First few days

As you know, we made it.  I've been overwhelmed and I have absolutely no idea where to even start blogging or what to blog about but I know ya'll are anxious to know what Korea is like and I did promise to keep you updated so I feel obligated to put something together.  Like I said, I have no idea where to even start but I'll put a few pictures from the past 3 days up (we haven't taken many, I think we've been too tired to remember to take pics!) and hopefully one of these days I'll be more coherent and less overwhelmed and be able to sort through my thoughts a little better for you.

The church found us a nice 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment (almost everyone in Korea lives in apartments due to the population size and limited space, it is rare to live in or own a home of your own).  It also has a laundry room of sorts and 2 (narrow) porches.  In Korea most apartments have porches along the outside walls to help with insulation.  We have also learned that most Korean apartments are not very well insulated and it gets quite chilly!  The first night we were in our apartment we did not have the gas hook up done yet so we did not have heat or hot water and then it was extra chilly! We were relieved to find out that it was just a matter of our gas getting turned on and would not be an everyday experience.

Everyone from the church has been so so so kind, warm and welcoming to us.  When we arrived in our apartment many people had donated various things, including toys for Caleb!  He now has his very own room and has some fun new things to play with too.  He seems to enjoy his room of toys and crawls right for it and plays fairly well in there...he keeps himself occupied anyway.

Some of the women from base also stocked my pantry with a few American food items that are typically hard to get (unless you have access to the comissary on base) and made me several freezer meals so I wouldn't have to cook the first few days.  Below is a picture of our first breakfast in Korea (with my American cereal)...well, my first breakfast.  I was up early with Caleb and Steve was still sleeping....

And here is a picture of our first lunch together in our new home in Korea....It was still really chilly because we didn't have heat yet, which is why I'm all bundled.  Overall, the weather has actually been really nice.  It has been a little chilly in the mornings outside, but around 50's and 60's during the days which has made for some nice walks.

Here is a picture of Steve at his desk in his home office....we really aren't totally set up yet (people are still donating furniture) and we haven't done any setting up so it is a little bare, but he's pretty excited to have his own office space.  This is also where we will be if you skype us (hint, hint).  We'll mostlly leave our skype on and if we are around, we'll answer =)  Most likely the best time to skype will be early morning or later evenings.

One of my highlights since being here was opening up a blanket that Kaitlyn (Steve's sister) made him before we left.  We loved it and really debated if we should bring it or not (we didn't want anything to happen to it) but in the end we decided to pack it on our carry on and bring it.  I'm so glad we did.  That first night we arrived we opened it up and put it on our bed and it just meant so much to have something familiar and special that night....we felt hugged all the way in Korea and it brought something familiar into an unfamiliar apartment.  It made our night.  Thank you, Kaitlyn!

Poor Caleb has been so messed up by the time change...he gets so tired during the day and then we have to wake him up from his naps so he will sleep again at night (if you are familiar with our son, you know what a taboo thing it is to WAKE him up).  He gets so upset when we wake him and then he tries to fall back asleep....poor guy!  His cuddles are pretty sweet though...

Here are a few pics from our apartment windows:

Today (Sunday) was Steve's first day of work...he met with the youth for their Sunday morning session and began teaching out of Colossians.  I was so proud of him. He did a great job and is so good at connecting with youth.  Without a doubt, this is what he has been gifted to do!  Here's a picture of him and Caleb all dressed up for church.  My handsome men!

We also got to meet a lot of the church congregation today and again felt very welcomed, cared for and loved.  They are all very kind and caring.  I just feel like I'll never remember everyone's name!

Well, now that my Fernando Ortega CD is on it's last song and it is almost 8pm Korea time (5am MN time) and my hubs is waiting to go to bed, I think I'll sign off.  Hope you enjoyed the pics we've taken these past first days in Korea.  There will be more to come.  Have a great day--Good night!