2 from Taiwan

Vivians Here!...

2008-08-10T17:23:00.001-07:00

Vivian arrived from Taiwan Saturday evening. Vivian is our exchange student staying with us for this coming school year. We broke her in right away by going to a cookout at my brothers Dereks that night, the whole family was there and she got to meet all of my brothers and sisters and my parents all at once. She has been very quiet and shy which is not unusual, I think I would be too. Today we had a relaxing day at home and she went swimming with the kids and played cards with them for a long while. I hope we have another wonderful experience. Welcome Vivian!, we are happy you are here.

Rayanna is doing wonderful also. She is fitting right in and finding her place within the family. She is learning more and more English every day and learning the routines of the house. The kids are all ready and excited to start school next week. OK, Well, Maybe it's me thats ready and excited..LOL

2 Weeks Home!

2008-07-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

We have been home for 2 weeks now, and everything is going wonderful. Rayanna is so sweet and so cute. She is adjusting very well to life here with our family. She has started daycare with Jesse and Rebecka and is learning new words everyday. All the kids are getting along great but unfortunatly Joe has to leave to return to Rhode Island tomorrow. The two of them have bonded well and have thier own relationship of teasing each other. Rebecka and Rayanna are sharing a room and sleeping together and so far so good things are going well. The only problem I can forsee in the not too far future is Rebecka getting aggravated with Rayanna's messiness. Rebecka is very neat and clean with her room and her stuff and Rayanna is not at all. Take it off, drop it and leave it. Done playing with it, drop it and leave it. Not wearing those shoes, just leave them there. I have alot of teaching ahead of me to get her to clean up after herself.

We are so blessed to have two wonderful girls and two wonderful boys. God is sooooo good!!!!

We went to Green Meadows Farm today with the girls. The boys went 4-wheeling with Uncle Leo. So daddy and I spent the day with the girls and took them to visit a farm, it was really fun and we got to hold alot of the animals. The girls rode a pony and milked a cow. We held the baby chicks and ducks. It was really cool and we all had a blast.

Who Dare Say I Don't Have a Beautiful Family?

2008-07-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

Since I am the one doing this blog I don't have to put my silly face pictures, But you can enjoy these.
Love,
Jaclyn

What?..You've never eaten out of a toilet?

2008-07-05T16:50:00.000-07:00

We ate a place called The Modern Toilet Diner. It was really cool, you sat on toilets and the tables were glass covered bathtubs and the food was served in mini toilets. The ice cream was served in a squat toilet. I really wish you guys could get the chance to use one of those. You don't know what your missing...LOL. The drinks were even served in mini urinals. It was really fun if the gross factor doesn't bother you.
Love,
Jaclyn

Anyone Up for a bit of Snake?

2008-07-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

I am not that crazy. But as you can see of few crazy people in our group ate fried snake. We went to a place called snake alley where in days past i guess it was a pretty seedy place where there was alot of "adult" entertainment and the killing of snakes for public view and drinking the blood and other odd stuff. Now they have cleaned the place up and except for a few "adult" shops along the strip it wasn't too bad. But they do not kill the snakes in public anymore although you can still pick one and have it "prepared" any way you like. We skipped the blood.

A Fancy Dinner

2008-07-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our welcome dinner with Stephanies family. The food was so beautiful and tasted as good as it looked. Now I realize it may not look so good to some of you, but to us it was amazing!
Love,
Jaclyn

American Idol Fans???

2008-07-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

Iwas a big American Idol fan until Bo Bice lost a couple of years ago. Then I didn't watch it again. But last night I got to see Bo Bice in concert in our city of Ocala with my best friend Shona. Even though I had just gotten home from Taiwan I still loved the opportunity to do this with her. Bo is still as hot as he was then. It was pouring rain for the first part of the concert and being in Florida of course it was outside. Even being a drowned rat seeing him was awesome.

Love,

Jaclyn

We're Home!

2008-07-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. We made it home safe and sound, it was a very very long trip home. We left Steph at the airport in Taiwan and it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. There were lots of tears and promises to see each other again. She will always be our daughter in Taiwan.

Rayanna has been doing very well and is nothing like what we were told. Which doesn't really surprise me. She is very active and happy and has not gotten car sick at all. Which is all the opposite of what we were told. We made it through customs with her passport spelled differently than all the rest of the paperwork. I'm not sure if I mentioned it but all through the adoption and all the paperwotk her name was spelled Xiao-Mei with an "X", well when we picked her up all the court documents were spelled with an "S" instead of the "X". doesn't surprise me either, whats a little more aggravation from this process. The good news is she is ours and here in America and we will deal with the spelling of her name later. She was afraid of the dogs when we first got home but has gotten over that already also. She is talking alot with Rebecka in Chinese and Rebecka is translating, we need to get them speaking English and not so much Chinese for now while she learns.

Here is a few pictures.

Jaclyn

Time to leave...

2008-07-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

I wasn't even able to write the title of this post without my eyes filling up, so i'm going to make this short. We will be checking out of the hotel in one hour. Stephanie and her sister will accompany us to the airport and we will say goodbye there. The good part is we will be leaving with our new daughter! We will arrive in Tampa at 6am on thursday morning.
see you soon.
Love,
Jaclyn

Don't do it!!!

2008-06-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

hello everyone! we are down to our last day here in Taiwan, I think we are all going to hate to leave. Sunday we went to a river that is a tourist spot with lots of shops and street vendors. We had promised Steph we would try the "stinky tofu." She has been telling us since she came to America that it tastes good. She said it smells really bad but tastes really good. Well she was right about the smeeling really bad part. It smells so bad it turns your stomach. Well anyway we tried it! If you've been to Taiwan and didn't try the stinky tofu, you didn't miss anything. Eric and I took a bite and it was sooooo bad we had to spit it out. It tasted just like it smells. It was the only thing here we were not able to swallow. Sorry Steph, it was really gross.
Sunday night we went to Stephs house one last time to have dinner and say good bye. It was very hard to say good bye to Stephs Mom. We were both crying very much and promised we would see each other again. I am tearing up now just thinking about it. I cannot say enough thanks to her parents for thier hospitality, it was more than i could have ever imagined. thier generosity was very humbling. We have made special friends for life and maybe we can repay them someday in America. Jesse is the same age as Stephs brother and the two of them got along very well. He speaks a little english, but they did fine with the language barrier. Stephs brother was visibly upset when we left and told his parents he wanted us to stay.
Steph and her sister will come with us to the airport to say goodbye. I would give anything right now to not experience the pain I am going to feel saying goodbye to Stephanie. I feel like I am saying goodbye to my child forever.
Monday we met with Vivians family. Vivian is the exchange student we are taking for this year. We were very lucky to get a chance to meet her before she comes to live with us. She was very shy and didn't say much, but seemed happy to come to America. Her mom and brother and her Moms best friend and her son came from 3 hours away to have lunch with us. Her friends son was an exchange student last year in Miami.
They also took us to a very very nice restaurant and brought us all very nice gifts which was very unexpected.I cannot get over the generosity of the Chinese people. Many of you know Miki that I work with at the hospital, She is here on Vacation right now as she is origionallyfrom Taipei and has family here. She also met us for lunch and was very helpful with translating. We went shopping with Miki and her daughter after dinner where Miki also showed her Generosity. Thank you Miki, it was wonderful to see you here and spend time together.
Today is our last day here and we plan on just going to some shops and packing up for our trip home.
See you soon!
Love all of us

Grandma's house....

2008-06-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

hello all..it's hard to believe our week is coming to an end soon. But I can't say we didn't get our times worth! Yesterday morning we went to Stephanies Uncles restaurant for Beef Noodle. He has one of those little eateries along the street. there are many of them. It was very good, mine was alittle spicy but still very very good. You know last time we came everyone made big emphasis on not drinking the water or eating from the smaller places or food venders. We have been doing alot of both and everyone has been fine. I;m glad we are not missing out on taste testing because of that fear this time. Of course we are not drining directly from the tap, but everything is made from tap water.
Last night we went to Stephanies Grandmothers for a traditional Taiwanese meal. It was very special to us and for them also. Her grandmother was super nice and we all managed the language barrier very well. The food was amazing and so much preparation went into it. Her grandmother had homemade plum wine. It was very good. but very strong and i could only drink a little. Toasting is very traditional and glasses were being held up to toast about every 3 minutes, It was very fun. Stephs dad kept translating how honored her grandmother was to have us in her home, It was so special.
Jaclyn

TEA!!!..

2008-06-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! we are having such a wonderful time! Rayanna is doing very well, a little fresh with Rebecka but thats probably normal since they already know each other. I just tell her to "be nice" we are all going to have to do some adjusting. But she really seems happy right now, she is very close to Stephanie and her sister because she can understand them and they translate for her. She goes to them when she wants something which bothers me a little but i know when we get home that will change, she won't have them. Yesterday she went to Stephanie at a restaurant and asked her to go to the bathroom. Stephanie told me what she wanted so I took her. I told her she can say "may I go to the bathroom" in English and that she should come to me and she said "OK Mommy". She is calling us Mom and Dad and said " I love you" in chinese for the first time when i put her to bed last night. She will come to me and hug me when i put my arms out to her. She is very cute calling her Uncle Leo " Jo Jo" which is uncle in chinese. The kids tell her Uncle leo but she insists on calling him JoJo, it's very cute. She calls Joseph "Joe" when she said yesterday "wheres Joe" he was standing right there and i pointed to Joseph, she said "no Jo Jo"...LOL
Yesterday we went into the mountains again to an Aboriginies village. I think I spelled it wrong, but they were the origional settlers of Taiwan. It reminded me very much of an Indian Village that we would have in America. With handmade crafts. We went high into the mountains on a Gondola above the most beautiful waterfall ever and ate at a restaurant right across from the waterfall. I don't think I have ever seen anything as beautiful as what we have been seeing in the mountains here. We climbed even higher and up top wa s a playground with all old things like bridges to cross and chair like thing that ride along cables over big drops in the ground. very scary and i couldn't keep track of all the kids i was so afraid they would trip and fall off the mountain. there was no railings and very high drops. The kids had a blast and uncle Leo trapped Joe on one of the cable chairs in the middle of the cable. It was quite funny actually when the rest of us came upon Joe screaming for Uncle Leo hanging in the middle of nowhere. We helped him get down and he thought it was funny also.
After we came down from that mountain, we traveled around the other side of the mountain by a bus that Stephanies family hired (forgot to mention that) to an old Tea Village. We ate at a restaurant where everything was made from tea. We ate deep fried tea leaves and meat made with tea, tea soup, tea oil noodles. many dishes and of course fresh tea. It was a wonderful day. Stephanies fanily has really gone all out to make this a special trip for us. I don't know how I will ever say thank you enough.
Today we will be going to Stephanies uncles Noodle restaurant for Beef Noodle. Then we will go to Taipei 101 which is the tallest building in the world. It is mostly a mall with many food places and you can ride the fastest elevator in the worls to the top. Then we will go to Stephanies grandmothers house for a traditional taiwanese family meal. I can't wait this is going to be so much fun.

BEAUTIFUL!....

2008-06-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took the train into the mountains to visit an old mining town. We were so high up we were in the clouds on the mountain peaks. The view was so breathtakingly beautiful. We were right by the ocean so we could see the mountains arouns us and the ocean. I wish I could get the pictures to the computer right now, but can't. As soon as I can I will try to get some pictures up. The kids are getting along really good and having lots of fun together. We also went to the Modern Toilet Diner where you sit on toilet seats and eat off of tables made out of bathtubs. The hotpots were in mini toilets and the glasses were urinals. It was really fun.
Speaking of toilets I have been very lucky finding places with a regular toilet to use. Usually assigned to handicap but i was using them. Well yesterday my luck ran out out and I did indeed have to use a squat toilet. It was just as hard as it looks but i managed without peeing all over my self.
we visited a hotspot where the kids like to hang out. a shopping place that stephanie goes with her friends. thery had dozens of those funny picture taking machines and we had a blast all of us taking silly pictures. it was really fun.
i feel like i'm cutting everything short, but everyone is waiting for me.
talk to you later!

AIT

2008-06-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had our appointment at AIT which is the American Institute in Taiwan. They give us the final go ahead to take Rayanna out of Taiwan and give her a visa to America and everything went well. Today we returned to AIT to get her Passport and all the very important documents stapled together and sealed in a brown envelope to not be opened until we give it to customs in America. They will go through it and verify who she is and that all documents are origional and official and allow her into America as a US Citizen! So until we get back to LA we guard it with our life.
Yesterday we had our second very fancy meal with Stephanies family. It was so good, the food was all traditional dishes from the north of China. They have been such wonderful hosts and so thankful to us. We are so thankful to them for being so wonderful to us! The food was so fancy, most of it was unrecognizable, and we were all very brave to try it. Joe and Jesse did so well. I was really impressed with Joe who has been tring and eating everything from grilled whole squid to duck beek and brains. yes folks, duck beek and brains. Oh and don't forget the Duck and Pig blood. Both the girls of course loved all the food and Rebecka missed it and really made up for it. She couldn't get enough of the Duck Blood. That was one of the few things I couldn't get past my lips, but most everything else was very good and sometimes surprisingly so. Looks can be decieving.
Today we are going to Snake Alley and the Toilet Diner where you sit on toilets and eat out of miniature toilet bowls. sounds like fun, especially the soft serve chocolate ice cream.
This morning before we went to AIT, we went back to the orphange to go to Rayannas school to meet her teachers and classmates. It was very touching, her teachers were crying and her best friend couldn't let her go. They were both very upset and I had a very hard time holding back my tears. Especially when her teacher told me how thankful she was to us for adopting her and the wonderful opportunities she will have. We also went to see Rebecka's teacher and she was so happy to see "Ai-Ai" She also told me how thankful she was to us for adopting her and said Rebecka changed alot and looked very healthy and happy. And she also said she was "Nicer" Hmmmm.. I wonder what that meant.
OH, and Rayanna told Stephanie to tell us, especially Joe to call her Rayanna not Xiao-Mei. Imagine that! I almost cried. Joe insists on Calling then Ai-Ai and Xiao-Mei. He has always called Rebecka Ai-Ai. I told them it will be special from thier older brother when they get older that he calls them by thier origional names.
Sorry again I am so short on time. I wish I could tell all the details but we are off again to explore some more. Thank God for Stephanie, she has been with us and the best tour guide ever. Have I mentioned how horribly terrably upset I am going to be to leave her.
talk to you all soon,
Love all of us!

She's ours!!!!

2008-06-24T00:54:00.000-07:00

hello everyone. we picked up Rayanna yesterday and it has been going very well. She is very cute and not as shy as we had thought. Rayanna and Rebecka are getting along wonderfully and holding hands all the time. AWe have been very busy doing lots of stuff and sorry I have not updated my blog. I ams hort on time now also but wanted to post a few pictures. they do tell a thousand words. I'll try to write more soon, seems we are on the go 16 hours a day...LOL

WE'RE HERE!

2008-06-22T00:20:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone. We made it to Taiwan. The flight didn't seem to be as long as it was the last time, but we were all greatful to land when we finally did. We had no trouble at all getting through immigration and getting our luggage. Very beat up luggage, missing wheels and and a few rips and tears, but at least it was all there. And packing neatly was a waste of time, I think they rifled through all the bags. When we got through with that and entered the main airport lobby, our driver was right there holding a sign with our mane on it. We felt very VIP...LOL.
Our hotel is quite a bit different from where we stayed last time, but the Ceaser Park was a bit out of our budget this time. The Feeling Hotel was more in our budget. It's very small and not nearly as elegant, but the staff have been very nice. We got in at about 1200 at night and we were all excited and couldn't sleep. We went for a walk outside and found a 24 hour store where we bought some snacks. We went back to the hotel and at 2 am decided we had better get to sleep. We were all up by 530...LOL..don't ask me how after we hadn't slept for what felt like 3 days. SOOOOO at 7 am this morning we were walking the neighborhood again, we found a good bakery not too far away. (note taken). we will find that again.
Stephanie met us at the hotel at 9am.
We went to church at a place called Taipei International Church. It was an English speaking service. When we were walking the neighborhood in the morning we found the church which was a total blessing since i knew we wanted to go there but had no idea where it was. It only being 2 block away was a blessing! Some of the music was familiar to us which was nice and praising the Lord here was much like it is back home.
Right now we are at Stephanies house. Meeting her parents have been great and they are all so nice. Her brother is very shy so far and her sister is really friendly. I will be forever greatful to them for allowing Stephanie into our life. We will be going out to dinner with them tonight. It's wonderful to spent time with them and get to know them. I am using her computer right now. She will let me use her laptop and I believe the hotel has internet access, so I will try my best to update my blog. If I can figure out how to get pictures through that computer I will. OH , now that I think Of it I didn't bring my cord for the computer. Well, maybe Steph can use her camera, and get pics into her computer. I know everyone is going to want to see pictures.
Tomorrow is the big day. We will be at the orphange at 10 am to pick up Rayanna.
Wish us luck, and say lots of prayers that it will go well for everyone and that Rayanna will transition well.
Talk to you soon,
Jaclyn

Here We Goooooooo!!!!

2008-06-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, we are just getting ready to leave and wanted to let everyone know I will try to update my blog while we are there. We are soooo excited. Joseph is coming into Tampa at 1045 tonight and our plane leaves at 7 am tomorrow morning. Say a prayer for us!
Love,
Jaclyn

A Day At The Beach With My Best Friends...

2008-06-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had a great relaxing day at the beach with my friends Shona and Karen. We had great fun spending the day together. Thanks guys for a great day! Heres a picture of us in our "Surf Diva" t-shirts. Thanks Karen!

Love you guys!

Our Last Web Chat

2008-06-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

We had our last web chat with Rayanna before we leave to go get her. She was very happy and excited. She did say she was nervous about meeting us and I told her I was nervous too. She is still very nervous about the plane ride and asked me if I could bring her her some medicine to help her from getting sick. I wonder how she knows there is such a medicine. But I did tell her I would do that and I plan on taking some dramine with me. It's going to be a long ride with a vomiting child the whole way. Hopefully that won't be the case.

The social worker was calling her Rayanna, I wonder if they have been using that name since we told them what it was. It was nice to hear them saying her name so naturally and her answering to it like it's always been hers.

OH, and they cut her hair again after I asked them not to cut it anymore the last time I talked to her.. She is still so beautiful anyway.

LEAVING IN 2 DAYS!!!!

Stephanie's Home...

2008-06-11T14:22:00.001-07:00

Well Steph called at 8am this morning from her house in Taiwan to let us know she made it home OK. I was so happy to hear her voice and know she made the long trip and changing planes 2 times by herself OK. See you next week Steph!

Saying Goodbye to Stephanie...

2008-06-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

We had a party for Stephanie on Sunday also. My family came over to say goodbye. Everyone has really fallen in love with her. She is such a special girl and we are all going to miss her very much. My parents really love her also and consider her a grandaughter.
We will be leaving at 3 AM tomorrow morning to take her to the airport. I think she is excited to go home and see her family. We will be leaving for Taiwan in 10 days, so saying goodbye may not be too bad this time, it will be when we leave Taiwan that will really be the heartbreaker for us. I pray that we will see her again someday. She will always be our daughter in Taiwan. She tells us she loves us as her parents and we will always be her "American Mom and Dad". She assures us she will be back to visit us someday and I hope that she will.
WE LOVE YOU STEPHANIE! LOVE MOM AND DAD

Goodbye Stephanie :-(

2008-06-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday our church had a going away party for Stephanie. Steph has been playing the piano at church while she was with us. Everyone was so wonderful giving her cards and well wishes, really letting her know how much they appreciated her while she was here. Thank you so much to David and Linda for making Steph feel so welcome and loved.

Planning Planning Planning....

2008-05-17T06:03:00.000-07:00

Well I'm working really hard trying to make plans. Do you know how hard it is to find a hotel room for 6 people? It's very hard. After searching the internet and calling hotels all over Taipei and only coming up with 2 hotels with a family suite to accomodate 6 people at the tune of about $400 a night, We had to make other plans. Eric and I couldn't put the boys in another room, which is what the hotels wanted us to do is buy two rooms. We have decided to take my brother Leo with us to stay in a room with the boys and we will be staying at a cheaper hotel for less than $200 a night for two rooms. The name of the hotel is The Feeling. It's very nice and highly recommended from other budget concience travelers. WE are all excited and happy my brother will get to join us also. So the hotel is booked and the airline tickets are purchased. Joseph will be flying into Tampa on the evening of June 19th at about 11PM and we will board a plane at 6 AM on the 20th from Tampa and start our journey. It's such a blessing that all of us will be together to welcome Rayanna into our family. I think this is an experience the boys will remember forever and of course Rebecka is so happy to be visiting her orphange again. I wonder if they have ever had an adopted child return to visit. The next 5 weeks will hopefully go by fast, even though there is alot to prepare. They still have not figured out what they will do about her passport, but the orphange apparantly thinks they will get it straightened out before we travel without having to do the POA. Hopefully that will be the case.
Stephanie will be returning to Taiwan on June 10th but she plans on spending as much time with us as she can while we are in Taiwan. She lives in the same city so will be close by and she already has many places she wants to take us. It will be a bittersweet departure from Taiwan this time. Although we will be leaving Taiwan with our new daughter, we will also be saying goodbye to Stephanie for a very long time. We hope we will see her again someday, but are sure we will keep in contact with her. She has become like a daughter to us over this past year and we will forever love her.
So we are in the final countdown, what a journey this has been and the best is yet to come!
Love,
Jaclyn

WE'RE GOING TO TAIWAN !!!....

2008-05-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

Finally...11 months and 14 days after starting this journey to our daughter we will be recieving Rayanna Xiao-Mei Carlisle into our Family on June 23rd,2008. It's hard to believe the time had finally arrived, we were beginning to think it was never going to happen. Although we're all happy to recieve the call on Wednesday it didn't come without a new complication. Seems that although Rayanna's birth mother signed off her rights to allow Rayanna to be adopted she still held Power Of Attorney over her as her birth mother. When we adopted Rebecka the orphange had POA because there was no birth family involved. If you remember when we started this adoption there was a delay while they located Rayanna's birth mother to sign the paperwork, now although the courts say we are legally her adoptive parents the problem comes in with getting her passport. From what I understand they need either her birth mother who still has POA or her adoptive parents to file for the passport. Her birth mother is nowhere to be found and her adoptive parents are here in America. So, initially when we got the call on Wednesday, they wanted us to get on a plane next week fly to Taiwan and stay for 2 weeks while we applied and waited for her passport. For many reason that was not a good idea, What if there was a problem, we can't get stuck in Taiwan! The kids are at the end of the school year and we all are planning to go. That would be right in the middle of exams. So I told them I didn't think that would be possible. Our agency said we may be be able to do the paperwork via mail, it will take longer but they have agreed on letting us pick up Rayanna on June 23rd so we can wait for the kids to get out of school. So as it stands now we will be leaving on June 20th to head over there, but we still have to figure out how to straighten out the problem with the passport before we go.
But at least we are seeing the end of the road and in 6 weeks Rayanna will come home forever.
Love,
Jaclyn
Mom to Joseph 15, Jesse 11, Rebecka 11, and Rayanna 9

No News is Bad News..

2008-05-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

Actually it's just no news at all. It's been over 3 months since we've had our court hearing. My adoption agency says nothing is wrong it's just taking a long time. And if you ask any of us it's taking an excruciatingly long, ridiculously absolutally unnessesary long time. Some day maybe the Judge will have mercy on us, until then we sit and wait and wonder how our little girl is doing growing older each day in an orphange when she could be here with her family. Maybe the judge just never thought of it that way. << sarcasm...............

WE LOVE SUSHI !!!

2008-05-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

Last night we made homemade Sushi. All of us in the house love Sushi. Although it's easier to buy it , it's really fun to make. For those of you who are thinking "gross", The ingredients inside the Sushi are all cooked, nothing raw. We use cream cheese, cucumbers, avacado, and crab or shrimp, sesame seeds and of course rice and seaweed wrappers. YUMMMM!

2008-05-03T14:43:00.001-07:00

This weekend we have a couple of Stephanies Exchange Student friends that are staying with other families in the area staying with us for a couple days. We went to Homasassa Wildlife Park today and it was the other two girls first time seeing the Manatees. It was nice to see them all enjoying themselves. Considering how tired they all were after staying up all night. They slept (what little they did anyway) out in a tent in the backyard.

Rayanna's Picture...

2008-04-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

An adoption friend of mine I know from the computer traveled to Taiwan last week to pick up her daughter Lily from Chung-Yi orphange. Lily and Rayanna are very good friends and we hope to keep the two of them in touch here in the United States. Kaye thank you so much for taking the time to tell our daughter we love her and for taking pictures for us. You can only imagine how much that means to us at this time as we wait . She really is beautiful and we cannot wait till the day we will travel to Taiwan to bring her home.

Rayanna is the second one from the left with the pink shirt and red shorts. Her friend Lily is the one dressed in black. Congratulations Lily! You are going home with your forever family!

We Had Another Web Chat!!!....

2008-04-19T05:42:00.000-07:00

We had another Web Chat with Rayanna last night. It went very well. She was not as shy this time and was smiling and laughing alot more. She still has many of the same fears and we talked about them all again. She finally did ask what her american name would be and who picks it. I told her that Mommy and Daddy picked her name. We told her we would name her Rayanna and she liked it very much. She wanted to know how to spell it and wrote it down so she wouldn't forget. That is a big relief, I'm so happy she likes her name.

We still have not heard any news and my agency coordianator is in Taiwan right now, hopefully she will hear something soon.

Love,

Jaclyn

Fun With Friends....

2008-04-10T17:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a great day with our adoption friends at Downtown Disney. Patty and Erick adopted Jenna from Taiwan also. They came home about two months after we came home with Rebecka. All the kids had great fun together and we always enjoy the time we are able to see each other.

Rayanna's Room....

2008-04-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Rayanna's room, ready and waiting for her....

Is It Lost????

2008-04-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

I think I know what must have happened with our case. My theory is maybe the cleaning lady in the Judges office threw it away. Maybe the Judge spilled tea all over it. Maybe the window was open and it blew under the bookcase. Maybe the Judge took it home to look over and the dog ate it. Maybe someone filed it in the "never look at again" drawer. Maybe his kid made an airplane out of it and threw it out the window. Maybe the judge retired and noone took over his cases. Maybe the court house burned down.

If anyone has any other theories I'd love to hear them. Something must have happened because this is getting ridiculous now. It has been 3 months since we entered the courts and I cannot get an answer from anyone. I'm tired of the waiting game. wait wait wait...

Happy Easter!....

2008-03-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone...Happy Easter! We had a nice quiet dinner at home with Mom and Dad after an early Easter service. The kids had great fun with their Easter baskets and finding eggs. Thank you God for this wonderful day and the reason we celebrate it.

Does Anyone Have a Match?...

2008-03-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

....So I can lite a fire under the ass of this Judge. So much for thinking fast hearing , fast ruling. This adoption has now officially taken longer than with Rebecka. We all (including our agency) thought this one would fly by, since the orphange already knew us we thought we would get through quickly. See what I get for thinking. We are well past the 8 month mark which is when we got Rebecka (8months and 2 days). We are at 12 weeks in the courts and we got the call for Rebecka at 11 weeks. So as you can all imagine we are just about the end of our ropes with the wait. I talked to our agency yesterday and there was no news to tell us at all, all we can do it wait. wait wait wait. waahh waahh waahh. stay tuned, you'll hear me screaming from the rooftop when the call finally comes....

Frustration!....

2008-03-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

hello everyone. I know the last time I updated we were expecting to get "The Call" any day. Well it's been weeks now, and still nothing. I've come to the conclusion we must have one of the infamous "slow" Judges we hear about and pray not to get.
You know when you get sick and finally give in to going to the doctor? It always seems like when you get there, you feel better. Well i'm hoping that if I send out my blog to everyone telling them we have not heard anything, my phone will ring soon. I'm willing to try anything at this point.
Everyone is tired of waiting, we are so ready to go get our daughter now. Please continue your prayers for us.
Jaclyn

Our Anniversary....

2008-03-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

Today Eric and I celebrated our 12th Wedding Anniversary. We had a few hours to enjoy each other going out for dinner and just spending time together without the kids. Thank you Stephanie for babysitting for us.

Another week has passed without any word. I am beyond frustrated now, I was expecting to get the call two weeks ago. I guess I was getting ahead of myself. All we can do is keep waiting and hoping that the Judge has mercy on us soon.

Check out the Fingers....

2008-02-23T05:12:00.000-08:00

Some of you may be thinking "why the heck would you want that?". But, there are many of you who know exactly why i'd want that. I thought this was the find of a lifetime when I saw it. All of us here in America know that this is the "peace" sign, but those of us with Chinese or Taiwanese children know this is what all the people do when having thier picture taken. I'm really not quite sure why, maybe someone can enlighten me on that. Rebecka says it just means "yaayyyy!".

When I brought it home the kids thought it was so cool. Stephanie (my exchange student) was bewildered as to why they would sell that here in America, I had to explain to her the meaning of it here. She had no idea.

No news on the waiting, except we are still waiting. It was very dissapointing to have the week come to an end with no call. God's timing Jaclyn, God's timing Jaclyn!

I Think We Are Getting Close!....

2008-02-15T14:49:00.000-08:00

I don't want to get my hopes up, but I get the feeling we may be getting "THE CALL" anytime now. I could be getting ahead of myself, but I heard from my Adoption Agency today that they talked to Chung-Yi (orphange) and was told the hearing went very well. Although the birth Aunt did not show up to represent the family as expected, the judge was Ok with that and really didn't ask too many questions. He did speak with Xiao-Mei about her feelings regarding being adopted and she said she wanted to be adopted by the Carlisle Family (though i'm sure not in those words). That is good for us, it sounds like it's an open and shut case. The rest of the paperwork that gets finished by the Social Workers was done and handed into the court yesterday. Soooo, all we do now is wait for the judge to sign the paperwork and 10 days later it will finalized. Then we would travel 2-4 weeks after that. He could sign as soon as today or he could sit on it for a while. Lets just pray he is ready to get her to her family soon.

My brother Ron is coming tomorrow to help Eric put up French Doors in the front room so we can use it as a bedroom. We will move Josephs room to that room as soon as it is ready and then paint Xiao-Mei's room. Her furniture is ready to be delivered as soon as the room is ready. I think we need to start getting ready faster now!!!

Rayanna Recieved our Gifts....

2008-02-12T17:40:00.000-08:00

After finding out that Rayanna never recieved our package we sent her for Christmas, we were very upset. I had sent her some special things including a photo album and a necklace. The necklace has a cross pendant and is the same one we had sent Rebecka in her first care package. Our agency worked hard to find out what happened to the package and why she never recieved it. Today I recieved update pictures of Rayanna with the package and the one we sent her 2 weeks ago. Better late than never and I was just relieved to see she had gotten it. She is wearing the necklace which was nice to see.

We have not recieved any word yet about the court hearing, but are still hoping to hear something soon.

Jaclyn

Chinese New Years....

2008-02-09T17:42:00.001-08:00

We celebrated Chinese New Year Taiwanese style today. We had lots of our adoption friends and their families come to celebrate with us. It was really fun preparing all of the traditional must have dishes for CNY. Check out the pictures closely, you may notice some things a little different than the way we Americans do things. Like the heads still on the fish and the chickens. I know, gross you may say, but thats the way the Chinese cook it and it still tasted the same. But for some reason I still have alot of leftovers. Thanks to all of our friends who came to make this day special for us and our children. I know they appreciate that we care about their culture also.

Jaclyn

CNY Pictures....

2008-02-09T17:28:00.000-08:00

CNY Pictures....

2008-02-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

They Went Swimming With The What!!!!.....

2008-02-05T17:37:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, on Saturday the girls and I went away for a girls only weekend with some of my adoption friends and thier daughters. My friends Tracy and Gina and Rhonda and I and all our girls went to Rhondas house on the Homassasa River. Thank you so much Rhonda for your hospitality and for a great weekend! We went on Rhondas boat out into the river and there were about a dozen Manatees swimming around the waters. Manatees are very large animals also called "sea cows" they are very big but very very gentle. All the girls got right into the really cold 72 degree water and swam with the Manatees. They went right up to them and petted them, it was so amazing and the girls were so thrilled. It really was the most incredible thing. Thanks again for inviting us along.

Jaclyn

Update Pictures....

2008-02-03T08:34:00.000-08:00

We recieved new pictures today of Rayanna, she is so cute, we can't wait to get her home.

Our court date has come and gone and no word yet. Not sure when we will hear news but hopfully this week our agency will get an update from Taiwan about what happened at the hearing. I'm just praying all went well and the Judge was happy with everything and didn't ask for anything more, which could delay the case. Please pray for the Judge to move fast.

Rayanna is the one in the gray sweatshirt in one picture and the white one in the other.

We talked to our daughter!....

2008-01-27T11:41:00.000-08:00

We got to talk to Xiao-Mei last night, at 1:00 in the morning we connected through the webcam to Taiwan. We were so lucky to get to talk and see her for 1 hour and 45 minutes. She was so cute. She said (through a translator) that she is worried about school and sleeping in her own room and the pool. We reassured her the best we could about everything. She was very quiet and shy, but did refer to us as Mom and Dad. She said she was happy to come to America and be in our family. She was happy to see Rebecka and talk to her. The social worker with her told her Ai-Ai's new name is Rebecka. I thought that might interst her into thinking she would get a new name but she didn't ask so we didn't tell her yet.

Staying up all night was well worth it. We really feel blessed to get a small glimpse into our daughter before we travel. Hopefully we will talk to her again soon.

Jaclyn

We are going to have a web chat!!....

2008-01-23T05:13:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, it has been confirmed by my agency that will will have a web chat with Rayanna on Saturday night at 1:00 am. That will be 2:00 in the afternoon on Sunday Taiwan time. They gave us a few times to choose from and unfortunatly they were all in the middle of the night. So I hope the kids will be able to get up and be awake to meet thier sister. We are all very excited and are starting to write a list of what we want to say and ask. We have been approved for an hour chat, thats a long time, I hope we find enough to talk about.
Our court date is getting closer, only 8 days away now. I hope it's not too long after we hear something.
We also recieved an e-mail with some answers to the questions we sent a few weeks ago. They said Rayanna's biggest worry about coming to America is not knowing English. She would also like to share a room with Rebecka in the beginning. She wants to know how long the plane ride will be from Taiwan to America. Very very long my dear! Her favorite colors are peach ,white and black, and she doesn't like the color red. She loves all kinds of hair and nail stuff and shoes, she will get along with Rebecka great. She won't have to paint her brothers nails anymore :-)
That was all, nothing to give us a clue into her personality. Hopefully we will see a bit of that on Saturday night.
I went out and bought a web cam, set it up and only tried it once with a friend that has an MSN address. I'm not too sure how to work it but hopefully it will be OK when the time comes. Wouldn't that just be horrible if it didn't work. I have enough to worry about, I'm just going to assume it will be fine. If anyone has one and wants to try it out with me, my MSN account number for the webcam is ..carlisle302@hotmail.com.. I beleive I have yahoo messenger too,I think it can only be used within the same network, so my yahoo address must work too.
Thanks to everyone following our journey and please think of us Saturday night as we meet our daughter for the first time.
Jaclyn

Happy Birthday Rayanna....

2008-01-08T15:04:00.000-08:00

Across the ocean and a world away, our soon to be daughter turned nine today. It's been a tough day knowing our daughter is having her birthday alone without her family. But, if God's willing this will be the last one. On a happier note, I did find out today that our first court hearing has been scheduled for January 31st. That is good news, although it really doesn't give me an idea of when we may travel. We could get our final ruling from the court and "The Call" that we can make travel plans as soon as 3 weeks after first hearing but could be as long as 3 months. Usually travel is 4 weeks after "The Call". I also asked our agency why I have not recieved any updates at all. We have recieved a few pictures but no written update. With Rebecka we got an update every month. Maybe different Social Workers has something to do with it. I'm really not sure. But whatever the reason our agency told me to write a letter to the orphange Social Worker requesting information and asking specific questions about her and how she feels about the adoption and any concerns or questions she may have. So I will get to work on that ASAP, I'm dying to know how she feels about this. Well, I'll let you know if I hear anything. Please say a prayer and a wish for a speedy court process.
Jaclyn

Name Sign...

2007-12-30T11:11:00.000-08:00

We had this sign made for Rayanna's room with her Chinese name. Rebecka has one with her chinese name hanging above her bed. They are so cute...

Visiting Santa....

2007-12-23T15:13:00.000-08:00

Tonight we went to see Santa. The kids all sat on Santa's lap to tell him their list of wants. They went pretty easy on him, the list was not unbearable...LOL. This was Stephanies first time seeing Santa and sitting on his lap, she wasn't sure what to ask for so she said she wanted whatever we gave her. She is so sweet. Thank you Santa!

Update Pictures...

2007-12-21T13:57:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. I woke this morning to a couple new pictures of Rayanna in my E-Mail. There was no written update which dissapoints me since I have not recieved a written update or word from Rayanna about how she feels about us and the adoption. Hopefully that will come soon, but till then we have been getting some pictures to enjoy. I'm hoping to see her with a smiling face soon. We may have to work on that when she gets here. Seems she has had reason to be sad in her life and we are hoping to turn that around. She is so cute and someday soon we will help her to smile. The paper she is holding in one of the pictures is an award she got from Physical Education Class in School. She looks very proud.

AND THEIR OFF! ! !....To Taiwan that is....

2007-12-20T17:48:00.000-08:00

Our contracts were FED-EXed from FFC today to Taiwan. We should enter the courts within a couple of weeks. I don't expect to hear anything until we have had a ruling from the courts. I will start counting the weeks on Sunday the 6th of January. Our agency said the average has been about 4-5 months to get through the courts. We made it through the courts with Rebecka in 11 weeks, I'm hoping for that. Wish us luck everyone, and pray we get through the courts in record time. I'll let you know if we hear anything and of course post pictures as soon as we get blessed with another update.

We Are Inching Closer...

2007-12-19T07:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday our contracts arrived from TECO to our agency, FFC. Less than a week, that was fast. Laura from FFC told me they would review the documents and should have them mailed off to Taiwan by Friday. Hopefully not too long before we enter the courts now.

Hi Ho Hi Ho.....It's off to TECO they go!

2007-12-12T15:28:00.000-08:00

We recieved our documents via FED-EX at 2:30 today. Eric and I had them signed and notarized and off to TECO by 5:30. That was after making a ton of copies. This is a great big step done. If there are no problems with the contracts and things go smoothly, they should be back to Families For Children by early next week. Then hopefully not to long before we are in the Taiwan courts and waiting on "THE CALL"

Merry Christmas Rayanna

2007-12-10T17:58:00.000-08:00

Today I sent out our first gift package for Rayanna. The adoption agency will be sending them to Taiwan soon and she will recieve it just in time for Christmas. I hope Rayanna will be excited to recieve a package from her new Mom and Dad. I included a necklace with a beautiful silver cross. Rebecka wanted me to send Rayanna the same one I sent her, so thats what we did. Rebecka was very excited about that. We all included a personal letter to her also. Rebecka didn't want to write hers in Chinese and after a little encouraging she agreed to do it. I think she is having trouble remembering because Stephanie had to help her with some words. I told Rebecka how important she would be to me to help translate when Rayanna comes home. I also included a small photo alblum which she would be able to keep for herself. Some small Christmas toys and Candy too of course.

Happy Birthday Joe

2007-12-08T05:20:00.001-08:00

Today is my oldest sons 15th birthday.
Happy Birthday Joe Shmo!!! We love you man!
Love,
Mom, Eric, Jesse, Rebecka and Stephanie

Our Contracts are in America! ! ! !

2007-12-08T05:07:00.000-08:00

We recieved a call at 10:30 last night from Laura at FFC, she was very surprised to open her mail and find our contracts. Yes, thats right everyone, our contracts have arrived in America.

We should recieve them either Monday or Wednesday. I want one of us to be home to get mail in hand as this is the one and only copy of our contracts. After we recieve them , Eric and I will need to get them all notorized and sent off to TECO "Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office" in Miami to be Authenticated. They make sure our contracts are real and legal and give the OK to proceed. I think that went pretty fast with Rebecka, if I remeber right, we recieved the "Authenticated" contracts back in only a few days. Then they will go back to FFC who will send them to Taiwan and we should enter the courts right after that.

This has been a long wait for the contracts, but now we will be one step closer to bringing our daughter home!

Jaclyn

And her name is........

2007-11-28T18:15:00.000-08:00

We have finally settled on a name (I think) unless we change our minds (again) I think we have finally agreed on ........
Rayanna Xiao-Mei Carlisle

PICTURES......

2007-11-28T14:10:00.000-08:00

We recieved some new pictures from our agency today. It is always exciting to see new pictures of her, but they chopped all her hair off. Oh well, she is still so beautiful and it will grow back.

Laura from our agency returned from Taiwan this week. She got to visit with my daughter and a few other girls at Chung-Yi. We thank her so much for taking these pictures for us. Our daughter is the one in the middle wearing blue. She said Xiao-Mei is very quiet and shy, and the girls wanted to know what time it was in America right then. How cute is that.

Although we are not any closer to having our contracts. I was told before Laura went to Taiwan that we not only were waiting on the birth mother, we were also waiting on paperwork from the Taiwan government to get to Chung-Yi. They are waiting on Household Registration and her Official Birth Certificate. Don't ask me why these things are not already done, I have no answer for that. Our agency said they expect these things to be done soon and THEN they will be ready to send our contracts. So, the story is......WE WAIT>>>>>>>>>>

Still Waiting

2007-11-07T16:52:00.000-08:00

I am so frustrated, we sent our pictures via E-mail 2 weeks ago. I've spoken to FFC who says they are still waiting on the birth mothers social worker. I don't understand at all why the delay. They want the birth mother involved, but if she doesn't want to be then I don't know why we are waiting for her. The owners of our adoption agency FFC will be leaving this week to go to Taiwan for 2 weeks. I hope they will see Xiao-Mei while they are there and hopefully get some pictures for us. But I am also afraid I am going to be waiting at least until they come back to get our contracts.

Unexpected Delay

2007-10-24T06:26:00.001-07:00

I recieved an E-Mail from my Adoption Agency stating the birth mothers Social Worker was requesting more family pictures before she would give her approval for the adoption. This confuses me a bit since I was under the impression the birth mother has not been involved. I'm not sure what the story is, but I will do as they ask. I've E-Mailed the best family pictures I could find. This is very dissapointing since I was hoping to recieve our contracts any day. Hopefully this will not cause too much of a delay.

Rebecka's Gotcha Day Party

2007-10-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

Today we had a big Gotcha Day Party to celebrate with family and friends. It was a great turnout and we had a blast. The kids of course enjoyed the swimming, even thought the water was ice cold. (to me anyway). They really loved decorating the cupcakes in an ice cream cone. Instead of having a cake I decided the kids would really have fun decorating cupcakes that I baked inside ice cream cones. It was a big hit and the kids made one for all the adults too. The girls did each others nails (and some of the guests too) . Thank you so much to Tracy and her girls and Penny and Alli for coming, it was so great to have some adoption friends there to celebrate with us. Thank you to my best friend Shona for being there, and everyone who came to make this day special.

Heres to many more Gotcha Days to celebrate!!!!!!

Stephanie

2007-10-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

Introducing Fu-Ning "Stephanie" Chang.

Steph is our exchange student from Taiwan, she is from the same city as Rebecka. She will be staying with us for the school year this year, she is in the 11th grade. We are very happy to have her here and she is a big help to us. The weird thing is She and Rebecka do not speak Chinese to each other. Go Figure. We have alot of fun cooking together making sushi and steamed dumplings . she is also a pro at making the perfect rice.

We are blessed to have her with us and will miss her terrably when we have to say gooodbye next Spring.

Xiao-Mei

2007-10-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

Introducing Xiao-Mei. We are using Families For Children for this adoption. We have completed our homestudy and our dossier along with our family letter and photo album. I believe it has all been sent to Taiwan. We are waiting official approval from the orphanage and then we should recieve our documents. So the wait begins....

Rebecka Ai-Ai

2007-10-17T16:32:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated our first Gotcha Day Anniversary with Rebecka. I made her favorite dinner (steak and noodles) and we had a cake and sang..Happy Gotcha Day to you...Happy Gotcha Day to you...Happy Gotcha dayyy tooo Reeebeckkkkaaa...Happy Gotcha Day to you. I bet you've heard the tune before...LOL...pretty ingenous huh?

This saturday we are having a big party to celebrate with family and friends.

The Journey Begins...Again

2007-10-17T15:19:00.000-07:00

October 16th, 2007

WE are Eric and Jaclyn from Florida. We have a biological son Jesse (11), and I also have a son Joseph (14). Last year on October 16th 2006 Eric and I picked up our beautiful Taiwanese Princess ,Rebecka Ai-Ai (11) from Chung-Yi Childrens Home. We are now beginning the process of adopting our second daughter from Chung-Yi.

I didn't have a blog when we adopted Rebecka so i'd like to backtrack a little bit.

Eric and I have been married 11 years , and have two wonderful bio boys Joe and Jesse.

We had heard an advertisement on The Joy FM which is a Christian radio station here in Florida, about an adoption agency called Florida Homestudies and Adoption. After hearing the advertisement a few times we started to think about adoption more. Now, let me tell you I don't know what happened it had to be Gods plan for us because I never would have thought of us as the type of family to adopt. I meen we had children of our own and felt (i thought) that our family was complete. God had other plans. Eric came home from work one day with this agency on his mind again after hearing the ad on his way home, he said there was a web site and thought we should check it out. We looked them up , this was a Friday, the next day they were having a seminar in Orlando about adoption, so I called the number and signed us up. We went to the seminar and listened to the information given to us. That Monday I called the agency to ask for more info. I told her maybe, (and I meant maybe) we might think about adopting an older girl. I had done the baby thing two times and was all set with that. The lady told me they just got the file on this little girl and asked if i'd like to see it. We said sure, it won't hurt to look. She E-Mailed is the file and when we opened the picture, we saw the most beautiful little girl we'd ever seen. We fell in love instantly, Eric looked at me and said "thats our daughter". Eight months later Eric and I traveled to Taiwan to pick up our daughter. She has made an amazing adjustment and is very loving and happy to be with us.

Now we have decided to adopt one more time. This time a friend of Rebecka's from Chung-Yi. She is very excited to be getting her friend as her new sister.