Four days!

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We’ve been seeing lots of baby bunnies on our evening walks. They are just the cutest things!

Here it is, Friday night, and my mind keeps racing. I am so glad that it’s finally Sabbath so that I can step back for 24 hours and not worry about all of the preparation. I finished almost everything that was on my list today and now I can relax until tomorrow night.

This is our last Friday evening at home without our daughter. I can’t help but wonder – what will life be like once she’s home? Will she adjust well or will she act out in fear of all of the changes? I keep hoping that this will be an “easy” adoption. We are as prepared as possible for Hard but hope for Easy. I hope that my daughter will enjoy our evening walks. That we can sit down and have a nice meal on Friday night to welcome in the Sabbath. That we will be able to bond and enjoy time spent together. That we can have fun together!

This time next week, we will be starting the Sabbath in a hotel room in Taiwan. I have a feeling Sabbath will truly be a day of rest next week as we sleep a ton in preparation for meeting our daughter the following Monday.

And I also wonder… does my daughter think about us? We leave in four days but she still has 10 days before her life changes. Does she think of us or is she caught up in the summer activities of her orphanage? I hope that she’s staying busy and not stressing about our meeting. All I can do is pray that God will give her courage as the day approaches.

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Six days!!

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Today was a very productive day and I’m pleased with how much we were able to accomplish. This evening we ran errands, visiting Wal-Mart, Best Buy, the toy store, and Serial Knitters.

When you ask adoptive parents for suggestions of activities to do at the hotel in country, one of the most often recommended suggestions is Uno. Today I went through all of our games and discovered we don’t own it! My husband and I prefer Eurostyle board games over card games. But Uno is supposed to be a fantastic game to play with a child who does not yet speak much English. While at the mall, we discovered that the toy store opened today. Look what we found!

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I have never seen Cinderella Uno before but I think it looks like a lot of fun. I hope our daughter likes Cinderella!

I want to take a knitting project with me to Taiwan. I can knit while waiting at the airport, while on the flight, at the hotel, waiting for our AIT appointment… it’s such a portable form of pleasure and doesn’t require that I stay glued to my phone. This is the scarf pattern I picked out.

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And the yarn to complete it.

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I have several projects in progress already but don’t want to take those to Taiwan with me. For one, I don’t want to lose a knitting project that is supposed to be a gift. For another, I wanted to work on something that I can give my daughter if she is intrigued by what I am doing. As all of my mid-process projects are gifts for others, I needed something new to work on. And honestly, I’m happy for an excuse to go yarn shopping!

My other big project today was several more areas of cleaning. I’m going to give full disclosure here – my pantry was a MESS.

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Yeah. A mess.

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For the past three years, we’ve had a trash bag hanging on the back of the pantry door. About a week ago, we finally bought a full sized trash can but obviously had no where to put it. This mess was ridiculous and embarrassing and I was determined to finally fix it.

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much better!!

And this was my other big mess…

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Under this sink has been a catch-all for ages. I pulled everything out, got rid of a few things, organized what was left, and stacked it all back inside. It’s still a catch-all, but at least it’s an organized catch-all.

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Bruno has to help any time I open drawers or cabinets!

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I’m not sure this looks much better at a glance, but I can now find things in there. Woohoo!!

Tomorrow I have to follow up about my prescription sunglasses. They were supposed to be available last Friday but still aren’t in yet. I also have to buy groceries and might visit the bank to talk about travel and debit cards. I’m not sure what else is on my agenda but my to-do list is still pretty long.

Six days and counting!!

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9 days and counting!

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I am so excited that our countdown is finally in the double digits! Other adoptive parents have told me that when they looked back, they could honestly say that the wait went quickly. I’m not sure I would say the same thing, but it is progressing at a steady pace. Nine more days until we leave for Taiwan! Yippee!!

Yesterday we met up with another adoptive family with children from Taiwan. I was able to play (American) football with their children and had a blast. That visit made me so much more eager to travel and bring my daughter home! I want to start building memories with her.

Today we are meeting with some friends from church to have a dim sum brunch. I’ve never had dim sum before and am excited to try it. I think this will be our last social outing before leaving as we still have a lot to accomplish and want to try to get some solid rest before we leave.

After dim sum, we are heading to the store to return a couple of shirts we bought for my husband and try to find me a new pair of sneakers. I had no intention of buying new sneakers before our trip but I discovered last week that mine have a rip down the side. I’m not even sure how old they are. Six or seven years, probably. I knew I was going to replace them at some point but was hoping to wait a couple of months!

This evening, I’m hoping to do a trial packing run for our clothing. My daughter’s suitcase is already packed but I have not tried to pack ours. I’m doing laundry this morning so that all of our clothes are clean. I want to know if everything will fit in one suitcase or if we need to bring a second or plan on doing laundry in Taiwan. I would prefer to not do laundry if at all possible, though I did find out our hotel has laundry service available.

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On Friday I found this lovely blue binder to hold all of our visa paperwork. It’s so pretty!

Nine more days and counting!

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Panic mode

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I am starting to hit panic mode about our upcoming trip. We leave in only 11 more days!! It’s not that I’m not prepared, because I am. We’re almost packed, as much as we can be at this point. The paperwork is ready. Reservations have been booked. We have loose plans for each day in Taiwan. I’m about as ready as I can be.

But for some reason, I’m starting to panic. I’m trying to allow myself to feel each emotion and then let it go. If I fight against the panic, it just gets worse. I am most nervous about the travel itself. I have never flown internationally and have irrational fears about going the wrong way at the airport and getting chased by men with guns. Last night I talked to a friend here in Seattle about what it’s like flying internationally in and out of the Seattle airport. So she walked me through security, what the flight will be like, what immigration is like on the way back, and how to pick up our luggage. That conversation helped.

We have a hotel shuttle scheduled for our arrival in Taipei. A driver will be there with a sign with our names on it. The hotel does not have early check in but will see if they have a room available when we arrive. If not, they said they will hold our luggage for us so that we don’t have to haul it around Taipei while we wait for a room. Since we arrive in Taipei at 5:30 in the morning, we’ll have plenty of time to kill and will probably be exhausted. Again, getting these details worked out with the hotel helped.

Our time in Tainan is very loosely scheduled. We meet our daughter on Monday morning and will probably be at the adoption agency for several hours. There is a possibility that we’ll eat lunch with the staff. After that, we’re on our own. Just the three of us.

On Tuesday morning, we’ll be going back to the adoption agency. We’re unsure of the plans for that morning, but they could include an orphanage visit and a going away party for our daughter. It’s a half hour drive to the orphanage and a half hour drive back. Sometime late afternoon we have to catch the bullet train back to Taipei because our visa appointment is Wednesday morning.

Analyzing my feelings, I’m not really freaking out about the actual parenting. I know that meeting my daughter will probably be awkward. I speak a little Chinese and she speaks a little English so we’ll be able to communicate on a basic level. She does want to be adopted, though I’m sure she’ll be nervous and scared and upset about leaving what is familiar. Being mama is not what I’m anxious about. It’s all the travel. Getting around in a foreign country. A lot of it is probably because I will make mistakes with paperwork or where to go and I hate looking like an idiot in front of people.

I keep breathing and telling myself, “it’ll be ok. It will be ok.” I need to pray for peace. I wish I was confident enough that I could just hop on that plane and be excited about meeting my daughter. I am excited! I’m also terrified!

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Paperwork galore

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20 days until travel! 25 days until we meet our daughter!!


Today I finished gathering and copying and printing all of the paperwork we need for our visa appointment. I find it very ironic that she’s already legally our daughter and yet we have to bring almost an inch of paperwork to Taiwan.

This packet is on top of all of the court paperwork, her birth certificate and family registry, passports, etc. How many trees does it take to complete an adoption? Many, I am sure!

We get paid tomorrow and I have to make a copy of our pay stub to include in this packet. Once that’s done, we are ready for Taiwan! I can’t wait!

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Three weeks to go!

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In exactly three weeks from this moment in time, we will be approaching the tiny island of Taiwan. I am excited about finally meeting my daughter. I am nervous about the first meeting with her. And I’m mildly panicked about all of the things left on my to-do list.

My husband has reminded me that as long as we have clean clothes, a passport, and the paperwork needed to get her visa, we’ll be ok. The rest of the list can be left undone and our world will still move forward. He’s right! I keep reminding myself of that even as I keep cleaning.

Today I am going to fill out one last form that’s required for our girl’s visa and gather the rest of the paperwork we have to take to the visa appointment. I’m also going to keep working on our kitchen. The top half of the kitchen is decluttered, scrubbed down, and organized. Now to tackle the bottom cupboards, the fridge, and the floor.

Three more weeks until we arrive in Taiwan! 26 days until we meet our daughter!

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Hotels and Skype and clothes shopping

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It has been an eventful few days! This weekend went incredibly fast. Sabbath was all about church and naps and resting up for the upcoming busy week.

The other highlight of Sabbath was a Skype call with our daughter, the first one after the adoption has been finalized. It was so amazing sitting there and talking with a child who I know is legally our daughter and that we finally get to meet in only a month. We showed her the suitcase we have for her and all of the clothes we’re bringing to Taiwan. She asked if we could bring her entire wardrobe to Taiwan! Sorry, sweetie, but we don’t have a suitcase big enough for that!

On Sunday, I spent hours researching hotels in Taiwan and getting our reservations made. I am so relieved that we have both flights and hotels for our trip! Only 29 days until we leave for Taiwan and 34 days until we meet our daughter!!

We also went to the mall Sunday afternoon and found another pair of shorts for me. Taiwan is HOT and there was no way that I could survive a week in 90 degree heat with jeans. We stumbled across a sale at North Face and found a pretty blue jacket for my daughter. I also scoured the shoe websites and found a pair of blue sneakers at half price. Now all we need is a swimming suit for her and she’ll be ready to go.

We had a beautiful surprise this morning. I had been hoping that we would receive just one more Skype call before we travel. God is generous and gave us two! We have one scheduled on the 14th and another on the 27th, just two days before we leave for Taiwan. I am so excited!

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Liftoff!

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We have liftoff! We are now the proud owners of two tickets to Taiwan and THREE tickets for the return flight.

I am exhausted but elated. Between the heat and a personal issue and the stress of trying to make travel arrangements, I am exhausted. I don’t know how people do this with little ones already home. My hat is off to mothers who go through this entire adoption process and parent at the same time!

My email inbox is getting really full and my kitchen table is a mess and my Chinese flashcards are piling up. But I was able to clean 2/3 of a kitchen cupboard today! Yippee!!

Tomorrow we’re going to start researching hotels. We also want to come up with several ideas of things we can do or see with our daughter while still in Taiwan. The Hello Kitty Cafe is already on our list. We’ll ask her on Sabbath’s Skype call which of the ideas she’s interested in. Hopefully that will give her a better idea of what will happen when the three of us meet. I cannot wait!

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It’s official!!

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I have been wishing and hoping and praying that we would be able to buy plane tickets in time for our Skype call this Sabbath evening. That way we can tell our girl that we are coming!

My prayers were answered! Our agency notified us this morning that the judge in Taiwan has issued Final Decree on our adoption. This means that the country of Taiwan legally recognizes our girl as our daughter. I am now a mommy!!!

With that notice of Final Decree came confirmation of our travel dates. We will be meeting our daughter on August 3rd and getting her visa on August 5th. I am so excited!!!

Today I emailed several travel agencies and had one get back in touch with me almost immediately. He and I have been emailing back and forth and we now have plane tickets reserved in our name. Once we get the “ok” from our agency, we’ll pay for the plane tickets and be that much closer to travel. Hopefully we’ll be squared away tomorrow!

Lilypie Countdown to Adoption tickers

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