And now we are 4!

Not sure if there are even words. It was an intense few hours at St Lucy's. Yu-Lin's foster mom and birth mom were both there to see her off. It was all extremely emotional. We are off to a good start though!

Day 8 - Tainan

Took a car from Kaohsiung to Tainan in the morning. It has been hot and humid here in southern Taiwan. Taipei on the other hand was cool and humid. I tried to hand wash some clothes and 3 days later they were still wet.

We visited a few temples including the Lady Linshui's Temple. Lady Linshui protects children, and there were many families with their babies and children coming and going. On each side of the temple are little glass vaults with "assistant" to help the Lady. 36 in total (3 for each month).



We also came across another celebration/parade. Back at the Landis Hotel we asked what the parade was about. We were told "probably some god's birthday, would have to check the calendar, happens all of the time."

Tomorrow morning we go to St Lucy's and get Yu-Lin! We are all very exited. It's going to be hard sleeping tonight!

Day 7 - Foguangshan (Light of Buddah Mountain)

We hired a car today to take us outside of Kaohsiung to Foguangshan the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. The statues and temples were stunning. There were literally thousands of statues around the grounds.

Day 6 - Part 2 - Lotus Lake and Cijin Island

Lotus Lake without water....



Later in the Evening we took a 5 minute ferry boat to Cijin Island. Right as we got off the boat we walk straight into a celebration for Matzu. Matzu is a the goddess of the sea, and as Taiwan is an island, a major diety here.



Just past the temple is "seafood street," full of restaurants. Each restaurant displays their fresh fish. You choose you dinner and its cooked up for you.

Day 6 - Part 1 - Lotus Lake

The first part of today we took a local train to Lotus Lake. It is surrounded by 9 temples. The temples were beautiful, but the lake was missing! It had been drained. Kaohsuing is hosting the 2009 World Games, and the city is preparing many areas for the games. Lotus Lake will have dragon boat races and waterskiing. At the Confucius Temple we had a delicious lunch. That said for the past week we have eaten our way thru Taiwan and have yet to hit a bad meal!

Yu-Lin's mother and sister

We received an email this morning from Heartsent letting us know that they have been notified by St Lucy Center that Yu-Lin's mom has asked to meet us on Monday and say goodbye to her daughter. We have always known that it was a possibility she would request this. It also shows us that she loves her daughter and only wants the best for her, painful as it may be. We were going to leave her a letter at the orphanage letting her know that we will be doing everything we can to give Yu-Lin a good life, now it will be in person. Heartsent tells us the meeting with be 15 -20 minutes and there will be someone there to translate.

Later in the day we we went to Lotus Lake in Zuoying a suburb of Kaohsiung, and while walking back to catch a taxi on the main road, we found ourselves standing in front of the Kaohsiung Southern Region Children's Home, where Yu-Lin was originally taken and where her older sister, who asked not to be adopted still lives. Her sister who is turning 10 wants to "wait" for her mother to get her life together and come for her. We have been told that her mother does come visit, but it doesn't make it any less heartbreaking. As we stood there, a car pulled up and a little boy who had been on a day visit stepped out looking sad and wandered into the compound. We knew the orphanage was in the part of town, but it was still startling to come across, and know that Yu-Lin's sister was inside there.

Day 5 - Kaohsiung City

Today we took the bullet train from Taipei down to Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. The train ride took 90 minutes and we travelled at 186 mph when at top speed.

Kaohsiung, population around 1.5 million is the city where Yu-Lin has lived her entire life. She is here somewhere in this city with her foster family getting ready to met us. If Taipei is like New York, thenKaohsiung is Los Angeles. More laid back, a little slower, not as "trendy." We are staying at the Ambassador Hotel which is right on the Love River. At night the river is lit with neon lights and "love boats" cruise back and forth.

Day 4 - Yingge

Travelled by train 30 minutes south of Taipei to the town of Yingge. Yingge is known for it's pottery and ceramics. Doesn't seem like they see an awful lot of westerners cause groups of kids kept coming up giggling asking if they could take our picture with them. Felt like we were celebrities (LOL)! Throughout Taiwan there are people cooking on the sidewalks.

I don't think that anyone bothers to cook at home from the looks of it.
One of the most famous dishes is STINKY TOFU...and the name doesn't do it justice. Think of smelly gym socks times 10. It wafts through the streets and once in your noise it's like bad perfume that you can't stop smelling. Much if Yingge had the smell.

Everyone... and I mean EVERYONE rides scooters to get around Taiwan. There are hundreds of thousands zooming around the island.

Day 3 - Taipei

Staying local today. We took the subway to the Chaing-Kai Shek Memorial. Photos aren’t great as they are in the process of re-roofing and there is scaffolding up everywhere. We then walked to Longshan Temple. On the way we passed what Alex has named “tweety alley.” It was a stretch of road were every store was a pet store selling birds. Parrots to chickens to finchs. If it flys there have it. Every so often mixed into the birds would be a pot bellied pig or a ferret. The sound was deafening!

Longshan Temple was beautiful, and very busy. The temple is buddist and Taoist. QuanYin (goddess of compassion) and Matzu (sea goddess who protects Taiwan) are the main deities. So much activity, incense, candles, people giving offerings of flowers and food.

Later in the evening we went to Tapiei 101, the tallest building in the world. The first 4 floors are a high end mall and food court, where we stopped for some Shabu-Shabu. We went up to the observatory on the 89th floor. Elevator took 45 seconds and you didn’t even fell like you were moving. Apparently there is a balloon type mechanism around the elevator that inflates as you go up to counter the air pressure so your ears don’t pop. On the 88th floor is a massive damper ball which keeps the building balanced during earthquakes and typhoons. It’s weight is equal to 3 747’s.

Day 2 - Wulai

Little less jet lagged. We took the subway to the end of the line, then hopped into a taxi to Wulai. Wulai is an “aboriginal” town in the mountains 45 minutes outside of Taipei. The original Taiwanese aka Hakka came from the South Pacific, not China. Wulai is known for it’s hot springs. The water in the river was really hot. You could make tea in it. We took a small “log car train” to the Wulai Falls (the highest waterfall in Northern Taiwan), then back into the town for an aboriginal meal. We ordered wild boar and rice cooked in bamboo shoots. The fried bees and salted raw pork which sits on the shelves “stewing” was more adventurous then we could manage.