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!!