Pre-Flight Checkup

Today was Elaina Si-Yeon's pre-flight checkup. This is the last hurdle before we pick her up. Other than a little sniffle she's fine, and the doctor cleared her to fly back to the States with us! You may be able to tell from the photo, Elaina wasn't entirely thrilled with the checkup. She was actually a good bit less than entirely thrilled, but we won't include any sad pictures here. One thing that was nice to see, though: while she freely expresses her displeasure with being poked and prodded by doctors and nurses, she recovers very quickly. I take that as a sign that she's got a nice healthy, assertive confidence. Rather than being too passive and not fussing at all (which in adopted kids is sometimes a sign that they've been neglected to the point of learning that crying doesn't help), or being so traumatized that she won't allow herself to be comforted. She wanted to be held by her foster mom for awhile after the appointment, but then she was fine.

The happier part of the appointment was that the foster parents asked if we'd like to stay for awhile (this was at Holt, the adoption agency where the checkup took place) and play with Si-Yeon. They've said, on both occasions, that she has "stranger anxiety", and they wanted to give her and us more time together before the flight home. Actually, she's been great with us both times--she hasn't cried (other than a little, "I'm tired and ready to go home now" fussing) and she hasn't seemed scared of us or reluctant to go to us.

Of course we took them up on their offer, and we ended up spending about an hour with Si-Yeon and her foster parents. Heidi and I both got to hold her and let her play on the couch between us. I got a lot more video footage--including a great shot of her being wrapped up on her foster mom's back when it was time to leave. I also got some accidental footage while the camera was lying on the couch--mostly Heidi's leg, Si-Yeon's feet, and my hands, with the occassional yellow duck.

I continue to be really impressed with the foster parents--both of which came to the appointment today. It's really apparent that they love her and that she has a great relationship with them. Her foster parents gave us a couple of the toys she likes and a hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) for her first birthday. The first birthday celebration in Korea is called the "Tol". It's a big event--in part because the infant mortality rate used to be so high. So, we were prepared to get her a hanbok for it, but it's nicer to have it come from the foster parents.

The videos from today show the Elaina Si-Yeon and the foster parents and Heidi. In the first, the foster parents are playing with her and she's looking at Heidi and eventually goes to her. In the second, Elaina's tired and is going home. She was fussy moments before, but as she's hoisted up onto her foster mom's back and wrapped up to go, she gets happy again.