Alex in the snow

Alex in the snow

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Alex's First Snow!!

Alex and Jake got out of school the other day and Alex got to feel, see and taste snow for the first time. He loved it although he was shocked at how cold it was. I gave him his gloves and then he was thrilled to make snowballs and throw them at me and to make a snowman with Jake. He loves anything new!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Alex's Karate pictures

Alex just moved from his white belt to his yellow belt. He worked so hard and we were really proud of him!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Alex's Baptism

What a little trooper! He entered the church in tears, just as he does almost every Sunday. Once inside, we brought him on the altar to practice before the mass began. He got to see the font and I explained everything to him. Once mass started, godfather, James, began doing magic tricks with his fingers to entertain him. He was giggling and having a great time. He was completely relaxed by the time he, Renee (his godmother), James, me, Heath, Richie, Michael and Jake were all called up to the altar. He did so well. He followed directions to the letter and went with what the pastor was doing. He was surprised by the water poured on his head and afterwards, he kept feeling it and then smelling it to see what was put on his head. He even wiped it off with his hand and tried to taste it. I could barely keep from cracking up while on the altar after watching his confusion. As much as we tried to explain it all to him, he just didn't comprehend what the pastor was pouring over his head.

After the baptism, we held his party the next day (the baptism was the Saturday night mass) and he had such a great time with his cousins and friends of the family. He ran with them ALL day. At the end of the day, he was able to open all of his presents. Everyone was so generous and thoughtful with their gifts. He was amazed. He kept opening things and then saying "mine?" and we would say "yes" and then he would smile. When he was finished, he packed it all up and put it in a giant gift bag and placed it by the front door. Our feeling was that if he was leaving, he would have it all there ready to go. I was so sad by that. After several different moves/placements, he doesn't fully accept or understand that he really is staying here forever. I took the bag, with Alex in tow, and brought him into the playroom. I took one of the many large stackable bins we have and emptied it and then carefully put all of his new toys in "his" bin. He still kept saying "mine" and I still kept telling him "yes, this is all yours". Then, we took all of his new clothes and went right up to his room and put them into his closet again repeating that this is all his. He seems to be happy with that. Interesting, huh? Through our training to be certified American foster parents (two years ago) we found that this was common behavior for kids who moved around a lot. So sad for them.

This week we also learning that Alex has an amazing ability to add numbers in his head. He is only in kindergarten. I was doing some review homework with Jake and while he was doing his own homework (cutting and pasting patterns) he started saying the answers to Jake's homework. So we then started asking him problems aloud and he got them all right up to the 20s. He is still learing the other numbers in English otherwise I think he would have got them.

He still has his moments of pouting, stubborness and some anger when he doesn't get his way, but at this point, we understand that every kid does this sometimes, and with normal limits, he is understanding that he can't always get what he wants. After having three other boys, we have seen this time and time before, so we are not shocked or surprised by this at all. He just pouts for a longer time than they ever did. But, he eventually gets over it!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Home Three Weeks!!!

We are now calling En Yang by his American name, Alex. He says he likes it very much. He also started school and is really enjoying it. The teacher said he fits right in with the class and seems very smart. He gets finished with his work faster than a lot of the other kids AND he still speaks 90% Chinese!!!! He's amazing.

He loves to swim, jump on the trampoline, ride scooters, go to the playground, and play video games. He understands a lot of the house rules, although he definately tries to argue them. For example, we only let the kids play video games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and he will ask everyday and then he will say, "Friday, I know, I know". He cracks us up. He has started using many English phrases. When he doesn't like a decision we make, he stomps his feet and says, "Oh C'Mon". He knows all his food words, toy words, he is starting to sit longer and longer for bedtime stories, and he is accepting of the basic routines we have here.

He chooses American food over Asian food all the time. I bought an Asian cookbook over the summer and cooked like crazy. Our existing family loved several of the meals and were excited to share them with Alex. Since Alex has come home, he makes faces at all Asian food and asks for hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, ice cream, meatballs, and tacos. And, he eats soooo much for his little, bitty body. He looks like he is finally gaining a couple of pounds. I hope you enjoy our updated photos!!!!

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Day one - Home

This morning, En Yang came into the hallway around 7:30. We saw him peeking out. I escorted him into the bbathroom and then he came into my room to watch tv and cuddle (Heath and Richie had left for a football scrimmage). Later in the day, we had breakfast, played with some toys and had a family sword fight (his favorite thing). After that, the sun came out so I took them outside onto the trampoline. What a ball he had. He had never been on one before so he wasn't sure what to do but once he saw Jake do it, he did it too. Also the water/ice machine on the refrigerator also is new to him. He was so shocked and began to laugh when he saw how it worked. What a personality he has! He is always laughing, singing, and smiling.

Last Day in Taiwan

The last day in Taiwan was just our trip to the airport. We were driven by Danny (prearranged driver-highly recommend for anyone going to pick up their child) in his Mercedes to the airport. We had a 12 hour flight to San Francisco, a 3 hour layover to get through immigration and ready to board our plane. The first flight was uneventful but our seats were terrible. Three in a row but all in the middle toward the back of the plane. Everytime we got up, we had to ask people to move. The kids finally fell asleep but I cannot sleep when I am squished in like that, so I was quite miserable and exhausted. When awake, United Airlines has those little TV screens in the backs of the headrest so we all put headphones on and watched movies/tv shows. We had two meals and lots of beverages. They had their DS game systems and I had some books. They also had Color Wonder coloring books and some sticker books. They were terrrific. Our second flight, was a problem because all of our seats were not together. When I booked the flight, the rep. told me to just arrive early and maybe the ticket counterperson could switch us. It turned out that she really couldn't but she said that if I asked people on the plane, she is sure they would switch. A few minutes later, they started announcing that the flight was overbooked in coach and that if anyone wanted to be bumped or switch to business class using their points, they could do so. I could do neither so we waited. The next thing I knew, she called us up to the front desk and said Congratulations. I was completely puzzled until I looked at the tickets. She bumped us up for FREE TO BUSINESS CLASS!!!!!! I think they wanted to make room in coach for those who were being bumped and I had explained my situation that I didn't want to be seated away from my kids because they were so little and that En Yang being newly adopted and not speaking English, made him very insecure in a situation like that. I couldn't thank her enough. I felt like we won the lottery! On the plane, we had red carpet treatment. Giant leather chairs that reclined, personal DVD players, unlimited drinks when you wanted them, bread and butter, herb roasted chicken, garlic mashed pototoes, string beans and ice cream! We were all in heaven. After we ate, we all slept the last three hours of the flight. Amazing!

Day 3 and 4

We spent the next two days sight seeing after going to AIT and picking up the visa and passport. We went to the Taiwan Tours trip around Taipei city to see the memorials and museums. It was a good deal because I didn't know where most of these were and we had an air conditioned bus with an escort to bring us around and to photograph us. We also got to do some shopping along the way. In addition, we went to the Shinlin Night Market one evening. It had lots of clothes, shoes, and fun activities for the kids to do. I bought lots of little souveniours and t-shirts and En Yang chose a silk/satin navy blue Chinese outfit which is adorable. Everything was very inexpensive. Both boys continue to be terrific together. En Yang is trying so hard to use his English with us. I have heard, "bathroom", "more", "drink", "hungry", "shorts", "brush teeth", "DS" (to request the little Nintendo DS we bought him), "noodles", and much more. We are so surprised at how much he is absorbing! He is also so huggable and kissable. He not only accepts all of our affection, he just comes up and gives us hugs all of the time. At bedtime, I tuck them in and say "I love you/ Yo hi nee" and he says it too.

First Swim in the pool

After the extreme heat of the zoo and all of that walking, we took the Metro right back to the hotel, changed into bathing suits and went up to the roof to enjoy the pool. I expected a nice refreshing swim, but the pool water was quite hot. It still was better than not being in the pool so we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming. En Yang could reach the bottom but when he began to walk into the deer side, I quickly saw that he can't swim so I held him and taught him how to kick his legs and swim his arms and he caught on pretty well. Needless to say, both boys loved that time in the pool! For dinner, we went to the restaurant buffet, but quickly learned that aside from fast food, I don't think he has ever gone to a restaurant before. He began licking his water glass and as he filled his plate walking around the room (with my help) he began to ear the food with his mouth, right off the plate. I tried to explain that you have to wait until you sit down but he was apparantly so hungry he just kept trying to eat that way. I was cracking up. When we finally sat with the food to eat it, he finished the food and began to lick his plate. I had to bring him back up to the buffet to try to explain that he could have more. It was all so funny but he was such a trooper today. So many new and different things he did today and he just went with the flow.

Trip to Taipei Zoo

After the AIT appointment, we still had the whole day in front of us. We took the Metro train to the end of the line, which is the Taipei Zoo. We had a great time although brutally hot doesn't even begin to describe how hot and sweaty it was. We took frequent bottled water breaks and went into a lot of the air conditioned buildings. We say penquins, dinosaur exhibits, koala bears, zebras, brown and black bears, and lots of snakes and bats. We then took the little train around the park. We saw a bunch of birds and then decided to go to the zoo's own McDonald's for a quick lunch. No burgers there- only chicken!

Day Two in Taiwan

This morning was our AIT (immigration/visa) appointment. I was so nervous that I didn't have all the paperwork that I needed even though I checked and rechecked everything a million times. We left the hotel early with a cab so that we would be brought right to the AIT office. We arrived early and put our camera, cell phone and driver's license at the counter, as expected. We went to the third floor and waited along with another family who had just picked up their 10 month old baby girl at Chung Yi the day before also. We were called to the window by Joseph, who went through all of the paperwork with me. The prphanage had also sent over a package and had given me a packagage of paperwork as well. It took about a half hour and I signed a bunch of papers including his passport. I then ran down to the second floor to pay the fee, came back upstairs to hand in the receipt and then we then sat for about an hour. I had the boys bring backpacks with activities, toys, stuffed animals, snacks and juice boxes which worked well because it kept them occupied. Afterwards, I was sworn in, asked some questions and told to come back tomorrow at 11:30 to pick up his passport and visa.
We received a phone call in Mid-August that we could go a week early to pick up En Yang, so after lots of phone calls to airlines and hotel, we were to leave on August 23rd.

Day One

Sally from FEC picked us up at the Sheraton hotel in the morning to bring us to Chung Yi orphange. The ride was only about 15 minutes. By the way, the hotel was absolutely gorgeous and had lots of restaurants and other necessary amenities.

When we arrived, we saw En Yang for about 1 minute, said hello and then he was taken away to change his clothes and get freshened up. He looked very scared.

We were taken into a meeting room with a bunch of social workers. They presented us with lots of small photo books, CDs and collections of his art work. What a treasure! I began to cry when I looked at all of his baby and toddler photos knowing how much of his little life we already missed! The social workers looked through our papers and photos and asked some questions and then En Yang was brought to us to see a CD slideshow/photo presentation. What a beautiful job they did. We will have that CD to treasure, always. He then presented Jake and I with some gifts and then we went into the orphanage rooms to take a brief tour of the main area, kitchen and his bedroom. He was able to say goodbye to his friends and we were so sad to see him crying. He continued crying while posing for photos (the staff had him posing with everyone before he left). Finally, Sally asked me if we would like her to come with us back to the hotel and I thought it was a good idea. He cried in the cab all the way to the hotel (me too, my heart was breaking for him). When we reached the hotel, he sat in my lap and I rocked him and told him over and over that it would be alright. Then he popped up and said "Hungry", "Hamburger" so I called for room service and watched him devour his giant hamburger. Afterwards, we all layed down for a nap (Chung Yi gave me a schedule of his day which said he naps about 1 hour and 20 minutes every day). After he woke up, he and Jake began playing with some of the toys he brought and some of the toys we had, and he was happy all evening! For dinner, we had some cup of noodles and snacks. Right before bed, he began to cry again. I just sat with him and held him and he fell asleep shortly after!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

We are APPROVED!!!! A TRAVEL DATE!!!!

Our final decree has been approved - which means En Yang is legally ours!!!! The adoption has been finalized!!!! We are scheduled to be in Taiwan on September 2nd and our immigration appointment is September 3rd. We are planning to go a couple of days early and stay a couple of days after! Now I need to do some final paperwork, send a check and then find some flights!!!!! Yikes! I am sooooo excited! We all are!!! The bedrooms are all completed and our suitcases have been packed for weeks!!!! Jake's coming with me so he will be missing his first week of 3rd grade. I have to go fill out the forms to enroll En Yang in school - he will be starting 1st grade! And, I still have shopping to do - clothes for him, some more toys and games, some DVDs that will help with his English! Wow! I just can't wait!!!!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Good News!!!!!

Last night, we had our webcam conversation with En Yang! Wow! It was wonderful! He was a little shy at first but once he warmed up we introduced our whole family (even the pets) and he was really excited to see them all. He asked great questions about each of our sons and the sports they play, he had his scrapbook with all of our current photos in it (I send him 2-3 additional scrapbook pages each month for them to help him build his family album). He asked what Halloween was all about and if Richie throws the baseball very fast when he pitches! It was so much fun, it was almost 2 hours! My boys were falling asleep on the couch after a while but it was so priceless. We ended the conversation telling him how much we love him and gave him hugs and kisses and he said I was the best Mommy in the world!!! I will be smiling for months on that comment alone!!!!!

They said they will set up another one of these in about a month! I am beyond excited to hear that he is excited to be coming "home" (even though we don't know when that will be yet)! It was awesome to hear him calling me mama and Heath, Papa and to have him call the boys his older brothers. He even quizzed me on my Chinese (which is very weak but he had fun trying to hear me pronounce some of the words). Happily, he understood most of it!!! The rest was easily translated by the worker in the orphanage (same woman we met who traveled with him to Maryland last summer).

June 4th there is a hearing in Taiwan and hopefully, Final approval will be a few weeks later. Then we have to wait 30 days (or more) for his visa and then we can bring our son home!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Good News - Approved!!!!

YEAH!!!!! We are now APPROVED to adopt En Yang. We just need to send our contracts to FFC and Taiwan and then we go to the last step which will be the final adoption. Hopefully, we will be traveling to Taiwan in May or June to bring him home!

We also found out yesterday (that's when our agency found out too) that he was not returned to his foster mother at the end of the summer because he was too bonded to her and already did well when he came to America for the 5 weeks (he cried for the first three weeks). So when he went back to Taiwan, they told him that he was going to be adopted by one of the families he met in Maryland and that he was going to live at the orphanage until we can pick him up. The orphanage is beautiful and he rooms with another boy in the same situation, but I feel so bad that he continued to grieve for his "mother" when he returned and I wasn't there to help him through it. When we do pick him up, they feel like he will go more easily with us. At this point, he know we are adopting him and knows that the care packages we send every month are from us. So he has lots of toys and books and tons of photographs! This wait is going to be torture for me!!!!