But I never wanted to deliver in this way. For all of you FB followers, you know this story (partially), but for the rest of you, here is what happened yesterday….
We woke up relatively early to a normal day (which any good storyteller will tell you that bad incidents always occur after a “normal” or “good” day). Our breakfast was good, hearty, and free (because it was included in our night’s stay). At noon we met with Jadon’s foster family who took us out to eat at a traditional Korean restaurant where you had to take off your shoes and sit on the floor. BTW–I have never seen such a spread of food for restaurant meal, and even though I had no idea what I was eating half of the time–it was fantastic. We also enjoyed visiting with Jadon’s foster family who are kind and generous. Time and time again they said that Jadon was their favorite (they had 10 foster children before deciding to “retire”), and he was their seventh.
Saying goodbye was bittersweet. We are so blessed to have this family in our lives, and we knew that it would be at least two or more years before we’d see them in person. But, we also knew that we’d always remain in contact via email, FB, or snail mail. As we were going to our room, we were thinking of our next communications with them.
When we got to our room, we were all still excited from our visit. B.J. and I were still talking about that yummy lunch, while Jadon was sitting on the chair, trying to remove his shoe. He pulled with such force that he fell from the chair, head first, onto the wood floor. Immediately, he had a golfball-sized knot on his forehead, and he was inconsolable.
And this moment, as they say, was when everything changed.
Normally, we’d know exactly what to do and where to go. But, we’re in South Korea. Where do we go and what do we do? We quickly decided that B.J. would take Jadon down to the lobby to ask for the nearest hospital/clinic. I stayed behind with Chloe, waiting to hear any news. About five minutes later, a hotel worker knocked on our door to say that they had already been taken to the hospital by ambulance. Of course I lost it. Two minutes later, I got a call from B.J. They hadn’t left yet; Jadon was crying for me and baby sister. I grabbed Chloe, his favorite toy, Foxy, and we ran to meet them outside. So the Temples took an ambulance ride in South Korea to Severance Hospital. A staff member from our hotel joined us to intrepret and stayed with us during our entire stay.
Side note: I could write an entire post about universal health care since we experienced it first hand. What you hear, wasn’t true for us. We were immediately taken back, got an x-ray, and could have received a CAT scan quickly, too, if Jadon would have been still (the sleeping medicine didn’t take effect very quickly for some reason). We were there from start to finish about 2 1/2 hours. The hospital staff were even worried about the “high costs” due to not being on the Korean system, but once we got the total, we laughed. What we paid was less than what we would have paid for our co-pay in the States. The ambulance ride was even free–charged to the government.
To make a long story short, Jadon is fine. His knot looks much better, and you’d think that nothing ever happened. Remember the hotel staff person? He paid for our cab ride (he went with us) and sent us snacks, food, and a toy for Jadon. First class care all around.
So, how is that for interesting?
