|
First thing Friday morning, we headed back to the Holt agency to meet again with Ryan and Mrs. Choi. We were also scheduled to meet with Joe's foster mom, Mrs. Lee, whom we hadn't seen since we traveled to Korea to get Joe nearly three years earlier. We asked Holt to arrange a meeting with her because we knew how much she loved him and would enjoy seeing him again. As we entered Holt's door, Mrs. Lee was standing there waiting for us. She immediately recognized Joe and jumped up and down, clapping her hands and laughing with joy, then ran over and grabbed him in a big bear hug. She hoisted him on her back to carry him as she did when he was a baby [Image 50] and soon realized that he was no longer a baby but a rather large and heavy pre-schooler! Of course, he didn't remember her, but we had told him that she loved him very much and asked him to indulge her. He did beautifully, completely bypassing the initial shyness that he normally exhibits with strangers. Our meeting with Mrs. Lee was a truly joyful experience; we exchanged gifts [Image 51, Image 61], talked about Joe (with Ms. Yang and Mrs. Lee's bio daughter translating), and Mrs. Lee got her fill of cuddling him (along with her current foster child, a cute little girl) [Image 52, Image 53].
Ryan and Mrs. Choi were there too, and our double meeting turned into a little party in Holt's well-baby clinic. During the festivities we slipped into the doctor's office next door to see Ryan's checkup [Image 54, Image 55, Image 56], where it was confirmed that he was healthy and completely on-track developmentally. How exciting! This time Joe really began to warm up to Ryan too, and hugged him repeatedly [Image 58, Image 59]. It was soon time to go but before she left, Mrs. Lee made it clear that she wanted to see us again. We agreed that she would have her daughter call our hotel room on Sunday morning and we'd set up a meeting. In the meantime, Mr. Kim had come in and convinced Ms. Yang, who was very busy but the only bilingual person in the room besides Mrs. Lee's daughter, to accompany us with them back to their apartment for lunch! Mrs. Choi strapped Ryan on her back [Image 62, Image 63] and we went to wait outside Holt while Mr. Kim pulled the van around.
|
