Another Week

It's hard to believe we've been home for over two weeks now, and yet it seems so natural to have Jason home. Maybe it's because we imagined him here so many times before he came. The strangest thing has been the feeling of not having to wait anymore!



Jason is building his vocabulary. Before we even came home from Taiwan he was saying 'Mama', 'thank you','baby', 'water', 'bye bye', 'more', 'choo choo', and of course 'e-i-e-i-o'. My new favorite came one day as he turned the corner and I said, "Hi!" in a high pitched voice, and he said "Hiyee!" in the same tone. He says it all of the time now. He can also say 'hello', 'water', 'cracker', and 'noodle'.

He is so good natured and affectionate, but doesn't especially like it when you say, "No! No!" to him for doing something. For instance, this is an example of what you get if you tell him that he can't put the hairbrush into the toaster:



Tomorrow we are going to a pediatrician that specializes in international adoption. We are hoping that he will answer a few questions for us like; should he really still be on a warmed bottle of formula mixed with powdered cereal three times a day at 23 months just because that's the way they do it in Taiwan? And of course there is also the question of whether he might be able to sleep in his own bed by the time he is seven?

Kate and Stephen are still having a blast with their new little brother, but don't argue over him quite as often as they did at first. Best of all Jason and his daddy really enjoy each other. Jason has a special little smile that he reserves for when Brian walks in the room.

Settling In

We've been home for a little over a week and Jason Pin-Hao is doing marvelously! He loves to be held by and plays with each member of the family. He has a great little sense of humor, too. We have had lots of chances for him to get to meet new people this week with church events and get-togethers with friends. At first he seemed overwhelmed and a bit shy in a large group setting, but by the end of the weekend I think he's become more comfortable in a sea of new faces.

We are still tackling the sleeping arrangement. It isn't that he won't sleep at night, but that he wants to sleep all night on me! I am very thankful that we have bonded so well, and that he loves to snuggle, but in the middle of the night when his arms and legs are still around me, he becomes a bit heavy. Then, of course, when I try to move him off of me, or to the side, he wakes up and cries. I think it will just be a matter of time for him to adjust and to know that I'll still be there when he wakes up, even if I'm not holding him.

Otherwise things are going better than I could have ever imagined. He is such a joy, a ray of sunshine, and a true blessing to our family!

Home!

We arrived home on the evening of the 13th. Jason slept for most of the flight home in a bassinet on the plane. By the time we cleared Immigration with all of his paperwork and Customs (a much longer ordeal than I had expected) he was asleep once again for the family's first sight of him. Once he awoke he was just a bit shy at first, but it didn't take long at all to melt the ice and for him to start feeling comfortable with his dad, sister, and brother. We went for a late dinner to celebrate at the Rainforest Cafe and then home where our completely recovered dog, Cookie, greeted us all.

Our week in Taipei

I had hoped to do more blogging while here, but discovered that doing so in the middle of the night did not work, because it meant that I was ready for bed much earlier than my sweet boy. And what about blogging during the day? Don’t think so! Jason and I have been bonding so amazingly well! We laugh and play together, in fact we do EVERYTHING together. Privacy issues – out the window. Just try to close that bathroom door! Really though, we are having such a wonderful time. This week of just getting to focus on him has been wonderful.

I have to say that the people in this country are the nicest that I have met anywhere! They are so friendly, helpful, and polite, even in a city of over 2 ½ million people! The city is so clean, too. We took the MRT transit system and it was amazingly clean. We also had people give us their seats on the train more than once, and others that would make sure to point to where we should go next once they figured out where we were headed. And of course Jason gets tons of attention wherever he goes. We discovered that he knows more Mandarin than we thought. We will be with someone and Jason will start making a noise that sounds like baby talk to us and the person will say, “Oh, he’s saying ‘zai jian’,” or some other Mandarin word.

So, here is a brief rundown of what we have been doing since our last update: On Sunday morning we took a taxi to St. Christopher’s church and attended one of their Masses in English. It was quite packed and I believe that I heard that there were people there from the Philippines, as well as from Taiwan. After the Mass I went to the priest and asked him to give Jason a blessing. When I was leaving a very nice lady came up to talk to me and asked me if I needed a nanny. I thought she meant for just the time we were in Taipei, so I said, “Oh, no, thank you, we are leaving on Friday.” However she responded, “Well, I have a Visa, I can come with you.” I thanked her, but explained that I stay home with my children and take care of them. Later on Sunday we went to Taipei 101. It was too cloudy to go to the top, but we are hoping we will get a chance before we leave.

Monday morning was AIT (the American Embassy) day. Our guide, Fion, took us to our appointment where we went through documents with one person (our JOH friends know Joseph!) and then met with someone else for a brief interview. And that was it! Our Visa for Jason to enter the U.S. (unfortunately not as a U.S. citizen yet since only one parent traveled) would be ready the next day. After our appointment Fion took us to the Longshan temple.

On Tuesday Fion dropped us off at the zoo. She wasn’t feeling well and decided to wait in the car. She asked us how much time we wanted to spend there. Of course we had no idea what it would be like inside (and I hated for her to have to wait so long in the car) so I said an hour and a half. She gave us her second cell phone and told us to call her if we needed more time, which was a good thing because we discovered that everything was very spread out and that there was no way we were going to see much in that amount of time. It probably would have been better to have arranged to go there for the day because we probably only saw about a fourth of the animals there. We did get to see some koalas and the wonderful panda bears, though! Jason’s favorite part was the little train that went around the perimeter of the zoo.

On Wednesday we had a lazy day in the hotel room just playing and hanging out. I was thinking that Jason probably thinks that this is his new world, living in the hotel with just us, although he has been saying the Mandarin words for big brother, big sister, and daddy, and he has talked (or listened) to them on the phone. In the late afternoon we took that transit system up to the Shilin night market, which opened at about 4pm. Wow! It is the biggest night market in Taipei and is filled with shops and food stands. We were able to find plenty of bubble tea stands, too!

Back at the hotel we stopped at a dumpling place close by and picked up an order to go. Then when we reached the hotel, we stopped in the lounge. I walked in and the man and lady working there said, “Two Singapore Slings?” (Can you tell we’ve made a nightly ritual of this?) We actually had them put them in paper cups to take back to our room. We discovered that evening time is when Jason likes to play ‘toss everything off of the table,’ so it just works best to enjoy them in our room.

I am amazed that I got through this whole blog! During the night Jason will be sound asleep, but he always has one hand and a foot touching me and I can feel them kind of moving around to sense if I am there. If not, he usually starts to cry and I have to comfort him back to sleep. I think I have tricked him this time with a couple of heavy throw pillows in my place! Anyway, only two more days left in this marvelous country. It has been so wonderful to spend this time with Jason in his native country!

Our First Outing

Today we had our first outing at the National Palace Museum, which has thousands of pieces of ancient Chinese artifacts, the oldest dating back to over five thousand years. We brought along Jason's new little umbrella stroller and alternated between using that, carrying him, and walking with him. He was just a dream. Our only bad moment came when I needed to change his diaper. I took him to the restroom and put him on the diaper changing table with my own matt underneath him, and he started to cry. He looked scared like he had never been on one of these before. These were his first real tears and I was so sad, but didn't know what else to do because there really wasn't anywhere else to change him, and I wasn't about to use the floor! We got through it and I held and comforted him. Then I flipped the diaper changing table back up and a huge roach fell out of it!!!! It must have been there in the cracks while I was changing him. And hilariously enough (and I am not making this up!) the thing followed us out the bathroom door!!!!!!!

We found a restaurant at the museum and at the end of the meal we told the waitress that we had just picked Jason up yesterday. She asked us a few questions and when she finally understood that we were from America and were taking him back with us she said, "Oh, thank you!" I was so touched. We had been wondering what the people in Taipei must think of us adopting from there, and while I'm sure that one person's opinion is not necessarily indicative of the entire population, it was encouraging to me.

Back at the hotel we had been walking down the hallway near our rooms and I suddenly had to go back for something and went around the corner where Jason couldn't see me. Apparently, he didn't see which way I had gone
and was trying to look under one of the other hotel room doors for me.

I was finally able to get him on camera in his talkative mode. I had to be a bit sneaky because every other time I've tried to get in on film, of course he quit performing!

I'm In Love!!!!

I have loved Jason since we first saw his photo way back in September. I have loved him increasingly as the months have gone by, as we have prayed for him, waited for his monthly updates, and prepared for his arrival. However, now I can say that I am totally "In Love" whole heartedly, hook, line, and sinker for this little guy. Oh, he just melts my heart and fills my heart with joy!

Our day started later than anticipated when Fion called to say that we were going to Taichung in the afternoon instead of the morning. So, we headed out at 11:30 into very rainy weather, and arrived around 2pm. The foster mom, Mrs. Chiu (we were right JOH friends!) brought him into the TWCA agency and he was very shy at first. We sat down and talked and played toys for a while and eventually I was able to move him from Mrs. Chiu's lap to my own. At one point I brought out his little photo book that we had sent him and as I was flipping through the pages, he finally made his first little noise as he saw and pointed at our daughter, Kate's, picture. Finally Mrs. Chiu just got up and left the room to see what he would do, and as he didn't fuss, she went ahead and left. It was so much fun to sign the Program III wall, where other people who have adopted from JOH have signed. It was really neat to see so many names that I've come to know over the last several months. Before we left we were given all of the things that we have sent Jason and also the wonderful Mickey Mouse outfit that he wore in his first couple of updates. I had asked for the outfit, but found out that it was even more special than I thought as it had come from his birth mother!

Our next stop was the baby store where we picked up an umbrella stroller and some bottles. (I wasn't expecting him to still be drinking a bottle for some reason.) The drive home was very long because of the traffic, but Jason, who had completely missed his nap, was happy for the entire ride. In fact he loved for me to tickle his feet and gave me a smile and a laugh! He also started saying e-i-o, so I sang 'Old MacDonald' to him and he sang the e-i-e-i-o part for me over and over.

Back at the hotel I put him into his pajamas and got his toys out for him. He was mostly interested in hanging out with me, though, and also in the 'Thomas the Train' toothbrush I had brought along. He really is the most easy going little guy. He tripped over my feet one time and hit his head against a table, and he just got up and rubbed it as I comforted him and then went back to his e-i-e-i-os. It is around 4am here now and he has only woken up a couple of times and started whimpering, but was able to go right back to sleep after I comforted him.

I am so looking forward to seeing him with his Dad, brother and sister, who I know are going to totally fall in love with this little man, too.

A bitter-sweet day before meeting our son

It has been a very lovely day here in Taiwan. Tomorrow is the day I have been waiting for all of these months and I am so joyful and excited to meet our son. Sadly, it has also been a very emotional day for me because our dog, Cookie, who I thought was going to pull through an attack from a coyote, is apparently going to have to be put down after all. I have cried my eyes out feeling so much guilt for having let her out alone on the day of my departure and so much sadness at the fact that after five years, she won't be there when I return home.

Now it's time to leave those sad feelings behind, though, and to prepare for this incredibly special day tomorrow. If one good thing has come of this loss, it has made me realize in just a very small, small way what Jason will have to go through and what he has gone through with the loss of his birth-mom and now his foster mom.

Fion is picking us up at 8:40am to leave for Taichung, which is a two hour drive away. The agency has asked the foster mom to bring Jason to the agency because they feel that it will be too hard for him to be taken away from his foster mom's home. I am disappointed that we won't be able to see where he has lived for all of these months, but I definitely want this transition to be as smooth as possible for Jason. Also, I have been told that the birthmom doesn't want to meet me at this time. There is a possibility that she could change her mind, but it doesn't look very likely at this point.

So, a bit about our first day. The flight on Eva airlines was very nice and seemed to go much more quickly than I had anticipated. Fion picked us up at the airport and then took us to the hotel, the Howard Plaza, to check in. Then she took us to a huge souvenir store for some shopping. Unfortunately, I was just starving at that point and could not set my mind to picking out things. After a while we met Fion in the lobby empty-handed and she looked at us with unbelief! Apparently we had missed the downstairs portion of the shop, so we went back and found some fun things there.

We were going to continue on to Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial Hall but we told Fion that we had to eat something first. It was too early for the restaurants to be open, so she pulled over in front of a dumpling stand (I'll add a picture of it) and bought us some dumplings, which were quite tasty! We then carried on to the Memorial, which was beautiful.

Most of the afternoon was spent trying to figure out why my calling card wouldn't work so that I could call home, and then dealing with the news that I had received via email about our dog. We did, however find time to try out the hotel lounge downstairs in the hotel. I discovered my new favorite drink there, the Singapore Sling, or something like that.

Finally, we walked the town and explored a department stores and a few other shops, and ended up at a very popular dumpling restaurant called, ""DIN TAI FUNG", which was really good! We took a cab home, which was quite an experience! Apparently pedestrians DON'T have the right-of-way here. It has been amazing to see all of the scooters and even more so, all of the people that wear mask (like a doctor's mask) to keep from breathing the pollution. My one complaint is that I haven't been able to find "bubble tea" anywhere!

Tomorrow is the big day. I have envisioned it so many times that I can't believe that it is finally going to happen. I just pray that it will be a good day for Jason, and not too tramatic for him.

*****Quick Update!!!*****

I just received news via email from my husband that he took our dog to our regular vet vs. the emergency clinic where she has been, and they really felt that Cookie could heal well given rest at home with medication. Needless to say, my heart is lighter, and I am so thrilled to know that if all goes well with her recovery, she will be there to greet me with Jason back at home!!!!