Summer Recap: the trip

As I've though about getting back into blogging, it has been hard for me to decide just how to do it. To recap the last three months seems completely overwhelming, but to pick up right where we are today with no mention of what has passed seems like I'd be leaving out a huge chunk of life.  (You can read more about our adoption here.)

So, as a compromise, I'm going to give a brief synopsis of our summer this week and then get back to normal.  Or as close to normal as I can get.  

Travel day.  We already look tired.  In the 24 hours after this picture was taken, we'd be in three different countries, run through two airports, learn that we really can't sleep on a plane, watch three movies, and I may have gotten patted down by two timid Japanese airline security girls, but I actually can't remember the specifics of that encounter anymore.  I also used an airplane bathroom for the first time.  And the second time, and the third time.... 

We made it to Taiwan and slept like the dead.  Our hotel room was nice and big and everyone at the hotel was super, super friendly.  Actually, everyone in the whole country that we met was super, super friendly.  

We ate beef noodles with Mr. Yeh (our driver) and did a bit of sightseeing.  The food in Taiwan is  tasty, but burn-your-face-off hot.  I found myself sweating during most meals.  

The next two days are a blur of: hours spent in a taxi, picking up our boy, playing cars in the hotel room, eating many plates of fried rice, searching for water.  You can't drink the tap water in Taiwan and it seemed that we were constantly on a hunt for more water.  

What stands out most is how brave Arthur was, how he held my hand and got right in the car with us, how he recognized us from our pictures that we'd sent, how he slept on my lap the whole three hour ride back to the hotel and I couldn't stop thinking, "There's a baby sleeping on my lap and he's ours."

After getting Arthur's visa, we hopped back on a plane to head home.  I just typed "hopped" and then remembered that there was one point while we were standing in line at the airport checking in that I was looking for a safe place to set my child down so that I could pass out.  So maybe "hopped" was a bit too energetic.  We dragged ourselves onto the plane and survived the next 24 hours of travel.  It was probably almost exactly how you'd picture 24 hours of travel with a two year old that you've just met.  

Our friends picked us up from the airport, made a welcome home sign for us, and had a hot dinner waiting at our house.  We were so amazingly happy to be home that I could have kissed the ground.  Or their feet.  

Tune in later this week for more about our first weeks at home!