Post # 1 -- March 9, 2009 -- A Great Day, But Perhaps the Longest Day in History (or Post #1 -- The Longest 1st Post in the History of Blogging)

At 3 PM on Monday, March 9, 2009, we arrived at Eastern Social Welfare Agency to receive Daniel. We were nervous and excited. Mrs. Lee -- Daniel's foster mom -- handed us Daniel and we spent a bit of time together. We then gave him back to her to allow her to say her final goodbyes.

The agency director prayed for Daniel and another little boy -- wishing them safe travels and long, healthy lives. It was very sad knowing that these were their final moments in their foster mothers' arms and their final moments seeing Korean faces and hearing Korean words.

We were then packed into the agency van. Mrs. Lee handed Daniel to Will and urged him to give the baby his bottle. We then zoomed off to the airport. Daniel drank the bottle and fell asleep. Needless to say, it was a rather surreal experience. (Let's hope it's the last time Abby and Daniel ride in a car/van without car seats!)



Daniel cried quite a bit at the airport, calling, "Eomma" (the Korean word for mother). Abby did a great job of amusing him and he eventually fell asleep once we had taken off.

We had the bulkhead seats which made things so much easier for all of us. Daniel slept in his bassinet for a good portion of the 12.5 hour flight.

Daniel eventually woke up and got to know us a bit more.
Abby was able to sleep quite a bit as well. When she wasn't sleeping, she watched at least 1,235 in-flight movies and cartoons, but did take a break to hold her brother. If you are looking for a perfect travel companion, I highly recommend Abby. She has a great sense of adventure and is just a joy to experience new places with.

And at the moment we touched down in Chicago (and Daniel was finally in the U.S.), he was once again asleep in his Dad's arms.

Getting through immigration was much easier than we anticipated. Daniel traveled on a Korean passport with a U.S. visa. We also had a large mystery envelope for immigration that we were warned to not open. That of course was really tempting for me, but I did practice self-control.

After lobbying on immigration issues for two years, it was interesting to experience part of the process on a very personal level.

Thanks to several time zones and the international date line, we landed in Chicago on Monday, March 9, 2009 -- two hours before we took off in Seoul. By the time we arrived in Minneapolis, waited for our bags (they missed the connection and arrived on another flight), and drove home, it was about 1 AM Tuesday, March 10th. Unfortunately, Daniel and Abby both thought it was the middle of the day and did not want to go to sleep!