Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Forever Family Day Was Wild 5 Years Ago

It was a wild morning five years ago today in Seoul, South Korea - the day our son Quinn became a part of our family, forever.

We had spent that week in Korea and had already met him a few times just to get aquainted and warm things up for us all, but this was the morning we would take him from the arms of his amazing foster parents and life would change for us all.

Korean culture was such that walking around Korea with him in our arms would likely create some unwanted stares, comments and such so the orphanage there requested that we meet at the crack of dawn the morning of our flight home, pick him up and quickly head to the airport. It was so surreal. After days experiencing Korea, the time was finally here.

We met his foster mom and dad (the Kim family) as they brought him down to the street level of the building. Their eyes were bloodshot from tears. We had been prepared how hard this moment would be for everyone. His amazing foster mom had fostered more than 20 kids including a little girl at the same time she had Quinn (which we met last year in Denver, CO) but each time she got so attached. I could not imagine giving up a puppy after 7 months much less a child you had cared for to some strangers that were headed to the other side of the world! It was gut wrentching and soon our tears were flowing too.



Quinn kind of had a blank stare on his face. It was early in the morning and he really had no idea what was going on. Plus, he was only 7 months old.

Dr. Kim and the ESWS staff  said their good byes and prayed over us as well. We weren't ready to leave yet but time was at hand. Crying, we all hugged, bowed in respect and waived good bye as Julie, Quinn and I jumped into the back of the taxi and drove out into the Seoul morning traffic.

Quinn had a family - forever.

15 hours later we arrived home and became a family five.

God is good.



No comments: