We are here!!!

Yesterday was such a sweet moment we had been anticipating for months and months.  After a long long flight, we arrived here at 10pm on a Sunday night.  We love, Seoul!  The people are so polite and very helpful.  The city is super clean - even the subways and taxis are amazingly clean.  It is unbelievable how clean everything is here!  The flight was not awful. Outside of flying first class, not sure anything should have been much better.  We flew United Airlines so we had a couple of stops (which was nice) as it broke up the trip a bit.  The food on the flight was better than expected and it felt like they fed us all the time.  We watched Men in Black 3, The Avengers, Mirror Mirror, What to Expect When Your Expecting, and Dark Shadows.  Tokyo was a great stop - purchased some amazing chocolate and got some Yen for the kids as keepsakes.  I use to think German chocolate was the best, but I have changed my mind after visiting Tokyo - they have great chocolates!  Amazing - it just melts in your mouth and everywhere else too.

Little store in the Tokyo airport

We arrived in Seoul after 10pm local time (later than expected we we were delayed).  We breezed through immigration and had a driver waiting for us.  This was nice as we probably didn't have the mental capacity left to figure out how to get to the hotel on our own. We crashed hard in the room for just a few short hours and then it was time for the day we had waited for - to meet our son Jacob.  Brian had intended to take the subway and had the route all planned out - but the concierge at the hotel gave very different transfer directions and we lost confidence and decided to opt for a taxi.  We had no margin of error so we grabbed a taxi. The driver spoke no yeong-eo, so we got across we needed to go Hongik University which was nearby our destination (Eastern Social Welfare Services).  There was a security checkpoint at the entrance and our driver was not going to be denied.  He and the guard had a very spirited conversation with Brian in the middle, but finally he just let us out. Which the help of GPS we quickly found Eastern.

 

Waiting to enter the building!

As we entered, they directed us to a little cafe and we filled out a few more papers got our official immigration packet for Jacob (they were emphatic that we were not allowed to open no matter what).  Their cafe was great - I had a blueberry latte and Brian had a mocha.  Then the moment we had waited for - all kinds of emotions, will he like us, will he respond to us, what will it be like...

Jacob!!!

He greeted us by bowing then we proceeded to play, play, play and we talked to his foster mom (we all sat on the floor near his foster mom - which seemed to help let him accept us and his foster mom kept stressing we were his Mommy and Daddy).  He is so sweet, strong, and super smart for his age (we were so shocked at his language skills).  He loves spicy food and cars.  He let me catch him on the slide and Brian played with him in a little car. We all played kitchen (was such a special sweet time)!

 

Brian and Jacob playing with the little car - we have to get one of this when we get home (I'm thinking birthday present when we get home)!!!

 

Me and Jacob playing kitchen (his foster mom in the foreground - a sweet sweet woman who will forever be part of Jacob's story).

Overall a great meeting!  His foster mom was very interested that I had been cooking Korean dishes and she seemed to really like us.  Now we are off today to enjoy the country and learn more about his homeland. We will next meet (and finally leave) with him on Thursday.