3 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!!!

Today is 3 months ago that we got the boys. Time flies when you're having fun. ;-) I can't believe how far they've come, how much they developed, and grown during this time. I think their foster families would be amazed, and proud. A month ago I didn't see how we could even reapply for adoption again in 6 months. Today I can tell you it's all good. It's all okay. We've gone miles from where we were in our hotel room 3 months ago. Miles. Lots of changes, good behaviors learned, talking that is unbelievable, learning to feed themselves well, and learning what it is to have their very own family. I hope they know how very special they are and how much they are loved. In 2 months they both have birthdays and I think it's going to be a great celebration. I wish you could all come and join us.

Taipei 101

On June 4th we went to Taipei 101. It was huge. There were signs that bragged that the elevator was the worlds fastest so I was somewhat anxious about getting on the elevator after reading signs that strongly discouraged anyone prone to dizziness from riding. Jeri and I had vertigo. Her vertigo had the rooms spinning. mine had the floors moving up and down, but she was a trooper and wanted to do it. It was $14 per adult but worth it to me while Taipei 101 is the worlds tallest building. First we put our backpacks in free lockers which are available to anyone. Since we had the little boys in a side by side stroller we got to go to the front of the line since the stroller would not fit in the lines marked out. So we got in the elevator and they packed us in tight. After about 2 seconds the lights went out and they had stars on the ceiling of the elevator. I was thinking crap! I'm going to die! It was hot in there. Well the elevator went from the 5th to 89th floors in less than 30 seconds. I thought it was going to rocket us up there and then stop so our heads hit the ceiling and then we'd feel like hurling. But the ride was smooth all the way. Up top they have these wireless handheld recorders that talk your through 13 tour stations on the 89th floor. On stops 1-6 I never could see what they were talking about so I gave up and tried to get some good pictures of my own. That was tough because the pollution and haze makes it impossible to get a good view in the distance. The only good pictures I could get were looking down at the streets. After going to the 91st floor by special elevator we went to the center of the building that has some huge counterweight that helps stabilzes the building in wind and earthquakes. To go any higher you have to take steps so that was it for us. We went to floors 1-4 where they have high end shopping stores and in the basement there are about 50 or more restaurants. There was tons of deelicious looking food but we stayed simple with fried rice and chicken (which they still didn't really eat). Up on the 4th floor we stopped at a Haagen Dazs place where we spent $15 for 2 3 scoop bowls of ice cream. These were not Texas sized at all. They were mini scoops made with a mini scooper. But it was oh so good and it was Jace's and Jovi's first ice cream with us. It was relaxing and tasty. We walked around and checked out some of the stores. Jeri saw some purse she liked but of course we'd never spend more than $50 on a purse. I went in the store, picked up the purse in question and asked the lady if she thought it matched my wardrobe. She looked mortified, then I said just kidding. =) The purse was $400 so we left it there. Later we went back to the same couches looking for a place to relax since the boys had fallen asleep. We definitely didn't want to wake them from their nap. We also didn't want to go back to the Hotel too early because there Jace would cry for his foster parents. Whenever we were away from the hotel I think he considered us to be helping him look for them.

John

Our World For a Week

A nice fairly trick scooter.


Tien Mu Underground Parking Pay Station near Welcome Market.


Fang's Restaurant - great food and a few english speaking servers.


Corner of Tien Mu Road looking down toward Fang's.


Cold Stone Creamery - $15 for 5 small scoops of ice cream, the going rate in Taiwan.


Taipei American School.


Looking down the street, 1 block left of the Welcome Market.


A corner Cycle Repair Shop - my dream job? On Tien Mu Road.


Across street from our Hotel.



A nice place like McD's. Cold AC, sweet tea, and shrimp.



Our Hotel. Nice people there.


Maison Alexandre - a bake shop and deli with specialty foods.
The family that owns it has 8 siblings. Four sisters runs the store.
The two sisters that work in the late afternoon-evening were nice.


150 feet to the right of the Welcome Market.


The Welcome Market.

heading home, what an adventure

What a leisurely morning it started out to be. We gave our water and extra noodles that we didn't use to Anita and Nick. (miss seeing y'all!!! - hope everything is moving along) I spent the morning packing, John spent the morning searching for a bungee cord to tie up our stroller with. I don't know why any company would ever make a stroller without something to lock it together with. Kind of dumb. Bungee cord is found down one of the little side streets. And he found these very cool silver coins about 3" in diameter, it's called a Tael. Looks like they are worth a lot more than the $3 he paid for it. It's made out of different precious metals, weighs 1.3 oz, and Of course we wish we would have bought more of several things, this included.

I finished packing with about 2 hours to spare. John wasn't feeling too good so we were just praying for the medicine to work and for God to have mercy on him during this long trip home. I've been really sick on a flight before and it is noooo fun. Our driver from our agency, Danny, showed up about 15min early so we loaded the car and kids, and John checked us out.

Danny even came in and helped us get checked in and talk with Jace more. He was quite upset because he realized the plane would take him to America. Danny waited with for about an hour I guess. Our plane was running about 30min late. Going thru security was easy, except that John forgot to take out the camera that we had sent to Jovi. We're not sure what will be on it, or what will come out, we'll just hope for the best. It is a really nice airport, just like Laura said. After hoofing over to our gate, we learned our plane was going to be even later. So we just sat and let the boys watch the planes. During our sit a woman came up and asked if we minded if she prayed in the corner behind us. I said no, but it was curious to watch the boys. Jace of course slid over on the window seat (not really a seat, but they sat on it) and watched her then started talking to her in Chinese, asking her questions. My guess was that she didn't speak Chinese. After she finished, another lady came, older. She had something white in her hand and I thought it was a prayer list, but it turned out to be white paper that she put on the floor and then would bow down on. Very interesting to see. After awhile John went to ask something and we learned that the real waiting room for gate 5 was actually 1 floor down. Yes, there was an elevator, but ugh, we had to turn the stroller sideways to get it in. I panicked at first thinking I wouldn't be able to get it back out since only me and the stroller with boys fit, but then realized the other side opened too. Duh. But it was a very. small. elevator!

And when the doors opened, holy smokes! There was the waiting room filled with a lot of people. A lot. And they all wanted on our plane. So we got in line where all the other people were with kids. Did you know that American flights no longer let people with kids pre-board. Nope, they make you wait right along with everyone else. Anyway, while we were standing and waiting, they announced another delay. Would you believe that by the time we got on the plane it was 2 hours late!!! We were so unsure what would be waiting for us in California! As it was we only had a 3 1/2 hour layover until our flight back home! Once we got on the plane just shortly after take off they brought the bassinet for Jovi to sleep in. I had heard that only 20lbs and 12 mos could use the bassinet, and I told the stewardess I thought he would be too heavy. It said on the outside 16kg for the weight limit, so at 24lbs he was good to go. Within about 30min of takeoff or maybe 45 both boys were fast asleep! I didn't know how well Jace Levi was going to sleep since he was in the seat, but we piled pillows around him and he did ok. Jovi's feet hung outside of the bassinet and thankfully he slept away too! But John and I didn't fare so well. How do you sleep when you're so uncomfortable and you have 2 little kids that you have to keep an eye on? You just don't. John said that when he noticed I was asleep he stayed awake, as best as he could. But I only slept about 4 hours. Both Jovi and Jace Levi woke up about 1.5 hours before the plane landed and thankfully both were in good moods! It took us about 30 minutes to feed them but after that they both sort of watched the kid shows on the EVA tv. No need for our own videos.

BTW, it was interesting. We loaded videos and music on our ipod, but I think John watched 2 movies, and other than that we never used them. Maybe because it isn't part of our daily life habits? I don't know but it was nice to have them if we wanted them.

Once we landed at LAX it was a mad dash. One I will NEVER forget. We knew we had about an hour to get thru immigration, get the luggage, then customs, then to terminal 4 to get our AA flight home. Have you been to LAX? Have you come in on an international flight? We knew we weren't going to make it. Our plan (my plan but John went with it) was for John to get off the plane and get to immigration as fast as he could. When I finally got off the plane with the boys there was no elevator. Well, there was, but it wasn't working. My choice was the steps. An entire flight of a lot of steps, with me, a diaper bag, a stroller, a backpack and 2 boys. Then an LAX lady came by with someone in a wheel chair. I asked her what to do and she said she didn't know. But another mom had 1 child in a stroller too. So we followed her. She put her card in a door (it and the windows, all glass, we could see her) and she and the wheelchair and person went thru it and she slammed it in our faces! We hollered at her and told she couldn't just leave us there and needed to help her. Of course now as I write this days later I'm thinking about the ADA law and that it was the responsibility of LAX to get us thru there. No we weren't disabled but seriously, who would leave 2 moms loaded down with stuff and kids stuck. About right now I'm seriously starting to panic because John has our passports and the adoption stuff, and I have the boys and no passports. Squat that says who we are. Mental note: never separate like this again! So she came back, swiped her card, and then let us thru and told us to hurry up before the alarms sounded because she wasn't supposed to be doing this and she could get fired and blah blah blah. I had no pity for her at all. maybe I should have but she did slam the door in my face. We were in a sort of office place with no one in it. Then she went thru another door, put herself thru it, then opened it again for us, because now she couldn't leave us in the sealed office, right? Thru that office, past 3 other guards that could have cared less, and to an elevator. And the whole time she's seriously trying to get away from us. And our kids aren't crying, we're all 5 quiet. We get to this elevator and she tells us to hurry up before the alarm sounds cause she's going to get in trouble blah blah blah. There was no alarm on the elevator, it was just a regular elevator, she just pushed a button. When we went down 1 floor it opened into the room where immigration was. We turned the corner and I started scanning for John. I think my face showed what panic I was feeling. A lady came up and asked if she could help so I told her what I needed and that John was here. I finally found him and bless his heart he was almost at the front of the line. I had to call him out of line and over to the correct line where adoptions are processed. We were the only family!

When we came home with Jani it took the immigration 1 hour to do our paperwork. The other trip we came in thru the Delta terminal and they took maybe 30 minutes to process us. It wasn't long. There were 4 guys there and we were just standing there, they were eating, and just ignored us. So I asked "is this where we're supposed to wait?" and he said "yes, just a minute and someone will call you." Apparently they didn't process adoptions. So as I relayed my hunt for John to John (and cried from exhaustion and fear) a 5th guy called us to come forward. We found John's cell phone and called my brother to relay the bad news that we most likely weren't going to make our flight home and would have to spend the night in LA. Not something we looked forward to at all. While talking to him, the immigration guy said "Ms. Smith, Jeri Smith" and I said 'yes', and he said "you're all done, welcome to America, have a great life". Can you believe that! It had been less than 5 minutes. Hallelujah! God was really listening. Oh, btw, we had also been praying without the other one knowing that people would help us get to our plane or that our flight home would be delayed. Both happened! Seriously. =)

While I was waiting with the boys they let John go past so he could get our luggage. I ran over to him, we consolidated the luggage to 1 cart and away we went! We flew right thru customs and asked a lady which way to American Airlines. Out the door and the left she assured me. WRONG! No AA in terminal 3, so we had to go back past the international terminal and then to #4. I was dead tired at that point. Pushing luggage was easier than pushing the stroller o' boys. When we finally got inside I remembered that if your luggage was tagged you could just check it in with TSA. YES! Score 1 for Jeri! Woohoo! We found a departure board and learned that our next flight was now running a full 40 minutes late!!!! Thank you to everyone that happened to be praying for us on Friday! We didn't have time to eat at Chili's and I could only look at it and remembered my trips (I hate Chili's and we only eat there when we're at LAX). We did grab chicken nuggets at Burger King. And a bag of mini teddy grahams at a store. And we sat for maybe 10-15min before boarding our flight.

Jovi slept on the flight home, Jace Levi whined all the way. It was fun. You should have been there. When we landed we were the last ones off the plane, but we were also towards the back. I bet my brother and Jani and Adam thought we were never coming. But then, there they were. Man, my kids never looked so good. I hate leaving them, but will always do what I need to do to complete our family. It was about 1am by the time we left the airport. And we were hungry. So what else do you do at 1am, you find a place to eat. IHOP or Denny's...we chose Denny's. It was 4:30am by the time we crawled in bed. We were exhausted.

I'm sure we have some pictures, but I don't know where they are currently. But at least now you know about our flights. See, I can't make this up!

how do you sum it all up? and something to remember at AIT

Today found us making separate plans, but it was a good thing. We didn't have to go anywhere early this morning, but of course we still woke up at at 6am. I think John got up at 5am. After the boys woke we went down to breakfast where we met our friends from Australia, Anita and Nick. They came for a visit I think and the judge found out they were here so he's requiring them to attend all of the court hearings. How about that snag? They've been here 2 weeks and have 7-8 more to go. Another Australian family that John met on the first day has already been here a long time and are on their 4th judge. Apparently they keep getting judges that haven't done either an international adoption before or haven't handled an Australian IA. They decided to go to southern Taiwan for the week to help pass their time. I think they are here for 2-3 mos also, and already have about 2 months down. I think I got all of that straight, maybe.

Anyway, back to our day. We got to finally see our Jani girl (thanks Jami!) on Skype and of course it made me cry. I miss her so much. She had fun getting to see the boys and acted so silly. The boys could have cared less.

About 9:30 John and the boys left on their adventure so he'll have to tell us more about that. Since we needed to go back to AIT to get the boys passport, and since we had to climb stairs to the 3rd floor, we decided it would be easier if I went alone. They had told me to come back anytime after 11:30. I left the hotel at 11:30 and hailed a cab all on my own and made my way to AIT. I got there about 12 and the guard asked where my appt letter was. I said I didn't have one but that they told me to come back after 1130. Not good enough. He then told me they were at lunch until 1230 and that I would just have to wait. I almost cried, proving that maybe I'm not such a grown up girl. So I paced in front of AIT, up and down or 30 minutes. At 1230 I went over to ask him what time it was and then he promptly changed places with the next guard, went inside, and left me hanging. So I told the new guarded what I needed, I don't have an appt letter, and he says "they're at lunch, you wait for 1:30." Now I really wanted to cry. And before I could stop myself I said "no, that's not right, I'm supposed to go on up." He opened the door and said something to the guards inside and then let me in. I can't do anything simple, right? Isn't that what you're thinking? It's what I was thinking.

I get upstairs, check in at Window 8, wave to the man that I spoke with yesterday in Window 6 (he's from Haiti as a side note, moved to NY as a child, and has now lived in several places), and he tells me it will be about 5 minutes. He comes out and I proceed to look for the final decree that Sally said to make sure we get back. I can't find it. I panic. No one is at any of the windows now. So I knock and say hello a couple of times and Mr. Haiti (did I mention that I really like him, he's adopted a child himself) comes to the window and he goes to get Mr. Fu (who I also really like). Mr. Fu takes the packet and goes thru it and of course finds our 1st decree and final decree because why else, he can read Chinese and I can't! =) And then I'm off. As I walk out of the door, wondering if I'll ever be in there again, it occurs to me that this is the final step our boys need to go home, to a land they don't know.

I spent several moments today thinking about this place. I had taken 1 of our cameras to take pictures as I headed for AIT, something to remember the scenery, even of old buildings, new buildings, and mountains not too far away. But I couldn't. Inside I felt like it wasn't goodbye, but I also felt like China wasn't goodbye. You take a certain route to places, while you're there for your trip, and all too soon it's over. It's time to leave. Don't get me wrong, I miss Adam and Jani with a passion that runs deep, but at the same time, I want to bring them here. It's hard to describe. It's a feeling like this is part of my life, like I need to be here. My heart yearns for 2 places: Asia and America. Well, technically a 3rd cause I'd like to live in Virginia too. It's a desire to merge my 2 worlds. Not possible, but still something that I want for my children. Maybe one day.

For now, my part in life is to be in Texas and raise my children. And hope and pray that they grow up to be good people who love God and treat all people with respect. But I hope that maybe just maybe God will see fit to bring us to Asia for a little while.

So that's the best I can sum up my feelings about being here. It's bittersweet. It's the land where my children were born, it's the land where they became my children. It's a foreign land to me but at the same time so familiar. I can't say I'll miss the smell of the gas fumes, or sidewalks that aren't quite wide enough for a double stroller, but I will miss the people that have made an impact on our lives while here.

This is Eva who works at the Front Desk at the Feeling Hotel.

She helped Jace and us so much this week. She went way above her duty of working at the hotel.

Thanks Eva, you're the best!

So back to our day. On the way back I went searching for long pants for the boys. I didn't bring any because, hey, I live in Texas, and the clothes the boys came with were all shorts. I found some, but amazingly, the prices are higher here than in the US. Well for how I shop anyway. I had to laugh when in Sees I found The Childrens Place clothes. It was interesting to see pants that cost $8 in Texas be $13 here. I got them 2 sweatshirts, it was all I could find. See, I didn't listen to Laura and I left the only jackets we had at home because I knew they would be too warm. I bet they would have been great. I'll let you know this winter. I finally found Pais after searching all week, no one knew the store. I quickly found 2 pair of pants that have a drawstring waist which is something we really needed. I cringed at the 700nt I had to spend though. Ouch! Jace is super thin, you can see his little bones all over him. Jovi is not fat like they said, he's a very healthy boy. No bones there.

It was about 1:30pm before I made it back to the room. Maybe 2pm even. I was drenched with sweat. What a mental picture, right? Our first 3 days here it was in the 70s, cloudy, and it felt great walking around. Wed and Thursday were extremely hot. Not so badly humid like I thought it would be, like Guangzhou, but hot. Of course with all the tall buildings and mopeds around I'm sure that doesnt' help with the breezes and better air here.

The Australian couple told us of a shop nearby where you can buy puppets, something that is special to Taiwan. We didn't know the name, but got decent directions from Eva at the desk. Off we went. You take a right out of the hotel, then a left, then another right and follow the street as it curves to the left, then take another left when you get to the T, you pass the 7-11 and keep going and you'll see on your left the little store called Formosa Puppets. That place was the jacket. I'm glad now that I passed up the ones at the Handicraft Market.

From there we went to the Lego store that John found while out on his walk. It was on the 2nd floor so I went up while he waited with the boys. Go buy them at Walmart. A box that is normally about $20-$25 for say a Star Wars set is about $40 here. I'm thinking we're never going to find something special for Adam. Then we stop at the Cold Stone Creamery that we found. It's past the Wellcome Market to the left on TianMu Road. A guy helped us heft the stroller up the steps and into the store where the ladies sang us a song about ice cream and toppings and eating it. Once again we shelled out $15 for ice cream (eeeek!) only to find that today Jovi loved it but Jace did not want the chocolate, only the white ice cream, regardless of the flavor. Then he decided he didn't want any of it and proceeded to tell us it was time to go and get back to looking for his bobo.

We were going to go to Carrefour to search for some kids chopsticks, the kind with the attachment on top, but it was hot, and quite frankly my legs were tired of walking. We decided to have a somewhat early dinner at Mo's Burgers. John went there earlier for lunch and the boys ate so why not. They have iced sweet tea, YUMMO! And then I saw that they have 5 butterflied shrimpt for 45nt. Uh, hello! I've been craving those since yesterday. I had 2 bags, which sounds like a lot, but the shrimp aren't that big. It was really good though.

Back at the palace, er, hotel, I thought the boys would do well to have their baths and watch tv and chill out. In they both went, and I finally remembered to snap a picture of them in the tub. For some reason Jovi started crying when we took him to the bathroom. He hasn't cried before so I'm not sure what he was thinking. But it didn't last long. They started getting tired at 7pm and I noticed that it was dark already outside. Why does it get dark so early here? Anyone know? And now here we are at 8:45pm. What a day we've had!

Jeri

Oh, I almost forgot. For the first time Jace went to bed without crying. Bless his little heart. It's hard to watch him search and search for his foster family and it's hard to listen to the cries that sometimes go on and on. But everyday is better.

just a quick note

John is out with Jace now taking some pictures. And I'm supposed to be packing. =) Nothing like procrastination right? I can't believe that it's time for us to leave Taiwan. As much as I want to come home, I want to stay also.

I wanted to say thank you to all of you that left us messages. We have our blog set up to send us an email when someone leaves us a comment and Blogger isn't set up to allow you to comment back. Though I just realized I could comment to your comments. =) Please know that I've loved your comments. It's been so good to read that people are praying for us. Great to talk to on Skype. Ah, the invention of Skype. It helps this mommy's heart.

Gotta run, John's back, now it's going to really get busy in here. =)

ps: y'all be sure to go back and read the Ladies and Gentlemen post, I'm trying to change the times to reflect us here, but sometimes i get it all mixed up. Or like this one, I have to make the date read yesterday, otherwise it says it will post when the time rolls around. Got it? current time in Taipei June 6, 12:10pm.

more pictures

Tada, it only took me 4 days to figure it out!

Watching Dora the Explorer in Chinese because the Teletubbies turned out to be Region 3 dvds.

Loving watching Dora. They sat for about an hour!!

At Taipei 101 eating Haagen Daz ice cream. And loving it despite the face Jovi is making. He just opens his mouth really wide when he takes a bite of anything.

Eliciting smiles and laughter out of Jace. Jovi laughs some but he doesn't seem tickleish.

John and I on the 91st floor, seeing the clouds, and a little bit of Taipei.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'd like to introduce you to someone: Jovi. Before I tell you about our day, I'd like to tell you about this little boy. Today he came alive. His shell disappeared while we were at AIT and what we found was this funny little boy. He really does like music and he likes to dance to it. He likes playing with toys and walking around and being tossed in the air. He has the softest cry that you barely here when you're dead asleep. It's almost missable (is that a word?) when you're awake too. He's very observant, does what you tell him, and is so precious. He's not really fat so we don't know why they called him pang pang (fat fat in Chinese). He has a good arm for throwing, tossed a shoe at the laptop and hit it. (Thank goodness it was a Croc shoe!) He has thin hair, his teeth are coming in strangely, not the normal 4 in the front pattern.

He also has a brother: Jace. Jace loves deeply, has a high shrill cry at times, and he has these deep dark eyes. He has a great laugh and is tickleish and wiggles wildly when you kiss his neck. You have to be careful though or he'll whack you with his hard head. He's a skinny little boy, wearing 2T because of the length, but would easily fit in 18mo or possibly 12mo clothes. We know that he likes candy, wants things when he wants them, and is very spoiled. I'm not sure that we've got to see him yet. He's affectionate to Jovi, kisses him, shares snacks with him, and lays his head on Jovi's lap when they're in the stroller. Until Jovi has enough and tries to push him off.
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We woke up before our wakeup call came, but we knew we would. We had to leave at 7:15 for AIT at 8am. A quick bowl of congee for the boys (the one thing both will eat). The desk staff said they needed 5 minutes notice for a cab, we gave them 15. So at 7:14 we walk out of the breakfast room to no cab. The poor guy (we'll have to get his name) said he was having a hard time getting a cab. Total freak out time. Cause we don't know what will happen if we're late, and we have no idea how long it takes to get there. John starts heading to the street to get us a cab and guy comes out and says to wait, he found one and it will be here in 3 minutes. Lesson learned, there aren't that many cabs out and about at 7:15am.

We got to AIT and were able to go right in. We thought we were supposed to go to the 2nd floor but it was the 3rd floor. We met another couple with FEC, a mom using Heartsent, and a couple using Home of God's Love. And with them was Ted Skyles/Skiles. He was so incredibly nice.

I was surprised that our AIT appt took almost 3 hours. So very different from our China experience. After talking with Mr. Fu, we talked with the man from Haiti. He was really nice, talked us about how we were feeling about the boys, did we have any doubts about adopting them. It was really different from China. When we were finally finished he asked what our plans were for the day and we told him we were heading to Taipei 101. He said that was great to go see and we asked was it very far, in walking distance. He said yes if you don't mind walking 5 or 6 miles. And then laughed. We didn't get it, but we did when we got in the cab. Um yeah, 101 is right down the road from AIT but I'd say maybe a mile, much further than we wanted to walk with the boys. We laughed after we got settled in the car and noticed what was in front of us.

Taipei 101 doesn't seem that tall. I mean it is, but it doesn't look that tall. I wasn't sure what to expect when we got inside. Honestly I thought the entire building was a shopping mall. It isn't though I don't know what's on floors 6-87. Every store was a brand name, a high end brand name from what I saw. Way beyond what we spend. But it was great being there. The food court in the basement was amazing. And it wasn't expensive, that was really surprising. We got the boys 2 huge plates of rice for 45nt each (just for the record 30nt = $1), then John went to find some chicken. Jovi can't really chew it since he has almost no back teeth and seems to choke on it if the piece is too big. Neither of them wanted the fried rice and it was so good. They told us that they eat a lot of rice, but so far that seems to be limited to congee. And plain congee at that. I on the hand have gotten pretty good at eating with chopsticks. I can actually have a complete meal using them. Hey, that's something to be proud of if you ask me!

We didn't walk the shopping floors, we weren't looking to buy anything, but we did land on the 4th floor where we bought ice cream. My first time to ever eat from Haagen Daz. We gave the boys some. Turns out Jace loves it. Jovi likes it too but he's not too hip on cold things in his mouth. After we ate it all we went to the 5th floor which is where you buy your tickets to go up to the top. 400nt a person to see floors 88, 89 and 91. I think. Looking out from the observation deck was ok, but hey, I've seen it from a plane. =) They have a little recorder thing you can wear to listen and get a lesson from it all, but the recording never matched up to what we were seeing at each station. After a while we gave up. We saw the ball sphere thingy that keeps the building stable during high wind and earthquakes. I do have to admit I didn't want to stay up there forever just in case another earthquake hit. We went outside to where you can walk around (I think that was on floor 91) and they let us use a private elevator. At this point both boys had fallen asleep and I guess they thought the regular one would wake them up. We walked all the way around. I had to ask one of the girls working there if the guards still had to stand outside when it was cold or rainy and she said yes, they just wear raincoats.

Since the boys were asleep we didn't want to wake them so we went back to the Haagen Daz area and sat there until the woke up, for over an hour. Coming back from 101 both boys only wanted John which was interesting, but ok. We had the driver drop us off at the Bear clinic since we had forgotten the boys IC cards (like a health insurance card) so we had to go show them and get our money back from Monday. From their we walked back down the main road and then turned and headed towards Fangs. I was looking for the dept store that was supposed to be back here. Oh on the ride back Jace got really upset so the cab driver was translating for us. Turns out that this isn't all grief. We learned that some of the things that he's repeated over and over is 'I want candy' and 'I want to watch tv'. Too funny. We found the movie theater, but had just missed the beginning of a movie called Mary and the 3 Puppies. So we went into the department store and I remembered buying movies in China so figured they had them here. One of the things he told the cab driver was that he like to watch 4 characters on a cartoon with tvs on their bellies. "Is it Teletubbies?" I asked. Yes he replied, and I just groaned. Adam I'm sure you're groaning with me. At the dept store we did indeed find Teletubbies which Jace very quickly threw a tantrum because he wanted us to go immediately back to the room and watch them. haha This was all courtesy of the clerk. I found an entire set 1-10 of Dora in Chinese for Jani. So excited about that because Wei had found an episode online that he put on a cd for her. We asked the clerk to tell Jace that he could watch the dvd when we got back to the hotel room.

On the way back we stumbled on a playground and let the boys get out and play. Jace threw a huge fit about being there, I mean huge! Jovi loved getting to rock on the seahorse and walk around. But Jace was MAD. He went back to the stroller and tried to get the dvds out (tried) and just sat in his seat sulking until we left. And this all happened as a woman stood there looking on. I really wanted to stick my tongue out at her, but instead opted for a roll of my eyes. When we were leaving she really stared us down so I decided to just stare back. I know, not the most mature thing to do, but please. You know you would have wanted to also!

After getting back to our room we sadly discovered that the dvds were Region 3. The Dora ones worked just fine (thankfully). We figured out how to change the region on the computer but decided that wasn't the best thing to do. Did you know you can only change your region 5 times and then you can never change it again? And somewhere along the way we used one of those turns and are down to 4. Dora was acceptable to him, though he still whined a whole lot.

We had pizza for dinner and I was really glad to see Jace eat 2 pieces. Jovi gnawed it as good as he could and didn't do a bad job. Jace cried himself to sleep but I think it's getting a little better.

Jeri

Sights and Sounds in the City

After we arrived in the Taipei airport we waited about 30 minutes in the immigration line. Then we walked through some doors and see a sign with our name on it. Awesome! A local who knows how to get us to our destination. We rode in a Mercedes 500 class 4 door sedan. It was so smooth! Just what I needed after feeling motion sick and exhausted from the flights and waiting in lines. I highly recommend this quality of arranged transportation. The driver was nice. It was well worth the $40 suggested price and we were able to tip $10 without it breaking us. As we drove in from the airport I couldn't tell if there was smog or haze in the air but mostly I was appreciating the smooth ride in. Did I say smooooth? The drive through Taipei city was filled with old and new buildings. There are lots of colored signs and businesses. Lots of people on motor scooters. Motorcyles are my passion so I was taking it all in. Growing up in Delaware my friends and I used to love the smell of 2 stroke pre-mixed oil and that's how the air smelled when Jeri and I ventured out today. One thing that's really cool about Asia is 2 stroke motorcyles are everywhere. Most 2 strokes were phased out in the USA except for the Yamaha RD350 which had it's last run about 5-10 years ago. Anyway, lots of bikes we don't get in the US to to emissions reasons. A veritable feast of four stroke singles and other 125cc bikes. We ate lunch today at Fang's Restaurant. The inside is very nice and they had a food server who spoke english. I wanted to make sure there were no nuts in my food since that would be deadly for me. We had shrimp fried rice, chicken fried rice, and some tangerine pork. Nothing with nuts and peanut oil is not use to fry the rice. All this for 778NT or US $26. The portions were large. We ate about 25% of everything and took a to go box. A good deal. I recommend it. Our hotel room was not as large as I thought from the images on the web. But we aren't paying a fortune either. One thing that stands out to me. When you walk into the foyer to approach the front desk whomever is behinds stands up to greet you. Every time. The earthquake - the beds started rocking and Jeri said what is that. I said earthquake after hearing earlier in the day that there was one in south Taiwan. We went and stood in the bathroom doorway and I prayed for our safety in Jesus name. The only name under heaven whereby we must be saved. The idea of being on the 7th floor was not too thrilling. I went out in the hallway to see if anyone else was out there. There were 2 hotel workers out there. They didn't speak any english but they clearly communicated that their heart rates were up, as was mine. At that point I wished that they spoke spanish at least because I know more than (a little) poquito espanol. I think they were trying to say its okay to go back to bed but I was in search of more information. I walked down 7 flights of stairs knowing that climbing back up them would be tough, but the night manager downstairs told me that the building was built to withstand earthquakes and that they happen regularly. Mental note: I would prefer to be in a hotel that has fluent english speakers 24/7 so that in the event of a "casual 6.0 earthquake" I can get some clear communication. He told me everything was okay so I took the elevator up hoping I didn't get stranded in it. It says 550kg limit but it only holds 4 people. That would be mighty claustrophobic to be stranded in. The hotel staff here are friendly and the air conditionng lacks nothing by American standards. Outside the hotel teenagers were lauging an joking. They were used to earthquakes or tremors and were unaffected. Well, TTFN

John

Sunday Sunday

Yep, I still have my silly hat on, which I think really means I must surely still be sleep deprived. I'll recap the last 48 hours, approximately, because I really don't know how much time it's been.

We about froze our butts off waiting in LAX once we got to our gate. I mean it was freezing! We were shivering. See, we don't wear jackets in the summer. Sure a lot of other people do, and then there are those that know to bring jackets, but seeing as how we live in Texas where our cold weather last from November (maybe, but sometimes we're still wearing shorts at Christmas) thru March (again maybe, this year we had 90+ temps in Feb) jackets just aren't in our nature. So we froze. And shivered. An shook. And did the bob and weave because according to our bodies it was coming up on 3:30am and shouldn't we be in bed about then?

I think we started boarding our plane about 1:10am pst, we settled in very quickly and promptly went to sleep. I think I stayed awake thru take off, but I think John crashed before then. It should also be noted that we were both still sick from earlier in the week. I had a meeting with the bowl in the bathroom in the morning before we left, and also shortly after take off from Texas to California. Or rather that meeting involved a bag. It's this drainage, it's killing me! Hey J, I can hear you now saying "girl, it's the air, I'm telling ya" as I smile and nod my head. It's all allergies though. Same with John now. We did take some dramamine thinking it might help our stomachs and I think it did. A little bit.

Anyway, on to the plane. I have to say, as I said to John, I think I like China Southern's premium economy better. EVA has newer seats and newer equipment (took us forever to figure out how to work the movie thing). CS has wider seats, more leg room between you and the seat in front of you, more offerings of food, and staff checking on you. Besides offering drinks 2x, and the 1 meal we were awake for, we never saw the staff on EVA. It was kind of weird, you know? Don't get me wrong, we would still fly EVA again, and would definitely choose the deluxe again (if nothing else than for the shorter wait lines you get to stand in!), I'm just noting some differences. Because I realized that should we still feel icky when we fly back on Friday, Jovi's going to be sitting somewhere on us, not in a separate seat, which reduces the amount of space we have. See? A mom thinks about these things.

I think our plane was supposed to get in at 6:40am (but I could be thinking about when we leave on Friday). We got in at 6am, very nice smooth flight. It was exciting as we watched the screen the last hour, and then thru all the clouds we started seeing some land. My emotions flew as they always do when we approach the country to adopt. I choke up, I cry, because I know that me being here means something so incredibly life changing for someone else. Adopting from China I knew that Jani needed us, without us her life would not be a good one. But for the boys I feel differently. Don't get me wrong, they need us and we need them. But Taiwan isn't China. If it weren't me it would be someone else. These boys are fed (seriously, have you seen Jovi's pictures?) and clothed, and not put 3 to a crib with a straw mat and standing in pee. You know? It's just different. But no less, it still makes me sad to take them from their home country. I was wondering as we were still approaching, would I have these same feelings if I was adopting from in the US? I think I would, except maybe instead of their country, it would be from their surroundings, the sights they would have seen growing up, the slang that their area uses. Little things like that. The things that turn us into the adults we grow to be. So I'm here, we're here, but my heart is sad for Jace and Jovi's loss too.

We followed what Laura said as best as I could remember it. When we got off we went to Immigration, but noticed that NO ONE was at the bank booth to exchange money. Of course mostly everyone was Taiwanese except for the 60 people in the non-citizen lines. We traded our crisp new 100s for some bigger 1000s. Yeah, don't we wish we could all do that! Oh, and speaking of trading, do not trade in LAX!!! We got just over $30 to $1 here, and in LAX it was $27 to $1 I believe, maybe $26. Bad rate. Oh, anyone coming over soon, I bought some NT off of my sweet friend S prior to coming, and promptly lost/left the envelope at home. So for $40, anyone want to buy $1200NT?

We breezed thru, husband and wife or family can walk up together. Then finding our bags, which was super easy, the carts are free (I refused to pay $3 at LAX and we finally found 1 someone had left), but here's what we didn't see. Where do you go afterwards? We could not see any signs as we stood there looking around. We asked one of the airport staff and they pointed to this really big yellow sign that we honestly couldn't see. It's in between the luggage carousels, not at either end of the luggage room. We get thru there, customs just smiled and said welcome (in China they scanned our luggage, or maybe that was when we got back to the US?) and then we rounded the corner to see about 50 drivers waiting for people. And low and behold there was Danny holding the sign with our name on it. I pointed at him while we were a good distance still and he pointed to himself and nodded and I gave a smile and a nod, and away we went. We rode in a black Mercedes. I must say that's the first time I've ever been in one, and we were in the backseat and I was worried about barfing from the motion. Not the case. I swear that was the most comfortable, quietest, smoothest car ride I've ever had.

Danny told us it would be about an hour ride, but it was only 30min. Of course this is in Sunday morning traffic, which I must say I was surprised there was traffic. While we rode, I looked and noticed that this does look like China buildings, but it doesn't. It does not seem as cramped and frantic as China. You can cross the street safely, though John was quite hilarious about crossing because he would almost run it seemed. I told him to relax, it isn't China. Or at least the TianMu area isn't China!

Ok, so to me, here's the coolest part of our day. As we turned right on the main street by the hotel, I found myself feeling like I was back in a place where I belonged, familiar ground. My 3rd trip to Asia. The sights, the sounds, the smell of fumes even, all so comforting. I've seen so many little girls just chattering away in Chinese, and I can't help but think how wonderful that would be for Jani. That I could be looking at her little face and hearing and understanding Chinese coming from her darling mouth. So then we happened upon this bakery place, and I wondered if it was where S told me about. No, it's more of a deli, but as we're standing inside looking around this American lady turns and says hello. Turns out she's actually from Toronto (but she didn't have an accent?) and they've lived here for 10 years with her husband's job. They love it here, she had her 3rd child here, her kids go to 3 different schools (only 1 is at the American school) and she said they can't imagine living anywhere else. She said she's met a lot families that work at Dell, we didn't even know they had an office here. We talk maybe 5 minutes and then leave to head on to the Wellcome store. We see the American school, cross the driveway and then someone honks their horn. That's another thing here, no one honks much at all. We turn around and I see my friend Liz with her hand out her car window waving at us and hollering my name. What are the odds she finds me walking down the street in Taipei! Well, she does live in the TianMu district, her kids all go to school at the Am school, and as it turns out, they have church there too. We got to talk with her for a few minutes, I realized her husband works for Dell, and that's how they are here. They've been here 3 years so far and just signed on for their 4th year. They leave on Friday to go back home for the summer. Just realized she probably will be on the same flight as us as well.

Our room (ok breaking news here, we just had a 6.0 earthquake centered in Taipei that hit at 12:59am!!!) (getting back to blogging about 30 minutes later.) is not as large as we hoped, but nice enough. We've stocked our fridge with water, bought some soup bowls of noodles to make here in the room.

Oh after we went to the Wellcome market (which I couldn't tell if it was me since my balance seems to be off a little, or if it was the store, but it seemed really slanted in there) we walked down another street and stumbled across Fangs. We were hungry as we really hadn't eaten much more than a roll since LAX. We ordered fried rice w/chicken and fried rice w/shrimp. John also ordered tangerine pork riblets, not good, not bad tasting, just lots of fat and small bones that make you think you're breaking your teeth. The rice was wonderful though and felt so good to our stomachs. Sadly, we've forgotten to eat the rest of it and left it out on the table. I'm thinking it needs to go to the garbage now.

I think that's most everything from Sunday. We came back to our room and worked on putting the gifts together and trying to stay awake. Then we repacked our backpacks so we would be ready for the boys: diapers, wipes, sippy cups, spoons, disp bibs, disp placemats. I think we're ready. Bob and Weave came back to pay us a visit. It was funny trying to keep John awake. He's still up and it's now 2:15, but he's watching a movie. No more movement in the last hour. That's a good thing.

I just realized it's officially Monday, June 2nd. Happy 18th anniversary to us. It's hard to believe 18 years have gone by. He's still as handsome as he was then. =) Ok, I'm off, time to post this, and get back to sleep.

Adam and Jani, we miss you terribly. Terribly terribly. But we know it's easier on you both staying there. And Rich, if we did move to Taiwan, you'd have to come with us. You just would. =) Though I doubt you will, especially since they have earthquakes here! Something us Texans are not used to!
Jeri