T Minus 3 Hours

Well, we've made it here to Korea and one full day under our belt. We arrived on late Friday afternoon and were exhausted. Our body's clocks still haven't quite adjusted to the 14 hour time difference. We spent the first evening in Incheon, which is along the coast and near the airport. We thought it would be more tourists, and it ended up being a quiet town with mostly locals. We really enjoyed the first night being quiet and relaxing. We checked out the beach, which was very cool, since the tide is low - so you can literally walk out into the ocean and explore the bottom for about 1/2 mile. There were lots of people out digging and collecting shellfish. We collected a bunch of fun shells for our kids, and what we didn't realize was that one of the conch shells had a crab living in it. We discovered it while I was Skyping with the kids that evening and showing them the shell and I had the scare of a lifetime when the crab appeared as I was holding it!

We had still been waiting to find out when we'd have our meeting with William, and we learned that we were scheduled to meet on Sunday morning at 9am. The agency is never opened on weekends, and our social worker said this was very rare to meet on a Sunday. Since we were planning to be in Incheon (an hour away), we needed to get to Seoul early for the meeting. Long story short, we ended up scrambling to book a hotel in downtown Seoul for one night, and will have to switch hotels again on Sunday. We had a lovely 10 block walk downtown with our 4 large suitcases and carry-on's. It was hot, but we enjoyed every minute of the adventure. We spend the day sightseeing and checked a massive palace, and the Blue House (where the SKorean president stays).

We decided to walk around and check out what the night life is like, and had a blast people watching!! Seoul reminds me of NYC, but bigger, cleaner and safer. There were people everywhere shopping, lounging, in coffee shops (Dunkin Donuts is on every corner). It wasn't the typical night life crowd or activity that I would have expected with bars, clubs. We were shopping at 11:30 at night in the market - it felt like the middle of the day, just full of lights and huge digital billboards. I really, really like the Korean culture. I have found them to be very friendly, respectful, not to mention brilliant. This country is extremely advanced technologically. We're about the only one not walking around with a Smartphone in our hand while we're here. It's only been one day and I've already learned so much and look forward to soaking up as much as I can of Will's culture.

We are anxiously awaiting our appointment with him in a few hours. Once again, I had dreams all night about it!! Our camera's are charged, our gifts for his foster family are wrapped and our hearts are ready to be changed even more!!! I already am excited for my next post, since I'll be able to share about our meeting - and not just sightseeing!!!

Thanks again for the prayers and support!! More later...