Back to Taipei

This morning I had a total meltdown.  (Is it okay to admit that?)  Last night took a lot out of us.  We were prepared mentally for the grieving process, but I have never heard that kind of cry before.  And there's nothing you can do about it.  This morning, I took my turn at grieving.  It has been a crazy few months at our house with Dave living most of the time in Indiana and the boys and I in Pennsylvania.  I had to parent, prepare a house for showings, finish a school year, and get ready for Taiwan.  We had behavioral issues, sickness, and other stresses.  Through it all, I kept it together pretty well.  But today, I had myself a good, ugly cry.  I think it all came to a head and I needed to let it out.  Poor Dave!  But he handled it brilliantly!

My youngest sister, who has adopted five times, told me in the midst of my ugly cry, via Facebook chat, (don't you love technology!)  that I could be grieving the loss of my "normal".  I think she's right.  I couldn't help but think about how bringing Sophia home is going to change our life completely.  Of course I already knew that, but having met her in person, I realize just how much things are going to change.  I was also thinking about my boys, and all of the little routines and nuances of our life together pre-Sophia, and how those will inevitably change.  I'm not saying that the change is going to be all bad, but it is change, and we have so many changes in our lives right now.  So, I had my good, ugly cry, and hopefully, it's mostly out of my system now.

Being back in Taipei is definitely helping all of us.  The hotel we stayed at in Taichung was a boutique hotel.  It was stylish and unique, but not very conducive to having a young child who doesn't walk very well.  We also were in a part of town that did not have a lot of restaurants nearby and was hard to walk in, so we felt very isolated.  We are now back at the hotel where we began our journey, and we feel right at home.  We decided to upgrade to a triple room so that we had more room to spread out, and we have already sent three bags of laundry to be washed.  (That was one of the things I liked about this hotel...you can load up a bag of laundry to the tippy top and only pay per bag instead of per piece.  I have no idea how our clothes will be returned...hopefully the same size and shape as they went!)  The only downside to this hotel is that it is also not near a lot of restaurants, so I'm not sure what we will do for dinner tonight.  I don't think Sophia will sit well at a restaurant without some sort of restraint, and she doesn't seem interested in food, so it could be hard to sit and eat.  Dave might go check out what kind of take out might be around...we did Pizza Hut last night in Taichung and it was pretty good!

Below are some photos from the day.  We didn't do anything too exciting, just hung out at our hotel and took the train back to Taipei.  Tomorrow we plan on visiting Cathwel and dropping off some things for the orphanage and, if the weather and Sophia allow, we will go on to the zoo and the Makong Gondola.  Friday is our AIT appointment and we will probably hang around that side of town if we are told that our visa will be ready for pick up that same day.  Our social worker has assured us that it should be possible, so we are hopefully going to be coming home on Saturday, rather than on Monday...we are just ready to get home!  Thanks again for all of your prayers and encouragement...pray especially for a peaceful night of sleep tonight!

With a grateful heart...