"All Just to Get to You"

There is a song by Texas singer and songwriter Pat Green called, "All Just to Get to You." These are the events that transpired in the final hours "all just to get to" our sweet baby boy.

After leaving our house on Wednesday, February 24, around 5:15 a.m., we arrived at Incheon/Seoul Airport at 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, February 25. We were exhausted, but excited. The kids were traveling champs. Although Grant liked to complain about the 14 hour flight before and after the fact (who can blame him?), he never made a peep. He watched movies, ate, and slept. Not such a horrible life. After a brief mix-up that led us to get out of line for customs once we realized that even the kids had to fill out forms (not the case in the USA), we breezed our way through and waited for our driver from Eastern.

To make a long story short, there was some sort of miscommunication and a driver had not been sent. Later, a driver was sent for another family from Eastern whom we have since learned was stuck in customs for a loooooong time. After almost four hours of waiting, we told the driver (who was still waiting for the other family) that we would take a cab. He quickly waved us off and said, "No, no. I take you." The other family (bless their hearts!) finally ended up taking the train once they emerged from customs and realized that their driver had left. We were definitely feeling guilty for taking their driver, but were too drained to protest too much. After all, we were meeting our son in a little over 12 hours!

The painfully long wait in Seoul

The driver refused to take the customary gift that I offered upon arriving at the hotel after the hour-long ride. He had let us down, and he didn't feel he deserved it. We would soon learn that the entitlement mentality we are accustomed to in the United States is still blessedly absent in South Korea.

Our first night in Seoul was spent in two different rooms. Grant and Matt stayed in one, while Anna and I set up temporary camp in the other. Our original reservation began the next day, and when we added a day due to the huge savings on airfare by leaving the USA a day earlier, our room was booked. I believe that this actually worked out for the best. God knew that despite the excitement and anticipation, it might take a small amount of mountain-moving to get all of us ready in our required "business casual attire" and out the door in the morning. A divide and conquer approach proved quite effective.

When we reached our room, I still had to unload all of the gifts for the foster family, social worker, and visa coordinator. I wrapped them and prepared our clothes for the morning. I packed the balls, bubbles, balloons, matchbox cars, stickers, paper, and crayons in a bag for Tai. In the event that our meeting was not in one of the play rooms, we needed to be prepared. I finally fell into bed around 11:15 p.m. I slept like a baby, and awoke early the next morning... excitement coursing through my veins!