Robert Whiting
In search of awesome
In order to adopt across countries, we needed to get an immigration visa in their Taiwanese passports to bring them through the US border. The appointment at AIT (the American Institute in Taiwan) determined the timeline for the rest of the trip, and we woke up that morning with four kids for the first time.
I slept restlessly in the musty hotel until 6, when I reasoned it was acceptable to get up. Becca shared my restlessness–in just a few hours, we were going to meet our adopted kids for the first time in person and then drive away with them. The anticipated moment was so close.
We spent the morning packing and panicking. After church and lunch, we were going to take the bullet train from Taipei in Northern Taiwan to Tainan in the far South West corner. After a night in a hotel, we were going to meet and take custody of our adopted children!
I spent a lot of the trip dreaming of moving back to South East Asia in some capacity and trying to imagine ways to accomplish it. In reality, we probably wouldn’t return to Taiwan for at least a couple years, even for an extended visit. With that in mind, we wanted to have some souvenirs for our family and especially for the kids. We didn’t know what belongings they’d have to remember Taiwan by.
We pushed too hard. If it were just me, I would probably backpack between the cities and see all the top 50 recommended destinations and experiences, but with two kids and a spouse, there are more important priorities. Writing this on the 14th makes me want to skip all these memories and share what it’s like with four kids, but I know the memories gathered in the 6 days leading up to the adoption day matter. After the beach day, we needed a lower-key day.