Pat meets Gerad Yihyun

I will copy and paste Pat's email to me describing his day. Plus, as a bonus, I've added some pics. Weirdly, Yihyun's hair is similar to Van's was at that age lol.

Anyway, in Pat's words:

I was awake about 3:30 am and couldn't get back to sleep, partly jet lag and partly a little nerves about the meeting this morning. So I broke out the iPad for a bit, posted some pics, and read some more of Jian Ghomeshi's book. I could hear the rain starting at about 6am and knew we were in for a wet day, which reminded me I didn't pack an umbrella. At around 7:30 I decided if I was going to make it through the day I better get out and get a coffee. After yesterday's sticker shocker at Starbucks I wasn't about to pay $5 for a regular old coffee, so I went slumming and headed for a Dunkin Donuts. I soon realized I was the only out on the streets not in a business suit and carrying an umbrella. Got a few looks. Fortunately I stumbled on a McDonalds and had a full breakfast and coffee for $3. But I have to say that is the extent of my need for "western" food here. As expected the local culinary choices are great, lots of spice and flavours.

I headed for the SWS office for 9am after a slight panic moment of realizing it wasn't in the same building as the Guest House, luckily it was only a half a block away

Once in the SWS office I was put in a room with two families from Chicago who were also adopting to watch a short video on the SWS. It turns out one of the ladies was herself a former adoptee from the SWS about 30 years ago and was now here to adopt a little boy. Full circle.

After the video I headed out with our case worker to go to the foster mom's home which was about an hours drive. The drive was uninteresting, just a lot of divided highway mostly under construction. There are some mega construction projects on the go around here. They love their massive highways, bridges, and tunnels.

We arrived at her apartment which was right next to a auto repair garage, fitting as he now as a common experience to the rest of the Lewis clan. Up a couple flight of stairs to her apartment. When she opened the door he was right there and seemed excited to have visitors. He was a little shy but yet still very curious, he would come and check me out and then quickly run giggling back to his foster mom. He was very mobile running around playing with a soccer ball, and even showing a few dance moves Gangnam Style. I didn't force things I just let him do his thing and interacted when I could, eventually he relaxed and actually sat on my lap for a while. He has a number of words, and understands quite a bit. We were there for about an hour, she packed up a bag of his favourite toys and sleeping pillow for me to take back and we set off for the journey back to the city. It was great experience, he was so relaxed and pleasant. The foster mom will be bringing him to the SWS office on Wednesday morning for me to spend some more time with them, then leave him in my care. So I will have him for 2 days before we get on the plane. He is obviously very attached to her so expect it be be pretty rough for everybody that morning.

Well that is about it for now.

Pictures (I know I'm biased but damn that kid is cute!)