We've been patiently waiting for legal paperwork from our agency in Taiwan so that we can sign, notarize, authenticate, verify, and return. Our understanding was that when the returned documents were processed, we'd be able to send our care package to our kids. A couple days ago, we got some clarification that those two processes are completely unrelated.
So in a flurry, we packed the box (we already had the contents ready) and drove down to UPS to ship it to Taiwan. There was only 1 person there brave enough to walk through the international shipping forms with us, and she even got us a more sturdy box with less wiggle room. At the last step, the UPS software rejected our Taiwan agency's address! We all spent a few minutes trying to figure out what was wrong, but we had already taken too long and the kids needed to be picked up from school. We saved our progress and left dejected--box in hand. I did some research and discovered that the 5-digit zip codes in Taiwan are relatively new, so everyone uses the old 3-digit codes. After some further sleuthing, I found a government website that gave me the correct 5 digit zip code for the address. At that point, Becca was gone at a wedding meeting, so I packed up the kids and we made it back to UPS to ship the box to our kids in Taiwan! We even got a picture with the UPS worker who make it possible! The staff was really excited that we were sending gifts to our kids in Taiwan. We're so excited for them to open up the photo book, presents, clothes, and stuffed animals (that have voice recordings letting them know we love them). We've been checking up on the package's progress multiple times a day to see where it is. Right now: Anchorage, Alaska.
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They picked us!!! The kids are ours!! We are doing this!!!
Everyone's big questions:
1. When do we get the kids? So, if it wasn't crazy COVID times, the answer to that question would be 3-6 months! Ah! But, we have no idea how long COVID could delay all the next steps. It could be 6 months; or it could be 2 years. (Pray for us.) There were families on planes to China in March 2020 ready to get their kiddos out of orphanages, when the planes turned around and never took off again. Because of this, we are VERY thankful that Taiwan is still accepting special visas for Humanitarian flights (Adoption), but we have to quarantine for 2 weeks in a hotel when we arrive, which means more time away from our 2 older kids. *Shameless plug: The more American citizens get vaccinated, the better foreign relations and quarantine protocols will be. GET VACCINATED = SUPPORT OUR ADOPTION.* Ahem. 2. What's the next step? We are currently working on gathering all our Dossier paperwork and files (Medical forms, Police Clearance Reports, Marriage License, Employment Verification, etc!) to send to Taiwan. Simultaneously, we are applying for part 2 of our Immigration paperwork with the kids' names in the document and everything!!!
We are so so so overjoyed. We are thankful to God for answering our pleas for these kids. He is faithful! We also grieve knowing that they SHOULD have grown up in a happy, healthy family with both birth parents, but they didn't. There's a lot of should'ves in their little lives, and that is the hard part about adoption. (Look for my next blog post, "Lucky", coming soon.) For right now though, we are celebrating. Please join us in thanking God for His answer "yes" to our prayers and pray for these sweet little babies (ok, 4 and 5 year olds) who are about to have their life turn inside out and upside down. Here we go!
We are so so so thankful to all our friends and family who have donated, supported fundraisers, shared fundraisers, volunteered, and kept us going emotionally. I am SO FREAKING THANKFUL to our big donor who knocked out 25% of our goal, and gave us the opportunity to get it matched by grants!!! And I am thankful to my hubby for working hard and making all the money for everything we need to live ;) so I can be a stay-at-home mom and run my wedding business. This adoption would NOT be funded without your hard work every day Honey!
We are still waiting to hear back on one grant that will help with post-adoption medical costs, but we have reached our (estimated) goal of fees and travel to Taiwan! Now if we would just get approval for the kids already! ;) $10,000 Big Donor $ 4,495 Friends & Family Donations $ 2,082 Fundraiser Profits (which always boosted donations!) $ 3,500 Matching Grant + Every single Bonus, COVID stimulus check, Tax return, and budget leftovers for almost a year We have news!!!
1. We received MORE questions from Taiwan today! We were really really hoping to hear from them this week because we have heard from them early June & early July. And today we did! It wasn't Final Approval that we get the kids, but something! It is clear that they want to be really sure we are prepared to parent 4 kids, with behavior issues and language barrier. It is cool to see how diligent they are in choosing the perfect family for Sister & Brother. 2. We were approved for a matching grant by Lifesong for Orphans !!!!!! We already have a donor who was waiting for this moment, so we don't have to do more fundraising to get the grant! That puts us only $4,000 away from our Goal, and $6,000 away from our expected expenses for adoption & travel. Almost there! What next?
For those who have asked for updates, our current adoption status is
WAITING FOR TIAIWAN APPROVAL. Here's the order of recent events: 1. June 8 - Received the "referral" for 2 siblings from Taiwan 2. June 9 - We accepted - which means we want to pursue them! 3. June 11 -We had a medical consultation with the Univ. of Washington Center for Adoption Medicine. A very helpful pediatrician specializing in adoption medicine looked over all the files and pictures we received of the kids, and interpreted their needs, risk factors, and strengths for us. 4. Our photo pages (family activities, house, bedrooms, etc) and Home Study were translated into Mandarin and sent off to Taiwan! 5. Now, we wait. Expected wait is 1-5 months to find out if the Taiwan adoption agency picks us or not. There is 1 other family in the U.S. also pursuing these kids thru a different agency. Taiwan will have to choose between us. OH MY GOODNESS Y'ALL! Our house has been all a-flutter and full of happy tears and phone calls to family.... Remember when I said in my last blog, that we would now wait 6-12 months to receive a child referral? Drumroll please..... We got the call!Guys. Our Home Study was approved 7 days ago. THIS. DOES. NOT. HAPPEN. Pardon all the caps lock, but I HAVE BEEN DOING A LOT OF YELLING AND CRYING! This feels like such a huge, wholly unexpected, way over the top, answer to our prayers. I have always believed confidently that God is powerful and capable of great miracles, but I really struggle with faith that God will choose to do so... at least for me. (Despite His demonstrations! Curing my grandfather of cancer many years ago, giving me a wonderful Christian husband, answering many other 'insignificant' prayer needs in my life). For whatever reason, I struggled to believe He WILL. That is why this is one of my favorite verses: Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us-- to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21 And then, there He goes, putting a referral for 2 perfect siblings right in my lap. SIX DAYS AFTER OUR HOME STUDY WAS APPROVED! I am not allowed to share pictures or names, but I can tell you it is a sister & brother (eek!) that are younger than our 2 kids - which is called maintaining birth order - but not by much! The big sister is 4.5 months younger than J and her little brother is exactly a year younger than her. They are both summer birthdays! We are flipping out with excitement over here! Our excitement is only ever-so-slightly mitigated by the knowledge that this is not set in stone yet. Next Steps
.Ahhhhh!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!! This strangely feels like after months of trying to conceive (which yes I know is nothing), finally being pregnant! WE ARE DOING THIS! || PauseWe updated you a couple of months ago that we were SO CLOSE to being done with our Home Study. And we were! It was all typed up by our social worker, proofread, updated, checked again, and all we needed was Robert's background check from Colorado to come through. (Where he lived for one teeny summer after moving to the US at age 18 before college started.) Well.....I got excited and started filling out our USCIS application . I then realized that my dear adult nephew, James, who has been living with us for his gap year after high school, would of course need to be included in our USCIS application because he was included in our Home Study as an Additional Adult in the Home. That would mean an addendum and more finger printing in Idaho. The trouble was, he was planning to move back to Texas at the end of May! So getting finger printed in Idaho as a legally-reported resident of our home...who was no longer living in our home...would get complicated to say the least! I called our wonderful social worker to tell her my dilemma. We were soooooo close! She lamented with me but confirmed my suspicions that our USCIS application was going to be real complicated if he moved out soon. We might as well wait 6 weeks to finalize our Home Study the day after he left (Memorial Day) without him in it. (Sorry James! Thanks for supporting our adoption! ;P ) > PlaySo here we are! After 6 weeks of telling all our sweet friends who asked for adoption updates that we were doing NOTHING at the moment (ok, we were finishing some training too), we are Home Study Aproved!!!!! >> What's Next?1. As soon as we get our hard copies of our big ol' Home Study, I get to send off that USCIS application! (and nearly $1000) Being the awesome planner that I am, I already requested new copies of our Birth Certificates and Marriage License months ago so I would be ready for our Dossier! I'll let you know when I find out what a dossier actually is. :P
2. We get to pay $2500 to our Local Agency and $3000 to our international agency for all the hard work they are doing. Yes, I said GET TO! We have been saving and saving, so it's pretty exciting to right some fat checks! 3. We get to start applying for Grants!!!!!!!!!! 4. We are officially WAITING FOR A MATCH! This typically takes 6-12 months for families waiting for sibling groups. Eeeeek!!! We have some exciting news! When we applied to our international agency in fall 2020, we chose the China Regional Program since it includes China, Hong Kong, & Taiwan. Up until now we have been learning about the China adoption process and learning about Chinese culture. Recently, thanks to incoming funds for our adoption, we paid our initial fees to Holt International and had a welcome meeting (via Zoom) with the China Regional Program Director! She had clearly done her homework and was familiar with our current family make-up and lengthy application answers before she called us. She knew we originally wanted to adopt siblings (surprise!) and asked why we had chosen China. We explained Robert's background with Southeast Asia and the influence of Chinese culture on Malaysia. Then she asked the question "Have you thought about Taiwan?" We had, but had been nervous about some differences with the process compared to mainland China, and felt guilty because the kids in Taiwan have much fewer medical needs than the kids in China. We had let go of the dream of adopting 2 kids because that is not really a possibility in China. The chances of adopting siblings is less than 1%. Far less. But we would be able to help 1 Chinese child receive the medical care that they need in the US and absolutely smother them with love in our family. On the other hand, there are very very few families willing to adopt siblings. The wonderful director encouraged us that we would be filling a different need by our willingness to adopt siblings. So with excitement, we said, "YES we want to adopt siblings from Taiwan!" The adoption process in Taiwan is a little different from China, and more similar to adopting from Foster Care in the United States... plus immigration and international travel! Children live in foster homes, not large orphanages. Birth family is usually still involved (grandparents, aunts, or uncles) similar to birth family involvement in US Foster Care. But, they are not necessarily willing or able to care for more children. We are VERY excited that our children will be able to have continued communication with their biological family because it is so dramatically healthy for adopted children to have that. We might even get to meet their biological family when we travel to Taiwan! I'm sure that will be an emotional and nerve-wracking visit, but we are willing to do anything to help our children feel safe and secure with us and grow up into healthy adults. We will also likely get to skype with our kids before we travel to adopt them. Eeeeeek! :D That's all for now! We are pretty stoked! If you would like to learn more about Taiwan and the complicated relationship with China, we recommend this video: Is Taiwan a Country or Part of China? (12:12) Light-hearted fun glimpse into Taiwan: 8 Facts That Will Make You Want to Visit Taiwan (1:21) |
AuthorAll posts are written by Robert or Rebecca. Maybe you can guess who's who based on the number of emojis and exclamation points!!! CategoriesArchives
February 2023
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