I thought I was going to have some news on the adoption process but am still waiting to hear back from my adoption agency. I suspect something big happened today but need confirmation.
In the meantime, look what arrived! The quilts for the bunk bed!
I can’t put them on the bed yet because we still have a week or so to wait until the mattresses are delivered.
Hopefully there will be some good news tomorrow!
We made a tiny bit more progress toward decorating Zhi Zhi’s room. Yesterday we drove to Seattle and visited the same mattress store we bought our mattress from. (Just a quick plug for Seattle Mattress Company – I love them!) We ordered mattresses, pillows, and mattress protectors for both beds. The pillows and protectors were available for us to bring home yesterday but the mattress has to be shipped from California and will arrive in about two weeks.
The pillows are on the bed. I can’t resist, even though we don’t have mattresses yet. The quilts have been shipped and will be delivered on Wednesday. But the matching sheets are on back order and won’t arrive until mid-late July! It’ll be almost two months until I can fully make the beds.
We also went shopping at The Sock Monster and bought a pair of socks for Zhi Zhi’s next care package. I hope she likes pink!
It only took four hours, but my husband and I were able to set up the bunk bed.
I am hoping that we’ll be able to visit Seattle in the next couple of weeks to order the mattresses. Over the holiday weekend, we shopped around the mall and online and finally found a good deal on two beautiful bedding sets. The quilts will be here in about a week but the sheets are on backorder and won’t be here until the beginning of July. It’s a good thing we don’t need them immediately!
I am so incredibly excited to be decorating Zhi Zhi’s room. I can’t wait for her to see it!
One of my huge projects last week was to prepare for Z’s bed delivery. We had been using her room as storage, unpacking boxes and leaving the contents all over the floor to be used as needed. Obviously that wasn’t going to work on a long term basis!
It’s rather embarrassing, but I decided to share pictures of what the bedroom looked like before I started cleaning.
a mess
another mess
yet another mess
I got rid of a lot of the stuff, thinking if we haven’t used it in over a year, we probably don’t need it. A friend is moving tomorrow and needed some packing boxes so I gave her the extra boxes we had stored in the closet. We purchased a bookshelf at Target, set it up in our bedroom, and filled all three shelves. The remainder of the stuff was stacked into our closet.
shiny floors!
empty closet!
open space!
On Friday, Z’s bed was delivered. We ordered a beautiful bunk bed and I’m hoping to set it up tomorrow.
I can’t wait to decorate my daughter’s room! I can’t wait for her to come home!!
We have made a lot of adoption progress over the past month! If I’d been in town, I would have blogged about it. Instead, here’s the quick rundown.
On the Wednesday before I flew to Michigan, we signed the adoption agreement. The following day, we drove down to Olympia to visit the Secretary of State’s office. There we completed the first round of authentication. We went through a big hoopla trying to get a notary to sign our paperwork. If you are wanting to adopt from Taiwan, email me so I can offer some advice about notarizing “certificate of original” paperwork…
While I was still in Michigan, our agency emailed and said that she was ready to file our I600 and needed us to sign it. Awesome! Hubby filled out the application, signed it, and then overnighted it to me. I signed it and then overnighted the application to our agency so that they could submit it. Two weeks ago, we received a receipt from USCIS saying that our application has been logged into their system. The website says it takes 4-6 weeks to receive I600 preapproval.
In the midst of all of that, we found out that the social worker in Taiwan told our girl that we are trying to adopt her! We were shocked! All along, the agency has been telling us that they will not tell Z about us until we have submitted our dossier to the Taiwan court, which won’t happen for at least another month or two. But the Taiwan agency said that since she’s an older child, they want to begin preparing her now. The social worker sat down with her and told her that a family in America wants to adopt her. Apparently Z expressed some dislike toward that idea. Then the social worker showed her the photo album we sent over last summer. That caused Z to open up a bit and share some stories about when she visited the US with a hosting program two years ago. The social worker said that she is more open to the idea of America but less open to the idea of a family. Z stated that she planned to stay at the orphanage until she is of age and then move out on her own.
The social worker contacted our agency and ask that we please prepare a care package so that Z will become more open to the idea of adoption. No pressure! Usually a care package would be sent just out of love, but we’re sending one because we love her and because we are trying to convince her that a family is good for her. Because I was in Michigan while all of this was going on, there was no way for us to take more pictures or film a video. I wrote Z a letter and told her about us, that we love her, and why having a family is good. Hopefully she’s already received that and has been told that more will come shortly!
Last week and this weekend, we took a ton of new photos. All in all, we printed 32 photos to assemble into a photo album. Then I wrote up little captions for most of the photos and printed them on labels. We also bought Z a stuffed animal, a disposable camera to take pictures with her friends, and a small bag of candy. Yesterday I had the brilliant idea of also buying a cute bag for Z to store the gifts we’re sending her.
This morning we filmed a short video. I wrote out a couple things I wanted to share in Chinese, to show that I am learning Chinese to be able to communicate with her more easily. In the video, hubby also showed off all of the things we’re sending in the care package. The video is roughly a minute 45 seconds. There is so much I want to say to Z but wanted to avoid overwhelming her.
On Monday, we received an email from our agency that said that Taiwan has requested we send over the dossier now without waiting for the USCIS approval. That way they can start the translation process and cut a few weeks off our timeline! That is always good news!
Last summer, I quickly learned that the adoption process is a flurry of activity and then very long stretches of waiting. We just experienced our flurry. I wonder if that will continue or if we should brace ourselves for a long wait. I have a feeling we’ll be waiting awhile for any news on our dossier and we still have three weeks or so to wait before receiving our USCIS approval.
I am so glad that we are able to mail the care package today! I pray that Z’s heart will be softened toward the idea of adoption and that she will be even a tiny bit more accepting of the idea of having parents. All I can do is pray!
It has been a busy, busy week for adoption preparation.
First – We received an email saying that our coordinator has the adoption agreements in hand! That piece of paper that says that we have the guardian and the orphanage’s permission to adopt Z has been signed and is in the United States! Our agency should have them today or tomorrow, will be doing a couple things on their end, and then overnighting the agreements to us. Once the agreements arrive, we rush to the bank to finish notarizing our dossier. Then we’ll be making a day trip down to Olympia to start the authentication process. We are making progress!
Second – Our coordinator expects that she will have an update on Z any day now. She thought she would have it last week but it hadn’t arrived when I checked with her on Friday. Our last update was from July last year so the information is old. I want to know how my future daughter is doing and pray that the agency in Taiwan included a photo with the update. She’s growing up without us.
Third – We received an email on Sunday that requested that we put together a package to send to Z! The Taiwan agency said, “since Z is an older child, we want to start preparing her for adoption as soon as possible. Please send her a photo album, a video introducing yourselves, and a small gift.” I am so excited!! I am nervous about the video, since I want to speak to Z a little bit in Chinese to show her I am learning her language. I had hoped that I would be able to complete more of my Chinese course before attempting to speak to her, but God’s timing is best! I will trust that she will appreciate my humble early attempts at speaking Chinese, rather than it making her nervous that I still have a lot to learn.
Last night we went shopping, trying to find a photo album. We couldn’t find anything at the mall, but we did buy a gift for Z. It’s something we will either give her while in Taiwan or right after she comes home. We also bought her a disposable camera to send over now, so that she can take pictures with her friends. We’ll get the photos developed as soon as we return home. Tonight we’ll again try to find a photo album. I think we’re going to visit a Hallmark store and see what they carry.
All of this is going on, plus we have an appointment tomorrow to speak with a financial planner and I have a parenting seminar on Friday. Busy, busy! If our adoption agreement arrives Thursday, I’ll be skipping the seminar on Friday so that we can start our dossier authentication. But if it doesn’t arrive until Friday or later, I’ll be driving over to Seattle by myself, during rush hour for both directions. Eek! I’m going to be praying like crazy that God will protect this terrified driver as I attempt to learn more parenting techniques that will help our daughter overcome her childhood without a family.
It may be a crazy week, but I’m happy. I’m happy that we’re making progress with the adoption. I’m happy that I might have an update on Z this week. And I’m nesting. If I deep clean our house, we’ll be able to travel to Taiwan faster, right?
Our agency finally gave us a time estimate. They expect that we will travel to pick up our daughter in the spring of 2015.
I can’t believe it’s taking so long. When I first received the email, I was in disbelief. Then I was angry. Then I cried. Then I was angry. Then I cried.
I feel I am grieving for the loss of another year with my child. If our agency’s estimate is correct, we are missing another birthday. Another Christmas. Another Thanksgiving. Another year passes without her having a mom and dad.
It’s upsetting. I want her to come home.
I have so many thoughts these days but can’t seem to get them put onto paper (or computer screen). So I’ll just post about our latest adoption update. As of yesterday, the adoption agreement paperwork still has not left Taiwan. We need that paperwork before our dossier can start the authentication process.
While we’re waiting for the latest paperwork, I scanned our entire dossier and emailed it to my agency. Our dossier specialist is going over all of our paperwork to make sure it is correct. That way, as soon as the adoption agreement paperwork arrives, we can take the entire dossier to the bank to have it notarized. I’m praying that this last batch of paperwork comes quickly!
We also requested an update on Z. We haven’t heard anything about her since July last year and really want to know if she’s ok. Our Taiwan coordinator is supposed to be getting that done for us. Hopefully we’ll soon have some new information!
That’s the extent of our adoption progress this week. Maybe next week we’ll have more news?
I haven’t posted much about our adoption lately because nothing has been happening. Ever since we finished the fundraiser and updated our paperwork, we have been waiting for the legal guardian to give his or her approval. Someone suggested we write a letter to the guardian, explaining how we’ll be able to take care of Z and give her a good home. I wrote a letter that I hope was touching. It made me cry, at least. There’s something touching when you write “I promise to take care of your child forever, loving her as if she was my biological child.” I’m actually tearing up now, thinking about it…
I have no idea if our letter helped, but this morning we woke up to an email that said: “Your petition to adopt Z has been pre-approved by her legal guardian. Now, Taiwan will prepare the adoption agreement and power of attorney.”
Praise the Lord!! We have been praying for a few different things lately. 1 – That Z’s heart will be softened so she will allow us to love her. 2 – That she will be protected until we can pick her up. 3 – That the legal guardian will have faith that we will take good care of his/her child.
I can’t wait to go to Taiwan and start loving on her!
I am so proud of myself. I finished the first month of my video Chinese course! I’m currently working through a six month course on beginner conversational Chinese. I’m hoping this will help prepare me for our first Skype call with our daughter. And of course I hope that it will help when we finally meet!
So far we’ve spent a good deal of time working on pronunciation. I think most of my pronunciation is alright, though I’m still butchering the R sound. I’m trying to get it but it still doesn’t sound like the instructor’s R.
I’m adding a lot of vocabulary words to my Anki deck, plus some basic sentences that reinforce the grammar we’re learning. So far I’m learning how to say sentences such as:
我喜歡喝茶 – I like to drink tea.
我要巧克力 – I want chocolate.
That last sentence is particularly useful!
Tomorrow I’m attending a Google chat with the instructor to learn more about Chinese tones. I will conquer tones!