April 28, 2002-May 3, 2002
Our Nathanael had been home from Hong Kong not quite 9 months and was doing so well, and while we were always open to the idea of another adoption, if the Lord led, we truly were NOT sure we would adopt again...
Then, in October, I read an email on the Adopt-Korea-Christian email group from a person who volunteered with AAC Adoption and Family Network , in Berthoud, Colorado. What Vickie did was spread the word about special needs children available through AAC. In the email, she mentioned some boys, a toddler girl and then a "4-mo-old baby girl with a heart condition".
This mention of a "4-mo-old baby girl with a heart condition" IMMEDIATELY struck a chord in me... I remember thinking: "Lord, we aren't sure we want to adopt again, we don't have the money, and Lord, I did tell you once, didn't I, that we would "never" adopt a child with a heart condition. Besides, we have eight children and no way is Korea going to allow us to adopt again."
Still, it kept nagging at me and I contacted Vickie who encouraged me to get in touch with AAC about our situation. Photos were emailed and medical info faxed and when I saw that absolutely adorable, beautiful face, well, those of you reading this who have experienced something similar will be able to know what I mean when I say "I just knew". I printed everything out, took it up to my husband, who, after viewing everything said "When do we go and get her?"
Now, this was by no means a certainty but we had to give it a shot.. So I got in touch with AAC. They called me back, asked us some questions re. our situation and said they would get back in touch with them. They forever endeared themselves to me because they did not blink about us..
Approximately 3 weeks later, we got the word that a "yes" had been given and I was overjoyed... Of course that meant another go-round with filing INS, getting fingerprinted, having our homestudy updated.. But we did it... I joke now that, since we've filled out an I600A 6 times, I can do it blindfolded. At any rate, once our homestudy was complete and sent by our social worker to AAC, we had our official referral of Caroline on December 31, 2001. Our paperwork to Korea date was January 9, 2002.
We decided to name our baby, then known as "Han Hyo Jeong", Caroline Virginia-HyoJeong Breuer. "Virginia" is for my father, Virgil Wills, who went home to heaven on March 4, 2002 after a 4-week-hospitalization. Dad would have SO loved to have met Caroline and I do grieve this aspect that he was not able to see her... But she'll certainly know all about her grandpa!
If I've said this before I've said it a hundred times, but the wait to travel is the WORST. You know "who" and "where" but "when" is in the hazy future and you have that face looking at you everyday from a picture stuck to your refrigerator... I have to admit this waiting time for me was worse than almost any of our other times.. One of my fellow Korean-adoptive friends, Kelly, said that perhaps it was because we hadn't had a baby in the house in so long. Our sons had been adopted at 28-1/2 months of age and nearly 4 yrs of age and our previous youngest child at adoption was Jenna, who came home from China 4 yrs ago as a 1-year-old. BUT, Jenna was on total table foods, went off a bottle within days after coming home, had sat w/o support at 4 months and walked at 8 months, so it wasn't really like having a baby... I think Kelly was right and we were SO excited at the prospects of having a baby in the house again!
The days seemed to drag but, finally, on April 19, 2002, about 9 am, the phone rang. Glynn was home having coffee and when the phone rang he said "This is it." and I said "no way--AAC never calls this early in the morning." But when I picked the phone up, the caller ID said "AAC" and I knew.. I heard the words we'd been waiting to hear ever since October 2001 when Debbie said "Everything's in order and she'll be ready to leave anytime after tomorrow."
Kate and I went out to Target that night and bought all the items we'd been waiting to get until we heard Caroline was ready.. What FUN!! I made travel arrangement with Delight Travel , with whom we'd used for several previous trips to Hong Kong. This time, Glynn was FINALLY getting to go on an adoption trip, and we were bringing Justin, 17, along for his 4th trip to Korea, as well as Kerrie, 5-1/2 (adopted from Korea at 6 months of age and making her 2nd trip back) and Emilee, almost 7, from China and making her fourth trip back to Asia after 3 previous journeys to Hong Kong.
On April 28, we got up at 3:30 am and arrived at the Minot Airport by 4:30 am for our 5:05 am departure to Minneapolis. We landed in Minneapolis at 6:30 am and were not scheduled to leave for Tokyo until 2:55 pm.... We were so tired that, after eating at McDonalds', we went straight to our gate and camped out the entire time. I have to say the girls were SO good.. They played, we took some walks, watched planes land...
We finally boarded the flight for Tokyo, settled in for the next 12 hours and 45 minutes.. This was my ninth time to fly to Asia and as long as the trip was, I am kind of used to it... It went well. The girls were wonderful travelers once again and not a bit of trouble.
After landing in Tokyo, we went through x-ray and off to our gate. The layover was only about 1-1/2 hours and then we were on our way again to Seoul, fortunately only 2-1/2 hours. We landed at the new Inchon International Airport at 9:15 pm on Monday, April 29 Korea time.
We cleared customs/immigration, we changed some money into Korean won and made our way out into the arrival area where we saw our driver with Eastern Social Welfare Society , the in-Korea agency all 3 of our Korean children have come through. In fact, he was the same driver who met Justin, Kerrie and I 2 years previous when we had made a trip back to visit Kerrie's foster mother. We loaded up our bags and were n our way in to Seoul...
Arriving at the guesthouse was like coming home again.. We were in room 508... We settled in for the night, anxiously awaiting the next days' events.
After waking up and getting dressed, we went into our kitchen area and had breakfast. We met in 101 of Eastern's offices to receive Caroline's legal documents then went up at 10:00 am to 202.. As soon as we walked in, we saw Caroline standing there being held by her foster mother... It's an almost surreal moment when you see your new child for the first time--the one who's face you know so well from pictures.... She was more beautiful than we had imagined, all dressed to the nine's and just perfect!
About that same time, Kerrie's foster mom came in with the baby she was caring for and she hugged Kerrie and presented her with a gift. Our official meeting with her would be in another hour, so we went off with Caroline, our social worker and her foster mom into a side room where we were able to visit with her and play with her. She didn't mind that we wanted to hold her, but always looked to her foster mom for assurance. We had a superb one hour visit with our new daughter!!
At 11 am we went down to social services, 102, to visit with Kerrie's foster mom. This was the 2nd time she'd seen Kerrie since we brought her home in April 1997 and it was such a FUN visit.. We met with Nicholas' foster mom at 11:30 am, and she was not happy we didn't bring Nicholas with, but we reassured her he WOULD come back one day.. Glynn and I both feel we owe a debt of gratitude to "our" foster moms, who so lovingly, willingly and totally unselfishly cared for our children with all the devotion they would to their own, knowing it was not permanent. We feel these ladies will always be a part of our family!
Later that afternoon we took the subway out to the large Kyobo Bookstore.. It's in the basement of the Kyobo Building and is a massive bookstore--highly recommended to any Korea adoptive families who travel because you can get kids' books in Korean/English... Glynn, once again, found a couple music CD's that he would not be able to get stateside, so felt the trip was worth it. Both going to and leaving the store, we kept seeing more than a fair share of police in riot gear and got to wondering what was up, then decided they were out practicing for World Cup Soccer, due to come to Seoul late May...
On May 1, we took the subway to Itaewon. Thankfully it goes ALL the way to Itaewon and exits right in front of the Hamilton Hotel. The Korean name artist I wanted to purchase some drawings from has his outdoor stall right in front of the Hamilton, so it was perfect. I ordered several and we browsed through some stores. Glynn found more hard-to-find music CD's at the Hamilton Department Store and we bought Kerrie a new hanbok.
After returning to our room we got ready to go visit Caroline at the foster family's apartment. Our Eastern driver and social worker went with us. It was a wonderful time to get to know the place where Caroline had spent the first 10 months of her life... Some neighbors came over to visit too. Caroline's foster mom served some glutinous rice balls, which were very interesting (the ones rolled in toasted sesame seed were the best), some fresh cut watermelon and a pizza was ordered in. Again, Caroline let us hold her but looked to her foster mom for reassurance.
What was really cute during our visit was that the 15-year-old foster sister was home and when she came out of the room where she'd been studying and saw Justin, she was embarrassed and went running back in..
We went back to our room at the guesthouse and got ready to go out for dinner, came back and rested up.
The next day we had our meetings with both of the Dr. Kims. Dr Kim, the son, showed us a video of the work Eastern did. It's very easy to think they "only do adoptions" but it's much more than that.. Eastern is involved in many different areas of service.. Visiting with Dr. Kim, the father, is always special. He is a true spirit-filled man who is so kind and gentle... He told Emilee and Kerrie he hoped that they would always obey their parents and in the long run they would be happy as they grew up.
We were honored to share lunch with them and Eastern staff later that day.. They called it "humble" but it was SO good. This is one of the highlights of a trip to Korea for us--visiting with the Dr Kims and having lunch with everyone!
Later that afternoon, we changed and took the subway and then a taxi to Namsan Park , which is one of the things we've never done on three previous trips to Seoul. We bought tickets to enter the park and then tickets to go up to the top of the "Space Needle".. This was amazing.. We had a marvelous view of Seoul from all over. Emilee and Kerrie enjoyed this immensely...! So did we!
After returning, we stopped and had dinner then went to the bakery at the Seokyo Hotel where we bought a fancy cake for Justin's 17th birthday, celebrated in Seoul that day!!
We were to receive Caroline permanently from her foster mom at 6:30 pm and, based on how Kerrie and Nicholas had reacted when we received them from their foster moms, we were prepared for the worst but really did not know what to expect.
So, at 6:30 pm we went on up to room 202 of Eastern's offices. The foster mom and foster sister were there, both had been crying. This is ALWAYS the most difficult part--here we are, all excited about our newest child and then there's the foster family, who is grieving the loss they are about to experience. It can be quite difficult but even so, going through it in Korea is something VERY important to us. I tell people one of the main reasons we travel to Korea, even though escorting is an option, is that we want to see and experience Korea as it was when our child entered our family. We also want the foster mom to be able to see us outright, to get a feel for this family soon to take "her" child, and we wanted to be able to look them in the eyes and say "THANK YOU"....
Caroline was handed to me and the foster sister ran out of the room crying, the foster mom and social worker went after her... We headed off back to our room. A few times Caroline kept turning around looking for her omma but, aside from a very brief crying spell, she didn't really cry all that much. We kept waiting for it, but it never came amazingly enough!
We shared Justin's birthday cake in the kitchen area, and Caroline had her first bottle.. We got her ready for bed and she went right down, no problems. I slept with her on the mat on the floor, as that was what she was used to...
The next morning, we were up, dressed, had breakfast and were down with our bags at 8:00 am. Dr. Kim met us and said a thoughtful, heart-felt prayer for Caroline, in Korean, which needed NO translation. We were able to say good-bye to him and to our social worker. It's always hard to leave Eastern--these are the dearest people and we always will hold a place in our hearts because of them and their kindness and generosity to our family..
So began the voyage home.... We arrived at Inchon International at 9:00 am, a full 2-1/2 hours prior to our plane's departure for Tokyo. We for sure thought we'd have plenty of time to shop after clearing customs, but no such luck. My heart sank when we got in line to ticket and we realized that Northwest personnel were searching EVERY bag of EVERY passenger. This took absolutely FOREVER.We finally got to the ticket counter. The guy we got stuck with was a trainee who took FORTY MINUTES to get our boarding passes... He kept having to ask the woman next to him how to do things. Now you may say "Well, that's understandable! There were six of you traveling!" But back in February 2001, when leaving Hong Kong with Nathanael, there were six of us traveling and we had our boarding passes issued in no more than 10-15 minutes...
By the time we got our passes, convinced the exit tax person that NO Caroline was a baby and they had overcharged us exit tax ($15,000 won) as she did not owe tax, we were chomping at the bit.. We cleared customs/immigration, only to have GLynn get stopped for a full search because he forgot his sunglasses were in his pocket and it set the alarm off. We arrived at the gate JUST as they were boarding and then Glynn and Justin got stopped for a full search and scan...
Caroline did well on the short flight into Tokyo, but we had the misfortune of arriving at one of those horrid bus gates at Narita airport, and it took awhile for us to get to our actual departure gate. At Narita, you always get your bags re-xrayed, so we did that all over...
We sat around for awhile, about 2 hours, and then they called our flight.. So we board when they call for passengers traveling with small children... I had Caroline strapped to my side in a NoJo hip carrier, I had my carry-on bags, Caroline's tote and then I get stopped for a FULL baggage search and scanning... I was more than frustrated when they asked me to take my shoes off... I managed somehow, but I was seething at this point. I told the Japanese security person for Northwest that it was ridiculous and he said 'your govenrment rules".... It would have been next to impossible to get my shoes on right there, so I boarded the plane holding them... Earlier, when some elderly women in WHEELCHAIRS boarded the plane, they got scanned and had to take their shoes off. I know security is necessary, especially in light of 9/11, but I felt some of this was a bit much...
Caroline did so well on the flight into San Francisco!! She slept most of the time and hardly ever cried... Emilee and Kerrie were big helps, too. We were so glad we brought both girls with...
It was only about a 9 hour flight into San Francisco.. We cleared customs/immigration at SFO more quickly than I thought we would and went into the arrival area as we were to meet some friends, Gerald and Kelly and 16-mo-old Korean son, Devon.. THey had driven in about an hour to spend time with us. But we COULD NOT find them. I was more than frustrated. At this point we realized we had neglected to check our check-through bag all over again so wandered all over trying to find the right spot... It was in domestic departures that we met Gerald, Kelly and Devon again.. I was SO happy!
Glynn got in line to recheck the bag and spent ONE HOUR in line... They kept taking World Business Class people first and finally, about noon, some people who had a 12:15 pm flight demanded to get their bags checked... Gerald had spent some time with Glynn in line, and that helped, but he was quite disappointed he missed most of the visit. They had brought "big sister roses" fresh from their garden for Emilee and Kerrie, homemade cookies for us (a welcome treat) and a gift for Caroline... This visit met the world to us...
They walked us over to where we would go through security and we said our good-byes. This time Justin got stupped because he had a wadded up covering for his disposable camera he forgot he'd removed from his suitcase and stuffed in his pocket. At that point, I'd had enough of being scanned, searched, x-rayed and was about to explode, even though it was necessary at this point because the alert did go off.
Our flight from SFO to Minneapolis was late because the in-bound flight from Memphis was late due to weather, and we boarded about 1 hour late. It was an uneventful flight into Minneapolis..
At that point, we had a 3-hour layover and we went and camped out at our gate. Fortunately, this was right by a play area and Emilee and Kerrie were having so much fun.... Very convenient! Caroline continued to do so well.. We were in awe of what a wonderfully-behaved and good-natured baby she was being.
I could hardly stand the 1-1/2 hour flight into Minot, which departed Minneapolis at 10:00 pm.. I was so excited to see our other children and to have them see Caroline!! But we landed a bit before 11:30 pm.. There is nothing quite like the feeling walking down the ramp of the airplane, knowing you're bringing your new child home.... As we got out of the ramp we could see everyone waiting, including our asst pastor and his wife, a friend from church and the kids.. Nicholas had a welcome home sign he and the other kids had worked on with Kate. There were balloons, roses and a stuffed teddy bear...Everyone immediately fell in love with Caroline, who did not fuss, took all this in and charmed the socks off of everyone! We joined with our pastor as he said a prayer of thanksgiving for the arrival of our new baby girl and then we were on our way home..... Finally and at last!! Our arrival home day in the USA was May 3, 2002, and it would have been my dad's 78th birthday....since one of Caroline's middle names, Virginia, is after Dad, we thought this was a really neat day to come home!!
I tell people that never in a million years did I ever think that, at my age, I'd be able to have a baby in the house again, much less be able to adopt from Korea one more time... Everything about this was God-ordained--from the ability to be able to adopt from Korea, the financial aspects and everything going along with it. Caroline fits so well into our family and adding a baby after a nearly 5-year absence of a baby in the family, much less a 9th child, has hardly made a dent. Caroline continues to be a joyful, happy little girl who has quickly reached out and grabbed the hearts of everyone! She rarely cries, is very loving and affectionate. She goes to bed with a smile and wakes up with a smile... We simply cannot believe how much fun we all are having with a baby in the house again!! Emilee, Kerrie, Nicholas, Nathanael and Jenna are wonderful big brothers and big sisters and there has not been an iota of jealousy.... To God be the glory, GREAT things He has done!!
We'd like to thank AAC Adoption and Family Network in Berthoud, CO for be willing to go to bat for our family and for giving us a chance at another Korean adoption when we never ever dreamed it was something we could do.. And a special thanks to Debbie who so patiently put up with some anxious phone calls towards the end of the process.
We'd also like to thank the dear folks at Eastern Social Welfare Society in Seoul, Korea for the absolute privilege they have extended to our family by allowing us to adopt 3 wonderful children....
6/9/02 NOTE: Caroline is in wonderful health and growing well despite her heart issue. She had an echocardiogram on June 7, which revealed she does have an ASD and a fairly strong heart murmur. She is scheduled to see a pediatric cardiologist late July.
CAROLINE'S Korean Adoption Photo Album!!
Here is Caroline's referral photo--taken in December 2001 at 6 months of age. We were already in love with her wonderfully infectious smile!!
This photo is of Kerrie (left), 5-1/2 and adopted from Seoul, Korea on April 19, 1997 at 6 months of age and Emilee (right), almost 7 and adopted from Nanchang, Jiangxi, China on January 30, 1996... The picture was taken on our Minneapolis-Tokyo portion of the trip to Seoul. Both Emilee and Kerrie have been overseas before and are excellent travelers... We are SO glad we brought them with!!
Here's Glynn, Kerrie, Emilee and Justin taken in front of one of Korea's historic gates--this was our first day out and about in Seoul, April 30, 2002.
In this photo, Glynn, Kerrie, Emilee and Justin are sitting on a bench in Namsan Park--we were just about to go up to the "space needle".
Here is our Caroline, taken in the meeting area, room 202 of Eastern's offices, on April 30, 2002--we had just met her for the first time. This smile is a common occurence at our house, from morning until night. What a wonderful, happy little girl we are so blessed to have as our daughter!
In this photo, our family is with Kerrie's foster mom (who is holding a baby boy she had in her care).. This is the 2nd time, since leaving Korea as a 6-mo-old baby in April 1997, that Kerrie has been back to Korea to see her foster mom.
We were visiting in Caroline's foster family's apartment in this picture. On the left is our Eastern driver and on the right is Caroline's foster mom.
Here is where Caroline slept, on her special spot in her foster family's bedroom!
I am holding Caroline for the first time at her foster family's apartment!
Glynn holding Caroline and playing peek-a-boo games looking at the mirror in her foster family's bedroom. I am SO glad Glynn could come with--this was only his second in six adoptions to make the trip.. It finally worked out for him to get to go!
This really neat picture is of Caroline with her foster father. He came home from work just to meet us and he picked her up and kissed both her cheeks...!
First bottle ever after receiving her from her foster mom the evening of May 2, 2002!!
Emilee, Justin and Caroline, in the kitchen area of the 5th floor, Eastern Guesthouse.. The bunny Caroline has is one she especially loved and which her foster parents gave to us to bring home for her. I am really glad we had that bunny because she cuddles right up to it when she's sleeping.
Our girls--Emilee, Kerrie and Caroline...... I can't begin to emphasize how very, very glad we were we brought both Emilee and Kerrie with...
Glynn with 3 of his 5 daughters!!!!
In this photo, we are just about to leave the Eastern guesthouse for Inchon International Airport, the morning of May 3, 2002. Dr. Kim is with us and he had been praying for Caroline.. Dr. Kim is one of the most spirit-filled people I have ever met. One truly senses the presence of the Holy Spirit when with him...
My "#1 helper" (her words), Emilee, with baby sister Caroline, one the flight from Tokyo/Narita, Japan to San Francisco...
Here's a photo of Kerrie holding baby sister, Caroline, during a layover at the San Francisco Airport.. Some friends, from the adopt-korea-christian email group, Gerald and Kelly, and their son, Devon, 16 months and adopted from Korea last November, drove all the way out just to meet us and spend time with us. Gerald took these photos with his digital camera....
Caroline and mom at the San Francisco airport.....wigged out, tired, but very happy!
Here are Nicholas, 5-1/2 (from Korea); Jenna, 5 (from China) and Nathanael, 5 (from Hong Kong), waiting for our flight to land at the Minot airport.. Kate had worked with them on a welcome banner. Jenna is holding a panda bear Kate and I had custom-made at a make-your-own-place at the Mall of America in March and Nicholas presented us with a rose.. They were so excited to meet their new baby sister!!
The face of an angel sleeping--Caroline, home at last.....
I absolutely adore this photo--our oldest, Stephen, 18, with our youngest, Caroline, 1 year!!
Kate took this photo when she had the kids at the park--Nathanael, Caroline and Kerrie. Caroline is wearing a gorgeous hand-knit hooded sweater made by fellow Korea-adoptive mom, Patsy.
Here is our Kate, age 15, with Caroline... Kate is having almost as much fun with a new baby in the house as I am! I am so grateful for our teens--they have been fabulous..
The Duke family is from Australia and they adopted Josiah earlier this year.. We have recently discovered that Caroline and Josiah both were cared for by the same foster mom!! Here's a link to their website .. The Australian adoption process is longer than what we go through here in the USA.
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