We had a great Turkey Day this year. THe boys went to the city to see the Parade. It was Coleton's first time at the parade. He had a blast. John said it was very crowded. Later on we went to my sister's house. Here are a few photos of the day.

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A few of my favorite things

This little set was handmade by the mom of a teacher that I work with. Thanks DEB...

This beautiful dress if from Angela and Lynn, who work out of the Singapore office of my husband's company. Thanks ladies, I hope we meet some day.


Ever since our referral, we have gotten some really sweet gifts for Paige .
We love them all!!!!! I will post some of the other favorite things in another post.

Happy Turkey Day

Next year Paige will be home with us for Thanksgiving!!
I am very THANKFUL for:
1) Kyle
2) Coleton
3) Paige
4) John
5) My family
6) My friends
7) My country
8) Our Jobs
9) Our home

Life since referral

It has been over 2 weeks since we have gotten our referral of Paige Hsin Jung. We have completed her paperwork, and now we just wait. I just found out from my friend Jules (she got her referral 2 days before me), that we will not be seeing any updates this month. Even though our pictures and video are from September, we wont see an update until December around this time.

Life goes on and we manage to keep very busy with our 2 sons. Coleton has started basketball, which is one night per week, and not too time consuming. So this past week was a nice let down from all the craziness of football.

Today I had Coleton's first parent teacher conference for his 1st report card in third grade. He is an excellent student and has marks that are outstanding. We are so very proud of him. His teacher told me that he shared with her that we are adopting Paige. She says that he is concerned about things changing.Specifically that she will get in the way of his playing baseball etc. Of course we keep telling Coleton that she will be one of those kids that get dragged to all of his events.
In fact we joke, that the poor baby doesn't know what she is getting in for.. all those long days at the baseball fields, and long,cold nights at football, lacrosse fields, and gymasiums for basketball.

In fact Paige will be arriving right around the time baseball season starts.
That makes it sound so much closer.......

DOSSIER TO TAIWAN

Coleton in front of TECO in New York City

We ended up having a really busy week last week. We recieved our documents from our agency and had to get everything notarized, certified, apostiled, and certified by TECO.

Ok so here was the process for our documents. First we had to have a local notary notarize each document. So the original person we asked had her notary from a different county. We then called a friend that we know from Coleton's sports teams and at 8:00 at night we ran to his house and he notarized our documents. THANKS SEAN AND DAWN..... the next day John ran to the county office to have them certify that the notary was indeed a notary. Then on Thursday, we headed to the city at 6 am. We brought Coleton with us, and met Kyle at our subway stop. Kyle knows the subways much better than we do, so he came with us to the State Dept. Here we had to have the state put a big gold shiny seal on each document called APOSTILE. Then we ran across the street, made copies of every document and seal and jumped on the subway to go to the TECO office. Since Taiwan is not recognized by China as being their own country, they dont have an embassy, they have an office called TECO (TAIPAI, EDUCATION AND CULTURAL OFFICE)

My goodness. I still can not believe that we have a referral of our beautiful baby girl. So many people are so excited for us. On Friday my BFF's Michelle and Jo came over as I arrived home from work with my little Meaghan and Mia and Ken (Michelles' exchange student from China) bearing gifts and balloons. Seeing these little princesses blossom has made my wait easier. THANK YOU MICHELLE, JOANNE, MEAGHAN,MIA AND KEN.

Now we are waiting for our paperwork from the agency (JOH) so that we can complete the dossier that has to go to Taiwan. Once Taiwan gets our paperwork this is what happens:(I borrowed this explanation off of my friend Heather's blog)

HEARING: 1-3 MONTHS AFTER OUR PAPERWORKD GETS FILED IN TAIWAN

a) The family court office in the county where the child was born reviews the case/petition and a Judge is assigned to the case.

b) The judge reviews and considers the case and schedules a "hearing". Hearings are handled differently depending on the circumstances of the birth family, the judge's schedule, persons representing the birth family and those representing the adoptive family. The time involved in getting a hearing scheduled depends on the judge's schedule (docket) and that of everyone else required to attend.

Hearings can result in: The immediate decision to finalize the adoption (though this is rarely the case) or the judge may request more information (again, this is rare). Usually, the hearing simply provides the judge with more information about the case and allows him/her to rule on the adoption with confidence. Most often, the judge's decision (final ruling) happens weeks or even as long as months after the hearing.

Time line for 1st ruling - 1 to 3 months after hearing.

2. Part I of Final Decree(First Ruling). Once the hearing has been completed and the judge has had time to review all the information, he/she issues the first part of the Final Decree. This is a short statement signed by the judge that is forwarded to all parties involved (social services organization on behalf of the adoptive family and the birth family) notifying everyone of his/her decision to finalize the adoption. This first part of the Final Decree must go to each party and there is a waiting period of 10 days before any further court action can occur. The birth family has until the end of this 10 day period to change their mind regarding the adoption. Once the 10 day period is passed however, the judge can make the final decree.
Time line for 2nd Ruling - 2-6 weeks after the 1st ruling
3. Part II of Final Decree (Second Ruling). Once the 10 day waiting period is over (and the court staff finds time!), the second part of the Final Decree is forwarded to all parties. When the second part of the decree is received by your child's social service organization, the court process is DONE!

Time line for official paperwork 2-4 weeks
4. Household registration change and immigration requirements. Before the adoptive family travels, a lot must be accomplished by the child's social service organization. All court documents and background info on the child must be officially translated to English and submitted with certain paperwork to AIT. Also, the child must have his/her Visa medical exam which is forwarded directly (unopened) to AIT's immigrant visa office. At some point the child's guardian must file for a household registration change. The household registration is a file located at local government offices in Taiwan that contains certificates and information about each person in Taiwan. Your child's household registration is attached to his/her guardian's file until the adoption has been finalized by the Taiwan courts. Once the child has been legally adopted in Taiwan, the guardian files with the government office to remove the file from theirs and create a new file showing that the adoptive parent(s) are the new legal guardians.The household registration change takes a day or two or a week depending on the placing organization and the local government office.

JOH families are typically given 1 to 3 weeks notice to travel

5. Adoptive Family receives travel date. Each organization in Taiwan is different in when and how they schedule a travel date. Some wait until all of the above paperwork is filed and then give the family notice to travel quickly. Some schedule the travel in advance, while they work at preparing the above documents.

So.. that means that within 4-6 months we can travel to Taiwan to bring Paige Hsin Jung home.

NUMERO UNO

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

The call could come today, tomorrow, one week, one month....but I get the next call.
I feel pretty much the same as I did when I was number 2, yet a little more jumpy. I always knew that my friend Jules would get the call first, and then tell me, so I wasnt on the front line... but now...I am.

I have shared in everyone else's adoption joy for so long, that I am not sure I am gonna know how to react to my own good adoption news. Three long years to get to this almost point. I must say I am very nervous about it, but so excited.

Before

No referrals this past week. The wait has gotten very difficult. I think Jules and I who went on our agencies' list within days of each other have broken the record for longest wait times. Ironically, we both jumped to Taiwan due to increased wait times in CHina and both have LIDs to China. Mine is currently over 20 months. Our family, friends,neighbors and coworkers are all tired of hearing us. However, this is now a new month. The chances are good that I will see my daughter's face this month. Time does fly as we are very busy working and attending all of Coleton's actvities and now our weekends are filling up quickly through December.
We haven't officially started the room, but I have picked up paint cards. Who knew there were so many shades of pink? Today I plan on picking up some of the small samples of paint to apply to the wall. Here is a picture of the mess that the room is currently in. Many of our dear friends have been giving us clothes, hence all the bags all over the room and on the bed. My friend Michelle has loaned us her beautiful crib, sitting in the box. So now I have to decide on the wall colors, clean out the room, buy furniture and yes wait.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Halloween turned out spooktacular. Coleton loves the Harry Potter books so he chose to be Harry this year.... After a mad dash home from work, Coleton got dressed in his costume. We then set out into the neighborhood with some of our friends. The kids all seemed to have a great time. Then C and I came home and then ventured over to my sister's house. We do this every year because the kids love to see each other's costumes. Kyle was at school, and John was in Kentucky on business so they missed this year's fun.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook