This will hopefully give you an idea of the events leading up to us leaving for Korea and our time spent in Korea. We had a lot of fun.

21 February 2001

Had a call from the AAC adoption agency to say Josiah's medicals are all clear. Gave tentative travel dates.

28 February 2001

Booked our tickets even though we haven't had confirmation.Flying Malaysian airlines with a stop over in Kuala Lumpar.

3 March 2001

Had a suprise baby shower organised by Bridget (our host family) and Adrian (DH). This was my first baby shower!!! We had a great time.

5 March 2001

Had our pre travel meeting with Carmel at the AAC agency. We were given a letter of ettiquette that detailed a few customs and behaviours we had to remember while in Korea. We also received a copy of Josiah's medical report which gave us an update on how big Josiah was in February. At least it gave us a rough idea on what size clothes we need to take. We have found that Kaitlyn and Zachary must be sensing things are starting to happen. Kaitlyn didn't want to dance at her dancing class today which she usually loves. She's also been a bit reluctant to be left at kindy and has had some crying outbursts at Kindy which is really strange for her.

6 March 2001

IT'S OFFICIAL!! WE'RE GOING TO KOREA!!!!!!!! Received the call at 4:15 pm just as I was thinking we wouldn't be hearing anything because the agency had closed for the day. Apparently they had received a fax to say a driver would be meeting us at the airport on March 12!!! Now to get into some serious packing.

9 March 2001

We had a farewell dinner with some relatives at the "Great River Korean Restuarant" in Gouger streeet. It was a great way to end a hetic day. I had picked up the plane tickets yesterday only to find Josiah's ticket wasn't there!! Went in today to get it and it had been printed out wrong so decided to do some last minute shopping while I waited for the ticket to be reprinted. Luckily the courier and I arrived back at the travel agency at the same time. (had been feeling a bit panicky)

11 March 2001

We packed our cases and did last minute gift wrapping last night, hoping we could have a "relaxed" morning (ha, ha) We had some friends drop in to say goodbye and our minister, Pete, dropped in to pray for us. My (Naomi) parents took us to the airport along with Kaitlyn and Zachary. We also had some friends see us off at the airport. We enjoyed having bulkhead seats which meant we had more leg room. We also enjoyed having our own personal screens to watch movies and play video games. Arrived at K.L. airport safely after a very smooth flight. (whew) Amazed at how big the airport is compared to the little Adelaide airport we had left several hours earlier. Enjoyed walking around the airport and looking at the rainforrest. Tried some Malaysian food, using chop sticks!

12 March 2001

Very tired by the time we boarded our plane for Seoul. This plane wasn't as new as the other plane and didn't have personal screens which was a bit of a let down. However we hoped to sleep on this flight so it didn't matter. (I think I managed 3 hours sleep which was more than Adrian) I was suprised when they woke us up quite early (about 4:30am Korean time) to offer us a warm towel. Breakfast was served at 5am Korean time which was a bit too early for us to stomach along with our growing nerves and excitement. Got through immigration easily but had to wait awhile before we could see our bags. Easily found our driver holding up a sign with our last name printed on it. At this stage we were feeling very proud of ourselves for getting this far without any dramas. The driver gave us a note to say we wouldn't be meeting Josiah until tomorrow which was a bit of a let down but was probably a good thing as we were fairly tired. After an exhilarating ride to the agency we walked into the agency's foyer not exactly looking our best when who should be in there but BOTH Dr kim's!!!! They seemed very nice and asked us a few questions which we tried to answer intelligently even though our brains felt foggy and we were tired and feeling nervous at this unexpected meeting. After being shown our room we were then shown the common room which was full of people from America. (certainly felt the minority today) After hearing other peoples experiences so far and acclimatising to the American accents and noticing a few language differences e.g. we say jumpers, they say sweaters and we got some funny looks when we said Adrian had to get himself a jumper, we had showers to freshen up and took a walk around the immediate area. IT WAS FREEZING!! My nose and mouth went numb within about 10 minutes of being outside. Decided to go into the subway in hopes it would be warmer. It was. Tried ordering our first Korean meal. (lunch) The guy behind the counter was very helpful and between pointing at pictures and broken english we finally ordered.... something with rice and a lot of side dishes. We were feeling like we had really acheived something today!! Spent the rest of the day cat napping and speaking to the other guests at the guest house.

13 March 2001

OUR FIRST MEETING WITH JOSIAH!!!! We arrived at the designated room a little bit early. We then remembered we had forgotten the gift we had for our social worker so Adrian made a quick dash back to our room. (lucky for us everything was in the same building) Unfortunately Adrian missed Josiah and his foster mum arriving by about 5 minutes. Josiah's foster mum Mrs Chae was great. As soon as she realised who we were she started to get Josiah off her back with the help of our social worker, Mrs Oh. He went straight to me without any fuss. (that's when Adrian came back) We were then shown into a smaller room where we could ask all our questions and get to know Josiah a bit more. Of course this first meeting went by very quickly and an hour was up before we knew it.

We decided to spend the rest of the day sightseeing and try our luck on the subway. Before leaving for Korea we had decided that we would try to experience as much of seoul as we could and as we would soon find out, a week doesn't give you much time.

The Hyundai department store isn't far from the Eastern social welfare society (where we were staying). We were suprised at how warm it was inside buildings. We were dressed for the cold outside weather so had to take off several layers of clothing when going inside. We had burger king for lunch just because we wanted to see if it was the same as Hungry Jacks.....it was. Except they recycle their cups which was great but we must have looked lost because one of the assistants helped us clear our table. We then made our way to the subway in hopes of finding the way to Namdaemun markets. Our tip for the subway is if anyone tells you the subway is easy....believe them!! We have never been on a subway before or out of Australia so we were a bit hesitant at first but the subway is very user friendly. Signs were written in english and all the lines were colour coded. Also people in Korea are very friendly and will come up to you to ask if they can help whether you look lost or not. (unless we looked lost often?) Found the market easily and had a great day of shopping and just realising we were actually in Korea!!! We started to get used to motor bikes on the footpath. (and sometimes cars) Something that no one had mentioned to us was the amount of water in the toilets!! Of course I thought our toilet in our room must have been blocked so I mentioned the large amount of water to some of the American people at the guest house (not thinking straight) who thought it must be blocked. I called in the Korean cleaning lady to look at the toilet. (she didn't speak english) She looked at the toilet and kept nodding and flushing it for me, then left. Of course later, after using some of the public toilets, I was realising they couldn't all be blocked. After confirming it with another American couple, that is the normal level in Korea and America!!!! (felt just a little bit embarrassed)

Another special experience for me today was seeing the newborn babies and the sick babies in the nursery. We were told to wear gowns and take off our shoes and wash our hands. We could then help feed and hold the babies. (some weren't even a week old)