Fun Weekend

We had a lot of fun happenings over the last few days. Back in December we were hit by an ice-storm that took out power for a good portion of New England. We had 2 huge trees fall in our yard and even more that just leaned over and could not get back up. While we were fortunate and only lost power for 2 days, friends of mine went without power for 5-12 days. After the storm it just kept snowing. Well, the snow has finally melted and we were able to really assess the damage. We hired a tree removal company to come and take all our fallen and not getting up again trees out of the yard. We had one tree fall in front of our swing-set and kind of on it. We were lucky that it did not damage it too much. Because of the way the tree was resting on the swing-set and the location of our septic system we had to have a crane come to lift the tree off of the swing-set and over the house. Yes, it was REALLY cool. Phil stayed home in the morning with Jake and Matt to watch. Here are some of the pics's.





The crane getting set up in the driveway

One of the workers attaching the crane to the tree.

The crane lifting the tree up off the swing-set.

Up and over the house!

Phil's parents came to stay with us Friday night. They travelled over eight hours from Northern Maine ( the north pole as my kids refer to it) to come visit us. They brought this little onesie for the baby. How cute is that. Thanks Mem & Pep!

The real reason for our visit with Memere and Pepere was to go to see my niece Emily in a play this weekend. Emily played Gretel in production of "The Sound of Music". We are so proud of Miss Emily!!! What an amazing job she did. That girl can sing!!! Here is Miss Emily after the show. We were not allowed to take any pictures during the show so we did not get a picture of her in costume, but I can tell you that she was just adorable.

Here are all the kids on Phil's side of the family. As you can see we are a mostly boy family. We are looking forward to bringing our girl home and evening out the odds a little. The boys had a great time playing with their cousin Kevin. It was baseball, baseball, baseball in the sun and in the rain. There were short breaks for building lego's and to watch the Kids Choice Awards. It is so great that the boys are close in age and have such fun things in common.

I am just dying for new pictures of our baby girl. We are hoping to see her face again by the middle of April. I am really hoping for sooner. March was a really loooooong month without any updates.

Lastly, I re-did my blog background yesterday in hopes of springing it up. My thanks to the Izzie Grace designers for the great selection of free blog backgrounds.

That about does it for news from us.

The name game

Well- We still have not settled on a name. I do feel badly about this. We have narrowed it down to Lauren, Marissa and Sophia I think. Josh and Matt chose Marissa and Jake wants Sophia. I am really hoping that we get new update pictures in the next week or 2. Hopefully when we get to see her face again we will have her name ready too!

My friend S is getting on a plane tomorrow to fly to Korea and meet her daughter for the first time. Safe travels S. I can't wait to meet her!!

Ugh!

We just got word that our original homestudy translation needs to be re-translated. What a bummer. I guess there is some wording that is not correct for Taiwan and needs to be fixed. I have a feeling this is going to extend our time in court, although I did not get any confirmation by our agency. That makes me sad. I hate thinking of our girl having to be without us for any longer than necessary.

Care Package Arrived

I am happy to report that our care package arrived in Taiwan on Thursday morning ( Taiwan time 11:30am). Our girl should be snuggling up with her pink kitty during naps and bedtime. I slept with the kitty for a week before sending it, so hopefully she is can smell the scent of her mama and know that I am sending her my love. It feels good to know that she has a special blanket and lovey that is just hers.
Next project: Figure out how to digitally record our voices reading stories and singing songs. The songs that I always sang to my babies were not your typical lullabies. I always sang songs I learned while pledging my sorority in college. I have to find out if I violate any of the codes if I release those songs on a CD. I know many of my friends sang the same songs to their babies as well. We really did learn them well:)

To Catch a Leprechaun....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The boys worked very hard this year on building Leprechaun traps. This is the 3rd year that we have tried to catch a leprechaun. We made a plan, if a leprechaun was caught and brought us to his pot of gold, we would use the gold for a family trip to Hawaii. This first picture is Jake's trap. He used gold ribbon and lots of yellow lego pieces. These gold like things were used to lure the leprechaun in.

Jake's Trap



This picture is of Matt's leprechaun trap. His plan was to have the leprechaun enter the box. As he went into the box, he would knock over the pole and the tissue that was attached and weighted down with a quarter would close. There was tape all around the entrance to the box that would stick to the tissue paper trapping the leprechaun inside.



Matt's Trap

This is Josh's trap. He attached stairs from the floor all the way up his bed.

Inside of Josh's leprechaun trap was a mini bedroom. The plan was for the Leprechaun to get so comfy in the room, watching the i-pod, that he would fall asleep and be found in the morning.

Josh's trap

This morning we awoke to a very messy house. The lego's were thrown all around the kitchen floor and there were tiny, shiny green shamrocks all over the kitchen floor, playroom and stairs. The Leprechaun turned our milk green too.

The Leprechaun even broke into our box of Lucky charms.

Josh found the i-pod by the door along with Matt's gold medal from DI. We think the Leprechaun was trying to take them with him.

Unfortunately we did not catch the Leprechaun this year. No trip to Hawaii:( We will keep trying and maybe next year will be our year.

Here is Jake ready to head to school for his St. Patrick's Day party. He was wearing all green but at the last minute decided that his Indiana Jones Costume would be a great St. Patty's day accessory.

Here are Matt and Josh as they get ready to head to school.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!!!!

1st Care Package

We sent off our first care package to our baby girl today. It was lots of fun shopping for pink. The items pictured below are: super soft baby blanket, pink kitty lovey, butterfly rattle, pin& brown striped pajama sleeper, white & purple cozy outfit, pink sweat suit with green trim & ladybug onesie. I put a note with the pink kitty asking that they give it to her when she goes to bed or takes a nap.



My friend's who are adopting from Korea told me that they wrapped the items in their care package. I figured I would do this as well just to make it more fun. Hopefully the caretakers will have fun unwrapping and not be annoyed. I did put a bag of Lindt chocolates in for all the caretakers to enjoy. Here is everything wrapped and a below is a picture of the boys helping me take the package to the post office. Jake was actually happy but did not want his picture taken.

The package should arrive sometime next Thursday. The boys and I are going to track it this coming week.

Robin

Pink from the Flamingos

I was able to get together with my friends this past Friday. I was very touched by the thoughtful gifts that I received for our girl. Here is a picture of all the pink that came our way. So fun! I have such great friends. Everyone has been cheering me along on this journey and it was so fun to share the joy. Thank you to all my fellow Flamingos!!!



Robin

Dossier in the Air

Our Dossier successfully made it to our agency this morning. I received e-mail confirmation that it will be sent to Taiwan today. YEAH!!!
Robin

Our Girl in Motion and The Next Steps.

Here is the video of our sweet baby girl.

We have accomplished ALOT this past week. We were able to complete our dossier. I gathered all our documents together on Monday (We had a snow day here and could not venture out). We had all our documents signed, notarized (Tuesday), certified by the Secretary of State (Wednesday) and authenticated by TECO(Thursday). The entire dossier was then photocopied(2 copies for agency, 2 copies for us) and express mailed to our agency on Friday. Hopefully everything will check out and will be sent off to Taiwan on Monday. We are awaiting translated state adoption laws that will be submitted to the Taiwan Courts along with our Dossier.

I have to say that this past week was exhausting. Just signing the documents was a bit scary. Not the responsibility of signing them but the fear that I would sign in the wrong spot, not remember to sign my full official name( I typically do not sign with my middle name) or not sign legibly enough. I know it sounds like a silly thing to worry about but the 3 original adoption agreements originated in Taiwan and the fingerprint that was placed on each may be that of the birth mother. We were told to take extra care when completing these documents because if we were to make a mistake we would have to have new ones generated in Taiwan and that would cost us precious time. Also having the documents certified was stressful. Our state requires a few extra lines by the notary that tells who signed and by what means the identity was confirmed. This was not on the sample that we were given so it was not put on our originals. The Secretary of State rejected 8 of my 10 documents. Luckily the lines could be hand written on the document and I had my trusty Notary accompanying me into the big city. I was able to leave, have the statements written on each document and then re-submit. The woman who certified my documents was really nice and did certify all 10 for me immediately. They are only allowed to do 4 for less at the counter and any more than 5 has to wait another business day.

Everyone asks when our girl will be home. The court process in Taiwan can take a considerable amount of time. They are very protective of the children's rights and have a specific process that our family/documents must complete. Here is a breakdown of what will be happening over the next months:

Once we are entered into courts, we wait for a hearing date.

Step 1: Hearing (typically 1-3 months after paperwork is filed in Taiwan)

Step 2: First Ruling (typically 1-3 months after hearing)

Step 3: Final Ruling (typically 2-6 weeks after first ruling) After the final ruling, our girl will be legally ours

Step 4: Paperwork Processing and Travel Notice (typically 4-6 weeks after final ruling)

This process can take anywhere from 3 months to 7 months. We have been hearing that the court process has been on the longer side lately and to plan on 6 months before our baby is in our arms. I am preparing myself for travel in August or September. I would be thrilled to travel earlier, but we will have to wait and see.

Well that was alot of info. I hope everyone feels caught up on the process.

Robin

Butterfly Girl

We are so excited to tell you that butterfly girl has found her way home. We received a call from our social worker Friday afternoon with the good news. Our daughter was born on January 5th. I was home with the 3 boys when we got the call and we were able to see her face for the first time together. We clicked on the e-mail and there she was. She is just so beautiful! We called Phil at work and told him the good news and then sent him to check his e-mail so he could see her beautiful face too.

We have not chosen a name just yet. We will have to work on a new list of names now that we have seen her face.It was such an exciting day.

I was shaking when I heard the news and but once I saw her face and it started to sink in I felt an amazing sense of calm come over me. Wow. I am amazed. I feel so blessed.

Here she is!

She is so sweet.



Robin