IT’S OFFICIAL!!!

Well it’s official, we are a family of five and Benjamin will be spending his first night with us tonight. 

The day started with the four of us taking a tour of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.  The architecture was beautiful and it was very interesting to see more about Taiwan’s history.  The kids loved the changing of the guards.  See pictures:

 Out in front of the memorial

 We watched the "changing of the guards"

 A view from the top

 There was a museum inside...these two are not into museums!

We then came back to the hotel for lunch and a little rest before going to pick him up at 2pm.  We arrived to the Chung Yi Foundation and we had to go through some paperwork.  They had to give us some of the official documents (adoption agreement, birth certificate, passport, etc…).  They also gave us everything that he owns, which all fit into a small suitcase that we brought.  Interestingly we filled it up with some of Elise’s old clothes to donate to the orphanage and now everything that Benjamin has fits nicely into it.  Most of the items were things that we had sent him while we were waiting to come get him.  Since he has been at this orphanage since 5 days old, we were really surprised to get his baby book and a photo album filled with his baby pictures!!  What a very special surprise!!

As we were going through some of his prior history with the social worker, another lady took Bryce and Elise to go play with him.  After we got everything squared away, they brought him to us.  We were very excited and he was very calm and just taking in the whole situation.  At one point he told one of the social workers that “I’m going to America, isn’t that great”.  We played for some time, took a lot of pictures and just hugged on him and let him know that we loved him. 

 Arriving with his big brother and sister!

 Dad and son

Mama loving on her new boy! 

The beach ball was a hit!! 

Another family picture.

We left Chung Yi and headed back to the hotel, this is when it really sank in that he was ours and it also made him a little sad.  As we drove to the hotel, he stared out the window with tears filling his eyes and running down his cheeks.  He never really cried out loud in the van but he was sad and we could see it in his face.  Our hearts were hurting with him and we just hugged and loved on him.  Bryce and Elise were so very kind.  Elise sat and held him with Nanette in the van.  When we got back to the hotel room, he lost it and was upset.  So we changed the scenery to keep busy and went up on the 20^th floor of the hotel that has a garden overlooking the city and just sat for a while.  He continued to be sad but just took it in and didn’t do much of anything.  After a short time he started to cry so we knew it was time to change locations again. 

That is when we decided to go to a park that we had been to the previous day.  It was called Peace Park and it is a short walk from the hotel.  While we were walking we played some games and Scott gave him a ride on his shoulders and he started to liven up and have fun.  Again Bryce and Elise naturally started to do “kid” things, which he quickly participated in like walking on benches or walls.  At the park, there were swings, slides, and an old fashioned teeter-totter.  All the kids ran around and just had a great time.  Scott even recognized the words that he needed to go to the bathroom, found one, and successfully completed the job!

 Giving him a lift, this was a hit!

 Big fun!

 Benjamin grabbed Elise's hand and was taking her over to play!

Not a juice box, but rather a tea box!

We then walked back to the hotel and stopped to have dinner.  We weren’t really prepared (no toys, games, or any other distraction) but we made it through and just kept him sandwiched between the two of us.  We got back to the hotel, gave him a bath and he is lying in the bed right now.

Overall, it was a great day and simply couldn’t have gone any better.  He is already learning his name and Bryce and Elise’s names.  Amazingly, his first sentence that in very clear English was “I love you”.  We’re pretty sure he doesn’t know what it means but it sounds cute and we get very excited when he says it!  Hopefully he will sleep through the night and we can have a great weekend. God has definitely answered prayers today in an amazing way and we give Him the glory for our first day as a family of five!!

By the way, our luggage was delivered 30 minutes before we went to meet Benjamin yesterday, so Scott and I did not have to wear dirty clothes to meet our son! (another answered prayer!) =)

WE MEET BENJAMIN!!!

Zechariah 7:9-10—“Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”

We have been reading through the whole Bible this year and it is amazing that today’s reading was from Zechariah, who was very concerned about social justice for widows, orphans, and foreigners.  I read this passage while we were traveling to an orphanage in Nantou County, Taiwan to meet Benjamin.  I have never been to an orphanage before so it was quite an experience to see the many children who deserve so much better, to have a mom and dad to love and take care of them.  To see the look on some of their faces with their arms outreached, longing for you to pick them up.  It was quite an emotional time, especially when you consider that this situation could be played out in millions upon millions of children around the world who do not have parents to care for them.  We wanted to bring them all back home with us.  Just think about your children and how you would do anything to make sure they were cared for, wanting the best for them.  Many children have no one to fight for them or care for them…it’s one thing to read about them, it’s another to actually see their faces…

The name of the orphanage.

Here is a picture of his room.

This is Benjamin's bed and the pictures Bryce and Elise sent him.

It took about 4 ½ hours to get from Taipei to Nantou County, due to the long distance and there was also a lot of morning rush-hour traffic.  When we arrived at the orphanage, they took us to a side room and Benjamin’s care-giver brought him in to us.  There were many people in the room taking pictures and staring at him, so he was very scared and shy.  He looked at us very cautiously and did not want to engage at first.  He started to cry and clung to his caregiver.  We were prepared for this reaction and were actually pleased that he has someone in the orphanage that he is bonded to, which will be good for the long-term, but will make the short-term somewhat difficult. 

He's a little scared of us!

We moved to a “play-room” and played with some balls that we brought for him.  He really enjoyed playing with Bryce and Elise and they were great with him.  They gave us a tour of his orphanage to allow us to know more about his living situation.  Then we all played for about 45 minutes and then got ready and went to lunch.  We are in the middle of the country and where do we go?  McDonalds!  It wasn’t our first choice, but what kid doesn’t like a happy meal from McDonalds?  We ate lunch and played on the indoor playground for about 2 hours.  We were thankful for the indoor playground due to the extreme heat outside.  We had a really fun time with Benjamin and the we think the bonding has already began.   Benjamin did repeat some English words and phrases, but it was so hard to have him talk to us and we had no clue what he was saying!  I would love to know what was going on in his little head!

Ronald McDonald in Taiwan.

Being silly

Everybody loves ice cream!

After playing, we returned to the orphanage and met with the caregiver to ask questions and learn more about Benjamin’s routine and his likes/dislikes.  They seem to know him very well and were very helpful.  His primary caregiver told us that he is very well-liked by all of the children in the orphanage and is very independent.  His caregiver was very emotional and sad to see him go, and we could tell that she loved him very much.  The whole place was very hot, the only air conditioning was in the children’s room which was probably only on when they were sleeping.  After playing and spending the day there, everybody was wiped out.  It was very emotional to see and discover more about Benjamin’s life.

Overall, the day went well, and we appreciate all the prayers.  Tomorrow he will be brought to us in Taipei and will officially be ours.  We are anticipating some difficulty with communications, so pray our hand signals and charades work well!!

FIrst Dinner in Taipei

Last night we went to dinner at a local restaurant, by ourselves without our guide/translator.  It was quite an experience when we sat down at the table and there was a bowl of tiny fried fish (heads and all).  It took 3 different waitresses to take our order and we were still not sure if what we ordered was going to be good.  The food came and all went well…we had some dim-sum, fried rice, and a chicken dish.  They did not have an option of silverware—it was chop sticks or nothing.  The kids ended up using the soup spoon!

Travel to Taipei

We got up at 5:00AM and left home at 6:00.  Thanks to John for the ride!!  Our flight left at 8:00AM on Monday and we had a great time traveling!  The kids did absolutely fantastic.  God has blessed us with some troopers; they did not complain one time.  The first flight was full of excitement because they don’t remember flying before.  The second leg was even better b/c it was a double decker plane (747).  The kids thought this was the best!!  This flight was extremely long--12 hours.  The kids went to sleep for a few of them, Dad did not sleep at all, and I slept for maybe 2 hours.  The final flight had TV screens at each seat and that made it fun for the kids.   We got in about 9:45pm Taiwan time and only 3 out of the 4 bags made it.  Unfortunately, it was the bag with Scott’s clothes and mine.  It was a downer when we met our ride to the hotel and found out that Taipei City was one hour away....  We checked into our hotel at 11:30PM Tues.   The kids got to bed at about 1 AM on Wed (Note 5AM on Mon to 1 AM Wed).

Elise got up before 7 AM, but Bryce had to be woken up at 10 to eat breakfast.  

Another funny, the room is a suite, and very nice.  However, it only had one bed and a couch that is not a sleeper.  We called to get another bed, and they brought up a crib (we did not know they were doing this).  However, Elise was sooo excited about sleeping in a crib so we told them to just leave it—funny that our 6 y/o can still fit into a crib and was excited about it

Today we have explored some of Taipei, here are some pictures:

Enjoying a nice Coca-Cola on a very hot day!

We made it!!

It only took 30 hours, but we made it to Taipei (minus one suitcase)!!  Everyone did well and we checked into the hotel.  We'll post more later.

Thanks!

SB

From Nanette...

I can’t believe that we have started our journey to bring Benjamin home!  Both Scott and I pray that we can ultimately bring glory to God through this adventure.  It is amazing how God has brought us through each step in this process.  We are no doubt about to experience the most exciting adventure of our family!   As Scott mentioned previously, we were very content with our two wonderful children and had taken the actions to remain as a foursome family.  God had other plans for us when we discovered a surprise pregnancy after the procedure.  We went from being content to being excited about having another child.  God does work in mysterious ways.   After our miscarriage, the desire to add to our family continued to grow, so after about 2 years, we began the pursuit.  I have always wanted to adopt from Asia. As many of you know, Scott’s mom is Chinese, therefore this people group is dear to our hearts and the fact that many are unreached and have never heard the gospel of Christ led us to desire to adopt from China.  After talking to an adoption agency, we discovered that China has a 4-5 year wait, so they steered us to the possibility of adopting from Taiwan.  After much prayer, we felt like that was where God was leading us.  I firmly believe that God has ordained Benjamin to be in our family from the beginning and it is so neat to see how His plan unfolded!  We officially started the process in Dec 2008.  Everything was moving extremely quick and on the shorter end of the time frames.  Our home study went to Taiwan in March of 2009 and we received and accepted the precious referral for Benjamin in late Oct 2009.  When our dossier went to Taiwan, things slowed down and the one-month wait for a court date turned into 6 months!  It was so hard to see Benjamin growing up in the “baby home” instead of our loving permanent family, but we clung to God knowing that His timing and plan is perfect.  There are many delays that could have been avoided, so we just trusted His timing and knew that we were in His will!  God definitely taught both of us a lot during this time. 

            So now here we are journeying to bring our long-awaited son home.  We are aware that we are about to turn his life upside down and we pray that we can love and assist him in this adjustment period.  We also trust that God is the ultimate healer and comforter, so we pray that He will miraculously hold him in His palm of safety! Our itinerary and prayer requests for our family are below; so we are off….

Ultimate Prayer Requests:

*Pray that we can ultimately bring glory to God through this process.

*Pray that God will give us wisdom and discernment in our parenting!

*Pray that God will unite and strengthen our marriage and family and allow us to grow closer to Christ as well as reveal more of Himself to us.

*Pray that God would allow us to have an easy transition and bonding experience in all areas and no bonding issues with Benjamin.

Itinerary:

9/20 (Monday)—Depart Birmingham at 8:00am

            * Pray for safe travel and that Bryce and Elise handle the 18-hour flight well.

9/21 (Tuesday)—Arrive Taipei at 9:30 pm

            *Pray for smooth travels and no lost baggage

*For all family members to stay healthy.

9/22 (Wednesday)—lay low in Taipei to adjust to time changes.

            *Pray for comfortable hotel accommodations (for 10 days)           

            *For smooth adjustment to time changes (13 hours ahead)

9/23 (Thursday)—Drive to Nantou to interact with Benjamin. 

            *Safe travel to meet Benjamin

            *Joyous union of our family with Benjamin

*That God may bless this day with a special blessing and place a desire in Benjamin’s heart to be excited to join us!!

9/24 (Friday)—Liberty Square in the morning / 2 pm go to Chung Yi for official pick up of Benjamin

*Pray that we have an easy transition with this “pick up” and no “surprises” =)

*Pray that we can meet Benjamin’s needs and communicate with him.

9/25 (Saturday)—Taishui

            *Pray for a joy-filled weekend with quality time to get to know Benjamin.

*Pray for our family to unite together and bring Glory to God—that others may see a difference in our family!

9/26 (Sunday)—Yangming Mountain (1½ hour drive from Taipei); Shih Lin Night Market in the evening

*Pray that we can enjoy God’s creation and gain understanding of Benjamin’s culture.

*Pray for Benjamin’s heart in that he will miss his former caregivers.

*Pray that he bonds to us quickly.

9/27 (Monday)--Taipei 101 and Wanlong Dragon Mountain Temple

*Pray that we will be able to communicate effectively with Benjamin and that he learns our language quickly.

*Pray that Bryce and Elise adjust to having another brother.

9/28 (Tuesday)—AIT appointment and Taipei Zoo in the afternoon

*Pray that this appointment goes extremely smooth and no problems should arise. 

*Pray that the kids do well during this appointment b/c we have heard that it can be lengthy!!

9/29 (Wednesday)—Play and get to know Benjamin around Taipei

            *Pray that we can enjoy this last day in Taiwan

*Pray that God gives us a keen discernment on how to meet the needs and parent all 3 children wisely.

 9/30 (Thursday)—Depart Taipei at 9:30am.

            *Safe travel home.  That we survive the plane trip with 3 kids!!

*The prayer really begins here! Pray that God to bless our family; unite and bond our family; strengthen each of our relationships with God as well as with each other!

WHY ADOPTION?

Without question, many people have wandered why we are going through this process of adoption.  We already have two wonderful children, Bryce and Elise, who give us great joy and fulfillment.  In fact, we made a decision in 2005 that we had a boy and a girl and were done having children and finalized this decision.  Interestingly, 2 weeks after a medical procedure, we found out we were pregnant.  This really shocked us, but we knew that God was in control and He must have wanted us to have a 3^rd child.  So we started preparing for this new blessing and a month later Nanette had a miscarriage.  We did not know what to think, but knew that everything happens for a reason.  We went from deciding to not have any more children to then being put in a situation where a third would be an exciting reality.  From that point on, the thought of a third child was put in our minds.  Nanette mentioned adoption shortly after that and I told her that after a year if she was still interested we could think about it. So, a year went by and then another, and she was still interested.  I was a little slower to come around to the idea, but as I studied the Word (James 1:27), it became increasingly clear to me that there was no reason why we should not do it.  I have been adopted as a son of God through His son…adoption is something that God loves!  Did you ever think about the fact that Jesus was adopted?  Think about it.  As a Christ follower, we are called to take care of widows and orphans, so why not? When considering the idea of starting the process, we heard that children that grow up in orphanages have a much higher probability of ending up a prostitute or criminal, we could think of no other thing better to do.  We had the desire for more children, which was continually growing, had the space, the resources, and the love to give to another child, so we decided to proceed.  The reservations that I had about adoption were primarily due to the fact that our kids had just gotten to an age where it’s a little easier.  I’m not saying it is easy, but they do not require a lot of basic care but that was pretty selfish and God calls us to be selfless.  So, the Lord impressed it upon our hearts to have more children and adoption was the way to do it.  We could be used to really impact a life like no other and without a doubt, we will be the ones receiving the blessing.  There is so much more we could say, however, here we go...we are starting the journey…