Update

A brief update on our adoption process...We are excited to say that Amber Joy continues to do well and is growing. The last photo we received was a picture of her in a 3-month outfit that we sent to Taiwan. She is a little over five months old right now, so she is still small for her age, but her little cheeks and arms are plumping up so well! She is a healthy girl! We would love to get pictures every day, but the way I see it, we will just have a lot of picture-taking to make up for when she gets here!



Many people have asked us "when are you going to get her?" I wish it were that simple. Even after a child is identified in most international adoptions, there is usually quite a long wait to actually bring the child home. In this case, our adoption is private, not through an agency, and even though our home study is complete, we are now waiting for it to come back to us having been translated into Chinese. Once we get it back (probably in about a week from now), we have to get it notarized, certified by the county clerk, State clerk, and finally, the national Taiwan office in Atlanta. Once those are done, we send it all back to Taiwan and wait for our first court date. Our first court date will probably be late August to early September at the earliest, then after that, it is at least 4-8 more weeks until the final court date when we are given our travel date. When we are given our travel date, we could be heading to Taiwan within a week! So it's a lot of wait, wait, wait, followed by HURRY and pack!


We have had one baby shower, given by our church family. We have two more that are planned. So many people are so excited about this precious baby girl and we feel so blessed to have such a supportive family and wonderful friends. We are in the process of applying for grants and no-interest loans to help fund the adoption costs and travel.


I told Justin this morning that when I began taking care of a friend's baby this past January, she was nine months old. It occurred to me that we will be getting Amber Joy when she is 9-10 months old and that gave me a good frame of reference for the baby stage we will be in. Nine months is such a fun time! They are smiling, but probably not walking yet, so we will get to see those first steps. The baby I take care of has developed so much in the way of her emotional expression in the past six months, so I am just really looking forward to watching Amber Joy's personality start to come out.


Thank you for your interest...we look forward to sending out the "We're heading to Taiwan" e-mail very soon!


"Forget the former things: do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!" Isaiah 43:18-19

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