Owen in Korea

As most of you know, Owen was with a foster family in Korea. They took tons of pictures (more than I put here). In this slideshow are some of them just to give you a feel for what he was like and what he experienced before we got him.

Stuff

• Some of you have told me that you have had problems with the videos loading. I changed some settings, so try them again. If they don't work, please let me know.


• Liam had his first T-ball "practice" as we call it through the Community Ed. We call it "practice" because he got very upset last year at soccer that they didn't play a game. He has a definite stubborn streak in him.

• Liam is also playing the part of the big brother pretty well. Here are some pictures. He layed on the ground this morning for a while with Owen so mom could get some things done.

Laughing

While Cathy and Liam were sleeping this morning to get over jet lag I took this short video (45 sec.) of Owen laughing.


Here is another one. (36 sec.)

Saturday & Sunday

Saturday, June 23, 2007 & Sunday, June 24, 2007 - Coming Home
We are waking up this morning (all at different times) after our 26 hour voyage from Seoul. We got home about 9 PM last night. Luckily we didn't have any cancellations other than a 30 minute delay in Tokyo. Owen was excellent for the whole trip. He didn't really have any big crying spells on any of the flights and he did manage to sleep for a good chunk of the long 10 hour flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis.

We met my mom at the airport and then went to see Liam and Grandpa. Liam was excited to see us which was great. He was also excited to see his little brother as you can see from the pictures below.

Last night he showed Owen his house, toys, and room. We have had some tears as Liam is still trying to figure out how this all works. He is still trying to process how all this is going to fit into his life. He doesn't quite understand why he has to be quiet or can't have things that Owen has. Hopefully that will work itself out over the next couple of days.

I don't think that I will be diligent in posting daily anymore (but you never know), but feel free to check back for updates if you like.

Friday

Friday, June 22, 2007 – Picking up Owen
We got up this morning and just wasted some time watching the Air Force Network. We get to see an hour of Good Morning America and then some shows like The View and Dr. Phil. Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune come on later in the day as do some other normal U.S. shows.

We went to the Insadong Market to buy some gifts for a couple more people. For the record, I know that some of you who read this will be getting a gift, but I always fail to budget into our trip the enormous amount of time or money involved in shopping for every single person. I wonder when that became a social or cultural norm and who started it anyway.

We went to Starbucks for a while to kill some time and then on our way back we bought some flowers for Owen’s foster mother and her daughter. Cathy bought some bananas because she wanted them I guess and all we could get was a dozen. I don’t know how we are going to eat 12 bananas in the next half of day, but we will see.

We got to Holt and waited for a while in their nursery for a social worker. Our social worker wasn’t there today because it was her daughter’s birthday. We waited for a while because, from what we could gather, there was another family there to pick up there daughter but they couldn’t because she had to be hospitalized overnight with a fever. It looked like they planned on leaving tomorrow. That would NOT have been a good thing.

We then went through the process of signing the one paper (that is right, one) that we needed to and then the handoff of Owen. It was quite an emotional experience. It kind of felt like taking someone else’s child. They had grown very attached to him and they said earlier that he was their favorite of the 12 they had had. The father and daughter especially took an interest in him. We then hopped in a taxi and arrived at our hotel. Owen cried some of the way to the hotel and then fell asleep. He isn’t real happy at the moment, but who can blame him. We look and smell a little different I would imagine. We were spoiled with Liam as he was happy from minute one.

We are being picked up at 7 AM tomorrow morning for our long journey home via Tokyo and Minneapolis. I think we just plan on hanging around here tonight as his foster mother said his bedtime was around 10 PM.

Thursday

Thursday, June 21, 2007 – Doctor’s Appointment
We did a little shopping this morning but are learning that nothing opens up until around 10 or 11 AM. We bought a couple of things for people and then came home since it was raining. It is the beginning of the monsoon season here so when it rains it isn’t the Florida 1 PM showers for 30 minutes. It is all day and everyday for a while.

We waited around at the hotel for Owen’s doctor’s appointment at Holt. We got a couple of gifts, again, from the foster parents. Some tubes of red pepper paste and five bottles of Soju (Korean vodka) – might take us a while to get rid of the pepper paste. He was given a clean bill of health except for a little swollen tonsil due to a little fever he had Monday and Tuesday.

The foster parents then invited us over to their house for some coffee. It was the most wonderful experience! They had their elderly neighbor who worked at the army base translate for us. We had coffee and some watermelon, which is in season. Before we got there he apologized for their old condo/apartment building. Oh, if he knew how my house looks. We spent about an hour there watching Owen in his own environment. It was just wonderful to see how they live, which actually wasn’t much different than the way we do. They said that we were the first adoptive parents they had invited over which was great. You can definitely tell that he is loved which is wonderful.

We are going to go to Outback Steakhouse tonight for dinner, that’s right, Outback! We don’t feel like wandering around in the rain looking for a good Korean restaurant that either has something in pictures or English.

Wednesday

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 – The DMZ
We got up this morning and met our mini-van for a trip to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North Korea and South Korea. We didn’t pay the extra $75 per person to go to the village between the two and actually get to step into North Korea and feet from North Korean soldiers, but it was great nonetheless.

We were shuttled from the mini-van to a bus for about 30 people for the 1 hour bus trip to the DMZ. We had a couple people from Japan as well as to Swedes, two people from Indonesia, a guy from Mexico, a couple from Australia, a guy from New Zealand, and a couple other Americans. We got to a stop where we could see the “Freedom” bridge between South Korea and the 4 km wide demilitarized zone.

We then got on a bus and went to the 3rd Tunnel of Infiltration. It was a tunnel dug by the North Koreans 73 meters (~240 feet) deep under the granite terrain of the DMZ. There were a total of four tunnels dug by the North Koreans to infiltrate South Korea. The 2nd tunnel allowed 30,000 troops to travel the length in 1 hour. The 3rd tunnel wasn’t that wide and since the average height of a North Korean is 5’2” the tunnel was built for them. We all had to wear a hard hat, but mine got some actual use. It was very interesting to trudge the 500 meters down to the tunnel.

We then went to the Dora Observation Center to actually see over the DMZ and into North Korea. The largest flag pole in the world is there because the South Koreans have an actual village there where people live (and want to since there is no income tax) and they put up a flag. Then the North Koreans would put up a taller one and back and forth. There is an old story about the Bulgarians and Greeks about Mount Olympus and Mount Vitosha and how the Greeks kept stacking rocks on top of Mt. Olympus to try and make it taller. So I guess this isn’t much different. We could also see the fake village that the North Koreans built to show how great it is to live there, but they don’t let anyone live there because they don’t want North Koreans see how nice it is in South Korea. The lights in the village actually go on and off at the same time. The couple pictures here are by me holding my camera over my head because you couldn’t take any pictures past a certain line. One short man asked me to take a picture with his camera actually. Off topic, I haven’t seen anyone taller than me here yet. Three guys were about the same height, but that has been it.

We then went to Dorasan train station. In 2000 the North and South Koreans signed their first agreement to allow some transportation back and forth. Some trucks do go back and forth from South to North. The South Koreans are building a beautiful train station and business complex and hotels right on the border to be ready for the day when a train can travel to North Korea. It is a beautiful station that doesn’t get used right now. Much of the money to build this was donated by South Koreans who want to see the two countries unified and see many of their family members. The South Koreans definitely have a belief that their country will be united and that North Korea is moving towards that right now. I never really thought that the two would do so, but they definitely have that feeling. One strange thing that has happened because of the 50 years of the DMZ is that it has become an untouched wildlife habitat with beautiful birds and almost extinct plant life has come back.
We then went back to our bus and traveled back to Seoul. They take the threat of North Korea very seriously as all along the route home and every water way the shoreline is surrounded by barbed wire and gun towers. They do let locals farm this land in between for ginseng and rice. We then were taken to a Korean amethyst factory. Korea has the finest amethyst in the world – a very dark purple much darker than the normal stone. We didn’t buy anything as there wasn’t much for less than $500. I did see a nice raw amethyst stone for $264,000 though. They also took us to a ginseng plant and store where we were saw how it was grown and produced. Korea is where the best ginseng in the world comes from and all other areas get their seeds. On a side note, across the street was Eastern Social Welfare Society; that is the agency that we used when we adopted Liam! It was quite a coincidence.

We had the opportunity to purchase lunch with the tour and we weren’t sure if we were going to. We did decide to at the end and are we glad we did. Our tour guide took us upstairs to a traditional Korean restaurant where we had to take our shoes off and sit on the floor. Let me again reiterate that things in Korea are not built for someone 6’4” and 200ish pounds (although I think I’ve lost about 15 pounds this week so I might be pretty close). I had the beef stew with kimchi, peppered radish, chives, mushrooms, and rice and I did use my chopsticks the whole time. Cathy had the seafood and sides. Hers had some big noodles and legs of squid, shrimp, and clams in it. It was great and I’m glad we went. One of the Japanese tourists and two men from Indonesia were with us. I don’t think we could have found such a good place as the two recommended restaurants have been upstairs and off the main street.

We then went shopping in the antique market and bough a couple gifts for people. We then took the subway back to our hotel. It was a really fun day. Tomorrow we go to Owen’s last doctor’s appointment at 3 PM and then on Friday we pick him up at 3 PM. I’m a little nervous that he going to do a lot of crying as he seemed pretty attached to his foster family, but who knows. We will see how it goes. I hope to post again tomorrow night and that will be it until we return on Saturday. It is $20 for a days worth of internet access so when I post this tonight I have 24 hours until my time runs out. Sorry, that was a long post.

Tuesday

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 – City Tour
We got up this morning and went to Holt, which has a travel agency attached to it, to meet up for our city tour. We met a couple, Chris and Mary, from Saginaw, Michigan who would be going along with us. It was nice to be with someone who was at least within a couple inches of me. Our tour guides were two Korean college students who did this to practice their English, which was already excellent. One of them was a student at Carnegie-Melon and was back for a couple months. She was working on learning Chinese and Spanish this summer. We are such losers when it comes to learning other languages. She was hoping for a job in International relations or business. I would bet that with Korean, English, Chinese, and Spanish she is pretty much covering her bases. Our other tour guide studied film in Seoul.

We set out to the same palace that we visited on Sunday. That was fine as it is a beautiful place. We then headed out to Insadong market which was pretty neat. They are such crazy places. I didn’t get any pictures of the food streets because I would have gotten run over if I stopped, but they are quite different. We bought some little gifts for a couple people. They then took us to Namdaemun Market, which is very near to our hotel, to do some shopping. They were a big help as we had been looking for a soccer jersey for Liam. They also helped me find an ATM that would take my card, I was beginning to run out of Won, but then again, it is only monopoly money. They also helped us barter and bicker as we bought a Han Bok (traditional Korean dress for a child’s first birthday) for Owen. We found a very nice one a little different from Liam’s.
We ended our tour with a trip to one of the 167 Starbucks in Seoul. It was way to hot to have a coffee, although I am going to go get one tomorrow morning. Cathy tried the Red Bean Frappacino which seems to be only a Korean item. They then showed us a couple of traditional Korean restaurants to eat at. The other couple wasn’t too interested in eating Korean food so we came back to the hotel and will probably go back there tonight or tomorrow. We are going to try to get to the DMZ tomorrow and then on Thursday we get to go to Owen’s final doctor’s appointment.

We went to a traditional Korean restaurant tonight where they cook the meet right on a grill in front of you. We didn’t quite know what to do until the waitress showed us, but we figured it out. You took the meat (marinated ribs in sesame oil) and put it in a piece of lettuce or other green and then added a garlic clove, onions, red pepper paste, kimchi, and/or a piece of hot fish. The toughest part was that we were supposed to use chopsticks. In Korea they do not use wooden chopsticks either… they use stainless steel (originally sterling silver) ones instead and they tend to be a little bit slipperier than wooden ones. I did manage to make it through the meal using them but Cathy resorted to the fork. I think together we ate around 25 cloves of garlic, so needless to say no one wants to be around us tonight.

Monday

Monday, June 18, 2007 – Meeting Owen Ray
We slept pretty well last night and woke up at about 6 AM today. We should be right to normal as soon as it is time to leave. I couldn’t find the U.S. Open on the TV, so I spent part of my morning hitting refresh, refresh, refresh, on my laptop to update the leader board and see Tiger miss his putt on 18 to lose to Angel Cabrera. Not as fun as it sounds.

We got on the subway and made our journey over to Holt. We thought that we were supposed to meet at the reception center and guest house and while trying to find that we got lost. We found the place about 30 minutes later only to find out it was at the general building where we started our journey.

Anyway, we met with the social worker there for a little bit, Ms. You, Duck Jin. We then had an opportunity to meet Owen! That's right, we decided on a name. We got to meet with his foster parents, both mother and father. It was easy to see that he was well cared for. The father took a special interest in him. It is sure that he has come a long way from being born 3 months premature. We spent about an hour and a half with his foster parents and the social workers talking about him. The pictures are below are of us and Owen as well as pictures of his foster parents.

We received several gifts from them. We got framed pictures of his 100th day old which are very nice. We also got a big photo album of him and them at different stages in his early life. It was a great experience. We get to go on a city tour with another family from Michigan (we won’t hold that against them) tomorrow. We then get to go to a doctor’s visit at 3 PM on Thursday and pick him up on Friday. Our time here will soon be over. We hope to go to the DMZ on Wednesday. I guess no trips down to Kwangju or Ulsan to see their birth cities. We will have to save that for another time.

On our way home we visited the World Cup Stadium and the shops inside. We then stopped and had lunch at a local restaurant. What I had, some kind of meat, was pretty good. Cathy had kimchi and seafood which was quite spicy. It was also my first opportunity to taste the local brew. It was OK, kind of tasted like Pabst.

Sunday

Sunday, June 17, 2007 – Seoul
We slept a little better last night. Jet lag seems to be going away. It makes me wonder how Liam didn’t show any signs of it when we got him. By the way, happy Father’s Day to our dads. My computer tells me it is 2:45 AM on Sunday, so nobody is awake right now.

We got up this morning and decided to try and make a test trip to Holt Children’s Services so that we know how to get there tomorrow. We didn’t do to bad of a job walking about 30 minutes and then taking the subway to where Holt is. It shouldn’t be to difficult tomorrow.

We then decided to take a 3 km walking tour from our tour book. It probably turned into a 10 km trip, but it was fun. Our first stop was the Seoul Art Museum where we saw a Monet exhibit that was visiting. It was amazing to see that they didn’t have many pictures. I think that the Milwaukee Art Museum has more Monet’s. I know that Chicago definitely has spoiled us. We then walked around, got lost and then got lost again. We found our way around to the old palace of King Sejong. We saw the changing of the guard in front of the palace gates and then walked back to our hotel. We took a detour through a huge market that reminded me of the Grand Bazaar in Instanbul. It was a pretty crowded and crazy place. Nevertheless, an interesting day.

We are now back in our hotel and I think we are just going to hang out for the night. There is a lot of English TV on since there is an Air Force base nearby. We may go out and try to find something to eat. Tomorrow we need to be at Holt at 11 AM to meet the little guy, who will hopefully then have a name. I hope to get some pictures posted following that.

Saturday

Saturday, June 16, 2007 – en route to Seoul via Tokyo
On Saturday we woke up, rather early, and I watched some more of the U.S. Open from our hotel room in Tokyo before we went down for breakfast. I know they attempted to westernize it, which I appreciate, but it was interesting to say the least. It was a buffet and the eggs were a little undone, but the bacon was the strange thing. It was like they thawed it in the microwave and then served it… strange. They had fish, seaweed, rice, etc… which we tried a little of each. We then left for the airport.

Northwest must have contracted with Korean Airlines because we were flying them for our trip to Seoul. We were upgraded to “Prestige” status for our flight. That meant we got to go to the VIP lounge for a couple hours and partake in all the frills. The better part was that we were in the Prestige (Business Class) section of the airplane. They had some BEAUTIFUL seats that reclined into a fully horizontal position and your own TV screen. I couldn’t even touch the seat in front of me in the seated position if I tried. It was great, unfortunately the flight was only 3 hours. We got our first real Korean meal, which was interesting.

We landed in Seoul and then proceeded to change some money and find the bus for our hotel. We arrived, checked into our nice (but not cheap) room and relaxed and then went to bed. Overall a harmless day. It is strange to be the racial minority. It isn’t even worth trying to fit in like in Europe. Mainly because I’m a foot taller than everybody else. I guess I know how Liam feels in Burlington. So long for now.

Thursday & Friday

Thursday, June 14, 2006 – en route from Milwaukee
We dropped Liam off this morning at Dan & Steph’s and then went to the airport. We flew to Minneapolis pretty quickly and then waited about two hours for our flight to Narita airport in Tokyo, Japan. Having flown to Germany last year for the World Cup on Northwest we were looking forward to the top notch treatment we got last summer; complimentary drinks, your own individual video screen and controller, those nice thingies that keep your head from falling to one side, etc… Well, we had none of that! A little disappointing but we made the 13 hour flight fine… almost. When we landed in Tokyo we found out that our flight to Incheon Airport outside of Seoul had been overbooked and/or cancelled. Either way, we spent the night at a hotel in Tokyo. Here is Cathy in her complimentary kimono. Here is a look out of our room on the third floor, too bad they didn’t give us our checked luggage so I could go swimming. Another weird thing is that the door to the bathroom is literally only 5’8” tall. The inside of the bathroom is normal height, but if you see later pictures of me with a big red mark on my face, that is why.

Friday, June 15, 2007 – Tokyo, Japan
I now have a big red mark on my head from hitting my head on the low bathroom door frame last night, ugh. We could only sleep until about 5 AM this morning, but to my surprise I was able to watch the U.S. Open on TV. Albeit in Japanese, I could still figure out most of it.

From what we saw of Japan (not much) it seems to be a very nice place. Things are very, very close together. I didn’t know that they drove on the other side of the road either. That was a little strange – can you make a left turn on a red light? The people at the airport were a big help as we tried to find our way to the place where they would bus us to our hotel. We met a South Korean teenager returning from a year of exchange school in the U.S., believe it or not he spent his year in Watertown, SD.

I always feel guilty that wherever we go as Americans that we expect the rest of the world to speak some sort of English and then I’m surprised again when they actually do! I wonder how we would treat someone who showed up in the U.S. not knowing a word of English.

For those of you who are concerned about my caffeine intake, I haven’t found a Starbucks yet. I’m looking forward to finding one of the 169 Starbucks in Seoul when we get there. That will be on my agenda for tomorrow morning.

As far as our agenda, we will be getting to see little #2 (and hopefully deciding on a name then) on Monday at 11 AM. We hope to go to the DMZ on Wednesday or Thursday. We have a city tour scheduled for Tuesday also. Then we pick up the little guy at 3 PM on Friday and fly home on Saturday.

Korea

Well, we are leaving today to travel to Korea. I thought I would give you a little background to the country if you don't know much. On the map are three cities of note. First, we will be staying in Seoul and taking care of all of our business there. The airport is about 30 miles outside of the city. I kind of hope we are able to travel around the country a little bit, but who knows. Second, Kwangju is in the southeast of Korea and is where Liam was born. Third, (W)Ulson is on the southwest coast of the peninsula is where son #2 was born. Both of them spent all of their time in Korea in Seoul in foster homes. You can visit a couple of websites if you are interested in learning more about the country. If you need to get a hold of us you can e-mail us as I believe we will have internet access while we are there.

1. The CIA World Fact Book - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ks.html

2. Korea.net - www.korea.net

3. The Lonely Planet Korea Guide - http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/asia/south-korea

Travel Tomorrow

We will be leaving at 12:10 PM tomorrow afternoon. We will arrive in Seoul at 9:30 PM on Friday night. We do know that we will be able to have internet access at our hotel in Seoul so I hope to update our blog here with pictures every night. Liam will be with the Brands on Thursday to Saturday and then with Grandma & Grandpa Dusseau from Saturday until we return. See everyone in about a week!

Spider Man

We traded Liam in for a little Spiderman or else an amatuer B-league wrestler.

Travel!

We got some great news today from our Social Worker that the little guy is ready to travel. His passport and visa to the U.S. have been approved. We are planning on leaving on Thursday, June 14th and then returning on Saturday, June 23rd. We are taking the direct Milwaukee-Minneapolis-Tokyo-Seoul route via Northwest. One nice thing is that Northwest gives 65% off for families traveling to adopt. I hope to be able to add some pictures or at least posts here while we are there, so stay tuned.

Summer

Well... school ended for me on May 25th. I had meetings last week so today starts the first day of what non-teachers think is three months off.

We did spend a day at Burlington's own ChocolateFest! For those of you who don't know, Burlington is the home of Nestle Chocolate Co. We enjoyed a day of VIP treatement thanks to a member of our church.



We went to Jeff & Carrie's yesterday for Daniel's birthday. Below are a couple of pictures from the day. We got a little wet, but nothing substantial.