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