Thursday, October 4, 2007

SORRY!!

I know you all are wanting pictures and believe me, I'd LOVE to get them up on the blog, but the internet connection is not very good and it's obviously gotten worse since we first got here because now I can't get any pictures uploaded(and I've tried several times a day and at different times, but no luck)......UUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!! We're all still doing great. Brady is really such a good baby and we couldn't be happier. He basically only cries when he is tired or hungry...and speaking of hungry, that boy can eat!!! I think he could take on Kobiashi (sp?) and give him a real run for his money!!! Brady is very happy and his giggle just makes me laugh even more.

So what have we done since we picked him up on Monday? After we left the foster mom's house we went to a baby store to buy formula, diapers, and such. Then we had Mr. Yeh take us to the city of Changhua, which is Brady's birth city. There is a GIGANTIC buda statue there, so we went there and took some pictures. (In case anyone is wondering, we did not meet the birth parents, they apparently couldn't be there, but we did get a picture of the 3 of them together so that will be nice for Brady to have in his scrapbook.) After Changhua we came back to the hotel and settled in. Tuesday we got up did the breakfast thing and then went to a Wal Mart type store to buy a stroller so we could take Brady for a spin around town!! He LOVES the stroller, so we actually walked over to the Taipei 101 building twice that day...once just to get him out and walk around and the second time was for dinner, which was originally going to be "to go", but Brady fell asleep in the stroller so we were able to "dine in". Wednesday we had our appointment at AIT to get Brady's passport and visa. All went well there, except for the fact that we THOUGHT we had our passports in our document holder but they were actually in the safe in the hotel room and we didn't realize this until we pulled up in front of the building, so Mr. Yeh had to drive us back to the hotel to get them and then back to AIT!! I guess we were there for about an hour or so (and of course they didn't ask us for ONE piece of the MOUNDS of paperwork that we hand carried with us!!). After AIT we went to the National Palace Museum, which was very interesting and again, Brady was awesome....thank goodness for the stroller!! This is a funny story: we headed back to the lobby to find Mr. Yeh and we waved at him in the coffee shop and he comes out with another gentlemen that I don't recognize(who by the way is Asian). As they approach this man says "Alan, hi", "Ray", and Alan says "Oh, hi Ray" and I'm standing there not having a clue who this was, so I figured it was some relative of Alan's that I had never met(yes, this happens at lots of family events and my other "related to the Suan's/Chang's by marriage can back me up on this....their family is quite large) and I'm getting a bit annoyed at this point because Alan hasn't introduced me yet, nor has this guy introduced himself. So, we all start to walk and I say as softly as I can to Alan, "um, who is Ray?" and Alan says, "you know, the guy we had our travel talk with", and I'm like, "OH, Ray from Commonwealth"!!! Lo and behold, Ray is the director of our Agency's Taiwan Program B and he happened to be here to talk with the partnering agency on this end. Anyway, long story long, we ended up having dinner with him and the Co-Founder of CW that night and had a really nice time. (blogettes, I got some info I'll share later, but nothing too earth shattering). Today we went back to AIT to pick up Brady's visa and passport and then we went to the Taipei zoo, but our visit was cut short by rain, which was a bummer, because it was quite nice. We got back to the hotel early and have been just laying low and packing up getting ready for our departure tomorrow night. We've got an early day tomorrow because we are going to Wulai for part of the day. We decided to book our room for an extra night so that we can come back to the room after Wulai and get cleaned up before our 24 hours of flying. So, the next post SHOULD be one with pictures, I just can't guarntee how soon I'll get them up, but I'll do my best to get them up here as soon as possible after we've gotten home. We'll see everyone when we get home!!!

3 comments:

Katie said...

Oh Beth, what a great trip!!! Glad you are on the move soon, hear there is a typhoon coming. Be safe! Very neat that you got to have dinner with Ray and the other lady. Your story is very funny!

Have safe travels home....we are so so happy for you!

Shana said...

Beth, so happy that things are going well with Brady. Such a funny story about Ray! Can't wait to hear about dinner! It's so weird that you got to finally meet the person in charge of all our adoptions.

Have a safe trip home! We are anxiously awaiting the pics!
-Shana

Shannon said...

Alan and Beth, It is wonderful to finally see you guys united with Brady!! I hope to meet him very soon. I'm also glad that you were able to have dinner with Ray! Isn't he wonderful?! Was the "other lady" Marina Mayhew? If so, she is the President of Commonwealth. I wish you a safe journey home!! :) Best, Shannon Lopez