Meeting Duk-Kyun/Finn... and more...

How to describe the moment when you first lay eyes on your child? It's indescribable really - a moment that is forever in my memory. The elevator door opened and... there he is! Looking at me expectantly as though waiting to see how I might respond. I want to wrap my arms around hime, but he's just over 8 months, so I know reaching for him may provoke fright more than anything, so I wait while we go inside. We exchange polite greetings with his foster mother and foster father, who are very sweet and incredibly gracious hosts. They obviously care for him very much and I can see that this will be a difficult time for them to let him go. Eventually he crawls over to explore Amelia and she squirms with a combination of excitement and overwhelm at being the first to have contact with him. It is all I can do to resist picking him up, but he does crawl up to say hello then off to play. My patience is finally rewarded as he lets me pick him up and hold him, play with him and feed him a bit of banana. He's a good eater - and it shows.... he's BIG... at least 25 pounds already! He seems calm, solid, matter of fact about the things around him. He's not wary, just independent.

The foster father conducts a symphony of photos in various combinations. He thanks us for giving Duk-Kyun a good family and home, for being his parents. We thank them for taking care of him for us, and give them some gifts as a token. They pore over the photo book of Williams Lake and insist we sign it for them. They urge us to eat from the table laden with treats. We eat a little to be polite, but we're so absorbed with this moment it's hard to focus on the food, though it is expected. It's a strange moment, to be meeting our son for the first time and all the emotions that flood us all... while also being in the home of a Korean family who are gracious but very formal (the foster father is in a suit) and who we are trying to be very polite and respectful of their home and their role as Finn's caregivers.

Tomorrow he will join us, finally. It will be a momentous day and will change all our lives forever. This too feels strange - to be in one moment a family of three as we have been for the past 6 years and to know that in a few hours we will be four. We are ready!