It has been a full and emotional week and today was no different. Our meeting with Coppelia was scheduled for 11. Things don’t really open or get going in Seoul until at least 9, so we didn’t really have anything planned before our meeting with her. We slept in till 5:30 which was the best we have done so far and then facetimed with the boys and my parents before breakfast. We skipped running this morning just to give our legs a rest, because they have put in many miles the past few days walking all over the city and climbing a mountain.
Finally it was time to leave. SWS is in a different part of Seoul then where we have traveled before so we hopped on the subway and started out. The journey went smoothly despite our nerves and we made it there.
We had been told to go to the 7th floor and wait for our meeting there. We were a little early so we found the 7th floor and waited in the sitting area. It wasn’t too much longer before Coppelia came in through the door with foster mom. I think she recognized us but didn’t really want to leave foster mom’s arms for the first part of the meeting. We played with bubbles which made her smile a lot. She still takes a bottle a couple of times a day and at one point during the meeting decided she wanted a bottle. I tried to hold her with the bottle but that made her really upset and she was back in foster mom’s arms. We played with the little kitchen in the room as well which she liked a lot. At one point we were playing with stickers and I stuck one to my nose and to Clint’s nose and then one on her nose. One of the social workers decided to come in at that time so we all looked a little silly. Foster mom tried to walk out for a few minutes to see how she did and that didn’t go so well. She cried and screamed and everything we tried to give her to help just made her more and more mad. It’s a good thing to know so we can best prepare for custody and know that its going to be rough. It was a good meeting though and so neat to see her and touch her and get to know her a little bit even the brief amount of time that we got.
We did talk with the social worker at that agency and she made it sound like the judges are changing and so likely Coppelia will get her own court date. I think we will know more for sure tomorrow when we go to court and speak with the judge. It was hard not to be disappointed with that. We have prayed from the beginning that things would line up and also that ultimately we would trust Him with whatever the plan is. It’s just tough sometimes to hope and pray and hope and pray and see things turn out differently then we had hoped and prayed for. Ultimately we know He has a plan that is bigger than we are and He will make it all work out and these two kiddos will both be home soon, just sometimes have to learn to trust through the disappointment and questioning.
After our meeting we put some comfy clothes on and headed for the subway again. We rode it down a few stops and then started walking, we were headed to the olympic park. Seoul hosted the 1988 olympics and the area has since been turned into a park with paths that wind around and through it. It was 20 degrees outside this afternoon but with the windchill it felt closer to 10 degrees. Needless to say we were cold, but we bundled up and walked anyway. It’s the first time I have been where an Olympics has been held and it was neat to think about the dreams and hopes and all the people and nations that came through that same area. There were some exercise machines scattered throughout at different spots and so in the shadow of the building used for olympic swimming (where Janet Evans won 3 medals) I got my exercise on. There are also a bunch of random statues throughout the park and so in true fashion I got a photo of Clint with the statue of a thumb…because why not?
It was a good way to spend our afternoon and sort through and talk through things and despite the freezing weather enjoy the outside. We headed back to our room and had about an hour of just rest time before we headed out to dinner.
Clint found recommendations for a Korean BBQ place not far from where we are staying and so we headed there. Neat thing is that it is on the 8th floor so we could look down and see the streets of Myeondong market. We had a really good dinner with pork belly and marinated steak and mushrooms. We walked around an indoor market for a bit afterwards and then called it a night.
Tomorrow we head to court in the morning and then home on Saturday. Please be praying for court and favor with the judge or judges as we approach the final steps in this process to bring our two little ones home.
Hiking Mommy 