Things I learned in Korea- Nov 20th, 2011

Sorry, but I only took a few photos today and they were on my iphone. Nothing spectacular so I'm not going to post as they were just a photo of each kid sleeping (finally!) and a photo of the Onnuri Church service that we went to this evening (this is a Christian church that I've heard about through other families that have traveled and I have watched several of their services online- it was fantastic to attend).

This morning we just went out so that we could be out and about in Seoul. We went shopping in a big shopping district and experienced the Lotte Department store so that I could get a few gift certificates for our children's foster families. (Last time we came, I stressed and stressed about what to give as gifts. Once we were here I learned that they pretty much have EVERYTHING we have in America... so this trip I asked if a gift certificate would be apporpriate instead to someplace popular here in Korea. Thankfully that is completely acceptable and I was referred to the Lotte Department store. I want to show our love but not in a form of giving things that they don't need or want; so hopefully these are well recieved by the families!) This place was CRAZY- floors and floors of stuff... I mean like at least 10! It was a large store- each floor probably the size of a regular Macy's for us in the states? There was an ENTIRE floor dedicated to golf stuff. CRAZY expensive- one nike sweatshirt or pullover thing- around 150,000 won- conversion rate of around $140! I completely understand why our outlet stores in Gilroy are always so busy with Asian tourists now...

It was biting cold yesterday- around 32 degrees most of the day with a bit of a wind. I'm so happy I overpacked and made sure to bring our large jackets! However, we all enjoyed getting out and are looking forward to doing so in an hour or so today. I learned several things yesterday while being out and about...

1. I actually can recognize areas of Seoul by sight! Uh- huge thing here as Seoul is GIGANTIC and I thought I'd be completely at a loss when were were out yesterday. (Plus I was so wrapped around getting KatieJoy last time we were here that I didn't think I paid much attention to where we were, but apparently I did)
2.There are WAY more Caucasions here than last time. We noticed this while we were out shopping and with where we went to church. Apparently this is due to South Korea being completely okay becoming a more diverse. I LOVE that and it made me feel even more comfortable being here.
3.Worshipping God in a church in Korea with my children at my sides is something I didn't expect to be emotional about, but I was. (and yes, I cried)
4.The Onnuri pastor is passionate about adoption and orphan care and even though his service wasn't directly related to either of those, he wrapped those topics in several times into the service. I also learned from a video that he showed that they are many orphans in Korea that are not allowed to be adopted domestically or internationally. Want to know why? Because they were born into a married couple. Because of that one reason, they must grow up in an orphanage until they are 18 years old. I was heartbroken to say the least. The video with these beautiful children...well it just broke me a bit & God is stirring something in me that I'm not quite sure what to do with yet.
5.Korea is beautiful in the fall and I love it here so much more than I even thought before I came this week.
6.I don't mind Korean taxi drivers nearly as much as I did last time- I'm actually pretty relaxed when on the road this time.
and
7.Being here is so comfortable. (I do believe that someday we'll live here- even if it's just for a month at a time during the summer to teach English.)


Maybe I'll get to add more things to this list as the week goes on? But for today, I'm going to wrap up my ramblings so that in 2 hours we get to see and spend time with KatieJoy's foster parents! Please pray for KatieJoy's heart during this meeting... she has done extremely well on our trip but she is a tired 2 year old and had a few bad wakeups last night. We're really praying for a full nap and night rest tonight from her!

I promise to take pictures today! ;-)

~Mandy~