Day 3! Making progress!

Since we kept Grayson up and out and about all day yesterday with no nap, he slept in this morning until 7:45! Which meant, we slept in almost as late (since we are all in the same room) and then quickly became late for our meeting this morning. We were to meet our social worker at the office and she was going to take us to see the babies who live at the Reception Center (when they are not placed in foster homes for whatever reason). Well after we forgot the kie, kie (Grayson's blanket) in the room, walked 5 minutes down the road to remember we only had one subway pass, had to wait on a train, had to get off the train when it stopped working only to get right back on a different one, and get lost once we got to the right stop, we were a few minutes late! By the time we finally got to the office, the social worker was in a meeting with a family and busy for the rest of the day. She was not too happy with us, but was nice enough to give us a map and point us in the direction of where we needed to be. We found it and were able to spend some time with the babies and workers who do a great job of caring for these kiddos.



We showed up right at snack time and Grayson just jumped right in with the other boys! Now, does that surprise anyone?!






We took the babies some donations of clothes and diaper cream and took the workers a gift as well. They were very nice to let us come in and play for a bit.

We also wanted to visit Holt Ilsan while we are here, so the ladies at the office told us to call the lady who runs it and make an appointment to visit. We ran back to the hotel after visiting the babies and called. She said to come on this afternoon, so we quickly ate lunch and headed that way, about an hour away. Because we were on the subway so long, we took along some entertainment.



We spent the afternoon at Holt Ilsan. This is a large campus for orphans who are deemed unadoptable for a variety of reasons. Most have significant special needs and require a great amount of medical care. Currently there are 270 residents on campus. The lady in charge is Molly Holt. She is the daughter of Harry and Bertha Holt, the first couple to adopt babies from Korea. In the early 1950s they had a heart for the orphan and decided to adopt 8 children left orphaned by the war. Their legacy continues today as they have paved the way for Korean adoptions and the amazing care of those who are outcasts of society in Korea. Our adoption agency, Holt, International, is a nationally recognized agency, thanks to this amazing couple.






When we arrived we went to Molly's house to meet her and chat a bit. She is an amazing woman who has completely devoted her life to caring for the orphans of Korea. She has such a passion and a great deal of knowledge. She also wanted to pick my brain on working with kids who have special needs. She and the doctor had one little girl who they wanted some ideas for feeding on and nearly woke her up so that i could look at her.












This little girl has been on the waiting child photo listing for a long time and desperately needs a family. She is such a cutie and quickly made friends with Grayson.





After we met with Molly, we were given a tour. The campus is amazing. Molly said they have truly been blessed by God in the way of provisions for the things they need on campus. It is by no means, state of the art, but they make do with what they have and fill in the rest with lots of love and special attention for the residents. Everyone was so friendly and loved that Grayson came to visit them.





We also got to see Harry and Bertha Holt's graves as they are buried on campus. Wow! What a road they Have paved and a legacy they leave behind. Who knows if we would even be where we are today, just hours from meeting our son for the first time, if it were not for this amazing couple who had a burden for the Korean orphans.





We had a wonderful day today. Tomorrow will be great too! We have the opportunity to meet Neylan for the first time. I asked (begged) to squeeze in an extra visit with him to celebrate his birthday with his foster family since we will be leaving korea just a week before his big day. The social worker was able to arrange that for us tomorrow! Tomorrow is also Grayson's second birthday. It will be a very special day for all of us.

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