Doing great!

Just a quick update for those that pop into the blog looking for more information. Well, all is well and things are going great. Harley is settling in and seem to "feel" at home and even seems to like it :) The girls get along beautifully and definitely miss each other when Melanie's at school during the day. Will keep you all posted - trying to get the computer at home working again so we can post pictures asap. Take care!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for, I don't even know where to begin. Melanie and Harley are the most wonderful children a parent could ask for. Both have their own unique stories and both are beautiful in so many ways. They're quickly becoming the best of friends. I can't imagine either of them without each other, they love each other and get along like they've known each other their whole lives.

I wish I had an update on Apple, still in Taiwan and hopefully doing well in her studies and staying on the right track in spite of the hand she has been dealt with in life. She is in our thoughts a LOT. Pray for her that she can be strong and know she will always have a place in our hearts, no matter where she lives.

Take care and we'll post more pictures--I promise!
Nancy

Meeting Mike's Family!!

Today we got together at Granny's Old Country Buffet in Kent. My parents Margaret and Gary, along with my sister Teri were there. Teri's son Brandon and his fiancee Marie were there also. Long time family friend Dave Kappenman and his wife Louise had stopped by the house the day before and we invited them as well.

Sorry, I feel a little weird about taking photos at a restaurant so they aren't the best quality :(

Afterword at our home I was so busy showing showing family our souvenir's from the trip and maps and photo albums I forgot to snap more photos at home, sorry mom.

Meeting Nancy's Family!!

Today three of Nancy's four siblings and their children came to meet our new family. Brother Ed lives in Missouri, so he and little Eddie were unable to be here. Brother Stan and his wife Cathy, along with their three children Alyson, Colette and Derek. Sister Peggy and husband Geoff, Savannah and Cheyenne tagged along but Steve was busy today. Betty and Briana were also here, hey they still are, imagine that:)

We Barbecued Sockeye Salmon and cooked some steamer clams. We had a couple of different salads, Pasta and Lettuce, meats and cheese.

Harley loves to get attention from all new people she meets, so my family will get the attention tomorrow, I hope they don't mind being called "LOCO"

Included is a photo of all cousins on mommy's side of the family except Steve and little Eddie.

Two Beauties!!!

When we were in Taipei Nancy chose matching dresses for our two Asian beauties, we could have purchased the same from Jennifer's place in Seattle http://jennifersplaceusa.homestead.com/ but that would not be the same as bringing them home from Taipei. Anyone who has adopted from China has probably visited Jennifers place while in Guanzhou. It is very close to the White Swan Hotel.

Harley and Papa made their first solo trip into public today, I am glad we did because H got a little upset and started to cry for Mama. We walked around the parking lot for a while then we made our way into Safeway, we first went through the produce section to let H pick out whatever she wanted. I think it was good for her to be alone with me, and then going back to Mama and Jei-Jei. I will be spending the next 4 weeks alone with her while M and N go back to work and school.

All four of us slept in the proper places last night for the first time as a family.

I think this is a link to the Ficus tree maze we walked through.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=taipei&ie=UTF8&ll=25.069254,121.530424&spn=0.002371,0.004989&t=k&z=18&om=1

Also more Taiwan photos.

I am blessed beyond words, so here are the photos to prove it!!

Here are some photos taken this evening Wednesday, November 7th. Harley has just eaten about 2 pounds of clams so she is full. Melanie has caught a cold and has a fever of 103F, poor baby, she has also had about 4 bloody nose episodes today.

We purchased new winter jackets for the two today as well as mittens and boots + a new home for Goldie (the fish)

Also photos of our trip to Taipei.

We Are Home!!!

We left Taipei at 11:00pm and arrive in Seattle 6 hours before we left at 5:00pm the same day local time. Melanie was asleep shortly after take-off and Harley followed soon after. They slept most of the flight, Harley woke first at 5:30am Taipei time and Melanie an hour later. It was a pretty short flight since we hit groundspeeds of over 730 mph, we must have had a favorable tailwind.

When we arrived at home Harley could see photos of herself everywhere and I truly believe at that moment she knew this was her home as well as ours.

We (Melanie, Harley and Daddy) jumped into the hot tub late this evening and we had a great time. It is probably colder outside than Harley has ever felt on bare skin, about 39F, so she was pretty eager to get her whole body in once she felt the 101 degree water on her legs.

Harley has adjusted to our family very well, we know at first she missed her foster mother sooooo!! badly, and we know she still does, we are just greatful the the pain of seperation seems to be subsiding.

We met some great people in Taiwan, The staff at the Les Suites Ching Cheng were the best, most professional young ladies and gentlemen we have ever met. I hate having girls open the door for me, it is just not right unless my leg is broken or something like that.

I cannot say enough about Mei-Ru, She is a great "China Style Driver" not scary at all. She is very punctual and helpful with a small distressed child that does not know any English besides "LOCO" wait that is Spanish. Mei-Ru was a blessing to us.

We cannot forget the "Dias Trio" Randy, Jessica and Bobo from Citrus Heights, near Sacramento California, You guys are a blast, and seeing the two of you become three we will always remember. We hope you don't move to Texas too soon so, we can meet next summer on our trip to Califonia. We hope Bobo has healed from her mishap (((HUG)))

And Mark, Jen and Andy from New Jersey. It was a pleasure to meet you and watch Gu Gu (sp?) entertain my Mandarin speaking daughter. I wish we could have eaten at the Jurrasic, but the Italian was not that bad. Also the first time I've ever taken a cab somewhere and then had him take us back :)

It is good to be home but I like Asia.

Our last night in Taipei!!!

Today was a short excursion into the city to visit a park where we went through a ficus tree maze, a 200 year old home and the Grand Hotel, the first 5 star hotel in TP. Harley has opened up to us alot. Mei-Ru asked her if she loved us today and she said yes, then giggled. She is now fake crying and saying mama, totally corny and then starting to laugh.

I went back to the market today and bought that teapot, thank you very much.

The next time we post should be from Maple Valley. I'm going to miss this bakery up the walk from us, yummy food, I like this bacon and cheese rolled sesame bread.

Childrenland playtime

Mei-Ru took all of us to Childrenland. When we got there, we thought it was closed. It was open but not busy :) WOW, we basically had the entire funpark to ourselves! It was a lot of fun and the girls went down the coolest/longest/fastest slide they've ever been on made of some kind of rock (ok--fake rock, hehe) but they were really moving! We had an absolute blast on the Bumper Cars, too. The bumps kept coming at us and Melanie kept dishing them back with her keen sense of driving :)




For Harley, this was another pretty good day for us all. Before we left for Childrenland, we stopped in a local restaurant for lunch. She started to have an episode grieving and I have a feeling that the place/environment brought back memories and made her sad. My heart still breaks for her but seeing the improvement day by day has been so wonderful. She's such a great kid, I can't even explain how lucky I feel to call Melanie and Harley my daughters.

We all visit the blogs looking for pictures so here are some to smile at. The girls went on the Tilt-a-Whirl with Mike and were laughing so hard. We weren't sure show Harley would do but she loved it! The fair will be so much fun :)

YEAH!! We had a great day!!!

Mei-Ru picked us up at 12:20 p.m this afternoon and we first went to pick up Penny and Guan at Cathwel then traveled Southwest to the town of Jhunan near Miaoli city where Harley was born.

We stopped in the town of Guansi to buy gifts for her biological family we were about to meet. I feared Harley would see the familiar faces and places and have another meltdown, not the case today. Harley recognized places and told our guides, but it did not have any affect on her.

We had the privilege of meeting Harley's Great Auntie, Auntie, Uncle and her biological sister (Jie Jie). We exchanged red envelopes and gifts, asked some personal questions and left the meeting with a desire that we could not have imagined or foreseen. We've made an inquiry and the response by Penny was "Are you serious"?

Listening to Music this morning

Here are some more pictures:

It's 5:00 am and the girls are up and ready to go. Melanie is playing with a balloon again and Harley is fascinated with the MP3 player with Melanie's B-Bop songs :) Too cute. I think she likes changing the song and pushing the buttons as much as hearing the music. She has now been introduced to Hannah Montana, The Backstreet Boys, Kelli Clarkson, High School Musical (1 & 2) songs, Jessie McCartney, Aaron Carter and a handful of other artists. Now they're sharing a piece of paper and drawing pictures. Melanie is thrilled to finally get to play with her. Harley even let held hands with her while they were walking at the park or stand with her arm around her. Such pretty girls we have!

Mike and I both tried to download a movie clip of the girls feeding the fish but it wouldn't work so here are some regular pictures to look at.

The best day yet!!!

After the episode at the end of the day yesterday it has been relatively smooth sailing for the Nicholsons. Last night was the first night that Harley has slept through the night without crying for her foster mom. We had breakfast as normal and then met Mei-Ru and the Dias clan for our AIT appt.(American Institute in Taiwan) Since Taiwan is not officially recognized as a country there cannot be an American Consulate as there is in Guangzhou, China. At the AIT they have toys to keep the children occupied while you are waiting. Harleys only setback was when she saw her social worker from Cathwel, I'm sure it brought back memories of FM. After the appt. we went to a pay by weight Taiwanese buffet which cost my family of four around $4 USD, it was delicious. Then we visited a Chinese Handicraft Mart where we purchased matching pink silk dresses for the girls, and handbags among other goodies We then visited the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, which was beautiful even under construction. Mei-Ru brought small packages of floating fishfood for the three girls, Melanie, Bobo and Harley so they could feed the Koi in the ponds on the Memorial grounds, It was so cool!!! Tomorrow we travel to Miao Li on the west coast of Taipei (Harley's hometown) to visit some biological family members. We don't believe it will have a negative effect on Harley, we worry she will recognize landmarks as her foster family lives in Miao Li.

Fun day with a rough ending......

Well, I knew better than to let this happen after all the reading I've been doing but I let it happen and I'm upset with myself about it. Harley has been grieving and asking to go home and we've been telling her that we are a family now and she's staying with us forever, we will love her always and that everything will be okay. We've had the ups and downs but more ups than downs so I let my guard down. The much needed break I got yesterday was a non-stop barrage of whining and wanting to leave directed at Mike instead of me. This was in a different form than I got with the crying and clinging. She was just plain saying it and waiving off anything we even tried to say back to reassure her that this is the way life will be now. I guess she thought she was talking to a brick wall with me and Mike and went on to the next "victim"-- Mei-Ru our facilitator. We hung out at the zoo with her all day and actually had a really great time. Harley really came out of her shell and was enjoying the animals and freedom to run and have fun away from "those people" that won't listen to her. Well, the end of the day was extremely rough for her. Mei-Ru was telling her that she had to come back to the hotel with us.....sorry babydoll, that's just the way it is. At the zoo, she was able to be away, pull away and talk Mandarin with Mei-Ru and feel somewhat normal. A non-frustrated communication issue that she has with us. That consistency that we started took a big step backwards but I hope it's one we can recover from pretty quickly. We managed to literally unhook her fingers and arms from Mei-Ru and decided to take a walk around the block past the hotel entrance but Harley recognized the entrance, pointed to it and we realized that she knew exactly where she was and that we were supposed to be going there. Once we were in, she was quiet and clingy again and went down pretty quietly, sleeping very soundly still even with one butt-cheek exposed because her poor tiny little butt is too small for the 2T/3T panties I got for her before we left thinking they would fit just fine :)

Enough - all in all it was a really fun day and she smiled more and laughed and had some fun with Melanie, too.

Taipei City Zoo

Today we went to the Taipei City Zoo. It's a lot bigger than I expected. If you have a chance to see it while you're here, I would highly recommend going. We will be going back to ride to the top of the hill on the Maokong Gondola. That should give us some excellent shots over the city if the sky is clear.