First full day in Korea

We have had a great day in Korea. We started out with an amazing breakfast at our hotel. The food was fantastic. Then we talked with DJ at Holt and found out that we would be meeting Gus at 10:30 on Tuesday morning at Ilsan. Since we had the whole day we decided to explore Seoul. Jason took the lead he is much better at maps than me especially when they are in Korean. Our first stop was the subway to get our passes for tomorrow morning, then we decided to go visit a palace right down the street, well that was a bust because it wasn't open. So we went back to the map and found a sunny spot to stand in. While doing that we met a very helpful couple who must have known we were tourists. They encouraged us to go see Cheonggyecheon river, this is a reclaimed natural area that has turned from pretty much a sewer into a beautiful stream that runs for about 3 km with a wonderful path all along it. It was so pretty, we could even stone hop across it. While exploring that we came across a tourism organization. One week a month they have traditional korean activities for free. We had our names, including Gus', written in Korean calligraphy and then we were able to try on the traditional hanbok. I was a princess and Jason was a military man. Very cool we hope we will have time to take Gus back there and have him try on an outfit. We went back to the hotel and got our gifts ready for tomorrow and relaxed a little before our dinner excursion. We went to a traditional Korean music and dance dinner theater tonight. It was in a different part of the city but they picked us up which was nice. We enjoyed a wonderful buffet of korean food including crab legs, octopus, mandarin oranges and duck. Some of the food was wonderful and some of it not quite what we are used to. We were very adventrous and tried many things we had never had before. I will say the desserts here are nothing like at home, I miss my chocolate. The show was fabulous. The costumes were beautiful, the instruments were unique, and the dancing was intricate and synchronized to perfection. All around the evening was a lot of fun.

We are both feeling the effects of a lot of travel, some dizziness and very tired. We decided to hit the hay a little early tonight in order to be our best for when we meet the Gus man tomorrow. We will have some time with him but we don't know how much and then we will get more information on other times we will either see him or be able to take him with us. As of right now we will not have complete custody until Friday at 2:30. Mamma and Daddy are struggling with that a little and hope that we can maybe change that if we are able to. We will keep you all updated. As you read this on Monday morning know that when I am writing it, it is Monday night. Have a great Monday! ours was wonderful.

Meeting Gus time

We just talked to Holt and we will be meeting Gus at 10:30 tomorrow morning at Ilsan. We are so excited. We still are not for sure as to when we get to take him with us. We will be going on the Holt City tour on Wednesday. Today we hope to get acclimated with the city, check out a museum and hopefully see a traditional Korean dinner show. Very exciting. We will fill you in on what we really did later.

Good Morning!

Everything is still going great. We slept about 6 hours and then were ready to get going with our day. The breakfast was fantastic, really yummy and lots of things to try. We are ready to face the day. Jason is on the phone with holt right now and it sounds like we will be meeting Gus tomorrow. Today we will hopefully do some sight seeing, the DMZ is closed today so we will not be going there. I would like to get going and explore. I guess Ilsan is having a good bye party for Gus tonight. We are not sure if we will be meeting him at Holt or Ilsan, we will call back in a couple of hours and get more info then. In the meantime we are going to check out the rest of the hotel and get some subway passes for the week. We will continue to keep you updated. This little momma can't stop smiling!

Arrived in Korea

We finally made it to Korea!! All the travels went super smooth. A big thank you to nana and papa for waking up early with us and bringing us to GR. We actually arrived in Korea at 930 pm (korean standard time), which was about 730 am (est) . The greatest thing about the long flight was meeting people who had been to Korea and are currently living there. They gave us great advice about getting taxis to our hotel, when and where to exchange money, etc. However, when we finally got through customs and immigration it was all for naught. Holt had hired a driver for us and was waiting with a sign with our name on it. AWESOME!!! We had been told it would be a miracle if there was going to be someone there. GOD IS AWESOME! MIRACLES ARE GREAT! MIRACLES IN KOREA ARE EVEN COOLER (from this perspective currently). A big thank you also to Belinda and all those at Bethany and Tempo Travel agency for getting us to this point! We got to the hotel at about 1030 or 11pm. unpacked (Emily did this) and Jason attempted to get computer up and running. Jason was semi-successful in this endeavor, the only set back was getting this here blog spot not to be in Korean. It finally worked after getting 6 hours of sleep and patience being restored. We are looking forward to the day, dawn is breaking currently. Emily is still sleeping and I am getting hungry. Perhaps its time to wander around Seoul and find some good food to prepare for the day.

Time to Sleep?

Well here we are the night before we leave. Our bags are packed, emotions are high, God's faithful words of knowing the plans he has for us keep ringing in my head, plans to prosper us and give us a future as a family. Wow, the lessons we have learned in the past ten almost eleven months. God's love has taken us through each bump, each waiting day and the craziness of today. Hopefully we will both be able to sleep a little tonight before we begin our journey tomorrow. We will be departing the house at 4:45 am if any of you are up say a quick prayer that I will be calm and hear God's voice loud and clear, I did not realize until today that I am a little scared to travel internationally. Tomorrow starts a new journey for the Perton family and we are ready, we think. We will keep this updated. Thanks for all of the loving comments and excitement, it is so appreciated.

travel day and times

So, we are leaving on a flight bright and early Saturday morning. First stop is Detroit then Tokyo then arrive in Seoul about 9:30 pm Sunday night, which is 8:30 am our time. Crazy! We are staying at the Frasier Palace in downtown Seoul. It is very nice, it is apartment style so we will be able to cook some of our own meals. Plus it has a kiddy pool and play area for the Jason(maybe Gus will like it too.) We will be back home on Saturday the 19th at 4:30 pm arriving in GR. All three sets of grandparents will be eagerly waiting for their new grandsons arrival. We are bringing the computer and will be updating the blog as frequently as we are able to. We are not yet sure when we will actually be meeting Gus.

Current prayer requests: safe travel, bonding with Gus, Emily's crazy emotions, Jason's lack of emotion, Morgan's good behavior, and a magic house cleaner to make the house just what Emily wants for Gus when we get home.

TRAVEL CALL!

Today at about 1:00 we received a call from Belinda inviting us to travel to get Gus!!!! We are elated, to say the least. We will for sure have him by Christmas. We are both in shock, we just keep wandering around with our cell phones thinking what do we do now. We are currently waiting to hear back from Tempo with some options of when we will travel. As soon as we hear anything we will update you more. We should meet our precious little son within four days, YEA!!!!

Please thank God with us for this wonderful news!