HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Xin nian kuai le!

In approximately 2 hours and 13 minutes it will be 2008 and 2 years since we signed our adoption contract with Faithful Adoption.

We started our Christmas with a 4AM webchat with Kai Wei and Sarah Grace! What could be better?! We were somewhat disappointed, as it did not seem that they'd received the cute little stockings that we'd sent. :-( But they both appeared well and excited that we had sent presents. While we talked to them we also showed them the elf yourself website with them dancing with their siblings. They both really laughed and smiled. Kai Wei was shocked at first to see himself, but quickly seemed to understand how it was done. Sarah Grace, on the other hand, was rather confused--she mustn't be quite as techno-savvy as Kai Wei.

The rest of our Christmas day was very full. We opened gifts at home and then traveled about 4 hours to spend a couple of days with my family. So much fun. Especially since this will probably be the last Christmas at my childhood home, as my parents have their house on the market and are planning to move to a retirement community near us. Yay!
My mom was so sweet. She had a copy of a picture she has of my sisters and I all at age 2 in the same dress made for each of us, as well as a picture of our house with the backyard in all 4 seasons. I feel so blessed to have had such a happy and fun and safe childhood. I think this is one reason I've always wanted to adopt.

We were glad after Christmas to hear that our friends from the Chinese Cultural Institute had made it to Jonah House the next day with the children's main presents--a Nintendo DS for Kai Wei and cellphone walkie talkie's for Sarah Grace--as per their requests! Above is a picture of them figuring out the cell phones.

We've been elfed!

A coworker showed me this at work today. Her daughters looked so funny and cute dancing all dressed up as elves that I had to subject our whole family to the elf treatment. Unfortunately, you can't have a conga line of 9 elves, so I had to do us in groups. You can see us in action too! You can watch the girls, the boys and our parents dancing! Enjoy, and let us know if you elf yourselves so we can see you too!

I think we'll show Kai Wei and Sarah Grace next time we talk to them. I think this is sure to get a laugh. :)

Our Model

As promised in the previous post, our model to see if the clothes we bought would fit Sarah Grace. I think his expression says it all.



We got Sarah Grace's birthday present in the mail today! She turns 8 on January 1! I wish she were going to be home for her birthday. We'll have to send it to her instead. Ling speaks Chinese and English (she says things like "I like to sing/ wo xi huan chang ge" and "My name is Ling/wo jiao Ling" and she counts from 1-10.) I thought she was pretty cute and I hope that Sarah Grace enjoys her!

Great News!

We heard from Penny at Cathwel today and Kai Wei has had his civil ruling! From the way she put it it sounds like it was the final ruling. If it was that means we are Kai Wei's Mom and Dad and the parents of SIX kids now! He is our son! I emailed her to confirm. Because it may be the civil ruling and then the final ruling in 10 days--but sometimes they get called on them at the same time. Either way, we are much closer. They have chosen not to say anything to Kai Wei, as they don't want him to blame Ssu Ya for a delay in getting home (no word on her from the courts) After the final ruling you just a need an AIT appointment to get the child's visa and then you can bring them home. That often happens in about 2 weeks! But we will probably be waiting a bit longer for all Sarah Grace's court rulings. I say probably, because if they think it will be months of delay we may have to go twice! I just can't bear the thought of having to make Kai Wei wait many more months than he already has. I'm looking into airline tickets! I can't believe it!

We got a package of stuff I ordered online for Ssu Ya today--it was so much fun to look through. We got great pics of our "super model" that I'll have Annie post when she gets a chance. We got 2 pairs of pants, some long sleeve shirts, an outdoor vest and some PJ's! I think I have just about enough stuff until they get here. I did not want to get too much, as it is hard to be sure of size.

So this journey has been so long. I've gotten so used to waiting. I can't believe the waiting is actually going to come to an end!

God has been so good to us! :-)

有哭，有笑 Laughter and tears

We had another video chat with the kids last night. They brought Kai Wei and Sarah Grace in separately this time, which we thought was a good idea. Kai Wei was happy to see the Christmas tree. He really seems to be thinking about how next year he will be able to be a part of all the Christmas celebrations. It snowed here on Wednesday, and when we told him that his whole face lit up. Tim went out and made a snowball to show him, which Daniel started to eat. He was REALLY excited to see that. It was cute. We really hope there is snow when they get home so we can take them sledding and make snow-men and snow angels and eat hot chocolate. It is so special to be around older children who are experiencing their first snow storm. On Wednesday it started to snow while I was teaching my reading class, so once I got to a transition, I let all the kids go ad look out the windows while I put away their supplies. Their little transfixed faces were priceless, and hearing my second grader from Cambodia say with excitement, "this is the first time I see snow!" and later commenting on how much faster it was falling brought a smile to my face. I can't wait to share the beauty and excitement of snow wiht my own little sister and brother.

Kai Wei was so cute after his part of the call was ended. He leaned back in the chair and stretched, and visibly relaxed. He doesn't look stressed during the calls, but apparently they must be a little stressful for him. He's doing really well with his English pronunciation, but I think that's one of the things that makes the chats hard for him.

(If you click on any of the photos in the slideshow, it will pause the slideshow and enlarge the photo. These are all from last night).

Sarah Grace was cute and happy at the beginning of the call. She showed us her toy gun, which Daniel was excited about. I think he was thinking, "now that's my kind of sister!" She also liked the Christmas tree and looked really excited by the snow ball. But, all her smiles disappeared when my Mom asked if she was excited about coming here. Her face fell and she shook her head no. It was so heartbreaking to see her sorrow written all over her face an din her body language. She is really missing her foster family. We all wished that we could reach out and comfort her. It must be so hard to be 7 years old and go through such a big change. I am praying that God brings healing to her sadness and that she realizes with time that she can love our family, while still remembering and loving her foster family.

At the end of the call, she was quietly playing with the sticker book that we sent the other week. It was so neat to see her playing with something we sent. It makes her a little closer, if something my Mom and I were just looking at (and being tempted to play with) is now in her hands and she's playing with it. She was so cute, choosing dresses and accessories for each of the dolls.

Lest I forget, Daniel was disappointed the other day that no one ever commented about him, so of course, I told him the blog wasn't about him. So, he asked for his own blog. Being the nice big sister that I am, with nothing better to do since school let out early during the snow storm, I did. He would be very delighted (his word) if you visit his blog and leave a comment.

The Scenic Route

When I was at that point between waking and sleeping the other day, I dreamt of weary travelers, staggering after their leader, finally arriving at their destination. They realized as they arrived that there was a much shorter path they could have taken, it was just ugly and barren and they would have missed all the amazing views along the way. As I drifted back into consciousness, I thought to myself, "that's what our adoption journey has been like- taking the scenic route".

When we started this journey 23 months ago, we never thought it would take this long. We were told it might take 12 months. The wait has been frustrating. It tries our patience. It tires us out. And yet, the extra wait has been rewarding too. I love new cultures and languages, but Chinese was always a language I mentally checked off as too hard to learn. As we waited, I started learning Chinese out of my desire to communicate, but I didn't have any very high expectations at first, I just wanted to be able to communicate the basics to ease our transition. It wasn't long though until I was fascinated by the Chinese language, and the whole process of learning a language again. Soon I was becoming interested in the written language as well as the spoken language. I also started reading about Taiwan and China, and found a whole empire's worth of history and culture that I knew very little about. The more I learned, the more I was fascinated. Soon I couldn't imagine never seeing the country of my siblings' birth, and I planned for my trip to Taiwan this summer. If the kids had been home a year ago, I wouldn't have gone to Taiwan this summer. I probably wouldn't have pursued learning very much Chinese since I've learned most of what I know since last winter and the more I learn the more my fascination and commitment to learning the language has grown. During our wait we have also met so many people- the local Chinese people we have met through the Chinese church and Chinese classes who we now know are there to support us and will be there to translate if we need them to during the first few months, other families with adopted children who have been there, done that, so many other families adopting from Taiwan whom I haven't met in person, but who we talk about and pray for just the same, and we know they do the same for us. This is what has made the journey scenic. I have definitely become greatly enriched along the way.

Even epic scenic journeys come to an end someday, and I hope soon, we finally, tired but triumphant, make it to the top of the hill, and enjoy the end of our journey- life as a family of 9!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful day. We are thankful for our many blessings: God's gift of his son for our salvation, our family, the ability to spend Thanksgiving with our grandparents, the fact that in a few short months Kai Wei and Sarah Grace should be HOME, a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, the technology that allows us to have video chats with the kids, a country where we are safe and free... We truly have many blessings.

There are so many others, however, who aren't as blessed, and I wanted to share this opportunity to be a blessing to them with you. Reece's Rainbow is an organization that helps children with Down syndrome be adopted. They sponsor children and help raise money for families who are in the process of adopting children with Down syndrome. This year, they are doing a Christmas fundraiser. Their goal is to raise $1,000 for each of the 85 children they are trying to find family's for. Visit their site, donate if you feel led, and pray for these children.



Many of them will be moved to mental institutions and receive very little care if they are not adopted. You can read about one family's journey to adopt Aleksa, a little girl with Down syndrome and get the code to put your own button link to Reece's Rainbow on the Cornish family's blog.

Another webchat!

We just finished our Skype conversation with Kai Wei AND Sarah Grace this time! What cuties! It was so fun to see Sarah Grace, and a bit of a surprise, because we weren't sure whether or not we would. It was also nice to see them together. This time I thought to take some screen shots while we were chatting, so I have photos to share! Look at their smiles. Aren't they beautiful?



We introduced the family cats this time, which made the kids smile, but Sarah Grace was a bit nervous about the dog. She asked why we wanted to have a dog. Hopefully she realized he was a friendly, mostly harmless puppy by the end of the conversation.

We got some good news during our conversation. Kai Wei's court hearing is on Wednesday! We're so excited about that, and he is too.

They said that Sarah Grace is adjusting well to life at Jonah House, and that she and Kai Wei are getting along pretty well.

It was fun to chat again tonight and learn a little more about the kids and see a bit more of their personalities shine through. Si Ya is a little monkey, (which I'd already gathered from my visit with her this summer) She loved making faces for the camera!
She wants to go roller skating when my parents go to Taiwan, she likes the color yellow, shrimp and apples. She wants a toy cell phone.

Kai Wei likes blue and prefers sweat pants to jeans. He remembers a lot of the things he has heard about our family or has seen in our photo album. He asked about our lake and knows that it is much colder here. He seems very interested in and excited by our animals. He seems easy-going and agreeable.
I just love to see his smile! He got his hair cut since the last time we talked to him.




我們 愛 你們 凱維 跟 思雅
We love you Kai Wei and Si Ya! We can't wait for you to come home.

WebCam Conference!

So it is so exciting! Tonight for the first time we saw our son and heard his voice! We had a video conference with Kai Wei via Skype. It was really fun. Almost the whole family was home. (But Jonathan who was very disappointed that he would be camping with scouts). Kai Wei was so happy and sweet. His English was great. He is very limited with what he can say, but we were impressed with his pronunciation. We think he will be very easy to understand.

We were ALL a bit nervous. But we all had fun too. In Taiwan Kai Wei's social worker was in the room with some other people and they were joking and laughing and helping to translate. And at our house we were all talking and saying hi and introducing him to each of us. He really seemed to like it when Timmy asked how old he was and then told him he was 17. He also liked the new puppy, Java and he said Daniel was cute and that he would pray for him on his birthday. (Which Daniel told him was next week). We are really excited to chat with him again.

We've also had some news on Sarah Grace. She is going to be moved to Jonah House next week! This was not anticipated. But we are hoping it turns out to be a good thing for her, Kai Wei and the whole family in general. I guess we may get a chance to speak with her in a future chat!

God is so good and tonight we thank him for technology that made this possible!

The importance of tones

I was at Chinese class on Saturday, and showed my Chinese teacher the picture of Sarah Grace. "This is Si Ya" I told her, and stopped, aware of the look of confusion on her face. I KNOW I say Si Ya wrong, that's one reason Sarah Grace won't be called Si Ya at home- when I was in Taiwan, she didn't even look up when I attempted saying her name, that's how wrong I had it. It's not a name that's easy for American mouths to pronounce. Kai Wei I can say well enough- at any rate, he knew I was talking to him when I used his name- I think the tones in his name are more natural to American pronunciation. What I didn't know was HOW wrong I had Si Ya. So, anyway, back to Chinese class. I fish out the characters for Si Ya, which I happened to have in my Chinese book, and her face lit up. "Oh, that's a beautiful name. You just have to be careful how you pronounce it. That's like. . . a ghost. With teeth (she pantomimes fangs coming out of her mouth)" A vampire? My poor little sister! Here we have been going around telling everyone her name is vampire or something to that effect!

I practiced a few times, and finally did pronounce Si Ya's beautiful name correctly, but unfortunately, I think I'm no longer saying it correctly. I'll have to practice again next time I have Chinese class.

Ｍaking 餃子 (Chinese dumplings)

Dough:
3 cups flour
about 1 cold water cup water
1/4 tsp salt
Mix flour and salt together. Slowly add water and stir until a smooth dough forms. Knead, then cover and let rest for at least 1/2 hour. Roll into 45-60 3 inch diameter thin circles.

Filling:
1 lb ground pork
2 cups Napa cabbage, chopped fine
2 green onions (scallions) chopped fine
2 slices of fresh ginger chopped fine
1 clove minced garlic
1 TBS soy sauce

好吃嗎？ 好吃！
Hao chi ma? Hao chi!
Are they good? Delicious!










Mix everything together. Put a spoonful of the meat mixture on each dumpling wrapper. Fold into a half circle and pinch the edges together. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add in about half of the dumplings. Stir once and bring the water back up to a boil. When it is boiling again, add in 1 cup cold water. Wait for the water to begin boiling, than add a 2nd cup of cold water. When the water boils again add a 3rd cup of cold water. The next time the water boils the dumplings should be done. Serve the dumplings with dipping sauce made of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil mixed to taste.

I modified the recipe from the one at the end of this article about a Chinese American family making dumplings together.

They say. . .

They say the wait gets harder after you get your referral. So far, that hasn't been true for me. Not knowing anything was hard. We had no idea how old the kids would be, we had no idea when we would receive their referral. We didn't know what they would look like, who would be older, when they would be home. Now, I KNOW who my meimei and didi are. I know their names, their ages, even a little bit about their personalities, their likes and dislikes, their fears. I can begin to imagine what it will be like when they are home. I can prepare for them. And that makes it so much better to me. I still don't know exactly when they'll be home, but at least we can give a range of several months as our estimate now instead of saying that we *hope* for a referral sometime before ...followed by an ever moving and increasingly distant date. I know that our wait time since referral should be somewhere between 1/2 and 1/3 over. These past 4 months have gone by quickly, now that our adoption seems real and not just an impossible dream.


So, I keep looking forward to the day they come home and I can see Kai Wei and Si Ya again in person. But meanwhile, the wait has gotten easier. There's forward momentum again (speaking of which, Sarah Grace's paperwork is back from TECO and ready to get sent back to Taiwan!) I know we are waiting for them and I know they are waiting for us. We'll hang in there. The pictures and updates and letters back and forth help us along, and, hopefully it won't feel much longer until we have more than photos to look at and more than hand-drawn pictures to make us smile.

Addendum to the post: :)
In case you were curious- Si Ya, Ssu Ya, Su Ya and any variation thereof and Sarah Grace are one and the same. When we got her referral it was spelled SSu Ya. The double "s" is from the Wade Giles form of Romanization (I think), and looked confusing to us, so we removed an "s" when writing it. After looking up the character for her name, I realized the pinyin spelling (and the closer pronunciation) for her name was actually Si Ya. Since Pinyin is the more standardized Romanization system used in the US, we switched to that spelling. And Sarah Grace, in case you hadn't guessed, is what we are naming her. (We'll keep Si Ya as her middle name. Kai Wei we're going to continue calling Kai Wei, though it might be shortened to Kai. We'll give him an American middle name.)

25 YEARS!

WOW! Dana and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on Tuesday, October 9! It hardly seems possible. That is a LONG time to be married and how could we possibly be old enough to have been married that long ago?!

Our kids got us luggage for our upcoming trip to Taiwan which was fun and exciting. We're so thankful for the grace of God to get through 25 years and we hope he'll grant us 25 more! :-)

Just a Little Thing

So my sister and brother in law stopped by on their travels last weekend with a gift for our new kids. Jan and Mark go to a lot of craft fairs and bought Kai Wei and Sarah Grace personalized lap desks!

Just having these desks on my kitchen table with the kids' names on them really made me feel like they were coming soon. I went right out and bought some clothes for Sarah Grace, something I'd been avoiding, "just in case..."

It strikes me as funny that just seeing their names in print, on a gift that is meant for them, should make them feel that much closer. So thanks Jan and Mark!

The lap desks are really fun. They have a slatelike top over a plastic bottom that can hold school supplies. They have the alpabet and numbers so they will help Kai Wei and Sarah Grace with learning English.



So our paperwork has been back and forth to TECO and is now ready to go tomorrow to our agency! We are hoping to receive Sarah Grace's paperwork in the mail any day now. . .

IT'S GETTING CLOSER! :-) :-0 :-)

Or, back in the mail...

I (being Rebecca) haven't posted on here in, oh, ages. However, I was the one to talk to the man from the Taiwan consulate this evening, so I decided I'd break my long silence. My reading on the couch this afternoon was interrupted by Jonathan answering the phone:
"She's not here right now...he's not here either...no, my parents aren't home...would you like to talk to my sister?"

Wonderful. He walks over, hands me the phone, says "It's someone from Taiwan." Again, wonderful. I considered handing it off to Annie, she's older, she's been to the country, and she is far more up to date on what exactly is going on with the paperwork side of things.

The man wasn't actually from Taiwan, but from the consulate, which relieved me greatly because anyone calling us from Taiwan only seemed to mean bad news. Not that his news was good: the paper work we sent in needs to be authorized by the county clerk. Which is hard, because when mom called them before sending off the paper work, they had no idea what she was talking about...So anyway, it looks like, unless there is an excited development after one of my paternal units phones the consul in the morning, our paper work will be back in the mail - to us. Not Taiwan...

In the mail!

Our paperwork got sent off to TECO today! There never should have been a problem notarizing the Chinese documents the first time, since notaries are just verifying that the person who signs the document is the person whose signature appears on the document. It doesn't really mater what the document says. So, once we found a notary that realized that, there wasn't any problem at all.

We got a surprise in the mail the other day- another update on Kai Wei! I wasn't expecting one so soon, but since it took us awhile to get the first one after it was sent, I guess the next one was due! Kai Wei had been to the Yingge ceramics museum, which I thought was cool, since I went there while I was in Taiwan. It's a really neat museum and has AMAZING ceramics for sale in the gift shop.

We sent letters and pictures and a couple little gifts back to Kai Wei. I attempted to write a note in Chinese. If it's actually understandable to a native Chinese speaker, it will sound like a second grader wrote it. Oh well. It was fun. :)

There's still really no news on Si Ya. We do know that Cathwel got the photo album to show her and "it has been given to her" Whatever that means exactly. We don't know what her reaction is, but we are praying that her heart is being prepared to join our family and that she will be excited!

Smile!

Last week we got Kai Wei's adoption paperwork in the mail, which would have been exciting, in of itself, but it also included a few photos, and a card Kai Wei made for Mom and Dad. This was my favorite. It was taken on the day I visited, but he has a much nicer smile in this picture than any I managed to capture. Sorry about the poor quality- It didn't scan very well, besides, I cropped myself out of the photo as it was a rather uncomplimentary photo of me attempting to eat a large strawberry. I figured you'd all rather see Kai Wei's smiling face. ;)

The paperwork is proving more troublesome than expected as the notary wouldn't notarize the Chinese adoption contract since she couldn't read Chinese, so now we have to try notarizing, take 2. Hopefully we'll get that cleared up soon.

We're getting closer!

Labor Day Project

A few years ago, I got a book of patterns for a Southern Belle doll and her dresses. I sewed the doll, cut out the pieces, and then, Christmas vacation over, I slid the box under my bed with all my other craft stuff to finish when I had more time. She languished there for years, until, in search of a sewing project last summer, I pulled out the box, dusted it off, and made two dresses for the doll. I wanted to do a sewing project this summer, but I didn't have a lot of spare time, and wasn't sure what to make. I got the idea the other day to make a doll for SiYa, so when I was in Wal-Mart on Saturday, shopping for fabric for a 100 Good Wishes quilt, I bought some yellow and white checked gingham (SiYa told me those were her favorite colors) and by Monday I had a masterpiece.



Now, any ideas what I can make for a 10 year old boy?

A little news!

Well, a little news is most definitely better than no news! We were hoping for an update on Kai-Wei and SiYa by the end of August. Just today we received an email from our agency that they have Kai-Wei's paperwork to get to us to have authenticated etc. Then it will go off to the Taiwan court system and the adoption will be finalized! It has taken them a while to get this info to us, as our agency worker had a baby in the meantime! Well, I was somewhat concerned that we have no information on SiYa so I decided to call the orphanage and see what was up. I'm glad I did! As it turns out they are still waiting to get our photo album from the second orphanage we sent it to in Taipei so they can show it to SiYa and she can make a decision. Hopefully that will be a positive decision and then we will be receiving her documentation. We also called the 2nd orphanage tonight and they were very willing to send the photo album right out. The orphanage thought that would only take an additional 2-3 weeks to process the paperwork for SiYa--so there hopefully won't be too much time between the finalization of the 2 children's adoptions.

This seems like a very disjointed post. But it is a rather disjointed series of events. The long and the short of it is--we are getting closer to the day that these two sweet children will really be a legal part of our family and not just a hope in our hearts. Praise and thanks be to God the Father and Jesus his Son! :-)

Sorry no pictures to go with this post. Maybe we'll have some to share when our paperwork comes. . .

Duckling update

My Aunt has been paranoid since our first duckling post that people will think we are irresponsible pet owners since we said we would let our ducks go free when they grew up. She asked for an update, so here it is. As you can see, our little ducklings grew up fast and are little no longer. In fact, they look like full grown ducks to me. We live on a lake that is home to MANY wild ducks, so our ducks, now that they have their feathers and can stay in the water, have been very happy to discover the path from our yard to the lake. There is still a hutch in our yard for them, but I think they have stopped sleeping in it at night. We put out food for them, but we hope that eventually they'll be like the wild ducks, surviving from all the good stuff in the lake and occasional free handouts of bread from all the kids around the lake.

Right now, they still stick pretty close to home and all swim around in their group of 8. It makes us laugh to see what a tight little group they are. I have a feeling once they're fully grown they'll stop staying so close together, since that is really duckling behavior, but we'll see.

Not much new

Still no updates or news on the court process... We did send 2 packages of letters and photos off to Kai Wei. We asked friends to translate them for us so he can read them to himself and they don't need to translate them there. It was neat to see everything we had written put into Chinese.




Last weekend I was VERY happy to see some of the kids from CMCH again. We went to their concert in Brooklyn. We were towing our pop-up since we'd spent the weekend at my grandparent's in Connecticut and we drove around several blocks looking for parking and we actually found a space less than a block away that fit both our expedition and the pop-up! What an answer to prayer! Jonathan said I was like a smile machine- I was sitting on an aisle seat and as the kids filed past me on their way out between seats, they lit up with smiles as they saw me. Of course, I was smiling from ear to ear too. They did an EXCELLENT job. It's amazing how many songs they memorize. They performed 18 songs (I think) that evening, and they don't perform the same songs at each performace. They use music when they practice, but not when they perform. Most of their songs are in Chinese, but they also performed in Latin and if I remember correctly, the rooster song is in Cantonese, not Mandarin. After they were done, I stayed for awhile to take photos and hand out some of the group photos I had brought with me. I loved being surrounded by Chinese again.


And here, for your viewing pleasure, size comparisons. Daniel says, "I'll have to say "hi little sister!" and he looks up above his head and waves.


Si Ya (age 7 years 7 months) and I





Daniel (age 7 years 9 months) and I




Kai Wei (age 10) and I




Jonthan (age 12) and I

Words to live by

A message from the children at Christian Mountain Children's Home





The choir from CMCH will be touring the US from July 25- August 12. They are really talented and have touched many people's hearts when they share their testimony. I encourage you to go listen to them if you get the chance. Check their schedule here.

DUCKLINGS!

Aren't they just so cuddly?

So when I heard Daniel tell Rebecca he was even more excited about his ducklings that were coming than his siblings--I felt somewhat that I'd failed somewhere as a MOM. I mean really, even a 7 year old should know people are more important than animals. I really appreciated Rebecca's viewpoint, "I love little kids." Well I knew the ducklings had better have a post!


They really have been fun. We mail ordered them and were called by the P.O. at 6 AM to come and pick them up! 2 Peking, 2 Black Cayuga, 2 Indian Runner--8 in all. Wait, 2+2+2 should not equal 8. Apparently they send a few extra just incase--the company guarantees live birds!

So Daniel and I have been having fun with our little flock. Jonathan should be thrilled when he gets home from camp tomorrow night. Annie gets home tomorrow too. Gee--we'll have almost as many people as we do ducklings :-)

Daniel and ducklings









Ducklings drinking

PICTURES!

I was up bright and early this morning sitting by the phone waiting for Annie's call! It was so fun to hear about the kids first hand from Annie and get her impression of what they were like and what they liked. As you can see from her post--
THEY ARE WONDERFUL!
(sorry the captions are a little weird. And I don't know why some of the pictures are so much smaller)

Annie and Kai-Wei


Annie and Su-Ya


Kai-Wei in his room, which he wanted to show to Annie


Su-Ya with the playdough ice cream cone she and Annie made.Yum, ice cream!A true member of our family!


Kai-Wei and his birthday cake. Notice how the candles make an "11" In China a child is one at birth. Poor Kai-Wei, both our birthday cards said 10!


So sweet!

I have the sweetest mei-mei and didi EVER!

ok, ok, maybe I'm just a tad bit biased, and you all think your own
children or siblings are entitled to that claim, but let me just say, I am so
HAPPY I got to meet Kai-Wei and Su-Ya and they are both adorable.

Kai-Wei was very shy when he first came in. I got tears in my eyes
as I saw him walking toward the door, but I tried to hold them back,
because I thought a little boy who is meeting his sister for the
first time after waiting for a family for years might feel scared if
he saw me crying- maybe he would think I was unhappy with him,
instead of realizing I was so happy and emotional, crying was the
best vent for my emotions. Anyway, I swallowed my tears, and went
over to say hello with a big smile on my face. He is so sweet. He
knew my birthday is in 10 days, so he made me a birthday card! It's
so pretty and cute. he drew lots of little cartoon animals on it,
and wrote me a nice happy birthday message all in Chinese
characters. :) He wanted to wait til his friends came down to open
the birthday present I brought. He looked so cute, focusing so hard
on opening the gifts, and he had to try about 5 times to blow out
the candles on his cake. He is nervous about learning English but
was patient with my Chinese. He talked to me a bit in Chinese, but
when his friend tried to, he told him "ta ting bu dong" (she doesn't
understand). He showed me his bedroom and the library, where he
showed me how he could count in English. We looked at the photo
album together that we made for him and he told me how he likes to
swim and knows how to roller skate, and I told him how we will teach
him to ice skate and take him fishing. I can't wait!

Su-Ya was also shy when she met me, but soon warmed up when we
started playing with the play-doh set I brought her together. She
made me a blue popsicle and we made a pink ice-cream cone with yellow
ice-cream together. She is silly and I'm sure will make us laugh all
the time when she comes home. She has the cutest laugh and her
smile lights up her face, but hides as soon as the camera comes
out. She held my hand as she gave me a tour of her foster family's
house. She still doesn't know I'm her sister, I was just introduced
as a friend, but I can't wait until I can tell her how much I love
her and she is home keeping me entertained with her giggles and
antics.

Wow, 6 months is going to seem like an eternity.

Pictures coming soon. . .

Excited, but not much to say!

Well, I've left the blog to Annie recently--since her life has been SO MUCH more exciting than mine! Plus, she is a better writer!However, tonight as I sit and read through the adoption boards and blogs I am SO EXCITED to think that in just a FEW SHORT HOURS Annie will be meeting our children for the first time. It is a strange and awesome and weird and exciting feeling.

I must have given Annie a list of about 20 things she MUST DO--such as get an assessment of their size, personalities, name pronunciation and preference, likes and dislikes, pictures and more pictures etc. etc. etc. Poor Annie had to take notes to accommodate me. And then I have the nerve to tell her to be her natural sweet loving self and all will go well!

I'm really looking forward to hearing from Annie tomorrow and getting some stories and impressions on these 2 precious children it appears God is preparing us for.

Thanks for your prayers and good wishes! Debbie

A Busy Week

Hello everyone! It's hard to believe how much has happened in the past week. One week ago on Sunday, after a morning church service in English, I was on a train bound for Hualien, a beautiful city on the East coast of Taiwan. I was met at the train station by Yvonne's friend's son James and his cousin Tom. Tom's parents, the Chan family, hosted me in Hualien and made sure I had a wonderful time. That evening we went out for a delicious meal where I tried 2 kinds of Chinese dumplings, among other things, and enjoyed the night market/fair/performances that are going on on the street along the ocean in Hualien. On Monday we headed to Taroko National Park. The Taroko gorge is amazing- sheer cliffs that lead down to a river hundreds of meters below. We walked along the tunnel of 9 curves, which was built much earlier in the century before there was a lot of the technology we have today, in order to connect the east and west sides of the island. The views were stunning. Later we went wading in the river and tried to catch the fish taht were nibbling at our toes. On Tuesday James, his cousin Claire, and I went on a whale watching tour! We didn't see any whales, but we saw a bunch of dolphins! I was so excited. We even saw one do a flip in the air- it must want a job at sea world. I also heard some dolphins whistling, or whatever you call a dolphin's noise. We also spent some time admiring the coast and the mountains, and we visited a fish market where there were some rally cool creatures for sale. Tuesday evening I headed back to Taipei again. on Wednesday I went to Wu Lai with Yvonne's siter-in-law. It's a pretty, small town in the mountains outside of Taipei. Apparently it is well known for hot-springs. In the afternoon, we headed into downtown Taipei to shop at some trendy malls. My mind was pretty focused on Kai Wei and Su ya, so my favorite part of our shopping expedition was the toy store, where I narrowed down my options for gifts. We also went to Taipei 101, whcih currently holds the record for the world's tallest building. My plan to go to the observation deck was foiled as it was a grey, rainy day with almsot no visibility, so I have no amazing photos of the city. :( On Thursday I went with a classmate of Yvonne's to the Taipei zoo, where I really enjoyed eavesdropping. If you are ever just beginning to learn a new language, and want a rewarding experience, head to the zoo. You'll understand a lot. As in "where is it? Over there. It's sleeping. How cute! Teacher, he's upset. Hthrowing things at us. Come here and I'll give this to you." The monkeys there were so fun to watch. There were a bunch of baby monkeys climbing all over the place- I realized just exactly why we call kids little monkeys when they climb. There's just no better description. Friday I braved Yong He on my own in the morning, succesfully buying a phone card that could be used on the payphone outside and call the US, all in Chinese. I ate breakfast at a little restaurant, walked to the nearby department store and finally but gifts for Kai-Wei and Su-Ya, and even had about an hour to spend in the museum of world religions. It has some neat displays of religious objects and writings and scale models of famous places of worship. I liked it more than I expected to. In the afternoon, Connie (Yvonne's daughter) and I wandered the grounds of the Chiang Kai Shek memorial, where I think I finally managed to tie together some sort of hisorical understanding of WWII, the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, and Chiang Kai Shek. We enjoyed the fish pond on the grounds where we saw some monster fish, a heron of some sort, and (our favorite) 9 turtles! Once we finally managed to find the MRT station near Chiang Kai Shek, we headed to Ximending, which is pretty much youth central. There are a lot of stores, and movie theaters, and people all in a sall amount of space. In the evenings, they shut down the road to cars, so you can walk in the streets. I couldn't believe how well lit it was- I couldn't even tell it was night time unless i looked up at the sky. Today we headed north towards Keelung, which is on the North coast. We got to drive along the coastline for awhile, which was amazing. It was very rocky and wavy. We spent a lot of time at the Juming museum in the afternoon. It is a indoor/outdoor museum with hundreds of statues. The artist is very creative, and some of them were very quirky- most of them are people, but they are all so different. He uses a lot of different mediums- stone, wood, bronze castings based on styrofoam carvings. I think his intent was to show the variety in humanity, and he did a good job of it.

I have a couple of prayer requests to share.
Tomorrow I will be speaking at a church to a small group about our family's adoption and adoption in general. Pray that God would guide my words and move people's hearts to consider how they will care for orphans in their distress (James 1:27). I'm very excited about this opportunity, because I truly believe God has a heart of great love and compassion for orphans and he wants his people to model that love here on earth. Culturally, adoption is not a very accepted practice in Taiwan, but I hope that God will begin to change hearts here as he has in the US in the past decades.

On Monday I will be meeting my new brother and sister for the first time. I will meet Kai-Wei at the orphanage in the morning and Su-Ya at her foster family's in the afternoon. Pray that my heart will be filled with such love for these 2 that they will sense it and feel peace. Pray that meeting me will help Kai-Wei to be secure in his new family and future. Su-Ya does not know about the adoption yet, so I will not be introdcued as her sister. Pray that it won't be an awkward meeting. Little children can be perceptive, so just pray that God's assurance would rest on her and she wouldn't feel uncomfortable, and that once she is told about the adoption, taht having met me will make it easier for her. I could also use your prayers that I wouldn't be too nervous. I'm so excited to meet them, but I also realize that I am the first live impression of our family that they get, so I sure hope it's a good one.

Blessings to all of you!
~Annie

Saying Goodbye is hard

The day before yesterday, I left Christian Mountain Children's home. It was sad to say goodbye. I love the kids there. The night before I left they had a goodbye party for me. Each house sang a song or read me a letter they had written. It was so sweet. A new group of volunteers from a university in Taipei had just arrived the night before, so fortunatley one of them translated some of what the kids said to me, and also translated what I said to the kids.

Here are some pics. Can you tell why I'll miss them?


The orphanage had hundreds of mangos which some adults were packing. Two of the little girls pulled me over to watch. I finally asked to help, and the girls joined in. If assembly lines hadn't already been invented, Sunny would invent them. She started handing me wrappers and mangos, then I would put the wrapper on the mango and place it with the finished ones as she handed me the new ones. This is Lisa and Suzy helping out.


I was walking back to "my" girl's house (I spent 2 nights sleeping there) when I peeked in the window at the other girls dorm. All the choir members got giant new suitcases for their upcoming tour and the girls realized they were big enough to fit a person in. I went in to join the fun. We had a fun photo shoot and a lot of giggles.


When I got to "my" dorm, the girls there had found another use for the suitcases. They had come wrapped in large plastic bags, which they had sack races in, then they started sitting in the bags. I was worried they were going to suffocate themselves, until I noticed they had already managed to put holes in all the bags. Good thing since I had no idea how to say "putting bags over your heads is not safe" in Mandarin. :)


There's a rope bridge that leads from the orphanage, across the river to the preschool. Years ago it was the only bridge they had. Now they also have a beautiful red bridge that cars can cross on. I went down with some children and house mothers to the park area near the bridge and the kids had a lot of fun climbing on the suspension wires.


A group of us went to the hotsprings, where we alternated between playing in the cold water, relaxing in the warm water, singing karoke, and eating sausages on sticks and chicken feet. I wasn't brave enough for chicken feet or karaoke.


I brought play-doh to play with with the kids, and I was surprised when the big boys noticed me walking by with it and wanted to play. Josh really enjoyed it.