Update After First Week

We have been asked by many to keep the updates coming.  It is hard to find time to sit down and write, but I think I have about 10 more minutes of nap time so I’ll get started.  Our days are full of eating (and filling diapers), sleeping, and playing... I would say pretty much like any other toddler I have known.  (I used to teach a whole classroom of 9 toddlers with only one helper... How did I do that?  Oh, yeah.  I was only 22 at the time.)

Eating:  He eats voraciously, but seems to have an issue with texture.  If he feels anything he doesn’t like in there (meat especially) out it comes.  He doesn’t just spit it out.  He takes it out of his mouth and whips it on the floor.  Lainie likes this and has begun prowling the high chair area.  He loves any kind of fruit we have tried.  Bananas are his favorite.  He loved the rice we brought back from Korea with us.  It was in a bowl, already prepared.  He would eat it cold and plain, straight from the bowl.  Yesterday I made him some fresh rice in our rice cooker.  It is Jasmine rice.  He either doesn’t like that kind of rice, or the texture was different again.  Out it came.  He loves Julie’s wild rice soup, but spits back any little bits of meat.  He likes the Kix cereal that Lissa brought him and would spend hours crunching on these one at a time.  He drank soy milk in addition to his formula in Seoul.  We were given some of his formula and drinking this in a bottle is soothing for him and good bonding for us.  Our pediatrician says we should cut out the soy milk.  Not sure how we’re going to do this.  He really doesn’t like cow’s milk at all.  We have an appointment next week at the U. of M International Adoption Clinic.  We’ll get some advice there I’m sure.  He knows where his snacks are kept and tries to help himself on a regular basis. 

Sleeping:  He has been sleeping 11-12 hours a night.  He sleeps on his low trundle bed and Kurt has been sleeping with him on the twin bed.  I discovered that if I am in the room with him, I don’t sleep.  I’m too busy watching him to see if he is still asleep.  Sometimes he goes to sleep pretty uneventfully.  He will be playing and then want to be held.  We give him a bottle and he goes to sleep.  Other times he fights sleep, whimpering (it is a heart-breaking kind of cry), softly scratching/ rubbing himself, crawling on us, picking up his blanket, putting it down, etc.  Eventually, he just wears himself out.  I think that this is when his grief shows itself and this whimper/cry is his way of self-soothing.  On most days, he only naps for about an hour at a time.  On a few days, he has fallen asleep on our morning walk, and still has taken an afternoon nap.

Playing:  He likes to be outside.  He likes to have his shoes put on him.  In Korea, this means you are going somewhere, and he’s always ready to see what is going on outside.  He is getting used to walking in the grass but still doesn’t like to touch it.  He loves to just walk along the curb, switching from the grass to the concrete.  I always make him hold my hand.  Kurt took him out for a little while last night and discovered that hand-holding is probably still a good idea.  Max was walking along and tripped over nothing (as toddlers do) and fell in the street.  He has his first Minnesota road rash on his forehead.  We got to use our boo-boo bunny (kid’s ice pack) and our first band-aid.  As Kurt says, “Maybe we’ll let his hair keep growing and no one will be able to see it!”  J  He has begun to sit still for books... even though I’m obviously babbling along in a language he doesn’t know.  His first favorite English book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  (good pick, Becky P.!).  He seems to like the rhythm of the language when I read it to him.  His favorite game is In/Out:  throw the toy in the box, take it out of the box / walk in the door, walk out the door / etc.  Anything that can be opened and closed is great fun too.  He really wants to figure out how to work the strap closure on his high chair and how to open the baby gate.  We’re working on reading Where is Spot?  but he hasn’t gotten the hang of the lift-the-flaps just yet.  Max has figured out that Lainie isn’t so scary.  He tries to play Tug-of-War with Lainie, but doesn’t like it when Lainie wins.  He goes after Lainie’s eyes and ears, but so far, she is still faster than he is.

He continues to charm the neighbors with his “high-fives” and “knucks”.  He even had neighbor kids ring the doorbell on Saturday morning and ask if he could come out and play.

Here are a few more photos and a short video.

Good night.

Dede, Kurt, Max, and Lainie

Home At Last!

We thought we would give all of you blog junkies at least one more fix....

After traveling for just under 22 hours (Agency doorstep to our house), we arrived home safe and sound on Wednesday, September 7th at about 10:30p.m.  Our flight from Seoul went pretty well.  Max slept most of the 12 1/2 hour flight on Dede's lap.  The last 2-3 hours he was pretty wiggly and was done with being on the plane.   Luckily, we were able to get bulk head seats and had an empty seat next to us, so that gave us a little room for Max to stretch his legs.

We went through customs in Chicago and Max spent the time fast asleep in the baby carrier attached to Dede, while I trudged our carry-on luggage through the never-ending customs line.  Once clearing customs and transferring to a different terminal, we had just a few minutes for a quick diaper change, a change into pajamas (just Max), and a purchase of water to create a much needed bottle of formula for the next leg of the trip.  The flight to Minneapolis again went pretty smoothly, but again Max was wiggly and done with planes.  We enertained him with a few small toys and killed some of the flight feeding him his bottle.

After finally arriving in Minneapolis, we had a great welcoming party waiting for us in the baggage claim area.  It was nice to see some familiar faces after such a long journey.  We kept the party pretty short, but Max thrilled everyone by giving them each a "high five" and Noah was able to even get a "knucks" out of him.   We know it was a late night for everyone especially for those that had to work or go to school the next day.  We really appreciate those that were there in spirit and in person.

Our first day home has been a long day of exploration and adjustment to new sights, new smells, and a new timezone.  Max finally fell asleep at about 4 a.m. this morning and slept until we woke him up at 1p.m.  He was definitely not done sleeping, but we managed to keep it down to one quick nap around 4:30 p.m.  He fell asleep tonight at 10p.m.  We're hoping he's down for a long night's sleep and hoping to get his schedule adjusted over the next few days.

Some first day discoveries...

• After a few tries, Max learned to safely navigate the one step from our kitchen to the family room. 
• For some reason, the transition from the carpeted areas to the wood and tiled floors threw him for a loop.  I guess he's not used to the texture change on his feet.
• He's not so sure about his new pal Lainie.  However, they both are now fast asleep together. :>)
• His new trick of the day is he blows kisses.  I was able to teach him this trick in between bites of rice. I'm not sure my timing of the trick is the greatest, but it sure is cute!
• Karrie, Max likes the shiny tags on the blankets too!
• Diaper changes aren't much fun for me or Max.

We're looking forward to the new discoveries to come.

Visits...
We need some time to get our feet under us, to get our schedules adjusted, and to get our house back in order.  At this point, we're going to take it day by day. If you want to visit, send us an email on what works for you.  It is a lot for a little guy to take in, so we want to make sure we don't overwhelm him his first few days.  We're thinking about making a quick trip to St. Cloud next weekend, so let us know if that would work better for you.

Thanks again for all the help, thoughts, and prayers over the last couple of weeks.

Love,
Kurt and Dede

Airplane Day!

ㅡㅁㅌ햋 ㅍㅍ   ㅜ/,,m,mㅡ,j
,,ㅏㅏㅓㅡㅡㅓㅏㅕㅎㄹㄴㄴ
That was Max's first blog.  He even pressed the Alt key which I guess changes the keyboard to Hangul (Koean) letters.  I'm hoping that this is a sign that he'll one day be able to help me with my technological difficulties.

We spent our first hours of being a family eating, playing, and sleeping.  He loves the cars that Brenda and Jillene used to decorate his diaper cake.  He doesn't like having his diaper changed or having his clothes changed, but he loves to eat!  He likes bananas, pineapple, plain bread, and rice.  Last night, he started getting sleepy at around 8:30 but he was fighting sleep.  He would fall asleep on one of us and then start crying if we tried to lay him down.  The foster mom wasn't very clear (despite several follow-up questions from both Kurt and I) about when he drinks soy milk and when he had a bottle.  We decided to give the bottle a try and he zonked out on the bed between us.  I woke up at one point and he had his foot on Kurt's pillow, right in front of Kurt's nose.  :)  He slept until 8:30 this morning when he looked over at me and reached his arms out to be picked up.  It doesn't get much better than that!

Mary wanted to know what size he is.  He is much tinier than we thought, especially in the waist.  He is wearing the 24 mos. size Carter's jammies that Mary and Dave got him.  The shirt fits alright across the shoulders but the pants barely stay up and are at least 4 inches too long.  Yesterday he wore the navy blue shorts Amy got him.  They are a Gap 2T and looked like long pants and kept sliding down his skinny back side... even with the draw string pulled as tight as it would go.  So, Megan, if Logan has any 18 mos. size hand-me-downs, I think we could use them. 

Enquiring minds want to know about our arrival at the airport tonight and if we are okay with a welcome home gathering.  We leave Korea at 6 p.m. Seoul time and arrive in Chicago at  4:50 p.m.  In Chicago, it will feel like ~6:30 a.m. to us.  We will have to haul all four of our bags, ourselves, and our bundle of joy through customs and then get on the plane to Minneapolis.  We're scheduled to arrive in Minneapolis at 9:50 p.m. (American Airlines flight 2366). We make no promises about our ability to think clearly when we arrive and we have no idea if Max will be smiling or screaming by then.  So, if you are okay with seeing us in whatever condition we are in, and if you really want to hang out at the airport at that hour, then you are welcome to come.  I can promise you that we won't be looking gorgeous for any photo sessions.  (Although, Max woke up this morning with some adorable bed head!)

If you would rather visit us at our house in the coming days / weeks, we'll have to just set up some kind of a schedule so we don't end up with any large groups.   Our social worker has warned us to let Max warm up to all of the new people in his life by keeping it down to a few people at a time.  Also, in order for Max to know who his new parents are, no one is allowed to hold him. feed him, change his diaper, or otherwise meet his needs for the recommended six weeks.  However, he loves to play and is pretty good at high-fives.  (Karrie and Jer... the social worker never mentioned whether or not we could let people obsess over his toes!  Fair warning, though, it looks like his toe nails could use a trim... not sure when we'll try to tackle that one.)

Well, we better shower and get packed up.  We leave for the airport at 3p.m. which is just 4 hours away.  It is much harder to get ready when you have a cute little boy that wants to play with you. :>)

This will most likely be our last blog from Seoul.  See you all soon!
Dede, Kurt, and Max.

First Pictures

Oh man, this kid is a heartbreaker. One little smile and he melts your heart...The first couple of hours are going great!  Fingers crossed he sleeps well tonight. It is 6:50p.m. and he is already getting sleepy. We just have time for a few pictures.  So here you go.
Kurt, Dede, and Max!

Max Bits...

Tomorrow (September 6th) is "Gotcha Day". In about 20 hours, we officially become parents and we can't wait! At 4p.m. we have our second meeting with Max and his Foster Mother. Following this meeting we'll have a ceremony with Dr. Kim, the President of Eastern Social Welfare Society, during which there is a short prayer service and the agency officially passes Max from the Foster Mom to us. By all accounts this will be a very emotional time. We just hope the transition for Max is as smooth as possible.

We thought we should share a few items we learned about Max in our first visit with him and his Foster Mother.

His Foster Mother says Max is very cautious and when he reaches out for something he'll look at her first to make sure it is okay.

He is quiet and we don't think he is talking yet.

He loves bread and fruit.

He doesn't like potatoes, but he likes steamed potatoes. (huh???)

He likes to ride in strollers or in a carrier on someone's back.

He likes to be outside, but mosquitos like to bite him.

He has never ridden in a car seat before (this should be interesting to try after a long flight!).

He likes to sit in laps.

We're still not sure what size he wears, but he looks shorter than we thought he would (Korean clothing is sized different than in the U.S.).

We'll no doubt learn more about him over the next few days, weeks, months, and years. We can't wait!!!

Thanks for all the emails and comments over the past week, we really appreciate all of your support. We'll no doubt be a little busy over the next couple of days, so we can't promise any more posts. We do hope to get the time to at least add a few more pictures of Max.

Love,
Kurt and Dede

Tidbits...

We thought we'd add some little bits of information that we've left out along the way...

On the food tour, the only eating utensils were chopsticks.  Kurt is pretty good with them, but I just can't manage to get enough of a pinching action to pick anything up with them.  Our food tour guide (whose name was Daniel) asked if anyone needed a fork.  Two of us asked to use forks.  At one of the restaurants, they only had one fork... in the whole restaurant!  We ended up using the spoons that were meant for the soup.  I know that they have training chopsticks here for kids.  I wish I had a pair!

Cindi asked if I drank the rice beer.  Yes!  It is gluten-free and delicious.  It has a very mild flavor.  I like it better than wine too.  If I had grown up in Korea, I may have had a rice beer-drinking habit. 

You rarely see women here wearing sunglasses.  They tend to carry sun umbrellas that are made from a lightweight cloth.  They look like something you would have seen long ago in the U.S.  They are very protective of their skin and it shows.  It is hard to tell the age of the people here because their skin looks so fabulous.

The people here are dressed so nicely.  The young women are wearing the cutest little summer dresses and skirts and the men are often in suits. The women are wearing all kinds of amazingly high heels and walking all over the city in them.  There are people in jeans, shorts, and t-shirts too, but they still always look so put-together and fashionable.  Americans are very casual in comparison.

In Insadong last night, we had a little boy who looked to be about 9 or 10 years old come up to us.  He said, "Hi, I speak English.  Nice to meet you."  He asked if we were friends.  We tried to explain that we were married but he didn't understand.  So we told him we were "Mom and Dad".  He looked around for our child.  We said we had a little boy who is Korean.  His face lit up and he said, "Really?"  Then his mom came looking for him and he said, "Thank you.  Bye-bye" and off he went.  He was much more brave about trying out his English than we have been with trying out our Korean!

On one of our sight-seeing trips, we stopped to sit down and rest a bit.  Kurt started to snap some photos of the motorcycles that would go by loaded up with huge piles of boxes and he took one of me, too.  An older Korean man stopped to jump into the photo with me.  He couldn't speak any English, but he mimed that I should get rid of Kurt and go with him.  Then he laughed and laughed at his own joke.

While we were at the palace (on a Saturday) there were crowds of children on field trips.  They all carried around papers that looked like school work that had to be done while they were there.  There was a small group of very young children (maybe 6 or 7 years old) who looked like they were there with their mom and a hired tutor.  We bumped into them all over the palace grounds and whenever we did, they were being questioned by the tutor and taking notes in their notebooks.  We know that the Koreans highly value education.  Daniel (the food tour guide) told us that Koreans spend 20-30% of their salaries on education throughout their lives.  That is why so many of them have learned a foreign language.  English and German used to be the most popular languages and now many of them are learning Chinese and Japanese as well. 

Korea is not a very diverse country.  I think the only non-Korean people who we see here are stationed here in the military, are here for business, or are tourists. For the most part, no one has seemed particulary intereseted in a couple of white people wandering around their city.  However, for some reason, yesterday we felt a little like celebrities.  We drew a lot more stares wherever we went.  We had a high school aged girl ask to have our photo taken with her and a sign that said (in English) something like "The Beautiful Island of De-do".  She and her group of friends jumped into the photo with us.  We have no idea if we were apart of some kind of scavenger hunt or school project or just a joke.  We wondered if we were ending up on a Facebook page somewhere.

Three of the five babies we got to meet went home and the other two go home tomorrow.  It's been fun to watch them begin to recognize their parents as their best source of comfort.  The two babies that were having the most difficult time with the transition on their first day with their parents are so giggly and happy now.  They are sleeping well and tears are rare.  We are hoping Max does as well as all of these boys have.  This is Louie.  He is a big flirt and is the comic of the group.

Yes, Amy.  I did buy those cute little high-top tennies.  I couldn't resist!

That's it for today.  Two days to getting Max!  We're trying to switch from tourist to parent-mode and rest up for the days ahead.

Dede (and Kurt)

Gyeongbok-Gung Palace & shopping in Insadong

On Saturday we had another full day of sightseeing. We were gone for about 12 hours and by the time we got back all of the babies had either gone home or were asleep. :>(

Getting around...
To give you a little background, we've been getting around Seoul using their subway system. The system is pretty easy to use when you get the hang of it. The most difficult part is when you leave the subway. There are anywhere from 4 to 8 exits and when you exit you need to quickly get your bearings. This can be difficult since Koreans don't use street signs except at major intersections. The maps and signs are really good in the subways though (written in both English and Korean). So, we've found it best to get a good understanding of where we are and where we want to go before we leave the underground subway stations. We've made good use of the information booths as well. The individuals working the booths speak both Korean and English. We've found this to be true for the most part in the stores and restaurants too. At least their English is much better than our Korean.

Now to the palace. Seoul has a number of palaces. We toured the one that is the most spectacular by all accounts. They provided a one hour guided tour with an English-speaking tour guide.  Gyeoungbok-Gung Palace was first built in 1394 and was the main palace during Josean Dynasty. Over the years it has been destroyed by the Japanese, rebuilt, burned down, rebuilt, dismantled, and rebuilt again. It is a testament to the will of the Korean spirit. The palace is split into the three main areas: the government section, the residence area, and the gardens. Here are some pictures from our visit. The craftsmanship is spectacular and, if you can believe it, the buildings were built without the use of a single nail.

Our last stop of the day was Insadong. Insadong was the area in which the food tour took place, so we were already familiar with it. The place was packed on Saturday and seems to be where the teenagers hang out on the weekends. It is a bit like Stillwater. There are a number of restaurants, antique shops, artist shops, and of course your good old-fashioned souvenir junk shops. Our main reason for coming back to this area was to get a name chop for Max. A name chop is a stamp carved out of stone used by Koreans to sign their name on important documents. There is a well known artist in Insadong that will make the stamps as you wait. He has made name chops for the Queen of England and the Prime Minister of New Zealand.  There are a number of places to have them made, but we worked hard to find this shop.  They were really impressed when we walked in with our print out of how to find the shop and had the store's name written in Hangul (Korean), so that we could match it to their sign. The stamp is really cool!  They use a special red ink to do the stamping.  They gave us a beautiful bowl of the ink as an adoption gift.  Here are some pictures of them making the name chop.

All for now. We hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day weekends. 
Karen, thanks for sharing the pictures of Lainie wearing her Big Sister bandana. Give Lainie a smooch for us.
Love,
Kurt and Dede

Food Tour and First Sightseeing Trip

Hi all,
We thought we'd give you a little update about the food tour we took last night with three other adoptive families staying here at the agency.   The tour was led by an adult Korean Adoptee who grew up in the U.S.  He now lives in Seoul and owns a Korean cooking school and gives the food tours.  One of the other sets of parents hooked us up and we were invited to join the group. 
We ate at four different restaurants, most of which we wouldn't have been brave enough to venture into on our own.  At the first stop we had an appetizer which consisted of steamed tofu and kimchee.  We toasted our time here in Seoul with bowls of homemade rice beer.  One bowl was bubbling green but it was amazingly delicious. 
The second stop served more rice beer with a dish of boiled chicken and sweet potato noodles.  It was a little bit spicy but also really, really good. 
The third stop's meal was grilled kalbi pork ribs.  The ribs were pre-cooked on an outdoor grill and then the meat was brought to our table and finished cooking on a tabletop gas grill.  We used the meat and a host of Korean side dishes to build our own lettuce wraps.  The drink concoction at this meal involved a shot of coke, shot of rice wine, and beer.  It made for an interesting flavor combination. 
After a long walk through back alleys that would have made Andrew Zimmern nervous we arrived at our final destination where we ate fried cakes made of mung bean paste and mung bean sprouts.  They were right up there with the mini-doughnuts at the State Fair.  (We were very glad to be eating anything other than the pieces of animals we had walked by on the way to the restaurant!)  
It was nice to spend the night with other familes like ourselves and an adult adoptee.  We learned a lot about Korean culture and about adoption along the way.  We made sure to get back to the agency before the doors were locked at 11:00.  Plus we had to get the other three couples to bed... all three of them took custody of their children today and will be flying home soon.  We were grateful to be navigating the subway system and the streets of Seoul with couples who already had the lay of the land.

Today we spent some time wandering about on our own.  We eventually found all of the shops and places we planned to see today, but took a few wrong turns along the way.  We had fun buying a few Korean toys and some clothes made in Korea for Max.  We walked by a few shops last night before and during the food tour that we would like to make our way back to in the next couple of days.  Cindi, we had a very delicious iced mocha at Starbucks (Thank you!).  It had at least triple the chocolate syrup as the mochas usually have in the U. S., but I have a feeling they saw us coming and thought we would like it that way.  We have been told that we Americans like things much sweeter than Koreans typically like their sweets.  (Maybe that's why the rice cakes really do just taste like rice.)  We walked all over the city in the heat (Mom, it was 86 degrees and sunny) and headed back to the agency feeling pretty worn out.  When we got to our floor, we met a new couple who had just gotten custody of their son this afternoon and he was missing his foster mom pretty badly.  Within about thirty minutes, the three couples we had been on the Food Tour with joined us in the common kitchen area and we got to meet their three boys.  Shortly thereafter another new mom who is staying on another floor joined the group and there were five newly adopted adorable Korean boys running around the kitchen giggling with each other and playing ball.  It was so amazing to watch how the boys helped each other work through this rough day with so many changes.  (It was the best sight we could see on our first day of sightseeing!)  That was hours ago and all of the little boys have been tucked into their rooms and since it is quiet, we assume they are sleeping, at least for now.  We're still sweaty and a little worn out, but are filled with a whole new energy.    Kurt is going to try to add a few photos of our last day and a half.  Thanks for all of the emails and posts on the blog.  It's fun for us to get back from a busy day and see that you all have checked in.

Love,
Dede and Kurt

Pictures!!

I'm having some difficulty getting pictures loaded from the iPad to the blog, so I'm going to use the agency's computer instead.  These are the pictures from our meeting with Max (if you look closely you'll see we had a stand-in for Lainie in our first family photo).  We won't see Max again until late in the afternoon on the 6th.  He'll spend the night with us and then, of course, travel home with us on the 7th.

By the way, we're able to access email, so feel free to send comments via our email if that is easier.  We'll continue to make our updates via this blog.

Kurt (and Dede)

We met!

And of course, we fell in love.
We were told to meet our social worker in the lobby of the agency at 10:00. We got there early and at about five minutes to 10:00 a toddler and a foster mom walked by us. She was holding the child's hand and spun him toward us so we could see his face. It was Max! The foster mom obviously recognized us right away and stopped so we could see him. He looked a little sleepy (we learned later that he woke up at 5:00 am this morning). He started to cry a little. The foster mom stepped into an open doorway to get the social worker, but she left Max on the floor by us. I couldn't just leave him there, so risking further tears I picked him up. To my surprise, he stopped crying, laid his head on my shoulder, and snuggled right in. That's when I fell in love.
The social worker moved us into the room in which parents meet their babies and told us we had to fill out some paperwork before we played with him. I reluctantly set him down. His foster mom put him inside a Little Tikes-type car while we got Max's passport and visa. We still managed to sneak in a game or two of peek-a-boo while Kurt filled out some paperwork.
Then we were able to get on the floor with him and try to engage him with the toys while simultaneously grilling the foster mom with questions about sleeping, feeding, and soothing. Kurt played with him a lot and got him to roll balls with him and even got Max to sit on his lap for awhile. That's when Kurt fell in love.
The time went by much too quickly and before we knew it, we had to say good-bye. Max gave us both high-fives and waved bye-bye.
It was really hard to walk away. Our social worker whisked us away. We were scheduled to meet with Dr. Kim and the other families that are here to bring their children home. We (and the other parents) were also honored guests at a luncheon where we were served some terrific Korean food. (This a great country to be in if you are gluten- free!)
Now all of our meetings are done. We get to take custody of Max the day before we fly and we can't wait!
We met two other couples who have invited us to join them on a food tour tonight. An adult Korean adoptee will tour us through several restaurants and teach us about Korean food. It is only about 3:00 in the afternoon here and we have already had such an amazing day. It will be great to get out tonight and see a bit of Seoul.
If I have the days right, my Gleason Lake friends will be having their Open House tonight. Good luck to you!
(Amy, is that detailed enough for you?)
And who is posting under the name of Ladyslipper? We can't figure it out.
For those of you who are struggling with the technology, I feel your pain. Kurt has to assist with everything I do on this thing. We can read and send email by the way. That is it for now. We send lots of love to all of you back home!
Dede (and Kurt)

We made it!

We arrived at the Eastern Social Welfare Society at about 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 31st.  Our initial flight to Chicago was delayed about 40 minutes.  Fortunately, we had enough time to catch our connecting flight to South Korea.  We flew direct from Chicago to Seoul on Korean Air and the flight couldn't have been any better.

After arriving at the agency and after getting our things unpacked, we set out to find some bottled water and to get something to eat.  We're pretty tired since we've been up for more than 26 hours (we did sleep some on the plane). So, we weren't feeling very adventurous.  We found a 7-Eleven near the agency and spotted a chicken place. We picked up some fried chicken and brought it back to the agency's kitchen to eat.  We had a slight scare when we got back to the agency when we discovered the first 2 outside doors were locked.  Luckily, the 3rd door was still open.

The second challenge of the night was to figure out how to get logged into this blog.  This initially was a challenge since half of the screen was in Korean (solved this problem too).

Tomorrow we meet Max for the first time at 10a.m.  So, we'd better get to bed.  Talk with you soon.
Kurt (and Dede)

Off we go...

One last post before we head out tomorrow.  We fly to Chicago tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m and then from there straight to Seoul.  We arrive in Seoul at 4:30 in the afternoon on the 31st (my birthday ends somewhere over the ocean). 

We'll be staying at the adoption agency's guest house.  They have about 6 rooms, so there is a chance we'll meet other families.  If everything goes as planned, we will meet Max and his foster mother on September 1st at 10a.m. (~8 p.m. 8/31 local time). 

We want to thank everyone for their support and well wishes.  See you soon.

-Kurt (and Dede)

First Post

Hi All,
I decided to set up a blog to try to keep everyone up to date with our trip to bring Max home.  I decided to call our blog OurLittleTree.  As some of you might recall, we first used the tree analogy in a letter we sent to announce we're growing our family through adoption.

The analogy started when Dede ran into the book Perspectives on a Grafted Tree:  Thoughts for Those Touched by Adoption compiled by Patricia Irwin Johnston.

I thought I'd share the last portion of our announcement letter one more time because it means so much to us.

There was an apple tree in the Vogt Family front yard.  It had begun bearing fruit referred to as “Grandma Vogt’s apples.”  Then Dad began grafting other types of apples onto the tree.  We watched as he would prepare a limb on the main tree to accept a tiny new branch.  The new branch needed special care at first.  Eventually, each new branch became one more limb on the tree.  In its heyday, that apple tree sported many different kinds of blossoms, leaves, and apples.  They all needed protection from squirrels and worms, but otherwise, the apples all grew happily together on one tree. We are grafting onto our family tree.