Good times in Taipei

Well, a lot has happened since my last post. Haven't had much chance to use a computer. It's just after midnight on Saturday, January 28th. Quentin and Brian are both asleep so I snuck out to try an update while I have a chance. Let's see-- where was I? The last time I posted was on our first day here, the day we went to Taipei 101. The next day, we went to the National Palace Museum and the Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial, both of which were breathtakingly beautiful and interesting. The internet here is supposedly high-speed, so I guess our laptop is slow because I can't get the pictures to upload. I'll add some sightseeing pics when we get home. Anyway, the first two days we did as much sightseeing as our tired, jet-lagged bodies could take. Monday was the big day. We went to the orphanage in the morning. It was located on the outskirts of town amidst the gorgeous green mountainous surroundings. The actual building was tucked away in this small little suburb area- nothing really interesting about it. We went inside and despite being about half an hour early, were taken right in to the nursery. It was very calm and quiet and smaller than I thought it would be. They had us wash our hands and take off our shoes. Next thing we knew, the caretaker was bringing Quentin out. He was so still and quiet! And let me just say, he is even cuter in person than in pictures!! They had him layered in at least three sets of clothes, so it's no wonder he felt hot and sweaty when I held him. He let both Brian and I hold him without a peep. He just looked around with his mouth open and his tongue out. His skin is so amazingly soft! He's chubby, no doubt, but not as big as I thought he'd be. Still, we've been asked several times this week if he's 1 year old and people are surprised when we tell them he's six months old.
*ok-- it's more than a week since I started this post. Unfortunately, half of it got erased and I was just too tired and frustrated to fix it then. I hope I can recapture some of my feelings from then.

So, they brought Quentin out and he was calm and quiet and let both of us hold him with no fussing at all. Meanwhile, the caregivers wanted to go over his schedule and paperwork with us. They told us he had been running a fever and proceeded to rattle off a series of confusing instructions for medicine. It was all in English-- perfectly good English-- but I have no idea what they said. I was too busy staring at my baby boy. I had read a lot of stuff of the past year and a half about "the moment" and all the experts agree that you should prepare yourself to have a less- than- romantic first encounter with your child. They say that often the kids will scream or cry or won't let the parents hold them. They say it's not at all uncommon to be secretly let down or to not fall instantly in love the moment you lay eyes on the much-awaited arrival. For the past year and a half, I have tried to be realistic in my mind about what to expect so that I wouldn't be saddened if things didn't turn out all roses and sunshine that first time we met. In some ways, it was anti-climatic, no doubt. There was no swell o music or fireworks or anything (not that I really thought there would be). But I had spent so much time thinking of the worst case scenario, that I hadn't really figured on it actually going so smoothly and, well, almost uneventfully. After the first few minutes, when I realized that he wasn't going to cry and that he seemed content in our arms, I let out a mental sigh of relief and allowed myself to be open emotionally to what I could feel welling up inside. It really was the closest to love at first sight that I think I've experienced. Not the sweep-you-off-your-feet kind of love at first sight, but more of a sense that he instantly belonged and that I knew I loved him. I thought I might be overcome with emotion as I really sat there staring at him and soaking it all in, but luckily I was distracted enough by forms and schedule info and formula instructions, that I maintained composure. I can't speak for what Brian was feeling-- hopefully I can cajole him into posting some thoughts on this-- but by the way his face lit up I could tell he was smitten pretty much right off the bat as well.
After about 10-15 minutes of chatting with the caregivers, I asked if we would get to meet the birth mother that week. To my surprise, they said she should be there any minute! I got a flutter of nerves, but when she actually arrived, it went very smoothly. I'm glad we were able to meet her so we may share some details with Quentin when he's older. After the birth mother meeting, I was able to take a few pictures of other kids for some of my online newsgroup buddies. Then the social worker informed us that we would need to take "Hao-Hao" (his cute little nickname) to the doctor. Ok, no problem. I'm thinking we'd go in a day or two, maybe by the end of the week. No, now. As in "let's go downstairs and drive to the doctor's office right this minute." Wow. So we got our shoes on and left for the doctor, which was about 5 minutes down the road. Now talk about a unique experience. In Taiwan, everyone has national health insurance so from what I could tell, going to the doctor is free. You just present your national health insurance card and that's it. It was the weirdest thing. We walked into this tiny little strip-mall-esque store front/ clinic thing. There were no people in the waiting room. We literally walked straight into the doctor's office, he examined Quentin declaring that he had some inflammation in his throat, we went back to the front where the receptionist gave some medicines and instructions to our social worker and that was it. The whole thing from the moment we walked in until we were getting into our taxi to leave took maybe 15 minutes total. I'm sure everyone out there has some opinions as to the pros and cons of socialized medicine. My little experience with it was all positive though. No forms, no money, no waiting, no runs to the pharmacy. It was one-stop-shopping and was very efficient and easy. As for the quality of care? From what I can judge, it seemed pretty good. We're not entirely sure what the medications were, but his fever broke the next day and by the end of the week, he seemed to be doing much better.
Anyway, we left the clinic in a taxi for the 25 minute ride back to the hotel. They don't really seem to use infant car seats that much in Taiwan, so I just held on to Quentin tightly as we drove through Taipei. I'm not really sure what I was thinking about during that ride, but everything just felt right. He was calm and content in my arms and I kind of felt like he had always been with us. If I had to sum up the day in one word it would be calm. Surprisingly calm. We got back to the hotel and Quentin was still so quiet. He was just looking around and sucking on his thumb. He didn't seem to be upset or uncomfortable or scared, even though he was sick and probably not sure what was going on. He was even fine when we had to give him medicine, only whimpering a bit but not really crying. He slept about 8 hours that night and we really had no troubles at all. As the week went on, he must've gotten more comfortable with us because he cried more and fussed more which, to me, meant he felt ok enough to voice his opinions and trusted at least a little that we would do something about his needs.

Well, there's definitely more to tell, but since Quentin is sound asleep right now I should take advantage of it and go to bed myself. Oops-- spoke to soon. He must be psychic because the second I just typed that, he started crying in the other room. Better go :)

To be continued later...