Day -2 After a long day, we're here!

Whew! About 24 hours after we woke up at our house to leave for the airport, we arrived at the ESWS (Eastern Social Welfare Services) guest house where we are staying this week.

Bibimap - airline style

Flying Asiana was enjoyable because they were really efficient, boarding hundreds of people on to our plane faster than many much smaller planes that we often have flown. We read, napped, listened to audio books, and ate some airline food. During the middle of the 10.5 hour flight, they had the passengers close the windows so we could nap, which was helpful. Somehow, between the long flight, lack of sleep (it was around 1 am to our bodies), and postnasal drip I've been dealing with, I got airsick. Ugh. We arrived in Seoul at 6:30 pm Monday evening. We went through a painless foreign passport immigration check, picked up our two checked suitcases, then realized we left Annaliese's beloved fedora on the plane and waited for 20-30 minutes for someone to retrieve it. She had been in tears over losing it, but was overjoyed to get it back, so it was worth the wait ;)

We changed some money, rented a WiFi egg (like a personal hotspot) which will allow us to use WiFi everywhere we go for up to three devices for just W8,800 (about $8/day). Perfect! Then we purchased rechargeable cards for the subway at a kiosk, but had to buy a child's card (cheaper fares) at a convenience store, where we also could add money to all our cards. Finally, it was dark when we left the airport and got on the hour-long subway ride. We had opted for the subway (about $10/person) rather than $100+ for a cab ride. We were all worn out after just brief naps over the past 22 hours or so, but sitting up in the clean, bright subway helped us stay awake to get better rest once in bed. I made the mistake of trying to go with Google walking directions instead of pulling out the written directions from the subway station to the agency. So we walked around for 25 minutes, instead of 5-10 :( I was so beat, I just wanted to take a cab for those last 10 minutes. Annaliese was a brave, tired, sweet little trooper and I was so proud of her traveling like a champ. I think she did better than me at the end in fact! ;)

Our room at ESWS was clean, comfortable, and once we got the coolers and fans going, cool enough. We collapsed in bed around 10 pm local time. It was strange to travel across the globe, such that it had been day/light for us for about 20 hours. Although we had hoped to sleep in this morning, all three of us were completely awake and unable to sleep any more by 5:30 am. I felt much better after the good rest and a shower.

Andy and Annaliese are now on a walk to explore nearby places to eat which will hopefully be opening soon. We are so excited to meet our little Stephen this morning, as well as see Ji Hae. How can words describe what is going to happen here soon? We are going to meet someone whom our hearts already love, 100%. Yet, we don't actually know what he's like. Weird to think, but it doesn't matter what he's like - sweet, shy, crazy, whatever. No matter what he's like, whatever joys, sorrows, precious moments, and heartaches are to come, we know that God is giving us this new family member to love unconditionally. At the heart of the unknown, it is not so different from biological children. We love the babies that grow in our bellies before we know them. Granted, there are peculiar parts to walking the adoption road, but not so different in the sense that this is the child that you will always love because they are a part of your family no matter what.