Blessed Part 1

Ten years ago, I didn't imagine my son married & living abroad. I certainly would not have believed Michael and I would fly around the world to visit Christopher and Lauren in Seoul, then meet up with our daughter in London.

It's been fun to journey with them via pictures, email & regular video chats. But I can't quite put into words what it was like to literally live in their worlds countries for a week & share their every day living experiences.


The rich cultural immersion was so much more than if we'd merely taken a tour.

Michael and I are so very blessed.

Christopher and Lauren sacrificed their bed, sleeping on the floor in their tiny, studio apartment so we could spend more time together.

One of the highlights of the week was spending an afternoon at their school. We saw their classrooms & interacted with the children.

One boy named Mike wanted to know who we were, exclaiming that Michael looked just like Santa Claus. I thought it was the beard, since I never saw any of the Korean men with facial hair.

Mike said it was the glasses too. Michael wondered if there were any other outstanding features the boy might have associated with the jolly old elf.

We met their principal, who is a gem, and couldn't stop telling us how proud we should be of these two. We couldn't agree more.


It was hard to say good-bye, but we were off to see Sarabeth. We left content; having witnessed seeds that were planted so many years ago through prayer, now in full bloom.

Rooted in love & commitment, honor & intergrity, their depth & growth of character was splendidly displayed.

Why Do They Have To Die?

Thank-you Brian
and Elisabeth!
I'm so grateful you are observant, and noticed the water leaking on the hardwood floor, while we were out-of-the country.

That at midnight, you spent 2 hours rescuing the food from our dying refrigerator. My goodness, what would we do without you? (Hilary would say, "if anything happens, turn off the water," lol.)

Changing Of The Guard

Standing outside Buckingham Palace (with the Bobbys)

to watch the changing of the guards.


Does this look like a serious weapon or what?


I was hoping to see the red coats, but it was still awesome!

Never A Dull Moment

Sarabeth and I headed down to the Picadilly Circus. I have a photo hanging on my wall of this train station from 10 years ago. The photo was taken of Christina and her cousin when they came to London with my parents.

I was tired and decided not to take my nice camera. Instead, I tossed my point and shoot in my purse and off we went. Boy did I miss a great photo op!

Not sure if you can get the full detail, but when we arrived at the top of the stairs, we were met by chants, beating drums and a mass of people. Police were everywhere. We decided to go back down to the Tube. We should have known. Sarabeth's house parents warned us of going to the West stations for safety reasons, due to the protests.

Being on vacation, I haven't kept up on the latest news.

We passed a group of policemen on their way up.

We tried to manuever our way through town, but at one point, we heard sirens and saw 3 helicopters hovering overhead. Three police vans were lined up.

The police had donned their riot gear-shields and batons.


I would have felt a lot safer if the police carried guns.

British Museum and the London Dungeon

London is magnificent! It is has been so fun to share the experience with Sarabeth and see where her home has been these past few months.

For those who are wondering, aside from a cold virus, she is doing well right now. Looks like she will be able to wait until April to have surgery and our time here won't be spent using the British Health Care System. That makes my heart very glad.

Yesterday we ventured out to the British Museum.

Fascinating place. I enjoyed seeing the stone carvings from places like Ninevah and Egypt that were from 700 BC.

Truly incredible, the stories etched in rock in massive pieces.

Outside the museum, was a street vendor. I had to try the cornish ice cream.

As Michael described it, a cross between ice cream and whipped cream.

Later in the day, we visited the London Dungeon, where we shared in the horrors of British past. Jack-the-Ripper, Sweeney Todd, The Great Fire of London, Bloody Mary and the likes.

I only wish we could have brought our camera inside. After the tour, I took this pic of Sarabeth:


For Ghost Hunter fans, I took this picture right before the last one.

What's with the red mist?

Lastly, a terrifying capture:

London

What is London without a photo shoot in a red phone booth?


This was at the Picadilly Station.


Big Ben


I love seeing the sculptures


and architecture of both old and new.

Flying

Time flies when you are having fun. We are having a grand time in turbo speed. When traveling so much happens in a short amount of space, there isn't time to blog much. Trying to keep a written journal to catch up later.

Busan has an interesting bit of history. Michael's dad spoke of it as a place he spent time during the Korean War.

We found these photos of what the area looked like in 1950-1953.


We so wished we could share these with Grandpa, knowing they most likely would spark stories from that time.


This last one, the top shows the area back then and the bottom the current look of the same location.

It was especially poignant watching this older gentleman browse the locks of love. He seemed to be searching, as he picked through them, turning them to read what was written. He was alone, and I couldn't help but wonder if sometime in years past, he and his lover had penned their forever loved and locked it onto the fence.


We also visited an instrument museum, which was fascinating.


As you can see,

Christopher was the grand master at playing instruments.

A 10 second video



and one more:

A Few Photos

Just returned from Busan on the KTX. Pretty impressive to ride a train going 300 km/hr., or roughly 180 mph.


I realized a little late, at the fish market, that I had my camera on manual focus, but didn't attempt to focus, so he claritity is lacking.






After browsing through so many live and dead fish,


we opted for something else for dinner....


pizza hut,


at the mall,

And watched a show in the middle of the mall.


Will share more later, and this is just a random photo where we were obviously a little nervous about what we were eating.

And the kids.