March 1, 2008

I will begin here where I left off yesterday, seeing those 50 babies. Actually when we went into the nursery to look one of the nurses asked if we had some extra time to hold a baby. 2 hours later, 6 babies later, 4 bottles later, it was time to find some dinner. But we did meet a darling little boy that Jeff and I discussed hiding in our carry-on luggage; don’t worry boys, we aren’t really going to bring him home. We asked more about him because he was older, (Probably 3 months or more, VERY smiley and interactive) we were told his parents are popular in sports, and they haven’t decided if they are going to keep him or not. That is very sad, but obviously we don’t know the whole story.

Food...that is our biggest issue here. Not many Koreans speak very much English, so if we can't find a picture of the food that we understand, it's hard to know what to order. It's like going to McDonald's and trying to order if there are not any pictures, and you dont speak English. We have found that the 2 main phrases that are understood by most everyone is "How much $$" and "Discount." We ended up eating at one of the more Americanized restaurants. Something like Joe's Coffee and ordered a club sandwich. It was really good! Although we are careful to not eat any vegetables that are not cooked because if they were rinsed in just water; we can get very sick! We have not gotten sick at all, even after our vendor food purchases that I will explain later. Then I ended up falling asleep in our room at 8:30pm, which is 3:00am at home.

On Saturday it was a National Holiday, Independence Day. Many businesses were closed, but we decided to learn how to ride the subway today. Luckily enough we were approached on each trip by a Korean person who spoke very good English. We must have looked lost. :) First was a young girl who lived in the USA in North Carolina for 6 months, and the other was a 30 year old man who had been adopted by a Swedish family, but was now living in Korea teaching English. He gave me his business card because he is also actively involved in an adult adoption group that assists adoptees in meeting their birth family. He said that our daughter will need to be 13 before she can have access to her birth record. The subway is underground and fairly easy to use; you can follow numbers, colors and/or names. Although you only have about 3 minutes to get on or off at your stop, so you better be sure you know when to get off. We took the subway to the Namdaemam Market. This is an amazing place covering about 6 city blocks. There was not a single vendor that had an area larger than 5x5, and most were half that size. They sold everything and anything. Luckily we didn’t get lost and did venture down many alleys to see the different goods for sale. We tentatively bought a sweet pancake from a street vendor and ended up liking it so much that we bought 4 other food items from street vendors. Actually it was Jeff that wanted to try most of it. Each item was $1.00 or less. We bought a price of ham on a stick that was wrapped in a batter similar to a crepe that had shredded carrots and maybe spinach in it and was deep fried. There must have been 20 people around the stand, which is what got our attention. We then ordered what we thought was a fish noodle on a stick but it was actually a big piece of slimy fish, kind of warm on a stick. (that was not our favorite) Then Jeff ordered a Big white piece of something similar to a mozzarella cheese stick (but the size of a brat) wrapped in a meat covering and fried. That was probably his favorite. We also tried roasted nuts that were so-so. After that experience, we decided to come back to our room and relax.

For dinner we went down the street and had barbecued chicken on a cheese platter. It was a little spicy for me, but we ate it.

We ended the evening with the babies again. One little guy has a head like it was shaved. Its the cutest thing. He looks like a little monk. Jeff said while rocking one baby, "it sure is amazing at how attached we can get by spending just 30 minutes with a baby," and I totally agreed. In the nursery were two, one day old babies. Amazing!

We also met a family today that is staying at Eastern who is adopting their 3rd child from Korea (they have a total of 6). Jennifer, the mom, said she never intended to adopt more than 1 (she also has 2 bio kids). Don’t worry Grandma and Grandpas; that won't be Jeff and I in a few years. She has also been very helpful and suggested we try to get our daughter on Monday instead of Tuesday, so the day before we leave.

And lastly, we finally named our daughter. Kayli MinYeoung Blom. Boys I know you will be happy about this. The other family from Australia that we met named their daughter Lily, and when Jeff heard that he wanted to name our daughter that. He knew I liked that name, but he agreed we just couldn’t put her through a life of "Lily Bloom" since many people mis-pronounce our last name. So Kayli it is!

Evan and Trenton, your school week should be over by now. Only a few more days until we are home. Keep up the good behavior. We miss you and love you! Love Mom and Dad

 

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