I sure didn't expect THIS

Monday morning, we loaded up in a bus and drove 5 hours to a resort in southern Korea. A province (I won't even try the name) had invited all of our group, plus a number of domestic adoptive families to a special event.

The idea was to connect American adoptive families and Korean adoptive families to promote adoption in Korea, where it is still not well accepted. 

Imagine 100 adults and 100 or so children, many of them toddlers wearing "squeaker shoes" in a large ballroom, a speaker speaking Korean with English translation. It was chaos. Eventually, we broke into small groups to discuss issues that we face in adoption. Each group had 2 Americans. Libby and I had a very sweet translator who was so moved by the adoption stories of the Korean parents that she was not able to translate. She said she would tell us later. The only issue they discussed was when and if to tell their children they were adopted. We don't have that issue, because it is usually obvious that our Korean children have been adopted into Caucasian American families. We did tell the group that the practice in America is to tell children they are adopted at a very early age, even if they look very much like their parents. In Korea, adoption is still not well accepted, and adopted children are often teased and shamed. 

After the group meeting, we had a very nice dinner, then we went back to the ballroom and were dressed in the traditional Korean Hanbocks, and were taught how to bow. 

 After that, we went to our suites. Before you look at the pictures, I have to tell you that the province paid all the expenses for this conference.  

This is the view from our balcony

 

 This is our living room. 
This place was beautiful, 
not anything we expected. 

The next day, we continued the conference, then we visited a home for single pregnant women that is owned by Eastern Welfare Society. We cooked lunch together (that was the plan, but the women did most of the cooking.) Then we cleaned the living room and the teaching areas and balcony. I am sure that they only let us do that to give us something to do. 

We took a train back to Seoul, had pizza, and called it a night.