It's been over a year since our last post and so much has happened. We are now in Taiwan quarantining before we get to meet our son, Caleb. We will be in quarantine for 15 days before we will be allowed to explore Taipei. We will need to get another covid test before we go to see Caleb for the first time.
In the past week, we have received 5 travel visas, took 5 covid tests that all came back negative, traveled on 2 planes for over 24 hours, and settled into our two adjoining hotel rooms in Taipei to begin our quarantine. The kids have been AMAZING! They were all so wonderful on the long travel and just went with the flow. Now that we are settled here we have been enjoying some very interesting and very yummy food. It's not my typical choice of meals but I am loving it. Isaac has decided that he is going to live on noodles, protein bars, apple sauce, and food pouches. Thankfully they have hamburgers on the menu so Elijah is happy.
The last week leading up to travel felt almost impossible. I am not prone to anxiety and stress but it felt like we were hiking up an impossible mountain and I was stressed to the max. Adoption, in general, is complicated but adoption during covid is beyond hard. There are so many new rules and things to do that my head was spinning. We had to have negative covid tests within a certain amount of hours of getting on the plane but testing facilities weren't consistent about test results return time and if we got them back too early then they didn't count, if we got them back late we couldn't get on the plane. And of course we weren't allowed to do the rapid test. Then we also had to have travel visas and they didn't come back in time for us to make our first flight so we had to reschedule to a few days later. Then we had to register on a certain website, get a Taiwanese phone number, and log in and screenshot specific pages before they would even let us get to immigration. It felt like if we missed one small piece the whole tower would crumble. But this all reminded me of the passage from 2 Corinthians 1:8-11
8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
Our "affliction" was nowhere near what Paul experienced but it was a trial nonetheless. I was reminded that we were going through the hardship to be reminded that we could only rely on God to make all the details fall into place and that we needed much prayer. I have felt so blessed by all the people praying for us.
Our hotel has been bigger and nicer than we imagined and the food is great. We expected to lose weight on this trip...now I am thinking that we may come home with a quarantine 15. The people here have been so kind and helpful and have offered to help us every step of the way. They made sure at the airport that everything was filled out properly. The hotel staff has been so kind in making sure that we like our food and don't need anything. Caleb's social worker has called us and offered to have toys, snacks, etc delivered to us if we want it. I couldn't ask for better hospitality in the midst of a pandemic.
We Skyped with Caleb this morning. We could see a difference in him. He was a lot more emotional and having meltdowns. His foster family said that he is having a hard time with the idea of leaving them and has been acting out more lately. Leaving the family you have lived with for years to go off with virtual strangers is very hard for anyone to process let alone a 5 year old. And I am sure that he doesn't have the words to express all that he is feeling. These next few weeks and months are going to be very hard for him. He is losing a family, culture, food, language (we hope to help him keep it), country, familiar sights and smells, and everything that he is comfortable with. This is the hard part of adoption. In order for a new family to be formed, another family has to be split. We know that this is God's plan for him and for us but it doesn't make it any less hard when going through it.
If you could please pray for Caleb in this transition. We hope that the week we will spend with him before coming home will help him attach to us but there is still a long road ahead before he feels connected to us. Also, please pray for us in this quarantine time. We are 3 days in and completely content in the moment as we adjust to the time change. But come day 8 I imagine we will be going stir crazy. Isaac, in particular, is an extrovert and hates to sit still and stay indoors. It won't be long before the tears come over not being able to leave this room. I have lots of activities to keep him busy and distracted but they can only last for so long.
We will post again soon with more updates on how we are all doing. For now we are waiting and praying, which seems to be a common them in adoption. We are thankful for the prayers and support of so many back home!
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