Pictures/video from our trip in Taiwan (continued)

We took off for Taiwan on April 28 and arrived in Taiwan on April 29 after roughly 18 hours of travel. Our first flight from Kansas City to San Francisco took 4 hours. We had a hour and a half layover in San Francisco and then we flew from there to Taipei, Taiwan. That flight was a very long 13 hours. We got in to Taipei at 6 pm. We went straight to the orphanage from the airport. Another family who was adopting their first child, a baby boy, was in Taiwan at the same time. They are from Altoona, Iowa, so we will get to see them sometimes when we are in Newton to visit.

We got to see Kayla that night for a little bit before she headed to bed and we did the same. We were quite tired from the trip there. We stayed at an apartment that was about 5 minutes (by car) away from the orphanage and this place was very nice for us so we could be there and bring Kayla there at times to bond with us.

The next day, Wednesday, we went to the orphanage from the apartment and got to see Kayla for a longer time. The first video below shows Shari playing with her at the orphanage. The other kids in the video used to play with Kayla everyday as they were too young to be in school and too old to be on the infant side of the orphanage. A "house mother" always watched Kayla and the other little kids. We spent most of Wednesday playing with Kayla and getting her used to us. I mean, she had to get used to this tall, weird looking man that she now called her father! :)



On Thursday, we went in to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, to have a final interview done at AIT (American Immigration Office) and after this was done, we grabbed lunch to go. We had a Taiwan delicacy called "potstickers" which are Chinese dumplings. They typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges together or by crimping. They are very good! If you are ever at a Chinese restaurant or buffet, be sure and try them. After eating lunch, we went to go ride on a cable car that takes you way up in the air where you can get a birds-eye view of the surrounding mountains and the city of Taipei.

Kayla and Shari as we waited for a cable car:



All of us on the cable car including the family
from Altoona, Iowa with their baby boy:



Picture taken from the cable car looking out
towards the 2nd tallest building in the
world (Taipei 101). You can see the building
way off in the distance.


Remember, you can catch up with the latest
news going on with our family at our regular blog
located at http://hawkeyesinkc.wordpress.com.