We had quite a long flight getting here. Our flight out of Spfd. was cancelled to Chicago so we were re-routed to Dallas. They wanted us to fly to Tokyo, then Seoul, but luckily we found a flight straight out of Dallas to Seoul. Our flight left Dallas at 1:00 p.m. and we got to Seoul at about 5:30 p.m. the following day. It was about a 14.5 hour flight.
We didn't make it to our hotel until almost 9 p.m. and just did find the computer room. Brian is trying to call the U.S. while I'm in here writing this.
There is so much to write about already. Seoul is a very, very big city. Our driver said that there are 11 million people in Seoul. It's a lot like NYC here. People drive like complete maniacs!!! We don't think there are many traffic laws/speed limits...if so, then no one follows the laws. The only thing we've observed about drivers is that they do yield to pedestrians!
We're getting ready to take the subway down to our adoption agency. We had the same flight as Tricia and Charlie M. I think I mentioned them before.
Anyway, we get to meet Emalee at 10 a.m. on Monday morning. It will probably be the only time we get to see her until we leave Tuesday. It's a neat feeling knowing that we're in the same city that she's in right now!
We miss David and Jacob! I'll email you guys very soon and as soon as we figure out our calling card we'll give you a phone call!
Take care and we'll write again soon!
Love,
Brian and Heather
We didn't make it to our hotel until almost 9 p.m. and just did find the computer room. Brian is trying to call the U.S. while I'm in here writing this.
There is so much to write about already. Seoul is a very, very big city. Our driver said that there are 11 million people in Seoul. It's a lot like NYC here. People drive like complete maniacs!!! We don't think there are many traffic laws/speed limits...if so, then no one follows the laws. The only thing we've observed about drivers is that they do yield to pedestrians!
We're getting ready to take the subway down to our adoption agency. We had the same flight as Tricia and Charlie M. I think I mentioned them before.
Anyway, we get to meet Emalee at 10 a.m. on Monday morning. It will probably be the only time we get to see her until we leave Tuesday. It's a neat feeling knowing that we're in the same city that she's in right now!
We miss David and Jacob! I'll email you guys very soon and as soon as we figure out our calling card we'll give you a phone call!
Take care and we'll write again soon!
Love,
Brian and Heather
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
BEAUTY FROM ASHES!
What a day! All the last minute things have been done! We're getting ready to order dinner from Applebee's and play a game of UNO with the boys. After that they want to take a bike ride. I'm not sure if that will happen! : ) We're really going to miss them while we're gone! We have two great sets of parents that will be keeping them for us and we're so grateful for it!
Tomorrow is March 22. Thirteen years ago on that day I miscarried our first baby. This year I'll be traveling to get one. God is a God of detail, isn't He? He makes beauty from ashes!
The next time we write we'll be in KOREA!
Tomorrow is March 22. Thirteen years ago on that day I miscarried our first baby. This year I'll be traveling to get one. God is a God of detail, isn't He? He makes beauty from ashes!
The next time we write we'll be in KOREA!
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
I'M LEAVIN' ON A JET PLANE!!!
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Our tickets are booked and as today's heading reads..."I'm leavin' on a jet plane!!!" We leave this Thursday 3/22 at 6:20 a.m. and we'll be back this coming Tuesday 3/27 at 4:48 p.m.
Today has been a day full of packing! I'm trying to fit everything into as few bags as possible. It's become quite a chore! I'm not having a problem with the checked luggage...it the carry on's that are difficult. There are so many items that we're taking that we just don't want to risk getting lost by checking them. I'm determined that everything WILL fit!
Another family through my adoption agency will arrive and leave Korea the same days that we are. I've been emailing back and forth with this cyber friend of mine for quite some time. We pretty much followed the same timeline and it was so nice to have someone to share it with. Now we'll get to meet in person. I think it's funny that we're going half way around the world to meet when she and I are only about 9 hours apart here in the U.S.
Our tickets are booked and as today's heading reads..."I'm leavin' on a jet plane!!!" We leave this Thursday 3/22 at 6:20 a.m. and we'll be back this coming Tuesday 3/27 at 4:48 p.m.
Today has been a day full of packing! I'm trying to fit everything into as few bags as possible. It's become quite a chore! I'm not having a problem with the checked luggage...it the carry on's that are difficult. There are so many items that we're taking that we just don't want to risk getting lost by checking them. I'm determined that everything WILL fit!
Another family through my adoption agency will arrive and leave Korea the same days that we are. I've been emailing back and forth with this cyber friend of mine for quite some time. We pretty much followed the same timeline and it was so nice to have someone to share it with. Now we'll get to meet in person. I think it's funny that we're going half way around the world to meet when she and I are only about 9 hours apart here in the U.S.
Monday, March 19, 2007
WE HAVE TRAVEL CLEARANCE!!!!!!!!!
The phone rang at 8:45 this morning with a call from my agency saying that we had travel clearance!!!!!! I'm so excited!!! We're working on booking our flights right now. We're hoping to fly out on Wed. or Thurs. and return next week on Mon. or Tues. I'll update when I know what's happening for sure! Have a great day everyone!!!
Someone asked what our adoption timeline looked like so I've listed the highlights. Within all of this there was fundraising, fingerprints, adoption classes, CPR, immigration approval, etc. I didn't think I'd list all of those.
Nov. 2004 Started praying about adopting
Feb. 26, 2005 Decided to take the plunge and start adoption procedures
Mar. 31 2005 Sent in first application to our agency
Aug. 22, 2005 Homestudy was approved/put on waiting for referral list
Dec. 20, 2006 Got our referral of Emalee
Mar. 19, 2007 Travel Clearance
Someone asked what our adoption timeline looked like so I've listed the highlights. Within all of this there was fundraising, fingerprints, adoption classes, CPR, immigration approval, etc. I didn't think I'd list all of those.
Nov. 2004 Started praying about adopting
Feb. 26, 2005 Decided to take the plunge and start adoption procedures
Mar. 31 2005 Sent in first application to our agency
Aug. 22, 2005 Homestudy was approved/put on waiting for referral list
Dec. 20, 2006 Got our referral of Emalee
Mar. 19, 2007 Travel Clearance
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Sunday, the day before Monday
The weekend is almost over. In the adoption world this is a good thing since the phone never rings on the weekend. It is Monday, 8:10 a.m. in Korea and I'm hoping that somebody over there is working on getting us a travel call for this week.
Although I would liked to have had my TC (travel call) this past week, it worked out well that I didn't. I attended a baby shower for a friend of mine today that is expecting triplets...all girls! I really didn't want to miss it and I'm glad I got to go. Also, Jacob has a concert tomorrow night and we'll be able to go to it. It will make him happy that we can go!
While I was at the baby shower Brian decided to clean out our tornado room in the basement. Since we've already had a tornado warning this spring he decided it would be a good thing to get done.
Well, I'm off to help David study for tomorrow's spelling test!
Although I would liked to have had my TC (travel call) this past week, it worked out well that I didn't. I attended a baby shower for a friend of mine today that is expecting triplets...all girls! I really didn't want to miss it and I'm glad I got to go. Also, Jacob has a concert tomorrow night and we'll be able to go to it. It will make him happy that we can go!
While I was at the baby shower Brian decided to clean out our tornado room in the basement. Since we've already had a tornado warning this spring he decided it would be a good thing to get done.
Well, I'm off to help David study for tomorrow's spelling test!
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