No longer Half a World Away

Now, I can post the second part to the beautiful, little poem "A Half a World Away"...here it is.

A half a world away,
So many months of waiting are past.
A half a world away,
So many miles to bring you home at last.
My little one, my precious joy,
You're finally home to stay.
My precious daughter, my little girl,
We celebrate this day.
Knowing we
will no longer be
a half a world away.
~Jill Work

Good Thursday morning one last time from Seoul

Good morning/afternoon everyone!

It is 5:45 am here in Seoul on Thursday...we woke up about an hour ago. When I first woke up, I thought...we get to go get Mia soon...and then I thought, I'M SCARED!?! :o) With your first child, you don't know what you're getting yourself into. ;o) We thought we were prepared for Huston's arrival and had a good idea of what to do...WRONG! You bring your first child home and reality slaps you in the face. It doesn't matter how many books you've read or that you've taken a parenting class, etc...you are not remotely prepared for the reality of being completely responsible for this new little human being. Since this is our second child, I have a little bit of confidence in knowing that "this too shall pass" as far as the lack of sleep, etc. but I also know that it will be LOTS of work, a difficult transition for all of us and plus this time around I'll have my precious boy to take care of, too. :o) We are ready for this next adventure and it will begin in a little over two hours. GOD IS GOOD!

I know we've been thanking everyone for their prayers and support...but here I go again. THANK YOU! It has been AMAZING to see God work in this "journey to Mia". Although, we may be a little "scared" at times, the peace we have from seeing that this truly is God's plan for our family is wonderful. We have been so blessed by all of the love and support and have felt the prayers that you all are lifting up on our behalf.

I guess I better sign off and go run happy/nervous laps around the room. We packed last night...that was QUITE a chore trying to figure out how to STUFF everything back into the suitcases, plus all of Mia's stuff from Korea...but we did it!

Huston...Mommy, Daddy & Mia will be home soon. We love you and are so proud of you for being such a BIG boy while we were gone. We cannot wait to hold you and give you LOTS of squishes and kisses. :o)

WE LOVE Y'ALL!
Patty, Rusty & Mia

Our Final Full Day in Seoul

Here is a pic of the us with Hae Eun's foster parents...they are such SPECIAL people!


This is Rusty at a Korean BBQ place we ate at today.


Did you really think we would come this far and not take a picture of the famous RED CHAIR? Too cute!

Hello everyone!

Wow! Today has been WONDERFUL and we are zapped emotionally. We met with Hae Eun and her foster mother and father this morning and exchanged gifts. They gave us a photo album FULL of pictures of Hae Eun "growing up" in different places all around Seoul and with all the members of her foster family. It is PRICELESS! The foster mom also took Hae Eun to have her pictures made professionally a couple of times and gave us a matted collage of one shoot, and then some 5 x 7s of another. When we saw her pull out the pictures and open the photo album this morning, tears began FLOWING! What a precious gift. They also gave us a beautiful white dress w/matching headband for Mia to wear for her first birthday (they wear both the traditional Hanbok and also a fancy dress for all of the celebrations). Let's see, they also gave us Korean gifts for Rusty and I, some fun accessories for Mia, and also a gift for Huston. We thought the foster mom was going to make hanboks for Huston and Hae Eun...but that info was confused in translation, the birthfamily actually gave us the hanboks (more details later).

After the gift exchange, the birthmother, grandmother and aunt arrived for our meeting. Rusty and I had already cried a MILLION tears, but the tears continued to flow throughout this meeting, too. Hae Eun's birthmother is so little (5'1", I believe) and looks SO young. We cried, talked and cried some more for over an hour. They kept thanking us for giving Hae Eun a loving, Christian home and were thankful for the peace that meeting us gave them. They brought hanboks for Hae Eun and Huston...they are beautiful, a beautiful jewelry box for me with a handwritten note from the birthmother inside, some beautiful decorative Korean tassels and a Korean fan. The conversations were wonderful and you could definately see God's hand in the meeting and this whole process...from even before we knew of Hae Eun and her family. The meeting is something we will ALWAYS remember and cherish. We have all agreed to remain in contact via mail and eventually e-mail (after some healing time, etc.).

We are now sitting in our room looking at ALL of the stuff we have to fit into our luggage for our trip home...this is going to take some CREATIVE packing. :o) We are having dinner tonight with the Australian couple we told you about in an earlier blog. Then we will come back to the room and get everything ready to go.

The Eastern driver picks us up at 8:00 am and takes us to Eastern for a blessing ceremony with the foster family, Hae Eun, the founder of Eastern and our social worker. This will be another special time for us. We then will go to the airport and start making our way through customs, immigration, etc. Please pray that all of that process goes smoothly and quickly both here in Seoul and at DFW...we don't want to miss a flight home. Also pray for Hae Eun and for us on the flight home. I am expecting A LOT of work, A LOT of tears, and probably A LOT of sweat carrying around my big girl for the 13 hour flight from Seoul to DFW. :o)

We love y'all and appreciate your support and prayers. We have to admit we are a bit addicted to this blog now and may have to post some fun stuff once we are home. :o)

Blessings from Seoul!
Rusty, Patty & Hae Eun (Mia)

Tuesday's Adventures in Seoul

Located in the "middle" of downtown is this memorial made for Emperor Gojong's enthronement and adoption of the Imperial system.


This is a picture of the Gyeongbokgung Palace we visited today.


Self portrait of Rusty and I outside of the palace. :o)


Aren't the flowers and trees beautiful here? The monument you can see in the back of this picture is a Korean national treasure and was built in 1085!

Hello everyone! Today has been our most fun day, as far as sightseeing goes. We headed out early this morning and our first stop of the day was Kyobo Bookstore...it is like a Barnes and Nobles times 100. We picked up a baby book for Mia and a Korea coffee table book. We then headed to the Gyeongbokgung Palace in downtown Seoul. Unfortunately, the palace was closed to due some renovation but we were able to walk all around the grounds...it was pretty neat. On the way to the palace, we passed a memorial outside some of the government offices for the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings. They had pictures of all of the victims, candles lit, and huge banners for people to sign...we got to sign one. It was very touching to see how sorry they are that a native of their country caused such a tragedy. We then headed back to Namdaemun Market to pick up some souvenirs and hanboks (the traditional Korean dresses) for me and Mia. We were told by our social worker that Mia's foster mom is making both Huston and Mia hanboks, but we also wanted a bigger hanbok for Mia when she gets older and one that she could "play" around in...the one handmade by her foster mom will be for her first birthday and display only...too special for playtime, etc.

You will not believe this one! Rusty and I were in the subway and he pointed out a man that looked fairly familiar...Rusty then told me that is was the Korean man that sat right across the aisle from us on the Korean Air flight last Thursday. He had some unique features, so we are SURE it was him and he even acknowledged Rusty, like he couldn't believe it either. Here we are in this HUGE city, home of 11 million people, and we see the man from our flight in the subway in Seoul...that's crazy!?!

Tomorrow will be a very special and very emotional day for us as we will not only spend time with Mia again, but also with her birthmother and birthgrandmother. Please pray for all of us and that the meeting will bring peace and a sense of closure.

We love y'all! Thanks for the comments and most of all, the prayers. :o)

Special Message to Huston -- Pics of Mia, etc. below this message...

Huston,

Mommy and Daddy just wanted to post a special message for you on the blog, since we can't figure out how to use our phone card (and neither can anyone at the hotel). We love you and we'll see you soon!

We Met Our Daughter TODAY!!!!!!!

Hello everyone! It is 2:10 pm in Korea and we just got back to our room a little bit ago. We went to Eastern at 9:45 to pick up Mia's passport and paperwork, meet some of the staff, and then our appointment to meet Mia was at 10:00.
The meeting was WONDERFUL! It was such a surreal feeling to watch Mia and her foster mom walk into the room today. She was ALL dressed up complete with a bow. Our social worker said that the foster mom LOVES to dress Hae Eun up like a little princess. :o) Okay, now for the pics that you are all logging on to see...I'll tell you more details at the end. INTRODUCING our daughter, Mia HaeEun Holt...


This is a picture that our caseworker took of us right after they handed Mia to me.
Can you tell we're happy?


Mommy and daughter!


Here's a little profile pic of our sweet girl.


Daddy and daughter!


Our laughing girl with Daddy






Our caseworker and foster mom had to go over some stuff and let us have alone time with Mia HaeEun. They said it would be time for her to eat soon so if she got fussy, I could try and give her a bottle. I was a little worried because I have heard of babies not taking bottles from mom or dad at first, crying and looking around for their foster mom, etc. What would Mia do when they left? Well, she played and then started to get a little more vocal, almost like complaining she was hungry, but she never cried. I decided to try to feed her and my big girl let me hold her close and give her a bottle. I cried again. It felt so good to be able to give my daughter a bottle for the first time. Even more to my surprise, she fell asleep in my arms as she finished up her bottle. Our caseworker and foster mom looked surprised when they came back to find her with a full tummy and sound asleep.

We met with the founder of Eastern, the CEO of Eastern and many of the wonderful staff today. The founder, Dr. Kim, took a small group of us into his office and told us a little about himself, when he founded Eastern, and thanked us for giving these babies a home. It was VERY touching. He also gave us a couple of books he had written and signed the inside of each book.

After meeting with some of the staff, we received a little tour of the baby nursery where all of the babies stay until they are placed with a foster family. There were 35 babies in the nursery, all of them 10 days old or younger. They were SO precious!

We then had lunch at Eastern with the staff and other families and met a really nice couple from Australia. Lunch was EXCELLENT and it was fun talking to another couple bringing home their daughter at the end of the week.

Wednesday morning at 10:00, we get to see Mia again and we'll have another hour with her. At 11:00 we will meet Mia's birthmother and grandmother. They are excited to meet us and it should be a wonderful experience. They told our social worker that they are at peace knowing that Hae Eun is going to a wonderful family and are looking forward to meeting us.

Well, I guess that's all for now. We're going to change clothes and go out and about. We actually slept better last night and didn't wake up until 6:00 this morning. So, we're hoping to wear ourselves out again today so we can get a good night's rest.

Please keep us in your prayers and especially Wednesday's meeting with Mia's birthfamily. We love y'all and it won't be long before we're home with Mia.

WE MISS YOU HUSTON!

Pics From Our Sunday Seoul Adventures

No this isn't some cool Korean tv remote or something...it is actually a close-up of our potty controls...yes, potty controls. This was just too tempting not to post. Our potty has a heated seat (always on), and a nice wash and dry function, too. We'll tell you more about it when we get home. So fresh and so clean, clean! By the way, Rusty found these toilet seats for sale in one of the shopping districts and was dying to know the price. I had to drag him away from the potty seat...I think he likes it!


Here is a close-up pic of one of my souvenirs...my Korean tattoo.

Just kidding! There were dragons painted on the ceiling of the Namdaemun gate.


Here is a picture of Rusty standing in front of the ancient Namdaemun gate, it was the south gate to Seoul in the 1300s. Very cool.


This beautiful photo op was right off the side of a BIG, busy road on our walk to/from the church. I don't think this picture does the flowers justice and they smelled wonderful, too.



Here is the front of the Yoido Full Gospel Church...I took the video of the "rush hour" from the top of the steps and by the time I reached the bottom to take a picture, everyone had sprinted in and grabbed a seat! Well, except for maybe a a few people in the pic that had already attended first service.

Tomorrow we'll be posting pics of Mia. We stayed up all day today even though we were DYING! Hopefully we will get some good rest tonight. You can probably look at the posts each day and see the bags under my eyes growing and darkening...scary! Not the greatest first impression for our agency here but that's okay.

Well, I'm off to get things together for our meeting tomorrow before I hopefully CRASH into bed and off to sleep.

Love ya'll!

Rush Hour @ World's Largest Church

We successfully navigated the subway this morning to attend the world's largest church, Yoido Full Gospel Church. There membership is a whopping 800,000...no I did not type too many zeros. They have SEVEN services on Sunday mornings. There are varying reports on how many the main auditorium and balcony seats...but the smallest number I found was 12,000 and the largest was 35,000...and this place was PACKED. They also have seating areas throughout the multi-story building with large projection screens showing the service. We wore headsets which had the sermon being translated into English simultaneously. It was definately a once in a lifetime experience.

This video clip is just a short glimpse of the end of the "rush hour" traffic coming into the second service. People were literally running into the church building to get a good seat. I have NEVER seen anything like that. Y'all back home watch this video and maybe we can try this one Sunday...Ronnie wouldn't know what to do if we all came sprinting into church. :o)

We heard about this church from Rusty's friend, Eric Boyt...thanks Eric, it was quite an experience.

After church, we decided to go for a big American lunch at Outback Steakhouse. It was really good but the background music was a little odd. They were playing unedited American rap...we heard a 50 Cent and Notorious B.I.G. song just to name a couple. They have no idea what the songs are saying...I'm sure every American that eats in there is shocked to hear some of the lyrics blasting during their meal...we were!?!

Our schedules are still WAY off...I'm not sleeping well at all. I was waking up every 30 minutes or so last night and finally got up at 4:00 am to check e-mail, the blog, etc. I'm sure we will get used to the time change just in time to come home...at least I'll be on the same schedule as Mia. :o)

That's all for now. Make sure you check back tomorrow for pictures of our first meeting with our sweet girl.

Love y'all!

Just a few pics from our Saturday outings...

This is a pic of a "parade" of some sorts that randomnly came down the main street of the Insadong market while we were shopping today. The little boy in the cart was towards the end of the parade and the only one with a "ride" so we guess all the fuss was about him. Rusty said maybe it was his birthday. :O)


Our first Korean meal in Seoul...yum!
We ate at Shinpo Korean Restaurant, I ordered the sugogi busut bokkeum woo dong...delicious! It was a beef and veggie noodle dish.


Rusty had bimbim bab...it's really good, too. It was a fancier version of the bimbim bab we had on the flight to Seoul. You also recieve different side dishes to share with your meals here. One of the side dishes was kimchi (fermented cabbage) and Rusty got to try it for the first time. It really isn't bad...just different.


Our school girl friends...
These are the girls that practiced their English on us. They were very cute and fun...and we all laughed A LOT!







Well, it's 10:00 pm here on Saturday night and I think we're about to venture out a little bit. The time difference is still messing with us...we HAD to take a nap this afternoon and slept longer than we thought we would. We want to stay up a little bit later tonight so maybe we can help our bodies adjust to this new time schedule. We are going to attempt to go to a HUGE church here in Seoul tomorrow morning. We'll just have to figure out how to get there via the subway.

Huston--Mommy and Daddy love you SO, SO much and miss you already! We will be bringing your sister home soon. Be sweet, obey and have LOTS of fun! Don't forget to open a present!

Hughes family--we're wireless in our room...thank you for letting us borrow the laptop! It's wonderful!

Friends and family--keep praying and we'll be posting again soon! Miss y'all and love y'all!

Okay...here we go again with an update

I got online this morning at 5:45 am...we slept great, but I think we went to bed TOO early since I was actually up at 5:45 am!?! Anyway, I posted to the blog and just went online to check on the blog and realized my post wasn't there...oops! Part of the problem is that the main blog site where I go to post to the blog, etc. is in ALL KOREAN?!? Last night, I did pretty well remembering where buttons were, etc...I guess today I'm still a little "foggy".

Anyway, Seoul is BEAUTIFUL! On the way to the hotel from the airport, we saw the ocean, lots of mountains, trees, flowers...COMPLETELY opposite from home. :o) Everyone here is really nice. We have been surprised how many people speak at least a little bit of English and also how many signs are in both Korean and English.

We didn't have the energy to venture out too far last night, so we walked next door and picked up some Papa Johns pizza...funny, huh? The girl at Papa Johns did not speak any English, so we had fun pointing at pictures and making hand gestures for the size of pizza, etc. :o) The pizza was good, though and they add a side of pickles with your order and the box comes wrapped up with a BOW! We took the pizza back to our room, scarfed and crashed!

This morning, I woke up before Rusty...that NEVER happens. I came down to the lobby and posted to the blog, which we see never appeared. Rusty finally got up and we decided to go to Starbucks...of course, they have one of those! But they don't open here until 8:00 am...what?!? Luckily, we found a Dunkin' Donuts right down the street that opened at the early hours of 7:00 am :o) and we were the first ones there...they had not even put out the donuts, yet. Rusty was pumped to find someone to talk to in Dunkin' Donuts...a medical student from California that was on a layover waiting to fly home. Rusty wants me to add that his new friend was on a medical mission in China and camped at the base of Mt. Everest with REAL Sherpas. I hope you are all as impressed by that as Rusty. ;o)

Sorry for rambling, but it's only 8:30 am here and there is still NOTHING open. We are about to grab a map, hop on the subway and head to one of the markets to do some shopping.

We're going to try and figure out the wireless internet stuff with the laptop (thank you Hughes family). Then we can bore you all with more rambling about our trip. :o) Also, we hope to figure out how to post some pics...especially after Monday's meeting with Mia.

Talk to you soon!

Please keep praying for us, Mia and her birth and foster family.

Testing, testing, 1...2...3

Trying to figure out what buttons to click since the blog website is in ALL KOREAN!?!

Hello from Seoul!

We just got to our room at the Hotel Seokyo a few minutes ago...it is 6:52 pm Korea time, so y'all are all asleep as it is 4:52 am in Midland. WHEW! Our journey to Seoul was LONG!!!!! Good, but long. We left Midland at 8:40 am, so by the time we arrived at the hotel in Seoul, it had been 20 hours total travel time. We have not seen the sun go down since Wednesday night since we flew so far west. We were able to get some sleep on the plane, but are still completely exhausted. We arrived too late to meet Mia HaeEun today, but will meet her Monday morning at 10:00 am (Sunday night 8:00 pm Midland time). Hopefully, we will be able to post some pictures of us later that day.

Well, we are off to find some dinner and then off to bed and sleeping LATE...we hope! Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We love y'all and we'll see you next week!

TRAVEL CALL!!!!

My head is spinning and my heart is racing! Our phone rang at 9:05 this morning and it was our agency telling us that Mia is ready to come home!!!! I am happy to say that although I feel frantic and like I'm going a million different directions at a million miles an hour, that I'm actually pretty prepared. God has been putting the "nesting" instinct on my heart the last few days, so the laundry's done, the house is clean, and my packing list is ready. We are flying out of here tomorrow morning and will be back next Thursday with little Mia in tote.

A friend is letting us borrow a laptop to use while we are in Korea, so we will hopefully be able to keep everyone posted day to day on our blog.

I've got to go run around like crazy but I'll be in touch from Korea next time!

Keep praying for a safe trip, smooth meeting with Mia, peace for the foster and birth family, and a good trip home with Mia.

We love you all and we'll see you soon!

P-A-S-S-P-O-R-T!

Tuesdays have brought BIG blessings via e-mail lately and I am happy to say that today I received an e-mail saying that Korea has issued Mia her passport! Wow! I am so excited! This is starting to feel "real". We are so close to our daughter now that I can almost squeeze her adorable cheeks, feel her beautiful, baby soft skin and fine, black hair. I cannot wait to hold, hug and kiss our daughter for the very first time...what a day that will be!

Our agency said it will only be two to four more weeks until we get TC (travel call) so keep praying everyone! Yesterday was Mia's five month birthday...let's get her home before her sixth month birthday and of course, Mother's Day!

Will we have a white Easter?

It is snowing in Midland, Texas the day before Easter...that is definately post-worthy news! Just wanted to log in and post a picture of us in the snow today. We made a snowman and had a great time playing as a family in the snow...although, we're still one family member short. :o)

Have a wonderful Easter and keep praying for our sweet girl to come home VERY soon!

A Half A World Away

I was checking the blog of another Dillon family that returned from Korea just a week ago with their daughter, Emalee (who shares a b-day with Mia) and just had to share the poem that she posted to her blog.

I am only posting the first part of the poem for now because the second part talks about bringing baby home. Hopefully I will be posting the second half soon. :o)

A Half A World Away~

A half a world away
Sometimes it seems we're so far apart.
but a half a world away,
Is not too far for a journey of the heart.
My little one, my precious joy,
I'm waiting for you.
My precious daughter, my little girl,
I know you're waiting too.
A half a world away,
A child waits for a family of her own.
While a half a world away,
A family waits to come bring her home.
My little one, my precious joy,
I'm whispering a prayer,
My precious daughter, my little girl,
I hope to soon be there.

LOVE IT! and just wanted to share it on my blog, too.

God bless!

Mia has EP!

Woo hoo! I had an e-mail waiting for me today when I got home letting me know that Korea had granted Mia EP (emmigration permission). This step is one out of the three necessary to bring our daughter home. We still have PP (passport) and TC (travel call) to go...our agency said approximately 1-2 weeks for PP and 2-4 weeks for TC. I'm praying of course for us to come in under the estimated timeline...I've just got to get my girl home for her 6 month b-day and also Mother's Day.

I realized today when I was talking about having Mia home in time for Mother's Day, that Huston's first day at church was on Mother's Day. It was the Sunday after his hernia surgery and he was able to go...such a special day for so many reasons. Now my prayer is that Mia will be home and that we can make at least some of the church service on Mother's Day with her. We'll just come in late (which is usually what happens) and leave early so we don't overwhelm her with lots of people in her face, wanting to hold and touch her, etc.

This is definately great news and the little "lift" I needed this week to make me feel like this really is going to happen. :o)

Hopefully, I'll be posting again soon with news of PP!

Come on PP & TC!!!!!!

Baby shower for Mia!

I just wanted to log in really quick with a blog about the WONDERFUL shower for Mia that we were blessed by today. Twelve of my WONDERFUL friends put together a shower and the turn out was amazing!

Mia received so MANY clothes that I don't know if she could wear them all even if I put a couple of new outfits on her each day! She also got some beautiful blankets, adorable diaper bags, cute accessories, some nice picture frames, several great books, a pretty necklace from Meemaw, some toys and of course, diapers and wipes. :o)

Today was also special because it helped me feel a little more like Mia is coming home soon...hopefully VERY soon. Plus, I have the fun distraction of looking through all of the gifts over and over and organizing her closet so I can fit all of the new clothes inside. :o)

Thank you to everyone that helped make today so special...it truly was a blessing. I ask that you continue to pray for Mia and that she will come home soon...her family is ready to love on her!

Good night and God bless!