Busy doesn't even cover it!

Anyone reading my blog can probably tell I have been way too busy to blog about my trip. It's a jam packed schedule! I'm so far behind on blogging, everything is blending together and I can't seem to remember the order of events. Oh well, I will try my best...

I left off with Kora being sick. Luckily, getting a good night's sleep in the hotel room with a/c helped tremendously! I think it was just motion sickness, the six hour bus ride and walking and the humidity and then the car ride didn't help at all. Thank goodness it was just motion sickness and not what the others have had on this trip.

After our hotel stay, we were off to yet another city, Pusan. Along the way, we visited the temples. Very cool walking up the mountain and looking at the beautiful scenery. You do come out of it feeling more at peace. Once we arrived in Pusan, we were able to walk on the beach. I stayed clean and dry and took pictures of the kids running into the ocean. It's always great being able to see my kids go into the ocean where we are near water, but this time around, how cool was it that they were doing it in S. Korea!

Dinner was great sharing wonderful stories with great friends and new friends. We do laugh a lot in our group, which I love. This trip is so filled with emotions, you have to laugh in order to make it thru. With our group being so big, we are split into two buses so we are having a good time with giving bus #1 a hard time about being the #1 bus when we feel we our bus is #1. Anyway, guess you have to be here to know what it's like. It is a lot of fun.

After dinner, we strolled on the boardwalk with all the kids. We make quite the group when you count in all the kids, we had at least 15 walking with us. It was a very nice walk, but then it was off to bed for us as we had a very early morning the next day ahead of us.

Our second day in Pusan, Skip and I had decided to travel with Kora by ourselves to her birth city. We left at 8am for the 4 hour van ride to Gwangju, pronounced, Kwangju. Taylor and Erika stayed behind with the group to tour the huge fish market. We had a volunteer interpreter with us which is greatly appreciated by all of us on this trip when there is a language barrier. Our interpreter was very nice and spoke English very well. He was very talkative and interested in the United States. We invited him to come visit us and stay with us, hope he is able to do that someday.

We were late for our appointment due to the bad rush hour traffic just getting out of Pusan, but finally arrived at this building in Gwangju. Our driver and translator were not sure where exactly the building was, then Skip and I saw two little Korean ladies with umbrellas waving us into the parking lot. We were at the hospital where Kora was born. One lady was the social worker that helped our Kora's birth mother and the other lady works at the Holt branch office in Gwangju.

We were shown into the office of the current Chief doctor, though he wasn't the Chief doctor at the time Kora was born. So, onto the questions. Skip and I hoped we were ready, but we think we did well for the amount of information we were able to obtain at this time in Kora's life. It's amazing to me the little tid bits of information we take for granted about being born, but with having two birth children, I did know what to ask because we talk about it around the dinner table.

New information we found out, which I find so amazing:
~Kora was born at 10:33am. Now I know all three of my kids were AM babies!
~Kora was named by the social worker that was there with us. She was very proud of that and chose her name because it was a very popular name and named Kora that so she would feel like so many others out there and not feel alone.
~Kora was placed in a foster family 5 hours after being born. Then was placed with a foster family in Seoul July 9th.

We all went out to eat with the ladies then went to our next visit, the unwed mother's shelter that Kora's mother had stayed in. The new information we found out:
~Gwangju is Kora's mother's hometown.
~Kora's mother came into the shelter two months prior to giving birth.
~We met the Director of the shelter and she was the Director when Kora's mother was there and she told us Kora looks like her mother.
~Kora's mother had a normal pregnancy and remained healthy.
~Kora's mother stayed in the shelter for one month after giving birth to Kora.

I am so happy to have this information. It is like finding missing puzzle pieces and being able to complete a little portion of the puzzle. And it amazes me that I am just so thrilled at even the littlest bit of information that may seem so mundane to others. I guess I look at my own past and see that there is no information for me and so I am happy to have this information for Kora. When Kora turns 18 and she wishes to continue with her birth search, she can do it and have this information with her. As her parents, we cannot read her file without Kora's permission when she is 18. I would never read her file anyway regardless of the rules as this is her life and her story and she has the right to do what she wants and when she wants. I wish her well and I do pray that someday, Kora will search for her birth family and that the meeting will be successful for both sides.

After we felt we asked all the questions we could, I asked if any of the mothers that were currently staying there would like to meet me as an adult adoptee and Kora as a younger adoptee. This was not planned so I wasn't sure if any mothers would agree to come see us. Surprisingly, five mothers did come in. Since it was so last minute, they couldn't think of any questions to ask us so I told them that the most popular question I am always asked as an adoptee is if I am and was happy growing up where I did. Of course I was and still am. I also told them that at my age now, I still think about my birth mother and I will be doing my own search to be able to thank my mother for giving me the gift of life and to allow her a sense of peace for the choice she made.

I thought all and all, the meeting went well and the Director gave Kora some gifts that some of the mothers had made while staying there. Kora loved the gifts even though she didn't say much during the visit. I don't blame her, I'm not sure I would fully understand the magnitude of the visit. I know she will appreciate more when she is older.

It was time for us to leave and both ladies gave Kora a hug and Kora then gave the Director of the shelter a hug. Then the social worker hugged Kora again and kept hugging her and began to cry. Of course I got tears in my eyes seeing this exchange. I could feel the love the social worker had for Kora and how it must have felt to see her at age 11 after seeing her only as a newborn. We have some amazing people working for our children that still need a family of their own.

So the total time we were in Gwangju was 2 hours and 15 minutes. So the drive back should get us to Pusan around 6pm...or so we thought. Traffic jam due to a car accident, then we faced the rush hour traffic entering Pusan and it took us 5 1/2 hours to get back to our hotel. Yikes! Thank goodness Kora had a seat to herself in the van so she didn't get carsick this time, she was able to lay down the entire time.

What an emotionally draining day for such a short visit. The long travel was so worth it for me and so happy we made the decision to go. I feel blessed to have all this tid bit of information on Kora. And my story continues also. I found out today I will be doing a tv interview tomorrow for my birth search. Nothing like doing things on a whim! So, that will be my next blog, but I think I need to also catch up on the days I missed along the way. Until then, good night with blessings, hugs, and prayers to all.