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Day 7 Taipei
Posted on July 9th, 2008 No commentsWe spent today seeing the sights in Taipei and acting out on our frustrations. Joshua began the day a little sad, which is completely normal – and then like any other family he promptly passed on the sadness and frustration to everyone else. But also like any other family we hung in there together and by bedtime it was all hugs and smiles.
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.
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Day 5 Family Time
Posted on July 7th, 2008 No comments
On Monday we spent a few hours at AIT — essentially the American Embassy in Taiwan, but since Taiwan has a complicated political history they can’t call it an official embassy, so it’s just the American Institute in Taiwan (it looks like any other US immigration office we’ve ever seen). We got most of the paperwork done and need to go back Tuesday to finish it up. Many thanks to Ann for helping us there and a big hello to the Boyles who we met as they were adopting as well.
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!
