We're Still Here

We are still here! Sorry for the 2 week hiatus. Its been quite busy packing up, getting all of Will's documents and flying 26 hours all the way from Taipei to North Carolina. As we have been transitioning Will has had some trouble sleeping at night- so we have been really TIRED (that's our excuse)- but things are getting better. Here are some pics from the last couple weeks. Thanks for following our journey to our sweet little boy- everyday we fall more and more in love with him.

This is a picture I love from one of our last days in Taipei.

Here is our happy little new immigrant! (This was at the San Fran airport)

The other day we got to go to UNC's campus (my parents live nearby) and of course we bought him some essential tarheel attire. He looks great in Carolina blue!
This is one of my old college roomates and dear friends Heather and her sweet little boy Drew. Den and I had lunch with her Tripp and Drew- it was so good to be with old friends- and so weird that we both have a kid!


The car seat has been a new experience for Will (he is not used to being strapped into moving vehicles). But he loves the camera so Den was taking pictures of him to make him smile when he got upset.......................


...................but the appeal of the camera can only last so long.


We have discovered that Will LOVES the bath- he loves splashing around in the water and getting us all wet. Here are a couple bath time shots :)



Whew! Kudos to you if you made it through this looooooooooooooooong blog post. I'll try to post more frequently now... we'll see. This new mom stuff is hard. :)

Will is 9 months today!

Happy 9 month birthday Will!! He turned the big .75 today!!

Sorry we have not posted- let's just say that its been a little busy and crazy and down right tiring this past week. We actually moved out of our one room apartment into a suite at a hotel (best money we ever spent :)) so that Will can nap in the other room and we don't have to tiptoe and chew our lunch quietly. The apartment was very nicely set up for us by our agency and we were so appreciative but as first time parents we needed a little extra space.

Also- in other news- things here have progressed rather quickly- we got the final ruling and just had our appointment at the embassy here to apply for his visa to the US. So... it looks like we will be heading back to the states earlies than we thought- looks like Tuesday. Which is actually a huge blessing- it will be great to be around our moms and be able to have doctors nearby to answer all of my first time mother questions.

Here are a few pictures from the last few days. Again- busy active child= less time for pictures- sorry.


Lunch on the go! The stroller just swallows him.

Chillin with Baba (Daddy)

Homecoming

Sorry for our lack of posts yesterday- we did indeed get to bring Will home. YEA!!! It was so sweet the orphanage gave us a picture book of photos of his time at the orphanage and they even put some of them to music on a dvd (totally bawled it was so sweet). Here is a shot of us leaving the orphanage. Will looks a little stunned.

So the past 36 hours has been strange. It has felt a little like living on Noah's ark (minus the animals)- there has been a typhoon that has been here since friday afternoon when we brought Will home- so we haven't been able to leave! That's 2 adults, and 1 nine month old teething child in a 11 by 11 foot room. And our room doesn't have regular windows (two very small 1 foot windows at the top of the main room and in the bathroom). We can hear the storm raging outside but can't see it. Hopefully we can get out tomorrow. It has been a good (though tiring) time of bonding for us though- so we are thankful for the time we have had with our little Will getting to know each other better and responding to his needs.

Now this shot of us playing on the floor has not been the norm. Since we have been home Will wants to be held about 90% of his waking time. Of course we love the hugs but our backs are sore (we take turns- while the other lays on the bed to give a back break). He is teething so I'm not sure if he wants to be held due to that or that its just a strange new environment and he needs the reassurance. He sure is a sweetie.


Speaking of sweeties- look at our precious boy here.
Rice cereal! Yum! Will is a good eater- I don't think he has refused anything yet which makes me wonder are we feeding him enough?? (Wait he didn't like pear juice) He is skinny but the orphanage told us he has a sensitive stomach and not to feed him too much. But if he's hungry.....I am giving him more than they said. Being a mom is already hard!
Floor time pictures....this was a rare occurrence today but there was some play time on the floor. Don't you just love kids in just a diaper? :)


This was taken just before bedtime. We have this sleeper that came with a hat and it was too cute I had to try it on. Doesn't he look like a little pea in a pod? We just love him!!

Fun Time in the Conference Room

Yes it was a fun time in the conference room. That is where the orphanage sets up most of our meetings with Will. Its not the most conducive place for a baby to play but we make it work. He gets held and rocked and bounced most of the time (cause he can't play on the floor) and there are chairs that roll so that is fun. We have lots of peekaboo interaction and playing with toys. Today we had him up on the table standing (with support of course) and crawling between our arms.


After all that playing today Will got tuckered out and fell asleep on my shoulder. It was so sweet-I loved it. But it was SO hard to hand him back today (I cried). But we got confirmation that tomorrow is the day- we will bring him home tomorrow morning!

So, bye bye conference room-we are on to bigger spaces! (Well slightly bigger we haven't shown you pictures of our apartment yet :) )

Third Visit....

Today we had our third visit to the orphanage to see our baby, and though it felt really really quick, overall it was really good too. First we actually met his current girlfriend, Han Han (in the background). She seemed very nice, but we didn't get the impression from Will that it's anything too serious.


We also got to feed him again, which went well, and we bathed him too. Wish we could say the bath went well, but hey, it was our first try--I'm sure we'll get better at it. We also had some really fun time of getting to play with him on the floor, which was nice because we hadn't gotten to do that yet. He really can crawl! Here's actually our first attempt at video on our blog. It's Will showing off how well he can stand with some help. He shows off some of bouncing skills at the end too.

As our time came to a close, we did get to put him down for a nap, and that was really sweet too. We got to pat and rub his back until he fell asleep. It was so hard leaving him looking so cute asleep! We also got both some good and not-so-good news before we left today. We were hoping to be able to take him fully into our care tomorrow (Thursday), and they said that we couldn't do that quite yet. On the plus side, however, they did say that on Friday we'd be able to take him with us when we left! So as hard as it is to add one more day, it appears that this Friday will be it!

Going to the Doctor

We arrived at the orphanage 15 minutes early today (we were so excited to see Will again) and they brought him down early! Who knows maybe we will arrive 30 minutes early tomorrow :). Today Will had a doctor's appointment so we got to accompany him there along with his social worker who did all the paperwork. It was great- lots of time waiting (for once I was more than happy to wait in a doctor's office b/c it meant more time with Will) and when we finally saw the doctor he just listened to Will's heart and that was it- so no shots today. We think we saw some first smiles today when playing peekaboo and had some sweet time with him while giving him a bottle. Here are a few shots from today's visit.The following shots are while we were in the taxi returning from the doctors office. Will is a curious baby and is always looking around - up at the lights, at the car outside, doors opening and closing etc. - but there are times when he relaxes and kind of snuggles in and takes a break from all the exploring- here is one of those times with Den- it was really sweet.
Tomorrow we are going to get to see a little bit more of his routine in the orphanage. They have told us that we can give him a bath tomorrow. We'll be ready with the camera to capture some more "firsts" with us. We're hoping that on Thursday we can bring him home for good. We'll ask tomorrow about this- be thinking and praying about this for us - thanks!

The day finally came...

Today, October 1, 2007 around 10:00 am, we finally met our son.

He was so big!!! So much bigger than the last picture we had seen of him! And check out the feet on this kid—they’re huge! I think he’s going to pretty tall. All the sweet people at the orphanage told us that he’s already really long for his age. We brought shoes for him, but we’re absolutely certain that they’ll never fit.

It was definitely a mixture of emotions getting to see him—we were so excited, and scared at the same time. He, understandably, was also a little scared. And it probably didn’t help for him or us that there were five other people in the room all taking pictures and observing. So while we had an unexpected audience for our first meeting, it was still so sweet to finally get to hold him in our arms. He was so soft, and we loved his hair!

The orphanage wanted to gradually transition him from their care to ours, so it was really difficult, but after meeting him today we actually had to leave him. We were scheduled to get an hour with him, and ended up getting two and a half, so we’re grateful. We’ll go back tomorrow, and the next day, and hopefully we’ll be able to bring him back with us on Thursday (we’d appreciate your prayers for that!).

So the time was sweet. He’s an active little guy, and while he was a little nervous around us at first, he seemed to grow more comfortable with us as the time passed. It was so hard leaving him, but soon we won’t have to do that anymore.

Here’s just a bunch of photos from our short time with him—we’ll write more soon.