It Was a Sunglasses Day

I went to bed last night at a decent time, 10:00pm and slept thru til 3:15am so pretty good, but I couldn't go back to sleep so decided to get online and see if anyone was able to chat.  I got a few people, hubby was in a meeting, again!

I was then able to get maybe 45 minutes more of restless sleep, but that was better than nothing.  Showered and finally caught my hubby on chat, always nice to catch up with him on his day went and what the kiddos are up to.  Was also able to chat with another friend then off to breakfast.

I chatted with the families at breakfast to see how everyone was doing, always great to see everyone so enthusiastic about the day.  We all loaded the bus and guess who was the last on the bus?  Our tour leader so he had to sing a song...ha! ha!

Today we went to the Holt office.  After introductions and watching the information video, adoptees were able to read their files if they chose to do so.  Then some adoptees would be meeting their foster mothers...always my favorite thing to witness!

As the foster mothers trickled in, when the adoptee and families returned, they were greeted with the foster mother....sunglasses needed!  I made sure to take pictures for the families as they were not thinking about that as they were emotional meeting with their kids' foster parents.  I just can't describe the scene well enough to put into words...these foster mothers love and care for our babies until they are ready to go to their forever families and think they will never see that child again, but years later, they see them and they hug them and love them like they hadn't missed a day of their lives...many tears were shed and you can see the pride in the eyes of the foster mothers, they can't stop looking at 'their' child, grown up and right there in front of them.  And no, I didn't have my sunglasses on, I had to take pictures!  I tried to take pictures for every family so they would have this memory intact.

All the families, foster mothers, and Holt staff went out to lunch to a Korean BBQ restaurant, always great food!  It is always so fun watching the foster mothers feed their children.  The foster mother sitting with her child kept feeding her, then she would feed the mom and dad, always a laugh, but everyone was a good sport about it.  After lunch is always tough having to say goodbye to the foster mothers, they just don't want to let go again.  I had to push a little to get the families moving, I dislike being the bad person!

We all went to the reception center to see the babies and toddlers, always a favorite for everyone since they can hold the babies and play with them!  And yes, I have to be the bad person again and tell everyone to let go of the babies and it's time to go.  On our way out, one of the toddlers was being helped standing up and the caretaker said something to him and he looked at me and Esther and bowed, OMG, it was the cutest thing ever!!  I could have taken him home with me right then and there!

Now onto Ilsan.  Always love going to Ilsan, feels like home to me.  I also got to see two of my friend's daughters that are volunteering there, so great to see them!  Touring Ilsan, it was so great to have everyone learn about how Harry Holt started the organization, the story is pretty amazing, I'm so lucky to be a part of it.  As we were about to go up to see the grave site of Harry and Bertha, one of the adoptees didn't think she could make it up all the steps, but I told she had to try because she should really see it...on the bus afterwards, she told me how glad she was that she made it up the steps, it truly is something that everyone should see, you never know when you will be back...

Dinner was great, had bulgolgi with some others from the group.  Had a great time talking, drinking soju...I only drank a sip!  No way can I drink in public, right honey?!!

All in all, this is one of my favorite days of the tour, it's an emotional day, but it is a day of discovery for some, a day of sorrow, a day or remorse, a day to remember...I'm so blessed to be have been able to witness this day again.

Tuesday/Wednesday

All but one member of the group made it safely to Korea.  After checking into the hotel, some of us decided to go out for fried chicken and beer.  What better way to introduce people to Korea than fried chicken?!  But, Korean fried chicken is awesome!  Everyone that at it loved it, it was nice being able to get to know some of the people in the group.

After returning to my room, I decided to get comfy and get on the internet to try and do some chatting with family and friends.  The wifi in the room...OMG, I think I wasted about 45 minutes just trying to find a stinkin network!!  So I called our tour leader and asked him how he got internet, said he couldn't get the wifi so he went down to the front desk to get an ethernet connection.  UGH!  I didn't want to go all the way down to the desk and ask for an ethernet cord!!  I was already in my pj's and ready for bed!  But, I decided I really needed to get on the internet so down I went.  This is where having my hubby with me would have come in handy, he would have gotten it for me...

Finally, I was connected to the internet world!!!  Ahhh!  I was so happy!  I was able to chat with hubby for a little bit and also with my friend.  This was all short-lived as midnight was rolling around and I needed to go to bed and try and get some sleep!

Wednesday:

Amazingly, I was able to sleep thru the night!  Wasn't crashed out, but was good enough for me.  I was able to get ready without hurrying, that is the worst feeling in the world..so I tried chatting with hubby, but he was in a two hour meeting...this time/day difference kills us for talking!  I was able to chat with my other friend tho for a little bit then I was off to breakfast.

The entire group was ready and in the lobby before the bus showed up, what a great group!  Today was the day to tour the Korean Folk Village.  Was a beautiful day for it too, always like getting a refresher course at the Village.

We had shabu shabu for lunch, talked with more people from the group and had a nice time.  After lunch we had the orientation meeting so everyone could get the two week schedule.  Think everyone was surprised by the gift of custom hanboks for the adoptees, loved it!

I organized all of my donations for the Holt office and Ilsan...thank you for everyone that sent me donations, my suitcase was seriously overflowing with your generosity!!  I'm so lucky to be able to travel like I do and to have others join with me to give, just makes my trip that much more enjoyable! And now, I have an empty suitcase...oh what shall I fill it with??!!  

Just three of us for dinner out so made it an early night.  I am very tired all of sudden but it's still too early to go to bed!  I'm crossing my fingers that I will sleep.....

Korea Bound Again

After a week at home, I am now going back to Korea to assist with the Heritage Tour.  I surprised myself and hubby by being able to handle the jet lag so well last week.  I think it's because I really prepared myself mentally to be ready for two trips so close together.  People thought I was crazy for doing this, but for me, I absolutely love it!  I love Korea, something about visiting there, seeing our kids, families, staff, and programs...it just draws me in every time.

I've been reading over the bios of the people going on this tour, I almost need my sunglasses just reading them.  I'm so excited for everyone and feel so blessed to be able to witness their experiences of this trip.  I've been a participant on many tours, but now I am actually in charge of helping the group! Maybe I won't need my sunglasses then if I'm playing an official role?  Who am I kidding?!!  My last Gift Team trip, I thought I could get away without needing my sunglasses, I knew what to expect, I knew what was going to happen...wrong!!  Why do I even try to fool myself?  Each trip and experience is so different.  I have met so many great people, have made lasting friendships and bonds, they are now a part of my family.

This will be my eleventh trip back to Korea since 2005, it's always an adventure and I'm so excited to be going back!

I feel so blessed to be able to travel like I do, it's my passion, my mission to travel the world and help our children and families in need.  

I will try and blog while I'm in Korea for the next two weeks so stay tuned!

Saturday/Sunday

Saturday:

The plan was to meet the family at Insadong for shopping.  My friend and I would take a taxi and meet them.  After trying and failing numerous times to hail down a taxi and the kid working at the gas station trying and failing to get a taxi for us, we decided to head back to our rooms and call the family.  No luck after 45 minutes of trying to get a taxi.  So the family came to Ilsan, had lunch, then decided we would all go to Insadong still today.  The sister had asked if we were spending the night at the mom’s house, I said no.  Then as we were leaving, I asked my friend if she wanted to spend the night at her mom’s even tho I wouldn’t spend the night, she said she would so we told the family and they were thrilled!

Walking to the subway, it felt like we were walking for-ev-er!!  Then it was several stops and transfers on the subway until we finally made it to Insadong, around 3:00pm.  I had made the decision that I would leave from Insadong rather than the mom’s house or it would be too tight of a schedule again to make it back to Ilsan before 9:30pm.  After finding all that we wanted shopping, I got into a cab and off I went to Ilsan, hoping that the driver would get close enough to Ilsan that I would be able to recognize the area and help get me into Ilsan.  It took forever to get out of Seoul and as we got into Ilsan, I was feeling better until the driver turned into a street that was blocked off.  Luckily we got back on track and I made sure to pay attention to watch out for sites that looked familiar.

Sure enough, I noticed the corner and told the driver where to pull into Ilsan.  I arrived at 6:00pm on the dot!  Boy was I happy to be in my room!  I got all comfy, started crocheting, ate cold pizza, and decided I needed to write everything that happened this week.  Then I got a text from my friend asking if I had made it safely.  She then tells me they are eating all sorts of beef products and one of them is cow intestine and they are eating everything raw…wow, glad I decided not to go!  My cold pizza was delish!!  So it has taken me all night to write all about this week so far, now I’m tired, I’m hitting the hay…until tomorrow…

Sunday:

I had the luxury of sleeping in and lounging around.  After my shower, I turned on my phone and there is a text stating my friend was locked out and couldn’t get into the Memorial Hall…geepers!!  Guess locking the door from the inside, people can’t unlock it from the outside and the code didn’t work.

After getting ready for the day, we went to the Ilsan gift center to have another look, besides the fact that there were two things left out of my friend’s bag of goodies from our prior visit.  We then hung out at Molly’s house and received Dr. Cho’s book.  We weren’t able to read it since it is written in hangul.  I so want to read it too!!  It was nice of her to sign a copy for each of us.  I had a nice visit with her and met Esther, she works at the post adoption services department for Holt Korea.  Interesting work!

We then took a tour of the Memorial Hall since my friend hadn’t seen the renovation yet, it went thru quite the transformation since we were there in 2006!

We went to eat a late lunch down the road, had shabu shabu, was delish!  In the middle of eating, my friend’s birth sister began to cry, which made me cry.  I felt so bad for her, this was the last day for everyone to be together and I could only imagine how everyone was feeling.  We pretty much ate in silence the rest of the time.

After lunch, we headed back to my room, tried to call a translator to make talking easier, but had trouble reaching someone.  I decided to walk to Molly’s house to see if I could find someone available to translate, no one was there, everyone was down in the gym for the carnival.  I saw Dr. Cho and asked her if anyone else was available to help translate.  She offered to translate, so we walked back to my room.  I was hoping the birth mother would feel comfortable with Dr. Cho translating.  As we walked into the room, it was obvious everyone had been crying.

Soon, my friend’s birth mom started talking and Dr. Cho translated.  It was nice to see that she felt comfortable talking to Dr. Cho.  It  was a nice visit.  I felt so blessed to be a part of something like this and witness a happy birth family reunion.  This was my first experience so I know it could have gone either way.  I’m just happy for my friend that her reunion was positive.

I said my goodbyes at the door, surprised myself by how much I started to cry when I hugged the birth sister.  I’m not sure what I was feeling.  My friend walked her family out with Dr. Cho.  Guess Dr. Cho said, “No crying at the bus stop so you must stay here and they go by themselves”, so she stayed.  Dr. Cho then invited us to dinner at Molly’s house.

It was a nice dinner with Molly and Dr. Cho and the volunteer and the two residents that live in the house also.  I  loved listening to Molly talk about all her experiences, she is an amazing woman. 

After dinner, my friend and I stayed up talking in my room.  It was nice having quiet time with just the two of us to talk over what happened in the week.  I know we were both tired, physically and emotionally.  But all in all, it was a good week and an experience I will never forget.  I still feel so honored that my friend would ask me to join her in this part of her journey.  And how blessed am I that I have such a supportive husband, that I could travel to Korea this week only to be home for one week and leave for Korea for two more weeks…I’m one lucky lady!!

Thursday/Friday

Morning came way too early besides the fact that I had been awake most of the night so it really didn’t matter.  Time to tackle the shower…the showers in Korea are open into the entire bathroom, not enclosed like back at home.  Needless to say, it was an experience.  My friend and I had been together in the master bedroom, it was nice of her sister and husband to give up their room for us.

I spent most of the morning texting my hubby, it’s a crazy feeling not being instantly connected and it makes it harder with the whole day difference and night and day difference.  I can get very confused.  I don’t like spending money on global cell phone usage but there was no way I was going to go without communicating with my hubby! 

After everyone had showered and were ready to go, Omma came with breakfast, a milk/yogurt drink.  Being polite, I took it and started drinking it…ugh, it was milk in the first place, then it was banana flavored, what was I going to do??  Two things I didn’t like and both in one drink!!  As my friend finished her packing, I had her dump my drink down the drain, I know, I know, that was bad of me, but seriously, I didn’t want to be rude and not drink it and they had no idea that I didn’t like milk or bananas.  My friend put her drink down the drain too, she’s lactose intolerant!  These ‘I must be polite and take what is given to me’ rules, they’re killing me!

As we were about to leave, my friend’s family looks at our overnight bags and asks if those were what we were taking…uh yeah, those were overnight bags to us.  They each had a tiny bag with hardly anything in them so we borrowed a smaller bag for our stuff.  I felt like this was the start to the Amazing Race for us…little did I know…

One cab, subway, and bullet train ride later, we arrived at our destination.  As we looked at our accommodations, I had to laugh as it was a little traditional Korean style hut, maybe 10x20 feet.  I called it a paper mache hut.  Me, my friend, and her Omma would be sharing this hut.  We laid out the blankets on the floor and my friend and I decided we needed a nap, it was 1:00 and we were tired already!

After our nap, we walked around the famous king’s burial grounds which were these giant mounds, the higher the mounds, the more power and status the person had, they were the size of small hills.  Walking around, it dawned on me that I had been there twice already!!  Duh!

My friend was so tired of Korean food, when her family asked her what she wanted for dinner, I looked at her, smiled and I said out loud, she wants friend chicken and she got the biggest smile on her face and nodded.  So that’s what we had, even delivered to our little hut area and had a wonderful dinner.  It was a very quaint area with these huts all around a common ground with picnic tables and a fire pot. 

Bedtime…a bathroom was actually attached inside the hut, a toilet and open shower, no sink, the whole room the size of a shower!  Needless to say, my friend and I determined we would not be taking a shower the next day.  We didn’t brush our teeth that night either.

Friday:

I had slept quite well for about five hours so ended up waking up around 5:15am so decided to chit chat via text to hubby.  Well that was going to be short lived since my battery was going dead!  I hated not having my cell phone available, I’ve been feeling so out of touch with everyone and everything!  Then my friend’s mother passed away last weekend so I was missing being able to text with her to give her comfort and support.  At least I felt in touch with the world being able to read emails too, but it was killing me that I was doing it all from my blackberry and was costing a fortune!

Breakfast was make your own in the communal kitchen.  Turned out to be pretty nice and was fun seeing all the different people that were staying at the same place, the whole place had filled up with guests!  I was even able to get on the guest computer, sign into Facebook and write up a status update!  I can’t believe I have only been on fb that one time this whole week!!

After breakfast, we walked around some more and saw more tourist attractions.  We have sure done a lot of walking this week!  After touring, it was time to eat again!  But this time we were going to have my favorite Korean dish, the whole chicken in soup!!  And this time, I was finally able to pay for all of us since my friend’s family kept paying for ev-erything!!   The older gentleman at the table near us thought we were funny fighting over who was going to pay.

Time to head back to the subway and bullet train to head back home.  As my friend was sleeping, I talked to the birth sister to translate to her mom regarding how this week has been for them.  They still felt like they were in a dream but were very happy to have met.  I wanted to relay to the birth mother that it was ok to forgive herself and that once she did, she would experience even more happiness that is to come for her future.  I made the mom cry…wow, did I feel bad!  Then I started to cry...I told her she should be so proud to be with her two beautiful daughters and how happy I was for all of them that this meeting was able to occur.  I also told the sister that she should in no way feel guilty for any of this because she was just a little girl when all this happened and she should not feel guilty for being the one that stayed with her mom.  She thanked me for saying that.  I just hope all of what I said wasn’t lost in translation.  The sister had been studying English for the past few months and was really pretty good at her ability to translate all the conversations this week.

We had to head back to the sister’s apartment to get the rest of our luggage so weren’t able to stay there to eat dinner or we would be too late to get back into Ilsan, so they ordered pizza for us to take with us.  They put us in a cab, wrote down the address in Hangul for the cab driver and then the mom paid ahead of time and the cab driver would not give the money back!

Once we finally got into Ilsan, the driver was unsure of where exactly Holt Ilsan was, we were of no help and especially at night when everything looks different.  Luckily, we had Molly’s phone number written down so the driver called Molly and she told him where to go…come to find out, we were right around the corner.  We had made it with nine minutes to spare before the gate would be closed!!

Was so nice to be back in my room, turn on the air and plug in my blackberry…I felt so lost without it!!  Caught up with hubby and went to bed…all. by. myself.  And with the air conditioner ON FULL BLAST!!

Wednesday

The next morning we met Molly at her house to have breakfast with her and Dr. Cho and Director Shin.  What a great time of food and fellowship and we were able to join in on their morning bible reading.  I loved the fact they had bibles that were written in both English and Hangul, I need to get one of those!

As Molly was drawing out a map of how to get to the Holt Post Adoption Services offices, Director Shin came in and said there would be someone going into Seoul to pick up the volunteer hair dressers that come in every first Wednesday and that he could drop us off by the Holt offices, bonus!!  Would have been interesting to see how my friend and I would have managed the bus ride!

The driver dropped us off on this one street and waved toward a street so we got out of the van and had no clue where the heck we were.  I pulled out the map Molly had drawn out and started to look around to see if the drawing matched where we were.  We must have looked completely lost because a gentleman came over to us and looked at the map.  He noticed the word Holt and told us where to go and walked us to the correct street and lo and behold, we walked right to the Holt Post Adoption Services office building!

The purpose of this trip to Korea, when I went on the Motherland tour in 2006, I met a lot of other adoptees and made some wonderful friendships.  One adoptee, in particular, we connected and have remained friends ever since.  She had asked me if she were to travel back to Korea, would I travel with her?  Of course!  Any excuse to travel to Korea, I'm game!  Well, the time had come to travel to Korea, my friend had located her birth mother and birth sister.  This would be my first experience with a birth family meeting...wow, how honored I was that my friend would ask me to be with her on this journey...

Waiting in the room, my friend is nervous, this was it, she was meeting her birth mother and birth sister!!  I didn’t blame her for being nervous, I’m  not sure what I was feeling but think I was nervous for her too.  Had to wait a few minutes since we were early, but I’d rather be early than late for something like this!  The social worker talked about what the process would be for when the family arrived.

Finally, the social worker said the family had arrived, so she opens the door and in walk in my friend’s birth mom and sister, both are crying, the birth sister hugs her first, then the birth mother.  It still is amazing to see my friend look exactly like her sister!  I was busy taking pictures so didn’t have a chance to cry which was totally surprising since I cry at everything!  But I think I knew I had to keep it together for my friend’s sake, like I did whenever I met a flight with a family waiting for their baby.

After about an hour, the meeting was done at the office so now we would all go to lunch with the volunteer interpreter.  Thank goodness there was one!  We all went to the Korean BBQ restaurant that we always go to on every trip.  More questions were asked during lunch and all went well.  It was then decided that we would all go to the sister’s house.  We all sat around some more and talked about family and would have dinner there and also spend the night there, which meant we had to go back to Ilsan to pack some belongings. 

We all packed into a cab and arrived at Ilsan.  As I was packing, I was throwing things into my roller bag trying to gather up all the necessary items.  When we got back to the sister’s house, I realized I had only packed for one overnight…forgot we were traveling with the family and overnighting again.  At least I had a spare shirt already packed in my bag.  I didn’t pack my cell phone charger since I forgot about the two nights out.  Oh well, think I would survive?

Prior to bedtime, my friend’s aunt was coming over to meet her.  Wow, she was quite the character!!  Finally, I had to say I was going to bed, the jet lag was hitting us both.  As we were getting ready, I had to laugh and show my friend the towel we were to use for our showers, they are the size of what we Americans consider to be hand towels and we each got one…um, I use two bath sized towels everytime I shower.

As my friend and I were laying in bed trying to fall asleep, all I could think of was how this reminded me of my last homestay during our family tour in 2009.  The room was hot, no a/c and people and dog noises all over the place.  I don’t think I slept a solid hour at a time, was going to be a long couple of days!

Able to Post Finally!

I was going to blog while I was in Korea, but I had difficulty accessing the internet and I didn't have time to figure things out since I was so busy so I did write down my thoughts and events so I could copy and paste onto here.  Happy reading!

Tuesday:

Made it thru the long flight to Korea!  Let’s back up a few days tho…last Friday, I was finally able to connect with my friend that I was traveling with.  She had been busy traveling that week!  So when we did connect, I had asked when the meeting was set for her in Korea.  She said Tuesday at noon….oh dear, that wasn’t going to work, we weren’t scheduled to arrive in Korea until 4:00pm Tuesday!  So now what?  It’s Friday at home and Saturday in Korea, no one would be in the offices!  So I told my friend to email her contact and I would try and find my contact’s email address.  It took me awhile to find my contact and with no name associated with the email address, I took my chances that this was the correct one. 

As my friend and I were texting back and forth after our call, I told her to send me her flight itinerary and I would send mine to her since we were meeting in Chicago.  After my friend sent me her itinerary I about died…we weren’t on the same flight out of Chicago!  We were on two different airlines flying to Korea!  OMG!!  How did this happen?  I called her right away and told her, she thought she probably messed up her booking after I had sent her the email details of the flight to book.  Oh well, after the initial shock wore off, at least we found out we would be arriving into Korea within 20 minutes of each other.

The hard part would be making sure my friend knew how to fill out all the forms prior to landing so I covered that with her while in Chicago.  After visiting for a while, my friend had to head to her gate.  I would go find out where mine was.  Come to find out, I could have gone thru security with my friend and of course, I was told to go thru the body scanner so I opted for the pat down…why is it always me that is asked to go thru the scanner??  I thought maybe my luck had changed with this since I wasn’t told to go thru it in Omaha.  Guess it just wouldn’t be me flying if I didn’t get my usual pat down at the security screening! 

I wasn’t able to change my seat to the window seat I had requested, why the heck have that option if it’s not going to happen?  I found my friend at her gate since we were just a few gates away from each other.  Stinks we weren’t flying TO Korea together!  After my friend’s plane took off, it seemed like it took forever for my flight to start boarding.

I got to my seat, an aisle so that was better than the middle seat I guess.  An American couple was in my row, on their honeymoon to Thailand.  I know why I love Korean Airlines so much, there movie selections are awesome and you can play them whenever you want to.  I watched a lot of movies: Haywire, Spy vs. Spy, Man on a Ledge, and even a Korean movie, which was actually very good!

I tried to get some sleep, but ended up maybe sleeping lightly for about 45 minutes.  Once we landed and got thru immigration, I went to get my luggage, figures, mine took forever!  I exchanged my money and proceeded out the doors and there’s Molly waiting for me!  I had to tell her that my friend was on a different airline so we found out what door she would have come out of after picking up her luggage.  Figures, her door was clear at the other end of the airport, but we did try and have her paged over the intercom.  As I heard the announcement, I thought to myself, there’s no way she will recognize her name with that heavy Korean accent.  No luck finding her at the door so I had Molly wait at the door and I walked all the way back to where I had come out and as I was texting my friend, I was willing her to turn on her phone so I could find her!  After what seemed like hours, which really was about 20 minutes, I received a text from her!  We finally found each other!  Guess she had been inside by my luggage carousel waiting for me, that was the plan from the start, but I didn’t see her as I was waiting for my luggage!

We took off with Molly and her driver.  Molly was so sweet and talked quite a lot, I truly enjoy hearing all that is going on with Korea and the adoption world.  We had decided we would go out to dinner together since we had been a little late.  First we checked into our rooms and dropped off our luggage then headed into town to a Korean BBQ place.  Great food, tasted great!  Back to our rooms to unpack and get some sleep! But first I tried to get on the internet…no luck so thank goodness for my blackberry.