First meeting

We met him! Our first meeting was yesterday and it was wonderful!

It started off a little scary. We got into Seoul on Thursday night and were completely exhausted. Our meeting was the next AM so we had found out from our concierge that the agency was about 5 minutes away by taxi. We gave it much more time than that, but on the morning of our meeting, a different concierge told us we didn't need a cab and told us to walk here. He actually walked there with us, about a 10 minute walk, and pointed to the building. Very kind of him!

But it was the wrong office. We started to panic a bit, when we realized we were at an insurance agency. But another wonderful and kind gentleman took pity on us. He didn't speak English, but called the agency number and found out where we needed to go, walked us out of the building, hailed us a cab, told the cabbie where to take us. He was seriously a walking angel. And after about a 3 minute cab ride, we got to the agency. Only 15 minutes late. More than a little frazzled.

After that it was smooth sailing. With our social worker, we went about 40 minutes outside of Seoul to the foster mother's home.

There really wasn't much time to get nervous. We had done most of that the night before (I only slept 3 hours). When we got there, it all happened so fast. We went to the door. The doorbell rang, and she opened the door with Little Man in her arms! It was a surreal moment. He was even wearing the clothes that we sent in our care package!

It was his nap time but he never cried once during our visit. We all sat on the floor and he looked a bit shy at first and crawled into his foster mother's lap. But a few minutes later he was in The Man's lap and playing with him. And smiling! The first smiles we had seen since he wasn't smiling in any of his referral photos. After that, we were friends, and we played together, marveled at his tricks (he likes to stand on his head with his butt in the air) and fed him some food.

He's very busy! He crawls so fast and is into everything. He's curious and interested in new things. He likes cars and electronics. And loves to have his photo taken. A kid after my own heart!

We stayed about an hour and I asked some questions, but mostly just tried to enjoy that wonderful moment, of seeing him move and smile and play for the first time.

Our family day is Monday! Until then, off to see some sights.