On the Eve of Our Departure

Well friends... it is our last night here. Heather is upstairs packing for our departure and here I am in the computer room posting a few pictures from today.

We spent about half the day journeying around Seoul looking for an open flower market to buy fresh flowers to give to Mrs. Kim tomorrow. We made our way to Namdaemun Market again. Turns out that the flower stalls are the only part of Namdaemun closed on Sunday. We ended up finding flowers from a street vendor about 10 minutes from the guest house where we're staying. Go figure.

We spent the afternoon volunteering in Eastern's nursery. Changing poopy diapers and rocking fussy babies. I ended up with a little guy that was only 2 days old. He was born during our trip, which kind of drove home the kind of work that these fine folks are doing here. After that we had a final dinner at ChoonChunJip, and then we were off to the Insadong area for the festivities at the Lotus Lantern Festival. Tonight was the culminating event - a parade of lanterns. There was an estimated 100,000+ lanterns on the street from small handheld lanterns to giant, 2 0r 3 story, 100 ft. long dragon lanterns on wheels.











It seems strange to be leaving tomorrow. We've learned so much about Korea and through our immersion in Seoul, ourselves. We've adopted not only a beautiful little girl but also a colorful and amazing culture. We've made friends with other adoptive families and come to think of the folks here at Eastern as family too. We do look forward to bringing Luci home but at the same time the gravity of taking her from her motherland weighs heavy on us. All we can do is find ways to keep her connected to her Korean heritage as she grows up.

This brings me to our departure tomorrow. It won't be pretty, folks. We'll all cry like babies and Luci will be pretty confused by our actions. I cannot stress enough how grateful we are to Mrs. Kim for raising Luci so far. She is obviously very in love with this little girl and will miss her terribly. I can't fathom giving Luci up even after only knowing her in person for a week - she's giving up a little girl that she's given 8 months of love to. Please pray that she finds comfort in knowing how much Luci will be loved in America. We also ask that you pray for Luci on our trip - that she be comfortable with us and not be afraid.





That's all from Seoul, folks. See those of you in Arkansas soon, and the rest of you down the road...