Life and Times of the Arkansas Stucky Seven

Thursday, October 15, 2009

October 16, 2009 - Emma Hope's Gotcha Day!!!






Hopefully pictures are truly worth 1,000 words because words seem useless right now! So hard to know what to say on such an AWESOME day!!! We did some stuff earlier (Seoul World Cup Stadium- so cool! And last shopping at Seoul's Home Plus - like Wal-Mart) but the great stuff started at 2:00pm!!! Actually the Holt office was hoppin' this afternoon with many families either meeting their child for the first time or pick-ups like ours. Since the normal social worker just had the appendectomy, the only other sweet social worker had her hands very full and it was not the ideal situation. So many families, both foster and forever, with so many emotions to work through and it was chaotic. But we were trying to be sensitive to Emma Hope's foster father and mother b/c it was obvious they were fighting tears. Emma Hope was their first foster child and it was clear they really loved her! Thankfully, we learned they receive a new foster child next week! Phew!
So anyway, EH was sound asleep when we arrived, her foster mother transferred her to me and she stayed asleep THE WHOLE TIME! Through all the instructions and the tears, she slept! I kept thinking it was not going to be good when she wakes up and they are just gone but there wasn't anything to do about it...so we said lots of Kam-sa-ham-ni-das -Thank yous - and they left in tears. So so hard. And then she was ours!!!! What we have hoped and prayed for for all this time happened! God gave her to us as such a precious gift!
So we had already decided that if all was going well, we would seize our final chance to visit Yoido Full Gospel Church, the largest Christian church in the world. I don't know if the building is the biggest, but there are 800,000 members in this church at several locations! Seriously! Back in the 70's, this pastor, David Cho, was inspired to implement large group celebrations with small cell groups, which is the model so many American churches use today! It started here! Anyway, it was so fitting and tied a big bow around this week to go there, pray and THANK GOD there, and still Emma Hope slept! No kidding, through all this and the taxi ride back to the guesthouse she slept on my shoulder! So we walked into the Guesthouse and she wakes up to sweet Mr. Kim, the guesthouse overseer. He was so happy for us! It was great!
She drank her first bottle then upstairs in our room and then...the look in her eyes changed. The look said I don't see anything familiar and I am scared! So we worked through a hard crying time but now...
Right now EH is sitting on our bed giggling! No Joke! Brad is just playing with her and she is truly smiling and giggling!! And playing with toys and babbling! So so fun!!! Oh, now snacking on little pieces of Korean corn puffs! This is too fun! Brad is in heaven with his 3rd baby girl!

I will stop for now! I want to focus on her and get packed up. We fly home in the morning and we so appreciate your prayers. I told Brad this morning I hesitate to use this word about our trip but we can't deny that this whole week, well this whole process has been anointed by our Lord and how we praise Him! Thank you all of you who have been covering us in love, prayer and support!!

P.S. We have decided while we were here to actually call her Emma Hope. I know, none of our other kids have a two-name first name, but Hope is such an incredible part of her story we want to say it a lot! And praise God for the HOPE we have in Him!

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