Happy Day!!!

It is a very happy day in our household! After no news on the courts for two months, we received word today that our hearing took place on April 8th. It feels so good to finally see some progress. I am definitely not a patient person and waiting for news has been tough!

What does this mean? The first step towards our final ruling is completed. Since we have not had any requests for additional information this is also considered good. We have been told repetitively that if there is a problem, you will be notified and no news is good news.

We received the following detailed estimated timeline with this news:
First ruling should take place 1-2 months after the court date
Second ruling should take place 1-2 months after the first ruling
travel 2-4 weeks after final ruling.

Helpful timeline? I'm not complaining, the agency just does not know how quickly each judge will rule.

This puts us traveling around June 22 (best case) and after labor day (worst case). Although in international adoption the worst case could easily get worse. I am focusing on traveling in July or August to keep sane!

I also want to congratulate the others in our group that received court news today!!! It is very fun to share this experience with all of you!! We are hoping for travel partners! I am keeping my fingers crossed for some referral news soon for some friends who are sooo ready!

We're back, slightly tanned and relaxed...

We returned Friday from a great family vacation to Puerta Valarta. We stayed at the Valarta Palace and give it a tumbs up- good food, pool, beach, accomodations and nighttime entertainment. Our only disappointment was the kids activities- they were very lacking compared to the the resort we stayed at last year.

Best Quotes- After a long day of traveling, when the imigration officer asked the kids what the best part of vacation was Paige said "watching TV" and Kyle said "eating". What??? Luckily, Ed and I enjoyed it so it was money well spent. You would think they would remember the stone necklace and turtle they had to have!!!

Photos below- Some of the other blogs I read have their photos displayed with great backgrounds so I have been inspired to try digital scrapbooking (I love one of my bloggette friends Easter photos and may need to call her for help!). Below is attempt #1. It is not exactly what I was trying to do but a decent first attempt.

Adoption News- I am very disappointed to say there is none! Our agency rep has every e-mail address I have because items with chineese characters won't go thru my work e-mail so she will usually send me updates to my personal e-mail. Therefore, I usually check my personal e-mail about a million times a day. You know the saying "The watched pot does not boil" or something like that. Anyway, we were hoping that we would get an email while on vacation about the courts since we were only checking e-mail once a day, but received no updates yet.

As I have mentioned previously, this is very frustrating and discouraging! Ed reminded me this week that we were very lucky to get a referral quicker than expected so it would be really odd (especially in international adoption- where nothing goes smoothly) to also have a quick court process. July travel seems less likely (to me) unless we are further along in the court process than we think. I am starting to cling to this hope- which I know is not at all likely but can't help it.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Measurements & Care Package #2

Today we received new measurements of Danny as of 3/31. He is almost 4 months old and is 13 lbs and 22 inches long. Since we received the last set of photos I have been concerned that his head seems huge. But based on the new measurements and discussion with some other families, his head is not any larger than the other babies around his age.

It amazes me how excited I get when any info is provided! This waiting is so hard we will take any little bits of info!!

I am very excited that another family in our yahoo group received a court date!! It is really helpful to see progress in the courts even if it is not our case. This news is especially good because their baby is in the same county as ours and I was starting to wonder if Danny's case was getting held up by a back-logged county. This type of news give me hope and helps me stay positive!!

Care package #2 also got to Taiwan this week. Now our boy will have clothes from us that actually fit. (I am sure the clothes in care package 1 were probably too small by the time they got there!) This care package included a teddy bear Mp3 player (I stole this idea from a family in our yahoo group- thanks!)

The Mp3 player idea sounded really great and simple. We record ourselves singing songs or reading books so Danny will get to know our voices etc. In reality, it took much longer than expected and lots of help from Ed to get it done.

First, no microphone on the computer- Ed purchases... Getting the microphone working- seems simple.. The kids recorded songs and Ed and I read a few books. We get the files uploaded on the bear and... nothing happens. Luckily Ed was smart enough to know the files needed to be converted from wav to mp3 (and how to do this!).

We get the mp3 files uploaded and press play and hear.... about two seconds of a recording then NOTHING! We keep messing around with it, eventually concluded it was defective and we would return the bear. I decided to change the batteries as a last effort. AND IT WORKED!! (Then Ed suggested sending extra batteries)

Above is a photo of the care package stuff and one of Paige with the Bear. It's hard to see, but you press play on one foot, stop on the other, volume controls on the ears. It is pretty cool once it works!! I hope our voices in English don't scare Danny. I know if I sang he would have been scared!!

April Update!!!

Yeah!! We got update photos and video today. I just love his smile! He seems to be having trouble holding up that big head in the video. I am having trouble remembering when babies develop their neck mustles?? I may need to get out the dusty "What to expect the 1st year".

They also included a photo of the big Mongolian spot on his butt! I did not think you needed to see that. From what I have read, they are very common in Asian babies, nothing to be concerned about and usually go away by the time they are five. There were not any measurements in this update but I kind of like that. It is exciting to get any type of news so maybe we will get that in a few weeks.

This is not an outfit we sent but maybe we will see one of those next time. The outfits in the first care package we sent are probably way to small by now. We sent another care package this week. I will post more about that later...

Danny will be four months next week. WOW! I wish we could go there now. No news on the courts but my very supportive Yahoo Group assures me that we would know if there was a problem or issue with the case. (Thanks again ladies- you are the best!)

Photos from our hike in the woods...

Last weekend we went for a hike in the woods and the kids were thrilled to find lots of cool rocks they could stack and make into houses for little animals. They also found the bones of a large animal (Yuck!!!) and wanted to touch them and bring them home etc... Sorry, no photos of that!!!

No news, nothing....

Unfortunately, I have absolutely nothing to report. I had hoped we would have a court date scheduled by now but have not heard anything from our agency. When I called, I was told that they checked on the status and many of the cases were still interviewing the birth moms.

I was told this part of the process would be frustrating but did not actually "get it" until now. I check my personal e-mail a zillion times a day just in case there is an update and the kids keep asking what is happening and we don't have any answers.

To keep busy we are working on another care package. This one has been held up slightly because I bought a stuffed bear which is also a MP3 player. We can sing songs or read books (for the aweful singers like me) for Danny and his foster mom can play them by pressing the bear's foot. People say the baby will recognize our voices when we meet him??? We are still trying to figure out how to record into the computer etc... Paige seems to like this project but Kyle is not cooperating.

I am hoping we will hear news soon on a court date. The average wait time for a court date in our adoption group over the last few years is 56 days and we don't hit that date until April 7th. After that, the average wait for the final ruling is 65 days. We could still technically travel in June but July is probably more realistic, best case.... and average wait really doe snot mean much if you get a slow judge...

Keep your fingers crossed and I will keep you posted.

March Update Photos!

As you can see, we received update photos and video today!!! He is really smiley in these and seems to get cuter by the day! The update also said that he is 11 lbs now.