Live from Taiwan...

Happiness is...

Family.

More later...

A busy day!

We had a very full day of sightseeing with the incredibly awesome Mr. Yeh and Alex. Blogettes, every good thing you said about them is true and then some. They were amazing!

They picked us up at 10am and we first went to the Pinglin Tea Museum, where I learned that (a) tea is a lot more complicated than I thought, and (b) everything I have ever done in my meager experience with tea (making it from a bag, drinking it) is pretty much wrong. After the educational part of the tour, we went to the tea room where they made us several delicious types of tea to drink.

Everyone there was very friendly and helpful. In particular, we met this nice guy named Steven who was a fellow tourist but incredibly knowledgeable about tea.

Next, they took us to Jungjeng park in Keelung, where we each rang the giant bell three times:

Jeff

Alex

It was extremely hot and humid outside, and poor Jeff was sweating up a storm. Alex, by contrast, looked perfectly fine even though he was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. Amazing.

They then took us to lunch at... Din Tai Fung! There was a very long line when we got there, but we only waited about 15 minutes before getting a table. We ordered a huge amount of food - fantastic dumplings and chicken soup:

After demolishing all but three dumplings, we (Jeff and I, not Alex) waddled out to the car where Mr. Yeh was waiting and drove to the Jinguo jade and flower markets. At the jade market, I have to confess being completely overwhelmed by the amount of merchandise for sale. It was unbelievable how many tables there were.


And even though Alex and Mr. Yeh tried to help me, it became apparent very quickly that I completely stink at (a) selecting merchandise worth less than NT$12,000 and (b) 'bargaining' with the shopkeepers. Alex kept on trying to give me hints, but I still was unsuccessful. I finally managed to buy a few things on my cheapskate budget, all of them found by Alex. Mr. Yeh then bought us a few trinkets out of pity for my pathetic performance. I am just not a shopper!

We then walked over to the Flower Market. What amazes me is that they are only open on weekends. I can't believe the amount of work it takes to set this up every week!

Right about the time we left Keelung it started to rain - hard. (It also stormed yesterday afternoon as well, and I think this is normal for this time of year.) By the time we left the flower market, it had pretty much stopped. We then went to Longshan temple and took a few pictures. It was very crowded and since it was still a bit wet we didn't stay long.

Our final stop was the Snake Alley night market, where we bought a cute outfit for Christian. Unfortunately, it was too early so the 'scroll guy' wasn't there yet. Rather than wait two hours for him to show up, we decided to call it a day and try again some other time. On the way back, Mr. Yeh stopped the car and bought us some food (fried chicken, squid, and potatoes) from a market vendor, who turned out to be Alex's aunt!

Mr. Yeh and Alex were so kind to us. Even though I'm sure that they've done this a million times they were so helpful, friendly, and interested in making sure that we were comfortable and having a good time. It was a fantastic day.

So, now we're back in our room and we can't quite believe that tomorrow we will meet Christian!

We are here!

After roughly 30 hours of travel, we are here in Taipei! It's very surreal. We can't get the internet connection in our room to work, so we're down here typing away at breakfast (side note: it's strange to see both french toast and pork buns on Jeff's plate).

The flights and layover at LAX were long, but fortunately everything went relatively smoothly. On both the five hour flight from Cincinnati to LAX and the 14 hour flight from LAX to Taipei there were cute baby boys who were also incredibly well-behaved. Of course, all babies are that good on planes, right? RIGHT?? Our experience with EVA was great (we flew one class up from economy - best decision we ever made!) and we enjoyed our flight as much as it is possible to enjoy such things. During our flight I watched many movies ranging from pretty good ("The Spiderwick Chronicles") to bad ("Vantage Point","The Other Boleyn Girl") to so bad that I hope that no one else can see me watching this because I'm that embarrassed ("10,000 B.C."). We also had a nice meal of pork, mashed potatoes, broccoli, carrots, fruit, and something white. Even after eating most of it (notice how my failure to identify it did not prevent me from consuming it), I'm not sure what it was...Jeff thinks it was some sort of seafood salad, but I'm not convinced. So between the food, the movies, and occasional cat naps, we passed the time in air, arriving in only a moderately gross state at the end.

Mr Yeh and Alex met us at the airport last night. Both are very nice and we look forward to sightseeing with them. Today, we are just trying to adjust (I feel a nap coming on) and do a little bit of exploring in the sauna that is Taiwan in July. You know, even though I had read about the 90+ degree heat and humidity, it's pretty breathtaking in person.

I hope we can get both our internet and our toilet fixed in our room so I can post more later with pictures. Yes, we've been in the country for less than 24 hours and still have managed to partially destroy our room. :-)

Travel itinerary and other 'deep thoughts'

Here’s our itinerary for our trip to Taiwan:

Thursday (6/26): Flight from Cincinnati to Los Angeles – leave at 8:50am, arrive 10:27am. Leave from LAX to Taipei at 5:00pm.
Friday (6/27): Arrive in Taipei at 9:50pm.
Saturday (6/28), Sunday (6/29): Sightseeing and general bumbling around Taipei
Monday (6/30): Gotcha day!
Tuesday (7/1): First AIT appointment
Wednesday (7/2): Second AIT appointment to pick up Christian’s visa
Thursday (7/3): Flight from Taipei to San Francisco – leave at 11:30pm, arrive 8:00pm. Leave from SF to Cincinnati at 11:20pm.
Friday (7/4): Arrive in Cincinnati at 6:45am! Drive back to Columbus.

Some other thoughts...
To preface, it should be obvious by now that I’m not a great blogger. I have read blog entries that made me cry because they were so touching and powerful, and others that have made me laugh out loud. Personally, I'm aiming for basic competence, as it is so difficult to properly express myself in a powerful, amusing, or even grammatically correct way. In other words, I should have started this whole entry by saying “Rude am I in my speech...” - but unfortunately I am no Othello, so what follows will not be a masterpiece of eloquence. (On the other hand, if I were Othello I would be dead after smothering my wife in a fit of jealousy, so…er…right, going off on a tangent here. This is why I'm no good as a blogger.) However, as we approach the zero hour before we actually hold Christian in our arms, I wanted to try and write down some of the ‘deep thoughts’ that I have been having in the few moments away from the craziness.

Proverbs 16:9 says that “[i]n his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” I have seen other adoptive families use this quote from Scripture and have to affirm how true it has been for us! When Jeff and I got married almost seven years ago, adoption wasn’t anything more than a vaguely positive abstraction to me. And although I always knew I wanted to have kids, I couldn’t have imagined that this would be the way we would become a family. But what we have been blessed with is so much more than anything I could have wished or hoped for in my puny imagination. There is a beautiful, precious little boy in Taiwan that is waiting for us, and I am so humbled by this incredible gift that we have been given. People have said to us that Christian is so ‘lucky’ to have us as parents, but to be honest, I feel it should be the other way around: Jeff and I are so unbelievably lucky to be able to be parents to Christian. 1 Corinthians 2:9 comes to mind: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” Jeff and I can certainly attest to that! I also love the quote by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.” God has graciously answered our prayers for a family in a way that is beyond what we had dreamed of seven plus years ago.

This journey has been tough, to put it mildly. It has been emotional, it has been long and difficult, there have been many tests along the way (and I have miserably failed many of them). There have been many tears and struggles in our quest to become a family. However, we look back on everything – the circumstances, the people God has placed in our lives – and we know that this is how He intended for us to become parents. Or, as Douglas Adams put it, “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” (As a side note, I expect that I will also be thinking of the following quote by Douglas Adams during our 6+ hour layover in Los Angeles: “It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression ‘As pretty as an airport.’”)

I want to say thank you (such inadequate words!) to everyone who has supported us, cheered for us, prayed for us, and helped us during this time. We couldn’t have made it through this without you!

Thank you so much! And know that this is only the crudest approximation of what is in our hearts right now as we prepare for the biggest journey of our lives!

Some prayer requests:
• That Christian would not be too traumatized by the sudden change and that Jeff and I will be able to bond quickly with him.
• For our travel – ESPECIALLY coming home on the long flights with a new baby!
• That Christian will not pee all over me when I have to change his diaper, especially if we are still at the foster family’s house (seriously, this is a recurring nightmare that I have been having). :-)

Final update!

We finally received our June update!

"I'm going to live with THOSE guys??"

Wearing an outfit we sent in our first care package (size 0-3 months). Trust me, kid: it would have fit you perfectly a couple of months ago.

How can you not love this little guy? On a side note, I'm happy to see that the hair is as big as ever (we were afraid that they would cut it).

And if I could only use one word to describe this video (besides "cute," of course) it would be: confusion! I can't blame him, with the hand shaking, multiple voices, and toys being put in his face.




We're coming for you, Christian! Hang in there!

A small bump in the road...

Last night, Jeff was able to call the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) to confirm that they had all of our paperwork for a smooth visa appointment. Amazingly, they said that they had everything, including our updated fingerprints which were only done on May 7. Go, USCIS!

Then, this morning I received an email response from AIT (I had also emailed them just to be extra careful). The email again confirmed that they had all of our paperwork. Unfortunately, they think Christian is a girl. More specifically, our paperwork is for one healthy FEMALE child 0-12 months. Boo, USCIS!

So, here is what we have done:

(1) Jeff called the National Visa Center. They said that they have nothing to do with assigning gender to cases and that was done by immigration. They gave him a phone number to call.
(2) I called the national immigration number. I talked to a nice lady there that said this would have been assigned by our local USCIS. She gave me a phone number to call.
(3) I then called our local USCIS. The phone number said to email them or use their web site. And then it hung up on me. (Note that this seems to be the modus operandi for all government agencies.)
(4) So, I went to the web site and scheduled a physical appointment downtown tomorrow at 8:10am. Hopefully, we can straighten this out.

Additionally:
(1) I contacted our social worker and we may have to physically pick up our home study update (which clearly states EITHER gender) and drive it back down to USCIS.
(2) Jeff called our congressman's office to see if we can get a little bigwig help here to speed up our case.

So, I think we've done everything we can do at this point. We'll see what happens tomorrow. And there's always Plan Z: dress up Christian like a girl and brazen it out.

UPDATE (6/13): We had our appointment with our local USCIS this morning. The immigration officer was surprisingly helpful and accommodating (praise God!). So, to make a long story slightly shorter, he allowed us to write a letter on the spot requesting a change in gender on our visa 37 (an internal document that is sent to AIT - apparently the source of all of our problems). So...with any luck, the change will be made and we will be on track. Seriously, we are so, so grateful to everyone who has helped us out with information and advice.

UPDATE #2: Unfortunately, heard from Officer Bryan (our immigration officer this morning) - we have to formally file a motion to have our file reopened. We're going back to USCIS on Monday and hopefully get it straightened out for good!

UPDATE #3 (6/16): We again saw the wonderful Officer Bryan this morning for our appointment. He is trying his best to help us out and we are so appreciative. It sounds as though once they receive our updated home study, the changes will be made. Jeff drove to Sunbury this afternoon and met with our social worker to physically pick up our update. He then mailed it out immediately. They should be getting it on Tuesday. We really hope that this is it!!

We are official!!

Today, we got the call from Brenda (our case worker) - Christian is officially ours!! I still can't believe it. Brenda actually had left a message for me at work (unfortunately, I was out consulting at Children's Hospital until 4pm). I returned her call and couldn't remember my cell phone number since it's never on, so I gave her Jeff's number. Because of this, Jeff heard first.

I was fine when Jeff called me and told me the news, but then when I told my coworker (who was in my office at the time) I started crying...and then she started crying, with our bemused male coworker looking on. Somehow, I managed to calm down and focus on work. This is a bad sign though - I predict I will be a complete wreck when we actually meet Christian.

Anyway, our planned gotcha day is June 30 with our AIT appointment scheduled for July 1. I am a bit freaked out because I still need to confirm that our I-171H and fingerprint update made it to Taiwan. Based on other people's experiences, I am a bit nervous that everything made it over correctly. But, we are determined that NOTHING will stop us from getting our son, especially paperwork.

I'm off to run around in circles for a little bit, and then calm down and get down to business!