Remnants of Korea

Little things will always remind us of our trip together to Seoul.  A memory I'm so thankful we will have forever.....all 7 of us.

One thing we decided to keep with us as a memory (for us 3 girls) and introduced to the boys was some food.  Hello Kitty Cafe in Seoul knew how to do it when they put frozen yogurt on a warm, fresh waffle topped with strawberry jelly.  I bought the yogurt and jelly tonight and made some waffles with the girls and everyone agreed, it was yummy and actually tasted exactly the same as it did in Seoul just a month ago.  

Jaemin's just hilarious about our trip sometimes.  He still likes to talk about the plane and trains, but one other thing stuck with him.  Sometimes, people that we haven't run into yet ask about the trip or how the visits with the foster mother's went since there are 3 of them.  At the funeral last week Brian's cousin was talking to us about it.  We left the oldest 3 at home and only took Chelsi and Jaemin with us.  Jaemin overheard us talking and chimed right in to make sure his cousin knew that "Mrs. Gim" is his foster mother.  He likes to tell everyone what his foster mother's name is.  As young and little as he is he definitely took a piece of Korea out with him and I'm so glad.  

I can definitely see the differences at the different ages.  In 2009, Kaelin was almost 7 and Chelsi was almost 4.  This time, Kaelin was almost 11, Chelsi almost 8 and Jaemin almost 5.  Chelsi and Jaemin reacted and took out about the same as what Kaelin and Chelsi did 4 years ago, respectively.  This time, I saw Kaelin take away something different yet.  I wish I could say we'll go again and I can see yet more different reactions as they each mature, but I can't promise that to them or myself, so for now we just say we'll see.  I'd honestly like to in several more years, but can't stress ourselves financially like we have the past 7 years.  It worked out and it worked out great, but the kids are getting older and we need to just enjoy them and not worry about every single penny that didn't go into the Korea account like we did before.  

Basically, according to Korean Air, we have enough family miles to get 1 free round trip ticket and probably 2 to 3 tickets to Jeju from Seoul.  The plan is to not plan, but keep it mind and in several more years see if it can be done in a couple more.  If it seems like a good time, then we'll go, if it doesn't, we just can't and that's that.  However, the next time it will more likely be me and the youngest 3.  The big boys will be in college or gone.  Brian hasn't decided, but he too says let's wait and see and he'll decide what he wants to do.  It will definitely be cheaper with a free ticket and tickets to Jeju so we can go to the kids' birth cities if we go that time.  We can also stay at one of the 3 guest houses if it helps expenses and that helps TREMENDOUSLY knocking the per night stay from $350 to $50.  It will be easier not planning for 7 too.  2009 we focused on a little Seoul and Jaemin.  This time we focused on Seoul and getting everything in that we could as a family for some AWESOME memories.  Next time would be just a revisit of Seoul and focusing on birth cities.  Worst case, the kids want to go as adults when they're ready to go on their own and maybe they'll let me tag along with them.  

For now, we have 2 years until Cole graduates.  Every 3 years after that I will have another child graduate from high school.  Our focus has always been to enjoy time as a family and it goes so quickly, so we'll continue to try to make as many memories together as we can before they're all gone.  I love hearing them talk about the things we did together and laugh about their memories or say how fun a place was.  We'll see where life is taking us next, I guess.