Day 3 Part 1~Seoul Tower

We met up with our new friends K & E and headed to Seoul Tower!  We took a cab to the bottom of the mountain and then a bus takes you a little ways up.  It is then a pretty steep 10 minute walk up to the bottom of the tower (if that makes any sense).  On the way up, we noticed that there was workout equiptment!  We actually noticed this all over Seoul, free to the public outdoor gyms!  We found it funny that when we got to the top of the mountain there was a Cold stone creamery (Random!).  We bought tickets for the tower, bought locks, tags, and some other souvineers. You could see all of Seoul from the top of the tower on a clear day (it wasn't a clear day when we went).

We then came down the tower so we could place our lock symbolizing our forever love and forever family!  We found our place to put our lock, the 5th "Christmas Tree" over. 

We then decided to head back to the hotel to get ready to meet our son!!!!!  We headed down the mountain, this time deciding to skip the bus and just walk, bad idea!  I guess we didn't take a right turn and ended up getting lost.  We were going down (correct for wanting to go down the mountain) and then after we walked a long way started going back up (not correct).  We had actually made a circle around the mountain and were about to go back up the thing!  We finally found a sign that said University and turned there, finding a cab there (thank the Lord!).  



Seoul City Tour

We woke up so refreshed after a great night sleep.  We then were able to explore our hotel a little.  It was a beautiful hotel on the army base.  I would recommend staying there to anyone who is Military!

Our first full day in Seoul was spent with another adopting couple and our sweet tour guide MJ. We went to a beautiful palace and got some great pictures and got to see the changing of the guards ceramony!

We then went on to one of the fabulous markets, Insadong.  There we tried some honey candy and watched how they made it (hilarious and very entertaining!).  We sipped on some tea and ate a super yummy lunch!  I wish that I would have gotten pics down the street of Insadong but I didn't :(

We then went onto a really neat part of Seoul, a neighborhood that was like it's own little village.  The street was narrow and it went up and up and up.  I guess wealthy people live there, and the homes are pretty traditional. I was interviewed while we were up there by some sweet high school students.  They loved the fact that I was from the United States!

From there we went to another awesome market!  I was able to find some adorable hanboks (traditional Korean dress) for the kids and some other goodies.  I don't have any pictures but the streets were lined with all sorts of trinkets, souvenir's, and beautiful things.  It was such an amazing day!  We had such a great time with our new friends and we had the best tour guide.  We were in love with Seoul!

Welcome to Seoul!!!

We were in the same city as our son!!!  It was an amazing feeling!

We got through customs pretty quick and found our driver right away!  The drive from the airport to our hotel was a little scary!  There were no seatbelts in our van and we were going pretty fast!  But we made it to our hotel!!  It was already 11pm Seoul time, we didn't even unpack, we just hit the sack!  We made it!

Here we go!

So the night/morning that we left for Korea was VERY eventful!  Brooklyn had been sick and was finally on the mend when Dave got sick.  He ended up going to the ER (hopefull to get antibiotics for strep throat) at 10pm Sunday night and got back at 3am Monday morning.  We then left for the airport at 4:45am for our 6am flight!  Thankfully they were able to give him a shot and a perscription for antibiotics.  When we landed in Houston, Dave left the airport, took a cab to the nearest Walgreens, and made it back in time (thank you Lord!) for our flight to Tokyo.  The flight was LONG (13.5 hours)!!  I actually didn't sleep much.  Dave slept a lot of the way and I read and watched movies.  We had a four hour layover in Tokyo and then it was off to Seoul!! 

The night before we left

Our girls made countdown rings, so that they would know how much longer until mommy, daddy, and Liam would be home.  My mom and mother-in-law said that it was a big help and they were so excited to rip a ring off every morning!

Packing!!

Before we got THE CALL, we started packing his things and making lists of what we needed to take with us. We had reached out to friends about some needs that Holt Korea had and we got an amazing response of donations! I am so greatful for these amazing, giving, caring friends.

So behind! We'll start with THE CALL!

I am so far behind on blogging that I will just make all of these posts short and sweet!  Wednesday afternoon, I called DC and they told me that Liam has his VI scheduled for 5/24 and they see his picutre!!  I got off the phone and immidiately started crying.  It was almost like 1 year of waiting and emotions finally poured out and I knew that this was it, I was going to be able to hold my son SOON!  Thursday morning my phone rang and this is what I saw...

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and I had to just look at the caller id for a minute just to see if this was really happening.  IT WAS!  It was Lisa telling me that Liam was ready for us to go and get him!  After I got off the phone with her, I hugged my mom and called Dave.  He took the rest of the day off of work so we could work on travel arrangments.  After a lot of coordination we had hotel and flight info and would start preparing for departure Monday, May 27, 2012.