NAME

Okay, we've FINALLY decided, but only on his first name, but that's a start!!! Ready?? It's Brady!!! So, for now he's Brady Suan, but he'll soon have a middle name too and I'll post when we have that too!

WHAT NOW??

At this point we are waiting for our I-171H form from Immigration. Once we receive that our dossier will be compiled and sent to Taiwan. At that point we then wait for our paperwork to move through the Taiwan court system.(from what I've read on the message boards that I belong to, there is a "fast judge" and a "slow judge", so keep your fingers crossed that we get the fast guy!!) They tell us that from the time we receive our referral to the time we travel will be about 4 to 8 months. I'm sure it will kill us to wait, but in the meantime we will receive monthly updates and photo's. At some point we are allowed to send him care packages too!! I'm looking forward to doing that and then seeing pictures with things that we have sent him.

Other than that, we're just trying to finalize his name. I think we've got the first name, but I want to be sure before I post. We are getting some help from Alan's parents on the middle name. I'll be sure to post once we decide SOMETHING!!!!

ISN'T HE CUTE???!!!!!!

Thanks to all of you who waited patiently to see these! We "officially" accepted the referral this afternoon, so it was time to post these! We are just ABSOLUTELY thrilled and think he's just adorable. If nothing else, he and Alan have the same haircut!! : ) Now, I know you all are wondering about the name, so his given name is Lin Chen-Yu, but to us at the moment he's "the baby". We're working on his "new" name at the moment and we're down to 3 I think. With any luck we'll decide on one by the end of the night or at least by the end of the week.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Well, we got our referral today!!!! He is soooooooooooooo cute!!! Yep, it's a boy and he was born on February 5th. From what I can guess he was about 20 inches at birth and about 8lbs or so. Right now it would seem that he is about 11lbs or so. Tomorrow is my birthday and I couldn't have asked for a better present! I'll post pictures either later today or once we have "officially" accepted, which should be today or tomorrow.

13 WEEKS AND COUNTING

Well, I totally thought we'd have our referral by now, that's for sure. As each week passes with no referral it's getting harder and harder to stay positive, but do I really have any other choice? I mean sure I could call our agency every day and bug them and ask them what's going on, but I don't want to be "that person"!!! I do check in from time to time, but I don't want to make them even busier than they already are. I know that our program has grown tremendously even since we signed on in January, so I know they have their hands full. The only silver lining I can find is that it seems like no referrals are going out, it's not just our agency. Anyway, in the meantime I've got work to keep me busy, so that helps a little bit, but not really....it's kinda hard to keep my mind off something that's ultimately going to change our lives forever! I know that it will all be worth it in the end and I think that's what keeps me going!! : ) Sorry for the somewhat downer post, but.......until next time!! With any luck it'll be good news!

FINGERPRINTS....CHECK!!!

Okay, we can officially check off USCIS Fingerprints on our "to do" list!! We had "appointments" today....and I use the term 'appointment' loosely!! Our 'appointment' was for 2pm and, yep, you guessed it, we sat there until about 10 after 3 before we were called!! UUUGGHHHH....that kind of stuff just really annoys me...it seems so inefficient, and you all know how anal I am!!! Anway, the whole thing was very surreal...just an odd afternoon. You walk in and there's this line formation right at the door with a security guard there looking very "not nice"...he asks for our paperwork and ID's, checks to make sure we are who we're supposed to be and then "POOF" he's this totally nice guy and asks how many kids we're adopting and proceeds to tell us the story of someone else from last week. So, we got some more paperwork to fill out, which we did, and then we had to get in this other line and guess who's behind that counter??? YEP, the same security guard who greeted us at the front door...kinda bizzare. He gives us numbers, 504 and 505...they were on 484!!!! And I thought we had an APPOINTMENT!!! So, we sat there, in a very specified area...there were 3 distinct areas and man if you sat in the wrong area, WATCH OUT!!! I mean some guy was told that he couldn't stand, he HAD to sit!!! And then some guy had his wife sitting with him, well apparently that was a no-no so she had to move. And then later a lady comes in with her son and comes to our area to sit down and there were PLENTY of empty seats, but she chose to sit right next to Alan, again very bizzare. Then at about quarter to 3 or so some of the employees start taking out the trash and cleaning the windows and doing what looked to be "closing duties"...mind you they don't close til 4!!!! And then, the speed at which these people work....sheesh. Now, I will say that once our numbers were called it was very efficient and really kinda cool because it was all computerized...no more ink!!! The whole thing was just werid, but at least it's done!!! NOW, if we'd just get THE CALL with our referral information!!!