Ian's Gotcha Day

Ian age 2

Ben age 6

Just 2 years ago today, we received an amazing gift, our son Ian. He is a true blessing on our lives. He is such an amazing little boy who loves to say prayers, sing the alphabet (he gets some of the letters), count, and make everyone laugh. The time has gone by so quickly!

We also celebrate today as the day we received the travel call for Ben 6 years ago. We were shocked by the call since we had been told just weeks earlier that we would have to wait until February since the quota for visas had likely been met and with the holidays, they would wait until the new year to process anymore paperwork. With many prayers from us and our friends and family, we were delighted by the call. We were on a plane to LA less than 24 hours after receiving his call. We arrived in LA around 11am and spent the day at a hotel resting until the midnight flight to Korea on Asiana airlines. We looked very strange checking in with an empty stroller and car seat. The person who checked us in was confused that Mr. DooJin Park was not with us, but meeting us in Korea. After explaining the situation, he wanted to refund us part of the ticket. Since we were blessed to get standby tickets (non revenue/space available seats, for those airline lingo people), we were happy to let them keep the difference. We had several people who had helped us along the way to get tickets on Asiana. One of the VP's of Asiana was contacted and let us have the tickets for free if we paid the $90 in taxes. We were shocked and humbled by this gesture. We anxiously waited for our flight and anxiously sat for 14 hours on the flight to Korea.

Although 6 years has passed since our travel to Korea for Ben and 2 years has passed since our travel for Ian, the memory is so clear in my mind. I will not forget the tears of joy I have shed after receiving the travel call for each of our 3 children from our social worker. I feel truly blessed.