We're here and well...

Well, we arrived in Taipei on Sunday night. The flight went well, although sooooo long. It was midnight when we got to our hotel and checked in and all. We were starving though so Joby and I went walking in search of food. Our driver, Nick, had told us it was safe at night as long as we didn't go down dark alleys. And the concierge at the hotel told us there was a McDonalds open 24 hours around the block. Come to find out, there are 3 McDonalds within walking distance, 3 7-11's, a Dunkin Donuts RIGHT next door and Starbucks 3 store fronts over! hahaha, and I was worried. ;-)

Monday we got up and took a taxi to AIT (the American Embassy) where we met with the Cathwel representative, Lily's Nanny, and Lily. We could only get an appointment for Monday morning at 8am, so had to pick up Lily at the Embassy instead of the orphanage. She was so cute! The Nanny was so very helpful in getting Lily to make up with us. She was sly! She brought treats, gave me the box and told Lily, who they call Chiao-Chiao (Chow-Chow), get the treat from Momma! In Chinese of course, but we understood the gist. So, after a few minutes of this, she let me hold her. She loves music and will calm down pretty quickly if you sing... anything!

After this, we went to the clinic because she needed to be re-checked for treatment of a sore-throat. The doctor there was very nice and spoke English fairly well. He donates his time to the orphanage! She is on antibiotics, but isn't fussy about it. You would never know she was sick.

We made a stop at the orphange following the clinic. This entire time Chiao-Chiao let me carry her, hold her, etc. We went to meet Sister Rosa who runs the orphanage and get more information from her caregivers. They gave us more pictures, including some from when she was a baby baby that her birthmother wanted us to have. The social worker had someone make a charm bracelet for her that has the Chinese characters of her name on it! The gave us her medical information, a letter her birthmother wrote her for when she is older, and... an animated Santa Clause! Apparently she loved this so much that her caregiver wanted her to have it. She knows how to push the little button on the base so it sings and dances. How funny. It was a quick visit, as we have to go back on Thursday to meet the birthmother, and will see more then.

So... we've been back to the hotel now for Monday and Tuesday. We've made small trips out to shop and eat, and Chiao-Chiao has done sooo well!!! We are very impressed. She seems to have made up to both Joby and I very well. We were warned that many orphanage children don't make up to men very well initially, but she's done wonderfully with Joby! She will smile for him more easily than me!

So, that's where we are at this time. Today we're going to try to find the Toys R Us and get a couple of small things for the plane. We have it incredibly difficult to find toys here!! None of the stores around here seem to carry any. But we got the name and address of the Toys R Us fromour driver and so we're going to try for that. It's such a long plane ride that the poor baby has to have something to do. We did find, by accident last night, that she seems to love cartoon t.v. She watched it last night for about 1/2 hour while drinking a bottle.

Well, Lily and Daddy are beginning to stir so I better get the day going.

Sheryl