Seoul- Day 2- We meet Kijin Woo Cho Wiersma

Hi All !

Here is our picture holding baby Kijin for the first time !

Our Day 2 started off first meeting our Social Worker, Ms Park,Mi Mi up the street at the HAN SUH Hospital-7th floor. Once met, we gave her a gift and thanking her what she has done for us. She told us we were going to meet Kijin and his foster family at their home, 30min away.

A driver drove us to Kijins foster family's home. Ms Park took us up the apartment and there we met , Kijin and his foster mom ! Kijin was sitting on the floor , playing with his toys. We said our hellos, took off our shoes and sat down on the floor.

We sat a bit away so he could see our faces, hear our voices and get use to us there. We grabbed a few toys and started to play with him. His foster mom had our photo album that we sent to them many weeks ago ! She pointed to the pictures, to indicate to him, his mom, his dad, and brother Kyler ! The teether we sent to him was also being used and we saw our family recordable book on the tv shelf.

While playing with him, we asked our questions to our social worker and she translated everything to the foster mother. She then repeated everything to me and wrote it down for me , to get it all later in a written english report. Baby Kijin, is very cute !!!!!!!!!! He is not so big as we thought ! The pictures they sent us , make him look much bigger and older. :) We fed him a baby cookie while trying to get him to being held by one of us. He grabbed Ed's hands and pulled himself up !!!! WOW ! He may be an early walker !

His foster mother served us tea, cookies, and strawberry's. She held him while she fed him cut up strawberry's. We were able to take a few photos and a mini movie from my camera. When the hour was up, we gave Kijin's foster mother a gift bag from us, which was full of Canadian gifts to her and her family. His foster mom then provided us a lovely "Hanbok" for Kijin's first birthday (Ton ).

They came down with us in the elevator to wave good-bye to us ! We were to meet our social worker again on Friday March 25, 2011 at 10:ooam at the HAN SUH Hospital where we will be given Kijin's all his things and then he will be with us forever. What a blessing to look forward too !!

It was a fantastic visit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We can't wait until he is ours forever !!!!

We now have a few days to shop and get to know Kijin's birth country until we get him on Friday. What did we do today ?? We walked to E-Mart !!- ( got a little lost but we found it ).

What is E-Mart ?: Sort of like a Walmart ! It was a 2 story grocery store with isles all over the place with all their signs written in Hangul. This was fun ! We basically walked around and tried to figure out what we wanted to buy. We decided to buy food !!! We bought pop, water, a large bag with 8 mini bags of chips inside, baby cookies for Kijin, Jam, Bread and manderins ! ( cost about 24$ in Canadian ) We forgot to bring our grocery bags !!! The cashier provided us with 1 bag and the rest we carried. For those who will be heading to Seoul and visit E-Mart, bring your own bags !!!!!!

Domino's Pizza !!! Why not? It was on the way back ! So we ordered a medium cheese pizza !! Yummmmm !!! We wolfed that down flat !!! Don't worry, we will try something "Korean"!

We are now just chilling out and just planning the rest of our days before we get Kijin!!!

Talk to you all later !!!

Karen and Ed

Seoul -Day 1

Hi all !

My first entry I put in a few hours ago did not save- now I am re-entering our Day 1 entry !

Well, we took off on time, Saturday March 19th-11:50pm- Everything went well, hardly any line ups. The Toronto airport is very nice- I have not been there since 2001.
Before we boarded the plane- there was an elderly lady with a small yappy dog !! It was going on the plane as carry on !!! I could not believe this !??? Thank goodness we did not sit near her !
We were seated by the window-3 seater--Just Ed and I in the row...This was great- stretched out a bit- hardly slept--the food was ok-but not the greatest !! Loved the movie selection though !!
We arrived on time in Seoul at 3:30am Monday March 21--around 2:00pm Sunday for you guys ! The airport was very nice as well. WE had to wait for a bus about an hour to take us to the Renaissance Hotel-near our final destination.
We boarded the bus-5:40am--then it took us through SEOUL - we were able to view many tall buildings, bridges and cars on their way to work.
We got to the hotel around 7:ooam and then walked to our Social Welfare Society Guest House ( SWS ). Boy, that was fun ! Walking up the hill with 3 suitcases and a stroller ! Whew !! Woke us up a bit ! The walking directions we had were clear- we had 2 of them ! Thanks for those Barb !
The weather is like Canada at the moment. Cool, damp in the morning, sun in the afternoon- around 13-15*. Not much greenery yet !
We found our SWS Guest House and met the doorman and a couple from Sweden who just adopted a baby girl !! They were on their way home- 3 planes -around 18hours total to Sweden!
I am now not complaining about our upcoming plane ride home !!

We are now in our family unit 1. Which has a kitchenette, TV, Computer, phone, washroom, 2 beds, and a crib for baby Kijin. We have been sleeping all day and as I write this, it is, 4:ooam Tuesday March 22. Their plug units are different here. 3 pronged outlets- We bought an adaptor before we left to plug in our electrical devices that need charging. I have yet to find out how to upload our pictures to the computer. ?

There are no clocks in the room. We are relying on Eds BB to set off the alarm to get ready in the morning. We are now in Seoul South Korea time. ( 13 hrs ) or so ahead of you guys in Canada!

WE meet our social worker around 10am or so and then travel on to meet Kijin and his foster family !!! So exciting and nerve racking !

Anyways, I am going back to bed to see if I can sleep some more !
Take Care everyone.

Karen and Ed( who is sleeping right now ) signing off from Seoul , South Korea March 22, 2011, 4:08 am !

The Journey--South Korea

Hi all !

I think i got some sleep, but not much ! We have a few things to pack and do before we leave so this may be the last blog entry before we fly out. We do have a computer where we are staying, and I hope to be in contact with family and friends and update our Blog.

Here is basically our Travel Itinerary : Canada time to Korean Time ( 14 hours ahead )
Day 1 : Fly out of Canada from Toronto for Seoul- Korean Air 11:50pm Saturday March 19th
Day 2: Sunday--still in the air
Day 3: Monday- Arrive in Seoul 02:30am and check in at the Social Welfare Society (SWS
Guest House ) then sleeeeeeeepppppp zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..... ( i hope ! )
Day 4: Tuesday-Meet with our social worker and meet Kijin and his foster family
Day 5,6: Wednesday-Thursday Explore Seoul and receive Kijin , sight see if possible or just
hang out and learn more about Kijin
Day 7,8: Friday, Saturday Sightseeing or shopping
Day 9: Sunday 10:00 am fly out of Seoul---Return to Canada 10:00am !!

We are really gone 7 days, but because of the time difference back and forth it will seem longer or shorter ! Oh My !!!!

Wish us luck !

Talk to you later in Seoul ! ( I hope )

Karen

Ugh ! I can't Sleep ! zzzzzzzz

Hi all.
Bare with me on this blog entry !

Well its almost midnight and I can't sleep ! My mind will not shut down. I am very excited, nervous, scared and have a million things going through my head !
I am soooo excited to go on this trip, meet Kijin and see as much as we can of South Korea-Seoul in 7 days. ( less time with the difference--they are around 14 hours ahead ) Whew !
I am soooo nervous ! The whole flight, meeting Kijin, meeting his foster family , and especially just knowing we are not too far from Japan and what is going on there. I am praying every minute that we will be safe, stress free and come home on time as planned. We are flying out on Saturday, which means the airport will be a ZOO for all those travellers coming back from March Break and those coming in from Japan. Stress free, stress free, breeeeaaathhhheeee .....
Have I packed everything ? Do I have everything? Did I pack way too much or way too little ? ( too much i bet ) How do you people travel with babies????? Small kids??? All the power to you !!! Bring on the power to me !!! That flight home is 13hours plus with a 9 month old who hardly knows us !!! Thank you all who have called or emailed me to give me your support, suggestions and so on in the last week or so on how to travel with a baby !!! ( and more ! :)
I think my brain is in overload- !!!! Ya think ???
Kyler is a lot on my mind as well---a very excited big brother !!! He will have to adjust as well on all the changes that will occurr once we return ! Pray for him too that he will do just fine and learn that he is not the only child anymore. He has done really well in school this year, we hope he will continue to keep up his grades and that bringing Kijin home will not upset his school schedule too much !
Once we return on Sunday the 27th--lets hope I remember to pack his lunch and actually get him off to school on time on the Monday !!!

Once we are home, and have slept ( i hope so !!! ) and have finished with some of our appointments, etc, it may be some time before we venture out with Kijin and see our families and friends. So give us some time, we will get to you eventually, to show Kijin off !!

Well, thanks for letting me get some of these thoughts off my chest. I hope I can get to sleep now !

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts, prayers, emails , calls and keeping in touch on our Blog !

Off to bed zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz .........................

Karen

We are off to South Korea ! --Saturday March 19th !

Hi all !!! We got the call on Friday March 11th--that Kijin's VISA came in ! Yeah ! So we are booked to fly out on March 19th---YES this Saturday !!!! and return on the 27th ! We will meet him for the first time on Tuesday !!! We are very excited ! I think we have everything packed and more !! Kyler will stay with his grandparents in Kitchener as planned and anxiously wait for our arrival with his new baby brother ! Thanks everyone for all your thoughts and prayers up to this point and would love for you to continue to do so until we return !
We will do our best to stay in contact either by email/FB or our Blog while we are there !
Wish us a safe and stress free trip !

KEKK Wiersma

Kijin's VISA is in !

Hi all ! I got a call today that Kijin's VISA is ready ! Which means we will plan to travel to South Korea in the next coming weeks ! We hope by the end of next week that most of the details will be worked out and we will have a take off date ! Although we got our happy news today, our thoughts are with those in Japan and the rest of those who are devastated with this tragic event. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families who are in envolved and for those adoptive families who are waiting to travel to Japan or may be a "Family in Waiting" for a referral from Japan.

KEKK Wiersmas

New Photos of Kijin !

Hi all ! Today we got our updated photos of Kijin ! He is getting soooo big! He is a healthy almost 9 month old ! Wow ! We are currently on our 5th week of waiting for his VISA to be ready. ( it usually takes 8-12 ) Almost there !! Apparently our care package arrived at the right address and the right spot ! I hope there is a way for us to find out if it got to Kijin and his foster family :) Thanks again for all the emails, thoughts and prayers that we have been receiving :)

Karen, Ed, Kyler