We've met Sora!

What an amazing morning. Our meeting was so wonderful and I truly believe it couldn't have gone any better. I want to write all of the details so I don't forget.

The kids woke up this morning around 5am. Not bad. They went to sleep around 7:30pm last night (we tried to keep them up longer but they were so exhausted) so at least they got a decent nights sleep. Damien and I dosed for a little while and they watched a show.

Once we were all up I gave the boys a shower (there is no bath here) and then Micaiah and I walked down to try to go to McDonald's. Many of the office buildings around here have basements with little shops or restaurants in them. Unfortunately, McDonald's was closed so we went to Dunkin Donuts. They are everywhere! This was our first weekday morning since we got here and it's amazing how many people there are. You can hardly walk down the sidewalks.

Once we got back with breakfast, it was after nine so we ate really quick and headed out to meet the social worker. We're staying in the SWS guest house, but the SWS office is just a few buildings down. We made our way up to the 7th floor and then had to sit a wait a few more minutes until she was ready. There was another couple from our adoption agency also waiting for their social worker to bring them to meet their son! He's only 3 days younger than Sora. The boys were being a little rowdy so we didn't get to talk to the couple much. We read books to the kids until the SW was ready. She took us downstairs to a van that was waiting for us. Luckily it had seat belts since no one uses car seats around here. I could tell Orin and Micaiah were already getting a little tired (since they were up at 5am). We drove to the East part of the city. It took about 30 minutes to get there. There are no houses around here. Just huge apartment buildings. And they seem to be in clusters. Like little neighborhoods of buildings. We went up to the 22 floor. We walked in and the first thing we saw was Sora on her foster mother's back. She was holding her in one of those back baby carriers.

We saw Sora's little head sticking out. She was adorable! Even cuter than her pictures. We walked in and sat down on the floor. I think there was a couch, but everyone seems to sit on the floor. We even ate while sitting on the floor a little later.

The foster mother sat Sora on the floor right next to Damien and I and the first thing she did was look up at Damien and crawl right into his lap! I couldn't believe. She just sat in his lap and stared at him. It was so sweet. A lot of children are scared or unsure of the father's especially.

We stayed for about an hour and 15 minutes. The entire time was wonderful. The foster mom served us wonderful food and we just enjoyed the time together. I'm going to write the rest of my thoughts in a list to make it easier.

1. First I'll write about Sora. She's beautiful. She has such a sweet little face. She seems somewhat serious and thoughtful. Even though she had no reservations with Damien and I holding and playing with her, the foster mother said she was being shy. Sora wasn't saying much (the Foster mother says she babbles a lot) and she wasn't smiling much. She just pretty much stared at us. However, eventually we did get her to laugh and smile some. It's SOOOO cute. The foster mother gave us some pictures that she has taken over the past 6 months and she is smiling in a lot of them. I think she'll just need to warm up to that.

2. Sora is walking! I can't believe it. She just turned 10 months old 6 days ago and she is such a little peanut! It's so cute. She walks really fast and has a hard time stopping but she is pretty steady on her feet. Developmentally she is dong so well. It's such a blessing for us because of the concern with her small head size. She did all of the things a baby is supposed to do. She transfers things from one hand to the other. She kept putting this spoon in her mouth and we were trying to get a picture. I took it from her and I tried to hide it...but she always knew where too look. She was trying to open a wipes package and was thinking of all different ways to do it. She is a smart little thing.

3. She is definitely very curious and has lots of energy. I can already tell that she is going to get into everything! She kept trying to get the food, but was also fine if you handed her a toy instead. She liked it when Damien had Winnie the Pooh kiss her on the nose and liked when I lifted her up in the air. She also smiled when she was walking to us.

4. The foster mother said she still likes a bottle in the middle of the night sometimes. She also sleeps on the floor with the Foster mom. We'll have to figure that one out. :) Maybe she'll be in bed with us for a while.

5. Sora didn't cry once while we were there. She seems very happy and easily entertained. I know she'll probably cry with us once we take her, but it's good to know that overall she's a happy baby.

6. Orin and Micaiah did great. They enjoyed playing with the few baby toys that they had at the apartment. They seemed to be shy with Sora just like she was shy with us. They had fun taking pictures of us much of the time. It's a huge praise that they entertained themselves so well so we could focus on getting to know Sora a little and talking with the foster mom. The foster mom also seemed laid back which was nice. A couple of times we told Orin and Micaiah to quite down a little and she told us (well told the Social Worker who told us) that they were fine and not to worry.

7. The foster mother didn't know any English at all (which is what we expected) so any communication we did was through the Social Worker.

8. The apartment was tiny! It was two bedrooms but was probably 500 or 600 sq ft. at the most. But it was nice and was probably one of the nicest you can get around here. Everything is just much smaller than in the US.

9. When we first got her referral in September we sent a little gift package to Sora. The foster mom gave us that stuff back and also a Hanbok. A Hanbok is a special dress that all Korean children wear on their first birthday.

10. One of the gifts we sent was a little baby proof photo album with pictures of us. Let me tell you, this thing was well worn. Seriously, it was bent up and everything! This is wonderful because it means that Sora has been looking at our pictures for the past 5 months. When we got there the Foster mother even was pointing to our pictures and saying "Uhm-ma" and then pointing to me, and then pointing to Damien's picture, saying, "Ap-ba" and then pointing to Damien. I'm sure that she has been doing this the entire time. I really wonder if it made a difference in how comfortable Sora was with us.

The time flew by. Soon it was time for us to go. I'm going to post some pictures in another post. It was hard to leave, but the best part is we're going to get her tomorrow instead of Wednesday! Damien was holding her when we left and she wouldn't let go of him! He almost had to peel her off of him to give her to the Foster mother. Normally you meet your child Monday and get custody on Wednesday, but since we're leaving Thursday we wanted an entire day to get to know her a little more before the long plane flight, so she said we could get her at 4pm on Tuesday! That's only about 26 hours from now (It's about 2pm on Monday afternoon local time). So tomorrow morning we get to go North to visit the orphanage she lived in for three months and then we'll come back and go back to the SWS office where we'll meet the foster mom and Sora will be with us for good!