Day 9 (Hudson Day!)

When I awoke in the morning, I instantly knew today was THE DAY.  HUDSON DAY!  I marveled again with how calm I felt.  I was a pile of nervous jitters three and a half years ago in the city of Tainan, waiting to meet my first child for the first time.

I really think having a Skype session with Hudson and his foster mama made a huge difference.  I knew that he was happy, safe, loved, certainly well fed... and just fine without me.  Except that he didn't have a permanent family, and that's why he needs us.

Hannah in the hotel lobby of the Shangri-La in Tainan.

Breakfast at the Shangri-La was much better than dinner.  Two thumbs up.

My breakfast.  Fresh squeezed orange juice, mango, Taiwanese pineapple, sausages,
steamed buns, sticky rice, vegetables, rolls, and congee with honey.  Nom nom nom!

Kevin's breakfast. Looks like he's a meat a potatoes kind of guy, isn't it?

We went back to our room and finished packing up our things.  We didn't have to meet our agency rep until 11:20am in the hotel lobby, so we had lots of time to burn.  We went ahead and checked out of the hotel, planning on walking about the mall next to the hotel... but it wasn't open for the day yet, so we just had to sit in the lobby and wait.  We were chatted up by a retired Taiwanese political science professor that was curious to know what we were doing in Tainan and if we had been to Tainan before.  He had all sorts of opinions, which he very readily shared with us!  LOL!  (I'm not making a political statement, I'm just sharing the conversation.)  He wanted to make sure that we understood that there were two sets of Taiwanese people.  The REAL Taiwanese people that had been there for hundreds of years (or thousands of years if you want to talk about the indigenous Taiwanese) or the Chinese people that came with Chiang Kai-Shek.  It was certainly interesting, and he was certainly opinionated!  Well, the political science professors I knew in college were certainly opinionated as well.  Anyway, what blew me away is that he began asking me questions about what I would think of Taiwan becoming the 52nd state, after Puerto Rico, of course.  And that discussion went on and on.  Woah.  That idea came out to me from left field, for sure.  The professor also spoke German, and he and I exchanged a few phrases in German.  Now that was interesting!  Using my high school beginner German with a Taiwanese professor!  I had much more to say in my bad German than in my very limited Mandarin.  Our agency rep arrived, we shook hands and had to break off the lively conversation.  We piled our luggage in the taxi and took off for the St. Lucy's Center.





Most of our photos contain the faces of multiple people in the family room (aka green couch room) where families are formed.  I will respect the privacy of these special people, so I do not have many to share publicly.

We had to wait awhile in the green couch room, as Hudson and his foster mother had not yet arrived.  We spent some time talking about Hannah and how she was going.  Hannah enjoyed playing with the toys, especially this huge teddy bear.  When Hudson arrived he was just waking up from a nap, so they spend some time waking him up and getting him to feel secure with his surroundings, happy, and playful before we would meet.  For those friends who were waiting up late at night for photos to be uploaded on facebook, this is part of the reason why it took so long.




Can't seem to stomach much lunch when waiting to see your child for the first time.

Hannah really liked the huge teddy bear in the green couch room.

 Hannah wanted to take pictures, and took this one of me. :) 
I had decided that I wanted to be hands-on with this meeting and not worry about photos. Others had cameras for us. We needed to live in the moment.  Hudson's foster mama brought him in.  He had a toy hammer in his hand and had lights and sound.  I need to start looking for one just like it to give to him.  He's all about buttons, bells, lights, and whistles.

I packed a bag full of toys to play with.  He seemed to like the slinky the best.  Hannah also had a gift bag containing Princess Celestia, a My Little Pony.


    I got down on the floor and played for awhile with Hudson and Hannah.Daddy was the first to pick him up.    He wasn't very happy about being held by strangers.  He indicated that he wanted his foster mother to hold him, but wasn't throwing a fit because he wanted to get away from us.  This is good!      We took lots of pictures together with Hudson's foster mama and talked with her for a long time.  She's a pretty special lady, and pleaded with us to come back to visit her, and that we must stay in her house.  She was very sincere, and wanted us to stay at her house because Hudson is family to her.  Lots of tears.  We'll be back. We went for a walk around and showed Hannah where she lived as a baby, peeking in at the little baby room and the older baby room.  The nannies were told that Ching-Ling was there, and they were surprised and remembered Hannah as such a little baby, and were very excited to see her.  Hannah doesn't like attention from strangers and was very shy and uncomfortable with the nannies looking at her and remarking about her.  I had to remind her that these nannies were the nice ladies that rocked you, gave you bottles, changed your diapers, and loved you very much.  You don't remember them, but they remember you.  We talked about this at length before traveling, but it was still hard for Hannah to have strangers want to be very personal with her.

When it was time to head to the taxi, Hudson and Hannah were happily playing together with a ball popper toy.  Hannah uncharacteristically shouted loudly, "Come on, baby brother!!!  Let's go!!!"  It was so cute.






 



I have a similar pic from December 29, 2008 with a sleeping baby Hannah outside of St. Lucy's.  Happy mama!  We taxied to the HSR train station. Our agency rep was so helpful in holding Hannah's hand while we delt with our heavy luggage and I pushed Hudson's stroller.  Thankful that Hannah warmed up to her so quickly!

Hudson was understandably clingy and not very happy on the train.  He clung to his doggie blanket and needed his pacifier.  We sent this security blanket to him in one of his care packages.  His foster mother gave us strict instructions not to loose it.

On the train Kevin got to change Hudson's first wet diaper.  Unfortunately, they had a bad experience when a little hand turned on the automatic hand drier and horribly frightened Hudson with it's noise and blowing hot air into his face.  Daddy and Hudson were both pretty upset about the scary hand dryer experience.






We took some pics just for fun so the kids could see their faces on the iPhone screen while their photos were taken.







 Back in Taipei, we checked back into an apartment with iTaipei Service Apartments.  We stayed in a Deluxe Triple at the beginning of our trip and in the end of our trip.  It was really nice to be able to do all of the laundry we wanted, sit at a real kitchen table, and have an extra bedroom where at least one parent could sleep away from crying child(ren).  Hannah showed Hudson the city, including Taipei 101 off in the distance.
















 Washer was out on the balcony.  We brought a box of Tide pods (packets) so we had a soap that we were familiar with and didn't have to worry about trying to buy some right away in Taiwan.  There was a bar to hang our clothes out to dry on the balcony, but no hangers.  Thankfully, our friends Katie and Howard told us to bring hangers.  Thanks for the tip, guys!







 Hudson loves everything with buttons.  He and his daddy aregoing to get along just fine.  Gonna have to get a second iPad!








 There we go, there's a little smile!

We put the kids in bed at 9:15pm. Hannah slept her room with her iPad for a bit and Hudson between us. Hudson laid down right away with his doggie lovey blanket. He only cried for about five minutes before falling asleep. Woke up about 2am and cried just a little bit. Easy first night! Because we're such awesome parents (joke!) we took our kids to Mos Burgers downstairs after Hudson's bottle and he ate two chicken nuggets, a couple of French fries, and a few bites of banana ice cream. He is one big and solid kid, built like a football player. All muscle and not a roll on him.