Monday, October 8, 2007

A good week....hope it gets better

It's now about 4:30 am in Taiwan - so that means in and average of 8 hours, it will be time for our court hearing!!! (That's assuming it happens around 12:30 pm) So, if you're reading this on Monday evening, cross your fingers for us!

Alex and I got away for an evening of camping in the Superstition Mountiains. It was SO beautiful! We rented a boat and hung out on the lake amounst the most beautiful scenery. Happy early anniversary to us :-) And by the way - the lucky dragonflies were everywhere!




We've been working on Leo's room. We are all painted and just moving in furniture. Grandma and Grandpa Shaffer helped us with the finishing touches by buying his matress so we can finally put his crib together. They also bought Leo his own star! Isn't that cool? A real star up in the universe that will be registered in his name. I hope he can see it in Taiwan while he waits for us- big hugs and thank you's!




We have a new addition to our family, our nephew Andrew John was born on Sept. 28th! He's just perfect!




Also, our blogette, Beth, arrived home safely with her son, Brady. He is just all smiles - really cute!




More blogettes got their travel news too - and they will be going together! How cool! One of their court processes will only be 2 months total. This gives us hope that Leo could be home by Christmas after all!




So, as you can tell, it's been a good week - but it could be better with some news about our hearing (VERY UNLIKELY) and of course, we are waiting for updated pictures and videos.....



LUCKY DRAGONFLIES FOR EVERYONE!!!!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I miss the Superstition Mountains!! When I worked for Motorola I lived on Superstition :-) I never hiked those mountains, but I did get wasted in the salt river going tubing quite a few times... Can't wait for you to bring Leo home!!!

Learn Chinese!

Timeline


January 8, 2007 Attend Adoption 101 Information Session in Mesa, AZ
January 22, 2006 - Apply for preapproval from our agencyand Taiwan
January 23, 2007 - Application for USCIS (I-600A) form submitted
January 28, 2007 - 1st Homestudy meeting
January 28, 2007 - Sign adoption contract with our agency
January 29, 2007 - Approved to adopt from Taiwan
February 1, 2007 - Clearance from state of Arizona
February 6, 2007- Maricopa application to adopt is filed
February 13, 2007 - Clearance from state of Michigan, Medical clearances, and Fingerprint invitation arrive from USCIS
February 24, 2007 - Fingerprinted for USCIS
March 11, 2007- Homestudy Complete and Court Certification from Maricopa County received
April 28, 2007 - Homestudy is translated into Mandarin
July 1, 2007 - Finally receive 171-H in the mail
July 6, 2007 - Get new case manager
July 22, 2007 - Sign adendum to contract
August 8, 2007 - Our lucky day! Referral for Lin Kai-Yi, born 6-3-06
August 8, 2007 - accept referral
August 13, 2007 - Sign Child Referral Agreement
August 23, 2007 - Paperwork arrives in Tucson
August 24, 2007 - Paperwork arrives to us
August 26, 2007 - Documents notorized (How many adults does it take to use a stamp?)
August 28, 2007 - Documents certified by AZ Sec. of State
August 29, 2007 Documents sent to TECO to be authenticated
September 4, 2007 - Documents arrive in Tucson from TECO
September 6, 2007 - Documents sent to Taiwan! YEAH!
September 10, 2007 - Update day! We receive 4 pics and a video!
October 2, 2007 - Receive word from TWCA that our hearing date is October 9, 2007 (this happened extreamly fast!)
October 9, 2007 - Keep your fingers crossed for a quick 1st ruling (even better yet, keep your fingers crossed for a final ruling!)
October 11, 2007 - October updates are here!
October 19, 2007 - Receive more pictures and videos from Ray's visit to Taiwan!
November 5, 2007 - November updates are here!
December 2, 2007 - December updates are here! Can't believe there has been no news all month!
December 13, 2007 - FINALLY! Word of our First Ruling! Yippeee! It happened on Dec. 13th in Taiwan (yesterday here)
January 4, 2008 - January updates
February 4, 2008 - February updates
February 28, 2008 - Leaving for Taipei!!!
February 29, 2008 - Arrive in Taipei!
March 4, 2008 - Gotcha Day! Can you even believe it!?!?!?
March 5, 2008 - FINAL RULING FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY! (by the way, our paperwork says the final ruling was issued December 24th!)
March 6, 2008 - First AIT appointment
March 7, 2008 - VISA DAY!
March 10, 2008 - Leave for home!
March 10, 2008 - Arrive home with our boy!!!!!!!!!!!
July 5, 2008 - Find out about Wil's arrival!
March 10, 2009 - Wil Shan-Yi Shaffer is born at 3:38 am 8 lbs. 4 oz. 20 inches long