Wow, what a day. We still haven’t quite adjusted to the 13 hour time difference and so we all woke up about 4:30 this morning. When it finally reached a decent hour, we spent the morning walking around exploring the city. We found the Kaohsiung Cultural Center nearby our hotel. It was a great place to “people watch”. Lots of people doing Tai Chi, dancing, and other traditional Chinese arts. The boys enjoyed watching everything, especially the martial arts. There was a group of about 25 ladies line dancing. We watched for a while until Chaunta’ dared me to join them. Of course, I never turn down a good dare…so I joined in. They all seemed to enjoy watching me try to do their dance.
About 12:30 our agency representatives arrived at our hotel with Hadley. She immediately went to Chaunta, but was pretty fussy. The only lady who speaks English was giving me all of the instructions about her sleeping and eating. We received all of her belongings, including a teddy bear from her birth mother, her clothing, bottles, diapers, and formula. Hadley was becoming increasingly fussy, so we decided it would be a good idea to feed her. She loved the Cheerios we brought and let the boys feed them to her. Of course they loved being able to help. They explained that tomorrow at 2:00we will go back to their office to meet Hadley’s birth mother. Then they left. FINALLY, we had our baby all to ourselves. Once they left, the uncontrollable crying began. Nothing seemed to help! We tried a bottle and that didn’t work. We tried food, and that didn’t work. After about 45 minutes of crying, I did what any man would do in the situation…I got the boys together and took them to lunch (so that mom could have some quality time with our new angel.) It was McDonalds…again (picky boys). While I was gone, Chaunta got Hadley quieted down and off to sleep. We brought back lunch for her, but unfortunately Hadley woke before she was able to eat it. Again, the uncontrollable sobbing began. I took the boys in the other room and got them quited down and off to sleep while mommy got her quieted down. After the boys drifted off, I came back in and Hadley and Chaunta were playing on the bed. She was smiling and having fun. She loves to play peek-a-boo. Unfortunately, the fun only lasted about an hour and the waterworks began again – it took almost an hour to calm her and she drifted off to sleep.
About 30 minutes later, the phone rings. I rush to answer it (not to wake any of the 3 sleeping children). It was LiLi from our agency, she was in the hotel lobby and needed us to come go to the government office and take a Chinese name. We had no clue what she was talking about, but we rousted the kids out of bed. Chaunta carried Hadley and I carried our two sleeping boys into a taxi and off to the office. When we arrived they explained to her that since we were not Chinese that we must adopt a Chinese name. I thought to myself cool, can I be Jackie Chan? But unfortunately, they just gave us names that sounded like our real names, my name is now some really cool Chinese Characters that sound something like “Tie way Es” (for Davis) and Chaunta’s is now “Tie Shan ta.” I think for her that took part of my name and put it with her name. So we are now honorary Taiwanese citizens. They had us sign a bunch of paperwork, and I think we may have actually denounced our US citizenship (just kidding). At the end, the told us that Hadley was now officially ours (by law). OH YEAH, I almost forgot…Hadley was happy and playful the whole time.
After we finished signing the paper work LiLi told us the other man in the waiting room with us was Hadley’s grandfather. Because her birth mother is not 18, her father must sign all the legal paper work. We asked if we could meet him. She ran over to the other agency ladies and they spoke a lot of Chinese back and forth until she came back and said that she would ask him. She asked and brought him over to talk to us. He looked young, maybe 40, and was handsome. He came over and shook my hand. LiLi introduced him to everyone. He spoke first to Hadley, he touched her head and said something we didn’t understand. He looked a Chaunta and said in English, “Thank you. I am very grateful. My daughter is only 17 and doesn’t have power to raise a child”. He eyes were glassy as if holding back tears. Of course, Chaunta didn’t do a good job of holding hers back. They welled up in her eyes as she told him, “Thank you.” He looked at me and said “thank you” again. I asked if we could take a photo of him for Hadley and he agreed. He stood next to Chaunta holding Hadley and I snapped a couple of photos. We all said goodbye and then left. It was a pretty emotional moment.
We then took a taxi back to our hotel and decided to go for a walk – because everyone was so tiered and it was too early to go to sleep. Earlier this morning, we had found a huge department store, but it was closed. We decided to go back there and check it out. The boys were in heaven because they had a toy store. We bought them both a new toy and shopped around for about an hour. We grabbed dinner and headed back to the hotel. Hadley was doing great for about 2-3 hours and then fell asleep on the way home.
Unfortunately, she woke up and started her hysterical crying again. Chaunta tried to calm her but it just wasn’t working. I finally took her and put her in our sling (thanks Nikki) and walked around the room with her. It helped quiet her down, but with the boys it was too noisy for her to fall asleep. I took her out into the hall and walked her up and down for about an hour until she went to sleep. She cried as soon as I laid her in her bed, but stopped as soon as I picked her up. This went on at least 2 more times until I finally took her to my bed and snuggled her. She seemed to love it. She finally fell deep enough asleep that I could get up. When I did, I found that Chaunta and the kids were already passed out in the other room. Now with everyone asleep, I finally had time to update our blog.
Please pray that tomorrow goes more smoothly. She is really having a rough time. She has eaten some solid food, but refused any formula.
Some Random Thoughts About Taiwan So Far:
1) We haven't seen one other caucasian person since arriving in Kaohsiung two days ago.
2) Almost no one speaks any English, and the ones who do, don't know much.
3) People make over Aiden because he looks different (quite the opposite of home where Liam is usually the center attraction. I don't think Liam likes it...but Aiden sure does.)
4) Do you remember Sesame Street? There a part of the show called "One of these things is not like the other." While it seems that the locals are trying to figure out our kids and why one of them is not like the others.
About 12:30 our agency representatives arrived at our hotel with Hadley. She immediately went to Chaunta, but was pretty fussy. The only lady who speaks English was giving me all of the instructions about her sleeping and eating. We received all of her belongings, including a teddy bear from her birth mother, her clothing, bottles, diapers, and formula. Hadley was becoming increasingly fussy, so we decided it would be a good idea to feed her. She loved the Cheerios we brought and let the boys feed them to her. Of course they loved being able to help. They explained that tomorrow at 2:00we will go back to their office to meet Hadley’s birth mother. Then they left. FINALLY, we had our baby all to ourselves. Once they left, the uncontrollable crying began. Nothing seemed to help! We tried a bottle and that didn’t work. We tried food, and that didn’t work. After about 45 minutes of crying, I did what any man would do in the situation…I got the boys together and took them to lunch (so that mom could have some quality time with our new angel.) It was McDonalds…again (picky boys). While I was gone, Chaunta got Hadley quieted down and off to sleep. We brought back lunch for her, but unfortunately Hadley woke before she was able to eat it. Again, the uncontrollable sobbing began. I took the boys in the other room and got them quited down and off to sleep while mommy got her quieted down. After the boys drifted off, I came back in and Hadley and Chaunta were playing on the bed. She was smiling and having fun. She loves to play peek-a-boo. Unfortunately, the fun only lasted about an hour and the waterworks began again – it took almost an hour to calm her and she drifted off to sleep.
About 30 minutes later, the phone rings. I rush to answer it (not to wake any of the 3 sleeping children). It was LiLi from our agency, she was in the hotel lobby and needed us to come go to the government office and take a Chinese name. We had no clue what she was talking about, but we rousted the kids out of bed. Chaunta carried Hadley and I carried our two sleeping boys into a taxi and off to the office. When we arrived they explained to her that since we were not Chinese that we must adopt a Chinese name. I thought to myself cool, can I be Jackie Chan? But unfortunately, they just gave us names that sounded like our real names, my name is now some really cool Chinese Characters that sound something like “Tie way Es” (for Davis) and Chaunta’s is now “Tie Shan ta.” I think for her that took part of my name and put it with her name. So we are now honorary Taiwanese citizens. They had us sign a bunch of paperwork, and I think we may have actually denounced our US citizenship (just kidding). At the end, the told us that Hadley was now officially ours (by law). OH YEAH, I almost forgot…Hadley was happy and playful the whole time.
After we finished signing the paper work LiLi told us the other man in the waiting room with us was Hadley’s grandfather. Because her birth mother is not 18, her father must sign all the legal paper work. We asked if we could meet him. She ran over to the other agency ladies and they spoke a lot of Chinese back and forth until she came back and said that she would ask him. She asked and brought him over to talk to us. He looked young, maybe 40, and was handsome. He came over and shook my hand. LiLi introduced him to everyone. He spoke first to Hadley, he touched her head and said something we didn’t understand. He looked a Chaunta and said in English, “Thank you. I am very grateful. My daughter is only 17 and doesn’t have power to raise a child”. He eyes were glassy as if holding back tears. Of course, Chaunta didn’t do a good job of holding hers back. They welled up in her eyes as she told him, “Thank you.” He looked at me and said “thank you” again. I asked if we could take a photo of him for Hadley and he agreed. He stood next to Chaunta holding Hadley and I snapped a couple of photos. We all said goodbye and then left. It was a pretty emotional moment.
We then took a taxi back to our hotel and decided to go for a walk – because everyone was so tiered and it was too early to go to sleep. Earlier this morning, we had found a huge department store, but it was closed. We decided to go back there and check it out. The boys were in heaven because they had a toy store. We bought them both a new toy and shopped around for about an hour. We grabbed dinner and headed back to the hotel. Hadley was doing great for about 2-3 hours and then fell asleep on the way home.
Unfortunately, she woke up and started her hysterical crying again. Chaunta tried to calm her but it just wasn’t working. I finally took her and put her in our sling (thanks Nikki) and walked around the room with her. It helped quiet her down, but with the boys it was too noisy for her to fall asleep. I took her out into the hall and walked her up and down for about an hour until she went to sleep. She cried as soon as I laid her in her bed, but stopped as soon as I picked her up. This went on at least 2 more times until I finally took her to my bed and snuggled her. She seemed to love it. She finally fell deep enough asleep that I could get up. When I did, I found that Chaunta and the kids were already passed out in the other room. Now with everyone asleep, I finally had time to update our blog.
Please pray that tomorrow goes more smoothly. She is really having a rough time. She has eaten some solid food, but refused any formula.
Some Random Thoughts About Taiwan So Far:
1) We haven't seen one other caucasian person since arriving in Kaohsiung two days ago.
2) Almost no one speaks any English, and the ones who do, don't know much.
3) People make over Aiden because he looks different (quite the opposite of home where Liam is usually the center attraction. I don't think Liam likes it...but Aiden sure does.)
4) Do you remember Sesame Street? There a part of the show called "One of these things is not like the other." While it seems that the locals are trying to figure out our kids and why one of them is not like the others.
9 comments:
Wow! What a day is right! But I am glad you have Hadley now! Congrats! I'll be praying for smoother days ahead for you guys! I can't wait to meet her at the airport next week! Love you guys and hang in there!
wow, itll get better. i cant believe you joined the line dance! the part about her grandpa is awesome. and she gets to keep a teddy bear from her mom. thats really cool. love ya guys tim pruitt
Oy, I am a blubbering mess reading this! LOL
I am glad you guys were able to meet more of her birth family.
I had to laugh at the part that Aiden is being fawned over for being different and Liam isn't liking it. It really is the opposite of how it is here for them.
It sounds like while your first day with Hadley was rough it wasn't non stop hard on all of you guys, which is great.
Lots of love to all 5 of you!
I want to kiss her little chubby cheeks! I am thinking; her and Gabrien are only 3 months a part... What prospect! :) It will get better, she will fall in love with all of you! I can't wait for all of you to be home... Love you, Be safe!
Ok, while the title is saying RJ is writing this, it is actually his amazingly, beautiful wife! Just thought you should know. And you seriously have had the tears flowing!
YEAH! Congratulations... she is just precious.
Nehemiah had a rough time in the beginning too. Oh the sobbing. They are breaking that bond and bonding to your family- keep pressing on and praying!
I love reading about your daily travels and how the boys are doing too. Thank you for posting and allowing all of us to rejoice with your family on the arrival of your daughter!
Natasha
haha cute kid!!!
Can't wait to see my friends and my "nephews" my kids already miss thier best friends. They are digging the pictures of Hadley.. and I can't wait to hold her.:) And i can't wait till she is home where she is going to be loved beyond imagine! While you may be the only white people,keep a look out for indians. Love you guys. christian
Well I have to say she is beautiful! Can't wait till our best friends, and "nephews" and new "niece" is home. The boys miss their friends already, and they are really excited about Hadley. Soon Hadley will be home where she will be loved beyond imagine! Love you guys, i know your the only white people, but keep a look out for Indians while you're thier. LOL!!
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