Hello Everyone!
It's Sunday evening at 8 p.m. right now. We've had a busy day being tourists. This morning we went to Seoul Station and Lotte Mart and Pizza Hut and a palace (can't remember the name right now.)
Seoul Station is comparable to Grand Central Station. There are a lot of people there coming and going. We saw quite few S. Korean military men there.
Lotte Mart is like a Target/Walmart Super Center. We got to observe Koreans in their every day lives. It's 2 stories tall and has an escalator w/o stairs, more like a ramp so shopping carts can go up and down. It was pretty neat.
At the palace we witnessed the changing of the guards ceremony. We really are not sure about much of this, but enjoyed the sightseeing of it.
This evening we went to Seoul Tower. It is a major tourist attraction in Seoul. We went to the top of it and could see the whole city. Unfortunately, it's very over cast here but it was neat too! The tower is the 3rd tallest tower in the world.
Have you every tried Bulgogi Pizza at Pizza Hut? We didn't risk it, but it looked good. We're trying not to eat too much of the ethnic foods here. Some of them look really yummy, but we're afraid of getting sick and don't want to be sick when we bring a new baby home. We did try Bipbimbap on the airplane. It's okay, but we're not crazy about eating seaweed.
We're calling it a day now! Our legs are sore from walking so much today.
Anyway, we'll meet Dr. Kim Sr. and Jr. at 10 a.m. tomorrow. They are the founders of Eastern. Then at 11 a.m. we'll meet Emalee and her foster parents. We can't wait! After meeting Emalee we think we'll be having lunch at Eastern. We hear that there are several other staff members that we'll meet during lunch. If there's enough time after that we may rock the babies again.
We both thank you so much for all the prayers. Tomorrow will be another emotional day for us. It's been such a blessing to experience the people and culture of our daughter's birth country. We're so glad that we'll be able to answer some of the many questions that she may be asking some day. This is a beautiful country with a rich culture.
We love you all!
Brian and Heather
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
This Is Not Heather, but as close to her as you can get right now!
Hi everyone! This is Laura, Heathers sister. She is unable to post to this blog so she is emailing her posts to me and I am maintaining her blog while she is away. I will try to check my mail as much as possible and get her next blog up quickly. She is unable to reply to your comments right now, but if you wish to leave her comments please do so as I have set this up for her to receive them via email. I know she would love to hear from you all! As you can tell, they are doing well and having a good time. The best time will be when they get to hold Emalee and take her home!
More News From Korea!
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
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
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.
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