We Are Here

We arrived in Taiwan at 6:45 Friday morning. We met the JOH (adoption agency) representative at the airport, checked into the hotel, and looked around at some local restaurants. Then we headed for Starbuck's to have some coffee and people watch.

There are scooters here everywhere and its interesting to see them at intersections zooming in between lanes of traffic to get in front of all the cars at a stoplight. There is obviously a system that is used at traffic lights when it comes to scooters.

We found a bookstore a few blocks away in the afternoon. Mom bought a quilting book in Chinese and I bought a chocolate cookbook. Mine was in Chinese and English. We went to a local shrine where people were having blessings done or something like that. There were volunteers there who seemed to be praying for people and families were leaving food at huge tables.

We wandered around to little shops, ate hamburgers at one and watched part of a baseball game between Japan and Taiwan. Then we found a great bakery right behind our hotel which we may go back to again.

We met another JOH family, Anne Marie and Jim, who just picked up little Alex. We went to a local hot springs, where the water gets up to 90 degrees F. Apparently, someone once fell in and was boiled, so they had to fence the springs off and now you can just walk around them and look down at them. Really, it just looks like a stream with hot steam coming off of it.

We ate dinner at the hotel and went to bed about 7:00 pm and slept about 12 hours.

Today we are going to go find a cable for my camera, so I can actually post some pictures here, since I forgot it at home. After that, we are going to find a fabric store to see what cool fabrics we might be able to find. I would like to make a quilt for Holly with some local fabrics. Later, Fion is going to pick us up and we will go to a jade market. So much shopping, so little time...

We will go down to Taichung Monday morning to pick up Holly. Fion told us yesterday that I will get to meet with the birth mother. I am very happy about that. Can't wait to pick up my little girl!

PS - Obviously, finding the cable I needed was a success!