Wahe's World

Getting Used to Dad

No I have not started wearing colorful necklaces, but Alex is starting to be a lot more acepting of me.  He still prefers his Mother, but he knows I am avilable for those middle of the night play dates.  He of course is adjusting to the new time zone.  They say it takes a day per time zone to get adjusted to the new schedule.  That means it would take Alex 14 days to adjust to central time.  I sure hope he doesn’t need this much time.   So still bing on Korea time, Alex was wide awake from about 1:00 AM to 7:00 AM Sunday morning.  Since Michelle had reached the exhustion point after having Alex on her hip 24/7 since Thursday, I took him for a four hour stroll through the house.  He fussed a little bit at first but he started to catch on to his father’s sense of humor.  During that time we chassed cats numerous times (they thought they were going to be fed), we played with the various ballons hung throughout the house,  we checked out a few toys that were in his crib, we looked at flowers on the back deck, we checkout the mist hanging in the yard.  We just had a good guys night out so to speak.  All that was missing was the 4:00 AM breakfast at Perkins.  Alex did finally fall asleep on me around 7:00 AM.  He slept for about 45 minutes before realizing I was not his Mother.  He fussed a bit but went back to sleep next to her until noon.  So todays task was to keep Alex awake.  He had one nap of an hour and a half.  He sleep very well during this time.  After his nap we entertained him by taking him for a walk, played with all those great toys and did a little singing.  All things considered, he is doing well.  He is smiling a lot and is enjoying the attention from the two of us.  Tomorrow we will be making a trip to Babies’r’Us and possibly make his first doctors visit. That should keep us going.

A Sleeping Alex

So we are all getting settled back in Wisconsin. Alex is doing all the things a little boy should be doing. He is pretty much attached to Michelle’s hip. But at least he is no longer sleeping directly on her. He is adjusting to the time change and is now falling into a deep sleep. He is playing and has had his first bath. He is smiling at all the good things and is playing peak-a-boo. He is a smart little guy. I have uploaded the photos from the trip at the following link.

https://wahe.us/wahepics/main.php?g2_itemId=246

Safely at Home

So we arrived safely back in Wisconsin yesterday.  Alex has been getting used to his new digs.  We slept off and on through out the night.  All our clocks are off.

We want to thank our family and friends for their support. We have received so many gifts, thoughtfull messages and support.  Alex even had festive decorations welcoming him to his new home.

(we will post photos soon)

Now We are a Family of Three

So here I am at 6:00 am on Friday (Seoul Time).  Alex and Michelle are sleeping up in the room.  It took a while to get the three of us settled but once we did we all got a few hours sleeping.  Alex has eaten several times.  We played for a bit at 4:00 am.  His schedule will be off for awhile.  He is bonding well with Michelle.  He is still a little apprehensive with me.  But then again I don’t wear cool, colorful necklaces.  He enjoys people watching.  We sat outside the hotel for over an hour watching all the people and cars go by.  Alex has very inquisitive eyes. 

We will be leaving for the airport soon. So I should get back to the room to pack.  Kids come with a lot of stuff!

Alex and Michelle People Watching

Alex taking a bottle earlt this morning

Update from Wednesday

Korea lives up to their moniker of being “The Land of the Morning Calm” so there wasn’t a point to getting out of bed too early. Even the coffee shops don’t open before 9:00 am. I did wake up at about 7:30 and wrote in Alex’s journal. We are keeping a little journal of the trip for Alex. I have been recording the different things we have been doing, our feelings and emotions and reporting on the steps we have taken to get here.

Our shopping trip was dedicated to the quest of momentoes for Alex’s rememebrance box. We also found a Hanbok (a traditional Korea outfit) for our little neighbor who was also adopted from Korea. We also bought a few momentoes for ourselves. However, the main momento for us is this wild haired, 18 pound little boy.

Last night we had dinner with another couple who are also here adopting. His birthday is a day after Alex’s.  It was nice to share stories of where we have been and where we are going. We ventured off the main drag into a back ally off a back ally to eat in a traditional Korean restaurant. The food was very good and there was a lot of it. It was a good mixture of spicy, vegetables and meat dishes.

All of the couples we have met are very supportive. It is nice to be at this point of the journey with so many other people who are on the same path. The staff at the agency have all been very nice, pleasant and supportive. In general, Koreans are very friendly and helpful. Michelle and I were on the subway today talking. An elderly gentleman was standing close. About halfway through the trip he interrupted us. He wanted to practice his English. He was very inquisitive on where we were from, what we were doing in Korea and what we like about Korea so far. He was very pleasant to talk to and his English was very good.

Tonight we are going to lay low. Michelle is actually resting right now. We had a big lunch so we may not venture out of the hotel tonight.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we will be meeting Alex again. We will get a chance to play with him so that we can begin to bond as a family. We then will have a little ceremony were Dr. Kim will say a prayer, we will have the opportunity to thank the foster mother and we will be off to spend the night together as a family of three. We are scheduled to live Korea on Friday at 12:00 PM Seoul time. We will be sitting with another couple from Chicago who are also adopting. It should be a very interesting flight back.

We will write more tomorrow and have picture if time permits.

 

Our first meeting with Alex

We just wrapped up our first meeting with Alex.  This was a chance for Alex to explore who we are.  He is a beautiful and strong little boy.  We are in love with him in just the short visit we had.  He played with some of the toys we brought.  he ate some of the snacks Michelle gave him and we discussed his routine with his foster mother.  Alex is living up to his Korean name as being clever.  He has his two lower teeth.  He can pull himself up to a standing position.  His foster mother says he is very strong, lively and busy.  Ms Kim, the social worker, says that those are all great qualities for a little child.  We are very proud.

We are off to lunch with some of the other families that are here for adoption.  We will get to meet Dr. Kim after lunch.

Alex will be ours forever on Thursday.  We

will be flying out of Seoul on Friday.

We will be writing more about our experiences over the next few days.

Alex playing with Michelle and Foster Mother

Alex and Foster Mother Check out Stefan

… and we are here

So the Wahe’s have landed in Seoul, South Korea.  We got into the guest house and have meet Mr. Shin.  However, since we really didn’t sleep on the plane we are off to catch a lot of Zzz’s.  We need to be awake and alert for our first visit with Alex tomorrow morning.  We’ll write more after that.

Stefan and Michelle.

……and we’re off!

We’ve gotten a lot done in the last 72 hours……we’ve gotten through our endless lists, and our lists of lists…..and now we’re ready!     We leave Madison in 10 short hours, and we’re very excited to meet and hold and hug and love our little Alex!    Since “the call”, It’s been a whirlwind of an experience.   It’s been very overwhelming and exciting.    At the same time, Stefan and I have enjoyed almost every minute of it.     There is peace in our hearts.

We have an appointment to meet Alex at 10 a.m. on Tuesday (local Seoul time).     In the last 2 days, Lifelink has connected us with 2 other local families who are traveling and bringing home their babies at the same time!   One of the families will be flying home on the exact flight that we are going to be.     We are staying at the guest house that is connected to the Agency.    We leave Madison tomorrow at 7 am, and head to O’Hare on a direct flight to Seoul.

A Million Moments a Minute

So Michelle I are on Cloud 9 now that we have gotten the call.  The thing is that the cloud seems to be flying at a million miles an hour.  And yet Sunday can’t get here soon enough.  We have gotten our plane tickets and made our reservations. We know that on Tuesday at 10:00 AM (Seoul Time) we will have the first opportunity to be with Alex.  We wonder how that first meeting will go.  We have seen pictures of many families and their first visit with the new child.  They are usually playing on the floor, smiling with colored blocks in hand.

We have so many things going through our minds.  Pack this. Go buy that. Call and cancel that.  All the things we need to do in the next.  Basciaaly we would never get it all done.  But all the key things seem to be under control.  We thing we know what to expect.  And that is, the unexpected.

Post more later — Stefan

Big News !!!

Well we have been playing things cool until today.  We got that must anticipated call.  We are going to South Korea!!!!  We get to be joined with our little boy Alex!

We are currently working out our travel details, calling the doctor, buying those things we don’t have yet.

We’ll write more later.  And yes we are very, very excited.

Michelle and Stefan