A Few Pics of The Kiddos.....

Happy Father's Day and Update

Here's to the #1 dad -- Matt! He is a wonderful father -- he makes time together so fun and he is so dedicated to his children. Here he is with his favorite little man.....

Things have been going quite well at the Lierman household. The first week was a little rough because EJ was really sick with a bad ear infection and cold. He's finally feeling better and his personality is starting to come out. We are so in love! He's been such a sweet baby so far. He has a great smile and is a very active little guy. The toughest diaper I've ever changed because he squirms so much. The foster parents warned us.....and boy were they right! We're having fun getting to know him. He's on a pretty good sleep schedule now. Thea is adjusting SLOWLY. It hasn't been a cake walk for her. It seems to be getting a tad bit better. We know this is temporary and we're trying to keep her busy. She'll start bug camp and dance classes soon. And we can't believe she'll be 3 in a few weeks!

Introducing Elliott James "EJ" Lierman

Here's our beautiful little son. He's a super sweet baby. He slept almost the whole flight back from Seoul and again between Detroit and Omaha. We are so blessed. I will post more about our trip and meeting EJ and his foster family when I have time. It's currently 2:37 a.m. Omaha time and me and little peanut are up after a nap. Hoping we can go back to sleep soon! We're so glad to be home! Thanks for everyone's well wishes. We can't wait to introduce EJ to you all in person!

He's Ours!

Forgive me for not writing much but I at least wanted to tell everyone that our wonderful son is now in our arms. He is so handsome. He is grieving very hard and is a sensitive little guy to boot. His foster parents met with us for quite a while this morning at Holt. They are lovely people and we are so glad we were able to meet with them.

We leave for the USA tomorrow and are looking forward to getting home so much!!!! Everyone here has been great but we long for our family, friends, own food and own bed.

Wish us safe travels! Thank goodness he takes a pacifier!!!

Update on Seoul Days 3, 4 and 5

Since the last post we have been busy. We met our tourguide, Hyewon, in the morning at our hotel lobby and she took us to a beautiful palace that housed the king of one of the dynasties here in Korea. Interesting and beautiful. Then we went to a traditional Korean tea house and had the most wonderful tea! Finally, we did the NTower, which is on top of a mountain and 163 meters high. Within a few seconds in an elevator we were up and viewing Seoul and surroundings. Our tour guide was so sweet to take us around that day, especially after someone stole her purse on the subway that morning on the way to meet us. Day 3 night we were tired and grabbed food from the mall near our hotel and ate in our room.

Day 4 we decided to tour the Korean War Museum, a MASSIVE museum that outlines Korean history and the Korean War. This was right up Matt's alley! Lots of tanks, airplance and heavy equipment to see outside and inside. There was also a traditional Korean wedding taking place on the museum grounds that day. After 4 hours at the museum we were tired, had lunch and took a quick nap. At 5 p.m., after some searching even after our taxi driver dropped us off, we finally found where we were supposed to be for our food tour. O'ngo Food Communications does food writing, classes and tours in English. The owner, Daniel Gray, is from Delaware and has been living in Seoul for approximately 6 years. He was a Holt adoptee and was burnt out on his job in the states as a food writer so he decided to come and open up O'ngo Food in Seoul. He has done us all a favor as it was the most fun we've had this whole time. He took the group to 4 authentic restaurants -- each offering its own specialty of Korean food. His partner in crime, Marcus, took over half-way during the tour and led us wonderfully through the last few places. SMALL WORLD -- Marcus lived in OMAHA NE and was a sushi chef at Blue, Baby Blue and Kona Grill several years ago! No way! He had lived in Denver for more than 20 years and had finally gone back to Korea to be with family and is working with O'ngo. We were joined by 8 others -- Aussies, Japanese and a few other Americans on the tour. What a riot!

Today we are taking it easy this morning and will be leaving the hotel soon for some shopping.

In less than 24 hours we will be at Holt meeting our son! We can't wait -- even though we are nervous, anxious and excited as is probably normal.

We miss everyone tons, especially our dear daughter, Thea, and know she is in good hands with grandma Linda/grandpa Rich and now Papa and Mutti Duey.

Will post more later!

Seoul Days 1, 2 and 3

We're here! We arrived at approximately 3:30 p.m. Seoul time on the 2nd of June. The flights were fine and getting through immigration and customs was a breeze. Our van driver met us at the terminal and took us to our hotel, Marriott Courtyard Times Square. We took off for a little bit of exploring, had some dinner at the hotel and crashed. We were up early given the time difference but that was ok because we had to figure out our DMZ tour for the day.

We ended up with a different (afternoon) only DMZ tour on the 3rd of June. In the morning to kill some time we decided to explore a 24-hour fish market. We were definitely the minority there and it was so fun to see Koreans in their element and amongst all of these different kind of sea creatures.

In the afternoon we headed out for the DMZ or demilitarized zone, which is the area between North and South Korea. It was very interesting to go through the inflitration tunnel that the South Koreans found was dug by the North Koreans for getting into their country. Very few photo opportunities as the entire tour was on military ground but I will post some later. We ended up in Itaewon back in Seoul, which is a touristy shopping area. We walked around and found a mom and pop dumpling restaurant off the beaten path where we were the only English speaking people in the tiny restaurant. My kind of place. Super fun! We navigated the subways back to our hotel (only got a bit lost once) and crashed.

Sorry I do not have a way to upload photos but please note that they will be there as soon as I can upon our return.

Today in a few minutes we are meeting our tour guide (volunteer and arranged by our agency Holt) who is going to take us on a 5 hour city tour. We are looking forward to seeing more of Seoul.

So far we have been so impressed by how polite Koreans are. We feel very safe. Most Koreans speak pretty good English so it hasn't been a problem getting help or information.

We can't wait to meet our son in a few days -- the big day is June 7!!!

I'll post more later!!

BTW -- if anyone wants to greet us at the airport back in Omaha, that would be great!!!! We arrive on Delta from Detroit at 8:22 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8.

It's a Little Crazy Around Here Folks!

We're getting ready for you, Baby Lierman! It was Sarah's last day of work for 12 weeks yesterday! Looking forward to seeing the Pacls and grandma and grandpa this weekend and spending our last days together as a family of 3 (well, four, including sweet Josie, our greyhound) and, well, yeah, looks like we still have some packing, cleaning and preparing to do!