Many of you have messaged to see how we are doing, how the kids are adjusting and how Leah is transitioning with her new family. The short answer is great. We have had 11 full days here in Taiwan and they have been just that. FULL. I'll recap with a little Q & A.
How are the kids adjusting?
The kids are doing great! We have been incredibly blessed by our housing situation here in Taiwan which has been monumental in helping our kids feel at home. We are living on the campus of Morrison Christian Academy http://kaohsiung.mca.org.tw/ in their staff housing. When we arrived on March 22nd, we walked into a spacious, furnished apartment that was stocked with groceries and everything else we would need to get started here. We have some amazing servant minded friends here in Taiwan who took an empty apartment and filled it up with everything we would need. Many families donated beds, blankets, dishes, toys, and furniture. We have been so humbled by the way people we've never even met reached out to help us feel at home here. The kids have made many friends and spend every afternoon after home school playing outside at the apartment complex's playground/basketball court. Jet lag was a beast, but thankfully we are finally past that and sleeping normal hours again.
Moriah climbs this tree almost everyday and reads a book.
Samuel showing off a rock he found.
Big sister swinging baby sister as proud big brother looks on.
Samuel and Joshua trying to conquer jet lag.
Jet lag means Play-Dough in the wee hours of the morning
How is Leah's transition going?
As you saw from our last post, we met Leah on Sunday, March 23. We spent the next five days getting to know Leah and letting her get to know us. I (Angela) spent most of her waking hours with her those first five days. We had made the decision before coming to Taiwan that we wanted to transition her slowly. She has been with Ashleigh and Sara, her amazing foster moms, for the last year of her life and we did not want to come in and take her away from everything and everyone she knows until she had a chance to get to know us and begin forming an attachment to at least me. I know for most people adopting internationally this just isn't an option so we feel extremely blessed that we had the opportunity to do this for Leah. On Thursday, March 27, we all agreed it was time to fully transition Leah into our family. So the following morning, Leah "moved in." She has done exceptionally well. I am so grateful to God for hearing the prayers we've prayed all these months for Leah's ability to attach to us and to feel safe with us. That's not to say she will not grieve the loss of her foster family, but on the whole we have been amazed at her resiliency and how well she is doing.
What's happening with Leah's adoption?
This past weekend, we traveled by train to northern Taiwan where Leah's adoption hearing would take place on Monday morning. Some of you know that the agency who gave us Leah's referral for adoption, Taiwan Xi En, was unable to complete her adoption so her case was transferred to another orphanage. This "other orphanage" happens to be The Home of God's Love, which is who we adopted Joshua through in 2007. What an incredible blessing it was to be back at The Home of God's Love as a family. Joshua was thrilled to be able to meet Ted and Bev Skiles, who run The Home. He also had the opportunity to see one his nannies who helped take care of him as a baby. Todd was blessed to have the opportunity to preach at church on Sunday morning and we all really enjoyed our time there. Sunday afternoon, we met with a social worker that the Taiwanese court assigned to our case. And on Monday morning, Todd and I headed to our long-awaited court hearing with Ted. Everything went very smoothly. I felt such peace sitting in that court room because I knew many people were praying for us at those very moments. What happens now? We wait for Leah's adoption decrees to come. This could take anywhere from 8-12 weeks. Please pray with us that it can happen quickly. We know that with God's hand in it, nothing is impossible.
Todd preaching and Ted translating.
We thought our family would sit together at a table for lunch, then Samuel disappeared and joined another table. He felt very much at home!
Samuel, in true Samuel fashion, sitting with his new friends and learning how to use chopsticks.
Joshua and Showhwa -- she was so happy to see him!
Taking a leisurely walk near The Home of God's Love, Joshua is entranced by his new baby sister.
Short boat ride around a lake.
On the way back to Kaohsiung, Moriah entertaining Leah at the train station.
Eating McDonald's at the train station in Taipei. Why is it that McDonald's is only appealing when you're overseas?
Leah entertaining herself on the train.
One more story to tell...
I can't end this post without telling about our second day here in Kaohsiung. We were very excited to go visit Taiwan Xi En, the orphanage where Samuel lived as a baby. Taiwan Xi En is also the agency that gave us Leah's referral. However, due to complications they've begun having with American adoptions, Leah's file ended up being transferred to The Home of God's Love, as mentioned above. One of Samuel's sweet nannies who took care of him as a baby was there and she was SO excited to see him. She (and I) cried tears of joy when she saw him for the first time in four years. It was such a special moment.
Samuel giving Mary Joy a great big hug.
Samuel pointing to his name on the wall of the nursery. How cool is that!
That's all for now. I hope to blog more regularly now that things have slowed down and we have gotten more into the groove of our new surroundings. Thank you so much for journeying with us.
Love,
The Keanes
