We met Mika today! April 27, 2009

Meet the newest member of our family....Mika Man-Ni Higginbotham! We took the high speed railroad today to Chuanghua county and visited the Foster family home. We were so surprised to hear they had invited us to their home. We weren't expecting that! The had prepared many foods for us, and they gave us a few baby pictures, a music CD, and a DVD with her baby photos. It was a wonderful day that words can not describe. Our hearts are overfilled with thankfulness and joy.

Tomorrow we will go to the orphanage for the official receiving ceremony and Mika will come back to the hotel with us and she's officially OURS.

We're in Taipei! April 26, 2009

Wow, we definitely aren't on Okinawa anymore! Taipei is VERY noisy, VERY crowded and very hectic. We visited Taipei 101 after we got to the hotel because it's only one block over. We went all the way to the top....91 floors and the elevator ride took only 30 seconds. It was like an amuzement park ride! Our ears popped. We had alot of fun looking around. We love the hotel, it's in a great location and the staff are very nice. When we checked in they asked us why were we visiting Taipei and we told them we are here to pick up our adopted daughter. They were very happy to hear that and gave us a free room upgrade! We now have a HUGE 2 bedroom/2 bathroom suite and the manager even brought us a welcome fruit basket!

We met our guide and translator and we love them. Gina, Tina, and Phua. They're fantastic and took us to the night market for shopping and to eat dinner at the "toilet restaurant." You can't even imagine! They told us Taipei is famous for many theme restaurants.......now we believe them!

I'll post more photos and news later....

Time to go! (ikimasho!)

It's 5:20am here on Sunday morning.

David and I have been awake for awhile now....maybe we're anxious?!

Of course, Max is sound asleep asusual. He's always so calm and collected......ah, youth.
I had a dream last night about packing hand sanitizer, I guess my mind is still going over the packing list!

Everything's packed and ready to go.......we're going to Taipei.

Mika is waiting!!

Our flight leaves in 5 hours. : )

getting ready to go...on Sunday!

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.

David begins his paternity leave tomorrow at lunchtime and will be home for the next 30 days to spend lots of time with Mika. We're looking forward to taking her to the park, the zoo, and a fun kids playhouse here called Mona Kids Jungle.

Only 3 more days......and we'll be on our way!!

We have our travel plan!

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!

April 26th @ 11:45am- fly to Taipei- arrive at 12:10pm. Check into hotel and meet our guide/translator for dinner at 5:30pm.

April 27th @ 9:00am- travel by speed train to Zhuanghua province to spend the day with Mika.
10:30am-11:30am- Meet Mika's foster Mother and ask questions about Mika's care/likes/dislikes/daily schedule.
11:30am-1:00pm- Meet Mika! Have lunch with her.
1:00pm-3:30pm- Take Mika to her favorite park to spend time together and play.
3:30pm- Mika will go back to the foster home and we'll take the speed train back to the hotel in Taipei.

April 28th @ 2:00pm- travel to the orphanage to have the official receiving ceremony and pick up Mika! We're scheduled to stay at the orphanage until 3:10pm and then return to the hotel with her. I'll be a new Mommy, David will be a new Daddy and Max will be a big brother!

April 29th @ 8:00am- Appointment at the American Embassy to complete adoption paperwork. She'll officially be ours!

May 1st @ 10:45am- Arrive home on Okinawa. We're a family now!!

Only 11 more days and we'll be there! We are so thankful for Gods blessing.

Mika's Diaper bag April 11, 2009

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.
Only 15 more days and we'll be in Taiwan to bring Mika home! Our "countdown to Mika chain" is getting very short!!!

April 1, 2009......Mika update

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.
It makes us feel very thankful to know they're taking such good care of her.

I've started having very peculiar dreams about Mika the past 3 days. It's always the same dream.....we come home from the airport and she crawls up on the couch and sits down. She folds her arms and stares at me.....as if to say, "well,..... now what Mommy?!" It's a very funny dream and I think it's Gods way of telling me not to worry too much and we'll figure things out as we go. I'm hoping my Mommy instinct will kick back in without too much delay! Our "baby" is now 15 years 7 months old and David gave him his first shaving lesson today! My oh my.....one child is starting to learn how to shave and one child will be in diapers. Things are going to get VERY interesting at our house soon. : )

We'll be in Taiwan in 25 more days and we'll finally meet our little girl!! Her room is ready and we're just waiting to go.

March 31, 2009....We bought airline tickets today!

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!

While we were at the travel agency, I suddenly became very nervous.... We were buying airline tickets and it hit me when we purchased a one way ticket for Mika to come home.....we're going as a family of three and coming back as 4! I had to walk outside for a moment to catch my breath and compose myself. Luckily, David was very calm and showed a picture of Mika to the travel agent and explained why we're so excited. I had some serious butterflies in my tummy all of a sudden!! We have our tickets and everything's set and ready to go. We'll be home with Mika on May 1st and our new life together will begin!