On Thursday, Dec 3rd, we were excited to get the "call" from our friends, Joel and Shauna Oswald that they had been authorized to travel to Seoul, South Korea to pick up their son. Needless to say we were all excited. Joel and Shauna have been on the adoption journey for this, their second child, for a long time.
We have prayed and rejoiced with them through the process and were happy to volunteer to help when the opportunity arose. Neither Joel or Shauna have ever been to Korea and would be traveling alone this time (their China trip to get
Kylee was done with many other families at the same time) and also, they wanted to take
Kylee with them on the trip but would need someone to assist with
Kylee on several days because she would not go along to the visits/meetings or to pick up Keller. Since David has many times traveled to Seoul for business, he is comfortable in the city and with the transportation. And since
Sybella and
Kylee are best friends, we were happy to volunteer to join them on the journey.
On Thursday when the call came, Shauna and I got out our computers and started looking for some flights that wouldn't be outrageous and would get us to Korea in a timely manner; of course they wanted to get their son as soon as possible. Sunday (72 hours later) was the best option---we booked the flights and started the whirlwind process to get last minute preparations done for both the trip and stuff that needed to get done at home.
David and I had decided that we would take Sybella and Cooper but leave Colin and Connor at home to attend school and stay with Granda (my mom).
On Sunday, we went to the airport excited and sure that we were in for an adventure- small children and 14 hours on a plane is certainly never boring. We had a snaffu in the airport, long story short, we left our diaper bag (embroidered with Cooper's name) at the counter and instead of paging us to come back and get it, Delta, who we purchased the tickets thru, called the airport police and turned it in as an unattended bag. Really?! Needless to say, by the time we figured out we didn't have it, we had already come thru security and were almost ready to board the plane. No diapers for 14 hours???!!! Korean Airlines is amazing. They went above and beyond all our expectations. They went & retrieved our bag from the police promising to send it to us the next day and gave us diapers for the trip. Then when the flight was delayed by 30 minutes, they re-opened the plane door to go ahead and give us our diaper bag. Amazing!
The flight attendants were wonderful and the whole flight was kid-friendly. So, despite our anxieties, the flight was awesome!
The Oswalds on the plane as a Family of 3
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After arriving in Korea on Monday night, our first trip out of the hotel on Tuesday was met with a little surprise, SNOW. Not much, just a dusting, but still it invigorated all of us and made it feel like Christmas. The weather was mild and pleasant compared to the forecasts (we overpacked when we brought the long underwear). We had a chance to wander around in the area outside the hotel and the Joel and Shauna also got to meet their son, Keller, for the first time-- Amazing! 
