our Taiwanese cultural sleepover party

Tuesday night we attended a presentation by a Taiwanese cultural troupe at Butler University's Clowes Hall. (I visit my alma mater about once a year, and it's amazing how the campus changes every year!) This is the first time that we've had Hannah in a public place with a HUGE number of people where she'd need to sit quietly for a lengthy period of time. Smartly, we sat at the end of a row and waited for the screaming to begin.

Interestingly... OR VERY UNINTERESTINGLY if you ask Hannah... there were a number of speakers before the presentation began. The university president spoke, then the president of the Taiwanese American Association of Indianapolis. And THEN the govenor of Indiana spoke about the relationship between our state and Taiwan, and how Indiana was the first state to establish a trade office in Taiwan. Indiana farmers certainly have plenty of soybeans to sell to Taiwan for the production of stinky tofu snacks.

12/27/08 - My first taste of stinky tofu in Tainan, Taiwan,
could have been made from the Indiana soybeans
grown in fields I can see from my home

By this time, our little Taiwan native was very restless. The Indiana Secretary of State came out and she lost it and started screaming. Daddy whisked her away, and hopefully we didn't distract too many people. She calmed down and was brought back in. Thanks so much for those big gold seals authenticating our adoption documents, Mr. Indiana Secretary of State! And EXTRA BIG THANK YOU for not charging us any money for this service!

Then we heard from some guy from TECO Chicago, as well as several others... I can't remember who. I was starting to get a little restless at this point. Hannah had to be removed from the theater again. Tick tock. Tick tock. Let's get this show on the road.

The Ro Han Mem Taiwanese cultural troup was great. I'd describe the performances as a cross between folk dance, color guard, musical theater, and martial arts. The performances highlighted Taiwan's diversity including multiple aboriginal tribes, the Hakka, and the Hoklo. We enjoyed folk songs and dances from all of these groups, as well as the Sung-Chiang Battle Array. My video is horrible from the evening, but here's a clip that I found on Youtube of the performers in LA.



Here is some of my video from a love song.

Kevin struck up a conversation with Taiwanese American from Kaohsiung at an info booth. Sure... we know where Kaohsiung is. We've been to ____ town and ____ town, and Hannah is from ____ town. Fun stuff! And the HSR is so nice! How we wish we had high speed rail in Indiana like in Taiwan.

Hannah behaved herself quite well during the performances. She was very interested in what was going on, but we had to shift her around between us and keep her busy. She dropped her jade bracelet on the floor, but Daddy found it before we left. (Note to self, jewelry plus a 16 pound little girl in a public place equals trouble.)

After the performance we headed downtown to our $50 room at the Hyatt (thank you Priceline!) and out for a very late dinner at Steak and Shake with a very sleepy little girl.

Once we were back in the room, we took some photos of Hannah. We stayed at the Hyatt in Taipei when we became a family on December 29, 2008. Back in Taipei, one of the first things we did with Hannah was strip her down into a diaper on the big pretty bed and to play and take pictures of her. That blessed day we dressed her in her pretty red dress and took oodles of photos. They are so sweet they still make me cry to look at them here. Tuesday night we wanted a new photo of Hannah Claire in her gold stress sitting pretty on a bed in a Hyatt. We love you so much, baby girl!


We took several photos of Hannah looking at herself in the mirror. Some are soooo funny! I only stayed up late enough tonight to post-process one. Some day soon I'll post lots more of these.


Let me preface this next paragraph by stating that since we've been home with Hannah, this is the first time that we've spent the night away from home. When we checked into the room, we were offered a pack and play. Mama declined, thinking Hannah would feel insecure in a strange room and might sleep better in the king sized bed between us. I couldn't have been more wrong. It took forever to get her to go to sleep. Hannah thought that laying in a bed in between Mama and Baba was a fabulous sleepover party. She wanted to crawl on us, touch our faces, and make lots of babbling baby sounds. Sometime around midnight she finally gave in to sleep, but she woke us up around 4:30am with more of the sleepover party antics. A very tired Mama and Baba were very sleepy and VERY GROUCHY. Someone (not telling who) insisted that this was all someone else's (not telling who) fault because she (oops... let it slip) declined the pack and play. At 6am with no chance for any more sleep, Mama sent Daddy and Hannah to get bagels for breakfast.

Our adoption post placement visit with our social worker was a joy. So different from the last one with no tears and very little frustrations voiced. We feel like a normal family with normal issues. The struggles that we face with Hannah now feel like normal issues for children her age. YAY FOR US!

Night night. Gotta catch up on some post sleepover party sleep. Co-sleeping is so NOT right for our family!