Jack & Addie: at the park

Clapping while swinging!

(See the hair..it sticks straight up...even after her bath!!!!)

So sweet

Addison loves to chew on toothbrushes, so I bought her one just to "play" with. Here she is chewing it. Her little pink outfit was a gift from her foster mother. It is SO darling!!

Thank you foster mother!!!

Our trip to the zoo

The boys were off school so we all went to the zoo Friday. My kids love the zoo, and Addison had fun being outside and having her brothers dote on her!

A little windy...not terribly unusual.

All the kids on the lion statue.

Addiosn taking her morning nap in the stroller.

Drew feeding Addison Saltine crackers: one of her favorite snacks

Nick & Jack: Buddies

Addison: getting to know us!

Each boy got to stay home one day and spend time with Addison (and helping me!) Heres a photo from Nick's day.

Here's Drew on his day home feeding her ice cream. She loved it!

Here's Jack, getting ready to take Addie on a walk in her stroller

Here she is on Easter. This outfit lasted about 4 minutes...but it was cute while lasted!

Here she is with her daddy...she loves playing patty cake with him!

Video of us at home: Part 1

Addison's favorite place to be: strapped to me!


Addison's favorite place to sleep: strapped to me!!

Video of our trip; Part 4

ADdison at the end of our 10 hour flight from Seoul to San Fransisco. She slept the whole flight and was very happy!


On our flight to San Fransisco, this sweet Korean lady kept talking to Addison and making her laugh thoughout the flight. While we were waiting for our Denver flight, we ran into the same lady who was also going to Denver. She came over and played with her and Addison loved her!! She laughed, squeeled and was so happy! (I think Addison was delighted to her someone speaking Korean..poor baby.)


Once we got home, the boys couldn't wait to play with her. She was completely exhausted, overwhelmed, and not in the mood to play...as you can see.


Addison didn't sleep well that first night, and I was completely exhausted from being up with her and the jetlag. I felt sick I was so tired.

Video of our trip: Part 3

Side note: Nights have gotten better. Its still a struggle and take tons of time ot get her calm and asleep, but there are signs its getting better.


Our plane didn't leave Seoul until 5pm, so we went to a nearby palace earlier in the day before leaving. She did great and loved being outside! (That was the palace where we went on the Japanese tour!)


We wanted Addison to have some play time before boarding the plane, so we found this great little playroom in the Seoul airport. While there, we ran into two other Holt babies being escorted home! They were adorable!


Addison did SO wonderfully on on trip home! We were so happy this went so smoothly!

Video of our trip: Part 2

Video of our Trip: Part 1

Random observations about Seoul

Here is the Kia headquarters building in downtown Seoul. Other major industries in Korea are Samsung and Hyundai.

Many of the toilets were quite elaborate! See the rectangular button on the left side? There were a variety of options on those buttons such as "flushing sound" and many other cleaning options! It was really funny. I didn't know what to push!

The shopping in Seoul was simply incredible!!! There were little shops like this one everywhere; on the side walk, in the subway...everywhere. They sold t-shirts, coats, tons of shoes, and many other things at these little shops. I would never make it to work on time if I lived there! (...and I'd be broke because I LOVED all the shoppping. It was amazing)

Other observations:

• The Koreans are very well-dressed people. I've never seen so many people wearing heels!
• Very, very few Koreans are overewieght.
• Korean stores always had incredible customer service!!! (amazing!!)
• The Koreans were very polite and helpful
• The city, airport, and subway were all very, very clean, but we could never find a trashcan?!
• Pop is very hard to find and when you do find it, it's expensive. (I did miss Diet Coke!)
  

A Korean stop sign near our hotel. I just thought it was interesting!

Our first family day! (4/2/10 in Seoul)

We had time to kill before our 5pm flight so we walked over to Changdeokgung Palace. It was much bigger than the other palace and more impressive. We showed up at 10:30, but discovered that you can only take guided tours. The only tour starting at 10:30 was the Japanese tour, so we grabbed an English guide book and toured the palace with the Japanese group!! It was hysterical!
Taking a break!! She LOVES to be "worn" in that carrier!

The King's throne in the throne hall.

Here we are with the Japanese tourists.

Addie & I at the palace

The entrance to the palace.

Addie in her favorite holder!

Addie playing at our hotel room.

Daddy feeding her a bottle.

Sweetness!

She loved this pink rubber ducky. It sqeeked and she loved biting it...like she is here.

"Gotcha Day" 4/1/10

Mark & I on the way to Holt via the subway

We immediately run into Ha-seon and her foster mother in the lobby. She is very happy!

She was eating a cracker-type stick and loving it.

See the stick?

Foster mom loving her one last time before we leave. We all cried, hence the reason there is no video. It was terribly difficult.

Little Addison, looking for her foster mom. (See her worried face?)

She started to cry right after this picture. She cried most of the wat back to the hotel. It was really sad. She kept looking around and out the window for her foster mom. She eventually cried herself to sleep.

Asleep in her daddy's arms.

We managed to get out of the cab, and go up the elevator without waking her up. It was a miracle!

Asleep on our bed.

Daddy & his baby.

I got video uploaded!!!

Wow...I'm a wreck

So, we go get Addison in about 6 hours, and I'm a wreck. I can't imagine how I'll take that little girl from her foster mom. who adores her. It will be heart wrenching. I wrote her foster mom a letter today and I've been crying since I started. Hopefully I'll get the crying out now, so I can hold it together while I'm there. This is terribly difficult. I can hardly eat and I can't stop crying. Poor Mark. Please pray for me. Pray for us. This is very hard and incredibly bittersweet.