Despite our best attempts to adjust ourselves to Taiwanese time, we find ourselves suffering from a classic case of jet lag and waking up in the middle of the night. We force ourselves to sleep or at least lie in bed until 6:00 so that we don’t find ourselves exhausted later in the day.
Included in our hotel stay is a buffet style breakfast with a wide assortment of Chinese and Western dishes, most of which I would classify as lunch or dinner items rather than breakfast. The food is very good however, and we start our day off with a bowl of noodle soup, seaweed salad, dumplings and scrambled eggs.
Grace picks us up at 9:00 a.m. from the hotel lobby and we head for the orphanage where we meet the orphanage staff and get to visit with Megan and the 9 other babies. We spend some time playing with the children and then leave for the first of our two doctor appointments that day. We arrive at the local hospital and make our way to the children’s ward. We wait a short time and then enter a room with the doctor and a number of nurses all wearing face masks which is extremely common here in Taiwan. Half the people on the streets wear them, presumably to protect themselves from the pollution. In the case of the hospital however; we assume it is to protect themselves from germs. The doctor is very nice and speaks some English. He reviews Megan’s medical and immunization records. He reviews her previous hospitalizations for an infection and pneumonia when she was an infant and explains that her immunizations are up to date and notes which ones she will need soon after arriving home to the US. If she had remained in Taiwan she would have received the Japanese encephalitis vaccine because of the bad mosquito problem in Taiwan, but that is one which is not administered in the US. They also vaccinate against TB in Taiwan as opposed to administering the test to see if someone has TB. The doctor also explains that though she appears a little cross eyed at times, she isn’t. That makes me feel better, but we’ll still have her examined when we arrive home. At this time, other patients have already entered the room and are waiting their turn to speak to the doctor. I thank the doctor and we leave the hospital.
Since we have some time before the next appointment in the afternoon, we pick up Grace’s husband, Edmund, and go to lunch. We go to one of their favorite restaurants where they take all the adoptive families visiting from the US. It is a Japanese style shabu shabu restaurant where you select all your vegetables, meats and fish and then cook them at the table in individual pots which are recessed in the table. The food is delicious, though it takes me quite a long time to eat since I am also feeding Megan who is happily soaking up the atmosphere, not to mention relishing her first experience with restaurant food. We learn that she loves to eat and has a good appetite, despite the fact that she only has 4 teeth. I feed her rice, salmon and tofu with chopsticks, though the tofu was her least favorite. I’ve never fed a baby with chopsticks, but it actually works quite well.
After lunch, we drop off Edmund at his home and my mother at the hotel and return to the hospital for the second doctor’s appointment. This doctor evaluates Megan’s development and assesses whether she is on target or delayed in specific areas. This doctor is very young, and I’m not really sure she is even old enough to be a doctor, but she seems to know what she is doing. They weigh Megan, and measure her height and head circumference. The doctor explains that Megan is progressing fine, though she is a little underweight. She also notes that she has a speech delay and recommends that I feed her hard crackers so that she can develop the muscles in her mouth. If I didn’t already have two children, I might actually have been concerned, but since I do, I just had to contain my laughter. Megan will turn one year old next week, and I have yet to meet a child that age with an extensive vocabulary. Her communication skills seem to be just fine. She makes sounds, smiles and laughs a lot and makes good eye contact. The fact that she isn’t actually talking yet is quite okay with me. And if she were, I would need a translator anyway.
We return to the orphanage to pick up some items for Megan but then stay for a while to help out since they are understaffed at the moment. It is non-stop feeding and diaper changing for the staff. Grace runs around picking up all the infants who wake up crying while I try to feed Megan who isn’t particularly hungry after her big lunch and play with the crawling babies on the floor.
We leave Megan at the orphanage and then leave to go pick my mother up from the hotel so that we can visit the night market. Despite the temptation of trying stinky tofu, one of Taiwan’s most well known dishes, I pass. The market is full of delicacies such as various organ meats, stands where every part (and I mean every part) of the duck can be found, whole fried frogs (not just the legs) and other tasty delights. The array of foods is impressive though not exactly mouth watering, at least for me. Since my sole job in Taiwan is to bring Megan home safe and sound, I decide that the risk of getting sick isn’t worth it. After such a big lunch, none of us are particularly hungry anyway so we pass on dinner. Instead I select a delicious snack consisting of a pancake sandwich filled with red bean paste.
After visiting the night market, we decide that it would be best to leave Megan at the orphanage for one more night, and we return to the hotel.
Included in our hotel stay is a buffet style breakfast with a wide assortment of Chinese and Western dishes, most of which I would classify as lunch or dinner items rather than breakfast. The food is very good however, and we start our day off with a bowl of noodle soup, seaweed salad, dumplings and scrambled eggs.
Grace picks us up at 9:00 a.m. from the hotel lobby and we head for the orphanage where we meet the orphanage staff and get to visit with Megan and the 9 other babies. We spend some time playing with the children and then leave for the first of our two doctor appointments that day. We arrive at the local hospital and make our way to the children’s ward. We wait a short time and then enter a room with the doctor and a number of nurses all wearing face masks which is extremely common here in Taiwan. Half the people on the streets wear them, presumably to protect themselves from the pollution. In the case of the hospital however; we assume it is to protect themselves from germs. The doctor is very nice and speaks some English. He reviews Megan’s medical and immunization records. He reviews her previous hospitalizations for an infection and pneumonia when she was an infant and explains that her immunizations are up to date and notes which ones she will need soon after arriving home to the US. If she had remained in Taiwan she would have received the Japanese encephalitis vaccine because of the bad mosquito problem in Taiwan, but that is one which is not administered in the US. They also vaccinate against TB in Taiwan as opposed to administering the test to see if someone has TB. The doctor also explains that though she appears a little cross eyed at times, she isn’t. That makes me feel better, but we’ll still have her examined when we arrive home. At this time, other patients have already entered the room and are waiting their turn to speak to the doctor. I thank the doctor and we leave the hospital.
Since we have some time before the next appointment in the afternoon, we pick up Grace’s husband, Edmund, and go to lunch. We go to one of their favorite restaurants where they take all the adoptive families visiting from the US. It is a Japanese style shabu shabu restaurant where you select all your vegetables, meats and fish and then cook them at the table in individual pots which are recessed in the table. The food is delicious, though it takes me quite a long time to eat since I am also feeding Megan who is happily soaking up the atmosphere, not to mention relishing her first experience with restaurant food. We learn that she loves to eat and has a good appetite, despite the fact that she only has 4 teeth. I feed her rice, salmon and tofu with chopsticks, though the tofu was her least favorite. I’ve never fed a baby with chopsticks, but it actually works quite well.
After lunch, we drop off Edmund at his home and my mother at the hotel and return to the hospital for the second doctor’s appointment. This doctor evaluates Megan’s development and assesses whether she is on target or delayed in specific areas. This doctor is very young, and I’m not really sure she is even old enough to be a doctor, but she seems to know what she is doing. They weigh Megan, and measure her height and head circumference. The doctor explains that Megan is progressing fine, though she is a little underweight. She also notes that she has a speech delay and recommends that I feed her hard crackers so that she can develop the muscles in her mouth. If I didn’t already have two children, I might actually have been concerned, but since I do, I just had to contain my laughter. Megan will turn one year old next week, and I have yet to meet a child that age with an extensive vocabulary. Her communication skills seem to be just fine. She makes sounds, smiles and laughs a lot and makes good eye contact. The fact that she isn’t actually talking yet is quite okay with me. And if she were, I would need a translator anyway.
We return to the orphanage to pick up some items for Megan but then stay for a while to help out since they are understaffed at the moment. It is non-stop feeding and diaper changing for the staff. Grace runs around picking up all the infants who wake up crying while I try to feed Megan who isn’t particularly hungry after her big lunch and play with the crawling babies on the floor.
We leave Megan at the orphanage and then leave to go pick my mother up from the hotel so that we can visit the night market. Despite the temptation of trying stinky tofu, one of Taiwan’s most well known dishes, I pass. The market is full of delicacies such as various organ meats, stands where every part (and I mean every part) of the duck can be found, whole fried frogs (not just the legs) and other tasty delights. The array of foods is impressive though not exactly mouth watering, at least for me. Since my sole job in Taiwan is to bring Megan home safe and sound, I decide that the risk of getting sick isn’t worth it. After such a big lunch, none of us are particularly hungry anyway so we pass on dinner. Instead I select a delicious snack consisting of a pancake sandwich filled with red bean paste.
After visiting the night market, we decide that it would be best to leave Megan at the orphanage for one more night, and we return to the hotel.
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