Coex Mall

COEX Mall

Since we had all caught a nap on the shuttle bus, we weren't completely wiped out when we got to the guest house.  We took a couple hours to get unpacked and settled and then we set out for lunch at COEX mall.  We headed down to the Yeoksam subway station and pulled out our T-money cards from our last trip to Korea.  Surprisingly, they still worked and had some money left on the cards!  We had to buy a new one since Ben is now a teenager (higher subway fares) and Ian is no longer a freebie (5 and under).

The weather was beautiful and even though COEX is mostly underground, we walked outside a few times and enjoyed walking around in shorts.

Where to eat in Korea?  McDonalds, of course.  

Yum - a bulgogi burger, fries and Coke!

We didn't do any serious shopping.  We got some smoothies at Smoothie King and ate at McDonalds because we like bulgogi burgers - something you just can't get in the US.  After we ate, we could feel the jet lag starting to kick in so we headed back to the guest house to catch a short nap before we met up with Cami's friend Doyun and her family for dinner.

We're in Korea

At about 4:00am Korean time on Monday, May 3rd, our plane touched down.  We had an uneventful flight with only a few rough air patches that required us to take our seats.  Everyone slept for a while although probably not enough.  The kids enjoyed the seat back entertainment options and watched several movies and TV shows.  I got to see the Steve Jobs movie and The Hunger Games:  Mockingjay Part 2.

Travel documents.  Somehow we lost Alex's boarding pass, but we still had Alex so no worries.

Incheon International Airport, one of my favorite airports was really quiet when we arrived.  We must have been one of the first arriving flights for the day.  But the airport in general seems to be designed in such a way that it has a calming effect.  Even when it's busy, it's not overwhelming like some airports.

Cami with our luggage

We made it through immigration and customs without any issues.  Being it was so early, we weren't in a big hurry to get on the shuttle bus.  So we got some breakfast, charged our devices and didn't get on the KAL shuttle bus until about 7am.  The weather outside was great - sunny and mid 60's.  That's by far the best weather we've ever experienced in Korea.  It was a treat to see green plants and blooming flowers.

Look, no snow!

We arrived at the guest house around 8:30am and got checked into our room.  It felt good to set our bags down and unpack a bit.   

There's a Starbucks sign on that green building.  Is the whole building a Starbucks?  

At the airport

We made it to Ohare airport in Chicago.  It was a wet rainy drive, but the only traffic of note was in Wisconsin near Edgerton due to an accident.  Ian, Cami  and Alex slept most of the way and Alex is amped up and ready to go.

Special thanks to our friend Stefan Wahe for riding down with us and then taking our van back to Madison.  His family is going to meet us on the way back.  Just one of the many kind gestures we've received from friends and family.

Packing Frenzy

Today is the day!  We leave at 11:55pm tonight from Chicago.  For me, it's been another low-sleep night.  I go to bed exhausted and wake up a few hours later with my mind racing.  There's always something new that pops into my mind.  Did we pack that?  Are we ready for this?  Whose taking care of that?

Generally, I enjoy researching and planning for trips.  Trying to figure out where to go, what to see, how to get there and so forth.  But this trip seems to be mostly about just getting ready to make the journey.  I haven't researched how to use the subway in Guangzhou.  I don't have a list of sites that we should see.  Only this morning did I find out that the railway connection to Seoul's Incheon airport is now an option for getting into the city. 

But it's ok.  We have many people who will be helping us along the way.  Today, the Wahe family is driving us to Chicago.  In Korea, the staff at the Social Welfare Society (SWS) will be available to help.  Then we will be with the Nam family who will be our guides in Korea.  Once we are in China, we will have the services of a guide provided by Great Wall China Adoption.  We will only really be "on our own" when we are in Hong Kong for a few days.   And we know that God is with us no matter where we go and we are reminded of that by the many people have been praying for us on this journey.  We sincerely appreciate your love and support. 

Before we head out this afternoon, we need to finish packing, get the oil changed in the van, and Ben has a soccer game.  And I'm hoping to get a nap.  We'll see.

Travel Confirmed

On Monday, April 4th, our consulate appointment was confirmed for May 17th.  That's one of the last pieces of our journey.  Today, we finally received confirmation of the gotcha day as May 9th.  That's the day we get to meet Wen De and then he spends the rest of the trip with us.  We have various appointments throughout our journey between May 9 and May 17.

So, we've booked tickets to leave on April 30th at 11:55pm from Chicago O'Hare.  We will land in Seoul at 4:00AM on Tuesday, May 2nd.  We're working with AIAA and SWS, the agencies we used when adopting our other kids, to set up a visit with foster parents on May 2 or 3.  We'll stay in the SWS guest house for those nights.  Then on May 4, we will meet the Nam family (we hosted Brian at our home last summer) and spend time with them.  They have a lot of wonderful things planned for us while we are visiting.  We're excited to have the opportunity to visit Korea on our way to China.  

On May 8th, we'll leave Seoul and fly to Guangzhou.  On May 9th, we'll meet Wen De.

On May 17th, we'll take the high speed train to Hong Kong.  I'm excited to experience real high speed rail with speeds around 180mph.  We'll stay 3 nights in Hong Kong and then return home.  Flights were significantly less expensive leaving on Saturday so that covers most or all of our Hong Kong expenses.  

Excited to fly Asiana

We're excited about our flights because we were able to book Asiana Airlines for a reasonable price.  It helps that Asiana (as well as Korean Air), offer discounted flight prices for children under 12.  We traveled on Asiana to Korea when we adopted Ben almost 13 years ago.  We have fond memories of the wonderful service and amenities on Asiana,  which is on par with Korean Air, and knocks the socks off US-based carriers like Delta.  Hopefully we won't be disappointed since we'll be in the air for 14+ hours!

Note:  For all those criminals out there, don't even think about messing with our house.  Our wonderful neighbors are on high alert, watching over our house.  It's highly likely that you could encounter our good friend and her concealed carry permit.  Plus, there's a mean bulldog named Dozer who'll attack and if he doesn't stop you, then our neighbor's dog Valkyrie, who is part Huskie will take you down.  Assuming you make it that far, mean and ferocious Finli will take a chunk out of you.  Besides, what are you going to do with our house -- declutter and clean it?  

Travel Approval

We finally got the call for travel approval.  Normally, it wouldn't take more than a few days after the Article 5 pick up, but we got caught in an audit.  Apparently, the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption), felt it was the right time to audit the paperwork of families who were in process at this time.  Had our paperwork been a little earlier or a little later, we would have received our travel approval sooner.

But the timing is ok.  Had we gotten the approval, we would have had to agonize over the question of whether to rush to travel before the trade fair or wait.  Now it seems pretty obvious that we'd wait until May.  Our travel advisor at the adoption agency thought an April 11th gotcha day might be possible, but with our plans to travel to Korea before heading to China, that means we'd probably leave on April 4th - 5 days from now!  That's probably not going to happen.

Our next step is to confirm travel dates with the adoption agency.  We'll keep you posted when we have travel confirmed.

Article 5

Last night as we were talking about the coming weeks and months, we wondered when the next step, which is the issuance of Article 5, would happen.  In fact, Dana had sent an e-mail to our case worker at Great Wall earlier that night. This morning, when I checked my e-mail, I realized that I had an e-mail with Article 5 approval.  So we're one step closer and now we just wait for Travel Approval (TA).

We had a meeting with our travel coordinator last week and she offered 3 possible "gotcha day" options based on expected paperwork processing.  The earliest would be March 28.  The next would be April 5 and the one after that would be May 9.  Gotcha days typically happen on a Monday, but the April 5th date is a Tuesday (also the date of the Wisconsin presidential primary) due to the Chinese Qingming Festival (also referred to as tomb sweeping day) on April 4.  Then you'll notice a gap between April 5 and May 9.  In the Guangzhou area during April, there is a large trade fair called the Canton Fair.  Due to a shortage of hotel rooms our travel costs would spike so we would travel after the fair is complete.  But we can't make any travel plans until we get the TA, so now we're just waiting on that.