Here's an update for all of you blog addicts :o)

What a great big brother Mia has!


Mia's first bath at home


Huston grew so much while we were gone...he's already shaving!?!

Hello everyone!

Well, we it is now our 5th day home and we are doing great. Mia slept really great last night and only got up for a bottle once and slept until 7:00 am....YEA! I actually feel semi-human today. :o)

We are continuing to see answered prayers during this transition time at home with Mia. She is doing GREAT! She is such a good and happy baby. As far as bonding goes, she took to us immediately and her big brother, too. Mia still gets a little nervous around big groups of people, but she is getting better...I'm trying to get her out and about just a little bit so she can start adjusting to her new surroundings.

I took her to the doctor's office today so they could take a quick look at her and weigh her, too. She weighed in at 18 lbs. 3 oz.!?! That's our BIG girl. :o) I set up her first well check visit on her six month birthday so we'll see how that goes.

Have a great week and I'll try to post updates here every now and then.

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!