Meeting Baby Finn February 5, 2011

Saturday was the day. We have been in Seoul almost a week and are finally getting to meet baby Finn. I was so worried about being able to find KSS. It takes about an hour to get there, and it’s in the far northern part of Seoul in Dobong-Gu. We couldn’t take one mode of transportation there. Well, at least we weren’t sure we could. We might be able to take the bus, but we decided to take the subway and then a taxi. We took two different subway trains and got off at the Ssangmun station. We had a map to KSS, written in Korean, to show the taxi driver. We came up out of the subway and there was a cab sitting right there. I showed him the map to ask if he could take us there. He looked at it for a minute and shook his head no. Right about then, a man came up who spoke perfect English. He looked at our map and said it wasn’t too far away and would we like to take a taxi or the bus. We said a taxi and he agreed that would be easiest. So when the next taxi came up, he explained to the driver where we needed to go and the driver said he could take us there. Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers! Truly, everyone here has been so very kind to us.

This was our first taxi ride in Seoul. We have heard horror stories about the taxi rides! But this one was just fine – no issues at all. It took maybe 10 to 15 minutes to get to KSS. He had a slightly difficult time finding it because it’s off the road and up a hill a bit. But he got us there without much trouble. The taxi ride cost us a whopping 4500 W. With a family of 4, just getting INTO a taxi in the US would cost more than that! So, we were finally at KSS. It’s tucked back on the hill. The main area is a small brick building. There are other buildings around it on the complex, but I don’t know what they are. The grounds are quite lovely, and I suspect would be beautiful in the spring and summer.

We had gotten there so early – about 45 minutes early. The kids were standing in front of the porch for me to take pictures when the lady we were to meet got there. I believe her name was Sun Hee, but I was so nervous (and a bit embarrassed for showing up so early) that I didn’t quite catch her name. She was very gracious though and took us in and offered us coffee and juice. We sat in a little meeting room with our drinks for a little while. When she came back, I gave her our donations for KSS. Then it was time to head upstairs to meet baby Finn!

She put us in a little room with the famous KSS rug. The floors are heated and it was HOT in there. She was gone for a while, seemed like 10 or 15 minutes and then came back with Finn. He was sound asleep when she brought him in (it was right about nap time!) and she set him on the floor. He woke up, but was in a daze. He sat close to her and just looked at us for a bit. I wanted to just snatch him up in my lap but I resisted the urge. Didn’t want to scare the poor guy! We sat like that, just staring at each other (and playing with his little feet) for a few minutes. Then I got out some of the toys we brought for him. By far, the favorite toy was the little Pororo phone that I picked up at Lotte Mart. I also had some musical books, a set of keys and some teethers.

He started warming up to us after a little while, but I still didn’t pick him up. I waited until Sun Hee left the room for a while. I picked him up and he was fine. There wasn’t one tear the entire time we visited with him, which was over 2 hours. The kids were doing every thing they could to get a smile out of him and he was quite smitten with them. We only got a few smiles at first though. I’m not really sure if it was due to the sleepiness or apprehension. He also really seemed to like Daddy. Adam left the room a couple of times to use the bathroom and Finn would look around for him while he was gone. He also really liked a water bottle that Adam had and spent a lot of time just chewing on it. At one point, he sat between my legs chewing on his bottle and resting his head on my leg. It was so cute. I think he sat there for 4 or 5 minutes.

We must have sat in this little room and played with him for an hour and a half. By the end of that time, he was really interacting with us and having fun with his big brother and sister. Sun Hee came and left a few times during this time. She came back again and asked us if we’d like to see the nursery. Of course! So she took us into an equally tiny room where the little babies were. There were 7 little babies in that room, but I couldn’t tell if they were boys or girls! If I had to guess, I would say they were all boys, but a couple of the tiniest ones could have been either. There was one boy who was just starting to crawl and was standing in his crib. He was very cute, and had very light colored hair. There was another boy (at least I think!) that had the most hair I’ve ever seen. I wonder if that was the other baby Finn’s foster mom took care of because at one point, Finn crawled over to him and head butted him in the stomach. Not hard, but it was kind of funny. He crawled over to him on more than one occasion, so I suspect he knew him well.

We sat in this little room for the rest of the time with Sun Hee, a nurse, and a volunteer. They were playing with the babies that were awake (3 or 4 of them slept the entire time we were there) and teaching them how to roll over and exercising their legs and such. I got to give Finn a bottle at this point and I got some really good eye contact. He was getting very comfortable with us. But I think he was getting tired. He climbed right up into a little swing chair but they said he was too big for it. Poor guy, he REALLY wanted that little chair! I tried to put him in his crib a couple of times, but he kept trying to climb out and get in the chair. Finally Sun Hee said it was time to go. I handed Finn to the nurse and we started to leave. They told Finn to wave goodbye and he smiled and waved madly the whole time we were leaving. It was about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! We get to go back and visit him on Monday at 2:00 PM (so about midnight Sunday for those of you back home!).

We grabbed a taxi and headed back to the subway. Turns out, the Suyu station is slightly closer to KSS than Ssangmun station.

Advertisement