Meeting Avery!!! FINALLY!!!

We had about a 30 minute wait till Avery arrived so we ate ice cream!

 



 

Here is the first glimpse we had of her.  The foster mom's grandson was holding her!

 



Not very happy with all the strangers!

 



 Playing with toys.

 

Her is Avery sitting with her foster mom!

 



 Here she is with the grandson and the other baby she is fostering now!  During the entire meeting the foster son was facetiming with a girl, I think his sister, she was crying, he was crying, I wascrying, the foster mom was cryinbg - it was terribly, terrrible sad.  You have no idea.  It still makes me cry to think about it.

 

The foster mom and her sister.  The whole family came to say good bye.  It was terribly sad!

 



 Here is the littel boy the foster mom is also caring for.  He was so adorable.

 

 It broke my heart to see the grandson cry.  He skipped classes to come say good bye.  Mind you, this family has had her since she was 15 days old.  I can't imagine the heartbreak.

 

 The foster mom and her enitre family saying goodbye.

 

 Us and the foster mom...last photo.  So many many tears.

 

 

 Here is DJ, the social worker, and Avery.

 

 

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Meeting Addison's foster mom

 I know I posted video of Addison and her foster mom's meeting, but here are some photos too.  It was so moving.  I can't even desrcibe it.  She just loves her so much.  She said she has her photos hung in her living room still to this day.  It clear she has a very special place in her heart! 

 

The littel guy Jack is holding above is the baby boy she is now fostering.  He was a HUGE baby.  He cracked us up!!!

 When we arrived at Holt we ran into her in the hall.  She squealed and ran over to us, and started kissing and touching Addie's face.  She then held her and just hugged and kissed her. 

 

 She couldn't get over how beautiful Addies was!  (We agree!)

 

 This is is just before we entered Holt to meet Addie's foster mom.  My pictures are uploading in a weird order!

 

This was our first glimpse of the Holt office.

 

After we chatted with Addie's foster mom via an interpreter, we went all went to lunch at a Korean BBQ restaurant.  It was a hit!  It was my perosnal favorite so far!  Although I did really like the fried sushi!

 

The BBQ!  Yummy!

 

Here is Addie sitting next to her foster mom.  She let her feed her too!  Her foster mom would wrap the meat up in lettuce and then just shove it into her mouth.  Addie was a really trooper and let her do it too!  It made her foster mom so happy!  It was a great meeting.  I'm SO, SO glad we did this.  It was completely worth while.  I feel it was the very least we could do to show the foster mom how much we appreciated her lover for our daughter. 

 

Thank you foster mom! 

 

 We love you, and Addie wants to take you home with her!

 

Addison's foster mother

 

Addie with her foster mother. We actually ran into her foster mother in the ahll. She saw Addison and snatched her right up and began to love on her. She was so sweet and se thrilled to see her. She said she wanted to adopt her but the family felt she was too old. She also said she felt this woudl be the last time she'd see her. It was so moving. It was worth every penny for that couple hours. We also got to fo eat lunch with her. I ahve photos and will upload them later.

 

sept. 6: PM The Market

Here we are on the subway headed to a popular Korean market.  The boys hate it when I take photos of them on the subway. 

 

Here is the market - full of people!

 

 Here we are in teh market.

 

 Here is a lady selling fish in the market.

 

More markets.

 

 While at the market, we went to a very traditional hole-in-the-wall Korean restaurant.  We went up three, very steep, narrow staircases, and finally found a floor that had an available table.  We all took our shoes off and sat on the floor.  Our guide, Sue, ordered for us.  We ate noodles in soup, hot & cold, plus a littel kimchi.  It was a great experience! 

 



Addie was sound asleep during the market and lunch.  Here she is sleeping on my back.  That carrier is a wonderful thing!!!

 

 Here we are with Sue at the market!

 

Ah yes!!! McDonalds!  ...but they have no Diet Coke.  I'm dying without it!   

 

 Addie, trying to sleep again on my back.

 

The boys, tired.  very tired.  The 14 hour jet-lag is kicking in!! 

We were on our way to see the popular show called "Nanta."  Its kind of like "Stomp" in that in incorporates rythms, dancing, and humor into a show.  There is virtually no dialop as the story is told by acting, rythm, and dance so we could understand it even though it was Korean.

Here is the theater sign.

 The performers

 

 One of the drumming sequences.

 

Teh grand finale.  It was  great show.  It was very funny and entertaining!  The boys loved it! 



Sept. 6: AM: Gyeongbokgung Palace

 Thursday, Spetember 6th, we started our morning with our "city tour."  Holt gives us an interpreter for the day and then we just explore the city with her!  We started at Gyeongbokgung palace, the largest palace in Seoul.  Here we are en route to the palace via the subway.

 "Sue" our interpreter is there on the right.  She is a college student and majoring in marketing.

 

 The palace was full of little school children touring the palace.  They were so cute!

 

 Beautiful palace!

 

 Men dressed in traditional guards uniforms.

 

All the pillars and ceilings were intricately painted and colorful!  They were beautiful!

 

 She was done listening to the tour guide!

 

 All of us!

'

 I love this photo!

 

The main palace building where the king resided.

 

 

Addie, now posing!

 The boys by one of the lakes.

 

Behind us was a large pond covered with lilly pads.  It had a wlakway to the gazebo in the middle of the pond.  It was full of fish and was gorgeous.

 

 Here we are in front of "The Blue House" which is jsut like our "White House".  The Korean president resides there!  It was very cool!

 

More photos of the "Blue House"

 

Jack in on the many entryways.  Behind him are the traditional Korean pots used to make Kimchi.

Next blog post: The afternoon of September 6th - the market!!

Traveling to Seoul

 This is what you look like after 15 hours of travel! 

An update on our trip:  We arrived early in Denver, but departed late.  We arrived in San Fransisco only 10 minutes late, but had no gate to dock to...we waited almost an hour on the tarmac waiting for a gate.  By the time we got off the plane we had missed our connecting flight to Seoul.  We were then re-routed through Tokyo which added an additional 6 hours of travel time!!!  Were glad we were able to get a flight to Seoul, but bummed about an additional 6 hours of travel. 

 Here we are in Tokyo, which is the hottest airport in the world!!!  (seriously, where was the was conditioning?!) We were very tired!

 Addie on the other hand was feeling FABULOUS!  Here she is posing!

 More sassy posing!

Below:  Here is Nick doing some homework at the Tokyo airport.

Here is our hotel from the outside!  Its really beautiful!  I'm having a terrible time uploading photos and NO luck uploading videos so I'll do my best to keep the blog as updated as the technology will allow.  The view is from our hotel!  Its SO beautiful!