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We said goodbye to Mrs. Shin at the Reception Center and walked back to the Holt main office for the most emotional leg of our journey to Korea: the final meeting with Mrs. Choi and Mr. Kim in which we took custody of Ryan. This is the second such meeting that we've experienced--the first was three years ago when we took custody of Joe from Mrs. Lee--and it was just as joyful and sad as the first. It was joyful because this beautiful little boy was finally becoming a member of our family forever! But it was also full of grief because his foster parents, who loved him every minute of his life for the past five months, had to say goodbye. Everybody was crying, especially Mrs. Choi, posing here with Ryan and Dr. Kim [Image 146], the pediatrician who certified him healthy enough for the long trip back to the U.S. [Image 147]. We could feel Mrs. Choi's pain, and we could tell that although she had been foster mothering for many years, "gotcha day" hadn't become any easier for her. Still, we also sensed that she was happy Ryan was joining his forever family and that he would grow up with a mother, father, big brother, and godmother who loved him very much [Image 148]. In their shared emotion, Carla especially felt a deep bond of shared motherhood with Mrs. Choi that day [Image 149]. Mr. Kim, on the other hand, was quiet and almost stoic as he said goodbye to Ryan [Image 150]. Like they had before, they refused to let us take a cab back to our hotel but instead gave us a ride in their van, which gave Mrs. Choi a chance to hold Ryan one last time [Image 151]. As we entered the hotel, we turned to wave goodbye, and their van slowly pulled away and melted into the flowing traffic. We were emotionally drained after that, and spent the rest of the day hanging out in our hotel room and packing for the trip the next morning. Ryan was not happy about the unfamiliar surroundings and the strange people trying to comfort him, so he cried quite a bit that evening. Finally Joe and Ryan fell asleep next to each other on the bed [Image 152].
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