Mr. Bingley

Our trip to Korea to welcome...

Mr. Bingley Sir Charlie Jae-min 

to our family...

August 1

At the Chicago airport,

getting ready to go.

(I am married to such a handsome man.  Ah!)

August 4

Meeting him for the first time.

He was wearing a little bow tie.

Getting to know each other

at the adoption office.

Remember this picture with the bunny?

I got to meet the bunny...

Most of the children have their picture taken with him.

Continuing to get comfortable with Paul.

Pre-travel physical.

We remembered this nurse from Reuben's adoption.

Healthy guy.

Almost time to say goodbye to his foster parents.

Back at our hotel the same day.

(Oh, the humidity and my curly hair!)

Playing in our room.

We all shared a bed.

It's the Korean way.

Children sleep with their parents until they are two.

August 6

In the Seoul airport,

heading home.

Waiting to board our plane.

First time in a car seat.

He slept 8.5 of the 12.5 hours on the plane

and had no problems the other 4 hours.

Hallelujah and Praise the Lord.

On our drive home

we stopped at F.O. Dairy

for Paul's favorite grilled cheese with

Havarti Pepper cheese and roast beef.

I think we also got some coffee to keep the driver awake

for a few more hours.

August 7

Meeting his brothers for the first time.

Peter and Reuben were so excited to meet him and give him gifts they had picked out with Nana.

Feeling shy and staying close to me.

Reuben asked that we get him a Korean soccer shirt.

Peter wanted a Korean Gatorade

and Reuben wanted a Korean Coke.

Different cans than in the US.

Meeting his Nana.

In the toy basket.

A Reuben sandwich.

Proving his big brother skills.

He loves being a big brother.

But, in distress one day this week he sadly said,

"I'm a big brother but I still can't zip my jacket!"

Meeting Winnie.

She has been so full of grace as he checks her out.

 

First family photo.

We mostly call him Charlie.

Sometimes Jae-min still comes out.

Mr. Bingley on Sundays.

And often we catch ourselves starting to call him Reuben.

His legal name will be

Charlie Jae-min,

named after my dad.

We are rejoicing that he's home with us.

He is fitting right in

and accepting us as his caregivers.

We love him

and think he is so so cute.

I don't have much time for blogging,

as you've noticed.

My days are long and full

and I love it.

 I won't be in this space as often as before.

Remember that one time when I was a knitter?

Ha.

Charlie.

I love him.

We're Alive

I want to blog and post pictures, but my time is filled up with all these boys.  Playing and loving and bonding and sleeping.  We've had many days of bliss.  Except when it's time to go to bed.  I need you to write the book, How to Put the Adopted Child to Sleep.  Because you're not supposed to let him cry it out, that would not promote attachment, of which we are striving.  But how do you get a feisty, time-confused, yet tired one-year-old to lay down and sleep?  It's a wrestling match every time.  Unless he happens to fall asleep in the baby carrier, stroller, or car seat.  But, praise the Lord Most High that this is our biggest issue.  We went to the doctor for his initial visit and all is wonderful.  Except he maybe didn't think three shots in the thigh was too wonderful.  Oh man, Paul just caught me not going to bed.  I was so close.  Glasses off, quilt pulled back, but I so wanted to leave you a message and a least one photo...

Love.  There's a whole lot of love around here.

Home

Our day of travelling went SO WEL..444444

jAE-MIN is here at the keyboard with me.4
4
e
4HHHhe sticks pretty close to me and I love iiiiiiiit.

He's a busy guyqSSSSSSSSW


i CAN'T WAIT to have time to post pictures and write more about our tripp777777777777777777777777.

Seoul to Chicago

Heading home...


The time stamp on this post is showing a different time zone than I'm currently in.  Really this is posted at 7:38 am on Saturday in Seoul. 

Mr. Jae-min!

Our meeting with the foster family went so well.  Both the foster mom and dad came.  They were so sweet and sincere and love Jae-min very much.  They sent us home with so many special gifts.  Jae-min was her 18th foster child, and her last.  We cried and hugged and said good-bye.  Oh, it was so sad.

But, Jae-min has taken to us amazingly well.  He very cutely fell asleep on Paul's shoulder as we walked back to our hotel.  Then we all napped for about an hour until Jae-min woke up startled, which startled Paul, and then me.  This was the first (and only time so far) that Jae-min has cried.  He let me hold him and soothe him.  What a relief that he has not rejected us.

Paul spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping while Jae-min and I got to know each other.  Mostly this involved opening and closing the dresser drawers and some cupboard doors over and over and over again.

We are about to go to bed.  Oh!  He's walking!  That unstable, big knees plopping walk of a beginner.  So cute.

Tomorrow we are meeting WooSeok and his mom and also Inbum for lunch.  I can finally give WooSeok his high school graduation present, which I'm kind of sad about because I've liked wearing it.

Good night!  What a good, good, wonderful, amazing, thank you God night.

In Korea

It's 5:30 am, a respectable time to get up.  Although a few hours short of normal.  But I have been in bed awake since 2:30 am listening to the loudly laughing men five stories below on the street.  I'm guessing the bar closed around 4 am since their voices were no more.  But the city traffic soon replaced them.  The hum of the air conditioning help drown out the outside noise, but then it caused the vertical blinds to tap tap tap against the glass windows.  This is what one notices when she gives in to her deep drowsiness and goes to bed at 6:30 pm and thus awakes at 2:30 am.

Today is our magical day of welcoming Jae-min into our family.  We have been praying like crazy for him and his foster family as they go through this time of loss and sadness.  We hope his grieving time is short and that we are able to sooth and comfort him.

Yesterday we went on a tour with a sweet twenty-something guide named Elli.  She took us to meander through a palace then to an area called Insadong to shop.  It was a great time.  We got ask her lots of questions about Korea and she helped us find the things on our shopping list.

For our first meal in Seoul back on Tuesday night, Paul and I walked around looking for a restaurant.  The one with the sign, "We speak English" won our won.  (ha, that was a joke.  won is the Korean currency.)  We ordered Bulgogi soup and hot noodle soup.  Before the bowls arrived, the server brought out five small side dishes: kim chi and namul, which are mostly veggies prepared Korean style.  I went for a tan olive and took a bite to find that it was a super small hard boiled egg.  So now we had to determine what kind of bird it came from.  We asked Elli the next day and she said, "You know the story in the Bible of Moses and he takes them out of Egypt and they're hungry and mad that they don't have food and God gives them this bird to eat?"  Quail.  They were quail eggs.

We're not sure how we're going to spend our time until our afternoon appointment at the adoption agency.  The World Cup park and stadium isn't too far and we could probably walk to a University.  For some reason I packed one less shirt than I need, so I should probably buy one.  But nothing is really of interest knowing that we finally get to meet and hold our new son today.

And tomorrow.  What will we do with a whole day tomorrow?  Perhaps we will connect with WooSeok and Inbum.

Thanks for praying for our family.  I'll post pictures probably when we get home, or sooner if we can figure out how to do it here.

It's Time

We are going to Korea tomorrow.

Every slice of paper that needs to be signed and notarized and approved is complete.

We meet Mr. Bingley (good name, yah?) on Thursday.

Are we keeping his name Jae-min?

Undecided.

Mr. Bingley is quite nice.

We'll just have to see.

Maybe he prefers Mr. Darcy.


At this point, I am exhausted.

We just spent two glorious weeks traveling the western coast with my extended family.

It was such a grand time.

Even the camping part.

The best part of the camping may have been when our social worker called at six one morning to tell us we could now go to Korea.

We spent the morning arranging our flights, then went about our camping festivities, including a sweet visit with my closest friend from jr/sr high school.

We got home this morning at 2am, Paul preached on 1 Corinthians 14, and I've been doing laundry all day.

The boys are off to Nana and Papa's for the week.

WE are off to twelve and a half hours of flying time.

Aha!

Jae-min's Birthday

Happy Birthday to Jae yesterday.

I feel like calling him Jae today.

The boys and I spent the day at the Children's Museum.  Jae would have had a great time.

Then we came home, had a fantastic birthday dinner of leftovers, I chatted with my brother David on the phone about our visit to their house next week (!), and then we went for a birthday swim at 8:30pm.  It's hot here.

Then all got into pjs while I iced Jae's chocolate chocolate cake (I just know, being his mom and all, that he would have requested chocolate).

 A little cake.

We've had a lot of desserts at our house lately

so I didn't want to have a lot of left over cake.

So I baked it in a square pan,

cut it in half and stacked it

to make a rectangular layer cake.

Paul let us use his birthday plate.

He's so sweet.

 Lighting the candle.

With a smile.

The VonTrapp Family Singers.

Our tour will be in a city near you.

Run and hide.

 Slicing the cake

as Jae looks on.

 Birthday cake at 10:30pm is delicious.

Favorite bug pajamas.

And, um, I'm not going to tell you what I had for

breakfast this morning.

But it was good with my tea.

And it met my emotional needs.

And it was Paul's idea when he asked me,

"What are you going to have for breakfast this morning?"

Jae-min

New pictures today!!

Look how big he is...

He's up to nineteen precious pounds and four tiny teeth.

Not walking yet, which is fabulous.

And so very stylish.

Oh, he's so big.

And my heart aches and my mind cannot focus.

Which is great for Peter because we haven't done formal schooling for weeks.

Can't.

My brain is elsewhere.

Like, in Seoul.

Hanging Out With Jae-min

I am, um, hanging out with Jae-min today.

Because I miss him.

Pine for him.

 We went to the garden to pick some romaine lettuce.

Also brought in some herbs.

Oregano and thyme there.

Sweet basil and cinnamon basil on the top.

Oregano, rosemary, taragon, and thyme across the bottom.

We chopped them up and put them in my tea thingy

and added them to my pot of simmering beans.

The wafting aroma makes me want to walk around

with my mouth open and drink it in...

 

...like a whale gulping for nanoplankton in the ocean.

Then it was time to rotate the sunning laundry.

And here we are at the computer,

blogging.

Now, it seems, I must attend to my children

who are actually present.

Reuben was too tired to pick up the toys,

so I put him to bed to take a nap.

Now he's in bed whining and force-crying

that he's hungry.

Which need to I meet?

Which need is real?

A snack and then back to bed sounds right.

Peter.

Peter doesn't know what to do.

Oh, nevermind.

He found the driedel.

 I.

I have a headache that I'd like to treat with caffeine.

Only all my tea is decaf

because I avoid caffeine.

A snack and a nap for me too.