Sunday in Korea

In the morning we headed back to the Insadong market to have a name chop made for our lil' peanut.  A name chop is like a stamp with your name on it.  Koreans often use it as their signature.  The handle part of his stamp has a tiger carved into it because he was born in the year of the tiger.  The woman helping us asked if it was for our son and we replied yes.  Then she went on to ask if he was three years old (he is almost two).  I was confused for a second, but then recalled one of my Korea 101 lessons with Grace. ;)  She told me once that all her cousins in Korea are older than her because in Korea, you age with the new year.  So, you actually turn one before the one year anniversary of the day you were born.  (This she covered but couldn't be bothered to prepare a girl for the toilet situation!) ;)  Anyway, the stamp turned out nice.  They gave it to us in a Hello Kitty bag.  I thought that was funny.  His brave, ferocious tiger inside a little girly bag. :)

It's just like in America, there's one on every corner.  You can't be in Korea and not have Starbucks, right?

They did have some unique things on the menu like a red bean frappuccino.  Mmmm...we stuck with our usual though.

We discovered a beautiful little park tucked away near Insadong. 

We got a few history lessons on our stroll through the park.

This statue had something or other to do with some Buddhist temple.  Wow, it appears my "love" for history knows no borders. ;)

These were neat.  The panels depicted South Korea's fight for independence.  The only explanations were in hangul though, so we are just working on assumption here.

After we checked out of the Bongsan House we took a cab over to the military base and found the Dragon Hill Lodge.  We had some time to kill before our room was ready so we had lunch at one of the restaurants here.  Mexican food in Korea!  Ha!

After we got all settled into our room, hubby headed out to see the Korean War Memorial.  I stayed behind as my ankle/foot were still screaming at me from all of Saturday's walking.  These are pictures he took, so I don't have any explanations but wanted to get them up anyway.

I don't think I got a tourism gold star for Sunday.  But I think I needed a day of rest.  Not only for my ankle, but for the rest of my body and soul.  Jet lag is not my friend.  And my emotions are running high.  I do have to say though that Sunday night was the first night since I've been here that I slept straight through 9-5.  I thought I would lie awake for hours filled with nervous energy.  I am feeling the peace of the Lord.  I have been praying for peace beyond understanding for our precious little boy's heart.  It seems some one must be praying the same for me.  To everyone who has helped us on this journey to get to our son...I thanked God for each of you by name as I went to sleep.  Some of you bought one t-shirt over two years ago, or wrote a reference letter, or cared for C while we were at agency meetings, or provided support in a myriad of other ways...there are many of you!  And we are so grateful you chose to be a part of this roller coaster ride that brought us to our son!  I can't even thank the Lord for all those who have blanketed us in prayer throughout this whole process because I don't know you all.  You are family and friends.  But, you are also family and friends of family and friends.  My heart is grateful.  Kamsahamnida.  Thank you.