Taiwan Adoption Round 2

Well... I felt gulty posting any news about our adoption the past couple days but I have moved on. I guess there were several families that felt they would be a better match for Ti than we would. Our agency really took the heat for it as well. Unfortunetly, these other families do not know us or our background and are speaking out of pain. I can understand as we found Landon from a photo listing and I know the connection you get. It has happened 2 times to us. This little girls info stated that only homestudy approved and paperready families could apply. At the time she was listed our agency DID NOT have any of those families. They can not hold a child to wait and see if a families homestudy will be approved nor can they hold them while it is being approved through our agency and the organizations they work with. We were the family that was already approved again by FFC, was completely paper ready, including a homestudy over 5 weeks old and a dossier that had been with the agency even longer, and the first family to request her file and ask we be considered to be her parents. Since we have first hand experience parenting the older child and parenting an older girl, not to mention the experience that came along with adopting our son Landon whom was also older (not her age) and sn's, they were excited we were interested. That does not mean that they just approve the first family that applies. It is a process and there are many things that the agency, orphanage and SW will take into consideration. We believe that this is our daughter or we would not have applied. We will be heart broken if she is not. We will still be happy for the family that is approved for her if it is not us. We understand that the most important thing is the children and that the organizations have the "children's best" at heart regardless of what we feel or think is best. We do our best to remember that but we are human and we are parents in a very hard and emotional process. Having said that...

On Thrusday I spoke to Laura, our coordinator, in length about our process and Ti. Everything looks great so far. They received our updated homestudy and have gave the finale and recieved it back. We received word form Laura last night that everythig was sent to translation and should be given to Chung Yi next week! We are very excited. She was also letting them know of all the children from there, especially girls, we have close to us and have been in contact with. She was able to share photos of the kids and Landon together, with Chung yi as well, which is exciting too. If we are approved then they hope that Ti will be able to have meetings with another little girl that is residing at Chun Yi, that will be living with a family not far from us, so that they will have a connection and contact. That would be really good for both of them for many reasons. So as of yesterday our documents were in translation in Taiwan and will be going to Chung Yi for approval next week. We hope to hear something in 2-4 weeks. Since our dossier is done, if we are approved, we will only need to await for contracts, get them notarized and then authenticated by TECO. Our state does not require us to go to the secretary of State office before TECO and then the contracts would be sent back to FFC fed-ex from down the street from TECO just like last time! Then of course they would be sent back to Taiwan so that they can be reveiwed and enter the courts. The courts can take 1-6 months. Last time for Landon's adoption, we were in the courts for 2 months. All of this can only happen if we are approved by all the organizations, so we wait, pray and hope until we hear the words "approved or denied". So another wait begins...