Remember the post from “Gotcha Day”?  What a change in our son over the year!  It’s been great to watch him go from scared and defensive to being a happy member of a family.  We’ve had our difficult moments, but really it’s a been remarkably easy year of getting acclimated.  On the way to church this morning, Joshua said “Yaaay, I’ve been home a year!” and that’s all the encouragement Mommy and Daddy need.

The children had great fun as usual, riding the ponies, bouncing in the inflatable and getting their faces painted.  Can’t wait till next year!

The family is home and happier now that we’re getting the right amount of sleep (even if it’s not at the right times). Tomorrow we begin to fight the jet lag in earnest. But for today – naps and haircuts were the order of the day. We also went to our favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner and were disappointed after having the real thing just a few days ago.

So now we’re planning on spending a week getting acclimated and settled in as a new larger family – should be a lot of fun.

We started the day at Taipei 101 the tallest building in the world open to the public (soon to be passed by the tower in Dubai). Thanks to the wonders of technology we lost all of our pictures from there.

We left 101 and had a nice long talk (with some translation help – thanks Nick) about how misbehaving only means that we will no go have more fun. We will keep repeating the same message over and over because it is true – we are a forever family and nothing can change the love we have. After a little while, we went on to the martyr’s memorial and watched the changing of the guard. It was great to watch the precision and dedication of the soldier guards as they honor both civilians and soldiers who died in defense of Taiwan. In addition, Taiwan maintains much more of a sense of reverence about the memorial as opposed to America’s “tourist” mentality at our monuments.

Next we went to see the Grand Hotel, the first 5-star hotel built in Taiwan. It truly is “grand” and of course very expensive. Inside, we took a look around and learned how to play “rock, paper, scissors” going up a staircase – simple fun, but a big source of smiles.

After a quick trip through the Handicraft Promotion Hall, we went to dinner at another restaurant with no forks. It seems that we’re now a family fairly skilled with chopsticks. Jordan even sang the praises of a meal that did not consist of chicken nuggets but instead was made up of dumplings and noodles.

All in all, it was an interesting day filled with both tears and laughter. Pretty much as we expected – lots of work, but a lot of love too. It’s definitely worth it.

We wanted to see some of the island in the time we have left, so we went to Keelung – a smaller city – to see some of the island’s culture and history. Taiwan has a unique geography, a long history of being fought over and occupied, and a rich Buddhist tradition which all have their effects on the country.

First we went to the sea coast near Keelung. Taiwan is very mountainous and seeing mountains running right down to the sea was beautiful. Keelung Island is just off the coast and is beautiful as well.

The children enjoyed getting out in the sunshine and running around. They tried the binoculars to look out at the boats and generally did all the great things kids do on summer vacation. They seemed to enjoy their Nintendo DS Lite games for the majority of the trip, but eagerly dropped them as we got to each stop.

The city of Keelung was the next stop – and we took the rest of the day exploring the area. As we came into the city we could look out over the harbor and see the “Hollywood” sign – or at least the Keelung version. We went through the city with our friend Nick pointing out special buildings and interesting things. We headed out to “The Queen’s Head” which is a place where wind and water have eroded rocks in interesting patterns – one which looks like a Queen’s Head.

When we got there, it was as hot as the surface of the sun, only more humid. We walked out to see the rock shaped roughly like a head and were warned that future generations may not get to see it since the “neck” is wearing thin. It’s probably because the queen is sweating so much.

We drove into town for a quick lunch at a place that had no forks or knives to eat with. Taiwan is so westernized that it was great to eat authentic local food served in an authentic way. We had beef noodle and vegetable noodle – and Daddy and Joshua also had some pig ear.

Next (as we drove we talked about the fact that only the high mountains in Taiwan ever get any snow) we stopped by a temple that is the center of the annual ghost festival. The local people prepare foods that are very artistic – rice and vegetables that are formed into miniature animal sculptures. These are to get the ghosts to come out. The temple senior people also can do incantations to keep ghosts away from a place. We enjoyed looking around – and finding a nice place in the shade to sit and relax. The beliefs of the local people were interesting as well, and Nick did his best to translate exactly what the belief and practice are.

Further up the mountain – at the top in fact – we came to a large Buddhist temple. You can actually climb up in side the Buddha – at least when it is open – and see the countryside. There is a huge bell there as well and Sarah, Joshua and Jordan took turns ringing it using the huge log striker. They needed a little help to get it going sometimes.

After walking around the temple, we went down to visit a military park and looked at the encampments that have helped defend northern Taiwan for hundreds of years. There are still cannons there and the local people know that this is still an important place to defend their homeland. For our part, the boys seemed to enjoy running up and down the steps and playing war. Sarah seemed to be running out of steam so Daddy carried her up the last steps and hills back to the car. By my count there were about 11,000 steps.

Finally, on the way back to the hotel, we stopped by a local coffee shop. Like the name says, it was very Nice Coffee. In Taiwan in the summer (did I mention it is hot here?) they drink a lot of iced coffee and iced tea. Everyone had a nice cold drink except Mommy who only likes coffee hot.

We’ve had our share of problems here, sadness at all the changes, but we’re holding together pretty well. We can’t wait to get home!

After AIT, we got to spend some family time together with nowhere in particular to go. It gave us some time to get on each other’s nerves and play together and whine and laugh and it was wonderful. We visited Taipei 101 (the tallest building in the world until the new tallest one opens in Dubai next year). We plan on going back later to go up to the top, but today we just went in to look around the mall and have some lunch.

After that, we went back to the hotel, took a nap and enjoyed a little more relaxed time. The boys read and napped – and after all of the changes of the last few days the down time was great. Later in the afternoon our video-game-head-boys got to play on the computer and watch TV. Apparently if it’s rectangular and has flashing pictures Jordan and Joshua love it. Personally it’s a little weird watching all the people on Disney channel speaking Chinese, but the boys can’t get enough of it and frequently have both TV’s going.

Sarah is having a little more difficulty, partly because now there is someone else to share Mommy and Daddy with and partly because she is just tired and cranky from the jet lag. She’s adjusting.

In the evening our driver and friend Nick took us down to one of the “night markets” in Taipei. This is a place where some stores stay open and some vendors move in and everyone goes out to eat and shop and crowd together. We got to try Dragonfruit juice and Fried Stinky Tofu (Joshua loves this stuff) as well as getting to experience something that everyone here takes for granted.

Finally to wrap up the evening we went to a nearby Buddhist temple. Joshua told us that we had to be quiet and respectful (it sounded like he had been told this about 1000 times before). It was very beautiful outside and inside, and many people were there performing the various rites. As we walked through, Mommy and Daddy had some discussions about faith and practice while the children started to fade rapidly toward sleep. We got back to the hotel and the three of them were snoring within 5 minutes of walking in the door. Tired, but a happy family!

Saturday

Driving down to the orphanage…

with a quick stop at McDonalds……and then through the city to get our boy!

The family at the museum…and having a quick lunch…then outside…to play!

It seems that in Taiwan there is a McDonalds on every street corner and even in every large store. Of course there was one in the Museum and so we stopped. We have eaten more McDonalds on this trip than we have had in the past year.

All of the children were excited that we were coming to Taipei – especially Joshua who kept asking how far we had to go on the ride back. Sarah slept a good part of the day, but the boys had a lot of fun in the car on the way here. It seemed like they had known each other for years.

Joshua speaks Mandarin with just a little bit of English, and up till today we always had someone around to translate which was very handy. Tonight we had our first taste of life without a translator which was a lot of fun. The whole family is learning another language and we had plenty of laughs as everyone mispronounced everything. This will be a great experience and we’re all going to learn a lot as this family comes together. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

On the way to the orphanage we had difficulty finding it (it’s in the middle of the city) and were told that our appointment was on Sunday, not Saturday.  We went anyway, of course.  When we got to the orphanage we were again told that our appointment was Sunday – but this time we had someone to talk to face to face and told them that we were supposed to pick him up on Saturday.  A few phone calls later, we were allowed to meet with Joshua but we could not take him with us.  A few more phone calls and we were permitted to take him out shopping with us but we HAD TO have him back for a party they had planned.  By the time we got back from shopping we were told that there were even more phone calls and that we were allowed to take him home with us.  It was a good thing that we just kept on going whether than listening to the first “no”.

The orphanage staff threw a “going away” party and gave Joshua gifts and sang him some songs.  Then they asked us to stand up and tell all the children a little bit about Joshua’s new home.  Once we were done, his favorite teacher packed his suitcase and we drove across the city.  We’re staying with our friend Kristin who is a missionary here until we head back to Taipei for a few days of completing paperwork.

God really blessed us with a beautiful boy – a great addition to a weird and wonderful family.  He also blessed us by putting the right people in the right places from the orphanage workers to the adoption folks to our new friends in Taiwan.  It’s been a real joy so far.

The plan for Sunday – a visit to the local science center and then a long drive back to Taipei.

For those who helped us with donations, loans, house sitting, moral support, kind words and prayers we say a heart-felt thank you. We know that we are Joshua’s dad and mom, but we also know that life is best lived in love and community and we know that our community of friends and neighbors is a very necessary part of our lives. We appreciate each of you and we don’t say thank you nearly often enough.

OK, shutting down now – and packing up. Tomorrow we fly across the world.