Eastern

This post will wrap up our Korean adventure and for some reason, I've struggled with what to write. Since this blog will be "out there" forever for Graham and Amelia to read, I want to be completely honest for them...

I know that culturally, adoption isn't something generally accepted by the Korean community. Korean culture places huge emphasis on bloodline and adoption doesn't allow for a "clean" family tree. This isn't something that I believe to be true, but in doing any research on this topic, one would find such statements. Each time I've traveled to Korea, I've visited with this knowledge. But, on this visit with our Korean born children, these beliefs hit me hard. I felt like I we might as well have been carrying signs that said "Yes, our family was formed through adoption, and yes, we're proud of it!" Never in my life have I felt so vulnerable and "out there". Never in my life have we been stared at like we were stared at. Never in my life have I had people so blatantly converse about my family within inches of us. It was a very strange experience and I'm just thankful that Graham and Amelia weren't old enough to understand that our family make-up was causing such discussion.

On the flip side of that though, I left Korea, with it's millions of people and jam packed subways, with an intense gratitude. Graham and Amelia are miracles. The fact that any pregnancy in Korea ends with an international adoption plan is amazing all on its own. The fact that not once, but twice, we've been blessed with such gifts is miraculous. International adoption is quite the journey and I can't put into words the gratitude I feel to know that despite the odds, our road thankfully led us to Graham and Amelia and that their road led them to us.

Eastern Social Welfare Society is the Korean adoption agency that partners with our stateside agency. Over the years, 'Eastern' is a place we've become very familiar with. It's a place that holds much emotion in our hearts. It's the place we first laid eyes on Graham and Amelia and it's also the place where many tears were shed as the kids unknowingly said good-bye to their lovely foster families-the only family they had ever known.

I wasn't sure how the kids would react to being back at Eastern and having the chance to visit with their foster mothers. I was so excited to bring the kids back and show everyone what amazing little people they have grown into. I know Graham and Amelia were so loved by their foster families and I knew how excited their foster mothers would be to see them in person. The foster mothers spotted Graham and Amelia as they walked up the stairs and immediately began calling out to them in their Korean names. It was an amazing feeling to watch the foster mothers, with huge grins on their faces, run up to the kids. They were clearly beyond thrilled to see the babies they so lovingly took care of now 3 and 4 years old, walking, talking, with big personalities!

Graham took the meeting in stride. He seemed pleased to have his foster mothers undivided attention as he flipped through the photo book we made for her. She doesn't speak any English, but that didn't stop Graham from talking a mile a minute with statements such as "This is me at the lake house!" and "This is me on the Mickey Mouse boat!" His foster mother was so sweet and just beamed as she listened to Graham talk. Thank goodness for translators!

Amelia on the other hand, had a tough time with the visit. Amelia's foster mother was equally as sweet and wanted so badly to cuddle with Amelia. Amelia wanted no part of that though. She spent the better part of the meeting crying hysterically for me to hold her. I wish I understood more about young children and memories because Amelia was clearly working through something. Ever since we've been home from Korea, she's needed MUCH more reassurance than ever before and she's been my little shadow. Each day gets a little better for her though, and we'll continue to provide her with as much reassurance as she needs!

After we said our good-byes, we walked around the building a bit to show the kids around. Our first stop was the nursery. Both Graham and Amelia spent a short amount of here after they were born and before they moved in with their foster families. Surreal doesn't even begin to describe the emotion I felt as I watched my babies watching the babies. Again, miraculous. We offered to help feed the babies but because it is flu season, we couldn't enter the nursery with the kids so we had to settle for just observing.
Our last stop at Eastern was a visit to the infamous red throne. Does this look familiar to anyone?

Wow, are they growing up fast, or what?

Korea!

Life is finally back on track in the Olson house! It was rough going for the first few days home as we all took a turn being sick and as a result paid the doctor three visits. Graham and Amelia had an extremely difficult time adjusting to the 14 hour time change once home. Jeff and I think we suffered from jet lag, but the truth of the matter is that the kids didn't let us sleep at night anyways, so we weren't sure if we were tired from dealing with them all night long or from dealing with out own internal body clocks being off. Regardless, just over a week later, and we're all doing well!

Before we left, the flight is what concerned me the most. I had visions of being stuck in a chair with unhappy preschoolers for 15 hours and it wasn't pretty. But, I'm honestly able to say that the flight was the easiest part of the trip! Graham and Amelia did a fantastic job and earned many compliments from those sitting around us! After traveling for a week, we obviously have lots of stories to share, too many in fact to write down in a blog. So, I think I'll just let the pictures and their descriptions do the talking....

Daddy Jeff and Graham checking out the live crab at the grocery store across the street from Halmoni and Haraboji's condo

Amelia did NOT like the smell of the crab. Actually, Amelia didn't seem to really enjoy many of the smells of Korea. This pose was a common occurrence for her.

Family trip to E-Mart. This store sells everything from groceries to clothes to toys and even pets

Quick stop at the local playground

Sleeping on the subway-a very regular occurrence for these two. And yes, we had them in strollers when we were out and about. Between the jet lag induced exhaustion and the fact that the amount of walking we did was extreme, there was no way these two would have been able to survive so they very happily rode in their chariots.

Amelia at the Coex Aquarium

When I was in Korea back in College, a favorite hangout for my friends and I was the Coex Mall. Here we are at Coex sitting in the exact same spot that I sat in with friends more than 10 years ago!

Outside Seoul Tower

Graham and Amelia in front of a few of the "Locks of Love" at Seoul Tower

These trees covered in locks go on forever. The "Locks of Love" tradition was started back in the 80's. 'Locks' and 'love' are considered to be synonymous so visitors began leaving padlocks with notes attached as a way to lock their love forever. Knowing of this tradition, we of course had to leave our own lock...

Our lock and note. For those of you that have ever eaten a meal with Graham, you know that he made up this prayer and insists that we hold hands and say it each time we sit down together as a family.

Graham and Amelia taking in Seoul from the top of the tower. We are officially very far from home here....

Happy Birthday to Daddy Jeff! We're enjoying a traditional Korean meal at a local restaurant.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Fell asleep on top of her magna-doodle at lunch

Amelia and I outside of the Somerset Palace-the hotel we stayed at when we traveled to bring her home!

Octopus for sale on the streets of Insadong

Ginseng anyone?

Daddy Jeff was impressed by these mushrooms at Namdeamun-the biggest we've ever seen!

This is the restroom that Daddy Jeff visited before I called him ...does anyone else see a problem with this? We'll just blame it on jet lag! :)

Dunkin Donut break at Seoul Station

Having a slow morning watching a little "Bubble Guppies"

Once of the other things we did while in Seoul was visit Eastern (the Korean adoption agency) and met with both Graham and Amelia's foster mothers. I have lots of pictures of this and a lot to say about this experience so stay tuned....that experience deserves a blog post of its own.

Happy Halloween!

***Korea Pictures are coming, I promise! We're dealing with the worst case imaginable of jet lag around here, so unless it's a task necessary to our day, it's probably not happening right now. The kids have been waking up for the day about 1 am! So, that leaves the Mommy and Daddy of the house VERY, VERY tired...and frustrated! When life resumes to even close to normal, I promise a big Korea blog update!***


Despite our complete lack of sleep and as a result energy, we just HAD to trick-or-treat tonight! We met up at Grandma and Grandpa's house so Graham, Amelia, Miles, and Grace could enjoy Halloween together. We're hoping that all the cool, fresh air and running around collecting candy will result in a bit more sleep tonight...cross your fingers!

The Gang! Spider Man, Darth Vader, Baby Elephant, and Butterfly Princess

Butterfly Princess sporting a cute new haircut under that hood

Darth Vader

Darth Vader (with a very serious face) and Grandma

Grandpa and his Butterfly Princess

Packing...

We're less than 72 hours away from our Korean adventure so we're in full packing and organizing mode around here! Our packing lists are made and I think after one more trip to Target for those last minute items, we'll be good to go. The kids are fully aware that we have a trip coming up, they just have no concept that getting to Korea is going to be more than 20 hours (YIKES!) of travel from door to door. I must be talking an awful lot about packing because I stumbled upon a pile of Amelia's "stuff" and when I asked her to put it away, she said "I packed for Korea all by myself. Now you're all done packing!"

A pair of pink princess high heels, "Baby" without any pants, a bottle for "Baby", and a single pair of Snow White underwear...yep, I'd say Amelia is packed and ready for a week in Korea!

Fall Perfection

We've had the most wonderful fall this year. I actually don't remember one quite like it...I'm talking sunny weather in the 80's for the past several weeks! It's been heaven to carry on with our normal "summer" activities but do it surrounded with red and orange covered trees. I think the knowledge that snow isn't too far off in our future make us appreciate this all the more.

My absolute favorite place in the fall is St. Olaf College, so that's where we headed today! The kids get excited when they hear we're going to visit "their college". I don't know what it is about that campus and the small town of Northfield, but it's magic. I love that Graham and Amelia know their way around the school and enjoy running outside going from building to building checking everything out. Daddy Jeff and I figure that by the time they're ready for college, St. Olaf will already feel like their second home! :)

Graham LOVES to play in the leaves. Amelia...not so much. The leaves are "too dirty"!

The obligatory chair shot. Amelia chose her accessories today and she was beyond proud to strut around campus with her pink ruffled purse!

Mr. Graham and his chair picture

St. Olaf

FOUR Years!

It's been four years since we became known as Mama and Daddy around the house. It's been four years since I got to rock my baby for the first time. It's been four years since we dealt with our first explosive diapers and baby food being splattered across the kitchen floor. It's been four years since I realized I would do anything, literally anything, for this little guy of ours. It's been four years since Jeff and I locked eyes over our sleeping son and realized in an instant that our lives would never be the same, life had changed for the better! Four years ago today, we flew with a very brave 8 month old Graham from Seoul to Minneapolis, and what an amazing four years it has been!

Four years ago, I could have never imagined the reality of celebrating Graham's 4th 'Gotcha Day'. Not only are we celebrating with Graham, but his little sidekick Amelia is now with us too, to get in on the fun. We all started our day with sprinkle donuts (the coolest treat ever, according to the Olson kids) and juice. Graham was also more than thrilled with the Super Hero balloon that decorated his chair. Tonight, we'll be seeing the Lion King in 3D and Daddy Jeff will be sneaking Happy Meals into the theater (he's cool like that) just for the occasion. We'll end our night with Graham's dessert of choice-cherry pie. We were more than happy to let Graham make all the choices for the day and thankfully, we're easily able to grant his little 4 year old wishes.

Happy 4th 'Gotcha Day', Graham! We love you forever, and ever, and ever!

First Day of School!

With very mixed feelings on my part, both of the kids started school this morning! It was beyond strange to drop them both off and drive away with two empty car seats. I'm sure I will quickly get used to my two quiet mornings each week but until then, the quiet is a reminder of just how quickly time is passing and just how big the kids are getting!

Amelia was so excited for school! She didn't show even a bit of nervousness, it was pure excitement for our girl! Last year, she was with me when we would do the preschool drop-off/pick-up routine for Graham. Each time we dropped Graham off, she wanted to stay, and each time we picked Graham up, she wanted to stay. Our entire family fell in love with the teacher Graham had last year and we couldn't be happier that Amelia is in her class this year. Amelia proudly wore her backpack this morning and confidently marched down the hall to her classroom. As soon as she saw her teacher, she broke into a sprint and ran straight into her arms for a hug. When I picked Amelia up, she was all smiles and was very excited to report that "...even preschool has pink crayons!" I am confident that Miss Amelia is going to have a great year at school!


Graham has also been extremely excited for school. If he had his way though, I'm pretty sure he would have bypassed this last year of preschool and jumped on the school bus headed straight for kindergarten. In the past few months, Graham has had a time of amazing growth both physically and emotionally. His entire attitude and outlook seems to have changed overnight. All of a sudden "cool" is his adjective of choice and anything Star Wars is EXTREMELY cool! Very rarely does Graham leave the house without a baseball cap. But, it has to be worn backwards and don't try to tell him otherwise! It's amazing to me that next year at this time my Star Wars loving boy with be a Kindergarten student. Until then though, I'm going to savor each and every day that I get to just hang out with both of my kids at home because that yellow school bus will be pulling up for Graham before I know it...

And completely unrelated to the first day of school, was the entertainment that a plain box provided the kids this afternoon. Who would have thought that a box, would keep them happily playing while I unloaded the dishwasher, cleaned up from lunch, and folded a load of laundry? To most people, that might not sound like a long time, but in the Mommy world, to get all that done uninterrupted is unheard of....VICTORY!