Taiwan ROCks the Windy City

I will finish our China trip soon, but just returned from chicago and Taiwan ROCks reunion.  It was amazing and I am speechless at some of things that happened(good) while together.  I will try and share it all soon, but wanted to share some pics.  I will say that TECO which is the Taiwanese govt agency that we all deal with while we are in the process of adopting.....well they were contacted by one of our moms(thanks Suzy) well they came to have lunch with us and brought goodies for the kid's as well as Taiwanese instructors to teach the kids about some culture.  Going forward they would like to participate by offering a full day of culture camp for the kids at our reunion each year.  So to say we are excited and terribly humbled is an understatement. We were even interviewed by several media sources including the world wide press!!  I have NO idea what I said and now am nervous what came out of my mouth!!  LOL

We also raised $1400 for Ronald McDonald house Chicago and St. Lucy's orphanage in Taiwan

The weekend was truly amazing and magical.  We saw old friends and made some new ones and we can't wait for next year.....2013~ we are going to Cali and we are going to Disney!!!  YIPPEE!!

Hayden holding the tail of the lion.

at check in with two of H's favorite mamas..tiffany and lisa.  She is holding her dog pepper that she picked out at American Girl.  If you wonder what Hayden LOVES right now it is all things AMERICAN girl!!!  Will post pics of our lunch there!!

from left to right Tiffany, Me(Hayden's hand) Lisa C(hostess this year) Lisa R, and one of our other mamas that made a lovely Matilda Jane donation to our raffle.

Our chairs and Director Ger.   Suzy and her sweet girl are right next to the director and because of Suzy we are hoping for a lifetime relationship with TECO!!

foster siblings reunited and their relationship has been sealed at this point....serious love fest between these two!!

look at these two!

two little monkeys jumping on the couch(no one fell off, so that was good) LOL

Sleepover with Tyler!!

Crafts with Paigey and Tyler

Time to get this party started!!!

Hayden loves Tyler, but I think his sister Lauren would lose out in a vote:) 

This is pretty much how H spent her weekend!!!

Between Paige and Hayden....hopefully Lauren got her little sister fix:) LOL

China #10 our friend the monk.

Hayden's friend the Monk.  He seemed to have a special place in his heart for her.  We had lunch and 2 dinners with our lovely new friend and enjoyed and felt so honored that he invited us to the temple for lunch, a tour and a special blessing

The entire lunch was vegetarian, but you would never have known it.  Special chefs are brought from Beijing to cook at the temple.  If you look closely you will see sausage, shrimp, fish etc.  It was a delicious lunch.

Nope not one real piece of meat here....but it tasted GREAT!!!  You can do some crazy stuff with tofu.

They are getting ready to build a bigger building and the tiles will be used for the new building. 

Outside the temple.  This is in the heart of downtown Chongqing.

Lighting incense and candles

a very special blessing.  We felt honored that he would want to bless us with a happy, safe and healthy life. 

Having tea at the temple

As we left the temple.  What a wonderful experience and day we had with our new friend.  Hayden kept doing the namaste head bow to her monk friend.

China #9

Huashan mountain in Xi'an(Shaanxi province)

top of peak one of Huashan.  Look over Hayden's shoulder....can you see the line of people trekking up the mountain??  It was HOT, even up there!!

Yep, REALLY high 7,087 feet. There are 5 peaks.  It is considered one of the 5 "Great China mountains" with a long history of Taoism and various temples scattered amongst the peaks.  Most famous in the US as the mountain referred to and filmed Crouching Tiger hidden dragon. 

You can walk....no not the way to go with a 3 year old on your back.  But people do and it takes about 4 hours.

or you can do cable car....not really what we wanted to do either, but was the only realistic way we were going to get up there.  David and I both have a BIG fear of heights and this was a tough ride up and down for both of us!!  Hayden LOVED it!!

China fashion statement....no just whatever they can do to keep the sun off of them!!! LOL  that is why their skin looks so much better than ours!!!

can see the peaks a bit better here

Ma'ma, Baba and Hayden ready to go get some HOT pot!!!

Out for HOT pot with shiyu's dad's friends(some of them his college roommates)

We said it was HOT pot!!!  LOL

between the little bit of AC and the spicy HOT pot the shirts had to come off.  If I had been a boy I might have taken my shirt off too!!!  LOL

Baba was REALLY considering taking his shirt off.  when I say it was HOT in there...I MEAN HOT!!!!

This is a trend in Chongqing....spicy food and HOT and humid tempetures!!

Hayden was considering taking her shirt off!!  HAHA  BTW this was a delicious meal.

then we headed for foot massages(that is actually an all body massage) but when he broke out the headlamp and the razor to trim my talons oh I mean nails I was a bit embarrassed:)

David was in HEAVEN!!!

YeYe(Shiyu's grandfather) looked pleased to be getting a massage too!!!

Jo'Ma will hate this pic, but I had to show you that she spent so much time doing H's hair and doing it so well that you would never know that she didn't have a daughter or a granddaughter(but Tom and Rachel I think she would like one...hint hint)

Oh a little stretching never hurt anyone....David has the tightest hamstrings and this was actually a little painful for him:)  hahaha

LOOK AT MY NEW HAIRDO!!!  It was braids from here on out people!!!!  By the time we left China Hayden fit the part of a little girl living in China.  Hair, clothes, shoes etc.... LOL

We are finally home

I know it has been awhile and I am sorry that we just dropped off the face of the earth.  Once David arrived we started moving a million miles a minute and his VPN to allow us to blog was spotty at best.  So it was complicated to get posts or pics up.  We had some unexpected travel changes that were disappointing, but could not be avoided and we also had some AMAZING experiences while David was in China.  We had a few issues getting home, and Hayden and I ended up with a few extra days in Shanghai and an unexpected trip to Tokyo to boot.  She and I finally arrived home late Wednesday evening and we are in the DEPTHS of jet lag!!!  Oh how I forgot how BAD it is coming home and recovering from a 13 hour time change.  But we are working thru it and need to be back in the game by next week as H and I  leave town again on Thursday!! 

I am going to start back where we left off and continue thru the rest of the trip.  Hopefully you will enjoy the rest of our journey as much as we did!!!

Right before David arrived we had an amazing dinner with Shiyu's godmother at her beautiful home with her family and all of Shiyu's family. We had a great time singing karaoke in her theatre/karaoke room. We captured some VERY funny video and then Hayden showed them some of her supermodel moves and allowed everyone to take pictures of her. It was a great evening and we appreciated Wan Mama's hospitality so much!!!

Hayden, Jo'Ma, and E'ma doing some karoke

Lovely dinner at Shiyu's godmother's house.

America's next top model:)

Seriously...who is this child??  LOL

and she just keeps going!!!

Sweet doudou and me!!!

Since Hayden ate so much rice(mifong and janyo~soy sauce) Wan Mama gave her a 5 lb bag of rice from N. Korea!!  Hayden was determined that she was bringing it home...we only brought one ziplock though.

Ahhhh waiting for Daddy to arrive!!!

gracious it was SO good to see and hug him!!!  This was at midnight!!!

someone else was SUPER excited to see her daddy.

learning to make dumplings...surprisingly not really a big food item in China...well not in Chongqing.  But they were sweet and taught us to make them and they were delicious.

making dumplings!!

more tomorrow hopefully!!