ADOPTION PAPERWORK MADE IT BACK TO TAIWAN!

I tracked our FEDEX package that had our adoption paperwork and I am overjoyed to say that it made it to Taiwan. What a relief! It was delivered at 11 p.m. Wednesday night our time, or 1 p.m. Thursday afternoon their time. I hope to hear something soon that we are registered for court and have a court date.

KEEPING BUSY

I am trying to keep myself busy, so I have been working on Isaac's room. We haven't gotten it completely finished, but I am pretty happy with what we have done so far. I posted a few pictures, and as you can see, we have a pretty old house, hence the panelled walls. I would love to paint them, but we really don't have the time and we need the money for other things. It will just have to stay the way it is for now. They biggest challenge has been getting everything in the room. It isn't very big, so I am having to get creative. We don't have very much storage space. I guess they didn't have much clothes back in the early 1970's when this house was built, which is the only reason I can think of for so little closet space. It is a three bedroom house, but only two of the bedrooms have a closet, and they are pretty small. Our bedroom doesn't have a usable closet because the central heating unit was put in the closet. The said that it was the only place they could put it when the central heat and air was installed. When the house was built in 1974, it had an air window unit and electric heaters in the wall. Anyway, there is no place for clothes. We have learned to be pretty creative, but with a new member of family on the way we really need more storage and closet space. We are busting at the seams as it is. We are planning on converting the storage room that is off our screen in patio into a closet. This storage room shares a wall with our laundry room, so we are just going to cut a door in the laundry room to open it up into the storage room. I am so excited about getting a walk in closet. Here are pictures of what we have done so far in Isaac's room. They told us that he like to play with balls, so that is the theme of his room. All that is left in getting his room ready is a toy box that has been ordered but hasn't arrived yet, and finishing the storage cabinet that we are putting in his room. It is my great-grandmother's old armoir. Eddie is refinishing it and putting shelves in it instead of hanging racks. I think it will look beautiful when it is done. The most important thing is that we will have some much needed storage and a part of my great-grandmother, who has passed on, will be a part of her great-great-grandson's room. I already have some family heirlooms in Olivia's room. I have the chest and vanity that belonged to my father's mother in Olivia's room.

I also tracked our adoption papers through FEDEX a few minutes ago and saw that it has just left the FEDEX center in Guangzhou, China. Next stop TAIWAN! I will post again when I get word that it has arrived at its final destination.

PAPERWORK ON THE WAY TO TAIWAN

I put our adoption paperwork back in the mail today through FEDEX heading for Taiwan. YIPPEE! FINALLY! Hopefully we will be registered for court by the end of next week as long as there is nothing wrong with anything that I sent. I will finally breath a sigh of relief when I know it has arrived and I know that everything is in order.

OLIVIA'S PASSPORT ARRIVED

We received Olivia's passport in record time. It came in today after only three weeks. I also found out that our adoption paperwork is on its way back to us from TECO in Houston, TX. It should be here by noon on Monday. Then we can put it in the mail back to Taiwan.

PAPERWORK ARRIVED AT TECO and USCIS APPROVAL

I just tracked our FEDEX package to Taipei Economic and Cultural Office. They received our adoption paperwork this morning at 8:47 a.m. We hope to get it back by the middle of next week so that we can overnight it back to Taiwan. We also received our updated I600A approval yesterday. We are well on our way. We are now waiting on Olivia's passport. Please also continue to pray for our finances. We are seeing God work every step of the way.

WHY TAIWAN?

I had someone ask me why we decided to adopt from Taiwan, so I thought I would share or story with everyone on the blog. It is a story of love and well guided direction from God. I hope this will encourage someone and maybe even prick someone's heart to think of adoption themselves.

Why Taiwan? Because that is where God led us. We adopted our now 4 year old daughter Olivia from China. When we found out in 2001 that I could not get pregnant, we started looking into adoption. We talked to a lot of people who had adopted, both domestically here in the U.S. and internationally. We asked God to lead us where He wanted us to go. We knew that God knew where our child was. We were open to wherever He wanted to send us. In 2003, we moved to Hattiesburg, MS and met some familes who had adopted from China. The light came on! That was where God wanted us to go. We spent time with these families and got informations on adoption agencies and on the country of China. We signed with an agency in March of 2004. We received the call about Olivia on January 7, 2005 and traveled to China to bring her home in March of 2005. She was 11 months old. We know that it was God's will for us to adopt a child from China. We can't imagine our life without Olivia. We we started feeling God calling us to adopt again, we of course thought of China first. We felt it was important for Olivia and a sibling to have that heritage connections. At that time though, China was imposing new restrictions on who could adopt from there and we did not qualify at the time. Our net worth wasn't high enough. It was also taking 4 times as long to adopt a child from China as it did when we adopted Olivia. It only took us one year with Olivia, it is now taking 4 years. Since the door of China were closed to us, we started praying about where God would have us to go. We then met online through an adoption yahoo group, a woman who had adopted a little boy from Taiwan. We talked with her extensively and did a lot of research on the country of Taiwan. We thought this would be a great match because we were wanting to adopt another Asian child so that our children would have that connection. This lady that we met told us about some American missionaries who started a children's home in Taiwan. They have been there working with children and preaching the gospel for 40 years. They help children in their care that are available for adoption to find loving homes in America, so we felt God leading us to contact them about possibly adopting a baby through them. Many of the people in Taiwan and China are very poor. Abortion is also at a very high rate. These missionaries minister to women and through the love of Christ show them that there is another way besides abortion. They also find homes for children who's parents are just so poor that they can't take care of their children. That is what happened with Isaac. His mother is unwed and very poor. She brought him to the missionaries when he was 2 1/2 asking for their help in finding a better home for him where he could get the care he needed and the opportunities that she could not offer. Talk about sacrificial love. Can you imagine what she must have gone through after trying to care for her child coming to the realization that she could not care for him anymore and decided that for him she must give him up. The missionaries prayed about what family God had chosen for this little boy and God lead them to us. This really was God working because we had actually asked for a child under 12 months old, but the missionaries felt very strongly that God was telling them that He had chosen our family for this precious little boy. We know that this is God's will for our life. He even looks a lot like Olivia. After we had committed to God that we would adopt from Taiwan and was well on our way to completing the necessary paperwork like a home study and immigration paperwork, the doors to China were opened back up to us. That just proved to us that God closed to door to China at that time for us because it was not in His will for us to go back there. We believe very strongly in the power of pray and the power of God's hand on our lives on a daily basis. He is interested and involved in every aspect of a person's life if they will let Him. That is what we want for our family. We want God to be the head, the leader, and the guide of everything our family does. Our only goal is to follow the will of God. I will admit that it has not been easy all of the time. There have been many disappointments and setback with this adoption, but I have seen God's hand on it every step of the way. Even when things seemed impossible, God was still there. Coming out of the impossible only gave more confirmation that this was God's will. We will continue on following His lead and trusting that He will carry us through every step to our son.

PAPERWORK OFF TO SECRETARY OF STATE FOR AUTHENTICATION

We got our adoption contract, court registration, and Isaac's passport application signed and notarized today. We then sent all of that along with our signed and notarized power of attorney and homestudy off to the Secretary of State for Authentication. I overnighted it though USPS, so they will have it by noon tomorrow. Hopefully we will have it back by the middle of next week so that we can send everything to Houston, Texas to TECO, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, for final Authorization. When it is all back in our hands, it is off to Taiwan so that they can register us for a court date for official adoption procedings to start.

MOVING RIGHT ALONG! Please continue to pray. We are seeing God work daily in this adoption. He is constantly confirming His will for our lives and showing how He is providing all of our needs to bring our sweet boy home. We received a financial gift in the mail yesterday from a sweet couple, who I will keep anonymous. We are so thankful and apreciative for people who feel God's call to help this precious child find a forever family. Of course, the most important thing that anyone can do is pray. Prayer is the most precious and powerful gift that anyone can give us. I thank all of you for your prayers.

TRANSLATED DOCUMENTS ARE HERE

WOW! I was shocked when someone rang my doorbell this morning. I was in the back of the house, so they were banging on the door by the time I got there. IT WAS THE FEDEX DELIVERY MAN! I opened the door and he said, "Please sign this." I looked at him in shock. I said, "Is this from Taiwan?" He looked at the package and said, "Yes it is." It had been overnighted. I am now working on getting everything notarized, certified and authenticated. Please pray we are able to get this done correctly and quickly and that we can get a quick court date.

Please also continue to pray for us to be able to raise the money we need quickly. This is going faster than we had expected. We know that everything will happen in God's timing and He will provide everything we need. Please pray for His provisions.

NEW PICTURE OF ISAAC

I woke up this morning to another surprise. There was a new picture of Isaac in my e-mail inbox. It looks like they caught him off guard again because he still isn't smiling. Maybe he doesn't like getting his picture taken. He is still adorable though. I am hoping to get a full body picture at some point. I can't tell from these pictures how tall he is. He looks to be tall in these pictures, but it may be because they are taken closeup.

PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED! PAPERWORK IS TRANSLATED AND IN THE MAIL!

Our prayers have been answered. We just received word that our translated documents were put in the mail Monday morning Taiwan time. They were able to go ahead with the paperwork without the second addendum addressing the typographical errors. They still would like to have the addendum, but we can go ahead at this point without it. I just hope I can remember everything I need to do with the translated documents when I get them. I feel so frazzled. Please pray that we are able to get everything on our part ready quickly and sent back to Taiwan.

Please also pray for our finances. We are not having very much luck saving the money we need for travel expenses. We keep having emergency needs at home and are having to use the money that we have saved for bills and other unexpected expenses. I had to get a new pair of glasses a few days ago and that took a big chunk out of our savings. I am also having problems with my eyes and may have to have surgery on my right eye before we travel. As some of you will know, I had a very bad car accident when I was 15 years old. I was hit in the back of the head with a spare tire, which caused a severe injury to my right eye. I have had double vision for 19 years. I had surgery and two injections put in my eye 18 years ago to straighten out my eye, which was turning into my nose due to the accident. The accident damaged the muscle that pulls my eye to the right so it was pulling into my nose. The injections of botulinum helped to make me eye look straight, although it still won't turn to the right, but they have worn off. My eye is again starting to turn in, which is worsening my double vision. I am considering going to a specialist for it to see if anything can be done, but that would be expensive and would take all of our savings away. We are already $4000 short of what we will probably need to travel to Taiwan to bring Isaac home, which will probably be about 3-4 months from now. Please pray for a miracle with my eyes and with our finances.