It's Sunday in Korea and that means.......

And that means today is fly home day. It means goodbye to sweet bulgogi 24/7, goodbye to K Pop on TV, good bye to shopping, palaces, kind and warm hearted guides. Goodbye to kind Holt staff. Goodbye to a once a day trip to the store (mini fridge, no stove). It means good bye to Seoul, the busy streets, smiling faces, motorcycles on the side walk, the busy subway, street vendors, Chilsung Cider, Pororo and Poongie Poongie. It means goodbye to the nice door men, and goodbye to a week off from cooking, laundry and cleaning. It means goodbye to traveling families and KAD's I've met along the way

For Ji-uk it is a monumental goodbye. It is goodbye to Korean citizenship. It is goodbye to being an orphan. It is goodbye to his birth country and foster family.

It is hello to a forever family today. As Harry Holt said "Every child deserves a home of their own."
Today Ji-uk lives the dream of Harry and Bertha Holt, some 56 years after their mission of finding families for children who are without parents.
Today is bittersweet. Ji-uk loses so much today, yet today he gains even more.
Family. Forever.
And dear birth mother, you are here somewhere, where I do not know, but I promise you this, I will love your baby as my own for the rest of his life as a cherished son. He will be loved, he will be in a family for always. He will grow to have tremendous self worth and pride in his Korean heritage. He will grow to know he is a child of God and his life has a plan and a purpose. I will guide him as a loving mother every step of the way.
Goodbye Korea, until next time.