So it has been a week since Jason left for Yilan, and we still have another 4 to go!

It hasn't been too bad, the kids have been really cooperative most of the time, and have been spending quite a bit of time playing computer games and watching movies and eating lots of popcorn:) SUMMER VACATION - great timing...

Thankfully we stocked up on groceries before Jason left, so we just really have to buy bread, milk and water every other day or so, and fresh veggies from the market. However the boys don't really enjoy the trip to the morning market. It does get very crowded and the boys hate the smell (raw fish, pork, tofu, and many other smells that all blend together in the air and seems to get trapped). Nevermind the fact that me with 4 kids, 3 obviously belonging to me and 1 that doesn't look like me, but more like the locals, we draw much attention and finger pointing and questioning looks, and sometimes questions or more like a game of charades, and of course the ever dreaded stroking of the hair or face or wanting to take our photo! My kids, even a year later have not gotten used to this! Then we will even get those who want to practice their english, although all they know is how to count to five, so they will look at you shouting 1,2,3,4,5! Very funny!!!

But I sure will miss our little town of Donggang. There are some really sweet little ladies who are always quick to give us little treats, whether they are bananas, or some other strange looking fruit or vegetable, that I usually have no idea what to do with! And sweets for the kids, which are usually awefull, not at all like the sweets we are acustomed to, however I have trained the kids to politely take the sweet and say "xie,xie" , smile and wave and just keep on walking, and do what you like with the sweet when we get home (it usually ends up in the trash though).

Asia-Faith is really starting to pick up words now too - this is a list of words she knows:

mama

dada

her brothers names: River, Storm, Rain (although she mostly calls Talis-Rain "Talis"...)

nana

papa

Mel

Kitty

bottle

nio nai (milk)

yes

no (probably her first word LOL)

Rory

pillow

hello

how are you

I love you

Wo Ai Ni

xie xie

thank you

eyes

ears

nose

mouth

bum

poo (points to her diapers and says poo - too cute, although she mainly does it in the toilet now too)

yay (which she says when she is done on the toilet, or if one of us are done on the toilet)

"baby" - that is the name of her doll.

Although her pronounciation of the words aren't 100% yet, I still understand what she is saying. She also loves to sing and for the 2 songs she does, she needs her props. For her fist song "You are My Sunshine", her lullaby, she needs to have her "baby" to rock while she sings this. For the second song, "Jesus Loves Me", she needs to have her story book which has this song in that she "reads" from when she sings. It is so cute, because everytime you start to sing either of these songs, she holds up her hand and says "wait" (oh, another word of hers), and runs and gets either of these 2 things, depending on the song...is she cute or what?

It is my big boy's 8th birthday tomorrow! I can't believe it, it just seems like yesterday that I found out I was pregnant, I can remember it so vividly like it was just yesterday, and knowing it was 8 years ago already! WOW, time does go fast!

Enjoy the pics...

Documents are on their way.....

I had a call from Deana this morning, from Morninglight Children's Home, (http://mlchome.org/), she had just left the post office. Our adoption documents have finally been sent off to Yilan courts and we should be getting a court date within the next 2 to 4 weeks! I just hope that we have moved to Yilan by then otherwise we have to postpone the date we are given. However Deana doesn't seem to think it will be before 18 August, so I am really hoping that it will be soon after this date.

Once we get our court date then we appear in court (and either we hire a translator from the courts, at a fee, or we bring our own), then after the court date we have a social worker come to our home for a homestudy, and then she writes a report (which apparently can take her a month), and then it goes to the judge, who then I think will make his decision. Apparently it takes about 3 months, and we might have to go to court about 3 times, but then after all is said and done, she will legally and forever be our little Princess!!!!

Jason leaves for Yilan this weekend (Saturday). He will be riding my scooter there, so please keep him in your prayers. He will be stopping over in Taitung and staying with Luke and Deana for the night, and then continuing on to Yilan in the morning. The kids and I will be going up on the weekend of the 18th August. Not too sure which day though, just waiting for the mover to confirm a date with us. We will be taking the high speed rail - don't fancy an 8 hour trip with 4 kids and a cat, so the high speed rail it is - in 2 hours we will be in Taipei, and then another hour or 2 by train to Yilan (depending on if it is the express or the milk train)...As much as I enjoy our little apartment and the friends we have here in Donggang, I am looking forward to our new home!

Enjoy the pics...

Bad hair day....

Sleeping Beauty.....

Can you tell she enjoys her food???

Aint she sweet???

Left SA 1 year ago already!

I can’t believe that this month marks our 1 year anniversary of leaving South Africa and moving to Taiwan! Time has really gone so quickly!!!

We are still waiting for a date for the courts to finalise Asia-Faith’s adoption.

The birth mother and the social worker have been a bit slack in getting papers signed – though she was supposed to have signed and registered with the courts yesterday (Thursday), so please pray that she did! Then we have to wait 2-4 weeks for a court date, and then the judge takes another 4-8 weeks to make his decision!!! So please keep this in your prayers….

We are more than likely going to make the move to Ilan on the north-east part of the island. The boys are particularly excited about the impending move! I am just concerned about the logistics of it all!

We had the Dragon Boat Festival here over the weekend. Monday and Tuesday were a public holiday (so now Jason has to work on Saturday – as if it were a Monday, to make up for the day off!). Anyway, our friend Bryan was in one of the teams that were racing and their team, Fooyin Hospital, came in second place!

We were invited to their celebratory dinner on Tuesday night at a local seafood restaurant here in Donggang! Dinner was interesting! Bryan did tell the staff that we only wanted to eat COOKED food and NO VITAL ORGANS!!! We started off with asparagus and bamboo (not too bad actually), with a very sweet mayonnaise, then we had fried rice with what they call “Cherry Blossom Shrimps” – they are VERY tiny and look almost pinky/transparent, anyway, the dish was quite tasty! We also had sweet potatoes that were coated in a sweet syrup (like toffee apple syrup) – it was very nice. Then they brought a soup with a whole fish lying on the bottom of the bowl (head, eyes and all!!!) – we told Bryan he could take that to his table! Then we tried “fern” – yes just like the fern that grows in the garden. We also had prawns (which I love, but would have preferred if they had been butterflied instead of just boiled), but they were good nonetheless…and we had clams! While I had a clam in my mouth and trying very hard to swallow it – Jason mentioned that is was like trying to swallow sn*t! I tried really hard not to spit it out, and only managed to get one down!!! The boys just ate a bowl of plain rice (I had made sure they had eaten dinner before we left home – just in case!)… And of course Asia-Faith was willing to try anything!

Here is a bit about the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival:

Dated : 5th day of the 5th lunar month

Qu Yuan
The Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Duanwu Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese calendar. For thousands of years, the festival has been marked by eating zong zi (glutinous rice (糯米)wrapped to form a pyramid using bamboo or reed leaves) and racing dragon boats.
The festival is best known for its dragon-boat races, especially in the southern provinces where there are many rivers and lakes. This regatta（赛舟会）commemorates the death of Qu Yuan , an honest minister who is said to have committed suicide by drowning himself in a river. Qu was a minister of the State of Chu situated in present-day Hunan and Hubei provinces, during the Warring States Period (475-221BC)（战国时期）. He was upright, loyal and highly esteemed for his wise counsel that brought peace and prosperity to the state. However, when a dishonest and corrupt prince vilified Qu, he was disgraced and dismissed from office. Realizing that the country was now in the hands of evil and corrupt officials, Qu grabbed a large stone and leapt into the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month. Nearby fishermen rushed over to try and save him but were unable to even recover his body. Thereafter, the state declined and was eventually conquered by the State of Qin.

The people of Chu who mourned the death of Qu threw rice into the river to feed his ghost every year on the fifth day of the fifth month. But one year, the spirit of Qu appeared and told the mourners that a huge reptile（爬行动物）in the river had stolen the rice. The spirit then advised them to wrap the rice in silk and bind it with five different-colored threads before tossing it into the river. During the Duanwu Festival, a glutinous rice pudding called zong zi is eaten to symbolize the rice offerings to Qu. Ingredients such as beans, lotus seeds（莲子）, chestnuts（栗子）, pork fat and the golden yolk of a salted duck egg are often added to the glutinous rice. The pudding is then wrapped with bamboo leaves, bound with a kind of raffia and boiled in salt water for hours. The dragon-boat races symbolize the many attempts to rescue and recover Qu's body.

A typical dragon boat ranges from 50-100 feet in length, with a beam of about 5.5 feet, accommodating two paddlers seated side by side. A wooden dragon head is attached at the bow, and a dragon tail at the stern（船尾）. A banner hoisted on a pole is also fastened at the stern and the hull is decorated with red, green and blue scales edged in gold. In the center of the boat is a canopied shrine behind which the drummers, gong（铜锣）beaters and cymbal（铙钹）players are seated to set the pace for the paddlers. There are also men positioned at the bow to set off firecrackers, toss rice into the water and pretend to be looking for Qu. All of the noise and pageantry creates an atmosphere of gaiety and excitement for the participants and spectators alike. The races are held among different clans, villages and organizations, and the winners are awarded medals, banners, jugs of wine and festive meals.

Enjoy the pics....

Special Songs....

So today, Jason, Rory and the boys went to go swim in the mountains (but my bike broke down on the way, and the last I heard they were having it fixed and then heading off to the mountains), so I was going to spend the afternoon scrapbooking - instead, I started looking at the youtube videos!

I still have to figure out how to add them from youtube onto here, but for now you can follow the link to the songs and take a listen...

Jason and my song "Woman", by John Lennon http://youtube.com/watch?v=PaLfDnShEn0 - it is such a beautiful song. It was our wedding song that Jason actually sang and played (on guitar)for me...

Each of the kids have their own songs, which I would sing to them when they were still in my tummy and when they were born, right up until this day, I still sing them their little song.

When Willow-River was born, he had quite a difficult birth, and he was crying so much when he came out, and Jason just followed the nurse around and sang him his song "Jamaican Farewell", sung by Harry Belafonte, http://youtube.com/watch?v=uX5mNnJUcRY and it stopped his crying straight away! This worked for quite a few years with him too. Everytime we would go somewhere in the car, or he wanted to go to sleep, we would sing his song, and within seconds he would be asleep!

Talis-Rain's song is "Dream a Little Dream", sung by Ella Fitzgerald, http://youtube.com/watch?v=xV7rQlbjr7w and Keanu-Storm's song is "Baby Mine" sung by Bette Midler, http://youtube.com/watch?v=rwVLeHyiKJE and was used in the movie Dumbo.

Asia-Faith's song is "You Are My Sunshine", sung by Emmylou Harris and Glen Campbell http://youtube.com/watch?v=o57SI9nK7bQ - this song was chosen by Talis-Rain, and Asia-Faith loves hearing it, she even tries to sing along and will usually fetch her "baby" and rock her - too cute!

Enjoy the pics...

Scenery from our apartment....

Storm in his "car"....

If Storm can do it...... so can I!!!

Ok, maybe not yet.....

Her Dedication....

We had our little princess dedicated on Sunday, 20 May at our little church in Donggang. All Asia-Faith wanted to do was have the microphone! Too cute:o)

We are planning a move accross the island, to Ilan, on the north east coast. Jason will be going there by bus this evening as he has an interview on the weekend.


I have been told that Ilan is beautiful, lots of fresh air (less polluted), open spaces, greenery and lots of nature... Unfortunately it has lots of rain:o( and not to mention that the east coast is where MOST of the earthquakes take place......


There are also lots of scenic places around the north to visit, and also plenty of places for hiking and nature trails, AND we will also only be about 40mins (by car) from Taipei!


So please say a little pray for us, that we make the right decision for our family.

Enjoy the pics....

Trip to Taitung....

We went to Taitung last week by train.

We were to go to register for the adoption on Friday, however when we arrived at the offices, we were told the birthmother hadn't arrived and also they needed more documents for us so unfortunately we couldn't register for the adoption, so it is delayed a little longer.

When we do finally register it will take about 2 to 4 weeks to get a court date and then the judge takes a month or so to make his decision and then it becomes final, so we are nearly there! I guess the governement departments are the same all over the world! No one is in a big hurry to get anything done....

We arrived in Taitung at around 6:30pm on Thursday, and Deana and Luke fetched us from the station and took us straight to the apartment. We unpacked and then took a walk around to find dinner. The kids got hotdogs from the 7-11 and J, Rory and I had "Taiwanese Hamburgers" which is a pastry type outer with ground pork mince (almost like a samoosa) inside. It wasn't too bad - they guys enjoyed it, and we also had like a pancake filled with ground pork and veggies - again not too bad.

Friday morning we went to the courts to register, only to be told that we couldn't register (as I mentioned above)...

We went back home and we all took a walk around the little town. Friday night for dinner we found a little restuarant called Paspi which sold pasta and pizza - it was actually quite good. We also ordered cheese fries (which I assumed would be french fries with melted cheese or a cheese sauce - no way, it was actually these little potato balls filled with cheese - weird!). Oh and the pizza were only about the width of the top of a coffee mug - so we skipped the pizza!

On Saturday Deana (http://www.mlchome.org/) had a fundraising flea market (not a familiar concept with the Chinese), anyway we spent the day there at the Church, ended up buying lots of books (english) and some toys for the boys and our little princess and some delicious cup cakes, then headed home by train again later that evening (oh, yes, and we had our kitten with us too!)...

I had to take Asia-Faith to the doctors a week ago to have her injections, but she had a cough so the doctor checked her out and said she has Asthma and was wheezing and that her lungs had spasms??? anyway, they put her on a kind of nebulizer thing for a few minutes and then gave me medicine for her.

I took her for a check up again yesterday (Monday), and the doctor says she is fine! Thank God!!! I have to continue the medicine for the next week though, but all is well with her!

Let me tell you the trip to the doctors here is no walk in the park! It is not like you phone your doctor, make an appointment and then go when it is time - no this is like going to Addington or McCords (Government hospital in SA) - you go, take a number and sit and wait!!!! and then wait some more!!!

Fortunately I was with a girl from Church (to translate for me, although the doctor ended up being english thankfully!), anyway this girl Amy knew the nurses there and managaed to get us in after waiting for about an hour or so! Then once you have seen the doctor you go to pay for your meds (take another ticket and wait), and then go fetch the meds from the dispensary - yep, another ticket and another wait!!! The only "up" side to this is that because Asia-Faith is Aborigine she has free medical, which is great! I only had to pay NT$60 which isn't even R20!!!

Enjoy the pics....