Well as you can see by my lack of updates, things have gotten BUSY! I was told the weekend would get crazy and I thought i was prepared, but yesterday, whoo, a few minutes after I woke up I couldn't wait for the day to end! That sounds terrible for me to say but it was just such a hard day, i was running on little sleep, and was a little homesick. But i've decided after today that you just always have days like that no matter where you are. This morning i wanted so badly to just go home, but then i thought realistically I have days when I am home that I wish I was gone somewhere else. So I decided those days you just have to get through by finding something positive to focus on, pray for strength and when it's over just forget about it. Because then today was one of those days when I was like this is so much fun, I love it, I had gotten plenty of sleep cause I went right to bed after the long day yesterday, and just tried to ignore the bad day. It was funny this morning the song "Bad Day" by... what was it...Howie Day... maybe? From a couple years ago, popped into my head and I just kind of laughed and sang it for a little bit. So anyways there is a little bit of honesty for you. I didn't think sitting around feeding babies would take that much energy but something does, there is just so much more that goes into it, but I finally do have proof that it is so worth it!!! Because....
Today one of our bigger boys left with his sweet sweet adoptive family from California!! They came in yesterday and i think it is one of the top most exciting moments of my life, i don't want to think about them all at the moment but it sure ranks up there! The mom bawled as she walked in the door and picked up her baby in her arms, while the dad video taped and the fam followed behind. They just hugged him and laughed and cried and ahh it was just so sweet, i just stood there feeding a baby and watching the whole scene play out as they walked in and met everyone who has been taking care of their sweet boy, they were so excited! They jumped right in (they had come in the middle of the craziest feeding time) and asked us to show them everything about how he was cared for, how he was feed, how he was bathed, how he was changed, where he napped, what to do when he cries. It was so cute to see them so eager and happy!! And so neat to see Lucas start smiling and laughing when they talked to him. And today when they came back, we got to talk to them about him, about themselves, about their life. It was so wonderful to find out what a good home he was going to and what kind of life he would be living! It was neat to see things unfold and see what a blessing baby Lucas was to his parents AND what a blessing they are to him. I hadn't gotten to spend a whole lot of time with him so I think it was less sad for me this time and more exciting, cause it was pretty sad also for some of the other girls, so we'll see how it goes later on, but for this time, it was just the neatest, most exciting experience!!
Umm... i've decided I need to make sure I'm getting more sleep which means limiting computer time. So when my responses and updates become slower and fewer know that it why, but i love love love talking with you all and i will get to it!
I don't have a whole lot more energy left tonight but I'm trying to think of other things to update you on over the past few days. I kept a list but I'm too tired and lazy to find it right now. Umm... the babies have all been doing pretty good, the little ones had some cold stuff, and it's still slowly going around so we really want it to just go away! But it isn't too bad right now. We do still have 1 of the little ones in the hospital but one came back. We've been reading books and singing songs to this kids worship CD and the babies seem to really like that. It's adorable some of the big kids from the other side come over to peek through the door during playtime. I will admit, we are pretty goofy with the babies during playtime, very expressive and loud and silly, so we look a little ridiculous and they love to come watch us and just laugh hysterically at us and mimic us and make fun. But they keep coming back and one little one even joined and helped us so i think they like it. At one time we looked up through the window and 4 little boys were huddled there staring and pointing at us while laughing, it was so cute! I've really started to enjoy trying to talk to and get to know the older, little ones as well. I wrote this one sweet girl a thank you letter in chinese the other day because she gave me this magnet she had made and so a bunch of the other girls did the same, so now i'm trying to write them all letters in chinese, which i actually love! And one of the boys was working on his english by reading a magazine, and asked me to come listen to him, so i got to help him and it was so fun, they are just so cute! They make such a great effort to speak to us in english so i'm going to try to learn some more chinese, i've learned a song and game in chinese so far and am working on some speaking phrases and answering the phone, so we'll see hopefully it'll be a quick learning process. Well there is a lot more i want to say but tomorrow is bath day, so i'll need some energy. So i'll say goodbye for now, LOVE YOU ALL!!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Pizza, Baby Massages and Baths :)
Here is a quick update, i'll try to make it quick anyway! Yesterday was a really fun day! During playtime we did baby massages :) I watched this video from TCU about how important touch is for babies who had rough starts, meaning, spent a lot of time in the hospital getting bad touch(like surgeries or ivs and stuff) or little tough, or babies that were abused, or simply babies in orphanages who don't get as much touch. Now i think our babies gets lots of touch because we love to hold them, but prolly not quite as much as a one on one scenario, so anyways, they talked about simple rubs on the back, tummy, legs and arms can much such a difference for them and is really good for making neurotransmitter connections (or something a long those lines :) ) and it was so cute, they loved it and smiled and giggled and some fell asleep! lol So that afternoon we did a workout session to Father Abraham and they moved their arms and legs :) Again we had lots of extra sweet helpers, so lots of loving!
I learned a song in Chinese!! It's about an elephant with a big nose whose mom tells him his nose is beautiful, so we sang that a lot :)
We had a delicious lunch, they had lots of meat which i was excited about because there isn't always a lot of meat. They had this yummy fried chicken, fish and shrimp, or course it all still had bones and eyes and legs and all that stuff which is gross, but once you get past that, very good! We got to order pizza and pepsi that night too, and we just got to hang out a little bit later, of course while still holding babies but most of them were in bed so that was fun, all us girls enjoyed that a lot!
Then today was bath day :) It makes for a busy day with 25 babies, but it's something different than the usual schedule so it's kind of nice! Plus the babies all smell good and sleep good after :) We read books during the second play time today which was fun and they all actually seemed to semi pay attention. Then i read the babies the sweet letters Emily sent me from the KM kids, it made my day!! And i showed them the pictures of the kids, i don't think they were so interested but it was funny.
Katie and I found fans in our room tonight and were so excited cause it's starting to get hot!
I realized tonight, i've gotten to talk to more people that i haven't talked to in ages while i've been over here. Funny how that works huh? The less time i seem to have and the further away I am the more i talk to more people. Well i like it!! Thanks again to everyone who is reading this, i love getting to share my "new life" with you guys and I love hearing from you as well, it keeps me feeling connected! Today was one of those days when things start to sink in more and more, i think i still feel like it's camp or something and I'll be leaving in a few days, but with Alli, Mandee and Thatcher leaving on Monday and me thinking nope i'm not going, I guess it felt more real which always makes me a little sad and homesick but at the same time i'm loving things here and so Katie and I are gonna start maybe doing and planning some new activities for certain days so we can settle into a schedule and feel more at home and like we're living here cause we will be for the next 2 months. So Em those letters came at a good time, they made me cry but it was a happy cry, so thank you!!
Well i think one of our baby girls comes home tomorrow from the hospital, so i'll let you know soon if she gets too. I think that's all for now! ...So much for quick. lol LOVE YOU ALL!!
Our usual work and hang out place :)
Chinese PIZZA! ...actually delicious, it's like a pizza hut brand.
Here are the sweet letters and pictures i hung on my wall and ceiling :)
I learned a song in Chinese!! It's about an elephant with a big nose whose mom tells him his nose is beautiful, so we sang that a lot :)
We had a delicious lunch, they had lots of meat which i was excited about because there isn't always a lot of meat. They had this yummy fried chicken, fish and shrimp, or course it all still had bones and eyes and legs and all that stuff which is gross, but once you get past that, very good! We got to order pizza and pepsi that night too, and we just got to hang out a little bit later, of course while still holding babies but most of them were in bed so that was fun, all us girls enjoyed that a lot!
Then today was bath day :) It makes for a busy day with 25 babies, but it's something different than the usual schedule so it's kind of nice! Plus the babies all smell good and sleep good after :) We read books during the second play time today which was fun and they all actually seemed to semi pay attention. Then i read the babies the sweet letters Emily sent me from the KM kids, it made my day!! And i showed them the pictures of the kids, i don't think they were so interested but it was funny.
Katie and I found fans in our room tonight and were so excited cause it's starting to get hot!
I realized tonight, i've gotten to talk to more people that i haven't talked to in ages while i've been over here. Funny how that works huh? The less time i seem to have and the further away I am the more i talk to more people. Well i like it!! Thanks again to everyone who is reading this, i love getting to share my "new life" with you guys and I love hearing from you as well, it keeps me feeling connected! Today was one of those days when things start to sink in more and more, i think i still feel like it's camp or something and I'll be leaving in a few days, but with Alli, Mandee and Thatcher leaving on Monday and me thinking nope i'm not going, I guess it felt more real which always makes me a little sad and homesick but at the same time i'm loving things here and so Katie and I are gonna start maybe doing and planning some new activities for certain days so we can settle into a schedule and feel more at home and like we're living here cause we will be for the next 2 months. So Em those letters came at a good time, they made me cry but it was a happy cry, so thank you!!
Well i think one of our baby girls comes home tomorrow from the hospital, so i'll let you know soon if she gets too. I think that's all for now! ...So much for quick. lol LOVE YOU ALL!!
Our usual work and hang out place :)
Chinese PIZZA! ...actually delicious, it's like a pizza hut brand.
Here are the sweet letters and pictures i hung on my wall and ceiling :)
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Yesterday and Today Update :)
I realized i'm running out of creativeness for my blog titles, oh i have an idea! I'll name it after topics of discussion in my blog after i write the blog, from now on that's what i'll do. My room mate Katie and I are in a goofy mood so excuse me if the update is kind of silly.
I'll start with yesterday. Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day outside so we gave the babies some fresh air in the morning. They got to lay out and tan;) Not really they were only out there for a few minutes we were very careful they didn't get too much sun. We also had a few people come in and help us out and they were all so sweet! It's really fun to get to meet them all and talk with them all, one girl from high school who spoke excellent english helped me learn to say a few chinese phrases, which was awesome! ...until i realized that once i ask, i'll have no idea what they say back. lol So i came up with some not open ended questions and more yes or no questions. And i learned the numbers and all the different things on the face, like (spelling will be completely wrong) bitzah-nose, to fa-hair, are doe-ear <--i said that one wrong later that night to one of the chinese helpers and he died laughing so i'm not sure what i said but i'm being very careful to say it right now. lol The food was delicious, they had this fried chicken that tasted kind of like chick-fil-a so i was so happy! AND mandee brought home a snack from the night market and told me tot ry it, i ate fried squid! :p It was surprising good though! I did however get peed on twice in one day, and i was changing the baby in my lap :p ...yeah. a little boy and little girl, so i'm running low on clean pants at the moment. And finally we had a lovely service that night, it was american church, and it was very good. Ted spoke and it happened to be very relevant to me, strange, or rather really cool and not so strange how God can speak to you thorough anything or anyone and anywhere.
Then today we also had a couple more people come in, again lovely people! About 5 this morning and 3 this evening. That's always so wonderful for the babies because even though the people don't know our schedule and how exactly to take care of the babies the babies get lots of extra holding and playing and talking and loving on :) This afternoon all us girl helpers, Allie Katie, Jess and I all had a singing time with the babies again and we sang everything we could think of! We sang and danced with rattles till we were hot and out of breathe which is kind of pathetic but fun. Then we had a workout/therapy session and they practiced their sitting and reaching and turning and just moving a lot. They got some back rubs and touch time too, it's all such good stimulation and we thought it would wear them out and they'd sleep well during nap time, but we think it gave them energy instead. lol ooops. We had interesting hollow hot dog things for lunch today, so i ate mostly my yummy american snack food. lol But also some veggies, they always have some good veggies and either rice or noodles. And ummm...got peed on again today! so i quit changing little boy diapers in my lap and if i do for the girls i always put something underneath. Cause it's just easier in the lap and everyone does it cause all the stuff is right there. Oh and we got a sweet new girl today!! She is 8 days old and absolutely precious, again she was a cuddler and it was so cute i started laughing while i was holding her and she was asleep but she made this big open mouth smile like she was laughing too if she could make sound, it was the cutest thing!!! And one of our babies come home from the hospital, thank you lord! And he's doing very good right now, so i think we have 25 at the house now, i'm getting confused though. And a lady from the crisis pregnancy center that we get a lot of the babies from said she may have a couple more for us! So we'll see, but a few of the babies parents come in over the next 3 to 4 weeks i think so we might be going down in numbers soon, so we'll jut see. It's exciting for them to finally get to go home, but at the same time it's sad cause we like having them. But we'll come to that when the time gets here.
So i think that's all for now, time for bed!!
I'll start with yesterday. Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day outside so we gave the babies some fresh air in the morning. They got to lay out and tan;) Not really they were only out there for a few minutes we were very careful they didn't get too much sun. We also had a few people come in and help us out and they were all so sweet! It's really fun to get to meet them all and talk with them all, one girl from high school who spoke excellent english helped me learn to say a few chinese phrases, which was awesome! ...until i realized that once i ask, i'll have no idea what they say back. lol So i came up with some not open ended questions and more yes or no questions. And i learned the numbers and all the different things on the face, like (spelling will be completely wrong) bitzah-nose, to fa-hair, are doe-ear <--i said that one wrong later that night to one of the chinese helpers and he died laughing so i'm not sure what i said but i'm being very careful to say it right now. lol The food was delicious, they had this fried chicken that tasted kind of like chick-fil-a so i was so happy! AND mandee brought home a snack from the night market and told me tot ry it, i ate fried squid! :p It was surprising good though! I did however get peed on twice in one day, and i was changing the baby in my lap :p ...yeah. a little boy and little girl, so i'm running low on clean pants at the moment. And finally we had a lovely service that night, it was american church, and it was very good. Ted spoke and it happened to be very relevant to me, strange, or rather really cool and not so strange how God can speak to you thorough anything or anyone and anywhere.
Then today we also had a couple more people come in, again lovely people! About 5 this morning and 3 this evening. That's always so wonderful for the babies because even though the people don't know our schedule and how exactly to take care of the babies the babies get lots of extra holding and playing and talking and loving on :) This afternoon all us girl helpers, Allie Katie, Jess and I all had a singing time with the babies again and we sang everything we could think of! We sang and danced with rattles till we were hot and out of breathe which is kind of pathetic but fun. Then we had a workout/therapy session and they practiced their sitting and reaching and turning and just moving a lot. They got some back rubs and touch time too, it's all such good stimulation and we thought it would wear them out and they'd sleep well during nap time, but we think it gave them energy instead. lol ooops. We had interesting hollow hot dog things for lunch today, so i ate mostly my yummy american snack food. lol But also some veggies, they always have some good veggies and either rice or noodles. And ummm...got peed on again today! so i quit changing little boy diapers in my lap and if i do for the girls i always put something underneath. Cause it's just easier in the lap and everyone does it cause all the stuff is right there. Oh and we got a sweet new girl today!! She is 8 days old and absolutely precious, again she was a cuddler and it was so cute i started laughing while i was holding her and she was asleep but she made this big open mouth smile like she was laughing too if she could make sound, it was the cutest thing!!! And one of our babies come home from the hospital, thank you lord! And he's doing very good right now, so i think we have 25 at the house now, i'm getting confused though. And a lady from the crisis pregnancy center that we get a lot of the babies from said she may have a couple more for us! So we'll see, but a few of the babies parents come in over the next 3 to 4 weeks i think so we might be going down in numbers soon, so we'll jut see. It's exciting for them to finally get to go home, but at the same time it's sad cause we like having them. But we'll come to that when the time gets here.
So i think that's all for now, time for bed!!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Daily Update
Well i'll try to make this shorter than the last post :)
Today was a fun day with the babies :) I got the times wrong on my last blog, 8-11 is play time, 11-2 is nap time, 2-5 is play time, 5-7:15 is nap time and 7:15 to 8:30 is play with big kids on the other side and feeding time. Anyways today during the 8-11 playtime we had a fun singing session :) We started by singing little kiddie songs like Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children and the Hokey Pokey. Then we started singing Good Morning Beautiful so that started a mix of Brad Paisley songs, so they got some country music time, then Sho Wah got us all hymnals and we sang hymns, her in chinese, us in english(obviously). But it was so fun and it kept them very happy, quiet and entertained :) So wonderful morning! Then Katie and I took a break and went for a walk around the lake and wondered the Island in the middle, but that was our nap time so we are both lacking some sleep right now. lol I got a package from my daddy of delicious american food snacks :) My favorite stuff, carbs, cheese flavored things, sweets and chocolate :) lol And we had some guests come in for the weekend to help, so there will be lots of extra loving for the babies :) Although today was quite a snuggle day. I've decided there is nothing more precious than a sweet little baby curled up on your chest sleeping, one of our little boys stayed like that for a half hour today and i almost fell asleep too, he was just so precious! There is still some sickness spreading so pray it stops! It's been quite a few weeks now for everyone it seems like, luckily thanks to prayers I felt much better today, so thanks!
Well i'm going to get some sleep now, will post later! Goodnight:)
Today was a fun day with the babies :) I got the times wrong on my last blog, 8-11 is play time, 11-2 is nap time, 2-5 is play time, 5-7:15 is nap time and 7:15 to 8:30 is play with big kids on the other side and feeding time. Anyways today during the 8-11 playtime we had a fun singing session :) We started by singing little kiddie songs like Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children and the Hokey Pokey. Then we started singing Good Morning Beautiful so that started a mix of Brad Paisley songs, so they got some country music time, then Sho Wah got us all hymnals and we sang hymns, her in chinese, us in english(obviously). But it was so fun and it kept them very happy, quiet and entertained :) So wonderful morning! Then Katie and I took a break and went for a walk around the lake and wondered the Island in the middle, but that was our nap time so we are both lacking some sleep right now. lol I got a package from my daddy of delicious american food snacks :) My favorite stuff, carbs, cheese flavored things, sweets and chocolate :) lol And we had some guests come in for the weekend to help, so there will be lots of extra loving for the babies :) Although today was quite a snuggle day. I've decided there is nothing more precious than a sweet little baby curled up on your chest sleeping, one of our little boys stayed like that for a half hour today and i almost fell asleep too, he was just so precious! There is still some sickness spreading so pray it stops! It's been quite a few weeks now for everyone it seems like, luckily thanks to prayers I felt much better today, so thanks!
Well i'm going to get some sleep now, will post later! Goodnight:)
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Well i guess it gives me time to update my blog... lol
During our 2 o'clock feeding today i started not feeling good. The stomach flu and respiratory stuff has been going around. My stomach started not feeling so good and i got hot and weak so i have been laying down since around 2:30. I slept till 5 and my stomach felt a little better so I was gonna go down and help with 5 o'clock feeding but i'm banned from babies till tomorrow just in case. So i've been trying to catch up on messages and pictures and stuff. And yes mother i've stayed awake since 5 so that I can sleep better tonight :) Don't worry i'm good :)
So all that to say now i have lots of time to blog. lol My dad left yesterday and it was sad :( I love you and miss you daddy!! But i appreciate the prayers! We got a new baby today! He is precious and a big boy for being 1 month, which is good! We have a couple ones that are really little. So that makes a total of 25 babies, however 3 are in the hospital :( We had to take one more in today. We think they have RSV maybe but apparently they don't diagnose that in Taiwan. We did get an update on one of the babies and she had started eating again and wasn't throwing up anymore so that was a good update! Oh and we are supposed to be getting another baby within the weekend or maybe week, they are just waiting till he reaches a certain wait so that will be 26! I think that's just so crazy but we have a pretty good system in place and they are getting taken care of well and loved on.
A typical schedule for the days looks like this,
Feedings are at 8, 11, 2, 5, and 8 during the day. There is also a night schedule but i don't know it yet. Those are the times for the bigger babies, the younger ones are on a more flexible schedule, they eat every 3 hours usually unless they don't eat much then we feed them again when they cry so they are kind of spread out at different times but we try to keep them close to older ones if we can. Between 8 and 11 i believe is nap time(they have been up for a while before the 8 feeding), then from 11 to 2 is play time they are all out on a rug or in chairs or being held and just getting played with and sung to and talked to, between 2 and 5 is another nap time(and occasionally helper nap time :) ) then from 5 to 8 the big kids on the other side of the home take the babies for play time and hold them during their devotional time(it's so cute that they all help take care of the babies, they have to help feed and change diapers too sometimes) then after 8 is baby bed time :) And at each feeding they get their diapers changed, so very often!
Today instead of the first nap time we did baths! (for those of you at lunch my last days in the states-The idea of spraying them all off with the hose came up!!! hahahaha just as a joke but it made laugh. we just used the bath and the sink for the little ones) That was quite a job, 22 baths is a bunch! lol They smell much better after though :) It was so cute one of our older ones could sit in the bath by himself and he was hysterically, he laughed the whole time he was in the and kicked his hands and arms the whole time like a swimmer, he absolutely loved the water! which i thought was strange for a little one.
Oh and terri, they just have a bunch of trash cans all over the house and they get emptied a couple times a day and put outside then they get taken to the trash man a couple times a week. lol Sorry no big dumpster ;) just normal.
So i'm trying to think what else to tell you...not that this post isn't long enough already. lol Ah people, i'll tell you about the people. We have a good amount of helpers which has been so nice! We have Grandma Bev who is one of the owners, Shu wah (sp?) who lives here in Taiwan and has been coming for about 6 years to work here everyday, Grandma Wyuma (sp?) She is here for about 3 months I believe, but she lives in the states, then Allisyn and Mandee and Thatcher which are Grandma Bevs grandchildren and great grandchildren, they all leave in 11 days I believe, then Jess who has been here 3 months and will be here another 3 months, she is one of Alli's friends, then my room mate Katie :) i love her! We got a long really well from the start and it has been such a blessing to make a sweet friend and have someone to talk to. Then there are other people that randomly come on different days, but it works so well to have so many people cause we can do lots of shift and covering for people so that everyone can catch up on some sleep as well. Everyone has been so sweet and are very good at caring for the babies! The older kids on the other side are so cute and shy sometimes, other times not so much ;) But we get to see them at meal times when we go to the other side of the home where they live and where the kitchen is. And Grandpa Ted is in charge of that side along with help from some Iues(pronounced by saying the letters, i-u) which means Aunties and they live there and take care of them as well. Ted has been great as well, when my dad was here he took us and a couple of his friends to see Taroko Gorge which is a national park here, and we had a blast! He is a wonderful tour guide, funny, and an interesting driver ;) (kind of reminded me of a taxi cab driver lol) So to sum it up, everyone has been wonderful and I'm enjoying it all! Still adjusting to everything but it's been good so far! Well that's plenty for now :) lol Love you all!!
Here are some pictures of what the place looks like!
And here are some from our trip to Taroko Gorge!
We were on a suspension bridge and we are both scared of heights, so this is our before picture. lol
This was an old presbyterian church started by a taiwanese woman and Grandpa Ted took us there and told us the story of how she started first in a cave under this church then he took us down there, it was so neat!
So all that to say now i have lots of time to blog. lol My dad left yesterday and it was sad :( I love you and miss you daddy!! But i appreciate the prayers! We got a new baby today! He is precious and a big boy for being 1 month, which is good! We have a couple ones that are really little. So that makes a total of 25 babies, however 3 are in the hospital :( We had to take one more in today. We think they have RSV maybe but apparently they don't diagnose that in Taiwan. We did get an update on one of the babies and she had started eating again and wasn't throwing up anymore so that was a good update! Oh and we are supposed to be getting another baby within the weekend or maybe week, they are just waiting till he reaches a certain wait so that will be 26! I think that's just so crazy but we have a pretty good system in place and they are getting taken care of well and loved on.
A typical schedule for the days looks like this,
Feedings are at 8, 11, 2, 5, and 8 during the day. There is also a night schedule but i don't know it yet. Those are the times for the bigger babies, the younger ones are on a more flexible schedule, they eat every 3 hours usually unless they don't eat much then we feed them again when they cry so they are kind of spread out at different times but we try to keep them close to older ones if we can. Between 8 and 11 i believe is nap time(they have been up for a while before the 8 feeding), then from 11 to 2 is play time they are all out on a rug or in chairs or being held and just getting played with and sung to and talked to, between 2 and 5 is another nap time(and occasionally helper nap time :) ) then from 5 to 8 the big kids on the other side of the home take the babies for play time and hold them during their devotional time(it's so cute that they all help take care of the babies, they have to help feed and change diapers too sometimes) then after 8 is baby bed time :) And at each feeding they get their diapers changed, so very often!
Today instead of the first nap time we did baths! (for those of you at lunch my last days in the states-The idea of spraying them all off with the hose came up!!! hahahaha just as a joke but it made laugh. we just used the bath and the sink for the little ones) That was quite a job, 22 baths is a bunch! lol They smell much better after though :) It was so cute one of our older ones could sit in the bath by himself and he was hysterically, he laughed the whole time he was in the and kicked his hands and arms the whole time like a swimmer, he absolutely loved the water! which i thought was strange for a little one.
Oh and terri, they just have a bunch of trash cans all over the house and they get emptied a couple times a day and put outside then they get taken to the trash man a couple times a week. lol Sorry no big dumpster ;) just normal.
So i'm trying to think what else to tell you...not that this post isn't long enough already. lol Ah people, i'll tell you about the people. We have a good amount of helpers which has been so nice! We have Grandma Bev who is one of the owners, Shu wah (sp?) who lives here in Taiwan and has been coming for about 6 years to work here everyday, Grandma Wyuma (sp?) She is here for about 3 months I believe, but she lives in the states, then Allisyn and Mandee and Thatcher which are Grandma Bevs grandchildren and great grandchildren, they all leave in 11 days I believe, then Jess who has been here 3 months and will be here another 3 months, she is one of Alli's friends, then my room mate Katie :) i love her! We got a long really well from the start and it has been such a blessing to make a sweet friend and have someone to talk to. Then there are other people that randomly come on different days, but it works so well to have so many people cause we can do lots of shift and covering for people so that everyone can catch up on some sleep as well. Everyone has been so sweet and are very good at caring for the babies! The older kids on the other side are so cute and shy sometimes, other times not so much ;) But we get to see them at meal times when we go to the other side of the home where they live and where the kitchen is. And Grandpa Ted is in charge of that side along with help from some Iues(pronounced by saying the letters, i-u) which means Aunties and they live there and take care of them as well. Ted has been great as well, when my dad was here he took us and a couple of his friends to see Taroko Gorge which is a national park here, and we had a blast! He is a wonderful tour guide, funny, and an interesting driver ;) (kind of reminded me of a taxi cab driver lol) So to sum it up, everyone has been wonderful and I'm enjoying it all! Still adjusting to everything but it's been good so far! Well that's plenty for now :) lol Love you all!!
Here are some pictures of what the place looks like!
And here are some from our trip to Taroko Gorge!
We were on a suspension bridge and we are both scared of heights, so this is our before picture. lol
This was an old presbyterian church started by a taiwanese woman and Grandpa Ted took us there and told us the story of how she started first in a cave under this church then he took us down there, it was so neat!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
@ orphanage!
Real quick, real fast, we are at the orphanage!! We got in yesterday and have been trying to get accustomed to everything! It it a pretty crazy schedule, they have 22 babies well i think 23 but 1 was in the hospital and i think another went today :( Upset stomach and pneumonia so pray that they get better soon! A group of us are going to a National Park tomorrow and then my daddy leaves :'( It's been so nice to have him here! I've loved getting to spend time with him and talk to him and it helped me to get settled down. So anyways tomorrow might be another cry day so if you can pray for that too. It'll be ok and I really like it so i know it'll be good! But anyways i'll post more later! I've made a list of things to remember to tell you gys so eventually i'll slowly post more about them! LOVE YOU ALL!!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Ahhh...
Ahhh...we just got back from Kenting Beach in south Taiwan. It was absolutely beautiful! I know I said I would update you guys on the past couple days and I always think I'll have more time than I actually do but when we get home from the day I'm always so tired so I take a shower and just want to go to bed. Anyways all that to say I will tell about the past couple days but maybe slowly over the next week. We head to the orphanage tomorrow so now I might have less time to blog and comment and post pictures and all that good stuff...not that i've done a lot so far...but now it will probably come slower soo...a quick overview/update.
Yesterday we traveled down to the beach and it was a couple hours to relax, journal, write and read which was nice :) We got there in the afternoon and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on the beach, it was so nice and warm! The water seemed cold at first but wasn't too bad once you got in. It is like a rocky, green, planty beach with some sand, so different than a typical beach but absolutely beautiful! I think some pictures are up on phanfare, mindrup.phanfare.com. Then we spent this morning on the beach again and headed back this afternoon, so it was a short trip but so relaxing!
Now that we've been here a couple days I'm getting "used" to everything(at least as much as i possibly can). Here is a little bit of what I wrote in my journal this morning...
"Well i think today a lot has sunk in, like each morning for the next 11 weeks I will wake up in a beautiful yet bustling country where I can't talk to most people, everything smells different, some good some not so good. I hear this now starting to to be familiar language that I have no idea what it means. I am growing way accustomed to shi shi(shee shee - thank you), and ni hao(nee how - hello), although hello, and ok are fairly understood here. I really wan to learn the language now, I'm dying to know what people are saying and be able to talk with them.... I did wake up homesick today(but my dad helped me with that). Everytime I see a McDonalds now I crave it, never EVER thought that would happen! A neat thing is now I crave some Taiwan stuff, like pork dumplings... ahh to die for! And beef noodle soup, it's so comforting and yummy! It's going to be interesting though, today I realized my 4 major food groups, cheese anything, bread, sweets/chocolate and diet coke are either extremely uncommon or completely not available! (yes people there is no diet coke here :( ) I panicked when I realized that, but then I noticed I've gotten this far without it and without even noticing so i'll definitely...hopefully...be able to make it without them. I'm learning to like coke or at least be able to drink it and like meats and strange spices more, so it's different and interesting and probably good for me."
So to sum that up basically it's just so different but i'm starting to get used to it being different, maybe not used to everything but just knowing I won't wake up to what I'm used to. The first couple morning I woke up i had to kind of talk myself through where I was, what was going on and why I was there and just prepare myself that today I would be surrounded by another language and not really talk to anyone but my dad, (*side note* I'm so glad my dad is here and that there will be sweet people at the orphanage who speak english too!! I've never appreciated that so much! ) So it's been different for sure but an adventure and very exciting!
Few more highlights, this place we went to the beach had some great shopping!! :) I bought some pretty stuff, so that was a lot of fun, we walked around the town until we found a Thai place and ate there. So far we've eaten taiwanese, thai, vietnamese, american(we broke down one night and got mcd's and ice cream :) ) and korean food. Most of it good, some interesting! There we're salamanders at the beach, which was kind of freaky they look like a cross between a snake and lizard and i hate both so when a group of people chased one under my chair that made for some funny laughs...at me ;P And I thought it was really neat to say i've now swam on both sides of the pacific ocean, from california and now Taiwan... daddy didn't find that so cool. lol but i did :) Oh i laughed out loud at one point when I realized I was walking around on a beach in taiwan surrounded by people speaking chinese while I was listening to country music on my ipod and singing it out loud, i'm sure they thought i was crazy and obviously had no idea what i was saying. Although they play a lot of American music here. When we were at the airport in South Korea, "shackles" by mary mary came on, i thought that was so funny and random. So I think that's all for now :) Here are a couple photos!!
THE BEACH
ME AND MY DAD
SHOPPING
THAI FOOD
WALKWAY TO BEACH
Yesterday we traveled down to the beach and it was a couple hours to relax, journal, write and read which was nice :) We got there in the afternoon and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on the beach, it was so nice and warm! The water seemed cold at first but wasn't too bad once you got in. It is like a rocky, green, planty beach with some sand, so different than a typical beach but absolutely beautiful! I think some pictures are up on phanfare, mindrup.phanfare.com. Then we spent this morning on the beach again and headed back this afternoon, so it was a short trip but so relaxing!
Now that we've been here a couple days I'm getting "used" to everything(at least as much as i possibly can). Here is a little bit of what I wrote in my journal this morning...
"Well i think today a lot has sunk in, like each morning for the next 11 weeks I will wake up in a beautiful yet bustling country where I can't talk to most people, everything smells different, some good some not so good. I hear this now starting to to be familiar language that I have no idea what it means. I am growing way accustomed to shi shi(shee shee - thank you), and ni hao(nee how - hello), although hello, and ok are fairly understood here. I really wan to learn the language now, I'm dying to know what people are saying and be able to talk with them.... I did wake up homesick today(but my dad helped me with that). Everytime I see a McDonalds now I crave it, never EVER thought that would happen! A neat thing is now I crave some Taiwan stuff, like pork dumplings... ahh to die for! And beef noodle soup, it's so comforting and yummy! It's going to be interesting though, today I realized my 4 major food groups, cheese anything, bread, sweets/chocolate and diet coke are either extremely uncommon or completely not available! (yes people there is no diet coke here :( ) I panicked when I realized that, but then I noticed I've gotten this far without it and without even noticing so i'll definitely...hopefully...be able to make it without them. I'm learning to like coke or at least be able to drink it and like meats and strange spices more, so it's different and interesting and probably good for me."
So to sum that up basically it's just so different but i'm starting to get used to it being different, maybe not used to everything but just knowing I won't wake up to what I'm used to. The first couple morning I woke up i had to kind of talk myself through where I was, what was going on and why I was there and just prepare myself that today I would be surrounded by another language and not really talk to anyone but my dad, (*side note* I'm so glad my dad is here and that there will be sweet people at the orphanage who speak english too!! I've never appreciated that so much! ) So it's been different for sure but an adventure and very exciting!
Few more highlights, this place we went to the beach had some great shopping!! :) I bought some pretty stuff, so that was a lot of fun, we walked around the town until we found a Thai place and ate there. So far we've eaten taiwanese, thai, vietnamese, american(we broke down one night and got mcd's and ice cream :) ) and korean food. Most of it good, some interesting! There we're salamanders at the beach, which was kind of freaky they look like a cross between a snake and lizard and i hate both so when a group of people chased one under my chair that made for some funny laughs...at me ;P And I thought it was really neat to say i've now swam on both sides of the pacific ocean, from california and now Taiwan... daddy didn't find that so cool. lol but i did :) Oh i laughed out loud at one point when I realized I was walking around on a beach in taiwan surrounded by people speaking chinese while I was listening to country music on my ipod and singing it out loud, i'm sure they thought i was crazy and obviously had no idea what i was saying. Although they play a lot of American music here. When we were at the airport in South Korea, "shackles" by mary mary came on, i thought that was so funny and random. So I think that's all for now :) Here are a couple photos!!
THE BEACH
ME AND MY DAD
SHOPPING
THAI FOOD
WALKWAY TO BEACH
Friday, March 12, 2010
Hello from Taiwan!
Wow, we've been here about 2 and half days and this is my first blog! There has just been so much to do, so i'm going to try to update you on everything so far, but there has been soo much!
So i'll just go through each day, Wednesday we got in early afternoon, There was a sweet old lady on our plane from south korea to taiwan, she spoke english very well so we talked with her while getting our bags in taiwan. She actually lived in Chicago but i think was from Taiwan cause she had a house here and was spending the weekend there, anyways that was fun to talk to her. I officially have a stamp in my passport!! When i got it i turned around and looked at my dad and he thought something went wrong while i was at customs. So after that we went tot he hotel, and let me tell you taxi's are CRAZY! Basically they don't follow any driving rules and they go as fast as they can, I don't think i've ever done that before, kind of terrifying! Especially if your on a narrow winding road like tonight. So we got to our hotel and got settled in and surprisingly it's been pretty easy to make all the arrangements and everything because the majority of people speak english. It's so nice but after a while i was like i want to practice my chinese so i talked to them in chinese or what little i know anyways. lol It is such a unique culture, the first two days was just kind of taking it all in. I'm not even sure how to describe it yet,... I still need to think about it. lol So that afternoon we went down to the basement floor of the hotel and it took us to the MRT, or subway, it can get you pretty much anywhere, it's so fun you swipe your card and try to figure out which direction to which color line and which way. There are at least 5 different colors and each goes 2 ways, we're always lost but thank goodness the signs are in english and chinese! lol It seems we are always going a different way, but it's so fun to ride. So we took the MRT to a couple close malls and we walked in and they had every brand name store you could think of! And i mean designer, expensive brands, Gucci, Dolce, Channel,... everything! So we ended up walking and only looking in that mall :) Then we headed to Taipei 101 tower, which is the 2nd tallest tower in the world. We took the elevator, which is the fastest elevator in the world, all the way to the top look out floor. It was really neat to see the whole city at night, it's huge! And it's beautiful, all light up and surrounded by mountains, pictures will come to the blog soon! (hopefully) Then after that we went down to a restaurant in the middle of the building that was supposed to be really good. It ended up being a really nice 7 course place where you choose 1 of 2 entrees and the rest they just bring out. So it got interesting. We didn't know what we were eating but it started out with vegetables, fruit, and some seafood like shrimp, scallop and abalone. I like it all but the abalone...it was like eating cold rubber :p bleh. Then came this really yummy broth soup, it was SHARK soup. :O Yes, I ate shark, even after i knew what it was because surprisingly it tasted really good! The meat part was like eating pork, as long as we avoided the rubbery other parts. Then we had fish, beef and next came desert. It was fruit and some bread stuff and this sweet soup that tasted like maple syrup. It had these white clumps of something in it that were interesting, sweet but kind of jello-y. So we asked what it was, the guy looked at us funny and said well...it's an old medicinal thing, it's believed to be good for the health of women...most people don't want to know what it is... we laughed and said ok well what is it (we shouldn't have)... he goes well it's frog jelly... EWWWW! I couldn't finish it, it really tasted fine but after that i just couldn't. So that made for some good firsts. lol And that pretty much sums up that day!
I'll finish going through thursday and friday tomorrow hopefully. Tomorrow we are headed to south Taiwan to Kenting beach for a relaxing day, so i should have plenty more time to blog. Hope ya'll are having a wonderful day! Love you all!!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Hello from South Korea
Hello from South Korea!!
We arrived here about 6:30 a.m. Korea time which is about 3:30 or 4:00 texas time. WE MADE IT! The 13 hour plane ride is done! It actually went really well. It was a such a nice plane, it was huge and each seat had it's own tv. They served dinner but I was alseep so I missed it then they served breakfast an hour or so before we landed. We got 2 choices for breakfast. She asked us omelet or... octopus with rice. I laughed and said omelet cause I thought for sure I didn't understand her. So she then asked my dad omelet or octopus with rice... she was serious. LOL Never in my life would I have imagined I would be asked if I wanted octopus with rice for breakfast, so that was definitely a first and hopefully a last. :p lol We don't have any cell service in Korea but we found an internet cafe, it was a tad difficult to get to type this blog because all the instructions on the web are in korean but I figured it out!
Let's see we ate our first asian food meal a little bit ago, my dad ate something called a bibimbob in a stone pot i'll send the picture to facebook when i get cell service and I had an omurice in cream sauce, they were both delicious!! It's snowing in South Korea which surprised me but it's kind of cool that everything is covered in snow, even though all we can really see is the airport. Oh and today is actually Wednesday the 10th for me, we skipped tuesday the 9th becasue we crossed over the international date line so megan...i opened 2 letters in one day :) sorry!
..random but my dad just came back with a starbucks that costed 7,600 W (with a line through it), korean currency of course :)...
And quick note to em and meg and anyone else who helped put together the letters, since I can't text right now, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! I'm so excited about reading them everyday! they made my night last night! I love you guys so much!!
Well we leave in a couple hours for our 2 and half ride to Taiwan! I'll try to update again soon! Please comment if you can I would love to hear from you!!
We arrived here about 6:30 a.m. Korea time which is about 3:30 or 4:00 texas time. WE MADE IT! The 13 hour plane ride is done! It actually went really well. It was a such a nice plane, it was huge and each seat had it's own tv. They served dinner but I was alseep so I missed it then they served breakfast an hour or so before we landed. We got 2 choices for breakfast. She asked us omelet or... octopus with rice. I laughed and said omelet cause I thought for sure I didn't understand her. So she then asked my dad omelet or octopus with rice... she was serious. LOL Never in my life would I have imagined I would be asked if I wanted octopus with rice for breakfast, so that was definitely a first and hopefully a last. :p lol We don't have any cell service in Korea but we found an internet cafe, it was a tad difficult to get to type this blog because all the instructions on the web are in korean but I figured it out!
Let's see we ate our first asian food meal a little bit ago, my dad ate something called a bibimbob in a stone pot i'll send the picture to facebook when i get cell service and I had an omurice in cream sauce, they were both delicious!! It's snowing in South Korea which surprised me but it's kind of cool that everything is covered in snow, even though all we can really see is the airport. Oh and today is actually Wednesday the 10th for me, we skipped tuesday the 9th becasue we crossed over the international date line so megan...i opened 2 letters in one day :) sorry!
..random but my dad just came back with a starbucks that costed 7,600 W (with a line through it), korean currency of course :)...
And quick note to em and meg and anyone else who helped put together the letters, since I can't text right now, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! I'm so excited about reading them everyday! they made my night last night! I love you guys so much!!
Well we leave in a couple hours for our 2 and half ride to Taiwan! I'll try to update again soon! Please comment if you can I would love to hear from you!!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
I leave tomorrow...
Hello Everyone!!
I LEAVE TOMORROW!!! I can't believe it, like really, it doesn't feel real. It' hard to imagine actually being gone for 3 months. It felt more real tonight than it has so far though. Sad night:( but still a very good one.
Well here are a few things contact-wise that i'm going to add.
If you have skype my username is ellenmarie14 add me :)
My e-mail, I think the e-mail I'm going to use is aerialdiva91@yahoo.com so if I gave you another one you can switch to this one if you want but you don't have to cause I'll check them both the same. I just don't want to post the other one online :)
DO NOT CALL ME...tell me some other way to call you :)
Also I'd like to have addresses to write people so if you want to leave me a comment with your address or just e-mail it to me maybe is a better idea :)
And if I don't have your e-mail address e-mail me and tell me it's you :)
Umm as far as times go, Taiwan is 14 hrs ahead, I think I told some people behind so sorry, I really don't know what times will be good times to talk and things like that but if you e-mail or write obviously timing doesn't matter but so that you know for example...
US time: 9:00a.m. Taiwan time: 11:00p.m.
US time: 5:00p.m. Taiwan time: 7:00a.m.
US time: 10:00p.m. Taiwan time: 12:00p.m.
Ok well again it's late night and my brain is shutting down so hopefully more to come tomorrow!
Goodnight :))
I LEAVE TOMORROW!!! I can't believe it, like really, it doesn't feel real. It' hard to imagine actually being gone for 3 months. It felt more real tonight than it has so far though. Sad night:( but still a very good one.
Well here are a few things contact-wise that i'm going to add.
If you have skype my username is ellenmarie14 add me :)
My e-mail, I think the e-mail I'm going to use is aerialdiva91@yahoo.com so if I gave you another one you can switch to this one if you want but you don't have to cause I'll check them both the same. I just don't want to post the other one online :)
DO NOT CALL ME...tell me some other way to call you :)
Also I'd like to have addresses to write people so if you want to leave me a comment with your address or just e-mail it to me maybe is a better idea :)
And if I don't have your e-mail address e-mail me and tell me it's you :)
Umm as far as times go, Taiwan is 14 hrs ahead, I think I told some people behind so sorry, I really don't know what times will be good times to talk and things like that but if you e-mail or write obviously timing doesn't matter but so that you know for example...
US time: 9:00a.m. Taiwan time: 11:00p.m.
US time: 5:00p.m. Taiwan time: 7:00a.m.
US time: 10:00p.m. Taiwan time: 12:00p.m.
Ok well again it's late night and my brain is shutting down so hopefully more to come tomorrow!
Goodnight :))
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