One of Our Happiest Mornings On Earth

Alex and I love new places! We were excited from the beginning of this adoption that we would be traveling to Asia for the first time. When we were talking and praying about adopting and we learned about Taiwan Alex said, "Taiwan, yes, Taiwan, I like it. It seems right." It did not disappoint. It was right.

I woke up with a deep joy in my heart on June 19th. It was surreal. I did my best to soak in all the sights, smells, sounds, emotions. I am smiling just thinking about it.

The Novetel was the name of our hotel. The breakfast buffet was truly international. There were meats, cheeses, breads, croissants, Japanese noodles, English breakfast beans, Congee (an Asian rice porridge), eggs, bacon, juice, coffee. You name it. They had it.

People were very friendly and were interested in us. We were congratulated several times as we shared our reason for travel. It was delightful in every way.

After breakfast we packed up our things to catch the 8:00 a.m. shuttle to the High Speed Rail. We got to the lobby at 8:00 and asked the front desk where we should catch the shuttle. As we were talking the shuttle drove away. For a brief moment my heart sank. I thought our whole day might have just changed.

But.......

My knight in shining armor, Alex, hailed a taxi and we were on our way on schedule smiling from ear to ear.

We made it to the train station. Purchasing the tickets was easy. We were set.

By car I believe it would've taken us 6 hours to get from Taipei (in the north) to Kaohsiung City (in the South). But, the high speed train would get us there in about an hour and a half. Amazing!

The train was very clean and smooth.

We enjoyed the trek immensely. The landscape was interesting and beautiful.

We didn't really feel nervous. We were just excited!

We arrived at the Kaohsiung Train station at 10:06 a.m. Holly and Trena were waiting on us!

We loaded up our suitcases and were off to meet Meg!