Eleven Days Later

Well, the boys have been home with us for eleven days. While the primary purpose of this posting is to alleviate the constant requests for more pictures, we suspect that some of you care about how we're doing, so we'll include some personal information in the post as well. Beth is taking to three children remarkably well. She is completely reenergized in her quest for healthy food and hasn't put down Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious for a week. Her biggest frustration right now is that Russell and Elliot are not taking to the idea of a daytime nap. (As this post is being written, both are upstairs crying in protest of said nap.) Getting all three boys down for a nap is a neccessity for Beth's daily routine, so she finds this trend a bit unnerving.

Jared is his usual grumpy self, upset about even the slightest of interuptions in his sleep. Beth had Book Club this morning, so he got to spend some quality time with all his boys. Anybody who knows him know that means Legos! Yes, that's right, Baby Legos for the twins, Duplos for Thomas, and lots of plastic-brick-building-joy for Daddy.

Thomas is finally caught up on his sleep. We had to wake him from every nap for nearly a week, just to be sure he'd sleep at the next appointed time. He seems much more himself now, and is really beginning to play with the boys. He is also very helpful to Mom and Dad.

Russell and Elliot are also smiling a lot more, a sign that they are both catching up on their sleep and beginning to attach to our family. Best of all, they apparently can sleep through the night. This came as a shock to us, as their foster mother had said they slept from 11 PM to 7 AM with one nighttime feeding. Right now it's 8:00 PM to 7:00 AM with no nighttime feedings. (Somehow this amazing sleep pattern still makes Jared grumpy.)

So that's all the news that's fit to print. Enjoy the pictures. Aren't our boys beautiful!

When last we met our intrepid travelers...

We left off after our successful quest to find a power adapter, with Jared, Beth and Thomas all watching the Muppets, a tradition usually reserved for "Friday Family Fun Night." We all slept relatively well that night, although Thomas startled in his sleep a couple times with panicked exclamations like, "My favorite color is blue!" The morning we walked up to the Holt offices, where we would begin our planned tour of Seoul. We met two other couples on this tour who were in the process of their first adoptions. One was a Mennonite couple from western Kansas, and the other was from California. The second couple had been to a Star Wars convention (for their sons, of course!) and that enthralled Thomas (and Jared, of course). Our tour guide was a college student, SaeIp, who had spent four years in the States during her high school and university studies. She is now finishing up her Biology degree at Hong Ik University and volunteering with Holt. She was a fluid english speaker, and a very helpful tour guide. Our first stop was Deoksugung Palace. This was a large area with only a few people around, so Thomas able to run free and explore.

Our next stop was Insadong, where we had gone our first day. This is by far the best place to pick up Korean trinkets and gifts, so we were glad to be back here to pick up a few last things. We were also able, with the help of SaeIp, to visit the nearby Jogyesa Buddhist Temple. This is one of the few temples in Korea situated in an urban area, with most sequestered in the mountains. Buddhism is the second largest religion in Korea, with the majority of Koreans being Christian.

It was then time for us to leave the tour and go to pick up Russell and Elliot. We ended up with about a half-hour to kill before our scheduled meeting, so we did what we had done so often on this trip, and stopped for a cup of coffee. We tried on the Bjorn's and made sure we still remembered how to put them on. After that cup of coffee, Jared said something to the effect of, "Today is the day that we bring two more people into our family. We're going to walk do that street, the three of us all together, and bring our boys home." He then made everyone put their hands together and say something like, "Go team!" It sounds cheesy, and in fact it was really cheesy, but for that moment Thomas seemed genuinely excited about his role in expanding our family. We held hands as we walked those last few blocks to Holt.

Thomas' foster mother was there again that afternoon as well. She gifted Thomas a new hanbok (a traditional Korean outfit, usually worn by Koreans on birthdays and holidays). Thomas hugged her good-bye and she and Beth both shed tears. We then went into the nursery to share more tears with Russell and Elliot's foster mother. Jared explained to her, through the interpretation of our social worker, that "nobody could have done more for our family than what you have done by caring for these two boys. We will never let them forget you and what you've done." We were too busy to take any pictures during these moments, but Thomas snapped these two images while playing with the camera.

We then got in a cab and made it back to the hotel to bed down for the night. From this moment until some 35 hours later, neither Jared nor Beth slept for more than an hour at any one time. The twins were very well behaved on the flight home, as was Thomas. It was the sheer volume of children which kept us up. There was not a time when all three were down long enough for either of us to get any sleep. In addition to this, it must be noted that a fever passed through all the males in our family. (We mentioned it in a previous post with Elliot, during the flight we noticed it on Russell, and Jared and Thomas both picked it up on Thursday.)

When we arrived at O'Hare were greeted at the airport by friends and family, most of whom had driven hours to see us get off the plane. Thank you all so much for coming to share that happy moment with us. And thanks for hugging us in spite of our messy hair, wrinkled clothes, body odor, and the faint stale-milk-aroma of spit-up. It meant a lot to us to have you there, and it helped Thomas to be able to play with his friends. It will also mean a lot to Russell and Elliot when we are able to look back at it with them and explain how broad the community of love was that welcomed them into this country. (Please send along any and all photos of this event. Apparently we were too tired to take any good ones. Thank you for your Snapfish gallery, Carrie. And, yes, that's "shout-out" number two.)

With the time change, Wednesday was 39 hours long for us. Beth and Jared both fell asleep with the children at around 8 PM, then woke up at 11 PM ready for the day to begin. The rest of the night was difficult to get through with nighttime feedings and fitful sleeping all around. We were all in and out of bed until about 1 PM the next afternoon, when we finally forced everyone out of bed. Jared's Aunt Marianne and cousins Stephanie, Jenna and Adam were in town from Colorado and came over for a visit, along with his Aunt Sharon and mother. Thomas played lightsabers with Adam and everybody ogled and goggled over the babies. When they left, Beth's sister Becky and niece Ali (pictured left), who came into town from New Jersey to help with the babies, and her parents came over for a dinner of Chinese food from M J in Davenport. (Note to all Davenport denizens: M J is moving to Locust Street.) Once again, we went to bed early, with the plan for Jared to return to work today.

If we are to be honest, there is a little bit of melancholy lingering in this household. Thomas is still trying to figure out his role in this new, larger family. (He picked "A Baby Sister for Frances" as reading material tonight, where Frances runs away because her new baby sister is getting too much attention.) Jared and Beth, in spite of constantly reminding themselves how difficult twins were going to be, have been waylaid by the enormity of the task. Russell has been fitful, but will occasionally smile. Beth claims to have seen Elliot given a smile to Thomas this afternoon, but Jared is yet to see one on his face since leaving Korea. And above all, we're all very tired. However, this morning, Beth got up at 5:30 when the boys would keep to their beds no longer. When Jared finally joined them in the kitchen, he found Russell and Elliot playing in the egg yolks Beth had prepared for them, and Thomas was laughing at the mess they were making. Thomas looked up at Jared and said, "Guess what Daddy. It's Friday Family Fun Night!" What a happy family the three of us were. And what a happy family the five of us will be.

May you all have a blessed Easter this Sunday. We will be joining our families in their celebrations after Church on Sunday, and try to post more next week.

Still Bleary-Eyed

This is just a quick post to let you all know we're home and safe. The flight home was very, very long. To the left is a very sweet picture from early in the flight. We were not so sweet-looking by the end. The boys were very good, but never seemed to get on the same schedule, and then throw in a tired three-year-old, and we simply didn't sleep a wink. We'll finish the story of our trip tomorrow. We have a tour of Seoul, the long flight home, and our greeting at O'Hare to cover, so it should be fun stuff with good pictures. For now, to sleep!

Bleary-Eyed Missive

We don't have much time to post tonight, as we're sure you'll understand. We just want to pass along a quick note to let you all know that we've got them and we're in the hotel. We had a little bit of time to pack while they looked like the do in that picture. Since then we've had our hands full. Wow, twins! Did you know that means there's two of them? We've got a wake-up call set for 5:30 AM and will be getting on a van to the airport at 8. Watch for more after we get home. Thank you for being with us on this journey. We love you all!

A Case of Deeya

We're all settling in for the night. The parental units are eating authentic Korean vegetarian burrittos from Dos Tacos and drinking Coke Zeros, and Thomas is eating his cheese quesadilla (pronounced by the T-man: "case of deeya"). We're watching the Muppets with their very specials guests Sandy Duncan and Candace Bergen and getting ready to crash for what may be our last good night's rest for a long time. The week has been great, but it would be fair to say we're getting tired.

Earlier this week we tried to plug in Doug and Kim's DVD player and through a mis-alignment of connectors, fried the power adapter. (Sorry guys!) Given the fourteen-hour fight in our near future, we knew this problem needed to be solved. We found an area in the tour book that listed a lot of markets and arcades, including some that had electronics. It seemed like the place to go. What we found when we got there was a most fascinating place. We came up out of the subway into what must have been the home interior market. It was several city blocks of small shops, all containing some portion of your home improvement needs - three toilet shops, followed by a couple sink shops, then a pipe shop, all across the street from an entire series of lighting storefronts. Imagine a Home Depot the size of an entire neighborhood, with each aisle run by a different shop owner. After a few wrong turns, we were able to find the "Best Buy/Radio Shack neighborhood." We went into one of the larger stores and found what reminded us of a flea market, with each vendor dressed in a suit and sitting in front of a collection of electronic equipment and accessories. We finally found a stall that seemed to have what we were looking for. Jared showed the man in the suit the broken adapter. He got out his voltmeter, measured the adapter, gave us the "one minute" sign, ran down about two stalls, and came back with an adapter. He showed us that the voltage listed on the back of our adapter was the same as the one we were buying, smiled, and said it would be 12,000 won. Since we're watching the Muppets, he apparently knew what he was doing.

Okay, so look at the pictures before reading this next paragraph and try to guess which boy is which. We'll tell you who's who at the end. Our afternoon was scheduled around Russell and Elliot's last physical check-up before we take custody tomorrow. It was a lot of fun to see the boys one more time. It may very well help that they've seen us a couple times before the big switch-over. We'll seem that much more familiar when they see us tomorrow. There's not much to say about the physicals - Elliot has an very low grade fever (so low it didn't show up on the thermometer) and bit of a red throat, but otherwise they're completely healthy. We then got to play with them for about 20 minutes after the physicals. These are two wonderful kids and we can't wait for you to meet them. So, enjoy the pictures and start praying for our journey home now! And in case you haven't figured it out yet, Jin-pyo is in the striped shirt and Jin-seo is in the blue shirt.

The Sunday of Orthodoxy

Today is officially the first Sunday of Great Lent, and we were able to find a local Orthodox Church. It was actually St. Nicholas Cathedral and the Bishop was present. (Because of language difficulties, we're not sure which Bishop it was, we just know he had a staff. We just googled the Metropolitan of Korea and it wasn't him. Should you google a Bishop? It sounds inappropriate.) In catechism we were taught that the Church is united through her liturgy - the order of services, the sacraments, the Church calendar, etc. While we can't be all together physically, even an ascetic alone in a desert can be united to the Church temporally and spiritually by participating in her liturgy. Never before was this truth as evident as this morning; it was like coming home. The service was primarily in Korean, with small parts repeated in English. However, liturgy in Seoul is the same as the liturgy in Iowa City, as in East Moline, as in Chicago; so even though we didn't know the language we could pray along with those around us, and know that we were praying along with our Church family at home.

This first Sunday of Great Lent is called "The Sunday of Orthodoxy" or "The Triumph of Orthodoxy." It commemorates the return of icons into the life of the Church in 842, after an iconoclastic Imperial edict had removed them. It does so by reenacting a procession that occurred on that date, carrying icons into the Hagia Sophia. More than simply the return of the icons, it celebrates the power of the Church to withstand the persecutions which have often threatened her. After Church we went to coffee hour, or as it should be call here, "bee-bim bop hour." This is the same thing they do at the Korean United Methodist Church in Bettendorf, so we can only assume that sitting down for lunch after Church is a very Korean thing to do. While we were enjoying the "eighth sacrament," we were also enjoying what we later realized was our first conversation with native English speakers in days. While the congregation was mostly Korean, with a sizable Russian segment, there were a handful of us Americans. We met a couple teaching at the International School, and another gentleman who has been teaching English in Korea since August. We also ate with a very friendly Russian fellow who is an engineer for Samsung. The five of us Americans all happened to be "converts" to Orthodoxy, having grown up in different Christian traditions. The Russian gentleman shared that he, too, was baptized into Orthodoxy as an adult, after the Soviet collapse. He recalled the times "when to go to Church was to betray your country." This seemed an appropriate story to share today. As it was 1100 years earlier in Byzantium, so it is today, the state is still unable to prevail over the Church.

That's all for today. When Thomas wakes up from his nap, we're going to go to Starbuck's (per Thomas' request, honestly!) and then probably do some shopping. Here's the pictures of the boys we promised. We'll see them again tomorrow for their physicals, so we'll get some fresh pictures in new outfits. Until then, have a blessed day!

War and Cease-Fire

5:30! It felt like sleeping in until noon.

Today we visited the DMZ - the Demilitarized Zone separating South Korea from North Korea. While planning the tour with the hotel staff (at 6:30 this morning), the concierge plainly stated, "The war never ended." That really turned out to be the theme of the day. From an American perspective, the Korean War is a thing of the past, but here it is an ongoing reality. There is a cease-fire agreement, but no peace treaty. The current "Sunshine" policy, started by the former Republic of Korea administration, has opened many roads into North Korea, some literal. However, it is at best a hopeful start towards unification - the average South Korean's ultimate goal.

Pictured above is the Freedom Bell. It is traditional for Koreans to pray at the graves of their ancestors once a year. However, South Koreans of North Korean decent are not able to fulfill this practice. Instead, they come to this place, offer their prayers, and then ring this giant bell so that it can be heard in North Korea. We are pictured to the right with two South Korean soldiers at the newly constructed Dorasan Train Station. This station is a result of South Korea's "Sunshine" policy, and now runs three trains a day into North Korea. It primarily carries South Korean business men and women to and from an industrial complex employing North Korean workers located just across the border. As you can see, Thomas was fascinated by the soldiers.

For the afternoon, we visited Itaewon, which Koreans will tell you is "very international." What that mostly means is that it is the most Americanized area of the city. It is adjacent to a U.S. military base and sports a McDonald's, a Cold Stone Creamery, North Face, Quiznos, Burger King (with Bulgogi Burger), and lots of illegally duplicated DVDs. Thomas had requested fish and chips for dinner, his favorite, and since it is St. Patrick's Day, we felt compelled to oblige. We found a nice pub that offered this dish, and had a good dinner. To the left you can see Thomas with his first Mudslide. (Just kidding, its Chocolate Milk!)

Finally, to keep you all coming back for more, we've decided to include more pictures of the boys in each post. We've grown adicted to hearing from you all, and want to make sure you keep checking in. So here's your baby fix. Thanks for keeping in touch. We love you all.

Introducing...

And here's the moment you've all been waiting for - the Johnson family photo. Elliot Andrew Jin-seo is in the blue on the left, and Russell Matthew Jin-pyo is in the yellow on the right. Interestingly, the more people you have in the picture the harder it is to get a good shot of everybody. (We've heard about this from our friends with multiple children, but now we've experienced it first hand.) Russell looks a bit fussy in this one, and Thomas doesn't look particularly happy, but that was not the case at all. Thomas was very excited to see the boys, and Russell was very laid-back. It was a very exciting moment when the foster mother and her cousin walked into the room carrying Jin-pyo and Jin-seo. All we had seen were those baby pictures, so we weren't even sure what they would look like. Suddenly, there they were; no longer images or imaginings, but real and in the flesh. In that moment, we transformed from admirers and dreamers into parents.

The foster mother recalled when got the call to care for twins, she had been unsure what to do and called her cousin who lived nearby. Her cousin responded, "Get them!" And from the day they came home to her, her cousin came over every morning to help. Russell and Elliot were always very excited to see her. The foster mother said, "They are good greeters." The woman holding Jin-seo on the right is the foster mother, and the woman on the left with Jin-pyo is her cousin. Both are wonderfully kind and caring people. We've now been lucky twice on that count. Beth then began quizzing them about all the child-care details: what do they eat, when do they sleep, what do they like to do? All of the answers were great, and it sounds like we've got two more wonderful children. We won't try to recreate the Korean here, but they had nicknames. Russell's translates, "Big Brother" and Elliot's is "The Smart One." We'll see Russell and Elliot again next Monday for physicals, and then get to take them with us on Tuesday.

The next meeting of the morning was a reunion of Thomas and his foster mother. Thomas was a bit shy at first, but warmed up by the end. We got some great video of him showing her all his Star Wars guys and explaining who they were. Thomas was her 27th foster child, and she had child number 33 with her. Of the 32 previous, we were only the second set of parents to meet with her again, and Thomas is the first foster child she's gotten to see again. She was clearly very excited about it. It was great for us to see her again, as well, and thank her again for the wonderful home she had provided for our son. We explained to her how we are often told Thomas is well behaved, to which we always respond, "Mrs. Lee did a great job!" We also let her know that we have a picture of her with Thomas on our refrigerator and that Beth and Thomas pray for Mrs. Lee every day. Mrs. Lee responded that she keeps the names of all 33 children in her bible and prays for them daily. She prays they will grow up to become ministers in their countries. Perhaps we have now found the root cause for Thomas' affinity to liturgical hymns. Pictured to the right is Thomas' social worker, who is still working with Holt and was also there today.

Later that afternoon, we went to Insadong for some shopping and an authentic Korean meal. To the left is Thomas removing his shoes, and to the right is us sitting cross-legged at dinner. Thomas was very tired by the time shopping and dinner were over and was asking to go back to the hotel. As we made our way back out of Insadong, we passed a brass quartet playing New Orleans-style jazz. We stopped to watch for a second, then began to move. Thomas said, "I don't want to go." Daddy asked, "I thought you wanted to go back to the hotel?" "After this is over." We stayed for a couple more songs (When the Saints Go Marching In and Hey Jude) and went home.

Thomas is now sleeping. Hopefully he'll make it through the night. Last night he was up at 2:30, a move in the wrong direction. Beth somehow coaxed him back to sleep until 6:30. Wish us luck for tonight.

On the Subway to Nowhere

Today began at about 3:30 AM when Thomas woke up. The truth is that both Beth and I had been up and down most of the night, but were managing to rest. Thomas, on the other hand, had zonked out completely. He then woke up completely at 3:30. (Remember, that is 1:30 in the afternoon to our Central Time internal clocks.) To the left is Thomas playing with his Star Wars guys at that ungodly hour.

Finally, at around seven, we made our way next door to a 24-hour coffee shop where the parental units collectively downed four Grande Caffé Americanos. Beth was quite proud that we went to a local chain (We think these are only in Korea, though we may be wrong.), rather than Starbucks. We also liked the fact that it bore our son's name - Tom N Tom's Coffee. Here he is with his mug of milk.

We then began our journey to the National Museum of Korea, one of the six or seven largest museums in the world; comparable to places like the Smithsonian, the Vatican and the Louvre. Anybody who's spoken with us about our previous trip to Seoul has heard us say things like, "It's so easy to get around," and, "Everything's labeled so clearly in English and Korean that anybody could do it!" Now we don't necessarily want to take any of that back, but we will say that there's little worse than being lost in a giant city when nobody around you speaks your language. When we crossed over the Han river for the fourth time (We weren't supposed to cross it once!), we knew we were in trouble. After much consideration, we decided that the map in our tour book was out-of-date. Two hours later, we arrived at the Museum.

Below, you'll have to accept parental indiscretion as an excuse for the amount of pictures. Trust us, we edited plenty. Most of these pictures are taken at the Children's section of the museum, though we also attempted to make it through a history exhibit in the "grown-ups" section. When it got to be three hours past Thomas' nap-time, we headed for home. We made it back to the hotel without incident, using the maps on the train rather than our book.

Thomas and Mommy eating at the museum; Thomas, not interested in the Bee-bim Bop, eating raisins instead


Thomas playing a drum

King Daddy (Photo Credit: Thomas)

Thomas in front of a Korean warrior; Thomas liked the swords

Thomas in front of a ten-story pagoda

Thomas on his way home from the museum

Our naps were painful to awaken from. We were still fighting those internal clocks that thought it was the middle of the night. We decided that since Thomas had eaten (or rather not eaten, see above) Bee-bim Bop for lunch, that we might treat him to some good old Americana for dinner. We will have to ask Aunt Carrie if it was she that suggested Bulgogi Pizza.

Tomorrow morning we meet Russell and Elliot for the first time at 10 AM (8 PM CT). We can't wait to see what they look like. We then meet with Mrs. Lee, the foster mother who cared for Thomas before he came home to us, at 11AM. We are very excited about this meeting, as well.

Finally, for those of you aware of other happenings in Jared's life, his cousin Matt will be buried tomorrow. Please, if you can, say a prayer for his family, especially his Aunt Sharon, Uncle Andy, and Matt's sister and brother-in-law Megan and Clayton. And guys, if you're reading this, know that in the midst of our joy, we're also mourning with you. We're so sorry we can't be with you physically, but we are certainly there in spirit. We'll see you soon, and we'll have Russell Matthew Jin-pyo and Elliot Andrew Jin-seo with us.