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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!