Seeing foster omma and appa again after 3 years!!

We were so excited when we found out that Micah's foster parents would be able to visit with us while we were in Korea picking up Asher MinOh! Today was the day! Micah has been excited about this all week!

We had brought some gifts and pictures for them, and Micah happily explained the pictures for them! He showed them his cousins, grandparents, and friends. They were happy to see the pictures of Micah from Chuseok and Seollal in the hanbok that they had given him and all of his friends in theirs!

As the meeting was drawing to a close, they asked us to go out to lunch with them. It was an awesome lunch! We had Shabu shabu which is a Japanese hotpot. Very similar to fondue! There was so much food!!

There was salad, a pickled food plate (for lack of a better term!), beef, noodles, dumplings, vegetables, rice cakes, rice and seafood (octopus, shrimp, clams, what appeared to be a baby lobster)! So much food! It just kept coming! And so yummy! While I am not crazy about seafood beyond fish, I decided to be adventurous and try the octopus and clam that foster appa put in my bowl! They were very chewy...

Foster appa did the cooking in the hotpot! He even fed me and Jeramy off the tongs which I thought was sweet. I'll have to ask my Korean friends about this!

Micah took the next two pictures! I have to say that he did pretty well!

Foster appa-VICTORY!!

Foster omma-VICTORY!!

On the way back to our hotel, foster appa suddenly pulled over. We thought he needed directions. Instead he grabbed Micah out of the car and took him into a toy store so he could pick out a toy from them!

Micah explaining to foster omma who all robots on the box were!

Back at our hotel it was time to say goodbye unfortunately. We told them we'd be back to Korea in a few years to see them again. They were so generous and kind and loving to Micah and to us, and we are so grateful that they were Micah's foster parents.

Tonight as Micah was going to bed he said, "I want to see my foster omma again." I told him we would see them again in a few years and until then we had their pictures and happy memories. Then he said, "I love my foster omma. I love my foster appa." I'm so grateful that my son has these two people to connect with in his birth country!

Micah's Journey Through Korea

So while the reason we came to Korea this year in particular was to bring Asher MinOh home we also made a conscious effort to make this about Micah MinHyeok, too, and make this a homeland tour for him...on a 4 year old level!

We didn't know how he would react to Korea or becoming a family of four, but we knew we couldn't leave him at home for something so important-a chance to see his homeland and bring his little brother home. So far his reactions to his Korea and the people who live here has been beyond our expectations.

The night before we met Little Brother (as Micah calls him!) Micah and Mommy woke up around 3 am. Together we had a little snack, and I remember thinking that we were getting closer to the last time we would be spending together with him as my only child. I got teary...it's certainly not that I don't want Little Brother in our family but it's a strange feeling to know that soon your heart will be expanding to fit two children in and not just the one who began it all for you!

When we went to meet Little Brother on Tuesday, it was such a surreal feeling to be bringing Micah back to visit his Little Brother at the place where we first met him. What memories that brought!

We got to see Dr. Kim, the president of Eastern, on Wednesday and have lunch there with other families adopting and a huge group from Australia on their homeland tour! Here is Micah with Dr. Kim. She is the person who said the prayer over Micah before he was handed to us permanently. Micah gave her the gift we had for her, said, "Kamsamnida" (thank you in Korean) and bowed to her! I was so proud of him!
Obviously one of the big goals was to introduce Micah to Korean culture where it originated! lol! At this point in the day, Micah was so pooped. He did really well despite all the big stuff going on!

Micah at Deoksugung Palace

Watching the changing of the guards at the Palace.

The store owner we bought our hanboks from in Namdaemun Market.

Another store owner! Micah was making friends with lots of people today!

Part of me was worried that Korea would be scary to Micah, but it's been the opposite. He loves his Korea and the people here...and so do I! They have been kind and generous to us and welcomed our baby boy #1 back home!

First visit with Asher MinOh!!!

Our first visit with Asher MinOh totally exceeded my expectations! He was shy at first but once this mommy pulled out the Gerber Puffs I had him giving me smiles! lol! This little baby loves food! His foster mother said the only time he really cries is when he is hungry!
Asher MinOh has the most loving nuna (older sister)! She was so sweet to him and even tried directing him to us! We could tell he was very attached to both her and his foster mother and has been very well loved! We are so thankful to them and will never be able to express how much. I tried to though in my broken Korean!
The pictures of Micah MinHyeok and Asher MinOh just melt my heart! Micah was so good to him! They played ball and Micah fed him Gerber puffs, too!
I was so happy he let me near him without crying! This was after a few more Gerber puffs though!
And even took some from daddy, too!

Micah couldn't stop talking about little brother after the visit! "Where's Little Brother going mommy?" We had tried to explain that little brother wouldn't be coming with us right away but I guess Micah liked him so much he wanted him to come with us!

Yaaay! A big smile for mommy! He figured out he really liked the puffs and I was a major source for them!
Already some brotherly love!
And he really likes the phone, too! He'll pick it up and say "Ne?" meaning "Yes?"

We had a great visit and were given the option to pick up Asher permanently on Friday and have him for the weekend or wait until Monday, the day we leave. We asked the social worker to let his foster mother make that choice since we know this will be a hard goodbye for her and her daughter. The foster mother thought Friday would be best so we'll be spending the weekend with our baby before we leave for home! We'll keep you updated!

Heading back to Korea : )

We finally get to head to Korea to pick up Asher MinOh! I'm not a great blog writer but I will post lots of pictures to make up for that! lol! First post will probably be Seoul time 3am Tuesday morning when I can't sleep! I have a huge list of things I want to see this time around (and yes, k-drama shooting locations are among them!) and don't think I'll be able to fit it all in. Which just means I'll have to return to Korea in a couple of years to finish my list! I love Korea and am so excited for Micah to experience it, too! We're excited to be able to meet Micah's foster mom again and to meet the family of a friend of ours who is from Korea! I have a feeling this is going to be a great trip : )

Our newest son!

We received a referral for our 2nd son! He was born 12/10/09!
Asher at 1 month old!


Asher at 5 months old

We were so excited to receive these in the mail! Asher is now 7 months old! The phone, shirt and album are items we sent him in a care package with another family who was traveling to get their son!

We have a long wait to meet Asher unfortunately, but we'll patiently wait for our cutie pie!

Winter Fun, Captain Micah Hook, and Forever Family Day 2009

As you can see Micah loves the snow, being a pirate, and Chuck-e-Cheese! We spent Forever Family Day at Chuck-e-Cheese and Nana and Papa E. joined us! We are so blessed by our little Manatee and have so much fun everyday with him!

Happy Chuseok! (Korean Thanksgiving)

We celebrated Chuseok with our friends this weekend and it was wonderfu! The friends, the food, and especially all of our little ones in their hanboks! They all looked so handsome! And Sofia looked beautiful in her Chinese outfit (I'm sorry I don't know what it's called!).

Here's my handsome guy on the right! I can't get over how cute he always is!

Kris started singing to get all the kids attention and of course my guy gets up and starts dancing!

And here is the majority of our group! We are so blessed to have such a great group of friends for Manatee and for us! Thank you, Rachel and Christopher for hosting and thanks, Mellissa, for the photos I pirated off of your site!