Crazy-Busy Days in Taiwan

We are now and forever Jake's parents! Praise GOD! Our family is complete! First let me say that the His Hands Taiwan family are the most wonderful, loving, generous people that we feel BLESSED to have in our lives. This experience has left us humbled by GOD's presence in these people's works. They are truly amazing!

We were blessed with our perfect daughter from China and now we were blessed again by our perfect son from Taiwan. Jake is the sweetest, funniest and smartest little boy (execpt for Owen, Caysen, Joshua and Jasper of course!) He is a perfect fit to our family. Even sick, he has the sweetest sense of humor. Jake has been smiling and laughing through boogie nose. Once the adoption was finalized and AIT 'allowed' this adoption, Jake seemed to really come alive! He was giggling and babbling to beat the band. You will never convince us that he did not know what was going on today. I think he was as relieved as we were to finally have all this behind us. Now our life as a family of four can begin!

Right now, my two guys are asleep on the bed together. Jake has fallen head over heels in love with Jon. Whenever Jon leaves Jake's sight, he whimpers and looks around until he sees his Daddy. Then his face lights up and a widest smile breaks out on his face. It is beautiful to see such love.

Here are a few pics. I will post more later.

Jake is coming HOME!

I have been very bad at keeping this updated, so I thought I would take time before going to bed tonight to post our latest news.

On Tuesday, we received word that our Final Decree was signed. The next day his paperwork was sent to AIT for review and to set up our VISA appointment. On Thursday we got an e-mail from AIT saying that our appointment was set for Friday, March 26th!

After much celebrating, Jon made plane reservations and we reserved a room at the Novetel for the first night in Taipei. Then next morning we are taking the high-speed train to Kaohsiung, where Jake is. We have been blessed to be invited to stay at the House of Hope, where Jake has been living since he was 6 weeks old. This will help with his transition to us, since he will be in familiar surroundings. But I sure hope that we can measure up to his nannies. I know they love Jake very much and it will be daunting to have them standing over our shoulders while we try to get to know each other. We will be leaving Thursday night for Taipei, since our appointment is at 8 am. We will have 4 days for some sightseeing. We fly home on Tuesday.

It seems like we waited for this moment for so very long and now it is coming to its conclusion at breakneck speed. The Adoption Credo is definitely - "Hurry up and Wait!"

We are taking our computer with us, so I will try to post as often as possible from Taiwan.

It's OFFICIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today we got word that Jake is officially ours! We are over the moon with Joy & Happiness! Our paperwork was overnight-ed to AIT (the American office in Taiwan) for processing. They will be setting our appointment date and then we get to travel to bring Jake home!!!!! GOD is GREAT! Just when I thought that I could not stand the wait any more, we get this news. How wondrous is that?

I will post more details when I have them.

Until then, we are now a family of 4!

Our Jakey is 8 months old today & still NO News

I have been waiting to post until I had some good news, but since that isn't in a hurry to come, I'll post a quick update. So far, Holly and Trena still have not gotten our 1st decree back from the judge, which means that they still need the 2nd (Final decree) before they can make an appointment with AIT. The AIT appointment is the one we need to be at. I would be lying if I said that I was not getting very nervous. Our paperwork expires on April 18th, if we have not traveled by then we are up the you-know-what creek. I am fully trusting in our LORD, but my strength is weak.

Here are some new pics of our sweet little guy.

Newest Update!

I received an e-mail on Wednesday asking for our AIT case #, so that Jake could go for his adoption physical. Long story short, after many crazed phone calls and e-mails, Jake got his physical and I got the number and sent it to them. Another adoption crisis put to rest. What this means is......Jake is coming home SOON! The adoption physical is one of the last steps in the process. The next step is our AIT appointment! This is when we have to be in Taiwan to complete Jake's adoption. Talk about a difficult wait. I've gotten his crib ready, clothes all washed and put away, diapers bought, bottles ready, and diaper bag packed and re-packed. When we get the WORD, we can throw somethings in a bag for us and go. We could hear something any day!!!!!!!

Here are some new pics of our little man. He is up to 13.2 lbs, and is a real cut-up. You'll see what I mean......................