Our first meeting with Kalvis was wonderful. As we prepared to head to the agency, I became VERY nervous. Butterflies, heart pounding in my ears, shaking hands. Imants found it very humorous, although I'm pretty sure he had some butterflies himself. Once we arrived, I felt calm. We sat in a room at the agency and soon Kalvis arrived with his foster mother. She pushed him in, in a stroller. We had not seen him since his 4 month picture, so we were very anxious as they entered the room. He was (is) absolutely beautiful. We did not have any pictures of him smiling, and I had no idea he had such sweet little dimples. AHHH, melt my heart. I did not cry (my goal for the day), he allowed both Imants and I to take turns holding him. He seemed very curious. We spoke with his foster mother through a translator. Tae-seong was her first foster child. We were warned that this was going to be very difficult. His foster mother clearly loves him very much.
She gave us photos, both professional and personal photos of her life with Tae-seong. She also gave us the traditional Korean hanbok for Kalvis to wear for his first birthday. She told us how he loves persimmons from her persimmon tree (and gave us some to try). She told us that he rolls around restlessly before going to sleep. He loves to be outside. He loves dogs (good news for Luna). She shared many small important details of our son's personality. It was a lovely visit.
We met with the Doctor. He gave us the thumbs up to take him with us the following day. Then came the tears and many promises to send updates and pictures. We will be forever thankful to our son's foster mother. She taught him how to love and to be loved. She did this without any regard for how hard the goodbyes would be on her. She truly gave him the greatest gift. We left that day with very full, very happy, yet very heavy hearts.