Contracts are on their way! I am so excited. We just got an email from Laura saying that she just heard from Sally with the amazing news. The contracts have been resigned by the birthmother and have already been Fed-exed to FFC. She hopes to receive them tomorrow so we should have them by the end of the week. Also when Sally was their meeting with Chung Yi while another family member picked up their son, the social worker asked Sally to be back at 3:00 to meet with Ti and her foster mother. She ran quickly to Taipei 101 and got a gift for them from us! How wonderful is she??? So as I packed up her box tonight and took photos she has already received a gift from us! We are very excited since know one expected the contracts to come until the first week of June. We are also so elated about Sally meeting with Ti and her foster mom for the first time and we hope to get news of the meeting very soon. I cant belive it, I may be heading to Coral Gables next week then into the courts we will go!!!

These are pics of our packages that went out to Ti, her foster family, and Chung Yi. It was so much fun being able to send something. Just hope she likes it. She loves crafts and art!

So I messed around with this photo for a while until I could actually get it saved as a pic from her about me book scan! Finally it worked. If I could only see what the date is on it I would be happy :) No matter how much I zoom, brighten, and try to make it clear I can't read the date! Oh well. And no I didn't crop it like this it was like that already. Hopefully we will get a new pic in the coming weeks. Tonight we picked up a couple things for her birthday box that we pray will get to her in time for her birthday just a few days from now. Even if it is a couple days late at least it was close and we are still very excited we are aloud to send one. It was so cool picking out girl stuff and watching Landon grab things in the store and say "sissy like this one". We are still so excited and hope everything goes smooth from here on out. Thanks to everyone for their support and comments. We feel very blessed to know that people think of us and care what happens in our lives and with our family.

Just a little background on the city our daughter resides in at this time. She is in Keelung.


Situated in the northern part of Taiwan island, Keelung used to be called Jilong, which means hencoop. The name was later changed to Keelung which means "rich and prosperous land".
　　The city occupies 132.7589 square kilometers of land, 95% of which are hills. The city is separated from the neighboring counties and cities by the mountains in the east,west andsouth.
　　The northern part of the city faces the ocean and is a great deepwater harbor since early times.
　　As the city is surrounded by mountains, communications between Keelung and other places were not very convenient in the past when transportation was not well-developed. Gradually, the isolation gave Keelung a chance to develop its own marine culture.

　　After hundreds of years of battles and struggles, the city now becomes an international harbor city visited by numerous ships. Every year, Keelung holds the Mid-July Festival, which often attracts thousands of visitors. When you visit Keelung, don't miss the fine and exquisite cuisine near the temple and be sure to plan a trip to visit the emplacements, the tunnels, the beak head, the bay, the fishery harbor and the fishing market in Keelung.

Tonight was finally the night we have been waiting for. As I was adding photos to a folder for Ti of our family, I got an email from Laura to check my voicemail. The one day that the phone hasn't been in my hand awaiting this call and she called. SO I am running frantically trying to find my phone and realize it is in the car. Getting through my messages... I hear her say the wonderful news that we have been approved by all party's involved including orohanage, government SW, directors, birthfamily, everyone for the adoption of Yen, Ti! Can you believe it???? So we may get that package to her in time for her birthday after all. More details to come after I talk with Laura tomorrow :) :) :) Thinking Pink Pink Pink!

So 11 more days and still nothing new. No approval, no denial, nothing. The wait continues to be hard. Less than 14 days till her 6th birthday. We wont be aloud to send her a package. We won't be there to celebrate with her. As much as I love the fact that we can adopt to add to our family, the adoption process really sucks sometimes!

Is any news good news???? Well accept when it is not much news! I am happy to report that we heard from our coordinator and she said that they had hoped to hear of our approval 2 weeks ago. She said that all Chung Yi reports is that they are waiting on the Government Social worker. OH!!! the sw? That means that Chung Yi approved us, right??? I think that means they approved us since they said that Chung yi wouldn't forward our file to the government unless they approved us. So there you have it. I found the good news in the bushes :) WE THINK atleast. She said that our incountry coordinator, Sally, would be contacting them again and she would let us know what she hears even if it is over the weekend. I don't expect to hear anything over the weekend but hopefully this means very very soon! Keep us in your prayers while the sw makes this ever life changing decision please.

Well I spoke with Wendy today....She had nothing to report other than Laura and FFC staff have had conference meetings the last 2 days and of course that Laura just got back from Haiti and that she was still updating families on their case's. She did say that families will now get monthly case status updates even if it is to let you know that they have no news to report. She was forwarding our emails to Laura and was going to remind her that we have not heard from her and have several questions. We are hopeful we will hear from her in the next few business days but I would love to hear from her tomorrow. :) We are very anxious to know if we will indeed be Ti's parents or not. Several referalls are expected soon and without our approval or denial we will of course be skipped while we await the decision. As I have said before if we are approved we will be taken off the waiting list and if we are denied then we will recieve a new referall. It is hard to think that we may not be approved for her and still be skipped from this batch of referrals coming. The not knowing is killing us. We still feel like she is our daughter and as time goes by we fall more in love with the idea of this little girl being part of our family. She turns 6 years old next month. Another birthday with out her forever family, not that she isnt loved and cared for where she is. Not that her birthday won't be celebrated, it will. But ultimetly her foster family though they love her and care for her, are not the parents or the family that she will spend her life with. It does sadden me that if she is our daughter we have missed another milestone in her life. Hopefully we will here good news soon and the process can start moving forward. All we can do is pray and know that God is at work and taht we continue to have patience during this time of waiting and wondering.