Finally something that I have dreamed about and thought about for the past 2 years happened today! And it went better than I thought it would.
We got to the agency around 10 this AM and waited for some friends that had a meeting at 10:30. Things were a little crazy at the agency so we scratched our original plan and decided that Clint would just head back while I was in the meeting with my friend and get changed and we’d just wait at the agency until our meeting (originally we were going to go back to our room and grab something to eat and then come back but everything seemed to be running a little late). It was neat to sit in on my friend Amy’s meeting, her little guy is so cute and he loved the puzzle that she made with all their family in it. He hardly played with anything else.
And so we ate a chocolate cookie and strawberry smoothies for lunch at the cafe attached to the agency. Clearly a healthy and well balanced lunch. There were a couple other families that we met and talked with. I ran upstairs to the bathroom and on my way down met Clint going up and he said that Amy had returned and thought that she saw Edric sitting outside. I looked and sure enough it was him! So my first glimpse of my son was through the window!
I quickly threw my camera at Amy and by the time I had turned around Edric and his foster mom had walked into the office that we were suppose to meet in, and I called out “JoonSoo!” and his foster mom turned around and saw me and recognized me and gave me a huge smile. Edric was busy trying to climb on one of the little cars in the room. Foster mom tried to get him to see me and he quickly realized what was going on and crawled up in Foster mom’s lap and buried his head in her shoulder. Clint came in around that point and so we just worked on leaning around foster mom and smiling and playing with him. He wasn’t too sure about us and kept ducking his head.
Shortly after that we headed upstairs to one of the play rooms. We all sat on the floor and Edric still would glance out at us but was very hesitant. I pulled out a bottle of bubbles from the little bag we had for him and started to blow those and he got a huge smile on his face. He still clung to foster mom but slowly loosened his grip on her. We then started bouncing a ball back and forth between Clint and myself and Edric and that really loosened him up and he was laughing and giggling before long. Foster mom slowly backed herself away and we just started playing. There were toys to stack, a dump truck that we filled up and a toy kitchen that we played with.
I had brought some gold fish crackers and he was quite curious with those. He put one in his mouth and then smiled. There was a stuffed dog that he offered a couple bites too and then decided to give some to Clint. Before long everyone (even Amy taking photos) were being fed goldfish crackers. It was too cute. He then discovered the slide in the room and started sliding down it. I stood at the bottom and caught him and lifted him way up in the air which made him giggle. It was after the second one of those that I realized he had not been swallowing the goldfish crackers that were stuffed in his mouth so as I lifted him up I got covered with all sorts of slobber. Oh well!
We played with the little kitchen set that was in the room for a bit, he stuffed every plastic dish and utensil into one of the ovens. He and I then took it all out and stuffed the other one. I then brought out the dried blueberries. Foster mom and our social worker spoke up then and said “He doesn’t like them” but he came running over and wanted some. So I opened the bag and he dug his little fist in and pulled some out and ran over to feed Clint. He stuffed a number in his little mouth as well. It didn’t take long to discover that he didn’t swallow these either. And so he ended up spitting them out, but luckily that was in foster mom’s hand and not all over someone or something.
After that we started playing with the big ride on/in car that was in the room. He crawled in it and I started pushing him around. We then made a game of running into Clint and then Clint would fall over. Edric thought it was the funniest thing ever. So we did that over and over. He let me pick him up and we looked out the window together and just played with a little bit of everything.
The hour went way too fast but it was such a sweet time. I am already looking forward to our meeting on Wednesday and hoping that we get final approval for custody very soon. After everyone got their shoes back on we all rode the elevator together down stairs and after prompting from foster mom gave us both kisses (Clint got a very slobbery one).
After that we had to fill out his Visa application and verify that he was not going to be a terrorist or commit espionage (that was an actual question). And then we came back, changed clothes, and headed out to one of the markets. I can’t post photos of Edric here yet, but can of the market (so not as exciting). We found the second floor this evening and wandered around. And finally got to eat some dumplings (which I have been craving) and some pineapple on a stick.
Hiking Mommy 