We're home!!

I'm sorry I haven't posted sooner...we are doing great but it has been a crazy few days!

I'll try to pick up where I left off blogging. Our final full day in Seoul we did some more sightseeing. We went to several of the local markets and bought some souvenirs and sampled some of the food. (Well, I tasted something similar to a doughnut...just fried dough with sugar and Michael was more daring and sampled more of the local fare). It was a lot of fun! We also went through the Palace Museum which was very interesting. Afterwards we went and toured one of the local palaces. It was a very full day. We went back to our hotel right after dinner and watched American Idol on our computer and then went to bed.

The next day (Thursday) was the day we would finally get to bring Mary Kenzie home! It was a very emotion filled day. That morning we ate breakfast at Krispy Kreme and then we headed to the agency. We had a meeting at 11am with the president of the agency. It was very interesting to hear the history of the agency and to hear about the love that they have for the orphaned and their desire that the orphaned find families. It was very touching.

Once our meeting was over we had a lunch with the president and some of the other families in town for the week. After lunch was over it was 1pm and we knew we had about 2 hours to kill before Mary Kenzie would arrive. We went downstairs to change clothes and decide what we were going to do. When we walked into the lobby we saw Mary Kenzie and her foster mom and a few other babies and their foster moms. We found out that there had been a slight mis-communication and we were actually getting Mary Kenzie then instead of 2 hours later. This was a great surprise!!

At the agency, the president prays over the babies and their foster families and adoptive families right before the foster moms hand the babies over to their adoptive moms. It was very, very touching. Mary Kenzie's foster mom is very attached to her and every once in a while she would turn her head away from Mary Kenzie and would wipe away her tears...I don't think she wanted Mary Kenzie to see her sad.

After the prayer, we were ushered into the van that was taking us to the airport and Mary Kenzie's foster mom handed her to me. Then, we drove off with her foster mom standing on the steps of the agency watching us leave. It was very, very moving and sweet. I still have a hard time putting it into words. I have so much love and respect for the foster mothers who love their babies so well and who care for them like they are their very own children, only to hand them over to another family not knowing if they will ever see them again. I am so thankful that my baby was given life by her birthmom; that she was given love and nurturing by her foster mom and that her foster mom taught her how to bond so that now she can love and bond to me and Michael.

Once we got to the airport in Seoul, we had a lot of time to just look at our sweet baby, feed her, and begin getting to know our baby girl and her us. We finally got on the plane and began the trek home. This was the part that I was dreading the most. I had no idea how Mary Kenzie would react to us and to being on a plane for 13 hours. Thankfully, the time of day we were leaving was her night time, so she actually slept for about 10 of the 13 hours. The other 3 hours she was very, very content. It was a huge relief when we landed in Atlanta. We had a couple hours of a layover which was good because we had to go through customs and immigration with Mary Kenzie's paperwork.

Our relief was short-lived. Almost immediately after our plane landed a huge batch of thunderstorms settled in over the airport. We saw where our gate was supposed to be. We took the train to that particular concourse. We walked all the way to the gate only to find out it had been switched to another gate in a completely different concourse. I was wearing Mary Kenzie in one of my carriers and we had 4 other bags that were full. We were already exhausted after such a long and emotional day and our 13 hour flight. So, going back and forth between concourses felt like such an ordeal. We finally found the right gate but there was nowhere to sit because the thunderstorms and terrible lightning had caused the airport to shut down and there were currently 2 or 3 flights worth of people sitting at our gate. We walked a little further down and found a few empty seats. We called our parents to let them know we were in Atlanta but that we might be a little delayed because of the storms. We talked to Riley and told him that we couldn't wait to see him that night!

Almost an hour later they announced over the PA system that our flight had been completely cancelled and they had rebooked everyone to the next day. We were absolutely exhausted and disappointed to hear that we wouldn't be coming home that night. We ended up staying in a hotel and were rebooked to the first flight out in the morning to our town. We got to the hotel after 11pm and left around 6am. During that short stay in the hotel, Mary Kenzie slept maybe 2 hours. It was a very long night! After staying in a hotel the first night we had Riley we had always said we would never do that again. So, it was very ironic to be in a hotel room for Mary Kenzie's first night with us and to have no choice but to just be stuck there.

Evidently, there were terrible thunderstorms and lightning just around the airport. Lightning struck the control tower at the airport which is why so many flight were delayed and ours cancelled.

We finally flew home Friday morning and arrived in our airport at 8:40am. It was SO GOOD to see our families and some of our friends! It felt so surreal to be holding my baby as we walked down the airport hallway. The moment I had dreamed about for almost 2 years had finally happened again!

We are doing great! Mary Kenzie is doing really, really well! She has been such a good baby. She has had a few episodes of being sad but for the most part is just adjusting great. She is very laid back and seems to be taking everything in. Last night she only woke up twice. After I gave her a bottle she went right back to sleep each time and this morning we had to wake her up at 9:30am so we could go to Riley's soccer game.

We are exhausted (extremely exhausted!!), but we are so happy and so glad to finally have our family together in the same country and under the same roof!

Here are a few pictures...more to come later! I don't have any pictures yet from the airport because other people were snapping shots, not us, but as soon as I get some I will try to post.

Thank you for caring about us and sharing in the joy of adding another child to our family!

Driving to the airport in Seoul (MK had just fallen asleep...I had prayed that she would be awake when her foster mother handed her off to me and she was. I didn't want her to wake up and not know what had happened. She fell asleep a few minutes later).