Journey to Lennox - Namdaemun Market & NSeoul Tower

We all actually "slept in" this morning until about 5:30! ;) By 7:30 we were headed out to explore! This is where we are staying, and we absolutely love it so far. The staff here is so accommodating and have answered so many of our questions. 

The boys call these the "kissing mohawks". 

Beckett loves to take his picture beside these sculptures. :)

The original South Gate of Seoul

We walked to Namdaemun Market to do some traditional Korean shopping. 

Sharing a delicious lemonade!

We bought Lennox a beautiful hanbok in a larger size - isn't it so pretty?! 

And some adorable Korean pajamas for when he's home. 

After we finished shopping, we headed to N Seoul Tower. We rode the cable car up to the top of the mountain - you can see one of them in the picture. 

Brent and Beckett were slightly nervous! 

The boys have been quite popular here! Everyone waves at them, girls want to hold their hands and rub their heads, and some even want to make their picture with them! Brody is handling all the attention just fine and Beckett is getting used to it ;) 

We had lunch at a delicious hamburger place in the tower, and now we are in our room resting. 

We are having so much fun and loving taking in Lennox's beautiful city!

Journey to Lennox - Meetcha Day!

I've started to sit down to write this post several times today, but I just don't have the words to describe what today held. Today was the day we met our baby boy. There are so many different scenarios that have played out in my mind as to how this day might unfold, but I never could've imagined a day any more perfect than how God had planned it. 

To start off, jet lag has not been our friend. The boys fell asleep at about 6pm driving into Seoul from the airport last night, so we just put them in bed and ordered room service. I was hoping they would sleep to at least 5 or so...but they were wide awake at 1am. I tried for a couple hours to get them back to sleep, but to no avail. I finally gave in and let them play iPads and DS's while I watched a little tv. This was the view from our balcony at about 5am. Busy even then!

And this was taken later on in the morning. So beautiful with the mountains off in the distance. 

Finally, after what seemed like forever, we were dressed and ready and in a taxi headed to Eastern! Such a surreal moment!

This is where the baby house is where Lennox lived for a couple months until he went to his foster home, and also where he goes each month for his check ups, etc. 

We arrived a little early, so we ordered cappuccinos from the cafe and waited outside. It was a beautiful cool morning!

At 10:30, Brent and I went inside to fill out some paperwork, while the boys stayed out with Dad. While we were inside, this taxi pulled up, and guess who climbed out?! The man of the hour!! Thankfully Dad was iPhone ready. ;) he said he had no doubt it was Lennox because the first thing he saw was that STL hat we sent for his birthday. :)

They said his foster mom pointed to the boys, and he walked right over to them!!! They said hello and waved, and then his foster family took him inside. How fun is that?!!

After we finished our paperwork, we went outside to get the boys, then we were led upstairs to the playroom. Our social worker opened the door...and just like that our sweet boy was standing right in front of us!! Over two years of waiting, and there he was. I don't even know if my feet were touching the floor! Ha! His foster mother said something to him, he bowed to us, then ran over and have each of us a hug!! I was barely holding it together at this point. I have prayed and prayed that he would be open to us, and this welcome from him was far more that I could've imagined! 

(I'll only be posting pictures that don't show his face for now.) 

This was when Beckett was meeting him when we first walked in. 

He is such a fun little boy!! We bounced from one activity to the next. He played ball and ran around with his brothers like they've been together forever. I see lots of fun times in our future!!!! I'll also note that he was much tinier than I had imagined! The little outfit he was wearing was an 18 month. 

He also loves to take selfies with my iPhone! Ha! He doesn't have his aiming down too good, but I now have lots of pictures on my camera like this! Lol!

He squealed and laughed, and my heart was so full to see him so happy!!!! We blew bubbles and cooked in the toy kitchen, but one of his favorite things was snacking on the puffs we brought him. ☺️  He definitely would first go to his foster family when he needed something, but they would always redirect him to us, and he would come running over grinning. His foster mom also said he can point to Omma or Appa whenever he's shown our picture. He actually had a toy keychain with him that had our pictures in it. 

Throughout the entire meeting, I just kept silently sending up prayers of thanks for this precious time with our son. He is a little bundle of energy, so funny and silly, so loving with his sweet little hugs...he's so much more than we ever dreamed he would be. 

However, as open to us as he was, I know that leaving his precious foster family will be so hard for him. I can tell they love him so much, and I just can't imagine how much they will miss him. 

Before we knew it, our time was up and we had to say goodbye. He went to each one of us giving us popo's (kisses). He let me put his shoes on him, gave me one last hug, and went out the door waving. 

I was honestly just awestruck as he left the room. It was so wonderful to finally touch him and hold him and hug him. God is SO GOOD!!!

We took a taxi back to our room, changed clothes, ate lunch at Outback, and then decided to lay down and rest for a couple hours. We all fell asleep instantly...and woke up FIVE HOURS LATER. 

We walked around outside a bit this evening. Seoul is such a neat place! We are loving it already. 

We grabbed dinner at our hotel restaurant, and are now waiting for two little boys to become sleepy. It's after midnight here now, so we are hoping they sleep in a little tomorrow. We have lots of sightseeing planned!  

We get to visit with Lennox again on Monday, and then court Wednesday, so we still have a very full trip ahead of us. Thank you all so very much for your prayers and your sweet comments!! We are truly grateful for the way you all are loving us and Lennox even from so far away. 

Journey to Lennox ~ Dallas

We loaded up Tuesday evening and headed toward Dallas!! We just can't believe the time has finally come to go meet little Lennox. We were all so excited and anxious!

We stopped in Texarkana at Longhorn Steakhouse for one last delicious American meal! 

Brody had fallen asleep, but Beckett was so excited to see the night lights of Dallas!!

We got to our hotel there next to DFW about 10:30, and I think everyone was asleep within 15 minutes!!

We were up and going early this morning...everyone showered and ready to eat breakfast by about 7:30, then the airport shuttle picked us up at 8:45!

Almost to our terminal!

The boys were so excited to be at the airport! They couldn't believe how many planes they were seeing land and take off. :) 

And we loved seeing our big blue Korean Air plane pull up to the gate!!!

Our flight crew actually walked up and say down right beside us. They are all so beautiful and poised and professional! We have seriously been amazed at this airline. Everything is top notch, including the stewards and stewardesses. 

Almost time to board!!

They were so cute walking onto the plane with their backpacks. 

This little guy has been sooooo excited all day. And he's told us over and over again just how excited he is! ;)

Time to take off!!

And then twenty minutes after take-off...he crashed. 

Even sleeping through our first meal on the plane. 

He woke up about 2 1/2 hours later ready to play! We played with action figures...

Watched a lot of movies...

Ate lots of snacks...

And took some airplane selfies!

The timer on my in-flight console now says we should land in a little over an hour. And to say we are ready is a bit of an understatement! It's been a long 13+ hours, but the boys have truly been great. Brent and I have dosed on and off for maybe a couple hours total, and Brody took a 2 hour nap earlier. Hopefully we can all fall asleep easily tonight as it'll be evening Korea time when we land. Next post from Seoul!