Catch up

Things are going well here. Well most of the time. We are all still waking up at weird times, and feeling the urge to close our eyes when we normally would be wide awake, but overall we are making some strides in the sleep area.

Hayden has for the most part made friends with all of her puppies, it was a little touch and go there the first 48, but she doesn't even seemed bothered by Finely's barking anymore. The dogs love that she sits in the highchair with food, and they fight over who gets first dibs when we get her out to look for the lost nibblets.

She nows loves her baths in the duck, she will sit in her carseat without crying, she has had her first lunch out, she is obsessed with her brother and sister and not to mention her Ya-Ya(David's mom) who has been a giagantic help. She is still working on Daddy leaving in the morning, but is overjoyed when he walks back in at the end of the day.

I am still working on figuring out how to get everything done....either one handed, or when she is asleep. Since I have been trying to sleep when she does, the one handed thing has been the most used method, but not the most efficient. This morning I have gotten a ton done, as this has been the very first morning we have sort of had a bit of a schedule. I really look forward to getting into a routine, and I think we all will feel better....especially Hayden.

We have gotten so many beautiful gifts. David's sister-in-law in Seattle made Hayden a beautiful afgan, and the cutest knitted bibs(we need a million of these, as she is a drooling fool)

Beautiful flowers arrived from the Douglass family yesterday, a box just arrived from Aunt Louise. Monogrammed diapers, the cutest pinkest Giggle moon outfit, an awesome signing book. The list goes on and on. We appreciate everyone's generousity and kindness more than we will ever be able to tell you.

Here are a few pictures from the trip home and after getting settled a bit. Enjoy, and again thanks for everything!!!

Home Sweet Home

Quickly just wanted to let you know we did make it home in one piece. It took about 28 hours of travel, and Hayden did really well considering. Every flight we walked on you could tell the people on our flight thought.....great, a baby that is going to scream the whole way. She didn't, but I almost did:)

It feels awesome to be home, and Hayden is adjusting. She is sleeping quite a bit, and we are hoping for some sunshine today so we can get her out in it and stay up longer today. She wants to make friends with the dogs, but having a feeling it will be like "50 first dates" Each day we will have to re-introduce them and hope eventually she will be fine with them. Just a lot of tears right now.

Will update you with some home pictures shortly. We were greeted at the airport by our friends and David's mom. It was awesome to see everyone, and Hayden was full of smiles....most of it at least.

Last Day

Look how sweet she looks laying on her daddy. She loves to sleep on you, and if she wakes in the night she is climbing on top to go back to sleep. She and her daddy will be enjoying many naps together I am sure.

These cantaloupes are gigantic, but again the picture does not show their size off. This market sells all produce and around 4 o'clock it became full of people and the market was hawking the produce like beer at a baseball game.

I am pretty sure that Taipei is the scooter capital of the world, and it seems as though every single person of driving age has one. They all wear mask, and mitts on their hands because the pollution is so bad. It feels like you are living inside a giant video game with them.....it is like playing frogger. This is just one little alley with them parked.

Sausage I guess, they were huge, but you can't really tell that in the picture. Not exactly sausage on a stick at the Texas State Fair.

Shilin is the largest night market in Taipei, and it is packed full of booths selling anything from squid on a stick to stinky tofu(boy does it stink) We strolled through here yesterday afternoon before it became packed with people. It was very interesting to see all the different stuff, and the conditions that it was cooked in.....let's just say there was not going to be even a little chance that I consumed anything, I won't even go to a potluck dinner and eat, so this was waaaay outside of my comfort zone. I did enjoy going, these markets are very famous in Taiwan.


Well it is our last day here in Taiwan, and I can't wait to get home and sleep in our bed, snuggle with the dogs, and introduce Hayden to all of those who have been waiting for her for such a long time. She is still having some really tense experiences, and am wishing her peace in this transition. There has been so much introduced to her this week, and it must just feel so overwhelming.....and now we are getting on a plane with her for 13 hours. I am worried about the plane, she has quite the set of lungs on her, and I would prefer everyone on the plane not to hate us.

This has been such an experience in so many ways. I feel so blessed to have been given this opportunity, and especially to be given this amazing little girl. We feel like the luckiest people in the world right now. We are so glad we had so many follow along with our journey, I hope it was fun for everyone at home to watch this experience and have a feel for where Hayden is from. We want to encourage her to be proud of her heritage, and for her to know as much about where she is from as she can learn. Taiwanese people are very kind, and proud people and come from a very rich culture. They have helped make this trip so incredible. We will be back when Hayden is old enough to appreciate it, and understand, and we look forward to bringing her back to her country.

We have a few things to do today to wrap up and get us ready to leave in the early morning. We will see if we have time for one more post, but if not the next pictures will be of the United States newest citizen when we land in Los Angeles and David's brother picks us up. We can't wait to get home!!!!

I know so many of you are anxious to meet Hayden, and we can't wait for you to meet her either.....however please remember she is getting ready to make a 13 hour time change and I am pretty sure it is going to wreak havoc and we are going to need some time to adjust to that and her new surroundings. So we will have days that we are sleeping and nights we are wide awake, and so calls and emails will probably go unanswered for a bit. Our priority is to get her settled and adjusted to her new world, and for her to learn that David and I are her parents and caregivers that will always provide for her. So please be patient with us, we promise you will get to meet Miss Priss soon!

Well it is Thursday folks, and we are about 48 hours away from heading home. We have been blessed with a great trip. We have seen so much, learned even more, eaten amazing food(and some food not so much) We have tried to soak in every bit of the culture and people here. But I think we are all ready to get home and sleep in our own beds, and have a taquito and Dr. Pepper from Whataburger:)

Today has been a hard day for Hayden. She seems to be really grieving and having a hard time coping. One minute she is happy as a clam and the next she is inconsolable. I just hold her tight while she screams(excellent lungs) and we work through it, and just keep telling her we love her, and that we understand why she is so angry and frustrated. This is a lot of change for one little girl, and while I know she will work through it and be fine in time, it really just breaks your heart to see her so upset....and to understand why she is so upset. But again all we can do is hold her and let her get it out the only way she can which is telling the world she is p!ssed off that her life has been turned upside down.

She loves to smile for the camera, and she is fascinated by all the people who come up to her and talk to her. I feel as though we are famous with her....seriously it is hard to walk around with all the people wanting to say hi to her, and tell her how beautiful she is.....and since I don't think once in my life I have had anyone stop to tell me how beautiful I am.....I am not really that use to this attention. But she smiles, and then does the dragon growl. We will have to get it on tape for everyone to see. When she is sad or when she is happy she does this growl thing that is hilarious, and the more you laugh at her for doing it, the more she does it!!!! So now we just call her dragon baby. DB for short. We will attempt to video it and see if we can get her to do it....telling you it is funny stuff.

**By the way Dragon baby loves rice, she ate half of a bowl at dinner last night!!

Okay, gotta start figuring out how all of this (crap) is getting back to the US!!

AIT and a view from the top

We went to our visa appointment at AIT this morning, Hayden has the cutest passport picture!! We were asked several questions like.....how is the baby treating us?? do we live in the same house? is the baby living up to our expectations~LOL They will process her visa today and we will pick it up tomorrow afternoon. Technically this is the last step, and once we have the visa we are free to leave the country.

We went to Taipei 101(tallest building in the world) we went to the top, and although the weather is a bit gross with rain and fog, we were still able to get a birds eye view of Taipei.

We then ran to the handy market to purchase a couple of things. We have no room to buy much of anything else, the bags are were bulging before we arrived, we did get a strand of pearls for Hayden to have for something special somewhere down the road. We bought a few other gifts, but everything was small.

We had another good night last night. Hayden slept about 9 hours, and mommy slept about 7 which is the most sleep in one night I have had since before we left home. Hopefully we have another good n.ight tonight. Hayden slept with her foster parents....so guess who is not at all interested in even looking at her crib....we are having it removed today as it is taking up valuable space in the room. She is going to have no part of it, so we will work on that when we get home. I like having right by us now anyway.

So for those families that are coming right behind....here are a few suggestions I have.

While I was told by many not to stay here, we didn't have much of a choice, as the hotels this particular week seem to be really high and most were at least $100 more than the Golden China.....I would tell you it is worth it. This is a hotel for tour groups and each night around 9-10 the groups start to arrive and are in the hall yelling(in Chinese) and slamming their doors, then they get settled and find it necessary to go from room to room visiting.....while we are trying to sleep. Just know that the last two nights I have been in the lobby in my pajamas at 1 in the morning complaining. The hotel itself is fine, not awesome by any sense. Our room is clean, and without the noise I would be okay with it(not love it, but doable) If I had to do it all over again I would pick somewhere else, this is the start of the tour season and that is why is has gotten so bad.

It is HOT and humid!! pack accordingly, if you are planning to have good hair....good luck!! my hair is big and frizzy, so it is a ponytail everyday. Basesball hat would be a great decision. It rains a lot here!! A LOT!! think monsoon.

Squatty potties don't have toilet paper...really plan accordingly. Dresses and skirts work the best on squatties.

Okay, that is all I have today. Enjoy the pictures.

We leave in 3 days!!!!

All is well in the world

All is well in the world....well at least our world. Hayden is doing great, she has moments of some hard grieving, but overall she is making progress. She slept 10 hours last night and woke up happy.

Tomorrow is our visa appt, and some sight seeing.

We are floating on cloud nine:)

The day our lives changed forever!!!

This picture is blurry of Hayden because she was so upset and flailing her body around....so sad.
Nirvanna........

I will not waste much of your time....I know you have little interest in what I have to say. Today is a day that will be cherished forever, it was an awesome day, it was a really hard day for our baby girl, it was a day that changed our lives forever, and for that I am so thankful.

Sorry it has taken me a little longer than planned to post. It was like a monsoon this morning and the drive to Taichung took over 3 hours!! So we were way behind schedule. We stopped at TWCA, and then made the drive over to the Mrs. Chin....the best foster mom around, and we were welcomed inside her home to meet our daughter. Hayden is so much smaller than she looked in the pictures and video.....and way more beautiful than you can ever imagine. She has the longest eyelashes, and the biggest brownest eyes!! She is breathtaking as far as we are concerned. She also has quite a temper and set of lungs. I will only share the nice pictures(maybe one of our little dragon...I will explain later) but she was pretty certain that she wanted no part of leaving her awesome foster mom. I was completely prepared for this reaction, but my heart broke into a million pieces to see her so upset. She really was broken hearted to leave, and I think Mrs. Chin was just as upset to see her go. She said she would miss her big beautiful eyes, her pretty smile, and her happy attitude. So to those of you coming right behind me, just know that you really need to prepare for the saddness that comes in a moment that is so big and happy for you, but filled with loss for your child. Again we all know that, and prepare for it when you are adopting, but to actually see the hurt you are causing is almost more than you can take.

We went back to TWCA, changed our diaper(Hayden's) and I changed her clothes because she was so HOT and sweaty from her fight to the end. David then held her and got her calm, while I did a few things with the agency, and prepared our thermos of hot water for our bottle on the way home. We made a very quick stop at the baby store, and for such a quick stop....David and I were shocked at the $200 we spent. We splurged on a cheap stroller for while we are here....she seemed to love to ride in the stroller that the store has avail while you shop. So much so that Hayden went to sleep while Taylor was pushing her around the store, and I went through the store with Fion saying sure, sure just throw it in the buggy, it can't hurt to have it. Then back in the car for the long ride back to the hotel, which went much faster and much better than I was expecting, and when Hayden woke up from her cat nap, she was ready to play some and actually smiled a few times!!!

I will wrap this up by saying we are just over the moon with our little girl. She has had my heart for a long time, and I can't believe that I am looking at her laying on the bed right next to me sleeping so peacefully.

I am a mommy!!!

So enjoy, thanks for all of the nice words, thoughts and prayers....we appreciated each and everyone of them. Keep sending good thoughts for Hayden....this is a really hard transition to make, and I hate seeing her hurt, but that reminds me that she was very loved by Mrs. Chin and she loved her as much back....so we know that she will love again:)