In~tention

Yesterday's adventure was a trip to Caribbean Bay water park - the largest in the world. Getting there involved a subway ride (with a transfer) and a connection to a bus to another town. A bit of a challenge since all the road signs, etc. are in Hangul. It makes it hard to figure out which way to walk down the street. We were very proud of ourselves to figure it all out, get on the right bus going the right direction and make it to our destination and home again with no mix ups - we're ready for the Amazing Race! Here's Amelia showing off the entrance way! It really was an amazing place - waterslides, pools, hot springs, a 'miracle spa', a winding ri ver to float from pool to hot tub. We spent almost 5 hours in the water and Amelia was in heaven. Her favourite part was a huge waterslide that we rode a raft up a conveyer belt and then hurtled down a dark chute. It was super fun! Second highlight was the spray park with a giant skull that filled with water and then du...

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...

More tomorrow when the jet lag and exhaustion is slept away...

It's 5:30 am here, and Amelia has been up since 2. We've taken shifts to try to get a bit of sleep so we aren't completely haggard when we go to meet Finn later today. Amelia is too excited to sleep - she wants to go meet him NOW. She travelled really well but has only slept a about an hour on the plane and a bit on the bus ride into Seoul. She's sitting here with me and wants me to be sure to tell you she was airsick and threw up just as we landed. She was exhausted and crashed about 7 pm but was up and hungry at 2 and has been going strong ever since. We expect another crash anytime - hopefully not in the middle of the visit. It's an incredibly long journey to get here (3 hrs. advance at the airport, 11.5 hr flight, customs, baggage, 1 hr. bus ride and finally a very long 3 block hike up to the guesthouse), but it felt great to arrive in the daylight and feel like we knew where we were going. The adoption agency here has a guesthouse that we are staying in. It...

Much of the time I feel like I'm living in two different worlds, two lives even. Weekdays I'm completely absorbed in my work life. I feel so grateful to have a job that is so engaging, challenging and genuinely interesting that I love being at work most days. I work with great people, and for a supportive organizations. That's not to say that every day is pure joy - there are many challenges and whole weeks where I've wanted to throw in the towel and walk away. But most of the time I feel like I'm making a small difference in the world - and I'm completely engaged in how to do that as well as I possibly can. Many Fridays I'm sorry to see the week end. And yet invariably by Sunday I'm engrossed in the joy of being home, spending the whole day with my family, in my home (which I love) and without the pressures of schedules and appointments, expectations and marching to someone else's agenda (unless you count the agenda of my 6 year old, which is relen...