This last few months have been a whirlwind of emotion as we have seen doors open and close. It may take me a few weeks to be able to process and put into a blog all that has gone on but here is a small update on the first events...
Our hearts were burdened more and more throughout the month of March for our adoptive child. Patrick finished reading "The Waiting Child" and I had been focusing on preparing my mind and heart to welcome a child into our home soon. We even accepted generous gifts from a friend and neighbor, a highchair and a glider. The nice thing about living overseas is that people are very generous in passing on baby gear so I don't think we'll have to buy much. Accepting these items solidified our calling to adopt and our pursuit to see it through. The glider is especially useful already, I love to go sit in our guestroom that will one day be a baby room and read or pray over child as I rock. Gliders are awesome, why did we wait until having a child to think we needed one? Everyone needs a glider. Having these items in our home now has made the process real. Before the thoughts of parenting were abstract and now I can picture (and even practice) where I will rock my baby to sleep.
On Sunday night in early March I received a phone call in broken English, "This is Mrs. Lee, you meet me at Blue Opera in 30 minutes. I wait one hour. You bring translator, ok?" Remember Mr. Joe's highschool literature teacher I spoke of in our last post? This was her. She had read our letter and wanted to meet Patrick and I before introducing us to her brother who is a birthing doctor in the local area. She also sent me a text in Korean and this is how it translated, "Untitled. I am a high school teacher's one trillion kinds of cases. Shalom heard that through the butterfly. My youngest sister is a gynecologist but sometimes parents have to be such a pity that matter. Hope to see you again, I want to meet did time to brighten today. I speak English wrong."
I was confused to say the least, but I tried my best to find a translator unsuccessfully and rushed to get ready and meet her downtown. Patrick was at work prepping for his last upgrade ride to complete the IPUG so I felt bad disturbing him but figured I should at least tell him I am going to meet with this woman. He wanted to go too and decided this was more important than another hour of prepping. Can I just say, Patrick works so hard and is great at what he does! It meant a lot that he took the time to put growing our family first. We showed up the restaurant (which has a giant gargoyle facade and neon blue lights) and sat in a booth in the back with Mrs. Lee and her "American grandaughter"- A teenage girl from the base that she mentors. Explicit dirty rap music played in the background. True to Korean form, the whole meeting atmosphere was "not quite right."
About thirty minutes into our introductions, Joe and Moonja showed up to be our translators! I had sent her an SOS text in case they were in the area and they dropped what they had planned to be there for us. We are overwhelmingly grateful for their friendship and support. We spent two hours talking about our lives and beliefs about adoption. Mrs. Lee seemed impressed with us and excited to be a part of the journey. She fluttered her hands up in the air slowly moving them toward me and said, " I know a baby is coming to you with angel wings." I guess that is a common Korean phrase but it was entertaining and special to encounter.
Her brother (not sister as the text had said) is a well known OBGYN in the area and his hospital was in the process of switching to a new location. The hospital was set to open around March 15-20th so we planned to go to the hospital at that time. In the meantime we prepared for our friends, Luke and Candace Kollasch to visit from the states! It was great to have friends here to talk all this through with and to share our life here in Korea.
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