Welcome Home

Playing with a shopping bag as I unpacked

He will go in and play, but only on his terms!

The morning before we left Seoul, notice the Raiders shirt.

I must start by saying thank to everyone in our lives for such support, our families for picking us up at the airport, our friends for having dinner waiting, the house decorated, and a Thomas DVD for Parker (trust me he needed it at 5:00am), kind words on facebook, mail, and texts. Finally for those of you I have never met but are going through this journey or have already been there your support has been amazing. You are the ones that can relate to our situation and share your stories, which have gotten us through this last week. Jim would have me read to him the posts from adoptive parents or look at the Holt BB, as those words mean so much. We have read every letter, post, and card sorry if we are slow to respond!

As for the flight, only one word can describe it AMAZING! As we ate our last breakfast at the Somerset, we were thrilled to find that DJ was there for a training. She and some of her staff said goodbye to Parker (who was clinging to Mom at this point!). We were thrilled to find another AP on our flight, a Mom who traveled without her spouse and 2 daughters. She had picked up her little guy just a few hours after us, I wish would have known she was in Seoul! That was great for me, as I was worried about how I would feel getting on the plane, as I took him from his country and his culture. Instead, I was chatting and exchanging stories. We got bulkhead seating together and the boys had bottles at take off and NO tears! Parker slept two thirds of the flight but would play with the other little boy or look at the Pororo cartoon on my screen (I think I need to order him one). Of course the flight was long (13 hours) and we were tired but it went better than we could dream.

We were met at O'Hare by both families, Parker hated the car seat and cried himself to sleep. We ate lunch at my parent's and Parker was a bit shy at first but warmed up once the crowd got smaller. He crawled over to Steve and asked to be held. For those of you who know my brother, that is an unlikely choice, as he is about 6'4"! Grandma gave him more presents, including more Thomas DVD's. We drove home in constant snow, we finally made it at 7:00pm. Parker is still on Korean time and did not want to sleep. So we took four hour shifts, holding and feeding him. Needless to say, Jim and I are pretty tired, well exhausted. Also, he doesn't want to be put down, which is cute, but he is 22 lbs, my arms are sore. I am planning on ordering an Ergo after this post since he loved the carrier with FM.

He slept a little more last night but wanted to play non-stop from 2am-6am, even asking to go into his crib to laugh and play. We thought we would make it to church this morning but were running late, so not yet. We wanted to get him outside in the sunlight to help with the time change, so we went to the Asian grocery store in town to get some of his favorites: rice, Korean pears (our favorites too!), barley tea (they were out!!), soy soup, and dried seaweed. He was so cute at the market, pointing at everything. As we checked out the cashier said so cute, little girl. He was in NAVY BLUE! Okay, hair cut is in order. We went over to Costco where he sat in the cart and loved people watching, he also cried until I gave him a bit of a sample pretzel (he is so curious of our food, and wants to try everything).

We were able to get laundry started and even unpack and clean a little, since he will nap in the pack in play, once he falls asleep. Don't be too impressed, we have barely eaten and I have laughed at the thought of all the movies I was going to catch up on with Netflicks. It was a luxury that I put on mascara to leave the house today.

All transitions considered things are great, and Parker Sang-Tae is too cute for words!