PHL to TPE

This is where our journey ends.

Yesterday, we met our William at St. Lucy's Center in Tainan, Taiwan. The adoption process that we officially began thirteen months ago came to a close when our baby boy was finally placed into our arms.

We spent the previous night at my aunt's friend's house in Pingdong. Uncle came to pick us up at 9:00 a.m. With my Aunt Mary and my parents in tow, we set out for the trip to Tainan, an hour and a half away by car. Thankfully, Uncle had already made a practice drive a few days before and knew where to go. Good thing it was because St. Lucy's is tucked away from the many big, busy streets of Tainan.

We had to turn into one narrow alley after another before pulling up to a brick wall that bore the St. Lucy's sign.


We arrived 40 minutes early and were planning to wait outside and take pictures since two other families were scheduled to meet their children before our 11:00 appointment. Two St. Lucy's staff workers saw us and insisted firmly that we all come in. Mel and Craig had already met their adorable son, Odin. Dawn, another adoptive parent, had just arrived and was soon to met her precious Miranda.

We spent about 15 minutes shuffling our bags around and trying to prepare our gifts for the caretakers and staff. One caretaker came by and asked for the outfit we brought for William to wear (they keep the clothes in which the children were previously dressed). Soon after, another caretaker came to tell me that William would be right out once he finished his bath.

Minutes later, while sorting out our belongings on the walkway outside the family meeting room, I heard one of the women say, "Szu-Chuan lai de! " ("Szu-Chuan is here!"). We turned around to see him being carried out to us.

I'd like to tell you it was like one of those moments you see in the movies in which two long lost lovers run across the field to each other in slow motion. However, I am the woman who didn't cry at her wedding nor at the birth of her first son. Still, it goes without saying that we were overjoyed to see him. He looked much like he did in the update pictures we received: long face, chubby body, cute all over.

I got to take him first. After holding him for about a minute, I moved my arm away from supporting his back. He suddenly jacknifed backwards. Had I not shot my arm back to catch him, he would have landed hard, head first, on the concrete walkway. It was a horrifying way to begin our new relationship. Thankfully, he appeared nonplussed.

He didn't cry the whole time we held him. It was quite a scene in the family meeting room as three different families, including my whole herd (my sincere apologies to the other two families!) were all snapping pictures, talking, and interacting with the caregivers. The whole time, William was very quiet and still. We are now beginning to surmise that this is his shocked and awed persona; when he warms up, he definitely gets more lively.

While Craig held him, I pestered Sister Rosa through the translation assistance of my mother with questions about William's habits and care. She gave us a form that has most of his basic care information on it. A good deal of it wasn't translated.

St. Lucy's also prepared a small tote bag with several thoughtful items included: a large and small bottle, a pacifier with a chain clip, a medical records booklet, a small can of Snow formula, a CD of pictures of William taken over the past 5 months (there were about 100 pictures!). There was also a small scrapbook with pictures of him, well wishes from the caretakers, and pictures that were beautifully hand painted by the staff. It's clear they thought through the details very well and were genuinely well-invested in the care of William and all the other babies. I don't think William could've had a better experience in any other orphanage facility.

The staff then served us a tasty lunch of sandwiches, soup, and other finger foods. It was then that William surprised us. We had figured out that he couldn't yet sit unassisted - not that unusual for a child of 7 1/2 months. His brother, Andrew, didn't figure this out until he was almost 8 months old. However, like Andrew at this age, he can crawl! He does a slow military slither. (See the video, which we took at the hotel later that day.)

He tried to shimmy his way over to grab the food off my lunch plate on the sofa. It looks like we've got out work cut out for us already!


While we didn't get to meet the birthmother, we did get some nice surprises from her. She had left gifts for William, including an adorable fleecy jacket and pants set, a warm winter jacket, a Mickey Mouse costume, and a red thread bracelet just the right size for his wrist. Perhaps she was thinking ahead and trying to prepare her baby for the cold Pennsylvania weather. At any rate, we were so touched to receive them. St. Lucy's had taken several photos of her during the times she came to visit William and had copied the pictures onto a CD. From the gifts and from the pictures, it's quite clear that she and her family really love William. We reviewed the pictures today and I must say it was a heartwrenching experience. I'm really thankful that we have all these things to show him one day.

We also received back several of the things we had sent in our three care packages. We were given two sets of cameras and video camers (the last set was not used since we were due to come pick him up very soon). We were also given most of the items that contained pictures of our family. We didn't get back the soft-cover photo album or the Taggies blanket as I thought we would. Hopefully, the latter will be useful for another baby.

After lunch, we went for a tour of the nursery. At first it seemed like we would just get to peek in through the windows from the walkway outside. Then, the caretakers invited us inside.


There are two rooms divided by a short hallway. There were about 10 cribs on the left wing and about the same number on the right. We got to see William's crib and say goodbye to it. We also got to extend our thanks to the wonderful caretakers. There were 3 on duty at the time. They all embraced William and said their goodbyes. Clearly, they loved him.

We then said our final goodbyes and packed into Uncle's van. He drove us back to the High-Speed Rail station in Tainan. William fell asleep while strapped to me in the Ergo carrier for the 45 minute car ride. Once on the train, his personality started to come out a little more. We let him out of the carrier and sat him on our laps for the next hour and a half. He moved around considerably, exploring all the things he could touch. We've noticed that he likes to bang on things with his hands and explore their textures and sounds when he runs his fingernails along them. We had to trim his long nails later that afternoon.

He did well in the taxi ride back to the hotel. Once there, we settled in and had some play time in our room. Eventually, we coaxed a few smiles out of him. Craig is especially good at this. He discovered that William really likes heavy physical play. He threw out several smiles and let out sing-song screeches whenever Craig would count to three and lift him high in the air.

We also discovered that he is a voracious eater. He can down 8 ounces of milk in less than 5 minutes. I was worried he wouldn't transition to the Born Free bottles I had brought, but this was not a problem at all. He just wanted to eat. At St. Lucy's, he was kept on an every four hour feeding regimen; we will consider making this roughly every three hours since we've noticed he gets fussy around the 3 1/2 hour mark.

Fitting him into his pajamas later on was quite a task. Those thighs! It was like stuffing sausage into too-tight casing. I got a big kick out of squeezing all the chub. I don't think William enjoyed it as much.

St. Lucy's had warned us that he needs to be patted on the back in order to fall asleep. They were right. He was rather fussy before falling asleep last night and needed some patting and walking around. This surprised me since Sister Rosa told me the babies at St. Lucy's are not kept on a sleeping schedule. They often just fall asleep on the floor mid-action. Still, we were told to expect a good sleeper who would go for 7-8 hours a stretch at night. Were they ever wrong. We got a 10 hour stretch! William slept from 7:45 p.m. to 5:45 a.m. Perhaps he was really worn out from all of the day's craziness. Craig was exhausted and went to sleep around 9:00. I wrestled in vain with posting on Blogger.com until 10:30 and then gave up.

And so ended our first day together. It will be really interesting to see how William's personality unfolds the more he becomes comfortable with us. Already, we are beginning to see glimpses. No doubt, a fascinating individual lies beneath the quiet child with the dark, observant eyes. In the meantime, we are thankful for how smoothly the transition has gone thus far and couldn't have asked for a better first encounter.

We are now a reconstituted family. When we return to America early this Friday morning, the four of us will begin the long and awkward process of falling into a daily routine, of establishing our new normal, of learning how to better love and serve one another.

This is where our new journey begins.