Nia's First Trip To The Park And More

Nia's first trip to the park was a success! She and Alex rode in the double stroller and Grant rode his bike. Even though it was a little cool, we still had fun and it was great to be outside! Here is Grant, me and Alex trying to get down the slide. It doesn't work so well when you are over a few feet tall. And if you ever wonder why there aren't too many pictures of Alex, it is because he always runs away when I try to get a picture! He is such a little stinker!!

Nia, Daddy, Alex and Grant watching a plane getting ready for takeoff. The landing strip is very close so the boys love to see the planes take off and land.

Daddy and his little girl.

This is what Alex and Nia looked like after a trip to Wal-Mart. I always feel the same way!

We are progressing from fruit puffs to Cheerios. She is a great eater! She loves yogurt, bananas, bread and she even had some spaghetti that seemed to go over well.

Love this one! She looks so cute in red! She was having a good time playing with her toys on the kitchen floor with Grant. He likes to sit with Nia and entertain her. Alex enjoys running around them in circles! That kid never stops!

Here she is laughing at Jessie, our dog. From the first time Nia saw Jessie she would laugh and giggle. I guess she is a dog lover too, I am so out numbered!

Mommy and Nia.

LOVE That Cute Little Face!

This is from the day we arrived home. Grant was following Mark and I around with his arms open repeating that he was ready to hold Nia. He couldn't wait! It was so cute! Nia looks a little concerned but they both did great! The boys love to play with Nia. They especially love to bring her MANY, MANY toys. They pile them up around her. She seems to really like being around Grant and Alex. Grant is good at making her smile by playing peek a boo.

Love this face! She cracks us up! And let me tell you, this girl can put away the fruit puffs! They are the only reason she did so well on the plane. She had her hand in the container at least 8 of the 12 hours! Ha! Guess we better stock up!

Again with that cute smile! Sorry, I know, I should have turned it.

No thanks to the sweet potatoes but Nia loves bananas. Basically anything fruity, just no veggies. I can't say I blame her. The baby food vegetables look and smell atrocious!

She's thinking, "when will this lady stop taking my picture?" NEVER!!! :)

Gotcha Day Pictures

I know this post is late but I just didn't have time on Nia's actual gotcha day to post these.
This is Mrs. Jeong and her entire family. They all came to tell Hae Yeong goodbye. It is very obvious that each of them love her very much! When we got back to the hotel we played for a while before getting Nia to take a nap. This is a book that we had sent to her back in November in her care package. Mrs. Jeong said that she really liked it.

Finally alseep! She was so tired but didn't want to give in to the sleep. Eventually she, Mark and I all took a good nap!

Daddy walked up and down the halls with her while she was fussing, she loves Mark!

We Are Home!

Our family and friends have blessed us abundantly! Thanks to all of you who came to see us!!!

We made it home! Praises! We had an amazing trip and a great trip home! I just tried to upload our pictures and something went wrong so I don't have too many pictures, but here are a few I did manage to pull up.

I have some of her with great big smiles which of course are not coming up so I will work on that tomorrow, I HAVE to go to bed! :) Goodnight!

We Are Home!

We made it home! Thank you Lord for getting us home safely and for such a great flight! Nia did awesome! The worst part was the last hour which, even though she was crying quite a bit, was bearable. Sorry it has taken me so long to post! We have been pretty busy and a little tired, ha! OK, alot tired! But we are doing well! Nia's little personality is emerging more and more everyday. She does have a cold and diarrhea. The diarrhea is the worst because it has created quite a diaper rash but hopefully she is on the mend. I will go ahead and post pictures from our gotcha day and more. I have so much on my heart that I would love to share, but quite honestly I am too tired to type it all! Maybe another day! I can sum it up with this: we feel so blessed to be Nia's family! This journey that God has taken us on has been amazing!

You Are Invited To Meet Us At The Bloomington Airport

Let me just start by saying thank you to all of our family and friends who have helped in so many ways to bring Nia home! We love and appreciate each of you! If you would like, we will be meeting everyone at the Bloomington Airport at approximately 1:30 pm on Sunday (March 15th). Our friends are picking us up in Chicago following our flight which should land at 10:20 am. We can't wait to see you all! Especially our two little buddies, Grant and Alex! We love you and miss you! We will be home soon!

Friday

Hello All! Another great day in Seoul! We visited the DMZ which is the border between North and South Korea. It was so intersting and I am glad that we were able to visit it. It helps to give a better understanding on the history of South Korea. Anyone coming to Seoul should try to see it if the time allows. After our tour we went back to Itewon market. And guess where we ate lunch? Outback Steakhouse! Everything was nearly exactly the same! Then we headed back to the hotel where we have began packing for our trip home on Sunday. I can't believe that the time has come!

Tomorrow at 4pm is when we will be getting Nia. I am nervous, excited and about a million other emotions! We will post pictures if we get a chance, otherwise we will see you all when we get home!

A Blessed Day!

Our second meeting with Nia was wonderful!!! Mrs. Jeong brought her in and we played for awhile and then I went through all of the questions I had. Then she and Ms. Lee, our social worker left for about 15 minutes to see how she would do with us. She did great! She loved the yogurt that Mrs. Jeong brought so that was a good distraction. There were a few times when she would look around and start to cry but we were able to keep her from getting upset. She was laughing alot at Mark when he would play peek a boo with her. I was LOVING being able to hold her!!! I didn't want to put her down!!

After our visit was over we went up to meet with Dr. Kim, the head of Eastern. She was very sweet and we enjoyed getting to talk with her. After that, Dr. Kim took Mark and I to a room with Nia and Mrs. Jeong. Every single baby that leaves Eastern is prayed over. Mrs. Jeong had an appointment that we knew she had to leave for but she was NOT going to leave without praying over our Hae Yeong. It is an amazing prayer! She speaks in Korean but I have a translated letter that I put into her baby book. It was difficult to not just break down. Dear Mrs. Jeong was sobbing and I almost lost it. It is so clear how much Nia is loved by Mrs. Jeong! I know that Saturday is going to be very hard!

We are picking up Nia on Saturday at 4 pm. Then we will be leaving for the airport on Sunday morning at 8:30 AM.

For now, we are going to head down to Insadong, one of the markets and hang out and have dinner. We are going to be eating at a traditional Korean restaurant there. Thanks Irene for the recommedation and the directions! We are looking forward to it.

Tomorrow we are heading to the DMZ, which is the border between North and South Korea. We have heard that it is very interesting so we are looking forward to that too! That's it for now, I'll post again tomorrow!

Our Second Meeting With Nia!

As I was going through questions with Mrs. Jeong, Nia was trying to get all the papers. Look at her sweet face!
Mrs. Jeong and Ms. Lee left us alone for about 15 minutes to see how she would do, she did great! No tears until Mrs. Jeong came back in and then she was ready to go back to her, very understandably.
Mrs. Jeong gave us some yogurt to feed her. She is a great eater! She was trying to do it on her own!
O.K. pardon the goofy looks on my face. I was doing my darndest to get her to smile, Daddy is great at it!

Daddy's turn to feed her.
Look at that cute little bottom!
She wants to walk so bad!
I love this one!
It was so fun to spend more time with our girl! Soon it will be forever!!!

Pictures From Our Day

FINALLY! Pictures!

Mrs. Jeong brought Nia in and sat her right down right next to us.


I slowly made my way in :)



Nia was really checking out daddy!

It was so hard to not sweep her up and squeeze her!!!



Look at my girl! She pulled up and was cruising!!!


Sweet smile for Daddy, my heart is melting!

She is thinking, "who are these crazy happy people?"

The new babies at the nursery at Eastern, I want all of them!!
An awesome amazing day! We can't wait to see her again. We will meet with her on Thursday. We unfortunately won't get her for good until Saturday. The social workers are not going to be working on Friday due to an inservice. I guess we have waited this long, I will try to be patient!

The rest of the day was fun as well! We went with Katie and Jason (another adopting family) to Namdemun market and to the Seoul Tower. It was a lot of fun! I will try to post pictures tomorrow. We are still not able to get internet! I am posting this from Katie's computer at her and Jason's hotel. Hopefully we will figure out a solution!