We did a couple things pretty regularly while we were in Korea: 1) check the blog for new comments, and 2) check our blog statistics.

We enjoyed reading the comments; it gave us a real sense that we were not alone while we were in Korea. And judging by some of the comments we’ve received, it helped others feel as if they were with us, too.

By checking our statistics, we’d knew how many “hits” or views our blog received each day. As you can see in the image here, our statistics really started climbing when we went to Korea and spiked on the days we met Ethan and brought him home. Not surprisingly, the blog’s biggest day was “gotcha day,” February 12 when the blog received 531 views.

To put that into perspective, our old blog (willis.blogs.com) received about 10,000 hits from January 2007 to January 2008 (about 30/day). This new blog (williswired.com) has received more than 3,600 in about a month (125/day).

As we said before, we blogged in Korea for a couple reasons: 1) to help friends and family experience this part of our journey with us, and 2) to be a resource for other adoptive families who may come across our blog (our blog statistics reveal that people come to our blog through Web searches related to adoption). At some point in the near future, we plan to post some lessons learned along the way that may be helpful to other adoptive families (especially those adopting from Korea).

Thanks for making this a more meaningul ride for us!

Here are a few things that may help you make the most of this blog …

Comments
You can read and/or write comments on any post we write on this blog. Simply click on the comments link at the bottom of each individual post. If there are no comments, it’ll say “0 Comments.” If there is 1 comment, it’ll say “1 Comment,” and so forth.

At the moment, there is also a listing in the sidebar of the most recent comments that have been posted anywhere on the blog. You can click on post titles (after the commenter’s name) to go directly to a particular comment. There were about 70 comments on the posts we wrote while we were in Korea. If you haven’t read the comments yet, we encourage you to go back and read through them.

If you would like to write a comment on any post, simply click on the comments link at the bottom of the post you want to comment on, fill out the form at the end of the post (your name, email address which won’t be shown publicly, and write your comment in the text box provided; if you have your own website, you can type it in the URL box, which will turn your name into a link to your site).

ShareThis
Also, you may have noticed the ShareThis link at the bottom of each post. After clicking on the link, readers can share the post with others by way one or more of the social bookmarking sites listed. Or, you can click on the “Send” tab to email the link (of the post) to someone. It’s an easy way to share any of the content on this blog.

Recent Visitors
Finally, there’s a map in the sidebar that posts a dot of the general location of the 100 most recent visitors to the blog. It’s interesting to see in what parts of the world people find this blog!

Search
To search this blog, type in the search box in the sidebar. This is especially helpful if you remember reading something but can’t remember exactly where it is. Just type in a key word or phrase.

If you have questions about these features, or anything else about this blog, this would be a good place to ask. Just write a comment on this post!

We got up early on February 14, 2008 and left for the airport at 7:00 am (Korea Time). When we arrived at the airport in State College 22.5 hours later, it was still only 3:30 pm, February 14 (Eastern Time). It was the longest Valentine’s Day ever!

Thanks to whoever posted the “welcome home” banner/balloons and shoveled our steps/sidewalk!

If you have followed our story in recent days, you know we were very concerned about the trip home. As it turned out, the 40 hours we had with Ethan leading up to the trip must’ve helped (not too mention, everyone’s prayers!). Under the circumstances, Ethan did extremely well — from getting up/dressed early, to the hour-long bus ride to the airport, to the time in 4 different airports in 3 different countries, to the 14 hours in the air — over the course of an entire day.

Ethan did struggle (and made his presence very known!) on the first plane (mainly during ascent and descent). Amazingly, though, he only had one episode on the second flight, the long 11-hour ordeal. By the time we got to the third/final flight, on board Northwest’s smallest plane, he was out before takeoff and we had to wake up him an hour and a half later in State College (see photo of Ethan after the long trip in the State College airport, as he waited for me to find the car buried under snow in the parking lot and make adjustments to his car seat).

One of our prayer concerns was for smooth connections, including getting Ethan into the country through customs when we arrived in Detroit. Fortunately, all of our planes departed and landed on time (if not early). With our short layover (if you can call it a layover) in Tokyo, we literally went from one plane to the next — not a good thing when the next flight is 11 hours long (Ethan didn’t get a chance to stretch out).

And, we must say, we are very happy with our experience of getting through U.S. Customs in Detroit (actually, Detroit probably has a lot of experience with international adoptions; Detroit is the pick-up point for parents who choose to send an escort instead of going to Korea themselves).

We went through 3 different customs agents — the first one was for American citizens returning to the country, and the last two were for Ethan. The 3 (female) agents were all very kind and accommodating. And by the time we got through all that, we still had 45 minutes to stretch out before the last flight home.

Once home, Ethan spent some time checking things out (see photos).

While Joleen and I didn’t get much sleep on the trip (I didn’t get any; Joleen dozed off a little on the long flight), Ethan slept through much of the air travel. I’m not sure what jet lag is supposed to feel like. I feel good (other than the headache I woke up with) after getting 10 hours of sleep last night (I can’t remember the last time I got that much).

Joleen said Ethan was up a couple times overnight but I never heard him (well, once, but Joleen was already up ). Ethan’s clock has gotta be all messed up, though — Korea Time is 14 hours ahead of Eastern Time, plus he slept a lot of the way home. But he will probably adjust fairly quickly.

We look forward to bonding with Ethan, especially over the next 8+ weeks of our parental leave.

Over the next few days, we’ll try to wrap up our reflections on our Korea experience. Watch for posts on …

• Things we learned on our trip to Korea
• More reflection on our Sunday experiences at Holy Flames and Kwanglim Methodist churches.
• Milestones (dates we’ll always remember)
• A fun post about my fascination with car mirrors in Seoul.

Thanks for your prayers, for following along on this adventure, and for all of your comments! These posts, along your comments, will become part of the story we share with Ethan over the years to come, especially as we celebrate his “gotcha day” every February 12. Thanks for being part of his story!