Ladies Man

Because this week has been so hot, we have been spending a lot of time at Uncle Rich and Aunt Kim's pool. Matthew loves the pool and wants to go swimming everyday. He has finally worked up the courage to jump off the diving board and now he can't get enough. Matthew has met most of his cousins. He is not very shy and makes friends easily. We have also discovered he is quite the ladies man. Matthew loves to get attention, hugs and kisses from pretty girls. It is so funny to watch him.
Luv ya
Kate

Home!!!!

At last we are home! It feels so good to sleep in your own bed after like 21 hours of traveling! We all got home safely, no one got sick and we have no injuries (well except went Matthew kissed American soil,tripping off the airplane, but that's a minor bruise!). Last night when Oma and Grandad picked us up..thanks btw..Matthew gave them each a big hug and a kiss. He kept saying Oma over and over. Today we are just taking it easy. Matthew has adjusted pretty well. He loves his room. When we took him down stairs to see the toys he said WOW! He loves the kitchen set and serves us all the time. Him and Buddy are just meeting and of course Buddy loves him but Matthew isn't so sure...he likes to yell at Buddy in Mandarin.
Thanks to everybody for your prayers...but keep praying please we are going to need it! Lets just say he's a handful! ;)
Love ya
Kate or Matthews version (jj)

Gettting Adjusted

I think overall it's been tough on the kids... It's been A little stressful. In another country staying in hotels and meeting a new brother who doesn't speak English. They have both been troopers and I am very proud. Jetlag has not been our friend either.... It's been alil tuff adjusting . The food has been interesting sometimes really good and sometimes not so much.... Could be the fact that half the time we dont know what we are ordering.... My mandarin is alil rusty haha !!

Capt. Observant

Tien Tsai /Matthew is adjusting well and he has no problem With the communication gap, let's just say if he wants something he will let you know... LOL... We have been a few days without Internet and hopefully once we get to Taipei we will post all these notes. It has been very busy, but what we have seen of Taiwan, it is very beautiful..oh by the way..... Experienced our first earthquake Last night a 5.4... Didn't even feel it but mom and Kate said they did.... Just call me capt. Observant..

Jon

Visiting the Park

Had a nice day today. Went to a public park with Tien Tsai. Played on the playground, walked thru a budhist monastery ,and visited a military park with military planes that we could climb in. We had a nice lunch and now are spending a few hours with him at the hotel before dinner. He plays very well but he is six and is doing his best to find all the limits. Overall it has been a good experience and everything is going well. If all goes well tomorrow we head back to Taipei with our new son. We ask for prays of patience and understanding in this new endeavor of our lives..

Jon

Meeting Our Son

We met Matthew yesterday morning. We were all a little nervous. It was a little awkward at first. We met at Government Child Service Building. The plan was to have lunch together and go from there. The foster family invited us to their noodle house for lunch. They had a private room off to the side which was perfect. Matthew served us all soda and was the perfect host. He was a little uncomfortable because he knew all the adults where talking about him, but it was a great way to break the ice. He was on his home turf.

After lunch we went back to the government building and played with toys, puzzled, colored and interacted with Matthew. It was just our family so it was kind of nice.

He’s a very sweet boy. Everyone loves him. He smiles easily was very interested in Jon-Boy.

We left around 5:30 and had dinner at a restaurant across the street. We were all very tired, but everyone found something on the menu that they were willing to try. We even used chop sticks!

The accommodations in Taipei were great. Taipei is the capital of Taiwan. It’s a very nice city, with great mass transit. They have everything from TIG Fridays to Dunkin Donuts. Taichung, the city where Matthew lives is about three hours south west of Taipei. The accommodations are well “interesting”.

The kids have been great. The time change is affecting Jon-boy the most. He has a hard time “keeping it together” in the afternoon.

We are hoping to head back to Taipei tomorrow night.

Leg Room and Heat Do Not Mean the Same to Everyone

We got up Friday morning to being our trip to Taiwan to pick up our son Matthew. I got dressed and found $11 in my pants pocket; a good start to our trip.

When we checked in for our flight were very happy to hear that our flight was only half full, so we were able to snag seats with a little extra leg room; a good thing for a 13 hour flight. We slept and watched a ton of movies.

When we arrived in Tokyo, an announcement was made over the loud speaker…”Mr and Mrs. Morris need to see a ground agent once they exit the plane”. This created a little anxiety. Our flight to Taiwan had been cancelled. They had rescheduled us on a Delta flight, no worries. We had a four hour layover in Tokyo. It was a million degrees in the airport. It was so hot! I kept think “they really need an AC tech here”. It was very difficult to get comfortable.

Our flight to Taiwan was uneventful. Jon sat next to a very interested lady, who was born in Taiwan and currently lives in Tokyo. She explained that the reason our flight was not full from Newark to Tokyo was because after the earthquake and tsunami in March tourism has been non-existent. She also told us that the reason it was so hot in the airport was because the entire country is required to conserve energy due to the damage done at the nuclear facility. They are not running the air conditioning at the airport.

I was very embarrassed about my joy over having a little extra leg room on our flight, and my endless complaining about the heat in the airport. Please continue to pray for the people of Japan. They no longer make the news headlines, but their pain and suffering is still very real. Our eyes are being opened to the world around us.

Sharon