Sorry for the long silence......
It just seems like time just runs away with me! Not to mention that everytime I want to sit down and type this someone needs something, or is hungry or thirsty, or.... well, you get the idea?
We have finally moved and settled in Ilan! Boy, what an adventure we had these last few weeks.
When the time was approaching for us to move, we heard roads were still closed due to mudslides and rockfalls, so we weren't too sure if we would actually move on the 15 August as originally planned. Also because we were organising a move through a friend using her friend, so it is kind of like playing "broken down telephone"!!! LOL
When we originally were organising a mover, our friend Lyn offered to help as she has a friend who is a mover - Great! So we tell her we can move on the 18 August as the apartment will be available then. Guess what??? I get a call on a Saturday night at around 10pm (July 21 I think), telling me that the mover will be there the following morning at 10am to move us!!! WHAT????
So now I try and explain that the mover CANNOT come as how will the children and I live with nothing in the apartment, not to mention that the person whose apartment we are moving to only leaves on August 19!!!!! So I tell her it is absolutely impossible! She replies that we told her anytime around the 18 August! So we reschedule saying that anytime around 18 August will be good (a few days before or after - NOT a month!).
Anyway, then the threat of another typhoon, this time upgraded to a category 5, arrives a few days before we are due to move! Jason and I start getting a bit concerned because if the 2 previous ones flooded our town, what will it be like with a category 5????
Wednesday morning, the day we are due to move, I am checking weather reports, and they are confirming that the typhoon will make landfall by Saturday. Jason and I decide it is time for the kids and I to pack up and go!!! So I throw the rest of our stuff that I had not yet packed into boxes (running around like a mad woman, telling the kids to stay in their room until I tell them they can come out - except for Willow-River, who was my helper!)...
We then call for a taxi to take us to Kaohsiung (an hour or so by car, AND during 5pm rush hour), just as we are about to arrive in Kaohsiung, Asia-Faith, who had been sitting in the back started getting restless, so I put her on my lap in the front, and then guess what??? She vomitted all over me!!!! YUCK!!! I guess she was feeling a little car-sick! Then the taxi driver hands me a plastic packet, and his tissues, and there is only 1 tissue left in the box! Just then we arrive at the High Speed Rail (train), and we all get out of the taxi! Now we have 4 kids, 1 stroller, 1 cat who we are trying to hide in a basket in a bag as we did not know if they let cats on the train, (and I forgot about her when we packed the taxi, and we put her in the boot! I was really praying she would survive the hour in the boot - she did!)... Not to mention we had a big bag of our clothes (I tried to pack light, but you know me, always need to take extras - just in case!), the computer, and my handbag - and noone around to help, not even a trolley!
Next stop were the toilets as we had to get all the puke cleaned up and get changed, then we headed off to go and buy tickets for the train. By this time I was now exhausted! Our train was due to leave at around 7:30pm or so, so we headed straight to where we needed to board. Finally we all got on the train, the kids loved it, but I just couldn't wait to get to our final destination. We were to arrive in Taipei and then still another train trip to Ilan (2 hours or so)...
We finally arrive in Taipei, and just as I am getting all the bags together the boys say there is daddy! I thought they were being funny as we were still on the train and dad would be upstairs waiting, but no! There he was!!! He had bought a ticket so that he could get on the platform and meet us there!!! I was SOOOOOO happy to see him!!!
We decided to take a taxi to Ilan (Loudong actually), as it would be alot quicker than the train. So we took the taxi and arrived in Loudong at the apartment Jason had been staying with a friend, Sam. I was just so happy to be back with my man and almost to our new home!!!
We stayed with Sam for a few days, and then on the Saturday the typhoon made landfall!!!! Wow, it was something else! The wind was howling and the trees were almost doubled over. Once it was over we went for a walk and there were just so many broken trees lying around, but not all that much other damage.
Then Sunday we finally moved to our apartment! It was the first time I was seeing it and it is really great! Fortunately the guy Mark who lived here previously left us a whole lot of stuff along with stuff that we bought from him, which includes a car, scooter, washing machine (very big), fridge, an oven (I am so glad about this), liquidiser, 2 new double beds, bedding, towels, crockery, pots, printer, speakers (surround sound), tv, and LOTS more, all for the equivalent of about R8000!!! Can you believe it??? We were truly blessed!
We only managed to get our stuff from Donggang about 2 weeks later, so now all is well and we (or should I say *I*) have finished unpacking, and everything has basically found its home:)
I must admit though, that after the first week, I wasn't very happy with our decision to move... I missed the familiarity of Donggang, knowing where to buy decent bread (and that is not easy here as everything is always sweet!), for example. I missed being able to go to the morning market, and also my few friends that I had made in Donggang.
Then we went to Sam's farewell and there were about 14 (maybe more) South Africans there in one room! It was so great being able to speak to someone in your own language without having to explain yourself every few minutes!
So slowly Ilan is starting to grow on me:) Jason is really happy with his new school, and there is lots more to offer here, especially for the kids. We have also met another wonderful couple from SA who have 2 kids, Sheldon is 7 and Clarice is 4. The kids really enjoy playing together, and we have set up a playdate once a week (sometimes more), for the kids to get together - this has really been a great thing for me too. AND I am starting dance classes at the sports park down the road from us twice a week in the mornings - I am really looking forward to this too:)
On another note, we had to do a visa run to Hong Kong on 5th September. Boy was that unexpected!!! Our paperwork was already "in process", but due to the typhoons and flooding and a mixup in the tax office, paperwork was delayed, which meant our ARC expired along with our Resident Visas!!! Which meant they couldn't continue processing our ARC's without us leaving the country first!!! Sooooo, we had to take an unexpected trip to Hong Kong for the night. Unfortunately Asia-Faith could not travel with us (as we don't have her passport), so luckily for us our nephew Rory is also living in Ilan now and he offered to look after her for us. If it wasn't for him I don't know what I would have done!
Before we left Taiwan, we had to go to the immigration office and pay a fine (which could be a maximum of NT$ 10 000 per person), and because there were 2 adults and 3 kids, we were expecting a heavy fine... turns out we had to pay NT$1000 each for Jason and I, and the kids didn't have to pay as they are under 14 years old! Whew!!!! I was also worried that they would stamp a "DO NOT RETURN FOR A YEAR" in our passports, which they (obviously) didn't do.... but I was stressing about that anyway....
So we left for Hong Kong at around 8:45pm and arrived in Hong Kong about an hour and a bit later. We had already decided that we would be spending the night in the airport as we just did not have the funds to book into a hotel, and it would have been an absolute waste of money... There were actually quite a few people sleeping in the airport, and so we felt right at home! The next morning we left early on a double decker bus to go to the visa office, and as long as you are there before 11am you can get your visas done by 4pm the same day! So thankfully they accepted all my documents (after the nightmare I had last year with these documents, I was expecting a few hassells), but, in the end she accepted everything without any questions.
We spent the day just sitting around in the park, the kids playing on the small patch of grass and feeding the birds. We arrived back at the visa office and at 4pm they returned our passports to us with Resident Visas, so we headed back to the airport, and changed our flight to an earlier one as we were booked on a 9pm flight, so we changed it to a 6:30pm flight and headed back home:) It was sooooo good to be back home! Asia-Faith was fast asleep, but I couldn't help myself, I had to go and wake her! Only to discover that Rory and Stuart had put her diaper on backwards!!!! It was too funny! Stuart said that Rory had asked if it was on ok, and it looked ok to them, so they figured it was on right! LOL
So now we are waiting to fetch our ARC's on Wednesday, and then we will be legal aliens again!
As for the adoption process, well, the papers were sent to Ilan courts, only to be returned to the Taitung courts because that is where Asia-Faith's household registry is held. So we are waiting yet again for a court date... hoping it will be at the end of September.
Well, sorry for the long "catch up"....
~* Peace and Love *~
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