Gotcha, Sean! (or Um, Someone Just Gave us a Baby)

So yeah, we are now a family of three! Sean is sleeping right now. Out like a light. He's on the floor (on a down comforter that has been folded over three or four times)in the second bedroom of our hotel suite with the blinds drawn. His foster mother said he sleeps on the floor, so we figured what the hell. But let me back up a bit so you can have the details...

We arrived at the Holt offices about a half hour early and paced up and down the street for fifteen minutes, because we didn't know what else to do with ourselves. At 1:15pm we decided we had enough and headed in to the building.

We went into the building, to the second floor, which I admit was a little bit more drab than I thought it was going to be. Did that sound snobby? Sorry, I'm not sure what I was expecting. We ran into DJ You in the hall and she led us in to the meeting room. Greeting room? Something like that. DJ brought us some water and told us to take a seat. Before she closed the door, we thought we saw Sean being carried by on his foster mother's back, but I think now that it was another baby. That one was much too small.

We waited in there for another 10-15 minutes and there was a knock on the door. In walked DJ and Sean's foster mom carrying Sean! After looking at his picture every day since mid-April, there he was, in the flesh. She handed him to me. He was bigger than I expected. The kid is solid. Brick shit-house. (I never really understood that expression. I guess because I've never seen one.) I now don't know if the clothes we brought with us are even going to fit. He cried a bit when I sat down with him on my lap, and DJ asked if we had brought any toys with us. Yes, we had, only we left them all in the hotel room. Why would we bring toys to go pick up a baby? Duhh. They had some toys there which we gave him and he immediately quieted down. Wade and I passed him back and forth while we asked questions and the foster mom offered information, all translated by DJ.

We found out all of the following from the foster mom: Sean is a good sleeper. He goes to bed early and wakes up early (7pm to 4am she said. Hoping we can shift that by an hour.) She said that he doesn't sleep in the bed with her, but rather on the floor in their room. He also takes a morning and an afternoon nap for about an hour and a half. He still gets formula every four hours, which seems a little fucking weird to me since he's over 1 now. He poops twice a day, is generally a happy baby, and does not like taking baths. She aid he's not walking yet, but takes two steps and falls down. Maybe that's good thing until we get home. In addition to formula, apparently the foster mom makes some kind of home made porridge (it actually says "gruel" on the medical forms, I kid you not. How very Oliver Twist.) with meat and veggies or something. Whatever. I'm American. We make that shit instant and out of a box. He also eats yogurt and cheese and rice and bread-- she actually said there's nothing he doesn't like. Apparently. Which is good, he fits in with us well. It's hard to remember what else was said right now. She had gifts for us-- a beautiful giant framed picture of Sean in a traditional Hanbok on his first birthday. It's in a beautiful double-frame with his Korean name and some letters. It's amazing. Only, I'm not sure how the fuck we're going to get that thing home. I don't even know if it will fit in the luggage let alone not break on the way. And I'm going to have enough carry ons to worry about. It was an awesome thing to do, but really, not terribly travel friendly. She gave us a hanbok and two of his favorite toys in a little backpack. There was a stack of pictures taken by both foster moms (he had two) and a couple of outfits, one of which was the Rutgers onesie we had sent. The other things we had sent, including the book (which I guess she wanted to keep??) and the soft stuffed doggie and the pajamas were nowhere to be found. Maybe he grew out of them? Holt gave us bottles and diapers and formula and a Korean-style baby bjorn-ish carrier. I'm hoping not to use it, or my back is going to hurt.

When we ran out of questions we went downstairs for his final medical checkup to see if he was ok to travel. This comprehensive medical review consisted of taking his temperature, listening to his heart, and checking his tushy. Apparently that was all fine. I had read on some blogs that some of the foster moms wanted some alone time to say goodbye, but she was just kind of like, here you go, see ya. She was very, um, efficient. And at one point she was soothing him and pounding on his back really hard-- I guess it's a cultural thing. We met the foster father outside who was waiting to pick up the foster mom and we all had our picture taken together on the front steps.

Then we got into the cab, she handed him off to me, and we were gone. I think Wade had to sign one single paper. This whole thing was just so weird.

Sean did really well on the cab ride home, which was long because of traffic. He didn't cry for a long time and we kept him busy with his books and we discovered that he claps his hands, and if you say "Yayyyy!!!!" and clap your hands back he actually squeals with laughter. Towards the end of the cab ride, he started screaming though. We think it was because it was past his nap time, and not so much part of the grieving process. After about 10 minutes of showing us the power of his lungs, he finally shut his eyes and fell asleep on my shoulder. He woke up a few times on the way up to the hotel room, but he's still sleeping on the floor and it's an hour and a half later.

I'm thinking we should wake him up. Right? We should wake him up? Or else he won't go to sleep tonight? Right? I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. If we do wake him up, that's mostly when he'll freak, because he'll be looking for his foster mother. Well, wish us luck, so far so good...