Gifts

Gift giving is very much a part of the Korean culture, so in preparation for my trip I've got to consider my friend's family who we will be staying with, a few people at Eastern (the President and my case worker, Ms Park), a few translators who will help my friend and I communicate with her non-English speaking family, and some just extras.  All in all...about 10 women and 10 men.

I've got 3 weeks until my trip (Oh my gosh!), work travel in between, and I don't like waiting until the last minute...so my new fellow adoptee friend, Kari, was nice enough to join me at the Mall of America for some gift shopping last weekend.  In my head I thought this cannot be that difficult.  WRONG!  It's very hard to shop within a manageable budget for people whom you have not met.  Perhaps if I wasn't a borderline perfectionist freak it wouldn't have been so hard...but we spent 4 hours shopping and I got the women done and a 4 year old boy. I still have 9 men to go.  My original idea was to get different things for everyone, but that quickly became very daunting so I settled with similar gifts for all the women.  As for the men...ARGH.  And this is all coming from a woman who generally likes to shop.  So, the search continues for my men gifts.  Stay tuned on that front.

Other than that... my emotions are suddenly catching up to me.

I brought my parents up to speed last weekend on all that I've learned over the past month.  They were very supportive about everything.  It could have been the fact that I started crying (seriously?!), but my dad said it best... It is very natural for anyone to want to find out more about their roots.  They are amazing people and I am so blessed that we found each other.  Many things had to happen for us to become a family and I am very lucky that they all transpired and we were chosen for each other.

I met my travel-mate (and friend), Noel, yesterday for lunch.  It was good to catch up and to talk about her experiences in Korea (she's been over multiple times since her birth family found her).  I'm a relatively emotional person, but I'm not really a crier.  I find it embarrassing to cry...even in front of my family.  Now, if I hit any emotion to an extreme...my first reaction is to cry, but I still hate it.  Yet, Noel said something at lunch and I really had to work hard to not start to cry.  What is happening to me?!  ARGH...I think I'd better pack lots of Kleenex.

Not much else to report.  I got my meeting at Eastern moved up to Tuesday (rather than Thursday) to give me a few extra days to process any new information I may learn while over there.  Since my appointment is at 10am, we will probably plan a touristy day in Seoul that day.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the sites.  

The next 3 weeks will fly by...I'll be in CO for 4 days next week and in IL for 3 the following week.  Lots to do still before I leave.  If anyone has seen what I pack for a 3 day work trip...it's going to be interesting how packing for this week abroad will be like.  Good lawd.  But, I've been warned to pack light.  And I don't have my work or real husband around to carry my luggage, so I should probably heed that advice since I'll be lugging it myself.  Oh boy!  ;)

Love and Joy,
J