Family of 4!

Good morning!  Things went pretty darn well last night.  Violet woke once clearly confused on where she was but her tears were very brief and seemed to be comforted to see Paul and me.

Back to yesterday...

We have a VERY active little gal.  She made me climb all 6 flights of stairs at the agency and also convinced Paul to basically do the same.  But it was comforting to have her grab our hands and say "let's go" even with foster mom and dad sitting there.  After some playing and her feeding snacks to everyone (she put food in my mouth, Paul's, social workers, foster mom and foster dad) we had a prayer with Dr Kim.  The prayer is in in Korean, but I know they pray for us as well as their country.  It is a very serious and emotional prayer....that our child basically decided to tap dance to.  Her little feet couldn't sit still.  :) Everyone was smiling at her, we just couldn't help it.

After saying goodbye (foster dad had a very hard time, I think those two were buddies) we were driven to the embassy.  Where again our active child and one other chose to run around the lobby nonstop.  Chasing each other for over an hour.  They were sweating by the time Violet's name was called.  But no concerns at the visa appointment.  The previous concern was over our fingerprints and whether new ones were needed, but nope.  Our agent said it was just a misunderstanding.  Whew!  Our Eastern representative took a deep breath and smiled after we were told Violet's visa would be issued that day. Crisis averted.

Back at the hotel, Violet's activity level stayed up until bedtime.  Running around, bubbles, playing with balls and even spending well over an hour in the hotel playroom.  She must have went up and down those slides 50 times.  Even asking "Umma" and "Appa" to join her on the slide a good number of times.  So incredibly active!

Spaghetti dinner (after she had already put down a banana, strawberries, chips, etc) and a quick bath and she was asleep by 6:30. And by the way, she LOVES  baths. She tried to take her shirt off as soon as she saw the tub.  I didn't even have water in and she was trying to climb in.  :)  Violet was just humming (something she does a lot...just hums and sings little songs) and pretending to scrub her hands and legs clean.  So cute.

A few other fun games include Paul and I pretending to be asleep (chaa...or something like that) and then Violet wakes us up by saying Umma or Appa.  She also really enjoys sneaking up on Paul.  She jumps out with her arms and fingers outstretched and Paul acts surprised every time.

And the big surprise...potty trained!  Foster mom said they were working on it, but twice took my hand and led me to the toilet when she needed to go.  Paul tried to help once, but she pushed him away and reached for me.  Girls only, daddy.

So now we are waiting for her to wake up.  No nap yesterday, so sleeping for 12 hours is expected.  We will nap her today as we are meeting Jae's foster family for a late dinner tonight.  Other plans are packing (which will be tough since foster mom gave us just about everything we sent Violet in care packages back to us) and hopefully getting Violet's hair cut.  It is so long! I don't think it has ever been cut and I think it gets in her way.  Especially at night.  I slept with Vi starting around 10 pm and I think she ends up laying on her hair and then it pulls when she moves.  Paul thinks he found a salon nearby that speaks English so we might give it a try.  Nothing fancy, but a good 6 or 7 inches off...yep it is that long!!

Love,
Jae and Violet's Mom