Annyong Haseyo!!!
We're home!! We had our 4th meeting with Tae Hee an hour before we left for the airport. Due to this meeting going not as well as they had hoped, Tae Hee's social worker wanted us to contact her directly with Tae Hee's update after she landed here in the States. I don't see how her bonding to us and Ryan and Katie's bonding to us being any different due to us going to Korea after doing both escorting and flying over there to pick up our child. It really has to do with personality and age.
Tae Hee screamed after she left her foster mom and everything she knew to be familiar in Korea. She screamed for half of the ride to the airport and finally sacked out in my arms. Jeff took pictures of the trip to the airport. I cried in the van heading there. I didn't want to leave Korea. I wanted to ask my children's foster mothers more information, I wanted to do so much more stuff there as far as sightseeing goes, I wanted to rock and feed the babies in the nursery and so much more.
When we got to Incheon Airport, Tae Hee woke up and screamed several more hours. She scanned all of the Asians there that were close by looking for her foster mom. When she didn't find her, she screamed more to have her come running...of course she never came. It was so sad!!
We knew she was overdue for a feeding and tried to feed her without any luck. One Asian American waiting for the same flight as us offered to help. Tae Hee took a little formula from her but not much. She was still kicking and screaming for her foster mommy to come and scoop her up and feed her and dry those tears. A Korean mother even tried to help us feed her to no avail.
In flight, she refused to take any formula for some of the flight. We were approached by a flight attendant that a Korean mother in the back of the plane was willing to help us out. We had to use her to get Tae Hee to drink her formula since she absolutely refused it from us!!! I hated to do it but had to get her to take her formula since she should have had a 2nd bottle by the time she had finished her 1st one with us. It was absolutely heartwrenching to see her go through all of this. I cried in flight for a part of this flight.
The flight itself from Seoul to Atlanta, Georgia was horrible. The flight attendants were fine but the turbulence was so bad my anti-anxiety med did very little in flight. I needed something much stronger than what I had. We had our seat belt sign on most of the flight. When it was off, the turbulence was there but not as bad. People rushed to get to the bathrooms. Changing Tae Hee in flight wasn't fun either since she was screaming so much. The only time she wasn't upset was when she slept...about 2 hours out of the entire flight. Jeff slept about 3 hours on that flight...I couldn't sleep at all. At one point with the turbulence, we had dropped what Jeff says was probably about 5 feet. I screamed out along with a few other people on the plane. I sat there in my seat shaking uncontrollably for half of the flight in shock.
Any time the flight attendants came around with water, I took some since God only knew the next time they were able to come around. I couldn't eat anything besides crackers or rolls in flight due to the turbulence. I couldn't watch anything on the TV screen in front of me for the same reason. Our landing was horrible. We fishtailed on the landing. While Jeff held Tae Hee, I wondered if we would make it to Atlanta Airport alive after this horrific flight.
We almost didn't make the next flight due to immigration at Atlanta. What a fiasco!!! We waited for over an hour for them to call us up to the desk and say..."I'm sorry you've waited so long, you can now go". We have no idea what was done, who worked on it, or anything. All we knew is that we could go. Our flight was leaving in less than an hour and we still had to go back through security in order to board our flight. We were also sent to the wrong terminal and gate so we had to rush to the correct one all the time Tae Hee who was in the baby carrier, screamed any time we went on an escalator. She hates them!!
We made it to the correct gate where we found that one of our bags didn't fit in the overhead bin so we had to check it in to checked luggage planeside. After boarding we were told that the weather in Albany was bad and there was a chance that we wouldn't fly there that night. They were fogged in. 10 minutes into a 5 minute wait we were cleared for take off but we had to wait since we were 5th in the queue. Our take off was flawless. I had taken another half of anti-anxiety med about a half hour before take off and it was making me sleeping now. Jeff held Tae Hee during the flight from Atlanta to Albany. While she slept I reminensced with Jeff about our trip and cried and smiled and cried some more.
Tae Hee woke up in Albany after a flawless landing screaming some more. Jeff handed her to me and we put her into the baby carrier. He carried the luggage. We had our family and friends (his parents, his brother, and our nephew, along with my parents with Ryan and friends of mine who adopted from Korea years ago with one of their daughters holding Katie) along with a whole bunch of other people there at the airport watching us leave the secured end of the terminal. We were home. I survived all 4 flights and we were home. Tae Hee did alot of crying. I must of looked horrible to everyone since I had formula, tears, snot and God only knows what else on my shirt. My hair was a mess but we were home. My kids were a little tired but were happy to see us.
Ryan, Tae Hee, Jeff and I were up until 2 am when Ryan finally went to bed. Tae Hee was up until 4 am Wednesday morning before she finally fell asleep with us on the floor of the girls' room. She was crying for Omma. She fought sleep. She wanted no part of it since all she wanted to do was cry. After she fell asleep, Jeff and I fell asleep and we all woke up at 12:30 pm.
She hates going to bed. She screams for Omma when it's bedtime. It's very hard watching her go through this. She is physically attached to me all day. It's so bad that I can't even go to the bathroom without having her in the room with me and she is still screaming. While I like the physical attachment, I don't think that she is bonded to me at all. I think it's just because she recognizes me from Korea, from her past. I tried wearing her on my back in the baby carrier like her foster mom did to soothe her and she screams even more.
We delayed going to the pediatrician's office from today (Friday) to Monday. I'm hoping that her need to have a deathgrip on me and my clothing 24/7 will subside somewhat so that she can learn to trust others as well. She screams when I have to give her to Jeff.
I am getting some small bit of respite right now since she is asleep in her crib at the moment...major miracle here but I know that this won't last since she will wake up screaming around 1 or 2 and be up until at least 5 screaming and playing. Meanwhile, I'm doing laundry (5 loads yesterday and another 3 today) and typing this in as fast as I possibly can to update you all.
Ryan and Katie are doing well with her with the occasional "I want Tae Hee to go home now" coming from Ryan. We know that he doesn't mean it but he is still saying it. Both kids are being helpful getting toys, bottles, and diapers for Tae Hee.
We are eternally grateful to my parents for putting on the Thanksgiving Day feast since my mom cooked the turkey and all its trimmings for us at our house. So a big Kamsahamnida to them.
Gotta go since Tae Hee is stirring!!
Jen live from her home back from the trip to Seoul, South Korea
