Waiting!

I talked to Wendy in Taiwan, or actually I emailed with Wendy in Taiwan, last Wednesday or Thursday... asking what I should be doing next. I feel like I should have a job but she was in contact with the home that is helping us with our paperwork and the man in charge is working on many cases right now, so he said we just had to have patience! LOL YEAH RIGHT!
She said she would try to get hold of him on Monday, which is it now Monday, just past midnight here, so that makes it past noon over there! And I am "patiently" waiting! LOL
I just want the adoption contract in my hand. Then I will know that Bao-Sheng's mom signed it and that it is all really happening. So many heartbreaks in the last year and this would be the finally break if something happened. I am not thinking that way, but I really would like to see the contract in my hand!! or on my computer screen!
I am going to see if my boxes have even made it close to Taiwan. I mailed them last Monday but I didn't put a rush on them as it is so expensive to send and I sent three boxes!!
Angie leaves in a few weeks for her daughter, my girlfriend Cindy leaves for her two boys, Don and Be leave around the same time as Angie for their little girl.. it is so exciting all these new kids in our lives!! Adoption is a wonderful blessing!

Birth Mom

There are so many factors and so many walls to hit in international adoption that your head spins. One thing about China that you don't fear is the birth mother. The children are left, with no contact as it is illegal in China to abandon your baby. But in Taiwan, it is different, there is a birth mom and she in many cases has to do that final letting go.
Trenton's birth mom did her final letting go today. I had wrote a letter last week begging for her to understand that we would be the parents she would want for her son and that we would love him as much as she would and that we would never let him forget her... I had to dig down in my soul to make sure when I said those words I really did mean them because I love my children and I want my children to love only me as their mom... but then I have never had to wear these shoes.
So after sitting her for a few hours and making sure that I was able to put into words on a peice of paper who I was, who we were as a family and how important having Trenton as MY son... I also had to feel for her and know that I would never take him away from her, completely.
So today the social worker took Trenton over to the jail to see him mom and to give her the letter that I wrote (Wendy translated it for me and made sure that the English to Chinese was done completely right)
And the birth mom said she was very happy that I wanted to love her son and that she wanted me to be his mom.
I opened this email first thing this morning and have been flying on cloud nine all day!
She asked the social worker to ask me to send her pictures of him and letters to her about him. And I have fully agreed to this as I want him to know her and I want to know her. I want Trenton to know that he wasn't given up because he wasn't loved but because of situations in his mom life.
I can not wait to get that baby in my arms!

Chase just got home from a two week trip with Grandma yesteday. We haven't told them yet as we wanted to make 100% sure this was happening...
You should see him and Ali together! I know siblings fight but they REALLY missed each other!! Ali will not let Chase (or Chasey as she calls him) out of her sight.
This is what life is all about!

I will make it through this!!

I got an email from our contact in Taiwan who is actually handling the paperwork... he said DO NOT get the translation. Actually what it is is that the judges are very tough on everything being so right.. so what he wants is to have someone that has done this for him many times translate for us. This puts so much relief on me because of my messy translation from earlier!

And all we are waiting on is to get Mercy to send over their translation of his English name.. I guess the characters can be different so they want to make sure they are both doing it exactly the same and then he will send out our Power of Attorney and our adoption contract!

Every day.. I just sit there and think.. I am the luckiest person ever! I am so blessed to have all the kids I do and now I am finally getting to complete this family...

And I promise everyone.. this is the last!

Have a great evening!

Learning the Ropes for Taiwan

I am really having to learn a lot with this adoption. I am glad I have a new friend that has gone threw the Taiwan ropes along with a great support group for Independent Adoptions.
I have to have my eight page home study all translated. Very scary after what I have already been thought with one translation. But I am on my own for this one!
Sarah and Deana with Morning Light have told me to contact a woman that will do it for a fee. When she sent the bill it was $7072.. FOR EIGHT PAGES!?? LOL
But that was NT money.. so it was only around $235.00.. big relief!
I have sent the HS and I am waiting for her to tell me how to pay her. I should have it back by next Friday!

I didn't make it to the post office today as I have to repack my packages to Trenton.
I am sending two boxes full of fun stuff to the social worker where he is and then I am going to get another box with stuff for the children at The Garden of Mercy for the children there.

If anyone wants to jump into my challenge over on the right side of my blog PLEASE DO.
Deana with Morning Light is a wonderful woman, about to give birth any day now, that has been helping families find their children. On top of that she has applied to the government to be allowed to be a placing agency with the US. So they are building a children area so they will be able to house some of the orphans instead of moving them out to other facilities!

I know in adoption there is always a cause. And I know that my heart wishes I could win the lottery so I could fix all the causes.. but this is a small one.. they only need $1200 for the AC. And after putting out my ten dollar challenge today we are up to $245!!

And some other good news!! I finally after all these years got to call my mom to say I was accepted into college!! Yep, I got my letter.. I will be starting nursing school in two months!! Life is good!

HERE HE IS!!!

I figured that I have the social worker on my side along with the wonderful young woman that took care of him for about eight months of his life...
and when I asked if I could send a care package they told me YES.
So as of right now, I don't see any turning back!!

Jay and I went to the mall tonight and bought a box full of things for him, bibs, shirts, shorts, socks, shoes, pj's, toys and a stuffed animal! And I squeezed it into two Priority Mail boxes.. so it will only be $80.00 to ship both boxes!!

So now I feel I can post the photos! So here he is
Trenton Bao-Sheng Elliott!
And Jay is so excited that he is getting a boy!!
5 Months Old

7 Months Old

8 Months Old

9 Months Old

10 Months Old

Happy Birthday to Trenton

13 Months Old

More Good News!

Well here is the whole scoop!!
He is ours!! It is four in the morning here and four in the afternoon over in Taiwan. I have been emailing back and forth with the children's home, the social worker for Trenton and the best young woman ever, Wendy!

Wendy was taking care of Trenton when he first was seperated from his birth mom. From August 9, 2007 until March 31, 2008.. this was just after his first birthday.
Then he went to a foster home. Wendy is going to find out if I can have the address to the foster mom so that I can send our first package over.

It is all sinking in slowly. They have asked for our names as we don't have the same last name.. and they want to make sure we are married. They have asked for our Home Study for which our social worker has made all the corrections and will be sending it off to me with in a day or so. They have asked us to send in the required letter for the home that is helping with the paper work on that end.
So not counting the courts, the people we are having contact with is all in favor of our adopting Trenton.

I am not sure how all this works from this point on. I know I was asked for a translated home study... by one party.. but told to send the English home study for translation by the other party!! It is all so confusing!! But exciting and the best news I have had in almost a year!!!

The best part of this story is the fact that we wanted a girl.. and Chase kept saying he wanted a boy. Chase loves the little brothers to Polly one of the babies that came home from China in our travel group that doesn't live far from here.. so he thinks having a little brother like that would be the greatest thing since Sponge Bob! And at first Mallory was upset saying she wanted a girl.. but now!! Everyone is beside themselves with JOY!! And Chase is away on vacation with Grandma.. so it will be a HUGE surprise!!

My heart is pounding

There is a process to go through with Taiwan when you don't do the whole agency thing and you go independent. First you must find a child, the child must be declared an orphan by law, then you must send papers and hope your contact is taking care of things on their end.

Well this little boy that we found is an orphan, by the rules. His birth mother is very sick and she was sentence to jail for a very long time. She finally broke down and decided to allow him to go to a family... if she would not have signed these papers he would have sat in the orphanage for at least 12 years.. maybe longer if her sickness won.

But she made the right decision. And the nice thing about Taiwan is that we can keep the birthmother in his life by sending updated pictures of him each year and letting her know how he is.

So the next part is to have all your paperwork sent to the courts. But with this little boy we have to make sure that the people in charge of finding him a home will accept us- larger family, married only three years- not that this is not allowed but like everything in life there is a stigma about the "perfect" family.

Our contact person in Taiwan has contacted a wonderful children's home called The Home of God's Love that will help with our paperwork. She has also contacted a social worker in Taiwan that is in charge of the little boy's life and together everything must come together and make it through the courts!

But I was asked tonight for the name I would like to call him.... and that was my sign that God had stepped in. His given name was sent to me and though I can't post it tonight I will say this.. he was given as part of his name WEI.
I am not making this up.. I sat here and cried for a few minutes trying to take it in. It has to be the sign that I am to let go of our girl in China and know that this is why we did not get her.

I also got three new pictures of him tonight. HE IS SO CUTE! He is a tough looking boy with a bit of mischief in his eyes. I can not wait to post for all of you!
Please pray hard for us in the next few weeks that all of this falls into place and that we finally get to finish Our Adoption Story!

Some Exciting News

It is not written in stone as of yet.. we have to get through the whole homestudy thing.. and I need to speak to my social worker about redoign a few things in the homestudy to make it right.. but we might have found a child!!

I don't know if I have had so much disappointment in the last year that I can't and won't get my hopes up.. but today I got word that a young girl that was a disrupted adoption here in the US was going to another family- we had asked for her, even though she was older. I didn't feel upset today.. just another one that was not meant for us.. but then I get a message from an orphanage in Taiwan that they have a little boy whose mom just signed off on him about two weeks ago.. he is SOOO healthy and soooo cute and they are asking us for our home study to see if we can adopt him...

I know, I know.. it is a BOY... not what we started out wanting.. but maybe that is why it has taken us so long.. we were waiting on him....

PLEASE PRAY FOR US THAT THIS ALL WORKS OUT because it just seems so right!!

Even Mallory was saying.. NO BOYS.. and after taking a peek at his picture she was saying.. I hope we get him mom!!