A day of Firsts

 Well this day started off bright and early.  I woke up and the sun was up, though I had little sleep Mark was up and I decided to go for a run.  I went to a local park right around the corner here.  It was amazing to run to my playlist that I have been listening to for the last few weeks, yet to know that here I was on the other side of the world.  I was listening to Beauty From Ashes, about how God loves to make all things new.  The song by Matthew West called Strong Enough, that I was singing as an anthem about everyday of this last month.  I ran up to Dunkin Donuts to pick up some coffee for Mark and fellow adoptive parents that I knew had come in last night.  As I was coming in with the coffee I ran into Sonia in the lobby and was able to hand deliver the caffeine.

Sonia is from Alabama and is here with her first adoption of a baby girl that she will get to meet and love up on this Tuesday.  She is the mother of 4 boys, so though we only  have that number in common, we are connected by this incredible journey.

We had decided that we wanted to take the girls to church this morning.  We had come across a website that was a very large community church that seemed to have a global focus.  The website stated they had English services.  So we headed out the door, grabbed a taxi to take us to our destination.

The drive was beautiful as we went along side the river here.  I want to look back at pictures to see how high the water got on the bridges during the flooding back in July.  It was a surreal ride, for the next time that we would be racing across this highway we will be travelling to meet and keep our precious girl.

We got to the church we were looking for and were told we had a few minutes, so we found the local Dunkin Donuts and had a quick breakfast.  Some things never change regardless of what side of the world you are on.

There was quite a surprise as we soon realized that what we thought was an international church was more that simply on the web.  There were I think 2 other caucasians that I saw, and needless to say I think we stuck out like a sore thumb.  The worship music was incredible, and I simply have to say it is overwhelming when you worship in different languages but with one passion to one God!  It was an emotional morning(isn't eveyrthing here), as we listened to the prayers for the government, for the political leaders, for those that make decisions, for North Korea and reunification.  I simply just pray that our being there as a family, might help change some of the present circumstances, and maybe open up the hearts of God's people to things that are not 'culturally' okay! 

The girls chose a lunch of champions at Burger King for lunch.  Nothing like travelling across the world to eat junk food.  But hey...the munchkins were hungry and Burger King was at the right place at the right time.

The bunny in this picture is Felix who was given to us by our next door neighbor Taryn.  Felix is a class project, and they are supposed to see how far around the world he can get.  Taryn dropped off Felix on Wednesday and than it was funny because a friend from church also emailed to ask about her sons Felix.  Different school districts but similar projects.  Since it was so late they weren't able to get their Felix to me, so he'll have to live vicariously through his twin rabbit brother.

After lunch, and pulling out our maps we were able to figure out that we were within walking distance of SWS.

I have to admit that I am head bobbing right now as I type, so I'm going to save those pictures for a post tomorrow, since there is such depth around the fact that we were finally standing outside the building where Hanna spent her first months of life. 

We than met up with two other adoptive Mums and their families at the  Lotte World, and got to enjoy the Betts Family with their new little girl Isabelle.  We also were so happy to get to know another couple staying here at the DMCville with us that will take custody of their little girl on Tuesday.

Tomorrow is a very special day for us as we will be travelling to the Holt offices here in Seoul to head get directions to go to Illsan.  Ilsan is where our precious Molly Holt lives.  It's probably been 4 years since we were with her and had the priviledge of enjoying a Sunday brunch with her! 

I know there will be another heartfelt post from that incredible place where the unwanted of the world go.  Molly and her incredible staff love up on them.  They are getting more infants now that this EP mess is creating such havoc on the system.  I will never forget visiting Ilsan back in 2002 and look forward to sharing it with the girls.

I'll post more pics of today later, and give an update on our plans.  Hard to believe that 2 nights from now, I will be on sleep away from the meeting my beautiful daughter.

Over and Out, and Hitting the Lights out!!!