Last Day in Seoul and next day Traveling Home

I am currently on my flight home and can’t seem to remember where I left off, so will do my best to get everything caught up. Ok, so a movie started will come back when it’s done. Rested my eyes for a bit, but really can’t fall asleep on planes…plus with this group, if you fall asleep, your picture will be taken with the teddy bear…they haven’t caught me yet! I will post all those that did get caught sleeping throughout our trip on a separate posting, it’s pretty funny.
Anyway, Friday’s events: In the morning, we went to the Holt office to honor the foster mother’s for their service, there were around 60 of them all ranging in service of 5 years of service to retiring. All of the those being honored were dressed in the traditional Korean dress, the hanbok (pronounced: HAN-BOKE). They were all very beautiful and so deserving of their commitment to being foster mothers to our children and to the children that still need families of their very own.
For those of you that are mothers, either by adoption or by birth, you know how you love your children with all your heart from day one, so do these foster mothers and yet, give the greatest sacrifice of all and let ‘their’ children go to their forever families after they have loved them for months, maybe longer. These foster mothers consider these children their very own and it was so apparent in the eyes and words of the foster mothers of the children of some of our gift team participants that were lucky enough to meet them in person. How wonderful and amazing for us as adoptive parents to be able to thank these angels in our lives that took such great care of our children and gave of their love to them, then had to let go. It truly breaks my heart, but I also know that these foster mothers are committed to these children.
What it is like for them to see the parents of the children they loved and cared for? What is it like to see the child growing up in pictures, smiling, laughing, playing, sleeping, and being loved by their forever families? I have experienced such a meeting of foster mother and child during my motherland tour and to be the actual fly on the wall, it was truly amazing. These foster mothers knew their child from looking into their eyes, they were very proud of them for how they had grown up. They went right back into the mothering mode and would feed them and give them advice and ask if they were happy. One foster mother was so grateful to see her foster son, she said, ‘He was my son, I loved him as my son and didn’t think I would ever see him again and now it feels like he has come home.’
What a sacrifice these women make baby after baby after baby. I hope Lori won’t mind me telling about her daughter’s foster mother, had fostered close to 70 children…imagine, her heart breaking 70 times seeing her child go. Each time she was so heartbroken, she had promised she wouldn’t do it again, yet she did. How can we ever thank these women? By loving our children with our whole heart like they did for us.
It was truly an amazing day to thank and honor these foster mothers, but words can never be enough, but as we look at our own children, we can see their love in our children’s eyes. How thankful I feel for Kora’s foster mother, she had THE toughest job in the world and now Kora is on the other side of the world in my heart and in my family…
After we shared lunch with the foster mothers, we were off to the palace tour. Even in the bitter cold, Paul is able to make the tour very interesting and so elaborate, he has a great wealth of Korean knowledge and history. But don’t tell Paul I just gave him a compliment! I don’t want to ruin my image of our relationship.
What a surprise to know that I was going to go into the offices of the Blue House, the residence of the President of Korea, to meet with two government officials. Not sure who, until I got there. I felt very important, yet intimidated as I was not prepared with what I was to actually do, I was only told of this meeting in the morning. David had arranged the meeting for Paul, Rose, Claire and myself. We introduced ourselves then I talked more about how I felt grateful for being adopted and having the chance at a great life. I also talked about being an adoptvie parent, as I had always wanted to give another little girl the same opportunity I had been given. Being involved in Holt was my way of giving back. To go from being an orphan to being on the Board of Directors for Holt International, that would have never occurred to me, but the opportunity would have never happened if I had not been adopted. I also talked about the five month waiting period and how important it is for babies to go to their forever families as soon as possible. We also need to work on getting older children to their forever families so that they may grow and seek out their potential.
Short meeting, but still pretty important, and I felt very privileged to have been included. The rest of the group met us outside of the Blue House in the bus. This has been my third time at the Blue House and each time has been different.
Now it was time to do the really important stuff, go shopping! We went to the Insadong market, the more artsy kind of market in Korea. We had a lot of artistic people in our group, so everyone enjoyed shopping there and could have used more time, but here’s another excuse for another trip back!
We never wasted time on this trip, after shopping, we had to change for dinner. Couldn’t believe this was our final night in Korea. When I look at the schedule and have been on this same trip two other times, it still amazes me how time flies. Dinner was at the Korea House. I sat next to Molly Holt. It is always such a privilege for me to be able to hear her stories. She is an incredible person. She told us that the girl in her house I had mentioned earlier, the one that lost the will to live, she had been chewing on her hands to the point that they were raw. Molly had been making sure everytime she was going to chew her hands, she would put a piece of food in her hand to put in her mouth. Molly said this was working and she was starting to learn not to chew on her hand. Amazing what a little bit of love and attention will do for a person.

After dinner, we attended a performance of traditinal Korean dance and music. It was wonderful...as long as you stayed awake, as I looked to my left and to my right, everyone in my row, except for myself, was asleep. If only I had my camera!

Saturday, leaving Seoul: I actually slept in until 7:30! Packed, met a friend of my mom's for breakfast, isn't it a small world after all? The friend of my mom's, she had coordinated this man's son's wedding in Phoenix, thus, met him in Phoenix.

After breakfast, time to powershop, literally! Took people to the two vendors I know in Itaewon. Both vendors were not there when I first got there, then both arrived before I left and both were very happy to see me. I was literally running down the street to get to hotel to pack the gifts. I get to my room, ring the doorbell for my mom to open the door, no answer, ring it again, panic...ask the housekeeping staff to open the door for me, she is shaking her head no, I tell her it is my room and I don't have the key. Finally I think she understands me and opens the door just as my mom does...I rang the doorbell!! My mom thought it was the telephone...!!

Remember how the Omaha contingency had problems traveling TO Korea and had to go to SFO the night before due to flights being cancelled left and right? Well, here goes the adventure again: Seoul to SFO, no problems, smooth flight and 'only' 9 1/2 hours. And now, the rest of the story: SFO, pull out of the gate, then go back to the gate, need to fix a seat back that will not go back to 'it's upright and locked position'...never heard that one before. Delayed departing from SFO. Land in Denver, BUT could not get close to the gate, as the captain announces that when he put on the brakes, the plane was skidding, therefore, he did not want to chance it getting closer to the gate in case he was not able to stop, so had to wait to get a tow in and wait and wait and wait...apparently, United in DENVER in DECEMBER, was not prepared for such an occasssion as having to tow in a plane, so needed to get chains for the tow truck, but needed to find the chains...we are now counting down the minutes to our next flight out...I receive an update from United now saying I am booked on the 7:10pm flight home...scramble time! Kevin finds out that our regular flight out is also delayed, so still have the possibility to catch it. Finally get towed into the gate, Kevin and Juliet run to the gate for our original gate, missed it by three minutes!!!

Lori and I are at the United Customer Servie counter waiting and waiting and waiting...Kevin and Juliet arrive at the end of the line and low and behold, they get help before Lori and I do?!! And they get the flight on Frontier that departs at 5:45. Lori and I are still trying our best, now talking to the lady that helped the Browns...no luck, we are stuck with the 7:10 flight, our lady will not budge. Kevin lets me know that there are plenty of seats on the 5:45 flight. Lori and I head to the Frontier terminal. Got to the gate talked to the agent, she sent us to the customer service counter, here it goes as I tell the agent the United ticket agent would not continue with contacting Frontier after she did not receive an answer the first time. All we had now were our boarding passes for our 7:10 flight and we needed the paper ticket or transfer ticket from United. Kevin showed his, the Frontier agent we were working with was absolutely wonderful so two minutes later, Lori and I had our tickets and boarded the plane for Omaha! In the meantime, I receive an update from United saying our 7:10 flight was now delayed until 8:30pm...we are all so thankful we were on this flight! This morning, I receive an update from United saying our flight arrival on our 7:10 flight will arrive in Omaha at 1:06AM...wow, were we lucky!!

It was so nice to be home, shower and eat the American food I always crave upon my return, Burger King! I know, I know, but I eat so healthy all week in Korea, it is what I crave when I get home, I can admit it, I am a junk food junky, but I just love food all together!!

This is my third Gift Team trip, I keep going because each trip, I get something new from it. I hope those that had the great opportunity to experience this with me; my mom, Kevin, Juliet, Lori, Rose, Debbie, Kelsey, Geri, Roopali, Sally, Adriana, Debra, Claire, and Gregory, you all had the experience of a lifetime and can truly appreciate your Holidays with new appreciation. I want to thank all of you, with my whole heart, for coming on this trip, sharing of yourself, sacrificing time with your own families, being so generous, and coming together as a 'family' to help Holt's family during this time of the year. I wish for all of you continued happiness within yourselves, with your families, and with the path in life you choose to take....now I need my sunglasses again. I love all of you, I will miss all of you, but you are now a part of my family and best of all, I can call all of you my friends, what a bonus from this trip! Thank you for giving me this wonderful gift of getting to know you.

Best Wishes to all of you for the BEST Holidays ever! With Love and Blessings overflowing,
~Kim

Once I get things organized, I will post pictures so make sure to check back and take a look! To our families that allowed us to go, thank you, for without you, we could not have done this. I hope from reading this blog, you were able to get a sense of what our mission was on this trip, it was very special and very heartfelt. I invite any of you interested in going on this trip or others like it through Holt, please ask, you are more than welcome to come along, we are all volunteers with very big hearts that go on these trips.

So on behalf of our Gift Team, THANK YOU to our families and friends for your love and support!