Monday night here Seoul time and things are winding down! It is hard to believe that tomorrow is our last full day as a little family of 'four' over here in Seoul and that are lives are about to change forever! In an amazing way! Yet, lets just say that I will be appreciating my sleep tonight and tomorrow for it may be awhile before I see a sound sleep again, though of course I've never been more excited about the possibility of NOT SLEEPING! :)
The verse that I had posted this morning about this day being sacred, and to let the joy of the Lord be my strength was definately a foreshadowing of what this day would hold. First of all we learned that there is a big difference between weekend traffic in Seoul and Monday morning traffic. What would have taken us 10 minutes in a taxi ride Sunday, took us close to 45 today! Ah....gotta love the city.
We were dropped off at Holt, and their new offices since we had adopted Narae and Adah. It was a beautiful building and of course my heart was leaping in my chest every time I saw a foster mother with her baby. I wish I could just broadcast their photos all over, but as other fellow adoptive Mums know the privacy of the foster families needs to be a priority. Well we met DJ the overseas adoption coordinator for Holt. I have heard so many incredible things about her and now I know why. She is such a sweet woman that works so hard to bring our babies home! Even though Hanna is with SWS, all social workers here seem to be working overtime for the families, and their hearts break for the EP situation as much as ours do.
While I was still taking this all in a foster mother started to go between us to go up in the elevator. At that time, DJ mentioned who the baby was, and the adoptive mothers name and I knew exactly who it was, and was very familiar with this baby. I asked DJ if I could take some pictures and she said absolutely so with tears in my eyes and a shaking hand, I took some pictures that were a wonderful surprise and a blessing for a very special family to wake up to on a Monday morning.
Well after all that excitement it was finally time for DJ to get us on a bus headed for Ilsan. She walked us across the street, just up from the old Holt offices, and she waited with us so that she could tell the bus driver where to have us get off. Ilsan is about a 30 to 45 minute drive in a regular van...this was a bus. Mark and I had no idea where we were and in the hands of a complete stranger that didn't speak a lick of English! It was AMAZING yet terrifying at the same time. Mark said he actually felt more secure when he was in the middle of the Simbai Outback in PapauNewGuinea, overloaded on a 4Wheeler with a bunch of stranger holding guns! I think I'd take the bus in the middle of Korea! :)
Both the girls fell asleep on our shoulders, and Mark was busy taking in all the scenery with videos of any possible farm land that he could find! I was simply taking in all the events of the day. I was just thinking what a great day it would be for Narae and Adah to see Holt, and didn't even think in my wildest dreams that Mrs. Shin could meet them. I was reminded that though we weren't where I had thought we would be a couple of weeks before this, we were exactly where God wanted us to be!
The bus driver let us off, right where we needed to be, and we started to work our way up to Ilsan. Ilsan is a very special place. It was land purchased by Harry Holt decades ago to become a place where disabled children could go. Just as bloodlines are important in Korea, so is physical perfection, and too often the children with any medical conditions are disregarded. To walk onto the grounds of Ilsan, you just get the feeling that you are somewhere VERY SPECIA! What a thankful heart I had for the fact that God had orchestrated our schedules that we could be there. You see if we had met Hanna on a Monday, we wouldn't have known until than if we needed to have another meeting Tuesday, which meant I wasn't sure if we would even be able to get up to Ilsan. YET God knew all the details and here we had a day WIDE open with no places to be, so that we could take in all of Ilsan and on top of that Molly Holt was free for the majority of the day as well!
The verse that I had posted this morning about this day being sacred, and to let the joy of the Lord be my strength was definately a foreshadowing of what this day would hold. First of all we learned that there is a big difference between weekend traffic in Seoul and Monday morning traffic. What would have taken us 10 minutes in a taxi ride Sunday, took us close to 45 today! Ah....gotta love the city.
We were dropped off at Holt, and their new offices since we had adopted Narae and Adah. It was a beautiful building and of course my heart was leaping in my chest every time I saw a foster mother with her baby. I wish I could just broadcast their photos all over, but as other fellow adoptive Mums know the privacy of the foster families needs to be a priority. Well we met DJ the overseas adoption coordinator for Holt. I have heard so many incredible things about her and now I know why. She is such a sweet woman that works so hard to bring our babies home! Even though Hanna is with SWS, all social workers here seem to be working overtime for the families, and their hearts break for the EP situation as much as ours do.
We than got to meet DJ's boss Mr. Lee. He was so excited to see the girls, and he gave Adah and Narae little gifts. He thanked us so much for believing in adoption and being families that know that adoption is a blessing. I think they were amazed that we will have 5 girls very soon. The wall that was across from DJ here was just filled with pictures of forever families. I'm sure they are her inspiration every day!
While I was waiting for DJ to look into how we could get to Ilsan, I just poked my head out in the hallway and went into another room that was labelled over seas adoption and it seemed like there was quite a bit of stuff in there. I'm thinking it was probably where all the family gifts go to, and it looked like some women were sorting through clothing there as well.
While I was in the office with DJ, I was telling her about our experience with Narae and Adah. I told her that Mrs. Shin was their social worker, and she said that Mrs. Shin still worked at Holt but in a different department. I had asked her whether we could see her and she said that she could give her a call. However, the focus at the time was getting us up to Ilsan, and I also didn't want to take up more of DJ's time than needed. She directed us to go back downstairs. I was at the front of our group behind DJ, when I see her go into the elevator and start calling someone. Here at the bottom of the stairs where the elevators go up, none other than MRS. SHIN was in the elevator about to go up to her office somewhere. I saw her, she saw me and than I noticed the recognition and just ran into grab her and hug her. I'm not sure if the sweet woman could breathe I was hugging her so hard. You see, seeing her was just a reminder of all the miracles that God had done in the lives of Narae and Adah. Mrs. Shin was the social worker that translated Narae's first visit, and I don't know how many times I've watched the video, but she is just like a part of our family. She was so excited to see us and to see that we had brought the girls. She was even more excited about another girl for our family. She did look at Mark and say, "What, you don't like boys!" To think of that exact moment in time and space, picked out to remind me that our steps today were definately being ordered by a loving God.
Well after all that excitement it was finally time for DJ to get us on a bus headed for Ilsan. She walked us across the street, just up from the old Holt offices, and she waited with us so that she could tell the bus driver where to have us get off. Ilsan is about a 30 to 45 minute drive in a regular van...this was a bus. Mark and I had no idea where we were and in the hands of a complete stranger that didn't speak a lick of English! It was AMAZING yet terrifying at the same time. Mark said he actually felt more secure when he was in the middle of the Simbai Outback in PapauNewGuinea, overloaded on a 4Wheeler with a bunch of stranger holding guns! I think I'd take the bus in the middle of Korea! :)
Both the girls fell asleep on our shoulders, and Mark was busy taking in all the scenery with videos of any possible farm land that he could find! I was simply taking in all the events of the day. I was just thinking what a great day it would be for Narae and Adah to see Holt, and didn't even think in my wildest dreams that Mrs. Shin could meet them. I was reminded that though we weren't where I had thought we would be a couple of weeks before this, we were exactly where God wanted us to be!
The bus driver let us off, right where we needed to be, and we started to work our way up to Ilsan. Ilsan is a very special place. It was land purchased by Harry Holt decades ago to become a place where disabled children could go. Just as bloodlines are important in Korea, so is physical perfection, and too often the children with any medical conditions are disregarded. To walk onto the grounds of Ilsan, you just get the feeling that you are somewhere VERY SPECIA! What a thankful heart I had for the fact that God had orchestrated our schedules that we could be there. You see if we had met Hanna on a Monday, we wouldn't have known until than if we needed to have another meeting Tuesday, which meant I wasn't sure if we would even be able to get up to Ilsan. YET God knew all the details and here we had a day WIDE open with no places to be, so that we could take in all of Ilsan and on top of that Molly Holt was free for the majority of the day as well!
We found our way up to Molly's house, and were able to surprise her a little bit, with the fact that we were right at her doorstep. HOW wonderful to have the pleasure of being with her and in her home. She was sitting with a couple of the Ilsan residents that are currently staying at her home. The little girls name is Mee So and she can't see.
All the houses in Ilsan have House Mothers including Molly's House. This is another one of the residents at Ilsan that stays at Moll'ys House along with the House Mother who has put on a wonderful spread.
We were than ready for lunch, and Molly was going to treat us to some Korean food. she refused to let us pay saying that we had taken her out to lunch....of course that was about 5 years ago. However, to know Molly is to know that once she puts her mind to something you can't change it.
She walked us down across the street to a wonderful Korean restaurant. You'll laugh, that though we have been her for almost three full days, we really hadn't had a chance to have a whole lot of Korean up to that point. Molly's treat was GREATLY ENJOYED!! We also met a girl from the United States Lydia, whom is a Korean adoptee that lives in Oregon and she had just started 3 months of a volunteer internship at Ilasn.
Molly was telling us about all the wonderful things that have been taking place at Ilsan over the last 5 years or so. We couldn't wait to see the new Memorial Hall that is dedicated to the memory of Molly's parents Harry and Bertha and their mission to stand accountable for all children.
These pictures are taken at the grave site of Harry and Bertha Holt. Two ordinary people with an extraordingary faith that changed the world.
It was an amazing day so far and we were only about half done. The next part was the one that changes your life as you walk around Ilsan and that is meeting the residents. I have to admit that I am head bobbin again though and can barely keep my eyes open, so I'm going to have to save that part and another miracle that took place for tomorrow morning.
So Goodnight from a cooler Korea tonight, and another time that my faith has been strengthened as God has reminded me He has me right where he wants me to be, and I need to just keep my eyes up and walking one foot in front of the other. It's surreal to think that we only have two more nights to sleep! One more day where I don't have a toddler and am carrying around a diaper bag.
God makes all things beautiful in His time!
3 comments:
Your post are so moving, I feel like I am there living it with you. So very exciting to see God's plan for you unfold page by page!!!! Stay strong in HIM! Love and Hugs to you all
ok so you leave us hanging yet again.....*sigh*
Karen you keep saying how God is in control. So He could have Hanna sleep through the night for you, because she knows that this is were she belongs and God wants.
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