Getting To Know You!

"This all started with a dream I had about Hayden playing in a room with about 30 other kids, except they were all from Taiwan and had all been adopted and Hayden said to me, "Mommy, these are all my friends and they are just like me!".....
That dream happened long before we traveled to Taiwan to pick up Hayden. I never forgot that dream and I think that dream was rooted in the friendships that I made both while waiting and along the way, as I became very close to the 2 families awaiting referrals both in front and behind us. ( Lisa R. and Heather) Sharing the common bond of having originally been waiting in line with China and then later supporting one another through the ups and downs ( and there were a lot of them!) of International Adoption forged a strong network of friendship. We talked about how we couldn't wait for the day we stood together in the same room watching our 3 precious girls play with one another and how they would always be Taiwan sisters. I literally longed for that day and in October 2009 it finally became a reality when we spent a weekend together in New York, becoming one of the best weekends of my life. I love Lisa R. and Heather and man oh man, do I LOVE their girls! After that weekend I knew I would do whatever it took for our families to maintain these close ties.

We have been so blessed by the sheer number of families we have established friendships with.....each of them having grown their families in the same special way as our own. I sometimes forget that I have not actually hugged them in person........soon to change!

So I made a comment on my dear friend Lisa C.'s blog ( Tyler and Hayden share the special bond of having been Foster Siblings and if their Mama's have any say in it, will be taking one another to each other's proms one day. *smile*) and Tiffanie joined in that conversation. One thing led to another and you all know what happens when blogging adoptive Mamas dream up something BIG......something that seems almost impossible....... yep, they dive into that paperwork! So here we are 8 months away from making this dream a reality and wishing every Taiwan adoptive family could join us for our reunion weekend. And on that weekend I think there will be lots of smiles, laughter and VERY happy tears. Friendships will be made and friendships will be solidified. I dream that it will turn into something big....something no one will ever wish to miss.

And that dream of mine from 2 1/2 years ago.........well I know that our daughter is going to look up at me and say," look at all my friends..........they are just like me."

Jules & Hayden January 2011

We are the Rockaways and live in the DFW area. David and I have been together for almost 19 years and married for 14. I have two awesome stepchildren Taylor, 26 and Connor, 23. David runs a small specialty finance company in the Dallas area and I have been a flight attendant for Delta Airlines for 20 years; I am currently getting ready to return to active flying status, and will be commuting to JFK for international flying. 
Hayden Magee ( 28 months ) had been a dream long in the making for us and she came home to our family April 20th, 2009 at 7 1/2 months. She is the absolute joy in our hearts and is such a sweet, loud, smart, funny, loving little girl with a really BIG vocabulary! I have no idea what we did with our time before she came into our lives but I sure know there hasn't been a dull moment since! We are blessed beyond measure by this little house of power.
This dream of having everyone at the same place and at the same time is actually becoming a reality right before my eyes. I am so overwhelmed by emotions when I see how excited everyone is to get together, reconnect or meet for the first time (IRL). I just can't believe we have families traveling from all over the U.S. (hello Hawaii!!!) to be together for this kinship we have through our amazing children. Thank you everyone for being a part of something so BIG!!
Our journey to our beautiful daughter Paige was one filled with many bumps. We started as a China family, tried a couple months of advertising for domestic adoption and then wound up in Taiwan.
My husband John and I were high school sweethearts and have been married for almost 29 years. Our son Kyle is 20 years old and a Junior in college studying to be a journalist. Our son Coleton is 10 and is an amazing 5th grader whose interests range from playing String Bass to playing just about every sport there is! Then there is our Paige.....our Taiwan beauty.
She completed our family on August 6th, 2009 and just turned 2 this past November. Paige has brought so much joy and happiness to us all. We have made so many friends along the way.......friends that started out on blogs, emails or voices on the phone. Friends we will have forever. Friends that our daughter will have forever. I am so excited to be a part of this Taiwan Rocks event and am looking forward to meeting and getting to know all of you!

 

My name is Tiffanie and my DH and I have been blessed with 3 sweet peas. We have a son who is almost 6, a daughter who is 4 1/2 and another daughter just over a year old. We ventured on the adoption journey back in 2006 and logged in with China. We started a concurrent adoption and began paper-chasing for Taiwan in early 2007. We were originally waiting for an infant but our agency had just began a toddler program and we expressed our interest. In November of 2007 we received the referral for our then 15-month old daughter Gracyn. She came home in September of 2008 just after her 2nd birthday. The friends I've made along the way and the support through the blogging community.....on-line chat groups...the friends on the other end of instant messaging while I was in Taiwan and scared out of my mind...blog comments received...phone messages and a flowing email inbox before, during and throughout our journey...these are just some of the reasons why reuniting with other children who were born in Taiwan is important to me. The opportunity to stay connected with the beautiful families of those very children. My adoption experience, "the journey" definitely grew my faith and my circle of friends. Taiwan came to life by the connection of a blog, a few comments and an email. Selfishly as a result I hope that I will have the opportunity to meet more of you and those cyber hugs will become real hugs; that the many "profiles" I consider bloggy pals will become names, faces and friends. It is your name and your face I want to know. It is my wish that the journey...your journey, my journey...our journey continues. That our Taiwan connection and Reuniting Our Children for Kinship and Support is embraced and celebrated for years to come.
My name is Lisa C. (DH Scott) and I am the happy Mama of 2 children, both through the miracle of adoption. We adopted our beautiful daughter Lauren in April of 2003 at 7 mos. of age from Kazakhstan. Several years later we embarked on our second adoption journey, this time to bring our precious Little Man, Tyler home from Taiwan. (February, 2009 at 7 months of age) Both of our children were and are an answered prayer and I am forever grateful for the privilege and joy of being their Mama. Both of our journeys were quite different, each one unique and each one life changing; but one common thread throughout has been the connections we have made through this incredibly warm, supportive and diverse adoption community. Connections forged through blog comments, emails, chat boards, phone conversations and visits.....connections that have become cherished friendships.
Last summer our family had the wonderful opportunity to attend a weekend long Kazakhstan adoptive families reunion with over 80 families attending from all around the U.S. and Canada. It was a chance to visit with old friends and to create new ones; and more significantly, it was something tangible and important for our daughter.....a connection to other children born in Kazakhstan and to other families forged much like our own, but on a much grander scale than anything else previously attended. We came together in celebration and in a collective effort to fund raise for those angels left behind. In a word, it was incredible. At about the same time an email thread prompted by (of all things!) a blog post was being bumped around by a few of us and a crazy, goofy and oh so wonderful notion was born!
A reunion ~ Taiwan ROCks ~ but this time for our Taiwan families. A weekend of celebration, fellowship, fundraising, friendship (both old and new) undisguised joy and community. Connecting our children, born a world away and connecting the forever families they created. How amazing it would be (and will be!) to watch these beautiful children grow and flourish with one another year after year . To watch friendships made and friendships grow both this year and beyond.....at age 2 or 3.......at age 5, 6 then 7! As tweens and beyond, confident and grounded, greeting old friends with hugs and high fives ( or whatever a "cool" greeting looks like by then!), effortlessly easy within the foundation that begins this August. For our Tyler... ...for the 3 Taiwan beauties featured above......and for all of your amazing sons and daughters. And honestly? For all of us Mamas and Dads too!
I hope to see (and finally meet!) you all in Texas this summer; our family is beyond excited and beyond thankful for the unwavering enthusiasm and support of our co-planners and each of you!