Our First Glance

It started out as a typical Monday morning. I woke early to a cup of coffee and a granola bar, settled down at the computer and started researching the waiting children of Taiwan. Every Monday I update who has found a family and add any new waiting children. With that information I then advocate and pray on the little waiting children's behalf whenever given an opportunity. Well today was different, I found my daughters picture! I was quite surprised when I was on an agency site that is not my own and see a cute little girls face and then read her name. Hsiao-Yu. "What that is my daughter... I think?" I click on her picture and it goes on to confirm it is indeed my daughter. My eyes filled with tears and my heart was pounding out of my chest. I couldn't believe it was her. This is not the way it is suppose to happen. What a blessing, I am so happy to have a picture no matter how I got it. So I was extremely happy but angry and confused at the same time. I contacted the agency immediately to claim that she was my daughter and wanted to know why she was on their waiting list. I also contacted my agency to see why Cathwel has never given them this picture. It is not anything anyone is trying to withhold from us it is just a case of human error and oversights. I won't really go into details, but everyone is doing their part to correct the situation. The other agency took down her picture and information right away. They know she is spoken for and are happy for her. My agency is going to contact Cathwel tonight to find this picture and if there are anymore. All I can say is our orphanage is very busy these days and do their best with what they have. I love it! I love her! I have a face to frame and I can look into this picture and see my daughter. I know it is not clear for you all to see. I only have what I was able to copy, paste and then print on paper. She is squatting down looking at rabbits in a cage. She has a round face with arched eyebrows and a calm look on her face. She is beautiful. Glory be to God for leading me to our daughter's picture.

Kittens

We have kittens that need a loving home. How it all began. On Halloween last year a black kitten starts living in our garage. She is a feral cat and will not let us touch her. She eats our cats food and grows but still won't let us pet her. Towards the end of April I notice her stomach starting to get quit round. I think she is to young to have kittens it must be worms or something. Then to my surprise on May 17th I go out to feed the cats in the morning and up she jumps with 5 wet black things under her. I scream and she is growling. Yep, we have kittens for sure. I am not proud that we were not able to control the pet population by getting her spaded but no one could touch her. The good that has come from it is my kids have been fascinated by the kittens over the past 5 weeks. And my daughter has tamed the mother through handling her kittens. We can now pet her. Zarra really loves animals. She has made them elaborate playgrounds in the house using cardboard boxes and toys. It is so cute and fun to watch them play. She also makes them obstacle courses and is training them well. Zane on the other hand loves them a little to much some times. He often hears us scream "ZANE let go of the kitten" as he shoves it under a pillow or lets it hang from his shirt by it's poor little claws. The kittens love him anyhow. We already have two cats and the mother that showed up last year. So we are not keeping any of the kittens. If you are interested in taking one off our hands. That would be great! Give me a call and you can come and get one.

Home Study Update

Last week we all had to get physicals proving our current health. None of us had been to the Dr.'s office since the beginning of our adoption back in 2006. We have to get fingerprinted for the third time. So we sent the forms and fee in, now just waiting on a set date to go to St. Louis and be printed. Friday our social worker came to our home for a visit to update our home study. We have been busy getting our side of the paperwork ready. When those official documents finally get here I want to get them finished and into the hands of our Taiwan judge ASAP.

We can't live for the future we have to live in the here and now. So we are enjoying our summer. "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." Lots of baseball. My cousin, all the kids, and I stayed the night at a hotel last week. It was a little mini vacation but a lot of fun. The kids played at Boonkers, had their last night of VBS, and did a whole bunch of swimming.

$ Garage Sale $

I had a very successful garage sale fundraiser this weekend. The money raised will go towards our travel expense to bring our daughter home from Taiwan. It brought in $726!

I sold all of our baby items. I had been holding on to them just in case we were matched with an infant. It was not sad at all to get rid of these items, it was more of a relief to declutter our storage space finally. Also many friends donated items that really helped raise the total. Thank you to the Hofmiester's, Jenkin's, Walrath's, Burton's, Teresa, Fink's, and Spee's.

Here are the kids at their little concession stand.

When can you bring her home?

This is the most popular question I have been asked. I wish we could bring her home right away. So we would not miss another day of her life. With adoption it is never that easy. We are waiting on paper work and contracts to sign first. Once we get the paper work it is a mad dash to get all the offical signitures. Then they are quickly returned to Taiwan and our case will be appointed a Judge in their court system. During the court process there will be a hearing , a ruling, 2nd ruling, then the date set to get her visa to leave the country. The date of that appointment will determine our travel date. We will get notifiyed about 3 weeks before it is time to travel. Most of the time it take 7 months for all this to happen. So to answer the question she should be home by Christmas. It could happen sooner (with lots of prayer) but it could also take longer. We always have known this is how it goes. So while it is hard not to be able to go get her right away. This is the way it is to protect children’s rights and make sure all is legit in an adoption.

He kniT us together

This is our story of what has taken place of over the last 5 weeks. The weekend before we got "the call" John agreed to up our age preference to 0-4 years old, but he said she would have to just be turning 4 at referral no older. This was an answer to prayer! We sent our agency the update on Monday April 13th. That same day in Taiwan, they sent her file to the agency to be put on their waiting child list. Then the next day our case manager saw our update and saw that this little girl was just about to turn 4 and thought this could be a divine match. Now we get "the call". I wanted to accept her with the little information we had. John being the engineer he is needed to make a more informed decision. So being very optimistic about her. We requested additional medical information. We thought it would be a couple days, a week at most to receive an update. It was so hard for me to hold back my excitement all this time when I knew in my heart all along that she was the one. This was my “marathon” and the last mile of the race is always the hardest and most important. The finish line was in sight, with God’s great grace I hung in there; even when my mind was weary He would pull me back. I just wanted to go to sleep and not think about it until there was an answer. I heard the Lord calling " You're almost there. Don't quit. Stay strong. Keep the faith. Keep going…you'll make it…, It will be worth it!” Then finally a month later we got the update. We had our questions and concerns answered. We immediately submitted a formal request to accept her referral. Next we had to wait yet another week to hear that the orphanage had granted us approval to move forward with her adoption. This was it, we had finally been chosen for our little girl we have waited so long for. We have no picture of her yet. But from a physical description she has a chubby figure with a round face. Her personality reads that she is friendly, talkative, and curious.

From the very beginning of our adoption God had started to knit us together. The day that our file was put on our orphanage’s waiting list, was also the day she became legally free to be adopted. That very same day she was sent to live in a nursing home where she still lives today. I believe it is definitely a match God has knit together and I know she is the child He has always intended for us.

Time to Celebrate!

We have been matched with our little Asian angel GIRL from Taiwan!

She just turned 4 years old on May 4th. The long wait to be chosen for our child is over. Praise God! I will post our story of how it all came to be soon. For now I will reveal her name;

Naveia Hsiao-Yu H. Naveia (nuh-vay-uh) Hsiao-Yu (her first given Taiwanese name) H. (security reasons, if you know us you know our last name)

I know you want to see her. We can't wait to see her face too. I hope a picture comes soon.