Our Christmas Letter to Everyone

A Very Beanie Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas to all!!!!  Let me introduce myself, my name is Bean.

I am five months old and a toy Pom.  You can also call me Beaner, Beano, Beanster, Sir Bean of Beanington, well you get the point!  I am the star of a daily pictorial on Facebook (should be called Dogbook!) so if you would like to follow me, you can find me under my mom, Kim Anderson Hanson and the theme is “The Daily Bean”.

I have a unique view of the world because I am 7 inches tall.  I live with this great family, the Hanson’s. My primary “owner” is a wonderful girl named Kora. She has pictures of this Justin Bieber kid on every wall!  She is so nice. Because of her I know how to sit, shake, switch paws, lie down and sometimes roll over.  I also get to pick her up from 8^th grade.  She is very busy after school and I don’t get to see her all the time because she is a competitive cheerleader for Elite Cheer. I know this because I like to chew all the workout clothes on her floor.  I also play with her friends when they come over and she has a lot of friends.  I feel special because Kora always wanted a dog and now she has one.  She spoils me.

Speaking of spoiled, there is this big guy who drives a red Camaro named Taylor.  Although his singing makes me bark, he is fun too.  I like to lie on him and chew rawhide bones.  He plays with me and does a funny dance every time his favorite football team scores.  I am an honorary member of the Three Muska-“schlumps”. A “schlump” is someone who spends all day Sunday watching football games in a snuggie!  Taylor is not lazy all the time.  In fact he works at a grocery store called Hy Vee.  Taylor is always talking about going to college next year after he graduates in May.  He is going to be a Husker!  I thought that was a dog, but it is the University of Nebraska-Lincoln mascot.  I guess his red car will fit in well down there!

I don’t like to ride in cars that much because I am so little, but I have taken 4 big car rides to Northwest Missouri State University.  My Family and I like to go visit Erika.  She is really pretty, and she loves to see me!  I can’t see her all the time because she is so busy at her college.  She is a super brainey student, a Student Instructor Supervisor, a Student Ambassador, and all this other stuff that is Greek to me.  She also is very busy with bunch of letters like the LSAT, wanting to go to another school in NYC, and wanting to work for the FBI.  She also really likes a guy named T-O-D-D.  I love playing with toys and all kinds of balls.  Todd likes to kick balls on Saturdays through two yellow sticks.  I can’t wait until Christmas because they will be home all the time and I will be allowed to go into Erika’s room!

I sleep in a room all my own in the basement.  Every morning, the biggest Hanson family member wakes me up, let’s me go potty and plays with me.  I watch him ride a bike that literally goes nowhere.  He leaves early in the morning with Taylor and Kora and comes back just in time for dinner.  I heard he goes to a place called West and he just celebrated his 20^th year there.  That is like 140 years to me!  Sometimes I hear him say that too!  I like to call him Papa bear.  He didn’t think he would want a dog again, but he really loves me.  I am pretty darn cute.  He plays with me a lot!  His singing bothers me, though and I let him know it!

Speaking of someone who plays with me all the time – mom, as Kora and Taylor, call her.  I really missed her because she spent the past two weeks in South Korea with the Holt Christmas Gift Team celebrating the 50^th year of the Ilsan Orphanage.  She really missed her family and especially me, but she had a great trip living her mission to find all children a family.  She has been so busy since I joined the family in August.  Not only did she potty train me, but she also supervised all these people working in the back yard.  I don’t know what they were doing, but now they are gone and it looks great back there.  Though I am considered an indoor dog, I love being outside and chewing on everything and making my family chase after me.  This white wet stuff that comes out of the sky is so cold, but I love it!!

I get to spend most days with “mama bear” as she keeps track of everyone, where they are going, how long they are gone and what they have to do next.  Right now, our house is full of lights and trees that I love to run around and play under!  This is a pretty fun place to be and I love it here.  If you are ever in Omaha, come and see me.  I’ve explored every inch of my house and there’s plenty of room for you.

It is going to be a great 2012, wishing all of you human family and friends many blessings!

With Love and Blessings from all of us! ~Skip, Kim, Erika, Taylor, Kora, and of course, Beaner!

Forgiving is Always the Hardest

It took me a long time to forgive others for certain things.  It took me until my adulthood to realize I have to forgive in order for me to live a life of true happiness and not wallow in the darkness of not forgiving.  Though one thing is true, I don't forget a thing.  I've become pretty good at forgiving now, it's the forgetting.  So is there a difference?  Can I truly forgive if I can't forget?  I feel like I can forgive without forgetting.  

There have been many things in my life, many life-changing things, that have happened in which I have had to forgive.  This time around, I'm really having to dig deep into my faith to forgive.  I think it's the deep hurt and disappointment, anger, and pure shock of it all that is making it hard for me this time.  This not only effects me, but so many others and is something that I hold dear to my heart.

I don't claim to be perfect and I have made my share of mistakes in life, so I will forgive, once again, but this will stay with me for awhile.

Does Anyone Really Care?

When my hubby and I first got married, we began the tradition of writing creative Christmas letters, very creative.  Which then set the standard for future letters...annual letters!  Then when kids came along, we decided we would take turns writing the letters, he'll take one year, I'll take the next, you get the idea.  We've been married almost 22 years and we are still writing our annual Christmas letters.  Taking turns?  Not so much.  There have been years when my hubby has been too busy and stressed to think, let alone, write the letter.  Then there's been years when it was his turn, I had a stupendous idea pop into my head so I took his year.

I have to admit, we have set the bar way high with these letters.  I am currently working on the address labels...notice I am stalling...it's taking me awhile to update the addresses and in the past, I have used a disk of some sort that had address label programs on them.  Well, I've had my Mac computer for over a year now and I'm still learning how to use it so I took on the task of merging my contacts from my yahoo account into my Apple address book.  Not as easy as the directions stated.  The thing that stumped me was when it stated: "Click on iSync"....uhhhhh, where was that option on my screen??  Couldn't find it for the life of me!  Until I looked up at the upper right of the screen and the icons sitting there, next to the bluetooth icon and so on, there is are two arrows going in a circle...could that be it?  I hovered the cursor over it, but nothing showed up to tell me what it was so I clicked anyway....that was the iSync icon!!!!!!!!  So why can't they use words to tell you where to click?  I don't know what all these symbols mean!  Anyway, the merge was complete, then onto the task of sorting for the annual Christmas labels.

I then figured out I can print the labels from this computer too from the address book after several times reading the "help" section.  So, after all of this work, is it worth it?  Do people really care what is going on in the lives of my family?  Do people take the time anymore to actually read Christmas letters?  I know I do.  I love catching up with everyone as sometimes this is the only form of staying connected I have with some people.  Though I do have to admit, when I see a letter that is in small font and more than two pages, I have to put it aside until I know I will have time to read it.  I don't want to just skim over these letters, I know all the hard work that goes into them!!

Okay, back to the labels....the count so far is 142, I'm sure more will be added, but at least I know how to do everything now from one computer!!!!!  Makes for one happy girl!

My Gotcha Day

How appropriate that on my Gotcha Day, December 1st, I was in Korea.  I meant to blog about it while I was in Korea, but got sidetracked and busy, besides the fact that I didn't have internet access in my room.  

Even though December 1st is my Gotcha Day, the day I actually arrived in the United States was September 2, 1971, so this is my 'real' Gotcha Day.  September 2nd is when I arrived into the United States directly from Korea to be adopted by my first family.  Oddly enough, the last name of my first family was 'Hansen'.  In my second family, I became an 'Anderson'.  I guess I was meant to be Scandinavian being a Hanson once again.  Funny how life works out.

I still send a Christmas card/letter to my first family just in case anyone ever wanted to stay in touch.  I've been doing this for five years now.  No response in return, but I never expected one either, just like I never expected an apology from the first mother for abusing me.  At least I know I have peace and forgiveness in my heart.

For Those Reading My Blog

I wasn't able to figure out how to post pictures from my trip from my iPad onto my blog, seriously, I tried everything and couldn't get them on here.  So, if you would like to see the pictures, you can see them on my Facebook page.  You can find me under Kim Anderson Hanson.  I know, no pictures on my blog makes for a very boring blog.  I apologize.

I am So Out of Sorts

I didn't think I would have that bad of jet lag as I usually do since I slept well the night before and I didn't nap all day yesterday.  I got a couple of hours of sleep last night, then I was wide awake.  Part of my lack of sleep was due to the sore throat and coughing.  That's what I get for being stuck in babyland on the plane!

Also, the memories of my week in Korea keep flooding back.  It was such a roller coaster week, a great week, but wow, the emotions were rolling!  I thought I was a pro at this since I have been on this trip five times now.  I should know better, I cry during a commercial!  This was also my ninth trip back to Korea, still a crier.  It's not only the places and children we see during this trip, but it's also the people within the group that make me cry, both happy tears and sad tears.  Every trip, I bond with the majority of the people on the team.  I really consider them a part of my family.  But this part of my family, I may never see again, but maybe a few.  At least I can keep in touch with them via social networks and annual Christmas letters.

It's always a process of decompressing from a trip like this.  I always think I can do it quickly, but I'm wrong.  I walk around my house not knowing what day or time it is and I miss being in the group.  I don't miss the hotels tho.  I love being home and in my own bed.  I just wish everyone lived closer to me or would be able to visit more often.  To everyone I have taken this trip with, I miss you and think of you often and thank you for sharing such a special trip with me!

Detox From Kimchee

I'm not sure what day it is after returning home from Korea.  I always have such a hard time keeping track of the time and day with jet lag.  I'm just glad to be home and got rest in my own bed.  If I would have been on my scheduled flight home, I would still be in the air via Minneapolis and arriving home in half an hour.  That would have been entirely way too long for me and I would have been a mess!  Thank goodness I was able to get on the early flight home yesterday and that I got such a nice ticket agent.  The cost was only $50, but it cost me $100 for my check in luggage.  I would have paid anything tho to get on the flight!

I'm not sure what day I left off of my day in Korea.  When I can't keep up on my blog in Korea, I tend to lose what day it is.  The last two days of the tour consists mainly of fun activities so it goes by quickly.  We had a great team this year, double the size of what since we were celebrating Holt Ilsan's 50th anniversary.  A lot of great people, great diversity.  I treasure these teams as I make life long friends from all across the country.

We didn't get to bring any babies home to the U.S. but after being stuck in 'baby land' in the airplane from Seoul to San Fran, I'm kinda glad I didn't have to worry about a baby too, tho it would have been nice to bring someone's baby home for Christmas.  I was very tired tho, didn't get much sleep the night before we left and tried to get sleep on the plane which is virtually impossible being stuck in economy, which I don't know how others who are taller than me can stand, at least I can move my legs around and squeeze my whole body onto the seat if I want to.

I will miss Korea, I always love going there.  I feel at home there even tho I don't speak Korean, I feel very comfortable there.  It's my home away from home.  I know I will return in two years.  Until then, I'll treasure my memories in my heart.

Another Sunglasses Day

Yesterday, we visited the unwed mother's shelter.  I was really looking forward to this visit, as we were going to do activities with the mothers that we have never done before.

After watching the video presentation of the facility, we all made bread together.  It was some sort of a sweet bread with a sweet chestnut filling inside.  The unwed mothers learn this vocation to possibly use in the outside world whether they have their child with them or not.  While the bread was baking, we toured the facility.  This was the first time our group was able to see some of the babies.  If the mother chooses to keep their baby, they are able to stay in the facility for a year to continue her education and/or vocational training all while still receiving medical care for herself and baby.

When the tour was over, we all ate the bread we had just made.  Then came time for the introductions of our team members and question and answer period with some of the unwed mothers. Once again, I thought I was safe not bringing my sunglasses with me, WRONG.  A couple of the mothers were crying, one mother had given her baby up for adoption three months ago and she was feeling emotionally terrible.  Once more conversation occurred, more of the mothers and us team members were crying.  

For some of the adoptees, with this being their first trip back to Korea, this day was very hard on them.  As an adoptee, I have always considered myself very lucky to have had the chance to be adopted.  The big fear of the mothers is that we are angry at them for the decision they had made.  I have never been angry at my birthmother, I know, as a mother, this was the hardest decision of her life.  But for us, it meant life or death.  For them, it meant a life of hardship, struggle, and heartache for the rest of their lives.  This was another tough time to have to leave, we all tried to comfort the mothers before we left.

There are two young kids in our group so the mothers really attached to them.  We were taking the bullet train back to Seoul and two of the mothers had met us there to give the two kids and a couple of the adoptees presents.  This was the mother that had relinquished her baby up for adoption three months ago.

Once we got back to Seoul, which only takes an hour on the bullet train from Daejon, we went shopping at Namdaemun market with a few of the team members.  We all took the subway, which was, once again, an adventure since one of the members has to walk on crutches.  In order to get down into the subway system, you have to walk down two sets of stairs, but THEN there is an elevator available to go down yet another floor to ride the subway, doesn't make sense!

After walking the market and it getting colder and we were all getting tired, we all decided to take taxi's back to the hotel.  I would have taken a taxi back no matter what, I was tired!  And we hadn't eaten dinner yet and it was 8:30.  We all decided we would try the chicken our tour leader had told us about and have it delivered.  No other places in the hotel were available to gather in , so we had the chicken delivered to my room, which came at 9:50pm, late dinner!  But we had a wonderful time together, sharing dinner and talking.  It was actually nice to just have this little intimate and quiet dinner together.  It was a great way to end such an emotional day.

Sunglasses, please

Today was the day our team went to the Jeonju Baby Home. We went tot the usual E- Mart to pick up snacks and treats for the kids. Then it was off to the toy store to buy extra fun things that all the kids will have to share. Each team member donated a certain amount of money that went towards specific presents for each of the kids. When I say presents, I really mean that each of the kids gets one gift, that's it for Christmas.

Prior to Santa and Mrs. Claus handing out the gifts, the kids put on performances they have been working on all year long just for this moment. They come out by age group and do their performance. They are truly precious and what a blessing it is for me to see these kids put every emotion into their routines. Even the  little boy on the sideline was adorable enjoying the performances.

As I watched the kids, I also watch the group. A few were crying so of course, I started crying. And NO sunglasses! They were on the bus, so no hiding it now. I didn't think I was going to get emotional this time since in the past, I hadn't gotten too emotional. But then again, I haven't been on this trip in two years. All the emotions came back as if this was my first time on this trip.

I told the other ladies that were crying that they needed to know that these kids were in a family, in this home and being loved and that this was better than them being on the streets. I know how tough it is to think of that when we think about how lucky we were to be adopted and have a family to call our own.  You can figure out that the other ladies crying were also adoptees like myself.  We saw ourselves in the eyes of these children, we truly are the lucky ones. But today, we needed to remember that we made their day by being there with them and playing with them, holding them, laughing with them, loving them...even for just those few hours, we made a difference and touched their lives.

I had a very relaxing morning today with a nice start to my day chatting with hubby via Facebook chat.  I was then able to relax, take care of the laundry I did, which I actually did correctly the night before.  It had taken me awhile to figure it out, but I was careful to match all the buttons from the directions to on the machine.  They turned out clean and I only had to dry them a little more in the morning.  

We had lunch with Holt's travel coordinator, he took us to a restaurant that served bimbibap, it was delish of course!  We then had a little time to do some shopping.  Julie wanted to go to Starbuck's to get the travel coordinator a coffee for treating us to lunch.  As we were standing in the line to order, Julie was looking at the mugs that were on the side by the line.  As she picked up a mug that she said she liked, the man behind me cut right in front of her.

We were both shocked to see this man do this!  It wasn't like the line was moving and we didn't move with the line, we were just waiting like everyone else.  So I said in a loud voice how rude that was.  Then I told Julie I was going to have payback and do the same thing to him and cut in front of him.  She said to tell her when I was going to do it so she could go upstairs and not be embarrassed.  She didn't think I would do it. 

Sure enough, the man decided to look at the sandwiches and I cut in front of him!  Julie was shocked and could not believe I had just done that!  She was  truly embarrassed and could barely get the nerve to come up and stand with me.  We had a good laugh over it as we continued to wait in the long line.  We continued to laugh as we left the store.  I told Julie that she can always expect an adventure when she's with me!

We all met back at the hotel to get on the bus so we could meet the rest of the Gift team members that were arriving today.  How fun!  We arrived at the airport, waited with the crowd of others waiting.  Finally everyone came out from getting their luggage and money exchanged.  There were 23 people in the group.

We all rode the bus back to the hotel, had a briefing of what was going to happen during the week, then we were all off to dinner as a group.  We had galbi rib soup, very hot!!  But it was good, something I hadn't had before.  If only I could figure out how to post my pics onto my blog from my iPad.  This whole tech thingy drives me crazy sometimes!  And now the hotel's internet has been down since early this evening so I didn't get a chance to chat with my hubby.  I had to turn on my phone once again and message him that I couldn't chat...ugh, hate turning on my phone and getting charged for international usage!!  Oh well, let's hope the internet is working in the morning.

Let the Gift Team tour begin!

The Adventure for Soup

After a day of watching a family of friends gather together for a reunion, it was time to decide again what we would eat for dinner.  We had decided on the  idea of having the special gin seng chicken soup.  So which restaurant do we go to?  The one at the Hamilton hotel that we've gone to before or ask the front desk of this hotel if they know of a restaurant closer to us that serves this special soup.  We got the name of the restaurant close to our hotel, but had decided on going to the Hamilton hotel, that way we could do a little shopping afterwards.

We took the subway to Itaewon and walked into the Hamilton hotel, felt like home to me walking in the lobby area.  After we made our way upstairs, we look to where the restaurant door was and it was all boarded up!  What??  There was a new restaurant across the hall so Julie asked if they served the soup, no they didn't.

Back downstairs to ask if that restaurant served the soup, no they didn't.  Julie asked the front desk if they knew of any restaurant in the area that served this soup.  The lady found a place down the street and around the bend and gave Julie the google map to it.  Off we went down the street of Itaewon and we kept walking and walking and walking.  Finally Julie stopped in a 7-11 store to ask about the directions.  She was told that we would have to go further down, go under the subway, then probably ask someone else for further directions.

We continued our walk in the street then we came to an area where we would have to climb the stairs and a lady was walking down so Julie asked her regarding where this place was according to the map.  The lady googled it on her phone and told us we had to go back the way we came and look for the museum, then take a right.

We retraced our steps, found the museum, looked for the alley to the right, after a few streets, we found the right street.  There it was finally!  We walk into the restaurant, no one is at the front, then a lady came out and started waving her hands in a fanning motion.  She told Julie that she was not open and did not make a lot of the meals because of the Holiday coming up, she didn't want the extra food.

Now where do we go to eat?  It had been 50 minutes of walking to find this place and she had no soup!  We decided on trying a restaurant across the street, walked in and the lady told us she was only serving the tour bus group.  Now what!!  I told Julie let's just take a taxi to the restaurant our hotel recommended from where we were and see if they have the soup.  We grabbed two taxis and got to the restaurant.  We had to laughed as Julie said what if this restaurant doesn't have the soup!

We walked to the area of the restaurant, sat down and sure enough, this was the right place and they had the chicken soup!  Think we were all giddy by then!  As we sat down, we were served small shots of alcohol, five little shots.  Zoe and Drew are not of drinking age, but it was there and should they drink it?  They both downed it and both hated it, especially Drew, and soon Drew was turning a bright shade of red due to the alcohol.  Darn Asians not having the enzyme to break down alcohol!  Zoe wasn't as bad, but all of a sudden she says she doesn't feel well, as in her stomach...must have been the alcohol so I told her to keep drinking her 7up and stop eating the red bean paste!

The three of us ladies needed to use the rest room so we ended up having to go outside the restaurant, up the street and there was a trailer that said 'toilet' and a man walked out of the women's bathroom.  We went inside anyway and the toilets were like those in rv's...um yeah, I HAD to go so I didn't have a choice...ugh!!

We all enjoyed the soup, we all felt it was totally worth all the walking we did and all the mis-steps in-between.  It was delicious!  So glad we found it and we now have the business card for the next time we have to have this soup!  Hopefully, they won't close down!!

Can't We All Just Get Along?!

The no access to internet via iPad is really getting old.  We had an easy morning at the Hilton so would have been nice to be on the computer with so much spare time after breakfast.  We had  until 1:00 until we would be taken to our other hotel for the rest of our stay.

When we arrived and checked into our rooms, we found out, once again, that there is no wireless internet connection in the rooms...ugh!  Frustrating!  But there was wireless available on the first and second floors.  Ok, at least that was something!  So after I lightly unpacked and got the lay of the room, I decided I would go to the first floor to use the internet.  

First I called my friend's room, no answer, twice.  I decided to go knock on her door, no answer.  I went to the first floor to get on the internet, things weren't syncing correctly so the person at the desk helped me get it on my iPad.  I had him call my friend's room too, no answer.  I began figuring out which chat feature to use, Google?  Facebook?  I couldn't figure out the Google one so I went on Facebook.  But now how was I going to get my hubby to get on too so we could chat?

I turned on my cell phone and  sent an email and an instant message then quickly turned it off, those darn data rates are adding up!  No reply, no show on Google chat or Facebook.  Frustrating!!

I then go back up to knock on my friend's door, still no answer!!  Where the heck was she?  I went back down to the first floor, got online and was desperate to get my hubby online, but HOW??  A friend from high school sent me a chat on Facebook and asked if I wanted her to call my hubby for me, she had done it before for another friend.  I had just tweeted to my oldest daughter to call her dad and have him get on Facebook chat.  Sure enough, she tweeted back and said she got a hold of him and was everything ok.  Yes everything was ok except for the part of not being able to get a hold of your dad!

Another tweet to my daughter to see if she had actually talked to her dad, yes she had,  he had been asleep.  And boom, I see him on Facebook chat...finally!  Well, he wasn't a happy camper, to say the least.  He always gives me a hard time about me getting my times and days mixed up, especially when I am somewhere internationally.  He asked me if I knew it was midnight his time, so what!!  Didn't he want to hear from me and know I was safe in my new hotel?  Geesch!  Yeah, yeah, it's not fun getting a call at midnight from your oldest daughter from college, but wow, what a great idea I had cuz it worked!

So now we were both mad, him because I woke him up and me because I felt disappointed that he wasn't too happy to chat with me.  How the heck else are we gonna be able to catch up when I am in Korea and don't want to spend a gazillion dollars paying for international data charges and roaming on my cell phone!!!

Soon my friend had come downstairs, she had forgotten what room I was in and was going to ask the front desk.  She had been on the second floor using the wireless internet since she, too has the iPad.  Come to figure out, we both would have been out of luck if we brought our laptops because we both own MacBook Air's and they don't have an ethernet connector.  So there, I was right about telling my friend not to bring her laptop.

I continued to chat with my hubby for a little bit, but I really needed to go so we could go shopping at the store I always go to when I am in Korea, but this time we had to take the subway to get there since we are staying at a different hotel.

We made it to Itaewon and immediately went to the vendor I know, sure enough, she remembered me!  And there it was, the gong my friend had wanted since she had seen mine I had gotten a few years ago.  Boy did I do some shopping too!  But don't get too excited, I bought the majority for the auction.  

I had quite the load to carry all the way on the subway and to the hotel, but my friend helped carry the gong.  We were all getting tired and hungry so back to the hotel to drop off everything.  And who do we run into on our way, but our beloved travel coordinator for Holt Korea!  What was he still doing here?  He was going to the hotel to welcome another one of our friends and her son that were arriving soon, how great!  We can all have dinner together! And so we did, it was so nice catching up.  Debbie is my Gift tour buddy, we have been going on this tour together for what, four years?  I think this is our fourth one together.

Dinner was great, as usual, heck it's Korean food!  Once we got back to the hotel, I was able to get online again.  It was about 6:25am Omaha time and there I see my hubby was online!  We chatted a bit and I chatted with my daughter before she went to school.  My hubby then had to go to work but got online to chat a little more.  See, we can get along!  It was awesome being able to catch up with him, he's such a great person, think he has a bigger heart than I do, seriously!  I love him dearly!!  

So Disconnected

I arrived safely to Seoul.  I turned on my phone as we landed.  A ton of emails began to load, but good thing I turned it on, there was a message from the Holt-Eugene office regarding those that traveled early Korea.  There would be Holt-Korea staff waiting to drive everyone to the hotel.  We hadn't been told this so I told Julie to look out for anyone holding a Holt sign.  Sure enough, there was a Holt staff waiting for us.  he recognized me from past trips.

The Holt staff said he would be taking us to the Somerset Palace, but we were set to stay at the Hilton since we were told we were not able to get rooms early at the Somerset.  He called Mr. Hwang and sure enough, Mr. Hwang said there were reservations for us at the Somerset.  Now what do we do?  We scrambled for ideas. I said let's stay at the Hilton one night then go onto the Somerset the next day since we were not able to cancel the reservations at the Hilton.  Then as we were riding in the van, I said maybe we could call the Hilton and tell them we missed our connection and didn't arrive in Seoul so we had to cancel our reservations.  Julie was going to call from the Holt staff's cell phone but didn't know if the hotel would know that she was calling from a Korean cell phone.

After some rush hour traffic and me watching the gas gage in the van go more and more into the red zone, we arrived at the Hilton.  We were able to cancel our next two nights and planned on going to the Somerset Palace the next day.  Time to check in and go to dinner then off to bed, I didn't sleep a wink in the plane and it was catching up with me.

No Korean restaurants in the Hilton, seriously, that's why we came to Korea, to eat Korean food!  Luckily, across the way from the hotel were a few restaurants to choose from.  Luckily Julie can read hangul and we found a restaurant.  

I only brought my iPad and I talked Julie into just bringing her iPad too and leave our computers at home.  Well, there is no wireless internet at the Hilton and there's no way to hook up our iPads.  Talk about feeling so disconnected from the world!  The only way to communicate to our families back home is via my blackberry.  Well, I hadn't planned on using the international data plan while I was here, but now I had no choice.  I emailed hubby and told him the situation, then tried the blackberry messenger, which is the instant messaging via blackberry to blackberry, it worked.  But that is also considered data so I am being charged for international data.  What other choice was there?  The internet access at the Hilton is around $10 for 30 minutes of use so either way, I am spending money, but it is very expensive to use the blackberry international data plan since my hubby called Verizon and asked what the cost was.  $20 to use 2mb of data, I had already used 1 mb since landing in Seoul.

Amazing how we are so dependent on internet access and instant communication, even from around the world.  I'm even at a loss not being able to connect to Facebook immediately.  Guess I'll have to wait until I get to my next hotel and pray I can connect wirelessly or I'm in trouble for ten days!

Just What I Needed

 

In the last few hours of my long flight, I decided to listen to the songs on my iPad.   I rarely use my iPad at home, so when I travel, it does come in handy for movies, games, and music.

As I search my music playlist, I look for my favorite, Todd Agnew's Christmas album.  I start up his songs and there it hits me, the feeling of Hope, the feeling of Love, the feeling of God showing me the reason why I am going to Korea in the first place.  I haven't been on the Gift Tour trip for the past two years and listening to the Christmas songs, I remembered the reason why I love this trip so much.  

I was once an orphan in Korea, for 4 1/2 years of my life, I was labeled an orphan.  Yes, I had the other kids and caretakers as my family, but there is nothing that takes the place of your very own family.  As I listen to the songs, tears come to my eyes as I remember my past Gift Tour trips and as we bring Christmas to our orphans, I can't help but see myself in the eyes of these children.  Some of the songs are slow songs but some of the songs are very upbeat, yet they all bring tears to my eyes as I think of the reason for the season of Christmas.  It's about giving, it's about opening your heart, it's about being grateful for whatever and wherever you are.  

I am now an adult, a wife, a mother....a daughter, with my very own family.  How blessed am I that I am living the life I am living now.  Things could have been so different for me, but God knew where I needed to be and where I belonged.  He knew I would look at my life as a gift and someday, be able to return to my homeland and give back to those that now fill the shoes that I used to wear as a child in Korea.  I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I didn't have dreams of a huge paying career, I didn't have dreams of being famous, but listening to the Christmas music, it hit me that what I dreamed of is what I am doing at this very moment in my life.  

No wonder I love this time of the year.  It does bring me back to feeling like the little kid waking up Christmas morning to the wonder of all that happened magically under the Christmas tree and how beautiful the snow was.  I now get to have this same great feeling on Christmas morning watching my own children filled with excitement over what has been magically placed under the tree.  I love feeling like a kid filled with wonder and excitement and complete gratefulness for the gift of Family.

Negative Nelly

Negative Nelly

Thought I would start off my trip with everything that was negative.  My day did start off slow-paced thanks to not having to catch an early morning flight.  I hung around the house with Beaner and finished packing.  

Good part of leaving was my house was being cleaned that day.  My hubby left work early to drive me to the airport.  I gave Beaner an extra loving squeeze.

My hubby isn't patient at the airport, he doesn't like to travel like I do.  I had two very large suitcases to check in and one to carry on.  Once we parked the car and went inside the airport and saw the line at the ticket counter, I told my hubby to leave and go back to work.  He said he would wait with me for a little bit....

There seemed to be two lines for some reason, we stood in the line that was the regular line.  Both lines weren't moving a bit.  Hubby kept looking at the ticket counter to see how many ticket agents were working and in his words, if they were even doing anything to help.

I kept telling hubby to go to work and that I could handle checking in by myself.  No, he'll stay just a little longer...okay...I was trying to figurine out if the line we were standing in was only for the Chicago passengers since O'Hare was having major travel problems, delays and cancellations.  Both lines continued to grow with more people coming.  

Finally it was my turn to go to the self check-in kiosk.  I never understood why we eve bother to check in online then have to check in at the kiosk at the ticket counter and still wait for a ticket agent, seems like nothing really speeds things along. 

I got checked in and waited to hear my name for my checked in luggage.  I have to be proud of myself again, as my one heavy suitcase weighed 49.5 pounds at home and weighed in at exactly 50 pounds at the airport scale.  My second suitcase was not even 40 pounds, but that was just full of the back belts for the house mothers at Ilsan.

As the ticket agent is putting the tags on my luggage, we notice that they are checked all the way thru to Seoul...what?  I am staying overnight in Eugene first!  I needed my one bag, so I ask if I can have the one checked to Eugene and the other one can be checked thru to Seoul.  The ticket agent went to another computer and started typing away, you know how that goes, they seem to type forever for something that seems so easy.  Anyway, she came back and had the one bag stopping in Eugene, thank goodness!  It's tough nowadays to pack toiletries and fit it all in 3 oz containers, who can do that?  Oh yeah, males can do that, lucky them!

So my hubby is STILL with me and goes up to security with me...shouldn't he be going to work by now?  What a sweetheart, but seriously, I have traveled by myself many times before!  As I am going thru the line at security, I look back to see that my hubby is yet again, STILL there!  He finally leaves when I go thru and I can't see him anymore.  He's truly a worrier.  I haven't traveled internationally for two years and he acts like it's been forever since I have traveled, but I was just out of town a month ago.  He just loves me that much, I'm a lucky girl.

Wow, this is really starting to be boring, but what else is there to do on a 13 hour flight?  I finished watching the Nanny Diaries with Julie and looked at my watch and we have only been in flight for three hours....seriously??  Gonna be a loooong flight!

Anyhoo...My flights from Omaha to Denver to Eugene went well and without anything bad happening.  The only issue I encountered was having no armrest abilities due to the person sitting next to me.  Oh, had that same thing this morning from Eugene to San Fran.  Why is it I always manage to sit by people that hog the armrest?

  I did manage to catch a bite to eat while in Denver, not my usual chips and salsa I always have when I am at DIA.  I tend to do that, have the exact thing everytime I am there, but this time I didn't have as much time as I usually do, which was fine with me.

I got into Eugene and there was my best friend, Julie picking  me up along with her hubby!  How sweet of them!  When I got to Julie's house, of course she fed me like the Korean mother she is!  She had made some wonderful soup and had some of her homemade kimchee for me, now that was the way to start my trip!  But the fun soon had to stop, I needed to get showered and to bed, 3:30 A.M. was going to come awfully quick!  By the time I got showered and repacked, it was already 11:30pm, so I probably got around 3 hours of sleep off and on.  I get so paranoid when I am sleeping and HAVE to wake up at a certain time.

Though we all left Julie's house later than we had planned, everything went smoothly at check in.  I did manage to see that my one suitcase stated it weighed 51.5 pounds, how did it manage to gain weight overnight?  I didn't add anything new to it!  I didn't get charged for it, thank goodness!

After arriving in SFO, Julie and I had a nice breakfast while Zoe waited at the gate with all of our luggage.  Julie and I always have fun when we are together, we truly are like sisters.

We managed to get all three of our seats together and got lucky that the fourth seat was never occupied so at least Zoe has room to lay down a little, which she has been doing since take off and when lunch was served, the fight attendant looked at her and asked her if she needed a doctor!  Too funny.  Of course, I have pictures to share too.

So now here I am, typing away on my ipad while everyone sleeps and it's 3:00pm pst.  Did I mention it was going to be a long flight?  Oh, to continue on the Negative Nelly track, three of my nails broke!  I had to cut down all my other nails because they looked odd with the broken nails.  And when my nails break, they break way down.  Now I feel like I can't function with such short nails.  Even typing is different since I usually type with my nails and not my fingertips.

Okay, will let go of the negativity and post a couple of fun pics.  I will try to blog as much as I can during this fast and busy week!  Hopefully the other entries won't be as boring as this one!