Final Day

We meet with Ms. Kuo, our in country adoption facilitator, one last time. She is encouraged by our situation and expects that in June we should be complete. She tells us it will be a 100 degrees and very humid when we come back. Awesome! Every time we see her she has a gift for us and kind words. This time she has a scarf for Sara and says it will go nice with Sara’s very white skin. I think it is a compliment but we laugh anyways.

We leave for the Science Museum which we find has motorized pandas that you can drive around for the equivalent of 50 cents. Of course Tyler picks a beat up looking one that looks like it was soaked in the rain. Inside the museum there is an entire area dedicated to small children and we are able to spend a few good hours before he starts to get tired. It is probably time to change him anyway.

So there I was carrying him toward the bathroom and I felt it. With his bum resting on my arm he lets at least one go. I imagine there are two big ones in that diaper now. He is all smiles so he and I both know what needs to be done. I casually suggest to Sara who is walking beside me that she take this one, I need to do something. She happily agrees…she’ll be a good mother. At this point a careful self examination reveals that Tyler saving all the dookies for Sara may not be completely accurate as I mentioned before. I may be helping to tip the scales…either way it is not important. Besides I ate stinky tofu last night…I don’t want a flashback.

Arriving at the hotel Ty is clearly tired but fighting it. We decide to use the stroller again but this time we walk around the property. He is sleeping in moments. This allows me time to video tape the city streets.

Half the vehicles seem to be mopeds. In Taiwan, the joke about a moped being fun to ride until a friend catches you doesn’t translate. More interesting is that fact that most people ride mopeds with little breathing masks on. In fact, even just walking around a few people wear masks. Our understanding is that it is because of the air pollution. We have noticed that most days seem smoggy. Is this what L.A. will be like in a few years?

Forget car baby seats or booster seats. In Taiwan you are more likely to see a 3 year old holding on to the back of a moped with no helmet. It is actually pretty shocking for a country that is so industrialized. It was not uncommon to see a small child hanging onto the back of a moped and another between the parent’s legs in front. Oh yeah and we saw two accidents while we were here.

It’s Valentine’s Day. We eat in the hotel restaurant for the first time. As we sit down, we see that tonight is an 8 course meal. It is a no options special for Valentine’s Day. It’s romantic. We can definitely do this with a two year old. Wine is included, a toast, Happy Valentine’s Day! Ty is hungry. He uses the international sign for hunger by smashing his spoon into his plate repeatedly. The first course has just arrived and Sara and I start to identify the situation. We agree that if we have to leave before dessert that will be fine.

The waitress brings some soupy rice for Tyler which proceeds to consume at rapid speed. He hasn’t eaten that fast all week. The second course just arrives. Even with our inexperienced parenting we know a meltdown is only about 10 minutes of idle sitting away. The crayon and paper may give us 15.

I tell the waitress we would appreciate the next courses as fast as possible, explaining we need to leave in 20 minutes or so. She nods and I think we have a good understanding of the situation. Even if she didn’t understand English she sees the kid right? What about my hand moving from back to front in circles and saying faster. This is multi-cultural I hope. Well it’s not.

The next two courses are so delicious….seriously 5 star. Oh and the romance…candle light….soft music…dimmed room and fine linins. Actually it was not romantic because these two courses were spent taking turns walking/running with Ty in the halls to keep him occupied. I mean if you love fine things in solitude and love yourself in an unnatural way maybe it was romantic but again I digress. I have not seen Tyler this happy all week. He won’t stop laughing. Our lives were too uncomplicated before. This is fine.

If you can count you know we left with 4 courses remaining. We will need to imagine how tasty they were. Half price discount doesn’t translate though. The hostess’s English was great earlier. It’s not a big deal, even a 5 star meal here only cost $60 US dollars wine included.

Unfortunately our week is coming to a close. It is time to bring Ty back to his facility. Emotionally Sara is holding up much better than expected. We say bye and get some hugs. The video camera is on so we know we are not going to get the blowing of kisses. We found that by leaving the camera on all the time in the room we got some good video though. So how do you say ok it is time to leave in a situation like this? There were several minutes of lingering after we had already said bye. It is kind of dramatic. Tyler decides how this trip will end. He closes the door in our faces. Even his rudeness makes us laugh.

We get back to the hotel and there is no little boy to reach up and press the elevator down button even though we want to go up.