Home at last!

It's so good to be home! The whole time I was in Korea, I kept thinking, "I'm glad I get to soak in all the sights and culture, but I just can't wait to be home with my baby." I don't have time right now to give a detailed description of our trip, so I'll just summarize. The flights we took to Seoul were on time and uneventful. It's a painfully long trip when you factor in the time spent waiting around the airports. We were basically traveling for 20 hours with about 14 hours in the sky. We stayed at the agency guest house in Seoul and met some other nice couples who were adopting as well. One couple lives in Blaine, so I'm sure we'll plan to get together with them in the future. We got to meet Sophia on Tuesday. It was confusing and awkard and special. We got to see her again on Wednesday for a special birthday party they had for us. It was so cool to be a part of the Korean traditional birthday celebration. The foster mom gave us a photo album with pictures of Sophia. It made me cry. On Thursday, we met with the founder and his daughter (of the adoption agency in Korea). It was pretty formal, but wonderfully touching. Then, at 4:00, the foster parents all came (there were 7 couples picking up chidren) and the founder said a blessing. Then we went up to our guesthouse room where the foster parents tearfully said goodbye. The foster mom helped put Sophia in my backpack carrier, and then she left. Sophia proceeded to cry so hard that she threw up on my back! She cried hard for about an hour, and then fell asleep in Chris's arms. She was up for a few hours in the evening, but was very sad. Thankfully, she slept through the night. We had a grueling journey home, but overall, Sophia did pretty well. She threw up on the plane at one point, but didn't seem to be sick, just upset. During that plane ride the thought crossed my mind that this is probably our last child because I'd never want to go through it all again. When we got to Minneapolis, my sister, Sue, along with Jenny, Jackie, and Jacob met us at the airport. When I got through immigration and walked into the baggage area, I just stopped short and cried. It felt so good to be home! We came home to a home cooked meal by Sue, a banner of special messsages from friends, and the company of Chris's mom, sister and niece for the weekend. They have been so helpful in entertaining Jacob and helping us celebrate his actual birthday today by going to Chuck E Cheese. Sophia is slowly adjusting. She was very fitfully asleep and mostly awake all last night which was pretty much a nightmare. She doesn't smile very much and she is extremely clingy to me. She doesn't want to get down and play or walk yet, so we're still looking forward to getting to know the "real" Sophia soon. Here are some pictures!