From Taiwan to SFO

This was Kimi's @ LAX 1st time seeing a jet take off in the sky! This was before our final flight home from LA to SFO.

"I'm now a US citizen YEA!" After all of our paperwork Kimi becomes a US citizen once she touches the ground in the US for the first time! Here it is, she insisted on her new pink shoes for the occasion!

"If they could see me now in Taiwan, I have my own eating chair! and a bib with pockets!"

This was a long week for the little lady, she hadn't woken up from the plane flight to home, look at that sleeping beauty...after such a long journey.

Kimi isn't awake to know that was our first family photo in San Francisco. It's so great to be back in our city.

At the LAX Marriott for a night before heading home. Kimi is zonked after an 11 hour flight sitting on mommy's lap, and two hours in the airport immigration.



Mommy and Kimi at the Hyatt Hotel in Taipei. We encouraged her to touch this wood sculpture whenever we walked by, she loved it.

Kimi and daddy playing push the buttons game, she is slightly obsessed with pushing electronic buttons it's very cute.

Kimi and Mommy at the Hyatt in Taiwan. they knew us well since we were always down there playing.

I'm not sure where we left off but we are Home Sweet Home. The flight from Taiwan to LAX was long but not too bad. In Taiwan waiting for the plane we kept busy in the awesome Hello Kitty play room before take off she ate a huge bowl of noodle soup. Our attempt at have her drink her bottle at take off completely failed as we gave it to her too soon (oops..first time parents ya know). I was very nervous about the flight since Kimi had trouble sleeping the last few nights in the hotel. The flight took place during her normally awake time. We had bulkhead seating with a bassinette on EVA. Kimi did great at first falling asleep we made a bed for her with the down blankets from EVA on the floor in fron of our seats. Then they came by and told us can not sleep on floor. So she woke up crying hard, she would not stay in the bassinette and I don't blame her it was hard and too small. She cried for like and hour and they kept coming by asking us to keep her quiet since we were just behind first class (if she could have stayed on the floor she would have slept the whole flight probably). We did not care for the service from EVA at all. She finally settled and the baby across the was coming home from Hanoi cried on and off the entire flight it would also cause Kimi to start crying on and off too. We got a lot of nasty looks from other passengers...(OMG that would have been me pre Kimi).

With a quick stop in LA where she met nini and yea yea (grandma and grandpa) and had a lot of fun with them it was off to home. She recognized my parents from the photos we sent her in Taiwan, now she sees the photos and can't stop saying nini and yea yea it's really cute.

Once we arrived in San Francisco she never woke up until a few hours later. To her delight and ours she woke up to find 2 go go's (doggies). They were instant BFF's. She is absolutely in LOVE with her new go go's. She is obsessed with getting cherios or crackers and feeding the dogs. We have taught her to be gentle with them and still some times she can't resist pulling their soft ears oops. She sometimes will pull their ear and say "no no" to herself. The dogs tolerate her screaming in excitement since she is always with snacks to share. They can't believe someone is living with us that has a constant supply of treats. The other day she got out a bowl and spoon and tried to pretend feed Apollo.

Ken and I are totally exhausted from the trip, preparations before the trip, and now new parents of toddler that is awake all night. Kimi is on Taiwan time, it takes about 2 weeks for the kids to switchover. So her day and play time strt about 8pm. last night I got to sleep at 7am. Tonight she went down at 10pm let's see if it's just a nap or for the whole night. She came with a crazy video that she watches until she falls asleep (the foster family sent it with her). It is an Asian misses Doubtfire on LSD. Ken and I have memorized all the songs and find ourselves humming them during our dazed awake hours. Once she is asleep Ken is glued to the video monitor giving a play by play sleep movement actions. It goes like this she is moving, ok now she stopped...she rolled over.....now she's not moving etc. Have to go for now, she just woke up.

More pics from the hotel

Time in Taiwan

This dress was made especially for Kimi by Robin she loved wearing it.

All she needs is a mini shopping cart, a pacifier, and her new dress for her new world LOL!

"Let me think...what was on my shopping list?"

This is in the cab after AIT, she falls asleep so easy in the cab if only we were taking a cab all the way home!

We have been very busy with a little lady as you can imagine. She has an adventerous spirit which will more appreciated when her play time isn't our 4in the morning. Today which is yesterday US time, we got her dressed up and all went to breakfast, it was very cute. Kimi had a good time bonding with daddy over some scrambled eggs. She loves to wear her new clothes and never fussed when being changes. She also loved that mommy and her had similar pockets in our pants (in a later outfit). We have been doing so much in Taipei with Kimi. We have been on trains, busses, subways, and cabs it has been a bonding experience. She still getting used to being held by daddy so I have been doing most of carrying her. She's giving me a good work out haha. We are staying next to Taipei 101 the tallest building in the world. Below it there is a huge mall with a fun grocery store. They have mini carts and Kimi ran around for a long time shopping with her cart!

This little lasy loves bubbles, she is so independent it's awesome!

This is the cab ride to the train, she was crying terrible but still such a good girl. I think her wool knit outfit very cute was too hot for her.

This is outside at SLC, she recognized me from all the pictures and only wants to be held mostly by me, it's so cute. On the train she spent the whole 2 hours pushing the door open to watch Ken jumping up and down like a monkey she wore us out! 3 people gave her food thinking she was hungary and just plane cute.

We have Kimi! It was a crazy day in Tainan, it was so hot too. We arrived to see someone I met on the internet, Lori with Samantha. We literally waved good bye to her in the cab. We got there early and the family had not shown up. Once we saw her walking sown the hall I burst into tears as she was so beautiful. She came right to me and Ken they were very happy since I guess she can be shy. She seemed to know what was going on she was very brave on the the train and in the cab. The whole exchange was during her nap. She was very good. We are so in love with her. I had to wait until she fell asleep to write this. They let her go to sleep any time usually 11 or 12am! So I'm about to fall over right now so I hope this makes sense. Just a few photos for now.

We're in Taiwan

OK the flight was sort of fun, especially when they handed out oreo bars! After this we still had 10 hours to go.

This is EVA airlines we flew a 777 in the delux class...it's between business and coach.

YIPEE!........ I can't believe we are here in Taipei, Taiwan. We got in last night after a less then fun flight (almost 15hours). Our hotel is beautiful we are @ the Grand Hyatt. The room amazing with a full living room. We splurged for the club level since threre is an area with food availble on the floor. We did manage to get almost full night sleep. We are off to get ready to catch the train and pick up the baby. Bye for now.

This is the bullet train we will be taking in the morning to meet Kimi. It is the 2nd fastest train in the world. It will take us 2 hours to get to Tianan in the southern section of Taiwan. We will pick up Kimi do the formal ceremony, then get back on train to Taipei. This was the train on The Amazing Race last week.

Kimberlyn Lauren Chia-Yu Williams

Kimi @14mos.

Kimi @17mos.

Our bags are packed, we leave in a little more than 24hours. We still have a few errands to run, like picking up a rain Jacket for Kimi, and getting some papers printed. We are very excited and exhausted after chasing papers for final processing the past few weeks. There are still formalities that we need to complete in Taiwan once we have Kimi. Most importantly Kimi will be in our arms on (US's) Monday. This may be our last post until we pick her up as we arrive late on the 21st and leave morning of the 22nd on the high speed train to Tainan. (the same train on last weeks Amazing Race). Stay tuned for our first family photos!

Our Other Baby

We are excited to announce our other baby..HellGate London, the beta launch in Korea started 2 hours ago. We are wishing for a successful year ahead from Asia!

Thanks to everyone with your tips on picking up baby. Can you tell we are freaking out getting ready to leave. No luck with the car seat as Fire Dept. like RN's can't install them any more. Ken is studying the manual and we'll try it ourselves. Today we noticed a flood in our basement. It may have happened with all the storms we have been getting. Then I got a call from work saying "Oops" the person that approved my LOA (last Nov) should not have and could I return to work now? Bonding leave will then start Feb 20th. My reply um..sorry no can do. They are not used to International Adoptions, so I got an extra 3mos off on a loophole. The funny thing is I tried to work last month, they said no since I was on LOA.



Here is Kimi's room. The crib was my nephew 19 years ago. Most all of our relatives and some of our friends have used the crib which makes it a special tradition for Kimi. I had to get it back from a friend who was still using it, sorry Rex.



Hanging on the panda scroll is a year of the dog charm from Kimi's friend Eric 1yo who is on his way home from Taiwan right now.

Kimi's Room Almost Ready

The baby room is almost ready, promise to post pics soon. We didn't want to get the room together until the final decree (stating we were legally Kimi's parents). The decree happened mid December, then the holidays so here we are scrambling to get everything just right. We hope she will like her home. It has been super hectic running around doing last minute errands. So far, baby laundry done, travel plans done (still trying to change return flight home), dog sitter booked, baby food stocked in house, what's left? There are probably many things we're missing but how would we know we've never done this before. Tomorrow we're off to the local fire dept. to have the car seat installed. I told Ken we have to practice with a doll, he laughed. I have sat at work many times waiting for parents fumbling to get their baby strapped in properly (legally I'm not allowed to help because hospital policy) so I never learned. Also tomorrow, on to packing for Kimi, this is a tough one, stroller or carrier, 18mos or 24mos clothes, what snacks and formula to bring, bottle or sippy cup, what toys will she like? Wish we could call an expert in LOL!

We have Gotcha Day!

Our pick up Kimi day is set for Jan 22nd @ 1:30pm this is earlier then we had expected. We are so excited, OMG we can't believe in 9 days we will be with our little angel. We are pinching ourselves....it is real. She will be 4 days short of 21mos old. Val our agency owner called us this morning at 7:30am. The SLC director is still waiting for our TECO papers to arrive in Taiwan, Kimi has to pass a medical exam, and she has to organize with the foster family to meet us. They are moving mountains because they know how much we want to be with our daughter. Our AIT date will be before our papers expire but not sure on the exact date yet. We are not sure right now if we will need to be in Taiwan any longer then scheduled. Right now we plan on leaving the 20th arrive late the 21st 11:00pm and pick up @ 1:30 on the 22nd. I assume AIT will be on the 23rd if all gets finished. We plan to return on the 25th. We are off now to get needed stuff for the baby.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for sure

This is an actual family saying used in similar situations. Meaning we will know of travel dates when we get them, they say no later then Sunday night. This is a good thing because we would be leaving in a week. We either leave Jan 20th or Jan 26th, they are trying to move up our AIT apt. because of our document situation. It is currently set for Jan 29th. We ran around again today trying to get people to send and find our fingerprints. This time my turn to drop off. Just when I thought we were done I got 3 more papers to be filled out.

After this week Kimi needed some retail therapy! Got Crocs?


This one is from Aunt Sharon and cousin Marissa, it just makes us smile!

Wow Eye TECO

Here is Ken on way to TECO to pickup power of attorney for Kimi


All over TECO there are posters that say "wow eye" Taiwan. That is how you pronounce "I Love" in mandarin (Kimi's native language). Our papers were ready, on time , in a clean friendly way, today wow eye TECO. The parking was typical SF tow trucks were right behind me so I didn't have time for the photos I planned oh well.

Here is Ken in front of the SF TECO, with our official powers of attorney so someone in Taiwan can apply for Kimi's passport for us how cool is that!

No pick up dates today

Today came and went without an end to our rollercoaster. We still go tomorrow for our travel meeting. We were told the date could possibly be pushed to Jan 28 for (AIT Apt) we had to laugh since it is one day after our I600A expiration. On the International Adoption roller coaster you think you are headed one way, in truth you never know if you are headed up-down-right -left or somewhere in between. So for now we are keeping our eye on the prize and as my wise friend Jody says it will all work out it really will.

We have travel dates, well sort of

It has been crazy around our house the past few days. Trying to finish baby proofing. We realized sadly after 2hrs to install one latch, neither of us are good with power tools. We are waiting for a handyman to install safety latches and anchor book cases next week. We need to get this done and fast as we may have less than 13days to pick up the baby. Yesterday I got a call first from Teresa, Jeremiah's mama in GA asking if we got our travel dates. My answer was no. I had just hung up and got the call we have been waiting for, sort of. It was HAI saying we needed to rush over to TECO (Taiwan consulate) and sign power of attorney for Kimi's passport. We also got out of them we may have an AIT apt. (passport office in Taiwan) possibly Jan. 23rd or 24th! YIPPEE! We have official travel meeting Thursday Jan 10th we will know for sure.

Other people in our group had to make the TECO trip, I thought we were out of the woods. There were scary stories of long lines, missing photocopies, and difficult people, we found this to be the easiest part of the adoption. We breezed in and out and found free street parking. Yes in downtown SF @ 3:30pm. The Adoption Gods are on our side.

For those of you that are not familiar a homestudy(HS) is a 3 month interrogation of each of our lives. It includes 1000's of questions, alone blindfolded in a cold room. They compare our answers to see if they match. If so, they show up at our friends houses and do the same. They look at our bank accounts @ every last latte we ever bought. They look at our medical history and DNA from before birth. They search our house with a white glove looking for lint in every corner. Finally, where most people fail they dangle a juicy steak in front of the dogs and ask them if they were ever denied chicken treats, a walk, or a trip to the park. If they make the slightest peep which they usually do we would be denied. ok, Just kidding about the lattes or we never would have passed.

Recently, the HS agency we originally used suddenly closed last Nov & transferred all people to a new agency. New agency means new papers and new fees. We had to do a 5th set of police fingerprints (saying we were not criminals) for the new agency different then the new federal prints (saying we were not terrorists) for the new HS. Are you keeping track of all this? The new agency never got our new prints (saying we are not criminals). Those prints need to be to sent with our HS to USCIS so the US can re award us the coveted (I 600A) (saying we can be Kimi's parents in the US). For now we can be Kimi's parents until Jan 27th when the I600A expires. Still following? If we don't make it to our AIT apt. in Taiwan by the 27th we can not be Kimi's parents until new I600A is awarded. Meanwhile Taiwan says we are Kimi's parents as of Dec 13th 2007. If for some reason AIT apt. lands after the 27th or we get abducted by aliens and don't make it to AIT, we could be stuck in Taiwan for a while or worse. Did you follow all that? We are on pins and needles waiting to hear of our AIT date it has to be before Jan 27th! Please pray for us!

07 Holiday Photos

The Holidays of 07 came and went sadly without Kimi. There are many gifts still under the tree waiting for her. We only hope it will be Christmas in Feb and not April or later. We had left off being told Jan 3rd we would learn of our long awaited travel dates that came and went. We are still being told we will be home before 2/7. I'm not so sure at this point as flights are booking up with Lunar New Year starting Feb 7th. If the date gets any later Rick and Sandy have wedding and travel plans and won't be able to join us as we had hoped. We will keep you posted. Here are some Holiday photos.

Can you guess what this is? Hint it was taken on Holiday Pisole night!

Sandy and Rick lead Christmas Karaoke, high school sweethearts forever

Rick, Max, and Erich Schaefer, with Bill.....they all look related don't they...huh?

Aunt Patrina with baby Grant AKA Aunt P and Nutti

Ken with some pooped out pups the night before they head to their forever homes

Mom with sis Aunt Bonnie, she had just flown in from FLA aren't they cute

Mom and Ken after way too much fudge! Mom is so happy because after many years of trying to extending the Holiday season, she has an official excuse to leave up decorations. Do you think she can hold out until Kimi arrives?

Brother Kevin sitting with Vinci after cooking a fabulous roast for dinner

Me and Cyndee wouldn't we be a great team for the Amazing Race, we were trying to guess what nickname they would give us?

Niece Nicole, me and Dad. Nicole can't believe after 14yrs of being the only granddaughter there will soon be Kimi to share Nana and Grandpa. I'm sure they will both be spoiled equally.

Out with Red and Green in with the Crib!

Happy New Year! It has been a whirl wind Holiday. We drove to LA to drop off pups and had Xmas celebrations with family. We had pre Christmas pisole in Sonoma and ended up in Tahoe for New Years! Logged in almost 1000 miles it was like living in the car. Luckily the crib has made it up to Kimi's room, the little lady has a place to sleep. No word of travel dates. Two other families I know with children in Taiwan are eagerly awaiting their dates. We now wait for official word of 2nd decree and Kimi's passport appointment. I have to admit a Lunar New Year trip would be extra special (starts Feb 6th), our agency insists we will be home before then. Thank you to everyone for another fabulous Holiday Season. Special thanks to mom for best fudge ever at her B&B and Kevin for a delicious dinner. Also to Sandy and Rick for the amazing flaming flan, and yummy pisole. Now to dust off that treadmill.