the day we met our *beautiful boy*.

a year ago today, we met our beauitful boy for the very first time...

after we flew into seoul and landed, we went to my aunt's house for dinner and took a quick driving tour around the city. at this point, we were deliriously tired and could barely keep our eyes open. so my aunt (my dad's older sister) dropped us off at my uncle's (my dad's older brother) house.

we fell into bed and thankfully, despite all the jitters and anticipation about finally (!!!) meeting our son, we managed to get a solid night of sleep.

the next morning, we woke up and could barely contain our excited energy. by then it was actually two days after we had initially left -- those time zones and time changes are SO trippy. it's one of those things that if i think about too much, it makes my brain hurt and feel like it's about to explode...but, i digress.

after putzing around wasting time enjoying one of our last few mornings sans children, we made our way to our agency.


we waited for our social worker in the lobby and before she could come find us, in walked a familiar face, uhboobah style!

it was completely surreal to finally see this little guy in person after months and months of staring at and memorizing every picture we had of him.

choi boy and his foster mom were scooted away to take care of some things before our official meeting and we were escorted into a room to fill out some paperwork. as we crossed our t's and dotted our i's, we took a moment to soak it all in. it was amazing to know that so many of our friends had been in the very same building picking up their little ones before us...

i loved this sweet reminder of that!

finally, finally, FINALLY, it was time to have our meeting with cb and his foster mom. the playroom was unavailable, so we settled ourselves into a conference room and got to know our boy.

who happened to be so very snazzily dressed in his little track suit and "scarf of flames" as my friend, sylvie, so aptly named his bandana. :)

cb didn't mind one bit that there weren't very many toys to play with. instead, he was super excited about the yogurt his foster mom gave us to feed him.




like, super excited.

and the puffs we brought with us were quite a hit, too!

looking back, this was our first indicator that food was a way to our boy's heart. :) something we would continue to see, and still do see, a year later!

we chatted with our social worker and choi boy's foster mom here and there, but mostly, we just hung out with our little man and enjoyed getting to know him and his sweet personality. it was incredible to finally be able to interact with choi boy and see him and hear him and hug him and hold him and even...smell him. (y'all get me on that, right?) cb was as charming as ever, and had no fears about engaging with us and letting us play with him. i'm sure the food had a lot to do with that, but still. ;)



he even showed us many of his now famous faces...




and it's amazing that i can look back on these pictures now, a year later, and *know* what those faces are. what they mean. and it's even more amazing that i get to see those same silly and sweet faces daily and that they are often for me...even the stink eye. :)

not surprisingly, our meeting with cb flew by and soon it was time to say our see-ya-laters...surprisingly, as i first remarked last year, there were no tears from any of us (even me!). i think we were just so over-the-moon thrilled and filled with joy that we couldn't wipe those silly grins off our faces.

and to know that in just 2 short days, we would look like this permanently sealed those grins even more.

:)

happy meet-iversary, cb!