What's next?

For those that aren't up on the Taiwan adoption front, I thought I would fill you in on what will be happening next for us.

The following are estimates: Please don't freak out: It may not take as long: It might take longer!! It is what it is...

2-4 weeks:
Hopefully in the next week or two we will rec'v pictures of our daughter(EEEKKK, I said "our daughter!!"):0)...With these pictures should be the contracts and information on additional paperwork that we must do.

4 weeks:
The additional paperwork is sometimes called the second dossier. We have to get some things notarized, additional paperwork that they already have rec'd...twice, we know this, we'll deal..then some things need to be Authenticated at TECO(Taipei Economic and Cultural Office) in Miami(we will deal with TECO through the mail). I am told this takes about 4 weeks.

4-6 months:
Once we gather all the paperwork and it's all signed and notarized, authenticated, we will send this back to our agency I think? or maybe Cathwel? Not sure, but it somehow gets back to Taiwan and then enters the court system. I am told the average court process right now has been 4 months. There is one VERY slow judge in Taiwan. Those worst case scenarios took LONGER then six months. Pray that we do not get that judge. We won't know much during this period. There are two rulings. This period is for the first ruling.

10 days:
Once we get a first ruling, there is a 10 day grace period. This is the last chance for our daughters birthmother to change her mind.

3-4 weeks NOTICE:
After this grace period, there is the second ruling. Our daughters adoption will be final in Taiwan. We will then get notice to travel. It seems that families are getting somewhere in the range of 3-4 weeks notice to travel.

This is my understanding of what will happen. For those that have BTDT, if I am mistaken please enlighten me!

THE CALL

It has just hit me again, so I thought now was a good time to write about it. Thanks for putting up with the last post, it really was fun!! So in my head I had a vision: I would get the call, I would be very calm, and reserved. I would write down all the information, keep quiet, go home, buy the blue or pink(but I was really thinking blue) booties, wrap them, sweetly wake up Jon and present him with the booties. We would cry, sniff, sniff, hug, love, love. We would buy flowers for both our mothers and balloons for our fathers, we would wait for them to be delivered. Then and only then would we announce it to everyone else.


This is what REALLY happened. I was at work, so that means frumpy green scrubs, blue clogs, hair up in an OR scrub hat with frogs on them(get the picture), I just finished scrubbing out a friend, I was back at my desk, which by the way is in the back, in the supply room..sorta office space style. I was putting an instrument tray together, getting frustrated, when in the left pocket....vibrate, vibrate....who could that be?.....it's an out of state number.....it can't be...that's not Bonnie's number(We know we're waiting for a call from Bonnie)....do I answer and hang up, like I do with wrong numbers, or answer.....I stare at the phone, lean back, answer....
hello
Hi Ann, this is Bonnie from FHSA
(still calm)is this "the call"
yes, this is the call.....

OH MY GOD**the following are gathered accounts from witnesses, because I really don't remember much**
I come tearing out of the room running, sobbing out loud. Now let me just explain, this was not the single tear running down a cheek. I'm talking snotty sobbing, out loud sobbing, screaming sobbing, heaving sobbing screaming and I apparently didn't know what to do..so I was running/pacing up and down recovery room. They actually heard me on the adult side and one girl came out ,found me leaned up against the wall sobbing, started hugging me and telling me it's going to be okay....
"We have a baby, we have a baby"
more hugging, "okay, so this is good crying!!"
"yes, yes, we have a baby!!"
By that time all my friends have come out to see what happened, and basically who died.
"This the call we've been waiting for" more sobbing
meanwhile, Bonnie is trying to get the fax number
Now I tried really hard to give her the fax number, but apparently, so I've been told, I was not well understood, I wasn't making any sense...so I just handed off my cell phone to my friend.
She then finished talking with Bonnie, who got the fax number and told her to tell me that when I calmed down and could breath, to call her back.
I then got on the phone to call and try and wake up Jon. I called four times, no answer.
Finally I screamed/sobbed into the answering machine that he needed to get up, he needed to call me, why was he not answering the phone.
Welp...he heard me on the machine...again thinking that someone had died...he bolted out of bed, and later we would come to learn, he popped a rib out of place....got to the phone, called me back...
"we have a baby!!"
He thought that something terrible had happened and at that point was in a lot of pain.
so then I looked down on the piece of paper that I had written down ALL the information on the baby and all I saw was.....
IT'S A GIRL!!!!!! But you see that right, that's all I wrote. That's all the information I had...at that point the fax started coming through. I'm on the phone people are gathered around me. My SIL who sometimes works on my side is walking up from lunch, sees everyone gathered around me and me sobbing and thinks something horrible has happened to Jon. I just put up that piece of paper with "girl" written on it. GIRL...can you believe that. So Jon asked me what her name was and I proceeded to give him the wrong birthdate and the social workers name(thinking it was our baby's name). I was shaking and so NOT calm. So when Jon started passing on information it was wrong. I am such a total dork!!!
Then I found out that they had put a patient in the back room, which is right close by the room that I came screaming out of. Luckily a coworker explained to the family what was going on. Because I am sure that all the screaming and sobbing scared the family. It's a Girl!! We have a daughter. All this time we thought little boy. I was and still am absolutely stunned that we have a daughter. We already had the medicals examined and accepted last night. I'll let everyone else know what's next in another post. We anticipate photos in 2-4 weeks. It's all really a blur. I wish I could tell the story better. I am just so overwhelmed with happiness.
I my minds eye I thought I was be so pulled together. I would be calm, cool, and collected. Let me just tell you that I was so far from cool. I so lost control. I just couldn't hold back all the emotions. It's been a long time coming. We have tried for so long to start a family. So so long. And after all the years of tears being shed out of sadness...I had some making up to do and had just as many tears shed in joy!

For some reason I can't seem to put into words how I feel right now. I am grateful. I am humbled by the path that has been layed before us, I am amazed. I am stunned. I am scared. I am in love with a child I have never seen. I am the Mommy to a baby girl!!

update @ 9pm: sorry guys I forgot to give any more details. She was born November 3rd, 2007. She is at Cathwel. She's healthy. Her name from us is being debated at the moment.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Daytona 2008

NOT the Daytona 500, but the day before. Formally known as the Busch series, now the Nationwide series(or so I've been told). Jon won tickets through his job(they have such neat insentives) It was my first time to a race. Jon kept asking me if I wanted to go down to the fence. I didn't feel I "needed" to go down to the fence. But after much insistence by Jon, we went down to the fence. I'm standing there as the cars are driving by on a caution flag....Jon told me..."just wait"....Then they really started driving, they were flying by, it was extremely loud, the wind was wooshing by and you get sucked toward the fence..Seriously, it was soo cool, I think my exact words were this is "effin awesome." Never thought I would be a Nascar fan, but it was pretty fun.


diclaimer: some photos have been edited so that it's subject wouldn't feel so bloated..yay photoshop!!

23 months!!!!

I have tried and tried and tried for hours to upload a video. I started @ 11 am. It is now 5 p.m. I am tired. I am over the video thing. There are typos in the poem at the end. I know this. But I am tired of editing.

But anyways. We've been waiting 23 months. That's all I have to say