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!