KenTing Road Trip

Wow, I am doing a lot of publishing on this date. That is because I am finally motivated by our road trip we took with the Anderton's down to KenTing, Taiwan. It was a wonderful trip and we are hoping to go again; not sure when. We are in our final year here in Taipei and we feel we haven't taken advantage of all the beauty here. We are sad we left so much to do for our last year, but are glad we still have some time.

The boys did great on the 7 1/2 hours drive down. We left Friday the 6th of October. The traffic wasn't too bad. We learned later that another freeway was quicker, since it took us about 6 1/2 hours to return home. Luckily, the traffic wasn't bad and the scenes were magnificiant. Unfortunately, the pictures I took from the road trip are on our new video camera and will take some time to figure out how to upload those.

Anyhow, here are some pictures in order of events that we did. The beach was a daily afternoon treat, but Saturday we went to a lighthouse (Gray stepped in some wet ash, Shannon couldn't believe it and commented on what an adventure this trip to the lighthouse was. Not to mention the fact that Noah and Spencer decided to walk ahead on the trail to the parking lot -on their own! Greg finally found them.) Sunday we went to a National Park, Monday we road on Go-Karts.

Tuesday morning we finally went to the beach in the morning and there was a huge difference in the water. My pictures only show the p.m. beach, where as our friends were able to take the a.m. pictures. The water is just more clear and blue in the morning. We figured this out too late. Next time, we will go to the beach in the morning!

We did vist the hotel pool twice, went bowling and did bumper cars once each. The hotel was nice with great accomodations like a game room, exercise room (eventhough I chose to jog outside), shopping, complimentary breakfast which wasn't too bad just crowded, tunnel to our beach, and more. (I don't have time to add all pictures now, but here are some.)

Anniversary and Birthday celebration

Due to the fact that we had our first girl over my birthday and our 11 th wedding anniversary this year, Greg and I didn't do too much. Our dear friends, the Anderton's (whom we recently went on a trip with), watched our five children while Greg and I went out Friday night to eat for our Anniversary/Birthday.

Earlier on Monday, Labor day holiday, when the children were in school (their school here doesn't give that day off), Greg and I went with Kai-Li to the top of the tallest building in the world... Taipei 101. Luckily we saw alot; it was fairly clear that day. It was also funny to see our little car parked way down at the bottom. It's the brown van, bottom and middle in this picture, white car is to the left of it.

Foster baby girl- Kai-Li

From September 1- 9 we were priviledged to have a baby girl in our home. She was a cute and slept very well. (Didn't take long naps but sure did well during the night, which is what really matters.) Again, Payton and Noah spoke of the desire to keep her. Owen joined in saying he wanted to adopt her too. Owen loved giving her kisses. However, any baby we foster here is already going through the adoption process and we are only the half-way home. You may think this is tougher on the baby to adjust to the new changes, but it is something they will have to get used to anyway. Your right, it is tough on us. I cried when I had to say good-bye to Kei-Li. But, having the baby leave the orphanage and live in a families home opens up space in the orphanage for another new baby that needs help. I enjoyed dressing her up and fixing her wild hair in plastic bands and bows.

Birthdays thus far

Since our blog is new, I am trying to do a quick up date on this past year. We just had our final birthday of the year...Gray is now 10! Before him it was Bev...thirty something. Prior was Noah. Notice Noah's picture, lighting his own birthday cake. Payton is the preschooler at 4 years and Owen is 7 since the beginning of the year and anxiously awaiting for his birthday to roll around again. He will be baptized soon! Plans are in the making for family to fly out and join us. Greg was at the beginning of the year also. One year older and wiser!
(My picture is missing because it coincided with having our second foster baby...a girl this time. I'll share more in the next blog.)

Foster Family First Time

Back in March we began to open our home to foster caring infants that were on their way to a new home. Their adoption work was almost final and we were going to help them transition into a home environment for a 10-15 day period. Shau-Yu was our first. He smiled easily and loved watching all that was happening around him. Unfortunately it was difficult for me to capture on film his smiles. The only one I have is blurry. The boys really loved him and after a week they asked if he could stay and if we could adopt him! However, he moved onto Holland. He will grow up speaking Danish!

Utah

Our trip to Utah lasted one week. While there we spent lots of time with Tio Estuardo and his family. Abuelita Soli lives with them. We had a blast chatting with them in their home, touring sites in Salt Lake City, and checking out cool parks like Thanksgiving Point. Here are pictures from that trip. This was our first trip to Salt Lake and thus an introduction to the Mormon sites there. We appreciated getting more familiar with the former saints and learning their history.