Friday Morning

With Tyler still leery of us it was very fortunate that Nicole the founder to his charity and 3 other children were also planning to take the high speed train back to Taipei. We are staying in Taipei which is the capital and need to finalize his travel documents here. The two hour train ride was non stop action. Ty cried for a few minutes and then fell asleep. Two other children though were running up and down the train car. The coke we gave them seemed like a bad idea and proved to be as much. Don’t judge.

We got tours of 2 much larger facilities in Taipei. One of which Tyler has spent some time over the years when he needed to be in the capital. There are older kids there and lots of people working hard at providing a stable environment. A few blocks away they have a facility for adults who are very sick. I think we found our new favorite charity. This one is hitting close to home.

Because Tyler has had a cough for a few days, and even though he has already been to the doctor once this week, Nicole suggests she take us to a clinic one more time before we take him back to our hotel. He has no temp, just the cough and spit up a little food which ended up on my shorts. The doctor prescribes some oral medication and one other type. Nicole’s English is pretty good so she tells me it is to be used if he wakes up at night because of the cough. Here is what I hear her say phonetically. “You put it in his azz-ole.”

I smile and joke to Nicole that he has a cough and not hemmroids using my words and hand signals. Sara is now embarrassed of me. This is getting awkward. She is repeating “put it in the azz-ole”. In the end the pharmacist does give us some suppositories and azz-ole is exactly what it sounds like.

Nicole and her assistant Hanna bring us back to our hotel and see us into our room. Tyler seems to be comfortable so they sneak out and it’s just us. Reality time! A few minutes later Ty is crying and he is in no mood for comforting. My Ferber technique shows no sign of progress so Sara trys picking him up. The melt down lasts about 20 minutes. He and I both are both soothed by HBO (also known as Home Box if you reign from some parts of Western MA) so the day comes to a comfortable end.

Midnight…some coughing leads to crying. You can’t make this stuff up. It’s azz-ole medication time. I look at Sara and say “God bless you”. Without getting too graphic the first attempt is…ahhh… refused. Sara is successful on try number two. There is a minor celebration, no high fives though…she hadn’t washed her hands yet.

We all got a good night sleep. Today we head to AIT which is our American Institute in Taipei for Ty’s visa. Before we leave we give Tyler a big bottle of some kind of PediaSure Nicole gave us which he sucked down. Now, while I am enjoying deep fried toast at an elaborate breakfast buffet, Sara is getting reacquainted with some regurgitated PediaSure. Poor kid is clearly still not feeling well and we rushed it with the full bottle. He and Sara need to go back to the room and change their clothes. I’m able to shake off the scene and enjoy another deep fried toast. I realized at this moment I am transforming into Pepere Gladu slowly but surely.

We get to AIT and have to kill about a half hour in the waiting room. We meet another couple from Texas who are adopting two children. Around the time they are saying that they are school teachers I get a full frontal blast of the remaining PediaSure. I honestly can’t believe there was that much chunky liquid in this kid. I’m in complete denial. I don’t even move nor does Tyler. Sara takes an anxious lap around the waiting room and declares that there is no bathroom. I haven’t moved despite the fact that my shirt and shorts are covered in what is approximately 12 ounces of upchucks. I’m still just looking at myself and Tyler in disbelief. A woman in the waiting room offers me a single tissue. Offering a single tissue in this situation is something my friends Mark or Eric would do, nostrils flaring, betraying their mocking.

Someone more serious brings a trash can. I’m able to scrape the biggest portion off into the can. Sara has located a bathroom on another floor. Tyler has a spare set of clothes in our travel bag. I on the other hand am not so lucky. I decide the only sensible course of action is to wash the entire front of my shirt and shorts in the sink so it doesn’t look like I messed myself before our visa interview. This is turning into a real life National Lampoon’s Asian Vacation. They made us check our camera at the security desk so you will need to trust me that the entire front of my shirt and shorts were borderline dripping wet during our interview.

The interview went well despite my appearance and they are just waiting on a currier to bring one more document. We should be able to pick up all our documents on Tuesday.

By the time we get back to the room Tyler is feeling a little better. He is keeping down small sips of apple juice and a few crackers. Apparently while I was at the store getting a thermometer, ginger ale, and snacks Tyler and Sara were playing well and he is repeating English words again. I use the word “apparently” though because this is all hear say…they were napping when I got back.