Momma had a melt down....

but Daddy saved the day! Last night jet lag caught up with both Little A and me - wow - we were a mess. But Daddy helped me get Miss A asleep finally and sent me to bed and I slept until 11AM!! Then when I finally woke up - we went to town and had a wonderful time visiting people and shopping! Miss A's REAL personality is coming through now - and she is quite a showstopper. She has some very unique facial expressions that stop crowds of people in stores and just today learned to blow kisses and wave "bye bye".

Life is so good!

Love, K

3AM

That is what time we started our day today.....but it is all good!

Another happy day!

Our personality is beginning to surface. Lot's of "firsts" - we giggled to ourself while playing....we slept ALONE for our nap.....Daddy ordered his first Happy Meal at McDonalds.....we mimic everything....and are generally just having a great time!!! We will try to get video of the infamous "heeheehee" expression - it is too funny and cannot be explained in words - ya gotta see it!

K

Today we smiled and smiled and smiled!

What a fun day we have had. Little A woke up smiling and really never stopped. She smiled at her Daddy - she smiled at the fan- she smiled and laughed at her feet.....everything made her smile! We had our doctor appointment today and she is doing great. We physically feel much better today as well - both of us got some much needed sleep (even though mine was in the recliner with a sweaty little person across me) and we all woke up refreshed. We went shopping at Target - that is always fun - little A loved it all. We have rearranged the bedroom in hopes she can transition to sleeping by herself. Could take awhile. She is really hungry today - I think because she has been active...yesterday she slept almost all day.

Thought I would post some pictures from this happy day.

Kim and crew!

Gotcha Day March 21, 2008

Sorry it's a few days late, but D is feeling much better!!

we are home......well sort of

Our flight from Seoul was LONG......but landed on time......we made it thru customs in record time.......but our flight to Atlanta had changed gates so we missed it by 5 minutes. so did 35 other people on international transfers. Nice huh? E got her exercise sprinting to the gates! So....since they could not promise us a flight until Monday - yep that is correct - Monday....we opted to rent a van....and arrived home this morning after driving all night (10 hours to be exact). Daddy and E and G are at the Kc airport right now getting our luggage....supposedly it made some flight......and turning in the rental. "A" slept all the way home.....so it ended up being a good option. it feels great to be home......but we wish we had had time to see more of beautiful Korea.

"A" is bonding beautifully. Thank you so much to our friends and family for understanding our need to be the only ones that hold her these first couple weeks. I swear it will be worth it and she will adjust so much better to this enormous disruption in her life if we can do this.

we will be posting some gorgeous pictures the kids took as we adjust back to the time schedule here. "A" is actually sitting on my lap while I type which is huge since I have had to stand to hold her for the past three days.....torture!!

talk to you soon! K

we are packing...

little one slept pretty good through the night....Daddy and I not so much! Too excited - and then Daddy woke up this morning feeling very bad. Hopefully it will pass before he has to fly for 15 hours. Right now little A is napping and has been for about 2 hours. She has a cold and has been running a low grade fever....but still pretty pleasant for the most part. We are anxious to come home - but nervous about her and now Daddy too - but we will make it. She is quite the "sassy pants" as E puts it - no doubt what she wants and doesnt' want. She is also definitely a co-sleeper...but we did get her transitioned to the crib for part of the night.

Daddy got the first LAUGH, S got the most kisses, E is allowed to hold her for longer than anyone but me - and I just get the look like "oh my gosh - who in the world are you" - but she still clings to me and is comforted with humming and swaying.

We hope to see you guys this weekend - hopefully what Daddy has is food or water related.

Pray us home! Love , K

Gotcha Day!!!!

Our daughter is so beautiful, I can't even begin to describe it! And thanks to all the answered prayers, Gotcha Day went very, very well!! It started similar to the other days with Foster Mom, Ava, and us but today Foster Dad took off work as well.




Then we had a calm time chatting...

Then back to... when Foster Mom left...


But as I stated earlier, prayers were answered and we left with our little girl Ava GraceJinah!!!

Of course we still had moments of "Where am I and who are these people?"....

But even that was short lived after a snack and some humming...

We went to this.



To finally this postion where she is now!!


We are very proud parents and siblings! We love you all and can't wait to return. I'll compile a slide show soon when Ava wakes!!

Posted by... Daddy

Thank you.

It's 12:20 p.m. here, a little less than two hours before we go get little Grace. We've gone to the bank... paid for our room... walked to E-Mart for the 18th time (E-Mart now has a very dear place in my heart)... took more pictures of the city... shoved more Korean goodies down our throats... and basically tried every distraction we could think of to pass the time.

We've so much enjoyed this wonderful city, with its beautiful scenery, clean streets, amazing architecture, and gracious people. We have so many stories to tell when we get back, and I am so thankful I've gotten to be a part of this.

I've tried to post a few times this morning about some of our HILARIOUS "mishaps" (and funny quotes from Mom) from the week... and I will do that soon. But today I just can't.

So instead, I want to say thanks. We have had SO many emails and kind words from all over the place... people commenting on our beautiful baby and wishing us the best this week. It's really strange, because I feel like we've been SO busy, and yet a lot of our time has been fighting (Sam literally shoves mom out of the way sometimes) for the computer... seeing if anyone has written us or commented on the blog. I think we've considered this blog as a "gift" for everyone else... but I know we have benefited the most. We have needed you this week, more than we knew it. So thanks. Thanks for your words. Thanks for your prayers. Thanks for loving us so much from halfway across the world.

We love you.
E

Seoul Day 2

(even though I think it is actually day 3) but I have been told it is actually the 2nd day since we met our daughter. So here you go......

Insa-dong & Unhyeongung Palace

After meeting with sweet little A again this AM prior to her doctor appointment - we ventured out to explore and shop.

Our daughter is really going to grieve....and hopefully we are prepared for that. Today's meeting was more emotional for all of us - but we did learn some things about her that will be helpful as we try to make her feel safe and not terrified. She uses some signals for sleepy and hungry....so cute. She took some steps last night and actually took about two today for us - so we will have a runner on our hands very soon. We visited with the nurses at the orphanage today - who happen to remember our daughter - which makes us think she was a noisy baby!! They told us today that she loves music - how fun is that!!! Today Shannon and I both snuck a kiss on her chubby little cheek...and I actually held her for a few minutes......

We then headed out to the subway - I am sure E will have better descriptions of our day - so I will let her post later to fill you in as only she can do - but needless to say I was emotional and then getting on a subway - wow - not my favorite thing! But our destination was wonderful and we found some very nice gifts for "little A" gotcha days to come and also some wonderful memories for ourselves as well. We went to a small palace and of course the tour guide adored S (he is the hit with all young school girls and older women)

Hope you enjoy the pictures. More to come tomorrow when Shannon has time to work his magic with a slideshow.

Video....

This is our first attempt at posting video.....be sure and look at the blog below for a taste of Seoul as well. (The kids have been responsible for the photography and video taping - they have done an outstanding job of documenting this journey for our little one.)

Seoul

The most memorable sight or activity yesterday for each of us.....

Trips to E-Mart. One failed attempt to find it was good exercise and gave us a feel for this section of the city. Very clean, seemingly safe, busy, fast, tiring -(this was S's adjective) exhilarating, and friendly. The other two attempts were successful - the upstairs is like a department store - the downstairs is an amazing grocery with an "escalator ramp" that you just take your cart down - kinda scary. We got our pictures developed so we could give foster mom a photo album - we think that her camera is broken so she has no recent pictures. That has kept us very busy this AM - looking at pictures, making videos to post and fighting about music choices.

Lunch. We thought lunch was pretty funny. The staff was very nervous - one gentleman could barely speak English - after we were seated - he asked us "Do you know this is Korean restaurant - I recommend soup." Shannon asked for bulgogi - he looked surprised and said "barbeque?" Anyway a very nervous waitress brought us amazing stuff of which we didn't know what it all was - but we loved all but the seaweed and kimchee is not E's favorite. They only brought us a tiny cup of tea and then brought us sodas....without asking....I guess they figured we would only drink soda. Little did they know we love tea!

Walking - high rise apartments are where everyone lives. People dress beautifully - gorgeous suits, high heels, very pretty clothing - beautiful people. Children are adored - that is easy to see. Streets are clean although spitting and smoking are very much the norm. Also people do not worry about running into each other.

Wednesday March 19, 2008

Oh yes... one more thing.

One more thing...

We had decided not to post any pictures of ourselves this week, as you really already know (and) don't care what we look like at this point... but this story makes me laugh.

Yesterday, as we were very nervously going up to the 7th floor of the hospital to meet our social worker... we decided to get on the elevator rather than trudge the stairs (Lazy Americans).

Now, remember, we passed the weight limit to adopt from Korea, so this shouldn't have been an issue.... but, as we got on the very small elevator and pushed Floor #7, things went wrong....

The elevator did not move, but rather started making a loud BEEPING noise, announcing to Korea that four large Caucasian people (Maybe we had just eaten too much on the plane) had tried to get on the elevator together and WE (BEEP) WERE (BEEP) TOO (BEEP) HEAVY (BEEP)!!!!!

So, in a frantic state, both Mom and Dad jumped off the elevator, leaving the two children to go upstairs by ourselves! Here we are going up those 7 floors....

S and I got off the elevator, only a bit flustered, and out walked the social worker, ready to meet the adopting family... us. Although S and I do get mistaken quite often for "significant others", neither of us will be doing more than playing Big Brother/Big Sister for quite some time.

So anyways, out came the parents...

Later, when the social worker said we would be heading to see little Love Boat, Mom and I decided to take the stairs. :)

Love,

E

4:23 in the a.m.

Hey all,

It's S and E... we're awake, and it's 4:23 in the morning. The parents are still sawing logs, since apparently they forced themselves to stay awake past 7:30... which we did not. We still cannot believe that we are sitting in darkness while you all are in the middle of your day!

Yesterday was wonderful, sad, exciting, scary, heartbreaking, joyful... basically everything we've been waiting for. I've been staring at these pictures of Miss Ava for a few months now, but I've never been able to see her as more than a "hopeful" dream. I suppose it's because I've seen my parents get so excited... and then so heartbroken over and over again. But yesterday, we opened the door to her foster mom's house... and there she was. She has lots of hair, and the fattest cheeks I've ever seen. She had milk dribbling down her chin, and a cute little polka dot outfit that covered her chubby belly. She is real.

So if you notice in the picture above, you may see two things: 1) She was not too excited to see four very LARGE and strange looking people (Mom's quote was, "I know she will love us once she doesn't think we're murderers" :) , and 2) She is obviously a member of the BLT ranch with her defiant attitude and obvious "sassiness". She will fit in well.

As I've heard this process goes with a baby who has been in foster care, Miss Ava is very attached to her foster mom and pretty scared of strangers. She let us touch her feet and her face, but threw her hands at us if we tried to touch her little fingers. We didn't feel too bad though, because the social worker got an "in yo' face" as well... so it's not just us. Her foster mom says she is a shy baby, but very loving, and she obviously has no problem telling you "what's up". As S says it, "she does what she wants".

It's so nice though watching her with her foster mom. It is very obvious that my baby sister has been LOVED, and that's really all we've been asking for. This woman has cared for the child that we will now raise, and we are so grateful to that. She even cried when she saw S and I (especially S, all the ladies here love him. He gets giggly girls in the grocery store following him around.), because she has kids our age, a boy and a girl. I think she's happy that we are going to be Ava's family. And so are we.

Sweet, Sweet Baby...

Of course we also saw alot of this expression too.. Stay tuned for update on tomorrow's meeting!

Ava Pictures!

Here she is! Our first meeting went pretty well. She's definitely shy! We get to see her again tomorrow at 11:00, then get her Friday at 11:00! We'll post more pics tonight when we get back!

Note from E.

Hello family! We've decided that a few perspectives on this thing will be fun, especially for you grandparents who are probably checking this fairly frequently (even though I know you have very busy schedules. You're probably exercising right now, and I KNOW you're not sleeping.)... :)

I can't believe we're actually going to meet our little Love Boat this morning! We've been up since about 4:30 a.m., playing on the computer, nervously eating lots and lots of snacks, giving each other TONS of trouble, and basically just wasting time until we meet miss A for the first time. We've had so many conversations over the past few years about her... wondering what she is going to look like, whether she's shy or CRAZY outgoing, if she'll let mom put bows in her hair and sunglasses on her face. We've said so many times, "I hope she just makes it home for Christmas." We've said that a few years in a row... and each year, we've just celebrated without her, clinging to the same hope... "Next year."

Well guess what, it's next year. We're here. It's March, only a few days after her first birthday. We're sitting in the Korean Guest House, arguing over what we're going to wear (Sam claims he HAS to wear his skull shirt, even though Mom has asked him 1,000 times to look nice)... whose turn it is to use the computer... who brushed their teeth with the tap water (Mom told me to act like I'm in Mexico, so I did. I always brushed my teeth with tap water in Mexico, but apparently that's not what I'm supposed to do.... SO, if there are no more posts from me, it's because I'm ill from toothbrush water.)... and who ate the chocolate that was supposed to be a gift (No one has done that yet, but the Dark Chocolate Dove looks very tempting)... Basically, we're just frantic, excited, scared, and READY to meet the newest member of the BLT Ranch. :)

So... it's almost 9:00 and time to go wait for the social worker to bring us to A's foster home. Family, we love you so much and are thinking of you lots! We can FEEL the prayers coming from your direction, so THANK YOU.

LOVE,
E

March 19, 2008

Today we meet our daughter.

We have been up since around 4AM - but that is not too bad considering we went to bed at 8PM. Good thing we broughts snacks - we were all hungry when we woke up! And S was mistaken - there is hot water in the shower - you just have to be patient!

The boys just went to see if Seoul wakes up as early as we do and get us some coffee! I am so hoping they can find some - I am in need of some caffeine!

Wandering around last night was so interesting and almost surreal. Pedestrian traffic is heavy and there are no rules for motorcyles - so they use the sidewalks as well. We are so blessed to have been able to stay here at the guesthouse. We are right next door to SWS and the hospital where little A was born and cared for.

We hope to post pictures as soon as we get back to the room....don't have any idea of that timeline - so you might just be in bed when we get that done! Then we hope to hit the streets and start to learn about this very interesting city!

With love - A's family

we made it!!!

We are in Seoul - it is 6:30 PM Tuesday here - checked into the guesthouse and have an appointment to meet our daughter at 9:30 AM tomorrow at the foster mom's house. Pretty exciting and scary to say the least. S took a revitalizing shower as there is no hot water - so he really loved that! E is sleeping again - she slept most of the 2 hour flight to Altanta and then the 15 hour flight to Seoul...so she should be well rested around midnight tonite!

The guest house is very nice - we have a living area/kitchen, 2 bedrooms and bathroom. It is really quite roomy. It is in a very busy part of downtown Seoul - so will be fun to explore.

The flight was very long - but comfortable and the movie selection was amazing. Each seat had a screen and headphones of your own - so that helped alot. And the food was good and they kept us well hydrated!

So - we will post as soon as we get back from our appointment tomorrow and hopefully we will be able to upload some pictures.

Love to all! The BLT crew "world travelers"

Our itinerary and our daughter!!!

Here she is.....beautiful as ever....

And our itinerary......

17Mar08

Delta Air Lines Kansas City departs 6:00AM

Arrives Atlanta 9:00AM(Monday)

Delta Air Lines Atlanta departs 10:50AM

Arrives in Seoul 3:25PM (Tuesday!)

22Mar08

Delta Air Lines Seoul departs 5:25PM

Arrives in Atlanta 6:05PM (Saturday)

Delta Air Lines Atlanta departs 8:15PM

Arrives in Kansas City 9:34PM (Saturday!)

What an amazing time in our lives. We are so blessed with wonderful friends and family that make it so easy for us to leave quickly on our adventure of a lifetime. We can never thank you all for the support and love you have shown to us these past 2 1/2 years. What a journey this has been....what a journey it is yet to be. To meet our child who was chosen for us.

WORLD TRAVELERS!!!

That will soon be us as we travel together to pick up our beautiful daughter! Yes - it is true - we got official travel call this morning!

Keep checking as we will post from Korea while we are traveling We cannot believe we are actually going to hold our sweet little "A".

Details to follow!!!