A day at Eastern and a baby in our room

Today was more incredible than we expected, and we expected a lot! We started off the day desperate to rearrange Laura’s flight time to Toyko. Thanks to the terrific concierge, we booked an 8pm flight for her.

At 10am the three of us cheerfully headed off to Eastern via the subway and arrived a bit early. We decided to hit the computer room for email and ended up meeting another Lifelink family from Wisconsin. At noon we were escorted to the dining room for a traditional Korean lunch with many other families. We were told time and again that this was an unusually busy day at Eastern. After a delicious lunch, we were escorted to Dr. Jin-Sook Kim’s office. She is daughter of the founder Dr. Kim and she is the President of Eastern.

Dr. Jin-Sook Kim described the history of Korea and of Eastern. Eastern has placed 40,000 children since its inception. Their goal from the beginning is to help the adoptees connect with Korea in the future. She said “We understand they may feel sadness or anger at some point but we (the older generation of Koreans) know why they were placed for adoption (inferring to the poverty and challenges Koreans have faced over the past 5 decades). The world is changing fast. But one day, they may want to visit their Motherland and Eastern wants to be a good agency . .. . we want to help them.”

Her words helped us understand how very special these children are to Eastern and what great care is given to each of them and their birth mothers. We were overwhelmed with her gratitude to us for adopting. We are thankful to Eastern for giving us and so many families the greatest gift- a well-loved child.

Shortly after, we had the honor of meeting the senior Dr. Kim. He was born in 1915 in North Korea and founded Eastern which is has grown over the years into an orphanage, a home for special needs children, a shelter for unwed mothers, and a vocational school for special needs adults. All I can say is that this man is remarkable and he is truly and inspiration. His Christian faith is his guide and thousands of children have benefited from his generosity.

After our meeting with Dr. Kim we went to the infant nursery where we held little bitty babies. We would hold a crying baby until it fell asleep and then we’d exchange it for the next crying baby! We met a American woman who’s husband is with GM. She is living here for 3 years and spends 3 hours a week volunteering in the nursery. We learned a lot about how the nursery works from her. Last week a baby was dropped off at age 8 months and he was having a very hard time without his mother. So sad.
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At 3pm prompt we met Theo and his foster mom again downstairs. We enjoyed some time to play, cry and get the details on his baby creams and foods. At about 3:30pm our social worker opened the door for Josiah Biver. Wow what another cutie! He and Theo enjoyed getting to know one another. Theo was roughing him up a bit by grabbing his shirt! Josiah’s foster mom was ill so he came in with another foster family. The husband spoke some English and he was thrilled to learn that we would lived close to another family with Korean children. He said “God bless you for whole life” to mom.

(Josiah Biver in white)

We were given armfuls of food and gifts from Eastern and finally a driver was arranged. The foster mom had a very hard time saying goodbye to Theo and I felt like I was taking her soul with me in the van. It was so incredibly hard to balance the emotions of my gain and her loss. It was truly emotional overload for Laura, Mom and I as the van door closed. Theo was the old one not crying. He sat intently on my lap and played with my necklace. No tears- just like Ella Jin. Off we drove with a baby . . . . a son.

In 5 minutes he was peacefully asleep (after sucking his thumb) and I was carsick, heartsick and overjoyed all at once. We have a beautiful son Chris. A beautiful beautiful son.

Thank you to my mom and sister for being our documentation staff. We all supported each other on this emotional day. How lucky I am and Theo is to be in such great company.

We are in the hotel now, getting to know each other. Tomorrow is our long departure home and another amazing day . . . when we join Chris and Ella as our complete family.