Forever Family Day!

Forever Family Day! April 23, 2012 Holt Korea 3:00 pm

I know you've been waiting...so here it goes! You might be wondering how we passed the time before our big meeting. To be honest, we relaxed. This is the first day that we weren't out the door walking the city....and it felt great! We prepped our room for Gavin and then prepped our thank you gifts. Matt went to the fitness center to work out and I was planning on going to the fitness center...that was until I opened my eyes and realized I had actually napped away my time. It was a short cab ride and there it was! The building we've seen in numerous pictures from other families! When we got out of the cab we snapped the picture and our social worker was waiting on the doorstep ready to greet us. The first thing we took care of was some business in their business office...and as I was going to go in the hallway, who did I see but Gavin with his foster mother. She came into the office and pointed to him and said Min-Seo, and then she pointed to me and Matt and said mommy, daddy. We smiled and waved and then she headed to a different room.


DJ returned, and took us upstairs to the meeting room. In the room were Gavin's Foster grandma, mommy, and sister. They really are beautiful people. It was such a pleasure to meet them. Gavin was very quiet at first, mainly sitting on his foster sister's lap. Slowly he started to become more active going to his foster grandma, then foster mom, and then his foster sister. During this time Matt and I had the opportunity to ask many questions. The foster family was very willing to share answers. For example, he loves being outside, he loves dogs, he loves playing with other children, he is very smart, and he is also very head strong. They also said he was the king of the castle. ;-) Closer to the end of the meeting he was willing to take some snacks from me. Then it was time to pose for a pic with the foster family, where someone from the agency took pictures as well as our social worker. We headed down stairs and the doctor gave him his last check up to make sure that he was healthy and ready to go, which we are happy to say he is. Our social worker put Gavin in Matt's arms and he was able to hold him without being upset, and then as we walked outside I was able to hold him with no tears either.



The social worker asked me to give the foster family a moment with him, let them hold them one more time but when I asked they said no, and at this point I could see that their hearts were breaking for him. Tears were being shed and they were blowing kisses to him and waving and saying bye bye. Gavin was watching quietly the whole time...and then it was time to get in the cab to go back to our hotel.

I mentioned in another post that we have been horrible about taking pictures. As we rode back to the hotel, I realized we didn't get a picture of the three of us. Thankfully the hotel clerks are very kind and they were willing to snap one!


As we walked back to the room we were wondering aloud to ourselves when we thought Gavin might start grieving, which is an essential part of the process. He was fine in the elevator, he was fine when he first took off his shoes, he started playing with the door a bit...he walked around the room a little bit and then he crumpled up on the floor and started sobbing. His foster family had sent a pillow and many other things, too. However, even the pillow couldn't console him. We tried to distract him with a snack or a toy, but that did not work. So, we decided to leave the room and go outside...and that did the trick. Matt blew bubbles to him and he enjoyed popping them, we walked around a bit and decided it would be a good time to eat. So, we headed back to the hotel room...and the moment we went into the hotel room he began to cry again. So we quickly gathered our things and headed outside one more time.

After walking around for awhile we decided we were going to have to go inside at sometime, so we went for it. We decided though when we went inside we would not turn on any lights and make a beeline for the bedroom as well as grab his pillow...and guess what, no tears!!!

In fact, take a look at this smile! It looks like someone is used to getting his picture taken!








His foster mother said that he likes listening to music to help him sleep, so right now Matt and Gavin are sleeping peacefully listening to some tunes.


Tonight, I pray that his foster family finds peace in their hearts. I know that this is a major loss for them. In fact, Gavin's foster mom has decided to go back to teaching kindergarten. Gavin will be their only foster child. I am so grateful that Gavin had such a loving and caring foster family...and that he will always have "family" in Korea.

Sweet dreams from Seoul!!! Thanks again for all of the love! We can't wait to see everyone!


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