We went to the American Embassy today for our interview and paperwork completion. Tomorrow we will go back to pick up Mika's Visa and everything is finished!
It's 5:20am here on Sunday morning.
It's so hard to believe the time has finally arrived and we'll be packing tomorrow. Our flight is on Sunday morning! We've been very busy taking care of all the last minute things that need to get done. We picked up our "new family" car yesterday and we really like it alot. It has alot more room and the stroller and car seat fit just fine with lots of room left over for groceries or luggage when we travel. The new car is a Honda Stream. Max loves it because he has plenty of room now. He's growing taller with each passing day it seems.
We received our itenerary from the orphanage today! It's official, we know exactly what we'll be doing while we're in Taipei. It's great to know that everything's arranged and ready for our arrival!
We bought a diaper bag for Mika today on Kadena Air Base and bought a matching handbag for me. The lady that made the bags put our names on them and they look so cute! The PX on base is usually sold out of diaper bags, so my neighbor told me about a lady on Kadena that makes them for everyone here. I'm so glad we found her, because she did a great job! I almost cried when I saw it. It's perfect.
We received another update on Mika today! She has grown a little and is healthy and doing fine. They've changed her formula to Earsun Goat Milk, but the pediatrician assures us that we can give her Enfamil formula and she'll be fine until we can introduce her to regular milk. She's now 88 centimeters and weighs 13 killograms. We were also given the name of her foster Mother and an update on her favorite foods. She likes homemade rice powder, noodles, rice and bread. She also likes juice and still uses a bottle. We plan to introduce her to a sippy cup as soon as she's settled at home and feeling comfortable. We also need to potty train her because she still uses a diaper at the orphanage. Her bedtime has been changed from 9:00pm to 8:30pm for the Spring season and she likes to listen to music while she falls asleep. She takes a nap everyday from 1:00pm-3:00pm. They told us her favorite toys are still musical instruments and she's a very sweet child. They're preparing her to meet us soon and they're taking a photo everyday.
We received confirmation of our AIT appointment this morning and immediately made plans to buy airline tickets! David took the day off work and we drove to Kadena to the travel office. We were very surprised to find out that almost every flight was already booked full. Luckily, we had a wonderful travel agent helping us and she finally found seats for us. We're flying to Taiwan on April 26th at 11:45am and will come home on May 1st at 10:45am. We wanted to come home on the 30th, but all the flights were already full. We had NO IDEA so many Japanese citizens visit Taiwan, but it's a short flight from here, so it's a popular place to visit during "Golden Week." Apparently, we're traveling during the busiest season of the entire year because all businesses and schools are closed for the celebration of Golden Week and families in Japan and Okinawa take their annual vacation. We were very fortunate to get a flight!
