Teddy Bear Tea

Today we went to Maggie's school for a Teddy Bear Tea. It was great, and nice to meet other families sending their kids to St. Killian's. Maggie drew a picture for the teacher - definitely a hit. My mom and dad are flying in tomorrow so they can be here for her first day of school which will be next Wednesday... Our paperwork is here from Taiwan and ready to go. I just need to have Matt in town long enough so that we can get it notarized. I guess it will have to wait until Saturday.

Future Big Sister - Maggie!

Maggie already has her bag packed for Taiwan - Polly Pockets, Hello Kitty lip gloss, and a Belle necklace. My mom and dad will be going with us to Taiwan too!

Hard to believe this little one is starting kindergarten next week.

Meaning of Hsin-Yi

If anyone knows how to find out what Sarah's Taiwanese name (Hsin-Yi) means - can you leave a comment? I haven't been able to figure it out.

We went shopping this weekend for clothes and toys to send to Sarah. Matt had a little too much fun and it looks like we will be sending many care packages. We bought a "Little Einsteins" photo album that we are sending along with comfy pjs and some disposable cameras for the foster mom to take pictures of Sarah. I am trying to think of a little something for the foster mom - but am having some issues. Any ideas?

City of True Love

Sarah was born in Chienchen District, Kaohsiung City Taiwan - which is known as "The City of True Love" .

Back...

When I returned from a conference this week in Colorado, I had over 500 e-mails! Most of them from Taiwan adoption message boards that I belong to. There were quite a few referrals this last week - twins, sibling groups, boys and girls. It is wonderful to watch people getting closer and closer to their dreams of a family. Its even better considering that referrals were VERY slow for the last 7 months. When we started this process in January, we were #3 for a little girl. And we just go our referral August 6th. But it seems there have been some changes and referrals are coming quickly. Its great to see.

Our next step is getting paperwork from Taiwan - basically (I believe) it is Power of Attorney paperwork so that representatives from the Taiwan program can appear in court. We will have to get that paperwork notarized, certified and authenticated. Then it goes to Taiwan and we wait for hearing dates...Right now we are trying to find pictures to send with our dossier to Taiwan. Its amazingly difficult to pick just the right pictures.