Vivians Here!...

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!

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?

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?

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?

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

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???

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!

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...

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!!!

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....

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!!!..

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!....

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

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!!!!

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!

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!!!!

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...

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

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...

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...

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 :-(

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....

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 !!!....

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..

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 !!!

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!

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.