Home at Last

Our final days in Taipei were wonderful and for the most part leisurely -- we slept in, strolled around, saw a few sites, swam, ate noodles, went up and down the glass elevators, headed out for some souvenir shopping and even, believe it or not, had some half-decent Mexican food. (We just happened on a little taiwanese-taqueria near the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.) Oh, and Sheri, Grandpa Dave, Maya and Olivia all went to see a Chinese opera, acrobatics and kung fu at Taiwan Eye -- Sheri says that it was one of the highlights of the trip and would recommend it to everyone. I had the honor of hanging out with a cool little toddler in our hotel room.

For those who were with us through Maya's Chinese adoption, you know that it was days and days of paperwork, running from one office to another, getting something notarized and then the same thing authenticated at another office. In Taiwan, the process couldn't be easier. We showed up at the American consulate (AIT) at around 8:00 (I forgot visa photos at the hotel so had to quick head back for that -- if anything was about to complicate things, I wanted to be sure that that anything was me). Then we waited about 15 minutes for our names to be called, filled out a bit of paperwork, went downstairs to pay the visa fee, headed back upstairs and waited about 45 minutes, raised our right hand to swear something about something, and that was it. Our interviewer even had the time to tell us how great Taipei is, complete with Costco, TGI Friday's and Outback Steakhouse, and still have us out the door by 9:30. That's it! Oh, I guess I had to walk the three blocks from our hotel the next morning at 11:30 to pick up the visa, but that was just a nice stroll, so it doesn't count.

And, fitting with the easy immigration process (and contrasting the difficult court process), our journey home was relatively effortless -- or at least not as traumatic as we had convinced ourselves it would be. Two miserable parts of the trip: 1) the taxi ride to the airport, dispatch radio on full blast, Chinese pop station blasting on the radio, Hello Kitty cell phone continually going off, while Lu-Yu was restless the whole time; 2) and then the check-in at LAX this morning. It's been a long time since I've traveled domestically with paper tickets, which means you have to wait forever in a long line, and there had to be a gauntlet of five or six security checks to pass through (at 6:00 a.m.) in order to make it to the plane. But the 45 minute sunrise flight into San Diego was spectacular -- made leaving beautiful Taiwan a little easier.

I have to thank Sheri's family for showing up at the airport this morning. We flew into the commuter terminal, so it was quiet, and we all hung out, Lu-Yu running around with his cousins, happy to go into everyone's arms. Thanks -- Terry, Carole, Joanna, Dave, Jake, Sam, Anna, Shannon, Steve and Shelley -- for the bagels, coffee and mimosas in the parking lot, a well-stocked fridge, an industrial-strength highchair, for the Frida care and for all the cool toys for new little brother!

So many other people we need to thank, and if this was the Oscars they'd start the music right about now, because our list is endless. We honestly appreciate the enthusiasm and ongoing support of all the readers and commenters on this blog, the Yahoo Taiwan group, our friends and family, that one great friend of mine who doesn't need to be named but whose financial support helped make this happen, our pet-keepers and tireless Frida-sitters, and especially Grandpa Dave for being a vagabond traveler with us, and for picking up the lion's share of the hotel bills. Thanks for the prayers, the encouragement, and from refraining from questioning our sanity in going through with all this.

By the way, can you tell from this long post today that everyone's jet lagged and sound asleep? Sheri's been out for two hours, Lu-Yu for three hours, and Maya for six hours. Olivia is a zombie but a great playmate for Frida right now.

I consider this journey complete. You'll get some photos in the coming days, a bit of baby update, but then that's it, I promise! As the title of this blog reads, our journey to Taiwan and back is now finished. Lots of other journeys ahead, yes of course.

Don't think, though, that I'd end without revealing Lu-Yu's name -- something that Sheri and I worked very hard on deciding. Naming a toddler is difficult, because he's had the chance to grow into his name: Lu (blessed) Yu (cosmos). He will continue to be "Louie" for us during this transition, but officially I'd like to introduce you to our son:

Seth David Luyu Martin-Spisak

A big name, but a big boy. Seth, because he was chosen for us, and us for him; David, because of his grandfather, complete with his giant-slaying confidence and gentle heart; Luyu, because that links him to St. Lucy's ("Lu" for all the children born that year) and to his birth mother, Yu-Jou, a brave young girl, who we pray can rise above her circumstances and flourish; and Martin-Spisak because, sure, what's bred in the bone outs in the flesh, but at the end of the day it's nurture over nature, baby: he'll have us to blame and thank for the life that lies ahead of him.