Korea--Day 4 (Tuesday, June 26, 2018)

This morning we got up early and had fruit and oatmeal in our room before taking a van with one other family to Eastern Social Welfare Society, where it all began for our babies.  It was about a 30 minute drive, and on the way, Sarah counted 12 different Starbucks.  There are almost 400 of them in Seoul.  It rained relentlessly all day, and it was so hot and humid.

When we arrived at ESWS, we were standing in a little hallway with an older Korean couple, and the woman looked at Noah and said, "Jin Seong?" I told her in Korean that yes, he is Jin Seong, and she hugged him and so did her husband, and then she stood there holding his hand.  We assumed they were the foster parents.  We didn't expect to meet them in the hall with no introduction, and we weren't expecting the husband to be there at all, because we were told that only the mother would be there.  So the meeting didn't happen at all like I expected it to, so I wasn't prepared with my camera. I wasn't expecting to get all emotional either, but there I was crying in the hall, looking at Mrs. Cho and Noah holding hands.  I didn't even get a picture of it. I hugged her and said "thank you" in Korean.
Then we were ushered into a little room with an interpreter.

I asked the foster parents myself (in Korean) where their daughter was. She was the foster sister who lived with us for a month about 14 years ago, and we had hoped to see her during this visit.  They told us that Ji Young wanted to come but had to work.  She is 30 years old, married, has a one-year-old son, and works at Emerson as a computer programming engineer. They showed us this picture on their phone.

I said the Korean word for "grandma" and pointed to the foster mother and she beamed. We found out that they are now retired from foster parenting, and that they had six other foster children besides Noah (he was their third).  We gave them our gifts, including 2 photo albums I had put together of Noah growing up.  They loved looking through those with Noah.

They gave us gifts too: a wireless mouse for Noah, a spoon, chopsticks, and socks for each of us. I put the socks on, and Mrs. Cho showed me that she was wearing similar ones.

I got out the photo book I had made to show them our house, our extended family, map of where we live, etc.  We were looking through it, and the interpreter was explaining. All the sudden the door opened, and in walked a Korean woman who latched onto Sarah and said, "Jee Hye?"  I'm thinking this must be her foster mother, but we weren't scheduled to meet her until afternoon.

 So then there was a little confusion and chaos, and all the Koreans talking in Korean.  We rearranged ourselves so that Sarah could sit by Mrs. Im, and the interpreter was kept busy trying to interpret for everyone.  

 I scrambled around to find the gifts for Mrs. Im, and then she and Sarah looked through the photo albums I had made of Sarah growing up.

 She gave Sarah and Noah fans, and she gave neck pillows to Mike and me. She said her husband loved Sarah and wanted to come but had to work, so he asked her to take lots of photos. After some picture-taking, she apologized for the short visit and said she had to leave.   

Noah's foster parents wanted to arrange a time to get together with us, and we're trying to work that out for the day before we leave, with Ji Young as interpreter. I used my limited Korean to tell them that I don't speak Korean well and asked if Ji Young speaks English well.  They said she does. We exchanged email addresses and phone numbers and the interpreter helped us get connected on Kakao Talk, which is a Korean instant messaging app.  Then our time was up, and I gave the interpreter a pen and an American flag pin, which she seemed excited about.  Thank yous and goodbyes all around, and then we went to join the rest of the group to watch a video about ESWS.

 The foster father sent us this picture later and said, "We are a family."

After the video, the president of ESWS gave a nice speech and gave us all souvenirs, and each family presented her with gifts. I remembered to bow and present the gift with two hands.  Then we were taken on a tour of ESWS. I was very disappointed that I was not allowed to hold the babies. There were about 25 of them in two rooms, and they were so little and cute and wanting to be held. But they said I would have to present a certificate of good health from a doctor before holding them.We did get to look through the windows at them if we wore masks.

 

 The file room, where all the adoption files are kept.

 We got to see (and sit on) the famous red chair that was in the referral pictures that ESWS sent to us.

 
Then we went to lunch on the 5th floor.  We were told to wait until the president began eating before we could eat. So we were sitting there with our plates full of good Korean food, and the president was going around visiting.  I love this picture, because Mike looks perfectly content to wait all day, and Sarah is turned around glaring at the president like "Why don't you start eating so I can eat?!"

I tried the kimchi, and I actually liked it!  Kimchi varies widely. 

After lunch, we met with a social worker to review the kids' files and talk about the search for their birthmothers.  They at least got to see their birthmothers' fingerprints. I saw all the pictures and letters I've sent over the years so that if the birthmothers ever check, they will find them. In Sarah's file were a couple things that belonged in someone else's file.  The social worker was embarrassed and apologetic about that.  

 

 Their visa applications

 Then we sat around in a room waiting for all the other families to finish so we could take the bus back to the hotel. Scenes from the room:

 Korean flag

 

 Korean Bible

 Noah and Sarah with their new friend Will.

Took the bus back to the hotel and walked to a restaurant (California Pizza Kitchen) with the group.  The boys got pizza, Sarah got linguini (which they all agreed was better than the pizza), and I got a salad.

 On the way to get Noah a haircut, I met a kitty in the street who gave me a coupon to the cat cafe.

 I passed up the grilled ox parts.

We walked to a hair place so Noah could get a real Korean haircut. He's had his hair cut by white people who don't understand Korean hair all his life, and tonight he got the best haircut he's ever had.  The woman who cut it had some serious skills.  We walked in off the street, barely had to wait at all, and for 15,000 won (less than $15), he got a wash, cut, blow dry, and style.  And there's no tipping in Korea, which is great.

The end.