On my way to show a rental property in Taunton, I decided to stop and eat my lunch. I knew the timing of the appointment was bad so I brought my lunch with me. There was plenty of time to kill before the appointment so I pulled into a parking lot to eat my yogurt and granola bar. I thought I was being smart buying the yogurt that has the plastic spoon attached to the lid. You just have to snap it together and, voila, a spoon. Unfortunately, after a couple of bites, the spoon broke and it became very difficult to use. Oh well. It was a good thought, anyway.

Showed the rental property but could tell there wasn't much interest. Basically, the apartment is the basement of a multi-level home. Kind of an odd setup.

Met up with K.V. for dinner at Friday's.

I went to an Open House in Roxbury at 1:00. The house is the Bartlett Pear Mansion, built by the Bartlett's who named the Bartlett Pears way back when. The house was absolutely magnificent. The crown molding was extremely unique and beautiful--vine and rose molding. The ceilings are about 12 feet high. All the walls are painted beautiful colors that fit with the period but are also appropriate for today's designs. And, if you stand at the 1st floor near the stair railing and look up, the stairs were built in such a way that you can see all the way up to each stair case (it's 4 floors) and right up through a sky light that is centered just perfectly. The owners never got around to redoing the kitchen so that detracts from the home a bit but it has plenty of room for a great kitchen. The kitchen is also in the basement which I'm assuming is a standard from the past. There are 4 bedrooms, 2 office spaces, and 3 full baths. It's just a stunning home but is also very comfortable. Unfortunately, it's in a very bad area--Dudley St. in Roxbury. Too bad because this home is wonderful.

But, I had to meet up with one of my multi-family buyers in Brockton. I could have gone back the way I came in but I was running late and thought it would be easier to go up Blue Hill Ave. which should then become Route 138. Except I couldn't find Blue Hill Ave. If I had been paying better attention, I have a funny feeling it was right at the corner where the Open House was. But, I felt secure since I had my street map with me and knew that I needed to turn left. I figured I should run into Blue Hill Ave. at some point so I kept going. Eventually I did find my way but it took longer than I expected and the rain has turned into a downpour. As I got near the house in Brockton, I could see my buyer was already waiting on the front porch. After several passes near the house I finally found a place to park and met T. on the porch. The tricky thing about showing some of these houses is that there is usually a lockbox with the key inside but you never know where they are going to keep the lockbox. It certainly wasn't near the front porch so I suggested we go to the back porch. I was right. I opened it up and grabbed the keys and we went upstairs. I knew we would be able to see one floor only. Another floor's tenants never responded and the first floor tenants refused to show their unit. The place wasn't bad but this was T's first day out to look at these and felt that it needed quite a bit of work anyway.

I probably haven't mentioned that my car has been falling apart, have I? About a month ago, while racing from one appointment to the next on a very cold day, I heard a noise and the car started to shake a bit. Since I'm a woman and know nothing about cars, I did what any self-respecting woman would do--I turned up the radio and kept going. Actually, I thought it was because my gas tank was so low. I've run out of gas before and the car does sort of hesitate and shake a bit. As soon as I could, I found a gas station and filled up the tank. Unfortunately, the problem didn't go away. But, when you have back to back appointments you just keep going, don't you? Well, I did.

Anyway, that's been going on a while and I finally decided I should take my car in to be fixed. And why not pick the coldest day of the year? I dropped it off and Junior said, or I THOUGHT he said, Come back at 1:00, I'll take a look at it. Instead of walking back home, I thought I'd stroll around Hyde Park until 1:00. I called a friend to see if he could meet me for lunch but he wasn't able to get away. Had lunch by myself at Dottie's and then slowly worked my way back to Junior's Automotive. When I arrived, Junior looked at me as if to wonder why I was there. He said that he hadn't had time and I should just go home. As he started to walk away, something must have clicked in his head. He stopped in his tracks, turned around and started laughing. He told me "what I meant was drive your car home and bring it back at 1:00 and then I'll take a look at it." So, I did what I hadn't wanted to do in the first place, I walked home. Which, of couse, means that I had to walk back later when the car was ready. It's not that far--maybe a 10 minute or so walk but it's freezing out and I hate walking up the hill of my street to get home. But I did it and it's done and the car is working fine for now.

I heard some wonderful news today. But, in order to appreciate the story, I need to preface it with some old details.

About 30 years ago, my mom's cousin Doug and his wife, Jane decided to adopt a baby. To make the story shorter, I'll just call them my cousins. Jane used to work in Chicago for some agency. It was her job to meet adoptive babies at the airport and then bring them to their new parents. She's been around this type of work for a long time so it was a natural decision for her to want to adopt a baby. They already have a natural born daughter. Anyway, they adopted a baby girl from Korea and named her Shelly. From what they were told, Shelly had been found in a gutter, almost dead. The policeman who found her took her to the orphanage. About a year or so later, they decided to adopt again. When they got the call it came with a condition--that if they take this child, they have to take it's 2 siblings as well. The 3 Korean children came as a set. Doug and Jane figured why not? What's a few more mouths to feed so they went through with the adoption. When the kids arrived there was a translator available for a few days. Jason was around 1st grade, Amy in kindergarten, and Jeremy just a bit younger than that. I remember them singing their favorite songs in Korean and that they remembered their Grandmother but she had arthritis really bad and couldn't take great care of them. And I think that they said their mother wasn't able to take care of them either. This part is hazy so I'm not sure what the reality was or what part my brain has filled in with it's own story. I do remember eating dinner over there the first week. Jane had made mashed potatoes and the kids freaked. They didn't want to touch it. We finally figured out that they thought it was rice and didn't want any more rice--that's all they were fed apparently. Once they finally tried the potatoes, they smiled and dug right in.

Flash forward to the present. Jason, Amy, and Jeremy are all married now with kids of their own. Amy's husband, according to the rumors, got transferred to Korea. I don't know if he is in the military or if this is business. Well...instead of me trying to tell the story, let me paste in here the letter that he sent out:

Subject: Amazing news from Korea!!

Hello friends in Holland,

I wanted to send you all a note in regards to wonderful news from here as I know that many of you continue to hear only bad news with all the activity to the north of us.

As you all know one of the reasons we took this assignment from a personal standpoint was because of Amy and her background. We knew that moving here to Korea would offer us the opportunity to understand more about her heritage and give our children the chance to see where Amy was from. We also had a small hope that someday she would be able to reunite with her birthmother to at least meet her and tell her that she along with her brothers are doing well.

Well this past Wednesday, the hopes, prayers, and dreams that Amy has held onto through all these years were answered!! This happened when she not only was reunited with her birthmother, but also the extended family.

What a truly blessed and wonderful moment!

Here is the story behind this amazing time in our life.

After doing some research on her own last spring, Amy began working with an agency here in Korea in September that helps adoptees find their birth family. The agency goes through a three step process with governmental records, orphanage records, and private investigation. During these steps little was found. The forth step is to have the person go on a live TV program which is one of the most famous programs in Korea going back to 1983. The program is a one hour show on KBS (Korean Broadcasting Station) and allows people who have been lost or separated from their families to be interviewed in a talk show type format. The only bad news was that Amy was put on 1.5 year wait list!

Well that all changed on December 31st when she received an excited phone call saying that due to her unique case she was moved way up on the list and would appear in January!! So on Jan 22nd, Amy and I appeared on the show in which she was interviewed for ~10 minutes and pictures were shown of her and her brothers now as well as pictures from the orphanage when they were 7, 5, and 4. We found out after the show that 2 people had called and that KBS would do the research to follow-up and then we would be contacted.

The magic day came last week Friday, when our interpreter called me in tears because she was to emotional to call Amy and tell her to amazing news that they had found her birthmom!! After this, 5 sleepless days and nights went by as we awaited the reunion which had to be held back on the live TV program!

So the magic moment came this Wednesday at 9:05 am as Amy called 'Oma' and her birthmother, her Aunt, and her Uncle came out onto the stage flooded in tears and they hugged Amy for what seemed an eternity as tears flowed heavily by them and all watching (including the Psychologist on the show). I can't explain the emotion where after 30 years they were able to reunite!!

We now will get together with the entire extended family (including her grandmother) tomorrow for a celebration dinner Korean style at her mother's home, which amazingly is only 40 minutes from our home! We don't know where this will lead from here, but we do know that we will enjoy every moment. We also look forward to the fact that both her brothers are now planning on coming over here to Korea to also reunite!

Finally, who spotted her on TV you ask? Her Uncle (mom's side) and her Aunt (father's side). Although her mother works during the day, the Uncle is home and he has been in charge of watching this show for years in hopes that one day they would see Amy or one of her brothers! He said when he saw her face, he became quite sure as she has her mother's 'rounder' eyes and her darker skin. It wasn't until he saw the orphanage picture of her older brother though that he became 100% sure as he said that he watched him a lot before being taken to the orphanage!

Simply amazing and the answer to many years of PRAYER and HOPE!!

Have a wonderful valentine's day,

Jeff
P.S. Here is a picture of Amy and her birthmom taken a couple hours after the show. (See attached file: Big smiles.jpg)

Not having a good day so I have decided to just read a book today. I'm reading "Toujours Provence" by Peter Mayle. It's not bad but I preferred his "A Year in Provence" better. Also, I'm glad that I read that one first since this book talks about the after affects of that book. Basically, it's a series of short anecdotes about life in Provence. It was worth reading--I'll give it one thumb up.

Can you believe it? The closing for the condo buyer was supposed to be tomorrow and now it has been moved to Friday. What a pain! Someone from the bank attorney's office left me a message with this news as well as to say that they are still missing quite a bit of information. That's funny because she never once asked for this information! AND, I know that the mortgage broker had some of this information and I trust him enough to know that he HAD sent it to them. I'm so glad now that I made him give me a copy since he's on vacation all week. I was able to use that copy to fax over to them. One of the other holdups is that they didn't realize that the Suffolk County registry would be closed today due to Evacuation Day (how many people thought I was going to say St. Pat's Day??).

Went over to P.S.'s house this morning for coffee and to work a bit. She needed help with her new computer and I needed help with my IRA and 401K. I'm learning that it's good to swap skills instead of pay for services. Everybody benefits and it doesn't break the bank. Came home and checked my email, made some phone calls and then sat down to read a book.