i don't know if sean really understands the gift he gave me today!

the house was sooooo trashed from everything we packed into the weekend. so, sean took the older boys this morning while i cleaned house. wow! amazing what a difference that made!!!!!!

they came home & had found 2 new parks, ate things that i'm sure momma wouldn't feed them & had so much dirt under their fingernails (not to mention that they smelled like wet puppies)! they had a blast!!! AND, my house was clean! i know it's just my fantasy to have left the house in a disaster & walk in the door & everything is in it's place, spotless & sparkling. that's not ever going to happen . . . but, sean gave me a wonderful, amazing gift this morning - and it comes pretty darn close to being that magical! actually better, cause they got time with their daddy.

(use your imagination . . . the house NEVER looks like this when any combination of any of us are up & going - the boys in this house need to start carrying their weight! :)

everyday life

I have been stuck since my last post. I have written and rewritten. There are so many important things that have happened, a lot of them really hard things, since we have arrived in Taipei. What I don't want to do is misrepresent what we know God to be doing in our (Sean and I's) hearts and lives. The events themselves have been overwhelming, and spiritually tremendous. It has been much more about our character, than about the hardships. We know that it is incredibly important to write about this time, especially for our boys. And we will. But right now is not the right time.

So, instead of writing about the last almost four months of our lives, I just wanted to update everyone on some pictures and the "every day-ness" of our new home away from home - Xindian City, Taiwan.

since we've arrived in Taipei . . .

We've had a fun morning full of reading books, dancing to Michael Card's "Hide 'Em in Your Heart" cd. I just finished a gourmet lunch menu that included peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, bananas & orange juice, and spot cleaned the house. All three boys are asleep. I've even showered. :) It's barely 1pm. Today has been a good day, and that is becoming more and more normal every day we wake up.



But, it hasn't been like this much. Honestly, this has been a very hard trip in many different ways. I feel like I have lived enough for at least a lifetime in the last few months.

to catch you all up to speed

September 3, 2008
An actual update. Errr, more of a bring you up to speed, & the next one will be an actual update.
The boys are all asleep, Sean is working, the house is clean, nothing on the calendar, I am decently rested & in good humor. It’s a good time to write.

Before I start telling stories, sharing "mommy juices" (a term Sean has coined, meaning all the details & rabbit trails that only another mommy can endure, let alone enjoy), or even get into pictures (which I now actually have had time to take & download onto my laptop – haven’t had time to select or photoshop, but I’m getting there), I wanted to give all of you a bulleted outline of the last five years of our life. I know, we’ve only been here in Taiwan for 9 weeks, but for most of you, there are snippets that we have shared, and so many lines we have forgotten to draw, that I felt like it would be important to catch you up with, not only what we are doing, but who we are and who we are becoming.

So, with that in mind, I have thought back to where to start this blog. It really does go back at least that far, probably further, but for today, my brain can handle the highlights of the last few years. Needless to say, none of you want to sit through my ramblings for that long. I will outline the high/low points & important dates & then come back and flesh them out. Sort of like what I was supposed to be diligent about with my term papers. Only this time, my motivation to do it well, holds more personal significance than whether or not I cared about the topic at hand, or how I performed as a student that semester.

Before you get your red pen out & start critiquing, look through the outline & comment at will. Later, I will invite you to sit down & share a cup of coffee. At least in cyber world & in my blog spot, you and I can make our time zones & kids nap schedules meet & enjoy the ambience of the coffee shop. Somewhere in all of this technology, I find comfort in the idea, that despite the fact that it may take me 9 weeks to create one blog entry, I don’t have to cover the phone receiver to utilize a teachable moment, or stop in the middle of a really important conversation to save two toddlers from a life-threatening situation, or have to end our conversation, because I have pushed their patience too far. PLEASE NOTE: I delight in being the mother of these three blessings, I just stinkin miss the luxury of dropping by your house & plopping down on the couch and talking until the wee hours of the morning. And, you can read my musings and keep up with all of those blessings & life details on your end that need tending to, at the appropriate time.

And now, as with the start of all good term papers, I am sitting down with a cuppa joe & wracking my brain, confident that there will be "note cards" that need to be inserted & edited before the first draft, but the rough outline of the really great idea in my head starts here:

2002 – December
* Sean and I met on eHarmony.com
* "the email" that defined the rest of my life
Sean: "Do you know that you have been called by God, to be . . ."
mother to a large family?
mother to adopted children?
homeschooling momma?
And that my friends, was the very moment I began to hope that this was exactly the man who God had been preparing me for all along!

2003 – January
* Sean and I met in person
February
* I moved to Colorado
March
* We were engaged
April
* We were married!
April
* We finished paying off the remainder of our credit card debt!
August
* Sean began testing for his architectural license
* I started pursuing the degree of "International Adoption Studies" (at the Thomson
Academy of Pain)
October
* I started Guild Books, LLC, an online book business "specializing" in previously loved books.
* Okay, I’m gonna brag, because he won’t ever tell you (and, it’s my blog) – but Sean passed every single architectural exam for his license, the very first stinkin’ time! Ask the architect next to you how many times they took each of the exams before they got that blessed piece of paper in their hands that says "licensed architect" – okay, I’m done. But, doggone I’m proud of my man!

2005 – January
* We were approached by a friend-of-a-friend to adopt her unborn baby, due June 2005,
without hesitation, we said "yes!"
February
* The birthmother of our adopted baby, changed her mind & we miscarried on paper
April
*Approached & applied to the Home of God’s Love orphanage in Taiwan for a child
October
* Accepted by HOGL
November
* Paid off a huge tax bill for Sean’s business & felt financial freedom for the first time in
our adult lives

2006 – February
* Started the paperwork pregnancy through state & country standards
May
* Camden Taylor Thomson was born in Taiwan & we received "The Call"!!!! Camden is named after Hudson Taylor, missionary to China, and the one of the biggest influences on Christianity in Taiwan. May God remind us daily to raise this little boy to have the courage to face the unknown challenges that He has for him, the tenderness of heart & creativity to love people that need our Savior & the discipline to put his desires into the hands of the One who has people that need Him.
September
* Camden’s adoption was finalized in Taiwan & we traveled to & stayed in Taiwan for
three weeks to meet our son & enjoy some time becoming a family of three
* Before our return flight, Sean and I discovered that we had this Taiwan-sized-whole-in-our-heart, that we knew, out of obedience, that we wanted to pursue & needed to walk in faith, to find our return to Taiwan

2007 – January
* Crazy as it sounds, Sean and I were both ready to start paperwork for blessing #2
May
* 8th - Camden turned one!
* 15th – we were approached about a 2 yr. old little boy that needed a family, we said
"yes!"
June
* Started the intense & purposeful process of simplifying our lives & becoming mobile
* Held two huge garage sales and got rid of everything that wasn’t necessary . . . well the
beginning of the process was started, anyway
August
* We got rid of Guild Books, so that I could be a stay-at-home momma, not a mnnn
* Closed up our s.f. architecture and planning, LLC office, the one outside our home, in
order to further simplify our lives
* We moved into a 750 s.f. condo that was within walking distance to everything need: grocery store, postal services, bank, park, and the coffee shop (really, is there anything else?). This was an experimental move for us, to see if in this crazy simplified, mobile lifestyle, we could really live in this tight of quarters, with a baby & a home office. I have never loved any of my homes more & I miss that place every day!!!
September
* We took on our first official non-location specific job, to keep trying on this mobile
lifestyle. It was a short-term project in San Antonio.
October
* We got a call about a 5 week old little boy that needed a family, we said "yes!!!" (*Remember, at this point we are also still anticipating the arrival of our now 2 ½ yr. old son, as well.) (Knowing that if we said "yes," we could, at any moment have 3 boys in our house under the age of three.)
*3 weeks after the initial call, and lots of drama, we discovered that he (the 5 wk old baby) definitely would not be coming home with us
* With much soul searching & many heart wrenching tears, due to state social services procedures, we had to remove ourselves from the option of becoming the 2 ½ yr. old’s family
* We started pursuing our next adoption in Taiwan
December
* The Plague hit the Thomson household – all within a 6 day timeframe!!!
Camden ran a fever of 105F for 4-5 days
Sean got pneumonia
I had the sniffles & was taking care of the guys, when my sniffles went into a sinus infection, I suddenly couldn’t hear out of my right ear & had debilitating vertigo – end result was a 3 month bout with the vertigo & 80% permanent hearing loss in my right ear
* My sister & Jimmy got married in Miami
* A baby hospital in Taipei, that we had been in contact with, called us and asked if we would take two baby girls. Wow! Girls? What would we do with a girl, let alone two . . . we said "Yes!!!"
* We began "getting pregnant on paper". We started the wheels turning so that everything necessary was in order, so that we could travel to Taiwan as quickly as possible to bring these little girls into our family

2008 - January
* Our first trial trip for this mobile lifestyle – we went to Denver to see friends for 5 weeks. We took LOTS of notes, made LOTS of adjustments & determined to make our next trip lighter!!!* The devastating call – we were not going to be able to adopt either of the girls from Taiwan
* Another call from Taiwan . . . a 1 yr. old little boy, would we be interested? Once again holding our breath in faith, that God has more children for us, but preparing for the rough waters ahead . . . we said "YES!"
February
* Termination papers were signed by this little boy’s bio-mom, and wheels were starting to be in motion for this little boy to become a Thomson! We started making preparations to move out of our rental condo in Pagosa & move to Taiwan.
* Watching "this little boy" grow up in pictures, and relying on God to give us the name that He had him to be, "this little boy" became "Kenjiro Quin Thomson" (Kenjiro is Japanese, meaning "2nd son who sees with insight." Quin is Scottish, and means "wise").
March
*"The big week!"
My parents came from Nebraska
We moved out of our rental condo
Our dear friends helped plan a baby shower/going away party
Camden dislocated his elbow
Sean purposefully became "unemployed" to walk into this next part of the journey
We got an email & made frantic arrangements for . . . surprise . . . Baby #3
And . . . surprise . . . we can’t travel . . . not yet
April
* Surprise Baby #3 became Declan Stewart Thomson (Declan is Scottish & means "blessing." Stewart is also Scottish & means "a steward.") (We were able to say "yes" to Declan, because back in December, we started paperwork with the U.S. Homeland Security for visa clearance on 2 babies from Taiwan – remember the girls?) (Declan has been our "surprise" baby, in every way that every other couple that unexpectantly gets pregnant so quickly after two babies, already close in age. J We could not be more excited & are confident that we have no idea how hard this is going to be!)
* Well, now what??????
* We decided on another trial run on our mobile & "simple" lifestyle since we were now homeless & trying to keep our minds occupied until we could travel to Taiwan to get our boys.
April/May/June
*4 weeks in Edmond, OK – we were hoping this trip would be a chance to catch up with a lot of Sean’s home stompin’ grounds friends & family – we did get to see some wonderful "blast from the past" friends that really are family & then . . .
* Camden swallowed a button (hearing aid) battery – nice little trip to the emergency care, 4 x-rays & a healthy colon pulled our little guy into the category of "Wow! That never happens, it’s usually a much worse scenario . . ." (just picture my little pooper, who on a normal day delivers 4-6 "packages", and me with my handy-dandy tongue depressors going through every "delivery" until we knew we were "in the clear") I know that I had never felt so desperate for God to defy the very physics that He set into motion & for Him to spare the life of our little boy.
* Sean got 12 (yes, not a, or 1, but 12) brown recluse spider bites – we were introduced to "The Zapper!" – the scariest bite of them all was less than 1 inch from Sean’s spine & in a 5 hour time frame had progressed from the size of the dot of an "i," to the size of a golf ball. I cannot tell you what went through my head and heart in those few hours in trying to understand whether or not God was going to allow me to lose my husband. Yet again, God, who doesn’t owe me an explanation, showed us mercy & gave us one more day together.
* Camden dislocated his elbow – AGAIN, twice in one day (yes, the same one as last month). Because it was a holiday weekend, tornadoes, and just weird extenuating circumstances, there were not doctors available to help this time. Again, God graciously provided a friend-of-a-friend, who had a daughter that would dislocate her elbow about once a week for the first 5-8 years of her life. This understanding father, on speaker phone, walked us through the re-locating procedure over the phone. (****btw, this is NOT recommended, but one of those really good skills to tuck into your hat for when you are in a hut in Africa, and there is no medical help available – DO NOT try this at home!)
* 4 weeks in Joplin, MO – again, we were hoping this trip would be a chance to catch up with a lot of my home stompin’ grounds friends & family – we did get to see some wonderful "blast from the past" friends that really are family & then . . .
* Camden got the Chicken Pox – which put us into a self-administered quarantine. No real drama, except on my end. Because I didn’t want to expose all of my favorite people (and their littles) to Chicken Pox, I pouted & called a bunch of people, instead of getting to have coffee with them.
* Well . . . none of that really went as planned, and every day we were out of Pagosa, we were going more into debt & we weren’t even out of the country yet . . . so, we headed back to Pagosa to ease the discomfort of being displaced (self-imposed), to try to regain some footing financially & well . . . wait some more until we could travel to Taiwan.
July
* FINALLY, we are leaving! (If you are still reading, you are a good friend, and here is where we can start catching up on the last couple of months when we saw you/talked wi you last . . .
* We spent my 33rd birthday with friends/family in Castle Rock, CO (Denver area) & flew out on July 5th. J God must have smiled when we found this travel agent. This guy worked triple overtime and found us "deluxe" class seats – for $30 more/person than the cheapest ghetto seats than we had found. Wow! Now that we are spoiled, it will be hard to suck it up & have our knees hit the seat in front of us again. But hey, if it means that we are on this crazy journey as we follow the mysterious journey that God has us follow, I’m sure that we will see the humor of ghetto class & count our blessings, but for today, I am celebrating & eating it up, up in "deluxe" class!

_____________________________

I am going to take a break & my next "entry" will be about our time here in Taipei.
Thanks for sitting & having a "few" cups of coffee with me. I enjoyed writing, I hope some of this filled in some blanks for you, but please, if I just muddied the water, please ask – there are sure to be others that are scratching their heads more than you J
Love, Dayla (for Sean, Camden & Declan, too)

they're home at last!!!

it's 2am, and i shouldn't even be taking the time to write, but i want to give all of our faithful friends a little eye candy for taking the time to keep coming by . . .

we are doing really, really good. life has been full of surprises & every day the wind gets knocked out of our sail by some unknown & unpredicted storm - but we have never been more aware & grateful for the Sustainer of our Faith, who IS who He says He IS! never have i been more raw & grateful for His provision of the cleft of the Rock - He has hidden us there & covered us with His hand.

i am hoping to get the chance to catch my breathe in the next week or so & flesh out the challenges that we have gone through in the last 7 weeks - i need to do it for me - so that i never, ever forget His provision for us in the middle of the storms that we have endured.

so, until then, i present to you, for the first time, all together in one house . . .

camden taylor thomson (almost 2 1/2 yr.)

kenjiro quin thomson (1 1/2 yr.)

declan stewart thomson (5 mo.)

praise God from whom ALL blessings flow,

praise Him all creatures here below,

praise Him above thee, heavenly host,

praise Father, Son & Holy Ghost!!!

He is the author & perfector of our faith, the creator of the universe, the one who has fearfully & wonderfully knit our children together in someone else's womb, and grafted them into the Vine of life. He has brought blessings to our quiver, our cup runneth over! All praise, and honor, and glory belong to Him alone!

please keep emailing us. just the fact that you have returned to read this blog, is an encouragement beyond what we can describe.

we love you all dearly & know that we are blessed beyond measure to have you in our lives.

love, dayla (for sean, camden, quin, and declan, too!)

We have all of our little chicklets in our nest

So, the adventures of Team Thomson continue & I will write more on the events of the last three weeks later. For now, the moment we have been waiting for & the reason that the faithful have been checking our blog. (. . . drumroll, please . . .) We have all of our boys home with us . . . and we have pictures . . .



Everything is going incredibly smoothly. It's very hard to believe that these boys were not born into the same family, or at least have been together since birth. We are delighting at the illustration that Jesus gave us of being grafted into the Vine & that illustration is vibrant in our household on a couple of different levels!



Camden is very proud to be the "guh, guh" (big brother). He is very anxious to show Quin the ropes. His face gleams with pride when he helps Quin find another way to be a Thomson. He also absolutely delights in trying to figure out how he can help Declan, esp. when Declan is crying. Camden goes through his index of solutions until he finds something that makes Declan smile (or scream harder). It has been such a delight to watch him delight in this intense learning curve of being the oldest of three. But, before I make it sound like it's all peaches & cream, he is also having his moments of frustration that he does not have our undivided attention & that we cannot meet his need or desire as quickly as we were able to 3 weeks ago. Learning to share is not quite as fun when the brothers stay & don't go home at the end of the afternoon :) I find several phrases that are on my broken record these days: "be kind to your brother," "let him have a turn," "he is too little, he doesn't understand why you want to do xzy," (and then Quin surprises me how much he can do, and is trying to prove that he is not too little), "be patient," "have self-control". Are you all grinning? So, in the midst of the steep learning curve, most of our day is filled with the giggles of two little boys

We've made it to Taiwan!!!

Hello all!


I want to start out by thanking everyone that keeps asking us if we are going to update our blog. Really! My (Dayla's) best intentions have been interrupted by the last um . . . 15 months of our life. It has been really insane, but we are in Taipei, Taiwan for the next 2-3 months while we work on paperwork for our latest additions to Team Thomson. Since my last blog entry in March, we have another announcement to make.


Introducing Delan Stewart Thomson. He was born on March 21, 2008, in Tainan, Taiwan. He is our surprise adoption, and really not so different than a surprise pregnancy. And . . . we could not be more thrilled. It won't be long before we have three little monkeys jumping on the bed!

So, to back up in the story long enough to give you a better idea of how we came to be in Taipei, it all started 2 years ago, when we came to Taiwan to pick Camden up . . .

We both fell in love with the island! The people, the culture, the food, the hospitality, the food, the land, the food, the fruit, the food. Okay, well, I love the food & Sean is a really, really good sport! When we were here last, we made some really amazing friendships & honestly, we weren't ready to get back on the plane to go back to the US.

It was then that we began making plans & changes to our life, so that we could be mobile enough to make a long trip. We didn't know when, how or for how long, we just have longed for Taiwan ever since we left.

A lot has happened in those last 24 months, but I will save that for another blog entry. The process of getting back to Taiwan has taken quite a bit of effort, to say the least. But we are really glad we are here & even though I am eating the food, it is still surreal that we have returned.

The first week we arrived was spent looking at apartments & securing one. My cousin, Erin Chen & her hubby, Jacky & their 3 yr. old daughter Pinky, hosted us while we were searching for an apartment. We were able to find one that we really like in the same apartment complex as Jacky & Erin. We couldn't be more thrilled! It is in the Xindian area south of Taipei city. Right on the Xindian River. We are not able to move into our apartment until this coming Saturday & have been staying in a hostel until the apartment is ready.

When we left the States, there were a couple more steps for Quin's adoption to be complete. Since we have arrived, the adoption contract has arrived, and we are waiting on the final decree, which usually is about a week behind the contract. Until that precious piece of paper arrives, we are getting to visit Quin twice a week. He and Camden are getting along great! They have played and played on the slide & on the big foam geometric shapes in the play room where we are doing the visits. They had their first squabble last Tuesday. Quin was on little motorcycle & Camden wanted it bad! I am confident that this will be the first of many times where one has something the other wants & it causes some sibling rivalry, esp. if it involves a motorcycle!

Quin is just simply as sweet in real life, as in his pictures. He is all boy & is a very happy little kiddo. We're very anxious to have him home with us, and start our life with him!

We want to have Quin home for at least a week or so before we bring Declan home. Quin is going to need some time to get adjusted to living with us & our new home. So, I am hoping that it won't be long before all my ducklings are home in their nest!

In the mean time, we had made arrangements for a friend of ours to come and help us with the boys and to set up our new home. We are having a good time with her here & she has been an amazing blessing in helping with Camden.

I am hoping that I will be able to write more once we get into our place. And I promise, pictures are coming!