First day out and about in Taipei

Dr. Sun Memorial Hall.

Guard at the memorial hall. He will stand there one hour without so much as flinching. Then another guard will take over. One guard on each side of the statue.

We just got done shopping at the Jade Market where this time I spent lots of money and got lots of great gifts for the kids. Bracelets, jade, multi stones, adorable Saworski chrystal pandas also. Oooooh I had sooo much fun this trip. Then off to get more souvenirs at the Handicraft market. Killed that store also. Great souvenirs for my 2 little ones from Taiwan for when they are older. beautiful chime hand exercise balls, chinese print playing cards, colorful dragon for our bookshelf, t-shirts for all. Taiwan flag. All things I missed last trip because of our visa paperwork fiasco. I really wanted to get my souvenir shopping done prior to getting Jing on Thurs. He is a boy and 5 yrs old and they just don't do shopping under normal..... circumstances. We headed back to the hotel and then walked a block over to Outback. Yep had a yummy steak.... He He.

More fun tomorrow..... Hot Hot here as usual..... C'mon Taiwan Diet!

Wulai.... Paradise!

This is the view from the gondala/tram ride in Wulai.

Travis, Alex, Jason, and Mr. Yeh

Our trip would not be the same without Mr. Yeh! Second time around and still there for all of us during our travels to our children. Thanks Mr. Yeh!

Alex and Travis outdoors at the indoor Aboriginal show. These 2 boys are six months apart and truly are enjoying ech others company.

Travis and Mom

This is us right after we zip tied ourselves back across.

A sign that we should posted in NC

Pulling the zip tie basket across the ravine.

Travis, Joyce, Jason and Angie. The other family here from Minnesota adopting their daughter Kaydee who is 5 also from Chung Yi. Both our kids are from Taichung.

simply breath taking .

All of us wading through the stream after we have been walking up for a long time and pouring sweat buckets......

Outdoor Aboriginal dance performance.

A family rowing in the stream. Which we did on the way back. I rowed and Angie kept us balanced so we didn't end up in the water.

Wulai waterfall. We took the Gondala ride up and trucked another 20-30 min. upsteps to the top where there was a whole nother world of activities.

This is my favorite thing about Wulai. The pure beauty of it all....

We Made it to Taiwan!!

We left around 5:30 am eastern time. Dropped Travis at the door to the airport with all the luggage,went to park the van for Tyler to pick up later and I punched for a ticket and the gate would not open, did it again. Now with 2 tickets in my hand for parking I still could not get the gate to open. Backed up and asked the lady at the booth what do I do now... Throw away the tickets and drive around to the other side.... EEEEKKKK should have known this is how my day would start on 1 1/2 hrs of sleep... Finally park the car. Board the crop duster and leave the only gate at our airport and sit on the plane roasting for 45 mins waiting for them to say we are going back to the gate to see if they could fix the air........... Really!!!!!!! We were all dying by now.. 15 min later we take off for Charlotte. Arrive in Charlotte and have to go to the other side of the airport to catch our flight which starts boarding in 15 mins. 8:45 now and we do the fastest powerwalk ever.. Made it onto the flight. As we were walking to the back of the plane for our seats my purse strap broke. OMG what next.....Being the Mom that I am I have a diaper pin in my purse with my luggage keys on it pinned inside my purse. Fixed my purse right up....
Make it to San Francisco 6 hrs later and decide to hop the hotel shuttle to the hotel where we will be staying one night when we return from Taiwan and get over there hoping to find a real resteraunt to eat at and nothing around... We wait 2 hrs to get back to the airport and end up eating at a burger joint in the airport... Probably the best burger I ever had.. cost us 40.00 for lunch. At least we burned 2 hrs of our 6 hr layover driving around SF. Cold though and windy....
We were in shock after leaving when it was already humid and warm at home. We board Eva airlines and had a perfect 13 hr flight .Travis and I pretty much slept the whole way off and on.. I chose not to eat anything knowing what I felt like last time I got off the plane here 2 yrs ago... So motion sick. Jet lagged and overall yucky... Helped a really nice young family shuffle through the airport with 2 children, car seat, guitar, and stroller. They were Americans who had never been here before but got jobs to teach English and Art. I know we were tired buy I can't imagine how they survived that with 2 under 4 yrs of age. And no idea what was outside those doors... Heat, humidity, and traffic. Mr. Yeh and Alex were standing outside with the biggest smiles waiting on us. It was now around 11pm Taiwan time... I was so happy to see them again.
They are what make this trip to Taiwan the most perfect trip ever. Not only as our guide but a friend sharing the happiness of our family and other families seeing there children for the first time... How rewarding can a job be to see families unite with there children. We arrived at the Agora and are in room 1201. We were in 1101 last time and we have the most beautiful view of Taipei 101 once again.. It was now around midnight. I pretty much unpacked our stuff drank a ton of water and headed for bed around 2 am.

Congratulations Tyler! You Did It!

He was so excited that night. But so nervous about the state exam he had just taken that morning... He did not find out he passed until he was in Atlanta waiting to catch his next flight to Key West....

Mutt and Jeff as I refer to them.. Tyler and Scott

Tyler, Dustin, Ryan, Scott, Mike. All worked very hard together through this class...

It is official Tyler has completed 624 hrs of Basic Law Enforcement Training and can now be hired as a Police Officer. Since January Tyler has continued to work at the Cherry Tree House with the children as a counselor caring for them afterschool or on breaks when they are out of school and going to his training from 6pm to 11pm Mon.- Thurs. and 8-5 on Saturdays. I must say he is determined to fullfill his dreams in Law Enforcement. After receiving his certificate the night of July 9, 2009, he boarded the plane the next morning to Key West for 2 wks. Well deserved vacation.... We are so very proud of you Tyler.... Best wishes to you in finding the first job in your field...

We Love Ya!

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our Travel Call!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Words can not say how we are feeling today... Our special gal(thank you) from our agency called tonight on her way home from the work to tell us that our pick up day is August 6th at 2 pm..................... Can not believe it.... She got the email before she left for the holiday weekend and wanted to make sure we had the Great News!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is finally time...........
After 1 yr and 3 mos of choosing him to be ours, he will finally come home...
We love you Trey JingLai. We can't wait to finally meet you and hug and kiss you..... Won't be long till you enter our crazy family.... Our climb is almost over....
Love you...

Once a Marine! Always Marine!

Ooh Rah Soldier!
Oh girlfriend decided to nab Trey's Marine cover to borrow (since he is not home yet to wear it!!!!!!!) to head out to command the fort.... She certainly is sporting her own set of cami's today.... Yep! big girl panties.... Two days, no accidents, and diapers only for nap, and bedtime. Gosh! This would be great to have her done before we travel for Trey. Kinda stumbled into it... Tessa was constantly taking her diaper off. Bought a potty for the her and set it off in the kitchen to the side and she would go sit on it for the past month or so... but nothing... So Sat. I decided that was it... no more diapers... Stuck Dora panties and didn't look back... She kept saying about an hour or so later, I need a diaper. Nope... go to the potty. Sure enough she did.... her potty did the drum roll and all the bells and whistles went off.... We were so proud of her!!!!!!!!!! We have never used pull ups and will vow not to with her also.... She thinks her swim diapers are diapers... So she would still be wanting to use it as a diaper...
So she has continued without accidents thus far. But we are expecting that to be short lived.... Two days and going strong... No looking back now.... Congrats Tessa!!!! You are a big girl now!
love ya....

Jammie top and panties! The only attire needed to command post in.

Making my Daddy proud!!!!! Maybe she will grow up to be a Marine just like her Daddy!

The story behind this is:Tessa spilled water on the kitchen floor, Tatumn whiped out. Tessa gives Tatumn her a CLEAN pacifier and shares her blankey to comfort her.... She truly loves her sister and felt so sad that she had been hurt....This is what children are all about... LOVE

Tyler, We are so very proud of you!!!!!!! You are our Guniea Pig so make us Proud.... Tyler is on his 2nd year of college towards a degree in Criminal Justice and stepped off to take his Basic Law Enforcement Training class that has been 6 mos. He is almost finished..He said yesterday how sad he was going to be when class was over.... He will take the state exam on July 9th. He is in Raleigh as I type looking for a job as a police officer up there.... Scary... But he will be 21... Besides I might need his bedroom... Ha Ha..... We love you Ty.... Make us Proud!

Our 2nd Skype with Trey JingLai

What a sweetie!

He wanted to read us this story.

He just completed his spiderman puzzle for us and was so excited we all clapped for him.

All done with his puzzle. Great cheeser of a smile.

It all started out on the right day and the right time this time. Thank Goodness!!!!

Everyone one was home and waiting for 11pm. The call came through. We could hear them and our camera was up but no Trey. After about 10 mins of trying to fix it on their end they called back.... We answered the 2nd time and there was our sweetie.... smiling away... We asked if he was out of schoo. Yes. We asked if he knew his ABC's and fm answered a little. He wanted to give us all candy right away, which of course we pretend ate and he got the biggest kick out of all of us going um um um....We sent him a 24 piece puzzle of Spiderman he wanted to show us how he could put it together. And he did. When he was all done we clapped and told him good job... He loved that. meanwhile during this time I saw lots of candy... No wonder he can't sit still. He also showed us the Thomas the train we sent... The kids each took turns talking with Trey the best they could. He showed us how he could write his #'s 1-6. We clapped again... He really got a kick out of this. He read us a book. Just a calm as he could. Smiling at us throughout. Making sure we were watching. Bob stepped away to get Tessa who was sleeping for a change.. Ha Ha. She came down and sat on my lap and said Jing, Jing. He got real close to the camera to check her out..... like hey... she looks like me. We told him this was mei mei Tessa and she is from Taichung also. He leaned in close again and offered her a candy too. She pretended to eat it and he laughed.... She brought out his toys to show him and he was still just about to get into the web cam to get closer... it was priceless. He loved the vibrating lazer gun toy. More like a space gun. He also was interested in all his cars,and big airplanes. We said ABC'S with him and he repeated to P and then was done. All in all he did really great this time. But we ended about 15 mins early because he could not stay focused. A little overwhelming for us all. We will be forever thankful for these Skype sessions for him and us. Just a chance to help him get to know us before we whisk him away from the only life and foster family he has had since he was 13 mos. In all the hopes he will always be happy with the new life he will come to know and love.... We love him so much and don't even have our hands on him just yet...

But it will all be over soon. He will be ours. We love you Trey JingLai. We are coming soon!

Mom, Dad, Tyler, Travis, Tatumn, and Tessa.