DAY 2 - Cooking class and Foster Family reunion - June 16, 2009

I'm connected but just by a hair signal... It is 11pm and am now trying to get a msg out to you.
Alex met his foster mother today, and Derek's foster mother and father!
We first met the social worker assigned to us, then we bumped into the social worker we had when we were in Korea to get Alex! That was a nice reunion, as well as meeting the doorman (Han?) at the guesthouse again.
On the main floor of the office building, there were nice private rooms for visiting with the foster mothers. We had to wait a while for the foster mothers and during that time we received some gifts from the Social Welfare Society - chopsticks, and for each Alex and Derek a box with 2 traditional ceramic dolls.
Then Derek's foster parents arrived and it was very pleasant. They brought gifts for Derek -an outfit and a pair of silver running shoes with flashy lights on it! We gave them our gifts to them which they opened in front of us and were very pleased with them. Derek's foster parents are really nice and asked a lot of questions. Alex was nervous a the beginning but when the camera came out, he was posing with Derek foster parents for photos .
Then Alex's foster mother arrived. She didn't change at all since the last time we saw her. Alex was very shy with her and also exhausted from the day. She seemed very happy to see Alex and gave him a hug. Cameras were out so Alex went along with that. He opened his gift which consisted of an embroided key chain, metal chopsticks and a pencil holder. The key chain became his favourite.
Lot of questions were asked about the two brothers, sports, school etc., mostly by Derek's foster mom. Alex showed photos of him and Derek on the camera to both foster mothers and a lot of photos and video were taken as well. In short, a very successfully meeting with both foster parents. BTW, the business cards with our e-mail stayed with both foster mothers.
The schedule is very busy with tour and social gatherings with home-stay families that there is very little time to get on the computer. I will try to write on the bus tomorrow, but probably will catch-up more when we are in a hotel again where evenings will be more free (I hope).

I love DEREK xoxoxoxoxo
I love you Mommy xoxoxoxo