ESWS, Pizza Hut, and Kyobo Bookstore

Monday, April 18, 2011...


While we were in Korea, we skyped back and forth with the kids almost every day. Some days were successful, others were not. On the good days, we could hear and see everyone clearly and they could hear and see us clearly.

On the bad days, we would be able to hear everyone...but not have a picture. Those days were frustrating as I longed to just see my kiddos back home. Not only that, but I knew that having them see us would be something really good for them too. Overall, it worked out well...just being able to hear their voices tell me about their day, tell me they missed me and hear them say I love you did wonders for this mama's heart.

It's not easy being on the other side of the world from your children. Even when you are there for important reasons...like bringing home their baby sister.

Here I am blogging. You can see the three necessities for being in Korea. The little camera on top of the laptop for the skyping, the Seoul City Guidebook, and my T-Money card for the subway.

After we had our little family chat time, we got ready to run an errand. A pretty important errand at that. (It's crazy to think I had an "errand" to run while there...)

We hopped on the subway and made our way to north of the river to Eastern Social Welfare Society. This is the agency we adopted Ben through and I had brought along a few letters for his file as well as two picture books I had made. One set for his Korea mother and the other for his fostermother.

It still amazes me that we stayed here at the ESWS guesthouse over 5 years ago now. When I walk in the building, the smells, the sights...it all brings me back to that amazing day I met my son. How we came over as a family of 3 and left as a family of 4.

We dropped our precious items off and then walked up to the 6th floor where we had stayed, checked in the kitchen where we ate so many meals, and looked at all the pictures on the wall. The elder Dr. Kim, who started ESWS, has since passed away...but the legacy he left behind is remarkable. I thanked God for my miracle I received that trip and the wonderful memories I have of ESWS.

We walked back to the subway stop and decided to stop at Pizza Hut for some lunch. It's amazing how so many things about Seoul are etched in my brain. I've only been there 3 times over a period of 5+ years, and I can remember where things are like I was just there yesterday.

We stopped to get our favorite Pizza Hut pizza ever.

Bulgogi Pizza with a sweet potato stuffed crust. Yum. Why they don't sell this in the states is beyond me....it's so delicious.

Oh. My. Stars.

Seeing this picture makes me want to eat one of these so badly. Seriously, it's rockstar food. So good.

Once our bellies were full (and boy were they...I couldn't stop eating the stuff), we headed over to Kyobo Bookstore.

I wish I had more pictures of this very cool bookstore. It's actually located in the basement, underground, right outside one of the subway stops. It's absolutely giagantic and oh-so-fun to peruse.

We spent quite a bit of time between the children's section and the language section. We ended up with some very cool purchases. A Pororo laptop for the kids (he's a little cartoon penguin...very popular in Korea), some great hangul posters, and some fun hangul workbooks so the kids can start to learn the language.

This picture they had up was just too cute. It says something about "a cozy family".

While we were taking the subway, we came across this wall...

We had to stop and take a look. There were thousands of pictures make by little children.

I wish I would have taken a picture of the hangul so I could have figured out what it was all about. But even without knowing the reason, it was still very moving to see .