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.