3 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed: 2 1/2 years and 2nd meeting

2 1/2 years before our second meeting with Suhbin we walked into an office and met with a woman who told us all about the Korea program at Barker. That day we paid the first payment and filled out the preliminary application. The official start to our adoption process.

2 1/2 years later, half a world away, we stepped off an elevator and walked into another office. We were greeted by our Social Worker and told that the van wasn't back quite yet but that they'd be here soon. We waited.

Before I tell you how the second meeting went, I want to post about what we did earlier in the day. We had plans to meet our new friends for a quick lunch before their meeting with their son so we took it easy in the morning. We checked out the Coex to see what was there. We walked there and stopped by Paris Baguette for some tasty treats on the way. It was a beautiful walk (have I mentioned that I love the green! Seoul made me realize how much I miss seeing grass and big full trees). We went in and checked out some of the stores, saw the movie theater and food court, our favorite spot was the book store. We really just walked through and figured we'd come back at some point since it's so close to our hotel and has a ton of restaurants (some really yummy looking Korean places as well as American chains).

My husband hates being in pictures but I had to show that I was not in Korea alone!
This was one of our favorite places! :)

A yummy treat from Paris Baguette

A sweet potato donut! This was AMAZING! We couldn't find it again after that day, but wow - YUM!

The green walking guy! This picture is for B and E - whenever we cross the street we look for the white walking guy - but in Korea it was the GREEN walking guy! :) Made us think of them every time.

This was the directory at the Coex Mall - interactive. Very fun! :)

For E - The Hello Kitty Store! :)

MEGABOX was the Movie Theater - but right in that area were the concessions and the food court. Kind of fun.

I don't know if you can read any of it, but more reasonable concession prices than in the US!

Weird, so I took a picture! :)

Thought this looked like a fun place to take Suhbin after taking custody.

GREEN! And FLOWERS! It looks like home (the east coast is home to me)! :)

We left the Coex to walk back to meet our friends. All of us were really nervous about our second meeting so we met at McDonald's. Brian and I split a bulgogi burger (strange but not bad, not amazing either, I'd rather have bulgogi or a burger) and french fries. It's also one of the few places I could get a decent Diet Coke. Most importantly we could pass the time with new friends while waiting to see our sons. Sadly, we didn't get any pictures of us together. We'll have to meet up sometimes so we can do that! :) Plus we'd love to get our boys together. They were both born in the same month and I hope they can meet one day.

We walked A and A to SWS and then walked back to our hotel to change. On the way we stopped by the 7-Eleven to pick up Soy Milk - which wasn't easy to identify but eventually we found some. Subin's FM told us she mixed soy milk in with the formula. So once we changed and regrouped for a few minutes we walked to SWS for our meeting.

So back to the waiting. While we waited I took a picture of the white board that has their schedule for the next two weeks posted. It was all in Hangul so I was trying to figure out where Suhbin's info was written. :)

Then Suhbin and his Foster Mom walked in. It was great to see them but he was not very happy. Our poor baby fell asleep in the van and was quite groggy and fussy. I now know enough about him to know that he wakes up hard! We went into the room with the tiny pink chair (which is so little - you don't realize it in the pictures - I think I assumed it was child-sized, but it's baby-toddler sized - really small). That room is awful! We spend a torturous hour with our sweet boy. Once or twice he started to engage and play with us but then seemed to remember that he didn't want us and stopped. Then he went and sat in his Foster Mom's lap and anything we touched (toys, etc.) he would pull aggressively out of our grasp and try to scoot further into his FM's (Foster Mom) lap. It wasn't physically possible, but he tried! He knew something was UP! That boy was NOT happy!!! I was ready to cry the entire time. It was SO hard! I can't even think about that time without feeling like I might cry. Eventually our Social Worker said that if he's not really engaging we might as well end for the day. This was the most merciful thing she could have done. I left and then started to cry. We were both so depressed. We went back to the hotel to try to regroup. We'd had plans for that night and I didn't want to do anything at all. I knew that wasn't an option but I was so depressed it was really hard. Eventually we decided to walk back to the Coex for dinner. Our stomachs were in knots. We ate at Outback. It was OK. Honestly I hardly tasted the food. It took quite a while for me to calm down. We had fun talking, but it was really not as much fun as we hoped since we were both a bit emotional. OK, I was a lot emotional and even Brian was a bit emotional.

The next thing we had planned and I almost said that we shouldn't bother b/c I was emotionally exhausted, but we decided to go. We got a cab to make it easier on us and we went to N Seoul Tower. I'm SO glad we did! Our cab driver got quite lost and it took a while - at least 45 minutes to get there - and it cost about $15! Amazing to us that a cab could be that cheap! And that was the most expensive one we had!

OK, so we arrived and took the cable car up. It was a beautiful ride and looking down it looked like a beautiful walk! A LONG walk, but a beautiful one if you had the time (and emotional energy). I'm still looking for the picture, but there were lights under the trees along the way and it was just gorgeous! The stairs we did walk up were still plenty and beautiful. N Seoul Tower was the perfect last date night for a while! We loved it! And ended it with Ice Cream at Cold Stone! LOL! :)