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!

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!!!!

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!

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!!!!