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Today we started off at Starbucks. From there, we decided to go to Namdaemun Market which is an outdoor market where you can shop for traditional Korean items. We popped up from the subway exit and couldn’t find the “gate” to the market, so we wandered around for a while. We came across the Deoksugung Palace. We decided to pay the whopping $1.00ish to walk through it. Since it was the only palace we visited, we thought it was pretty cool and we’re glad we took the time to do it. So, how did we find the market? There happened to be some sort of “information festival” in front of City Hall. One of the booths happened to be a booth sponsored by the American Consulate. The lady there spoke perfect English, of course, and was able to point us in the right direction. We finally made it to the market, but we didn’t buy anything. It was really an interesting place to walk around…felt very Korean/Asian to us. It was hands-down the most crowded place we’ve been (besides the subway line #5) since we got here. We passed a pot full of boiling something or the other. The smell was not appealing and Brad said even he wouldn’t eat it!

After we finished the market, we decided to eat Korean BBQ one last time. We really enjoyed that lunch…very tasty! After lunch, we took our last spin through the Hyundai Dept. Store. We bought something called a cheesecake which turned out to be more of a sponge cake type thing with a hint of cheesecake flavoring.

Ok, I have to admit we just spent an hour watching some sort of Korean game show. It was hilarious (even though we don’t speak one bit of Korean)! Brad will post the video on our website…you’ll see why it was funny (I hope;-).

We are anxiously awaiting our farewell ceremony tomorrow. We know it will be a bitter-sweet moment. Benjamin will finally be ours to keep forever, but it will surely be a sad time for his foster parents. Keep us all in your thoughts and prayers.

Signing off…We’ll post again when we’re home sweet home.

Lisa and I got a chance to see some of Seoul today. First, it is so easy to use the subway here; we had no problems and it is very inexpensive. We started the day with a bagel and some coffee at Pause Cafe which is across the street from the Casaville (the hotel we are staying at). From there we headed down to the subway. It is a whole different world down there… shops, people and anything you can imagine, but it is clean and safe. Once we figured out how to get a T card, just go to information and buy one and put some money on it, we were good to go.

Our first stop was Itaewon which was one transfer and 8 stops away. Itaewon is a tourist area so there were many people and it was the first time that we saw more westerns then where we are staying. We were on the hunt for a shop called All Seasons. We meet a very nice family from New South Wales that told use about this shop. It has a small book section that has children’s books that are written in both Korean and English and we wanted to get these for both Allyson and Benjamin. We thought that this would be a great way to introduce Allyson to Benjamin’s heritage and also a good way for Benjamin to stay connected with Korea. After we got the books, we were on a mission to get Allyson a hanbok, and we found a nice shop a few doors down. We looked at many different hanboks and found a very nice one for Allyson. Benjamin’s foster parents gave us a very nice one for him, so we thought it would be a good gift from Benjamin to Allyson.

After that purchase it was back to the subway and we headed for Insadon. Again it was so easy on the subway - one transfer and few stops later we were in Insadon. We headed up and out of the subway and there was a sign for Insadon, which pointed us down a narrow winding road that took us past several restaurants and then into the main market area. We picked a good day to visit since it was the city of Seoul’s Art Fair in Insadon. The place was packed with people; Lisa and I had to wade our way through the crowd, but we got to see many different shops. Insadon has many hand-made paper / calligraphy shops, artist shops and any other odds and ends. We got a very nice Jeon-Gak silk scroll which has the phrase ‘enjoy music & writing’. Benjamin’s birth mother was into fine arts and writing so we thought that this would be a great peace of art to hang in the house and something we can share with Benjamin. After that we were hungry and headed to a Korean restaurant. Lisa had a stone bowl bibimbap and I had bulgogi and mushrooms - both were very good. Lisa and I have enjoyed the Korean food and we have stayed away from the western restaurants. After we ate we headed back to the hotel since we were tired. We still have Sunday to see more of Seoul and try to relax before Monday which is sure to be a very emotional and long day. Here are a few photos from today, just click them to see a larger version.

Today we had our second visit with Benjamin. It went really well, thankfully. We were able to take him out in a stoller and walk around Seoul for about 25 minutes. He loves to be outside strolling around. He babbled a bit, tried to remove his socks, and when that didn’t work, he began chewing on his toes ;-). Oh, he also discovered daddy’s watch, which he loved to hold onto and chew. (Can I just say that you have to watch out for not only the TONS of people on the street, but also motorcycles and cars as well. Yes, every so often, someone will drive on the sidewalk to create a shortcut.) When we got back to Eastern, we took him to the “playroom” and played for a while. He was fine the whole time until he saw his foster father peek in the room. As soon as he sees foster dad/foster mom, he cries for them. We decided to go on another walk. He was fine, so we returned to Eastern - back to the playroom. He was a little fussy, but a banana took care of that. He was all about play after that. In fact, he really didn’t want to leave. — Mrs. Oh, our case worker, is letting us take the stroller home because he really seems to enjoy being pushed around in it. We’re hoping that will help calm him if he’s upset.

We really have nothing scheduled for the next few days. We are going to take it easy tomorrow morning, find a Starbucks (should be easy as they are all over the place around here), and jump on the subway to visit a few different neighborhoods.

We are scheduled to see Benjamin again on Monday. We get to play for a while before the farewell prayers.

Click here to see some movies

Today was such a full day! We arrived at the agency a little early and sat in the little room waiting to meet our son. Turns out, the worker thought we went upstairs for our scheduled meeting…we were waiting for someone to bring us there…we ended up being late to meet Benjamin! All is well though! Our first meeting went well (most of it anyway). He is absolutely adorable! He’s got two teeth from what we could see…he’s crawling all over the place…loves toys and loves to throw them…we can tell he has quite a little personality…and the pics did not lie, he’s a big boy (Nana, we’ll get a size at our meeting tomorrow. He’s definitely bigger than Ollie)!

His foster parents are amazing! They were both there, and so very gracious when we met them. You can tell they are completely in love with this baby. They were full of information and stories to share. We were marveling at how foster parents are able to do what they do. We couldn’t be happier with the people that were taking care of our son for so many months! - We have two photo albums of pictures - some from the very first day they got him. The foster father also gave us nine CD’s full of pictures and a a mini DV tape of movies. They also gave us a beautiful hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) as well as a special gift for him for his Tol (his first birthday celebration).

Benjamin is a little bit afraid of strangers. We were fine when we all sat together and played, but when we were left alone with him, he cried for his foster family and kept looking around for them. It broke our hearts. Luckily, both foster parents want us to spend as much time with him as we can before we leave. We get to meet with him again tomorrow. Hopefully he’ll recognize us and will begin to feel a bit more comfortable. We were invited to the church of the foster family because the minister is going to pray for Benjamin. Our social worker cannot go with us, so we don’t think we’ll be able to go.

Here is the link to photos, just click on October

After all this, we had lunch with the Chief Operating Officer of Eastern. We had a nice time chatting with him as well as with another family from New South Wales. They were here on a homeland tour. They adopted their son from Korea ten years ago and then another Korean-Aussie born daughter two years later. (They were very nice…gave us tips on where to go and how to get around on the subway).

Finally, we got to hold the babies! Eastern has a small nursery/hospital for newborn babies waiting for foster families. We were able to go into one of the rooms and hold and snuggle the babies. Benjamin actually spent some time there before he went to his foster home. - There was one little baby boy that Brad got to hold while we were there. Of course, he just smiled and smiled at Brad the whole time. (Does that surprise anyone?) I held one little baby for a while, but couldn’t help myself. I had to pick up a few others as well.

The day was amazing. We hope Benjamin gets more familiar with us in the coming days so he isn’t so upset when we leave Monday. Check back again tomorrow!

What a long long long flight.  Twelve hours on an airplane, but we are here!  We get to meet Benjamin at 10am tomorrow morning (about 9pm Wednesday evening for you guys back in St. Louis).  We’re off to try to get some sleep - such a BIG day tomorrow.