Our Forever Family Day!

Tori's social workers 

Mr. Yeh our most Fabulous guide in Taiwan. We refer to him as Yeh-Yeh(grandpa)

To start off by yesterday was our visit with Tori. We met at the Facility where her govt. social works out of where we met in Jan. Tori came running in and jumped in my arms and screamed Jie Jie (big sister). Got my quick hugs and kisses from her and Tatumn became her focus. I was soooo happy to see her excited to see her sister also. Tori is so beautiful and so full of life. We went to a room where we visited with Tori and the girls played with jacks and colored 3D velvet posters and I was able to get more information on Tori's family and learn more about Tori. We did receive our Final Ruling (Adoption Complete) yeserday!!!!!!!!!!!
Tori then wanted to go out and about and asked to go back to our hotel. We got to the hotel around 4:30 and 5 mins later she asked to get back into the infamous bathtub. So she did. After that we headed to of course McDonalds and then back to the Center by 7pm. Tori started to shut down on the way back and we knew it was because she wanted to stay with us. Mr. Yeh tryed to explain and comfort her by telling her we will be back in the morning to pick her up and she will forever be with Momma. She was not having any part of it. Once again I had to break away from her and leave her sobbing her eyes out. It was awful. One more day and we will be together forever.
Lindsay my case worker from Gladney and Gongzhan from Gladney also were with me to enjoy a glimpse of what bringing a family together forever means.... It was so great to finally meet both of them.

Forever Family day! 6-1-2011
What this will mean for her is a family to guide her, teach her, but most importantly love her unconditionally forever. We are so greatful to Cathwell and her Birthfamily for allowing our family to do just that!

We dropped Lindsay and Gongzhan off at the local airport and headed to the center to pick Tori up at 10am. She came in running and gave me a big hug and kiss. She knew today was forever!
After a liitle bit we headed off to Starbucks for some much needed coffee.... getting up at 4 am is a killer. Then we headed to the Taipei Childrens Recreation Center where we enjoyed the bumper cars, ferris wheel, train, merry go round and more. After we were done there Tori was ready to go to the hotel and play in the bathtub once again.... By 1:30 pm we were back in and the girls enjoyed a few.... bounces on the bed.... get it out here I say. As we speak Tatumn is crashed 3pm and Tori is watching Pink Panther. What more can a Mom ask for a most perfect day with 2 of my daughters.
Tomorrow I will meet Tori's birthmom. By myself. Mr. Yeh will take the girls to the park. We will head out for dinner shortly and call it a most enjoyable day. We Love you Tori soooooooo very much!
 

Our visit with Tori Chih Hua May 31,2011

What a most wonderful Day!!!!!!!!1Heading out as we speak to get Tori FOREVER!!!!!!!!9am.......
Will write more tonight. Had to share our new beautiful daughter who loves her Jie Jie Tatumn!!!!!

We Made It!

 Taipei 101

 office buildings/shopping buildings by the hotel.

 view from the 88th floor

We survive the marathon of flying. Got to Agora Hotel around midnight. I managed to get all unpacked and into bed by 2 am. Ended up waking at 4:40am and then again 7:30am> Headed out around 9:30 to Taipei 101.It was a pretty clear day to see things from the 88th floor. We did not stay too long Tatumn was weirded out with the heights. Got my cell phone loaded with more minutes. Then went to eat at Chili's. Taxied to the Handicraft Market and then back for a nap.Around 6pm we went to the A Mart to grab snacks and such for Tori when she gets here on Wed. Then we taxied to Macaroni Grill which moved further away into the business district. No longer 10 min walk from the hotel. Great to see other areas of Taipei. We have figured out in Taiwan they eat and shop!!!!! Tomorow we visit with Tori into the evening and then she goes back to the foster family and Wed around 9 am she will be ours forever!!!!!!!!

Trey's 7th Birthday

It is truely amazing to see my little guy grow in so many ways. He is the best guy ever.Quite theMama'  boy. We were able to go see Kung Fu Panda II the night before my trip to Taiwan as a family. Very touched by the adoption subject they used in it. Trey became an Independent Reader on his birthday at school. He read several books to his assistant Principal and they both made a phone call home to tell us the great news......He was hairsprayed with confetti for the milestone he made with his reading He wanted this so badly through school. We already knew he was reading independently, but needed that recognition from his peers at school. Trey will go to the 2nd grade after all. His teacher and I feel pretty confident at the end of this school year his being behind in reading a little is totally due to language transition and would be totally bored in everything else if kept behind in 1st. So koodos to my Trey.

We celebrated his birthday as a family and he loves his DS.....

Random Fun Pics!

They still love each other>>>>>You can see the naughty still in Tessa. Would not have her any other way!

Nothing New! Oh Yeah There Is!!!!!!!!

Well, to retract this blog post I never published....
WE ARE OUT OF HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On our way to bring sweet Tori home for GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My nerves are shot.... but it is a good thing... Leaving Bob with the other 3 at home for a few weeks.... Well he will survive.... Tatumn is traveling with.... And I have a huge surprise for both girls which neither know about until later being told in Taiwan...
So hope everyone enjoys our Journey to Tori................................


Tori had her first court date on the 8th of March. Her Civil Ruling came on the 28th of April and who knows when her Final Ruling is or was but we are going to get her....
A very happy 44th Birthday for me on the 6th to have Tori Chih Hua Henke forever..









Just a quick note to say nothing is new with the adoption of Tori. We have heard nothing about a court date yet.... We suspect we could hear something shortly after Chinese New Year!!! It has been 3 wks since I have been home from Taiwan and feel a tad bit antsy about getting her home.... Could be a while longer I am sure.... Just the thought of leaving her crying when I left her was the last thing in my mind when I left....
I Miss Her!!!!

The Time Has Come to Say Goodbye For Now........ Final Day in Taiwan

 The last full day together... Chili's ofcourse. Tori wanted Pizza...

 Dvd's I bought for her to have in Taiwan. In chinese...

 Books for her... We could have done some serious damage in the Eslite bookstore...
 I will save that for the next trip back...


                                     
Police Scooter... We took this one for Tyler... We never got a picture of one when we were there adopting Tessa in 2007....  A Gorgeous Taiwanese Women was the proud Policewomen of this scooter.... she was directing traffic.




With a box of Kleenex by my side.... this has taken me almost a month to the day to post about our last day together in Taiwan. A once in a lifetime chance to meet our new daughter while waiting to bring her home forever...This is a hard one to write about....
 Our last night together was one filled with tears, lots of hugging and holding... Tori knew I was packing, she knew I was organizing all the great goodies I brought to her from home and all of her new things we bought in Taiwan. I would walk room to room carrying a tissue, trying not to show her I was upset and crying. The constant knot in my throat was unbearable... She saw me crying and came to me crying. She knew this was nearing the end of my visit...I finally sat down with her and just held her in the chair and cried with her. I just kept squeezing her, wiping her tears and telling her in Chinese I Love You! She would just sob. It was so hard... I finally brought out my hand held translator and sat her on the edge of the bed and began to type in what I needed to say...I told her, you know I have to leave tomorrow. Yes she said. I told her I am packing her stuff to take back to the foster family. Yes she said. She held my hand. She was reading the translator as I typed.... I typed in I will be back to bring you home to America forever when Taiwan says all of her papers are done. As simple as I could explain it to her... She started to cry harder..... And so did I.... So hard. So horrific to try and ease my sweet baby girls sadness about her Mom leaving.... So we shared about 2 hours till we fell asleep some Keenex and love...I got up the next morning and got ready and then woke her up as usual.... Such a great sleeper. We headed down for breakfast and the knot was so far up in my throat it was hard to get food down. Then my tears started to roll out at breakfast. At this point she was almost done eating so I turned away a lot. I did not want her to cry while down for breakfast. It was all I could do to get back up to the room and go cry in the bathroom.... I didn't want her to cry anymore... So the bellmen came and took our stuff down and we sat and watched cartoons together for a while longer.. At 11:30 am we headed downstairs to meet Mr. Yeh to take her back to the center where her Social Worker works. We needed to be there at 12. When we showed up Tori said something about eating and her Social Worker said go eat and come back.... Even though it had only been about 2 hours since our breakfast we did so... Mr. Yeh wanted us to go to this nice Tea place but they were packed... So we ended up at KFC, which Tori likes and ate well at as usual... We headed back to the center to pick up Tori's social worker because we were going to take Tori to shcool. Tori had an end of marking period test to take.... YIKES!!!!!!!!!
We got to her school and I wanted to take a picture of her and she said no. Then her social worker asked her to come on and she clearly hesitated to get out of the van. She asked her again to come on she needed to go to school. She got out of the van and started to cry really hard.... It was sooo horrible. She was holding onto my leg and sobbing..... I was crying, and so was everyone else at this point.... My beautiful baby girl, crying so hard because she did not want to leave her Momma.... She stood there in her adorable pink coat, her ruffled pink umbrella crying because she did not want to see me leave.... My heart hurt so bad..... I did not want to leave her.... She is my daughter. Clearly we formed a perfect bond in the 5 days I got to spend with her.....I leaned down to her, hugged her, squeezed her even tighter, wiped her tears and told her I love you in Chinese and watched her walk off with her wonderful government social worker to check into to school.... I only watched for a minute before getting back in the van. She was still crying....  Mr. Yeh and I drove off and it was so sad.... We stopped at Starbucks for some coffee and after I added all my cream and sugar I thought all I need in it now is WHISKEY! Something to help me survive the emotions of leaving my daughter behind. We headed to the airport and I was able to catch the earlier flight and did pretty good emotionally after that. I knew in my heart, I will forever be greatful for Taiwan, Cathwell, and her social workers for allowing me the opportunity to come to Taiwan and meet our new daughter while she waits through the courts to bring her home forever.... I could never have asked for a better trip, a more perfect meeting and a more perfect week spent with Tori. I got to have many first with her.... The bathtub, the blowdryer, painting her nails, hot chocolate, hearing her sing Justin Bieber's Baby, seeing her dance, try to blow a bubble, watching her play with foam soap, seeing her pop the head off of her Polly Pocket to put her little rubber clothes on, hearing her say I Love You Momma in English, and sooo much more but especially her Smile.... We chose her beacause no matter what her situation, no matter watch she has been through.... Tori is a survivor. She always has a smile..... We love her so very much and hope the rest of her process goes very fast.... Thanks Tori! For loving your Mom while in Taiwan and I will try to wait patiently for the day I return to bring you home to America forever!
We All Love you!


Outside Tayouan Airport

                                    

 A thank you note to Mr. Yeh. It says Thank You Yeh Yeh (grandpa)
I told her to write her name and she wrote Tori... Then I said ... Can you write your Chinese Name too!!!Ha Ha...

 KFC

In our room right before they picked up our stuff to leave! Such a happy face for such a sad day to come.....