We had the rare opportunity to have a short reunion with Sophia's foster mom today (Thursday). Overall it went well. I'll share some details. We received a letter a couple weeks ago from our adoption agency letting us know that Sophia's foster mom was planning to visit Minnesota and would like to see Sophia. She traveled here with another foster mom from Korea and one social worker from Korea. They a few other families whose children had been in the homes of these foster moms to an informal open house. Chris and Jacob were going to come, too, but Jacob came down with a fever so Chris had to stay home with him. When Sophia and I entered the room at the agency for the meeting, Mrs. Park wasn't there yet. They brought her in a few minutes later. Sophia really didn't seem to recognize her. I was kind of wishing some kind of memories would surface for her, but that's not to say there wasn't a "heart level" feeling of connection. Mrs. Park greeted me with a slight bow and then bent down to hug Sophia. She whined for me, so I held her on my lap as we sat down together with an interpreter. Sophia was a bit shy and clingy to me, but she warmed up after a while. We looked through a small photo album I brought as a gift for Mrs. Park. She really appreciated it. She told us a couple stories I'd like to share. Mrs. Park said that the day after she gave Sophia to us, she came back to the agency early in the morning before we left for the airport. The social workers convinced her that it wouldn't be a good idea to say good-bye again...that it would just upset Sophia more, but as a compromise, they had here go in a building across the street so she could watch us depart. She said she saw us come out of the building and as we were getting in the van, Sophia put her head on my shoulder and that made Mrs. Park feel better. I was so touched by that story! Also, we sent some pictures about a month after we came home. Mrs. Park said they missed Sophia so much that they taped the pictures by all their light switches so they could see her when they came and left a room. So sweet! She has had 20 foster children and Sophia seemed extra special to them! They've since had another foster baby who will be adopted soon as well. After we looked through the photo album, Mrs. Park gave us some presents. She gave me a beautiful Korean jewelry box. For Sophia, she picked out a Minnie Mouse purse with a couple of pretty headbands for her hair. The cool thing is that we had already decided that Sophia will be Minnie Mouse for Halloween because our day care provider, Peggy, gave us an adorable dress that her Rachel had grown out of. Check out the pics below to see what a perfect match the purse is!
We visited for about 40 minutes with the help of an interpreter. I was able to tell Mrs. Park that we believe her love and care for Sophia enabled her to easily trust and love us. It was a nice moment. As we were getting ready to leave, Mrs. Park bent down to hug Sophia and this time she hugged back and even tilted up her neck to give her a kiss. As we walked down the hall, Sophia turned around 3 times to wave "bye-bye." How sweet!
