jd, ginger and kramer: best friends forever ...

I heart dogs.  I have 2 of them - well, technically 3, as my little cuddle bug Fletcher is now an angel in heaven.  With us here on earth we have a 12 yr old mini-schnauzer named Kramer, who can be a little stubborn (typical German ... I can say that since I come from a family of Germans) AND an energetic 1 yr old cocker spaniel named Ginger.  We thought it would be best to introduce the dogs one at a time to JD, since he's likely not been around any in his short little life.

First up:  Ginger.  We were really worried about her, since she's still a puppy and a sassy one at that.  We brought her back into the mix on JD's 3rd day with us and, wow, did she surprise us.  She's been so motherly toward JD.  She's very gentle with him, licks him, I even think she was trying to clean him one time when she was nibbling at the back of his head (like a mother dog would do to her pups).  Super cute!   We thought our little girl (Ginger) had matured overnight now that she had deemed herself "mother" to this cute little boy named JD.

Second up:  Kramer.  We introduced Kramer on JD's 8th day home. We were a little worried about Kramer as he's very set in his ways.  And why shouldn't he be, after all he's in his retirement years!  The one thing we thought might be a problem with him is that he gets jealous when humans show affection to each other.  So if I hug my husband, and vice versa, he barks at us.  Well, wouldn't you know it, if I needed to hold JD, Kramer barked.  Question for you:  how many times a day does a baby need to be held?  A lot!!  That's the same number of times Kramer barked the first 2 days!!!  Needless to say we've been working on that with intensity as it needs to stop.   And thankfully it's getting better.

Oh, and about Ginger's overnight maturation: Um yeh, didn't happen.  What we thought was instant maturity was really just her being 'the only dog in the house'.  She's always been a cuddly, gentle and playful dog with us "humans", but has a tendency to spend a lot of energy on being dominant over Kramer.  It was interesting to observe what an obedient little girl she could be when she was the only dog (we've never had her in that situation before).  This lasted the 5 days we left Kramer at my parents.  But presto-chango, we bring Kramer back into the family, and she is instantly a "you know what" to him.   So now I know what to tell our dog trainer that we need to work on - she tries so hard to be dominant over Kramer that she gets into trouble.  I'm hoping we can nip that in the bud fast, as outside of that she's the sweetest. 

Overall, I'm VERY happy with how well JD has taken to both dogs.  Even though Kramer was a bit jealous the first few days, the barking never upset JD.  And it makes my heart smile every time I see Ginger go check on JD when he's sleeping, or I find her sleeping on the mattress we have in his room, or catch her trying to "clean" him as if he were her pup.

Here are some pictures from our first couple of days home ...

ginger has been following him around everywhere, doting little mother that she is ...

... she's with him even as he goes to check out the vacuum (remember he liked them in Korea)

ginger finds any way she can to be by his side - even helping me put him to sleep

home sweet home

I'm on day 10 of my "walking" pneumonia. I've been sicker than a dog (where does that saying come from, do dogs really get THIS sick?).  My lungs have felt like they have gravel and glass in them and my ear still feels like it might explode. I've got so much 'stuff' congested in my lungs and head that I've got a hot stock tip for all of you - invest in Kleenex, cuz I'm going through it by the truckload over here!

Besides shamelessly going after your sympathy with my paragraph above, I mainly wanted to write today to continue the story of our homecoming.  After we had the amazing experience of both family and friends greeting us at the airport, we went home and found our house decorated to welcome the littlest prince.  Signs, balloons, flags and stickers!!  It was awesome (thanks mom, dad, and my RHI girlfriends).

Then we went inside and started unpacking.  It was probably about 10:30 pm.  My brother Glenn stopped by to drop off the balloon bouquets from the airport.  I was asking him if he knew who the "creatives" were involved in the decorating and he told me.  He then went on to tell me who stocked my fridge with groceries!  We hadn't even noticed it yet!

I immediately went inside and found a kitchen filled with fruits, veggies, yogurt, cereal and snacks for both adults and baby.  A "What to expect ..." book on toddlers (we've been reading it) and a book on Korean adoption.  There was also baby bubble bath in our bathroom with a cute little note - of course I was horrified that Jenni and Charlie saw my messy bathroom in dire need of a cleaning :).   Thank you Jenni, Charlie, Kristin and Helen:  I've barely left the house given I've been so sick, so these groceries were absolutely just what we needed ... absolutely perfect, as are each of you!

Here are shots of the decorations the next morning ... and of the littlest prince checking out his new kingdom:

welcome home to the littlest prince!

Sorry I've been silent - I have a teething child who also has a cold (in addition to all the change he's trying to deal with).  He has not been the happiest of campers, but he's a trooper.  On top of that, this mama is also sick.  The shortage of sleep the last few weeks has clearly caught up with me.  I'll describe the last 4 days in one word: trying

try·ing 
–adjective
extremely annoying, difficult, or the like; straining one's patience and goodwill to the limit: a trying day; a trying experience.

With that said, it's also been an absolutely amazing experience everytime I get a smile or laugh out of my adorable little boy!  I know in a few days we'll both be healthy and feeling better - and this trying time will be but a memory for all of us, overshadowed by all the funny and cute things that we've already witnessed (and that I'll share w/you in yet another post).

I owe an update on the scene we encountered at the airport when we FINALLY arrived in Mpls.  We waited for all other passengers to deplane before we did, so we could do so w/o feeling too frazzled (yeah, right) with all our gear and our cute chunky peanut of a child.  Of course our gate was G20, basically as far away as you could possibly get from baggage claim.  We got a good workout making the trek, knowing that we had amazing family and friends who were awaiting our arrival. 

We got to the top of the escalator and started to head down.  I saw everyone there waiting, with signs and big balloons, and I immediately began to cry - partly because I was overwhelmed by the love in everyone's faces and partly because I was just plain old overwhelmed by this whole emotional experience we had gone through ... and maybe a little bit because my arm hurt from carrying my little tank of a boy :)

I'll tell the rest of this 'welcome home' story in pictures:

kitty kat, ang, heather, mb, glenn & 'chelle eagerly awaiting the littlest prince...

 and here we come ... see the tears? 

 jd + esme` & shirley + kitty kat

 jd meets grandpa & grandma ...

 ... and aunty michelle (who saved my arm by holding him)

 

... and uncle glennerd (sorry glenn, you'll never live that name down)!

 

 the first of many hugs from grandma  

... and from grandpa

 ms. ezzy made him a sign (lil' flirt)!  

 some pretty amazing friends who couldn't wait to meet the littlest prince!

(he's a lucky lil' dude and so am I)

p.s.  uncle steve isn't in any of these pictures because he was busy behind the camera.  Thanks steve!!  :)

seoul + 777 + bewildered one year old + 18 hours = kiss the ground when we land in Mpls!

I'm typing this on day 2 of us being home.  It's noon and JD has finally gone down for a nap after a morning of inconsolable crying (he's grieving - misses his FM), so I finally have a chance to update this blog, do laundry, and take a shower.  It's been a tough 36 hours since arriving home.  It's nice to have him sleeping ... the poor little peanut needs it and we need it too.

So, back to our travel day.  We spent Thursday morning (April 15th) strategically and efficiently packing our luggage - we crammed things into every nook and cranny we could find, as we were now packing for three!  Remember those streets in Yeouido with cherry blossom trees that weren't quite popping earlier this week?  Well we got to see those cherry blossoms in full bloom on the taxi ride to the agency.  They were beautiful!  We arrived at the agency at 1:30 PM (we were told to be there by 2:15). 

Shortly after 2pm, our SW came to get us and the next 30 minutes was kind of a blur; a flurry of activity. I had to sign custodial release papers, she gave me his medical records and a sheet listing his "typical" schedule. His foster mother was there with JD and she gave us 2 big tins of formula and powdered baby food, 3 boxes of his favorite crackers and cookies, a pack of yogurt and soy milk for the travel home (with a little ice pack to keep it cold).  She also gave us his favorite little car, the snuggly bear we sent in his care package and a teddy bear. It was oh-so-sweet how she packed all these things for him to help him with his travel and transition to a new home. I kept wanting to hug her, but didn't want to cross a boundary so I restrained. Oh, she also told us that JD typically "poos" once a day, but that he hadn't had a poo yet today.  Great, I thought - just our luck he'll have a major blowout on the plane :)

The couple we met earlier in the week from WY was also there picking up their child, so they were in another part of the room. JD and their son were running around playing while all this paperwork and exchange was going on. It was a nice distraction :)

Then Dr. Kim, the agency director, came down to give a blessing to the children.  We all gathered in a circle - both the families, the 2 foster mothers and our children - to listen to her blessing, which lasted 7 minutes (seemed longer with 2 toddlers squirming around).  Then JD's foster mother had her time to say goodbye to JD alone and we were told to gather our things and go to the van for the ride to the airport. Looking at the foster mother talking to JD, my eyes were filling up with tears.

We quickly gathered all our things, our paperwork, all the items his FM had packed ... we were seriously being rushed out the door.  Next thing I know, the other family is in the van and we were next to go in.  I was bawling as I hopped into my seat and looked out the open door to the foster mother as she was getting ready to hand JD to me.  I kept saying over and over,  "thank you for taking care of him" to her and again wanted to hug her.  As she handed JD over, she grabbed both me and David and gave us the biggest hug and I gave her the biggest one right back.  For real, the floodgates were open and I couldn't stop the tears until a good 5 minutes into the van ride.  JD did well, and thankfully we had the other family in the van to distract me so I could stop the crying (I also didn't want to upset JD).  The ride to the airport was probably about 40 minutes and JD fell asleep.

We were dropped off at the airport first, because we were flying Korean Air and the WY family was flying Singapore Air.  We grabbed all our things, including JD :), and the driver gave him a big hug and said goodbye to him.  Then we walked into the airport and both looked around wondering how we were going to manage what was ahead of us.  We had to check in and go through security for the first time with a child.  And we learned quickly that we had way too much luggage with us - silly first time parents, we wanted to make sure we had everything we needed, so we had 3 carry ons + diaper bag + JD.  Waaaayyyy too much and, yes, we learned the hard way. 

Because JD was leaving the country, we had to go through immigration with him (his paperwork had to be processed). Once we did all that - check in, security, immigration - we were finally inside and had a good 2 hours before our flight left Seoul at 6:30 PM.  Again, JD was doing VERY well through all of this. We found a play area by our gate, and David played with him - JD was laughing up a storm!  So much so that many people stopped by to see this giggling child - he was putting a smile on many faces at that airport ... mine included. We grabbed a bite to eat and fed him some of his yogurt. He was a good sport through all of this.

Then came time to board the plane and, again, we did so without incident. We got all situated and had the flight attendant help us to get a bottle ready for JD (we wanted to feed him when the plane took off to help with the ear pressure). And it worked like a charm. He sucked away, no issues with his ears, and eventually fell asleep. We were lucky enough to have a 3 seat section of the plane and placed him in-between us to sleep.

             

I kept looking at this angel of a child and thought, man are we ever lucking out, so far so good - no major crying spells.  "Maybe he'll sleep through most of the 10 hour plane ride", I said to David.  Well, well, well - were we ever in for a surprise. 

About 2 hours into the flight, he woke up and just looked around for about 5 minutes at this loud flying-metal-tube-in-the-sky-thing he was stuck in.  Then it started.  He began crying and he wouldn't stop.  We tried everything and the only thing that "sort of" calmed him down is if we were holding him WHILE WALKING.  And even that didn't stop him from crying for long.  He was crying and kicking for over 5 hours!  THANK GOD for the flight attendants, as they were so helpful.  They helped us make his bottle to try to soothe him, tried playing with him and talking to him in Korean to get him to calm down.  One attendant was a father of 2 and he was able to quiet JD for a short while.  We were able to quiet him for 5-10 minute stints and then he'd start up again!  It was a nightmare!  We tried several times to sneak him back into our seats, but JD wanted nothing to do with it.  Not that I blame him, as they certainly weren't roomy.  

So for over 5 hours, David and I took turns with JD and occasionally a flight attendant would help too.  JD is a major chunkster and weighs a ton, so we gladly accepted the help (or my arm would have fallen off).  Some other people were nice and would come talk to me to keep me company while I was hold JD.  At one point, a woman l call "the baby whisperer" was up talking to me as I was holding him by the bathrooms.  She offered to hold him to give me a break and, although I initially hesitated, I gave in (again, my poor arms).  Sure enough, within about 10 minutes, he was asleep.  Right about then we hit some turbulence and HAD to be seated, so I sat down and snuggled him in my arms and he stayed asleep that way for the rest of the 90+ minutes of the flight.  There IS a GOD :)

We had a layover in Seattle before our final flight home, so this is where we had to go through US immigration.  Everyone in immigration was kind - congratulating us, taking us to a special line and allow us to sit while waiting.  But it still took some time for them to go through the packet of info that Eastern agency had given us for this part of the process.  Finally, we received his temporary Visa (good for one year, at which point his adoption will be final) and we were on our way.  The flight from Seattle went well, after an initial 10 minutes of crying when we first walked into the metal tube thing again (he was not happy).  David fed him a bottle as the plane took off and he fell asleep for the entire 3 hours.  Yay!!

And then we landed in MSP; it was 8:30 PM.  To be continued ...

even better the second time around ...

Today we had a 2nd meeting with JD!  We took the subway to the agency for our 2pm meeting with JD.  We got there early, so went into the play room to wait for his arrival.  About 10 minutes later, in walked his foster mother, but no JD.  Hmmmm.  Then she turned around and started to unzip her jacket.  I noticed a little hump on her back and, sure enough, there was JD hiding underneath to stay warm while riding in the "padaegi" (baby carrier) on his foster mother's back!  It's been very cold the past few days in Korea.  The first 2 days of our trip it was in the 60's, but the past few days it's been low 40's and windy (remember that jacket I had to purchase here in Seoul the other day?)

So we spent another hour playing with JD and talking to both the social worker and his foster mother (with help from translation by the SW).  Again the time with JD went well, he was very mellow and easy going.  He played with both me and David.

huh, they're baaacck!

He also paid some attention again to the vacuum cleaner in the corner of the room :) 

he made "shhwooosh" noises at the vacuum

At the end of our visit, his FM crouched down to the ground and said something to JD while motioning toward her back.  He walked over and hopped on, and then she proceeded to wrap him up in the padaegi and put her jacket around him for the walk back home via the subway.  It was so cute! 

look at those sleepy eyes

Our SW gave us a "travel bag" that contained formula, diapers, wipes and a baby carrier (which of course likely won't work with JD, since he's a little tank)!  His FM said she would bring a tin of his formula and some other food that JD liked when we see her tomorrow, to help with his transition with us back home.  We were told to be back at the agency tomorrow at 2pm to pick up JD and travel via their agency van to the airport for our journey back home.  OMG, it's almost THAT time!  :)

We then toured around the agency, taking pictures of various rooms for JD's memory book.  We took pics of the business center, where we used the computer to update this blog and look up travel info; of the meeting rooms; the cafeteria where we had lunch with the agency director; and the "photo room", which is where the infamous red chairs are located that are used for the referral photos.   The famous red chair is actually tall and skinny like a highchair!  In the referral photos that everyone receives, it always looked like it was a low-to-the-ground mini child chair!

Red throne chair used for baby referral photos and the larger one used for FM/baby referral photos

Toddler bed used in baby update photos (looked like a crib in all the photos I've seen)

We then proceeded to check out the baby hospital (nursery).  There were 2 rooms with babies.  David counted about 25 in one room and across the hall I counted another 32 all in small little box shaped beds on tables lining the walls and some on the floor in bassinet type beds.  "But wait", I told David, "I think I see more ... ".  Yep, I spotted even more babies in little box beds underneath the tables holding the others.  We figured there were upwards of 70 babies, all looked like they were under 2 months of age ... many were just weeks old.  God bless the women working in that nursery. They went nonstop from baby to baby - changing, feeding, caressing, swapping babies in/out of the baby swing - they were truly amazing.

Needless to say, they were adorable and I kept thinking how my little JD was in there at one point early in his little peanut of a life.  All of these babies will one day find forever families just like JD.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about scooping a couple of them up and taking them home with me, David and JD  :)

Also in this building, they have a home for pregnant mothers.  It was on one of the upper floors.  I knew that Eastern had these "homes", I just didn't know that one was located right there under this roof.  It's amazing all that Eastern is involved in, from helping pregnant mothers, to coordinating adoptions, to caring for special needs children and senior citizens.  They are a wonderful organization.

After our time at the agency, we went to visit the Gyeongbokgung palace, which was the seat of power for Korea's kings for many, many years.  The buildings and ground were beautiful and you could see the mountains that surround Seoul off in the distance.  The cherry blossom trees were blooming here and that, along with the great architecture and lakes/mountains, made for some amazing photos.

an Australian man visiting Seoul w/his adopted daughter took our picture

After the palace we grabbed some food and made the subway trek back to our hotel. 

It had been a long day. Last night we moved out of the agency guesthouse and into a hotel for the remaining 2 nights of our stay. We were thankful to have stayed there the 1st part of our trip, to help us get acclimated to the neighborhood and to this big city. That being said, we're delighted to be staying at a hotel back in Yeouido ("do" means island), the area where we enjoyed our bike ride the other day. It's a great area and we are thrilled that we will now get to see the cherry blossom lined streets that weren't quite there just 4 days ago (they are popping open as I type this).

Tomorrow we leave Seoul with our little prince and head back home.  I'm bracing myself for an emotional day ...