On one of the forums that I read, someone mentioned to me that I haven’t really talked a lot about my son. Oh, I talk about him in passing or what I plan to tell him when he is older, but not a lot about him. Personally, I think he’s the best little boy on the face of the earth, but I might be a little biased. Mostly, it’s because I try to stay focused and for the most part I was thinking that I haven’t had to worry about adoption issues with him yet. But I am reminded that that isn’t exactly true.

Korean adoptee issues start from the moment your baby is carried off the plane. On top of normal baby issues, we have to worry about a whole plethora of adoption issues from the beginning.

My son’s first day home was wonderful. Right from the beginning I could tell that we were going to get along just fine. He had a serious little face and, despite the fact that he found himself in a very strange environment with very strange people, he didn’t fuss or cry. His little eyes darted everywhere and he saw everything. It was as if he was just absorbing everything and filing it away for later use.

When we got back to our house, my husband’s brother and his family were there to meet my son (the two sets of grandparents and my sister were at the airport). My son seemed oblivious. He happily went from person to person. He smiled. He laughed. He wrapped his new parents and extended family firmly around his little finger.


Son on Arrival Day

Everyone went home pretty early to give us a chance to unwind. We were pretty exhausted and then I faced the first hurdle – food. He was hungry and I made him a bottle, but he wouldn’t eat. He kept pushing the bottle away. Many thoughts were running through my head and I was really worried that he didn’t like the soy formula that we had chosen. We had the formula that he had come with, but I really wanted him to get used to the regular brand. Suddenly it hit me. It wasn’t the formula. It was the bottle. Being a novice at buying baby products, I had gone out and purchased the nipple that went with his age – size two or three. Turns out he was used to a slower drip because when I changed it to a size 1, life was good.

Lesson Learned: Buy a nipple of each size and let the baby decide which one to use.

Lesson Learned: This didn’t affect me, but it has others. Before your baby comes, sign up on all of the formula websites (i.e. Enfamil, Similac, Nestle, etc…). They send you free samples and coupons. If you end up with a picky baby you can try different formulas and you won’t waste your money. As soon as you find one that works, go buy lots of it.

Lesson Learned: It never hurts to see if your baby will take formula that is cold. My son preferred cold formula. It made life so much easier because I could always have a ready made bottle in the refrigerator. When he yelled, I grabbed it.