Monday afternoon update

We got word this morning that Abby's foster mother couldn't come today. We will meet with her tomorrow. That bumped our DMZ tour that we had scheduled for tomorrow. No worries, flexible is our middle name :) So, we basically had nothing to do until our meeting with Hudson at 2pm. We went to Namdaemun again for gifts. It was misting so we bought umbrellas--you know how frugal(Okay super cheap) I am, I'm calling my umbrella a souvenir!!! We ate lunch in the Kyobo bookstore food court again. I had my same Bulgogi with rice, Abby branched out and ate another hamburger! Mike went crazy and got a big bowl of soup with noodles and mushy pink rimmed tofu with no taste. He said the soup and fried dumplings were really good. We were lazy and took a taxi back to Eastern. I'm all about the subway, but sometimes your feet are begging for a taxi ride.

I'd like to say that my little man is quite the fashionable dude! I kid you not. He was wearing Thomas the Tank socks with little bright yellow plastic shoes. I'm not talking Crocs here folks. I'm talking fake wooden shoes from Holland!!!!!! I couldn't concentrate on how adorable his fat cheeks are cause of the shoes!! Mel and Kate, I immediately thought of how you 2 would get a huge kick out of it. And, to top it all off--she is sending us a brand new pair of these with him!!

Hudson---- Well, how do I describe this meeting. It started out terrible but ended up great! He walked into the hall where we were sitting and stopped dead in his tracks, looked at us and closed his eyes!! This kid is hysterical and very smart. He knew something was up. We walked to the park with him, his foster mother and social worker, about 2 blocks away. This created quite the parade. Several ladies walking down the street wanted to know what the fuss was about and they followed us. I kept trying to hold his hand and he yanked it away. Mike couldn't even look his direction. At the park, we desparately tried to find the balance of engaging Hudson and yet giving him space--this was done, to our dismay, under the watchful eyes of 3 grandmothers at the park with their little grandchildren. They all wanted in on the story and I could her Hudson's foster mom saying "omma, appa, nuna" the Korean words for mom, dad, and big sister. It was very unnerving. Hudson eventually started warming up to me and to Abby. His foster mom and the social worker went to hide behind some bushes while we tried to play. He decided Abby was pretty cool(she looks much more normal than Mike and I do!). He took her hand and led her around. It was adorable. After a while, we walked back to Eastern. Hudson let me hold him. He was so tired, it was naptime. He even put his head down on my shoulder for a few minutes. Have I said how BIG this child is. I was a sweaty pig at the this point from carrying him up the slide several times, not to mention the spit up chocolate on the front of my pink shirt that plopped out of his mouth when crying. Then we went into the little play room. He started to take a bottle but wanted to play with Abby instead. The 2 of them played while we looked at the gifts the foster mother brought us. There was a gorgeous hanbok(the colorful silk traditional Korean outfit and hat), 3 photo albums documenting his life from 2 months of age. I started crying and so was the foster mom. Then the social worker translated what was hand written in the photo album "We love you, we hope you grow up to be a strong man." Let the tears flow from Daddy! This baby is a part of the family. The foster mother's 19yr old daughter is in college in Japan. She is flying in tomorrow to say goodbye to Hudson. Tracy W, it gets even worse than this! Her 22 yr old son is in the army. There was a picture of him with Hudson and he's wearing his camos. I had a silver locket engraved with Hudson's name and birthday and put a tiny picture of his face in it. She showed me that she was wearing it and just cried and cried. Okay, enough of the tears--whew--this is hard stuff people!! He is so beautiful and funny and we are amazed at the miracle God was worked this year to bring us together.

Tonight my friend and fellow waiting mom lands here. She will meet her 22months old baby girl tomorrow! I can't wait to meet her. She and I have been waiting together for several months and held each other up when it was so excrutiating.

Wednesday, we tour the DMZ. Mike is super pumped about that.