A day in Taipei

It rained here all day, so we needed some indoor activities. We went to Taipei 101, which until 2010, was the tallest building in the world. It also has the fastest elevator in the world. The views were pretty spectacular. We also ventured out to Snake Alley, but we found it a little...well, seedy....so we left pretty quickly. We did see some rather large creepy crawlies though. We finally made our way to the Carrefour for a few necessities.

Lucy does NOT like being told no, and no can send her into a tailspin like you've never seen. Both girls seem to be on the "everything must be exactly equal and fair" plan. If one is in my lap, the other wants to be there. If one gets a bite of something, the other wants a bite.

We did finally hve a few moment of sister sweetness, but never fear, it was only for a moment. Lord Jesus, help my children learn to love (and maybe even like?) one another!

Back to Taipei

It's been raining our whole time in Taitung, which curtailed our activities pretty significantly. We were supposed to leave today, but apparently there is no radar in the airport (?!?!), so the planes don't fly in the rain. (I'm glad I didn't know about the radar thing when we flew in!). Plan B involved taking a 6-hour train trip from Taitung back to Taipei. In the end, we are so glad we did this. The train was very comfortable, and except for the ridiculous amount of luggage we have, it was pretty easy to navigate. We loved getting out of the cities and seeing the countryside. Taiwan is SO beautiful. It is easy to see why the explorers called the island Formosa. Truly, it's exquisite!

Two women with two Chinese babies traveling through the countryside of Taiwan is akin to being exhibits in a zoo! Oh, the way the people stared. At one point, a junior high badmitton team got on the train with us. They gathered around us in a semi-circle to watch our every move. They even attempted to surreptitiously video us. It was hysterical!!! We finally turned around and started speaking with them, which caused whispers and giggles.

When we finally got off the train, we had so much luggage to haul and so little time that the people on our train car (not the badmitton team) were openly laughing at us. We have to admit, it was funny. In the end, each Taiwanese person grabbed one of our bags and hauled it off the train for us. That left us with all our bags on the train platform in Taipei in the rain at night. People were walking past us and pointing and laughing. It was okay - we were laughing at ourselves. We ended up moving the bags by placing Sara and Lucy at the bottom of the escalator and Amelia and me at the top and sending the bags, sans human escort, one by one up the escalator. Oh, Taiwan has never seen the likes of our luggage. The cab driver shrieked when we showed him what we had. Then he very sweetly loaded us up and took us to the hotel.

Note for future international adventures: no more large bags than there are adult humans to schlepp them!! Just saying.

We are happy to be back in Taipei and hope to take in some of the sites if it EVER stops raining!

Learning to be sisters

Today, Lucy had a pretty good day. Amelia, however, struggled. She is having a tough time sharing the attention and affection of the adults. She wants to do everything for Lucy, but she's not quite grasping that Lucy does not understand English, which results in frustration on Amelia's part. Lucy also tries to take things away from Amelia and touch Amelia's things, which has brought out Amelia's territorial nature. There were some sweet moments today, though. Amelia helped Lucy try on shoes. Lucy came over and tried to comfort Amelia when there was a meltdown over Lucy being in Amelia's things. Praying these two strangers who are now sisters will one day be great friends.

Lucy, Lucy, Lucy!

I wrote the last post right before bedtime yesterday. When I re-read it this morning, I realized I sounded like a Negative Nellie. Lucy does have some challenging behaviors, but now let me tell you about the wonderful things!

Lucy is happy, happy girl. She throws fits (she's 2!), but she recovers easily. She is very determined to get her way, but she doesn't hold a grudge. She sleeps through the night. YAHOOO!!!! It took Amelia nearly two years after her adoption to sleep soundly through the night, so a 2-yr old who sleeps through the night is a JOY!

Speaking of joy, Lucy spreads it wherever she goes. She has the most infectious laugh. She laughs all the time. It makes everyone around her laugh.

She loves to tease and play games with us. She is already calling everyone by name, except Amelia, whom she refers to as Jie Jie. She loves Amelia and wants to do everything Amelia does. Amelia has mostly been patient, but she is so over Lucy trying to touch her stuff. :) They are both learning together about how to be sweet sisters!

Everytime we pull out the computer, Lucy starts hollering for Papa (she loves seeing Papa on Skype). She is very inquisitive -- she wants to touch everything. Anytime we say "let's go," she grabs her Helly Kitty backpack and puts on her shoes. She is all about going! Did I mention her speed is full-steam ahead? We did acquire a stroller yesterday, so hopefully, we can curtail some of the running today.

At this point, Lucy has been in our family less than 48 hours-- she is making great strides as she learns that there ARE boundaries in her new world. All in all, we are very blessed, and we LOVE OUR LUCY!!!

Learning about Lucy

Don't let the puppy dog eyes fool you -- Lucy is a dynamo. She has two volumes: loud and louder. She is able to shriek for no reason for at least 20-30 minutes at a time. She has two speeds: asleep and full-steam ahead. She's a runner and a shrieker. She is VERY strong-willed. So far we have found four foods that suit her fancy: orange juice (which she throws a fit for everytime she sees it), french fries, plain rice, and Oreos. For everything else, she either clenches her mouth shut and refuses to try it, or she tries it and spits it out. Today alone she spit out noodles, chicken, pork, egg, and apple. She can throw a tantrum any 2-yr old would be proud of. I really mean that. She does NOT like the word NO. She and Amelia had their first sisterly fight today, which left Amelia in tears. The good news is that Lucy recovers quickly, and she does not hold a grudge.

We are in a smallish city, so we attract lots of attention. Actually, we attracted attention in Taipei, too. I guess the Taiwanese are not so very accustomed to seeing Chinese children with white foreigners.

Lucy is an angel when she's sleeping, and I have not laughed as hard as I did today in a long time. She is a monkey, a class clown. She repeats anything anyone says. I think she will be a very verbal child one of these days. For now, she shrieks. God bless anyone sitting next to us on the plane home. Precious Lucy -- officially 100 percent my daughter, unofficially still getting to know one another!

We have Lucy!!!

What an incredible day! We left Taipei around noon today and flew to Taitung. We were met at the airport by the sweet Pan family. They have been the ones overseeing Lucy's care. We made our way to our hotel, where we quickly dropped off our bags, and then we headed straight for the church where Lucy's entrustment to our family took place. It happened so fast, we didn't even have the video camera rolling. Lucy came to me right away - no tears, no meltdowns. The first words spoken by Lucy: "jie jie," which means big sister. She seemed to know that Amelia was her big sister. We talked for awhile with the staff and then left to return to our hotel. Lucy came easily and happily with us - no looking back. She LOVES Amelia and tries to do everything Amelia does. The only tears we had were when she fell and bumped her head. Once she started crying, she could not seem to stop. I think she was having a cathartic cry, which I was happy to see. She is so much more "baby" than Amelia was at this age. She's a snuggle-bug too. I have so much more to write, but Lucy loves the computer and keeps trying to type. I will leave you all with some photos - I know that's what you want anyway!!!

Taking in Taipei...

Today was a day to rest, reset our body clocks, and explore Taipei. We found a great little noodle shop close to our hotel. Amelia checked out the playground equipment at a couple of parks. We walked up and down the streets. We tried out a dumpling restaurant famous for their xiaolongbao (little steamed pork dumplings). Amelia was very good to try everything. She also found a shop she loved: Miss Lulu's Bakery. We decided we'd have to bring Lucy back for a photo op.

This last photo is for my friend Lorene who has a strange fascination with toilets of the world. These are the buttons to control the toilet, which runs on electricity. Notice the seat warmer? Notice the choice of spray action (cool water, warm water, direction)?


Please pray for us tomorrow. We will fly to Taitung around lunchtime and will meet Lucy sometime tomorrow afternoon.