March 2023 Taiwan Trip - Part 1

 We took the trip of a lifetime to Taiwan with Mark's mom at the end of March for Spring Break. It was absolutely amazing in every way and such a needed time away in the best place with the best people! The plane ride there is long. 14 hours from LA. We didn't feel great when we arrived, but we were glad it was over.

After getting through customs we got on the metro into Taipei. It was a Sunday morning when we arrived so not many people. It made for a nice relaxing ride.

First views of Taiwan.

On our way to our hotel we passed by Mark's grandmother's apartment building. It was fun to show the boys where she lived for so much of her life.

We could not check into the hotel as it was early morning, but we were able to leave our bags and head out to get some Doujiang for breakfast. It was a little place the Hsiaos have been many times and the store owner remembers Alice. It was so delicious and a great way to start a week full of the best food we have ever eaten in our lives. 

We were so happy to be here!

Taiwan Boba Smoothies

Random grocery exploration 

Then we met the aunts and uncles for a delicious lunch. It was a European fancy place. They knew it was Brian's birthday in a few days so we celebrated there.

I loved walking the street of Taiwan with my family. 

One morning the boys swam at the hotel and played Ping-Pong.

Taipei 101 was next on the agenda. Too bad it was not a good view with the bad weather. But still fun to be up so high!

Timmy did well even with his fear of heights!

At the bottom of Taipei 101 is Din Tai Fung. The famous dumpling restaurant. So delicious!

Lots of riding on the Taipei Metro (MRT).

The next morning I hit the neighborhood market with Timmy and Alice.

Then we met family at Guo Ba. The best hot pot place we have ever eaten! It was amazing!

We enjoyed talking to Mark's uncle there.

More time on the metro!

Night market shopping.

We had the best family time on this trip!

The next morning bright and early we boarded the speed train to head down South to Kaohsiung.

One of Alice's old school friends picked us up from the station and drove us all around for the day. Our first stop was a Buddhist monastery/visitor's center.

Then it was off to find the place where Alice grew up. The building where she lived was gone, but we wanted to see where it was.

We also stopped to see Alice and her friend's old high grade school.

Then we went for some Kaohsiung shaved ice! This was Brian's actual birthday, so we counted this as his cake!

Afterward we took the ferry out to Cijin island for some ocean time!

It wasn't a sunny day, but it was still so nice to be at the ocean after a long winter in Utah.

Timmy found some good street food squid.

Then we visited Alice's dear childhood friend and housekeeper.

Then we went and had some good dim sum and got back on the train to Taipei. It was a very fun and memorable day in Kaohsiung!

March 2023

My little goat named Angel had surprise babies at the beginning of March. I knew she had gotten in with the buck too early, but I wasn't sure exactly when babies would arrive. Luckily she was a great mom and they were strong and healthy babies so they didn't need too much of my assistance. Life was already pretty crazy and adding baby goats was fun, but didn't help with the craziness.

We went out to eat with some family in town.

Brian loves the Douhua (tofu pudding) at Cafe Anh Hong. He was happy to have it this day, but you can see in his face below that he isn't feeling well. After missing school (and sleep) for the cold and rainy trip with the orchestra to California at the end of February and his difficulty recovering from having Covid in December, Brian was not doing well.  His asthma got really really bad. It was even a little scary at times when he couldn't breath or sleep or focus.

He tried so hard to push through the end of a difficult term at school and the end of a long winter and the beginning of a very cold and wet/snowy track season. But he just wasn't getting better and in fact he was getting much worse.

With his asthma attacks coming so frequently, it was time to visit the doctor. Dr. Omura said Brian's lungs just hadn't had the chance to recover from Covid and his body was struggling with all the stress. He suggested Brian take some steroids to quickly reduce the inflammation in his lungs. He also said that Brian should reduce stress in any way he can. We said okay and Brian took the meds. 

Apparently Brian is very sensitive to steroids. He literally was not able to sleep at all for three nights and four days straight. He could not focus at school at all during that time and then when the effects of the steroids wore off he slept for four days straight and missed even more school. I felt so bad for allowing the doctor to give him the medication. I thought we had made a big mistake because now he was even more behind at school and it was the end of the quarter. 

He also missed a few track meets and he had piano federation and orchestra concerts to prepare for. He was the Teachers Quorum President at church and had lessons to teach, talks to give, meetings to hold. It was all too much. He needed help and I needed help knowing how to help him. I said some pretty pleading prayers and then I knew what to do. I cancelled all piano and cello lessons and recitals completely.  I talked to his track coach about letting him take a break to recover and I told his leaders at church he needed his presidency to take over for a little while to give him some time.  I reminded Brian with those things out of the way all he had to do was think about getting to school and doing school work to get caught up.

Then Mark came into the picture to be the final answer to my prayers to help Brian. Mark patiently sat with him nightly for hours working through math Brian had missed learning at school. I could not help Brian with the math personally, so I watched with a heart full of gratitude as Mark made the time in his crazy busy life to teach Brian the concepts. After many nights of this, the term ended and Brian miraculously kept his 4.0. When the effects of the steroid medication wore off, he was able to get some really good sleep and his asthma attacks almost stopped completely. He was finally able to recover and get back on a good sleep schedule after over three months of struggle. He resumed his duties with his church calling and even successfully finished out the track season. I decided to let him not have music lessons for the rest of the school year, which alleviated a lot of stress for him. I am so grateful for Mark and the other answers to my pleadings with Heavenly Father.

Construction continued on the house. Mark worked so hard and it was truly amazing to come home each day from school to see so much completed. Our closed off dark main room was now open and full of light. It was very exciting.

With the end of March came Spring Break and we got to take a break from all the hard here and go on the most amazing and needed trip to Taiwan with Mark's mom.