Meeting Our Special Little Lady

Well, it was quite a morning. I don't know about John, but I had butterflies in my stomach. Today is the day WE have all been waiting for. We got to meet our daughter!

We arrived at the Holt adoption agency at 11:00am. We only waited a few minutes before we were introduced to Si-Yeon (pronounced like "She Yawn") and her foster Mom and Dad. We got to hold her almost immediately (John got her first). She had a surprised look on her face but she never cried. Everyone, including the foster family and the social worker, expected her to be upset. I got to hold her for a while and she bounced up and down on my lap with what seemed like excitement. We gave her a liitle rubber duckie and she seemed to like it. (John: As you can see from the fact it's in her mouth in the picture.)

We were able to ask the foster family lots of questions about her care, likes and dislikes. The foster family did not speak english, so the social worker translated everything for us. We exchanged gifts with family. The foster mom really liked the scarf, jewelry pouch (both made by Heidi's mom) and a silver and black crystal bracelet that I made for her.

John is now going to add a few thoughts (in green) on our special meeting.

John: Among the gifts we received from the foster family is a photo album. From the pictures, it looks like she was in a very nice environment. I really appreciated that both foster parents came today. Both of them seemed very taken with her, and her foster dad was all smiles, talking to her, holding toys for her, etc. The picture doesn't show it, but I think that's a cultural thing with pictures. In person, he was very animated and full of smiles for her. It was great to see that they genuinely cared for her. The foster mother told us, via the interpreter, that Si-Yeon was the 25th baby they'd fostered. They seem just as caring and attentive as if it were their first.

I got a little bit of video, which I'll put up later. This is especially nice, because you can see from video, much more than still shots, how the foster parents were with her. She'll appreciate seeing that when she's older.

The foster dad several times referred to me as "papa" when talking to Si-Yeon, which was nice (if a little new for me). They also said that Si-Yeon recognized us and that they'd shown her pictures of us that we'd sent. Whether that's really true or not, I don't know, but it's nice that they showed our pictures to her.

The foster parents described Si-Yeon as fearless, and while she wasn't all giggly and loving, she didn't seem afraid of us either. She looked at us with a kind of curious, reserved acceptance, as if to say, "I'm not sure about you...but you may hold me, for now, while I figure out what you're all about...and yes, I'd like to have that duck while I'm considering you."