Merry Christmas Everyone.

My favourite picture.

Well Gaia's first encounter with Santa up close and personal was not too bad. She was not interested in sitting on his lap at all but enjoyed taking away the gift she was given.

Tree Skirt Dance.

Christmas Tree Fun.

Today was our first time at the Regina Annual Culture Camp. Though not yet very social, our little daughter did enjoy the crafts and snacks. What a nice event and great idea for the adoption community.

Today was a day with great news, we received Gaia's citizenship card. The new process was quick and painless. Everyday brings us new joys and delights with our sweet little daughter.

How cute is this???

Wow, November already.
We cant believe how quickly the time has passed. Our daughter is just a gift. When we were first referred her and we knew she would be two by the time we picked her up we did have mixed feelings. We thought a younger child would be so much easier. We were wrong. There is nothing terrible about our two year old. To describe her I would say: joyful, thoughtful, clever, to name but a few. She has so many wonderful moments of discovery and we love being there with her every step of the way. We both live to make her smile, and the smiles she causes us are never ending.

Halloween Helper.

Close Ups.

One of these things was fun, one was not.

Well it has been a couple of weeks now since we have become a family. Everyone is adjusting very well, our little girl is full of personality and mischief, we are in love with her and having fun learning more and more about her each day.

Oh poor Gaia, she does not like the snow.

A list of things our daughter hates. Hats, socks, mittens, hoods, winter coats, long sleve shirts, oh yeah and boots. Too bad she will have to get use to all these things in Canada.

New things for Gaia

All girls love shopping, our daughter is no different. She sure does love to make grabby hands. Snowsuite, not so loved.

Home

Well we have been home since Monday night and have not had a moment to think let alone keep up this blog. What terrible parents we are we have even slowed down on the picture taking. I was horrified to realize our first trip to the store was not documented, ha ha, we do tend to go a little overboard.
Since we have been home a whole 2 days, feels like forever, Gaia has been adjusting to the pets. First the cats, she has warm and cold moments with them. We only picked the dog up today and she is hit and miss with her as well. She loved feeding her some of her lunch, but does not like the dog to get to close. We have also been really tested with the word no, which has lead to a few fits of tears. As for husband and I we have not had a moment to sit. Between the jet lag, working on getting me identification again, trying to finish up the paper work for the adoption (we don't like to wait on things), doing laundry, cleaning the house and of course taking care of baby we have not had a moment of peace. But, it has all been fun. I will post some pics soon of the first few days at home.
To all the parents out there, God Bless you, I had no idea. PS, if anyone has any suggestions on how to get a 2 year old to eat veggies, I am all ears.

Trip Home

Finally we are on our way home. What a long long day. We could not have asked anything more of our precious little daughter she was brilliant. She only fussed on the first flight out of Taipei to Hong Kong, the rest of the day she was just a peach. We were so lucky. We finally arrived home late Monday night after securing a ride from Regina to Moose Jaw since our car keys had been in my purse which was lost. The end of one journey but just the start of our life together as a family.

Our final day in Taipei, we leave tomorrow with mixed emotions, so happy to get home but we will be a little sad to leave Taipei. Our trip has been so rewarding we still can't believe that this sweet, joy full, giving, brave, beautiful little lady is our child.

Oh Yeah, on a real bummer note, I lost my purse today. Lucky for me my husband held my passport, so we got the credit card and ATM card cancelled and I will have to wait to get home to get a birth certificate, driver's licence and that sort of stuff. Still a great day though overall.

Sight Seeing.

A night at the market and a trip to a national park, neither spot was stroller friendly. but nice to get a look at none the less.

Having a look around Taipei, Oct 2.

Taipei is an amazing place. In many ways it is just how we expected it to be from looking on the Internet and reading up, but it has also fascinated us and captured our imaginations. Our daughter is going to be so proud to be Taiwanese, we are going to make sure of that. The people are so friendly, we have had many people ask us about our daughter and curious as to why we have a Chinese daughter. They are not rude about it, just curious. Our daughter continues to thrill us and capture our hearts more and more each day. We are so blessed to have this little girl come into our family.

Silly baby, isint she sweet!

Family Fun - sleeping baby

We are now a family of three.

Today was an amazing day. Today was our gotcha day as well as our daughter's second birthday. Things could not have gone better. She greeted us with tears and a good scream when she was placed into our arms for the first time but settled down within a few minutes. By the time we left the orphanage she was letting us both hold her and was very patient as we kept trading off. No fuss in the cab ride to the hotel or as we went into the hotel and our room. As each minute passed she was coming more and more out of her shell. Our day passed quickly and things continued to go vey well. We even went down to the restaurant for supper. She was just perfect all through supper. We went out again into a cab to the trade office to get her paper work and we had no difficulties. The only problems so far have been when it is nap time and bed time. Still no tears she just becomes very quiet and does not want to lay down. After 1 1/2 hours of laying with her and rubbing her back and head, she fell asleep sitting up. So day one is over and we look forward to our future together.

Monday Sept 29 2008

So today was suppose to be our gotcha day, but a little typhoon had different plans. Our gotcha day was postponed until Tuesday as the city was cleaning up after the storm. More rain today, we headed out with umbrellas in hand and did a little more exploring. We stopped in a restaurant for lunch and I am sad to say we could not figure out how to use chop sticks, (that was suppose to be on our things to do before we go list). I am afraid we looked pretty stupid to our hosts. In the afternoon we took a cab to Taipei 101 to get out of the rain and out of the hotel room. This city is something else.

So tomorrow is now the big day, this still seems unreal most times.

Play Date, Sept 27 2008

In Taiwan

It is Sunday Sept 28 and our world at this moment is scripted by not only picking up our duaghter, but also from Super typhoon Jangmi. We have just been informed that the city will be shut down today due to the typhoon. WOW, we travel half way around the world and experience a typhoon.

Back To our daughter. We meet her yesterday for the first time for a playdate. WOW is she adorable. For the first hour she was in a semi coma state and did not respond to anything we did . We finally broke through by showing her picutres on the camera and then we progressed to playing with her using an etch-a-sketch. We even got smiles. Then we moved onto a game of blocks and she dazzeled us with laughter as she threw the blocks and Ed caught them. That was a hit. She did not want us to pick her up and did not want us to change her diaper, small steps. We left the play date with kisses on the cheeks and the realization that we are now parents and this beautiful little girl is our daughter. We know there will be some ruff times ahead but we will work together to get through them. Moday will be a memorable experience we are sure.

Unfortuately we forgot to pack our cable to move pictures from the camera to the computer. Now the storm has shut down the city so we dont know when we will be able to pick one up, we do have some great pictures and movies to show.

The staff at Chung Yi was awsome. We love Taipei. So far early into our trip this has already been the experience of a life time. We cant wait to get our daughter and start as a family for life.

Not much longer.

I don't know exactly what to say today, but I wanted to capture these moments. Only a few more days until we travel to Taiwan and meet our daughter. Emotions are all over the place; love, joy, happy, thrilled, scared, nervous, anxious, you name it we feel it. We feel truly blessed and unbelievably lucky. We know we were meant to go down this road and we were all meant to come together to be a family.
Only a few more days now.

Our first meeting with our daughter!!!!!

latest pictures Aug 29 2008

The most beautiful little girl we have ever seen.

Not long now.

WOW, what a difference two weeks make. We have our tickets bought for the flights, hotel is booked, vaccinations up to date. Money is being ordered in Taiwan dollars, the dog is booked into a kennel, arrangements have been made with the Canadian trade office in Taipei, family and friends notified. Not much longer now and we will be a family. And if the news is not good enough our travel and gotcha day have all been advanced one week. Sept 29 is now the magic day, 1 day before our daughter turns 2. Well if that does not beat it all.
Still plenty to do, especially on the work end but everything is coming along very nicely.

Only one month to go.

Travel Time

Thursday, Aug 14 2008

Today was the day that we have dreamed of for so long, the call its time to travel. Wonderful news! Our court process once in the new court went extremely fast. The judge decided there was no need for a first, second or third ruling and completed our adoption during the initial hearing. WOW, good news for us as this is rare in deed.
We will travel in 6-8 weeks. We are coming Gaia.

July 2 2008 new picture of Gaia

Not flesh of my flesh

nor bone of my bone,

but still miraculously my own.

Never forget for a single minute,

you didn't grow under my heart,

but in it.

Court change

Thursday, June 12 2008.

Yesterday we were told that Chung Yi has pulled our dossier out of the court of the "slow" judge and re-submitted us into a different court. They are very hopeful that this will be a quicker process. Oh my, are we crossing our fingers. We spoke with our social worker about this and she is very upbeat about the whole thing and thinks this is for the best. So our hopes have risen once again to have our daughter home before she turn 2.
In the mean time, we go about our daily lives allowing ourselves to dream of the day we will have our daughter.
Wish us luck everyone.

Thoughts about the wait.

Today there was news of an earthquake in Southern Taiwan. Hearing this made my heart stop. We then heard no damage reported and no Tsunami. Thank God.

The weekends are the hardest waiting for Gaia. The weeks go by quickly with work keeping us occupied. But on the weekends there seems to be lots of time to think and wish and worry. Think about all the times we will have together as a family. Wish that the time was now. Worry that our child needs us now.

We have been told to not expect to travel before the end of this year. We were devastated with this news but are adjusting. We now have our sights set on November for travel. Keep your fingers crossed that it will not be later.

Waiting for our daughter.
Kim and Ed

Newest pictures of our beautiful daughter May 28 2008

New Pictures of our Baby May 14 2008

So happy to receive new pictures of our daughter, but nervous to hear we have been assigned the "slow" judge. Praying he is not too slow.