Korea Court Trip - Day One

We headed to the Chattanooga Airport at 6pm on Friday evening. So much excitement that the day to head to our baby's birth country was finally here, but to be honest, there is also a sadness that came with knowing that she will not be coming home with us this trip. Trusting God to carry our family until we can all officially be together!

We ran into a friend who was also on our flight from Chattanooga and has also adopted, which was a small gift from God, to be able to share our excitement with someone who has seen us walk our adoption journey and has walked one themselves.
After our short 20 minute flight to Atlanta, we grabbed some food and checked out the Delta Sky Club (it was like a date night. hahaha.) And boarded our Korean Air flight at midnight. We had a great experience on the flight with the movies provided, delicious food, about 5 hours of sleep, and 15 hours of quiet.

When we landed in Korea, it was about 3:30am local time. The moon was huge and bright and we got to see coastal views as we arrived over the water. We got off the plane and struck up another God-ordained meeting with a fellow believer who could encouraged us on our journey. We then walked through the easiest immigration ever, grabbed our bags, and walked out of baggage claim. There was supposed to be a driver waiting for us but we did not see anyone there, so we went to exchange our currency and rent a wifi egg (best little contraption that gives us wifi wherever we go for only like $5 (4,500 won) a day). Then we went to look for the driver that we couldn't find anywhere. We went to the information desk to see if they could call him for us and Todd saw a little Korean man running by with a sign that had our names on it. So Todd took off after him and when he caught up with the driver, Todd tried to explain that he was the "Todd" on the man's sign. There was obviously a big language barrier, but we finally understood that he was SO sorry and that he had overslept. Poor guy. :( We were so happy to have found him and finally be headed to Seoul! The driver tried to talk to us a little bit but we could not understand him at ALL and he could not understand a word we said either. It was pitch black when we landed but we got to drive into Seoul as the sun was coming up.

We were dropped off at our hotel around 5:30am and freshened up in their restroom before checking our bags in with them and taking off to explore the city. As we walked around, the city was very much still asleep. No shops open, no food, no people. We walked until about 6:45am, checking every coffee shop we passed to see when they would open and then at 5 til 7 we just camped out in front of one of the coffee shops until it opened. We walked in with another young couple who ended up being from LA and it was so nice to eat breakfast with someone we could have a full conversation with. Plus, the coffee and breakfast sandwiches were delicious!!

It was a little after 8am now and the city was slowly starting to wake up. We walked further north to the Changdeokgung Palace and waited in a quickly growing line to buy tickets to go in. Todd said "is it worth buying tickets?" I wasn't sure but we went for it anyway and man, I am so glad we did! This place was HUGE and so incredibly beautiful!!!! It kept going and going and was so intricately detailed!

We started to get hungry and I have been dying to go to a market, so off we headed for our first try at the metro and Namdaemun Market.

When we finally made it to Namdaemun, Todd immediately spotted a hotteok, a korean pancake with a filling of your choice. Todd's choice was brown sugar.

Then we walked the market, stopping to try different foods and the most delicious peach tea! We also purchased some children's chopsticks for the girls, a tea cup for Lyla for our precious tea times, and the most adorable matching hanboks (traditional Korean dresses) for the girls! I about died from the cuteness!

We set off for our long trek back to the hotel and when we returned to Insadong, our neighborhood that was completely dead at 6am that morning, we were so surprised to find a super alive and very cool neighborhood filled with vendors and shops. We walked in a few, grabbed some fans for the girls and continued on our way to the hotel. 

When we checked in at Orakai Insadong Suites, they let us know that they upgraded us and we were totally surprised when we walked in our room! It is huge! And has a stunning view of the mountains!! It is a large apartment style room and will be perfect when we have both Madilynn and Lyla here next month!

Then against all off my better judgement, we took a short nap, which just made me super tired the rest of the night. But we could not walk any longer and as soon as we sat down, we fell asleep. We woke up and went to dinner locally at a tiny hole in the wall where we got delicious dumplings of all sorts and Todd got a spicy dumpling soup. It was so much food and there was no way we could finish it all.

Then we headed back to the room and fell asleep immediately, which would explain why Todd and I were wide awake at 3:45 am. So now, Todd headed down to swim and I am trying to remember every detail of our first day in the same city with our baby Lyla. Now, let's go meet our girl!!!