Rong-Rong

One of the favorite parts of this trip for K-bao, besides all the attention she received as she walked down the aisle in her pretty Flower Girl dress, was of course the opportunity to hang out with Cousin Elizabeth, a.k.a. Rong-Rong.

Here she sits down to a 1:1 meal to have deep conversations with her intellectual cousin. Notice the thoughtful expressions, witty banter and sophisticated thinking clearly going on.



Here the cousins get up to introduce themselves before showing off their expert dance moves.

At the end of the trip, K-bao was highly reluctant to part with her cousin. On one of the last nights, knowing Rong-Rong was leaving the following morning at 4:30 a.m. for the airport, she tried to extract a promise from K-Pop that he would wake her up exactly at 4:00 a.m. to knock on the hotel door and say her last goodbyes.

When this demand was wisely refused, given the reception night bedtime of 11:00 p.m., she woke herself up anyway in the wee hours, in the dark, and tapped on K-bao's sleepy head in another effort to see her cousin one last time. "What time is it, Daddy? Can we go say goodbye now?" she whispered urgently.  Unfortunately, she was an hour late...and was ushered unhappily back into bed. "We'll Skype her soon!" promised K-Pop in a failing effort to console the little one.

Skype Prayer

Cousin Elizabeth, aka Rong-Rong Jieh-Jieh aka Rong-bao, Skypes with K-bao and was sad to hear that K-bao was not feeling well.

At the end of the Skype session pious little Rong-bao prays earnestly for the Lord to be with and heal her cousin. Little sister Ling-bao looks on.

Reunion

A family reunion for the ages!

Looking at this picture it doesn't necessarily seem like it would be that difficult to get everybody together...yet given the geographic dispersion it is a rare occasion indeed when everyone across the 3 generations is in one place.

Cousin Elizabeth

In a surprise turn of events last week in Taiwan, K-bao got to see her Aunt Esther (Da Goo-Goo), Uncle Ying-On and most importantly her Cousin Elizabeth (aka Rong-bao).

The two cousins, who hadn't seen each other for over three years other than through the occasional Skype / iPhone Facetime, immediately bonded. They compared notes on recent accomplishments, took over Xiao Goo-Goo's iPad to play games, got into mischief together and exchanged plenty of hugs.

Here is how they've grown over the years:

When it was finally time for K-bao to say goodbye to Taiwan, she refused to leave her cousin Rong-bao's side. Her first instinct was, predictably, defiance: "I am NOT leaving Taiwan! I am staying here in Taiwan with Rong-Rong forever!" Her second instinct was avoidance: she grabbed her cousin to find a place to hide out until those pesky parents left without her.