Trains, bicycles, scooters and noodles

My first post ever. Thought I should come up with a catchy title. Did I succeed? Here is a little of what we have done since our last post. But I need to preface that without Luke we would not be enjoying this as we are. He is amazing to watch communicate with the locals, buying us tickets and ordering us food. He says he is having difficulty with the language and that some people arne't understanding his chinese. But from where dad and I sit, it is very successful and impressive. And thank goodness he is in shape, be ahs carried this suitcase up and down the train stairs and carried sleeping girls back to the hotel and up stairs and into bed. So I have to thank him for maing this all go very smoothly. We have travelled to Changhua (100 foot high Buddah, stray kitten Olivia cried over, and maya slurping noodles while Olivia fell asleep in hers). Then we went to Ershur (bicycle ride searching for a monkey preserve that was always just up the road and we never reached and an interesting lunch of soy beans topped with shaved ice and an assortment of sweet syrups.) Dad made a couple friends while sipping coffee and we had our first really yummy meal for all of us= $7. Olivia is becoming more adventurous everyday, but am expecting her to loose weight like our time in china. She biked a good 5 miles and we are walking everywhere, I know she is so hungry. Maya is so happy here and loves the nooodles and the "fancy hotels". We took a short train ride to JiJi. Woke up to a beautiful morning: quiet town, birds singing and beautiful mountains and a temple roof all from our balcony as we sipped tea from paper cups and threw peanut shells at dad as he took his morning walk. There are many wonderful details to write about but the real new experience is to share this all with the girls. It is really an honor to see them in this totally new strange place. They are taking it in and at the same time playing their endless games of pet dog, fairies,... They are really having a great time.
It was here in JiJi that Luke and I both felt the magnetic like pull to the south. Time to get close to where LuYu is living and get a sense of his home. So after our incredibly fun fun fun scooter ride around JiJi and an attempt to climb a mountain on them we set off for Tainan. Dad met a woman on the train and shared photos from home and talked with her. It was neat listening to him. As we approached Tainan the emotions started to grow in me. Added to this was a woman in front of me with a small boy, of course LuYu's age (I had been playing a bit with) was just slapping him and just being rough. It was so stressful. I was happy to leave them. But when that train stopped I was flooded with tears. The same feeling i had when I landed in Guangzhou. When that plane touched ground I knew that I would never be as far as I was from Maya again But now that I am older I cry more and pulling in to Tainan I am confident in my purpose, just alot sappier about it. I read the court papers for the first time at the hotel. And learned some things that I didn't know ( like the judges name grrrr) but I also found out that LuYu's birth mother named him! Her name is Yu-jou. So it is a very important bit of information for me, so meaningful that she named him. Then to top off our day Luke and I in search of a Pub (which doesn't exsist) migrated to St. Lucy's. This is where Luke fell apart. So close, a dark parking lot not knowing which building he is in. We ate across the street. Strange.
So I need to go to bed, it has been a long day. We have great photos of the girls in their many hats that they have bought and new wood shoes and them riding scooters and bikes but we just can't figure out this system to post.
Signing off. Thanks for keeping us all in your thoughts.
Sheri