8 Months Old

Ciana turned 8 months old yesterday. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 3 months since we saw her and held her for the first time. She has changed so much in just the 3 short months we have had her. In the last month she has gone from babbling sounds that mostly sounded like “ba, ba, ba” to adding “da” and “ma” to her babbling. Not quite saying dada or mama yet, but we’re working on that one. She started out the month doing the army crawl, but one day a couple of weeks ago it was like all of a sudden something clicked and she was in full crawl mode. Now she is crawling all over the place. She still prefers to be standing as opposed to sitting or crawling, however. She can pull herself up and stand holding onto something. She loves to walk while holding someone’s hands. We think she’s going to be an early walker. I have been trying to teach her to wave. She won’t do it on command, but when you’re done asking her to wave sometimes she will look at her hand and wave to herself. It’s pretty cute. Her favorite toys are not toys at all, but anything else she can grab and investigate by turning her hand around to look at it and putting it in her mouth. She also has a fascination with the spring type door stops in our house, boxes of Kleenex and the cat. Maya still has a way of making her giggle uncontrollably. Can’t wait to see what changes we will see in her over the next month!

State Champion!

Wow!  Maya was just named

State All-Around Champion

& State Beam Champion!

We're always proud of our girl, but we couldn't be more proud of her accomplishments this season in gymnastics.  I went in with sort of low expectations today.  I didn't want her to be disappointed if she didn't place today.  After all, it is the State Championships.  Her coach even told us before the awards ceremony that it might be hard for any of the girls to make it on the medal stand today.  So, when they started announcing the awards and I heard Maya's name I was shocked.  The look on her face said that she was too and you should have seen the look of surprise on all of our faces when she was named State All-Around Champion.  The smile on her face was priceless.  The final results for her today were 3rd place on floor, 2nd on vault, 1st on Beam and 1st All-Around in the Level 4, Jr. 1 division!  That brings a great first season to a close.  Here's the final medal count for the year:  5 Gold, 4 Silver, 9 Bronze, 10 other and 3 trophies.       


All tuckered out after a tough season.

Total Concentration

A Visit With Santa

 

Maya's gymnastics meet was in Coralville yesterday so we had to hit the mall afterwards and Santa happened to be there.  Maya wanted to go see him to let him know what she wants for Christmas.  Here's what she told him:  5 ipads, 15 iphones and 1 Mytab.  Who knows where she comes up with this stuff!  We weren't going to get a picture, but since it was Ciana's first trip to see Santa we decided to put her on his lap too.  She wasn't scared at all and the picture turned out pretty good. 

Great Meet Today!

Maya had a great gymnastics meet today!  Last week she was finally able to pull off a complete bar routine and improved upon it this week finishing in 5th place and taking home her first medal for bars.  She got a medal on floor, as well, for 3rd place.  Her vault was her best ever with an amazing score of 9.7, which meant she was the vault champion and got a 1st place medal!  After struggling for a few weeks at the beginning of the season to get an all-around score of 31 to qualify for state, she finally did it a couple of meets ago and this week she was able to improve upon it by a full 3 points.  Her all-around score was 34.3 and earned her a medal for 4th place! 

Update:  Wow, we just found out that Maya broke the Level 4 vault record at her gym!  We're so proud of her!

7 Months Old

Today Ciana turned 7 months old!  I can't believe it's been 7 weeks since we've been home with her.  It's been so busy.  I go back to work on Monday and she will start daycare on Tuesday.  She is still just as calm and laid back as ever.  She is getting around a little more though.  Technically, I wouldn't say she's crawling yet, but she can move.  She gets in the crawl position, but she straightens her legs out and sort of scoots.  She is sitting up on her own, most of the time.  She prefers to be on her feet, however, and can stand while holding onto something.  She is a tiny little peanut.  When we saw the doctor a few weeks ago for her 6 month appointment she was 14 lbs 8 oz and 26 1/2" long.  She is wearing mostly 6 month clothing, though some of those are still too big on her.  She likes to play peek-a-boo and her giggle is infectious.  Can't wait to see what she will be doing by this time next month! 

Maya's Gotcha Day 2012

Six years ago today Maya was placed in our arms for the first time and our lives haven't been the same since.  Today we celebrate her "Gotcha Day", just as we have every year since that day.  She fits perfectly in our family, just as God planned.

Fall Fun

 

6 Months Old

Well, we've been home for three weeks now and everything is going better than we could have anticipated.  Ciana is a very good baby.  It only took about a week to get her back on schedule and she is sleeping through the night now.  She seems like a very happy and content baby most of the time.  Wednesday she turned 6 months old!  She is not crawling yet, but she scoots herself a little ways on her belly if she wants to get to something bad enough.  She's getting better at sitting up, though she still falls over at times.  She likes to be on her feet.  She is very quick with a smile and she has the cutest giggle!  She chatters sometimes, but she is pretty quiet most of the time.  I'm sure she said her first word last night though.  At least I think it was her first word.  Maya was holding her and she loudly and clearly said "Mom!".  We all heard it and I jokingly told Jeff that I taught it to her that day.  She probably didn't know what she was saying, but I like to think she did. :)

Our Little Gymast

Maya had her first two Level 4 gymnastics meets while we were gone and she did really well. The first week she got 5th on floor, 6th on vault and was 12th all around. She did even better this last weekend and ended up with 3rd on floor, 3rd on vault and 5th all around. It was too bad we had to miss them, but there will be plenty more for us to see, I'm sure. She ended up with a trophy and 6 medals. She has this weekend off and then Chow's, the gym where Gabby Douglas and Shawn Johnson trained, is hosting the next meet so we will get to see her compete then. Can't wait!

Sleeplessness and Spit-Up!

Jeff's sister, Lisa, gave Ciana a jumperoo that she can sit in, so Maya and I put that together last night. Ciana loves to sit in it and bounce while playing with the toys and bouncing. Ciana must still be on Taiwan time, because she was up most of the night again last night. Taiwan is 13 hours ahead, so I'm not sure how we're going to get her on Iowa time. Luckily Maya was able to sleep through it this time, because she has a busy day of school, gymnastics and dance today. Jeff and I were up most of the night however. This morning she was pretty fussy and fell asleep while playing in her jumperoo! Then she had a short nap and woke up fussy again. I had her raised over my head playing with her when a waterfall of spit-up came pouring down on my hair and shirt. All Jeff and I could do was laugh! Jeff said he wished he would have had it on video. It was pretty funny, but gross at the same time! Welcome to being the mother of an infant again, I guess!

Home Sweet Home

Our flight home went pretty well. Jeff was totally stressed about it and didn't eat the night before or most of the day of the flights home. When we brought Maya home from China she didn't sleep at all and Jeff was worried that she was bothering everyone else on the plane. This time both of our flights were shorter than expected, so that was good. The flight from Taipei to Tokyo was 2 1/2 hours instead of 3 1/2 and the flight to Minneapolis was 10 1/2 instead of 11. Ciana was still sleeping when we left the hotel and slept in my arms the entire 40 minute taxi ride to the airport. The rest of the day my arm ached so bad it was killing me! She did great on the flight until we started to descend and then she cried until we had landed. The long flight we were seated all the way at the back of the plane, which was good so we didn't bother that many people. Ciana slept through take off and landing. She was awake in between, of course, and we had to stand with her in the aisle a couple of times, but for the most part she was pretty quiet and did really well. We were able to get a little sleep too, while she was sleeping. When we landed in Minneapolis we went through immigration and Ciana became a US Citizen! Then we put her in her carseat and began our 3+ hour drive home. She slept the whole way and luckily Jeff didn't, since he was driving. When we got home Maya greeted us in the driveway with a big hug. She was anxious to see her little sister. Dad and Cindy were there too. It was great to finally be back home. Maya got to hold Ciana right away. She keeps saying how much she likes her, but I know it is going to be hard for her to not have me all to herself anymore. She was really starving for some mommy time after being away from me for 9 days. Ciana didn't sleep well at all the first night home and she woke Maya up too, so we all had some together time in the middle of the night. After Ciana finally fell back asleep Maya snuggle in bed with us, because she missed us so much. Our first full day home we had more visitors. Dad and Cindy had stayed over the night before and Jeff's parents and two nieces came in the afternoon to meet Ciana.

Last Day in Taipei

Our last day in Taipei was very hot!!!! We went to tour the Sun Yat Sen Memorial and saw the changing of the guard ceremony. Then we went to Hello Kitty Sweets restaurant for lunch. I had heard about this online and had to go see it, but we should have never gone. They didn't speak english at all and the menu wasn't in english either. After waiting forever for someone to wait on us we tried to order and couldn't understand what the waitress was trying to ask us so we finally just gave up and left. Then we saw a McDonalds so we went there. As soon as we sat down Ciana started to throw a fit and a worker came over and shushed us a couple of times! I couldn't believe it and Jeff decided we should leave. So I grabbed my food and ate it in he taxi! We spent most of the rest of the day just hanging out in our hotel room getting ready to leave early the next morning.

Taiwan AIT

Yesterday we went to our appointment at AIT, the American Institute in Taiwan. We gave them our paperwork answered a couple of simple questions and that was it. They told us to return later in the day to pick up Ciana's Visa. This is the final step in the adoption process, so it's complete! Now we just need to get her home! After that it was raining so we had to change our plans a little bit. We decided to go to Taipei 101 to wait out the rain. This is the buiding that was the tallest building in the world until recently. We went up to the observatory when we were here 2 years ago so we decided we needed need to go up there again. We just had lunch at McDonalds in the food court and walked around a little bit. Then we had to leave to go pick up Ciana's Visa at AIT. It had stopped raining so we took the bus to Chang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. The buildings and grounds were beautiful. It was very hot! After returning to our room for a brief rest we went to Din Tai Fung for dinner. This restaurant was named one of the top 10 restaurants in the world in 1993 and has won numerous awards since. They are famous for their steamed pork dumplings, Xiaolongbao. They have a statue of a dumpling guy holding a tray of Xiaolongbao in front of the restaurant. The one we went to is the original location. You can see men making the dumplings in the first room you see. There are normally lines to get in, which we had witnessed several times already. We went at 5:00 and got right in. We ordered the Xiaolongbao, fried rice and shrimp and pork potstickers. The Xiaolongbao were delicious! The rice was good too. We should have gone with my initial instinct and ordered more of the dumplings and skipped the potstickers, however. Then it was back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. Ciana had a crying tantrum right before going to sleep, so hopefully she had a good night's sleep and will be back to herself this morning.

Goodbye to Taitung

Well, this is the second post I've made in the middle of the night. We are not able to sleep again! I think we've had maybe two decent nights of sleep since we left on Friday. Yesterday SanSan took us to the airport for our flight out of Taitung, Ciana's home for the first 5 months of her life. WeiLi and Judy from Hanna's Hope came to say one last goodbye to her too. It has to be hard for them to care for her all that time and then have to say goodbye. They are all going to miss her so much. Ciana's first flight went pretty well considering she had filled her diaper right before boarding the plane. There wasn't much we could do about it since we literally getting on the plane when we realized it and on Taiwan domestic flights you don't sit in the plane for a half an hour before taking off. You get on and go. Then the flight is so short that you pretty much go up and come right back down. Luckily she likes her pacifier and she sucked on it the whole way to Taipei. Once we got to Taipei we had lunch at a cute little restaurant on YongKang Street called "Eating Time". We walked in and they asked if we had reservations. Since we didn't they sat us in sort of a casual seating area right by the front window, which worked out better anyway because Ciana had room to sit and look out the window. We order cheeseburgers and fries. When the burgers came we took one bite and blood poured out of them and turned our buns all red. We told the waitress and after they cooked them a little more they were really delicious. Fries too! In the afternoon we hung out at the hotel while Ciana took a nap. Then the translator came to drop off our paperwork for our AIT appointment today. We looked at it and noticed they had Jeff's name and birthday wrong, so he had to go fix it and bring it back later. After that we went to SOGO. SOGO is a huge department store that is pretty much a mall in itself. There are actually two of them right across the street from each other for some reason. Each one has about 10 to 12 floors. It was a little out of my bargain hunting comfort zone, however. I picked up a pair of shoes, yes I love shoes, and they were around $9000 NTD which is around $300 US dollars. Yikes! Earlier in the day I was playing with Ciana. She was standing on my lap and I was holding her hands, raising them up and saying "Big Girl". She would smile. Later, before bed I was holding her, but not by the hands. When I said "Big Girl" she would raise her hands up in the air and smile. We couldn't believe she remembered that from just the short time we did it earlier in the day. Then when I stopped she would raise her hands up and want me to say it again. It was really cute.

Sleeping Beauty

They call her Sleeping Beauty and now we see why. The beauty part was obvious, but this girl likes to sleep! I think she slept for 9 hours last night and we finally slept too. Then she was awake for 1 hour before falling asleep again for another hour. This morning we bought a postcard to send to Maya. When we were all done getting ready to mail it they told us it would get there in about 1 month. We figured it wouldn't get there before we got home but 1 month! After that we went to get the Household Registry changed. We also went to see the hospital where Ciana was born. They told us that the hospital is known to perform a lot of abortions and they think it is a miracle that the doctor referred Ciana's birthmother to Hannah's Hope to consider adoption. After lunch at the hotel, we took a 2 hour drive to Hualien to meet with Ciana's birthmother. It was an emotional meeting, but I will save the details for Ciana when she gets older. Then it was back to the hotel after a long day on the road. Ciana is doing well. She's been pretty quiet, but tonight she started "talking" quite a bit. She is very smiley. She likes to stand up, with help of course. Our stay in Taitung is now over and tomorrow morning we fly back to Taipei for the rest of the week.

Gotcha Day!

Today was Ciana's Gotcha Day!  We didn't sleep at all last night.  I went to bed at 8:00, woke up at 11:30 and I think I might have slept about a half an hour after that.  It was terrible and Jeff was almost as bad.  We had a short, but bumpy flight to Taitung this morning.  We were picked up at the airport and since we couldn't get into our hotel room yet we went straight to Hannah's Hope to receive Ciana.  It was an awesome experience.  Very different than when we got Maya.  The staff sang a song and played the guitar as they brought Ciana out to meet us.  She loved listening to them sing.  She was wearing the outfit we sent to her.  She looked adorable.  They handed her to me and they were all talking to her and calling her by her nickname "Cuh Cuh", "Cuh Cuh" they would say.  They were all really sad to see her go.  You can tell that they love her and have taken really good care of her for the last 5 months.  They showed us around the home and her special nanny showed us how to bath her, put her to sleep, prepare her bottle, etc.  She had tears in her eyes, because she loves her so much she didn't want to see her leave.  Before we left the staff said they wanted to pray over Ciana and us.  It was really moving.  Then they took us out for beef noodle soup for lunch.  Ciana fell asleep in the car on the way to the restaurant, but didn't stay asleep long.  She has been very quite and peaceful.  After lunch we came back to the hotel and she had a bottle before laying down for a nap.  Tonight they are picking us up to go out to dinner.

Day 2 - Taipei

This morning started out with a walk thru Daan Forest Park.  It is a nice green park with lots of trees and walking paths right across the street from our hotel.  There is a really nice playground there too.  Lots of people were there doing their morning excercises.  Then we went to the Flower Market and Jade Market.  This is held every weekend right under the freeway.  Hundreds of vendors were there to sell their merchandise.  After that we took a walk down YongKang Street to try and find something to eat.  It wasn't an easy task.  Finding a place to eat has been our biggest challenge so far.  There don't seem to be that many restaurants, but lots of roadside stands.  If you do find one it is hard to know what they are going to serve you.  We finally got pulled into one by the lady standing outside.  We had pineapple shrimp since it was the only thing on the menu that looked edible, in our opinions.  It was pretty good.  There were lots of cute little shops on YongKang Street too. I found the cutest little shoe store with lots of really awesome shoes. The only problem is Asians seem to have smaller feet and it was really hard to find a pair that fit. The girl working in the store was so funny and tried her hardest to find a pair that would work.  The pair that I really loved was on clearance so they definitely didn't have that one in my size. 
Then we took a taxi to WuFenPu Garment Market.  It was alley after alley of little shops all selling clothes and shoes at discounted prices.  After that we were worn out so we went back to the hotel and ordered Pizza Hut.  We ordered a medium pizza and when it came it looked about the size of a personal pan!  And our last adventure of the day was coming up the elevator to our hotel room.  We got in, pushed the button, the doors closed and Jeff's biggest fear was realized.  The elevator shut off!  He was freaking out.  I pushed the call button a couple of times.  Then we finally found the door open button and it worked.  We took a service stair up to our room.  Jeff has vowed never to use another elevator in his life.     

Taiwan Day 1 - Flights

We made it to Taipei, Taiwan!  Yesterday was a LONG day.  We started out at 8:00 am with a 3+ hour drive to the airport in Minneapolis.  Then we had a 12 hour flight to Tokyo.  Immediately upon arriving in Tokyo we switched planes for our 3 hour flight to Taipei.  When we landed we took a taxi to our hotel.  We arrived at the hotel around 11:30 pm local time.  The day was long, but we couldn't have asked for better flights.  They were smooth and easy.  I watched the movie "What to Expect When You're Expecting".  Seemed sort of fitting given our situation.  It was really good.  I would highly recommend it.  We didn't get much sleep.  It was daylight the whole way here.  So, after our 26 1/2 hour journey we hit the bed.  We both had difficulty sleeping, however.  We woke up around 3:00 am and then went back to sleep for a little while.  Today we have a free day to explore Taipei before heading to Taitung tomorrow morning to receive Ciana.

5 Months Old

Ciana is 5 months old today! We have tickets bought and are ready to leave this Friday to head to Taiwan and bring her home. We will spend one day in Taipei before flying to Taitung to meet her on Monday morning, September 17th!


There is a woman who has been instrumental in Ciana’s referral. She and her husband adopted their daughter from Hannah’s Hope in Taiwan in August of 2010. After learning about the culture and challenges that women are faced with in southern Taiwan she felt led to go back and speak to doctors and social workers to try and save babies lives. She has made numerous trips back in the last year or so and Ciana and another little boy, Samuel, who was born on the same day as Ciana were the first two referrals that came as a result of her work. They hold a very special place in her heart. She saw Ciana when she was very young and since we were in Taiwan in May of 2010 I’m sure that we would have seen her daughter at around the same age. So, we each saw the other’s daughter even before we got to see our own. We also have another unique connection that only God could have planned. Her daughter’s name is Elise and Ciana’s middle name is Elise. We had no idea when we gave her that name that it would hold such a special connection. She also saw Ciana more recently so I asked her to share with me any observations she had of her and this is what she said. “Ciana is a sweet little girl. She is very calm and has a quiet personality. She smiles easily, enjoys being held and has the most beautiful skin. She seems very tender and is perfect in every way. Her eye contact is good and when she’s not being held she enjoys watching you.” From the conversations I have had with her through email she sounds like a super sweet lady with a wonderful heart. We will be forever grateful to her for following where God was leading. Who knows where Ciana would be today if she hadn’t answered the call.

Rollercoaster Week

It has been a rollercoaster of a week to say the least. 

Tuesday, August 28 -  We were expecting to hear that the signature they had been waiting on had been received and that we were scheduled to leave again!  Instead, we heard that the notary was not available so they couldn’t get the signature and didn’t think they would be able to until next week.

Wednesday, August 29 -  We got a call saying that they thought the notary would be available sooner than they originally thought!  They planned to talk to AIT the next day to request an appointment date of September 12th, which would mean we’d leave on the 5th or 6th!

Thursday, August 30 -  Signature was received!  However, they had not had time to get it to AIT to request a new appointment yet.

Friday, August 31 -  A new appointment at AIT has been scheduled!  However, it’s not for September 12th like we thought it would be.  Instead it was scheduled for September 20th.  Kate, our Taiwan adoption coordinator, was on vacation this week, so she is supposed to call us on Tuesday to confirm what day we will need to depart.

I think we’ve had enough with the false labor and are ready for the actual delivery!

6 Years Ago Today



Maya's Referral Picture 6 Years Ago

 

Six years ago today we traveled to our adoption agency’s office and saw Maya’s face for the first time. At that moment our lives were forever changed. She has brought so much joy to our lives. I don’t even know how I used to occupy my free time, but now I can’t even remember what free time is! She is always keeping me busy. The phrase I hear most often coming out of her mouth is “Mom, can we do gymnastics?” That’s how we spend most of our free time. Even when she’s been at gymnastics practice for 2 hours that’s the first thing she says when we get home. She has grown and matured so much since that day 6 years ago. She is a smart, funny, talented, compassionate and beautiful little girl that is growing into a beautiful young lady on the inside and out. This morning on the way to daycare I told her to look at the sky. The sun was hidden behind a cloud with a small hole in the middle where the sun was shining brightly through. You could also see the sun’s rays shooting out below the cloud. Her response was “Whoa! That’s cool how there’s strokes. It’s like God’s Power is coming out!” I wonder if she would have had the same response if she were being raised in China? It’s possible, but not likely. It was pretty awesome.



Maya Today



   

Delayed Longer!

The typhoons have passed and it sounds like they weren’t as bad as expected and also didn’t hit the area where Ciana is staying like they originally predicted. Also, we heard yesterday that they were supposed to go today to get the additional information requested by AIT. However, we just heard that there has been a delay in getting this done due to the notary not being available. Apparently, now the notary won’t be available until sometime next week! So, I guess we are delayed longer than we thought. I’m not sure yet what this means for timeframe to travel. I was already concerned that we were going to miss Maya’s first gymnastics meet and now it looks like it’s possible we might miss the first two! I’m sure it will be worth it in the end, but it’s still disappointing to not get to see her first meet or meets of her life after all of the training we’ve taken her to over the last few years. Also, I’m sure Ciana is growing and hopefully will still fit in all the clothes I have packed! We are praying that they are able to get the required information without any issues and that our AIT appointment will be issued according to God’s perfect timing!

Maya's Mock Meet

Maya had her first mock meet for gymnastics last weekend.  They are preparing for her first Level 4 season, which starts the middle of September.  They brought in a judge and went through all of their routines like they will at an actual meet.  It was a great learning experience for the girls and the parents.  The judge talked with them after each event to tell them what they could improve upon and how deductions are taken.  Wow, is the scoring complicated.  One of the girls on her team has a family member that's a photographer and she took the attached pictures.  They turned out really awesome!  Hopefully she'll be able to continue taking them throughout the season, because I tried to take some and all I got was a big blur!

Not Leaving!

Well, our journey has been postponed a bit.  Apparently AIT, the US Consulate, is doing their investigation of the adoption and they are requesting more information.  This is exactly what our agency was concerned about when I talked to them last Friday.  However, when we spoke on Monday they assured me that they were pretty confident that it wouldn’t be a problem and we should go ahead and book our tickets.  Now with two typhoons, Typhoons Tembin & Bolaven, expected to hit Hualien and Taitung counties today and continue through the weekend they think that could delay them getting the information to AIT on time so our agency has advised us to postpone our departure.  I believe Ciana’s birth mom is from Hualien and Ciana is in Taitung so you can pray for their safety as the typhoons make landfall.

The Journey Begins

The two year plus long journey that this adoption process has taken so far now comes to fruition with a journey across the ocean.  Our travel dates have been confirmed, our tickets are booked and we are scheduled to depart this Friday morning.  The last few days have been a whirlwind.  We found out on Friday that our requested Consulate appointment date of August 31 was accepted, but changed to August 30th.  There was some question about whether they would be ready for that date or not, so we had to wait until Monday to get the official word that yes, they thought we would be okay to accept that date.  So, I spent the weekend packing what I could.  Then when we got the word yesterday we frantically searched for flights.  With the short time frame our travel agent was having trouble finding anything.  After much stress, we finally settled on a plan and we are all booked to go.  The first leg of our journey takes us from Des Moines through Detroit and then directly into Taipei with a 17 hour flight.  We will have a free day in Taipei before flying to Taitung on Monday to receive Ciana.  We’ll spend two days in Taitung and then fly back to Taipei for three days before returning to the United States.  While this is an exciting time, it is also very stressful, anxious, etc.  Please pray for our health, for smooth flights and easy connections, for an easy attachment and anything else you can think of!  All in all we’d like prayer for, as I've heard it said, a smooth delivery!

Waiting Again!

I guess we should be used to waiting by now, but here we are waiting again. This time we’re waiting on AIT to confirm our appointment date. Our request of an August 31st appointment date was sent to them on Tuesday, August 14th and we heard yesterday that they’re beginning their appointment procedure for our case. So, we’re told we should hear something soon. If we don’t, it is likely they will push the date out a little further. If they accept our proposed date we could be leaving in one week!

Meanwhile, Ciana turned 4 months old on Friday, so we got an update and some new photos! She is now 13 lbs 8 oz and 24.4” long. She has so much hair that they are able to put in a piggy tail! She had a friend go home to be with her forever family recently and we were told she has been refusing her bottle because her friend left.  On the bright side, they said she is rolling over and she feels very good about herself after each time she rolls over. She is smiley and playful!

It's Official!!!

It was 9:46 this morning when the call came in.  I was upstairs at work talking to the girls about the status of the adoption and how I have been waiting patiently by my phone expecting to hear something any day.  It was now 20 days into the 30 day maximum wait until our final decree would be issued.  I got back to my desk and checked my cell phone, like I have many times over the recent days, just to see if by chance I had received a call from our adoption agency.  I was totally expecting to see a blank screen like I had many times before, but instead it said I had a new voice mail message.  I thought it could be the call I had been waiting for, but didn’t want to get too excited until I heard for sure.  So, I listened to it and it was Kate on the other end saying she had good news, that she had received our final decree!  That’s it, the Taiwan court has made it official and Ciana is now our daughter!  I knew I was scrambling to get everything done and ready for some reason and just in time it seems.   Our documents have been sent to the translator and should be forwarded to AIT (American Consulate in Taiwan) yet this week.  Once they receive them we can request an appointment date which will determine when we travel.  Kate suggested that she might request an appointment on August 31, which would mean if AIT accepts that date we would leave here on August 24th or 25th.  That’s only 2 weeks away!  Tomorrow she will be 4 months old, so it will be different for us to have one that young.  That date is exactly what I had been thinking and hoping for, since it couldn’t be more perfect for Maya’s schedule, but I guess God’s timing is always perfect!

Ciana's Room

Well, Ciana's room is finally done.  I spent most of the month of July painting and decorating her room in preparation for her arrival.  Maya helped out a little too.  When I wasn't sure how to paint the white dots, she even suggested I use a different type of brush, which as it turns out is exactly the one I needed!  I debated a lot about how to decorate it and what color to use as the background.  In fact, I even went back this last Sunday and painted over one entire area that I didn't like after I had put all of that hard work into it.  One day I had the idea in my head to get letters with her name and put them above her crib.  I walked into Hobby Lobby that afternoon and there they were in the exact color that I needed.  I am happy with the finished product now and hopefully Ciana will enjoy it too!

FIRST DECREE!

Exciting news! We just got a call from our agency and they received our First Decree from the court! What this means is that we are now in the last step of the process prior to travel and bringing Ciana home! What happens next is the court will send a notice to Ciana’s birth mom outlining the case. She then has between 10 and 20 business days to sign and return it to court saying that she still wants to proceed with the adoption. After the court receives the signed copy from her they then have a maximum of 10 business days to issue the Final Decree making Ciana officially our daughter! Then an appointment is scheduled with AIT, the US Consulate in Taiwan, which determines our travel dates. So, it sounds to me like we could be traveling around the end of August or first part of September, which is exactly what I have been thinking and hoping for lately.


This is really exciting, but also stressful, because I feel like we aren’t prepared at all. I’m working on painting her room and getting it ready and those that know me know that is not a quick process as I am putting a lot of detail into designs on the walls. Also, I just took on my first paying painting job painting murals in a playroom for someone’s son. We also need to get a new car seat since Maya’s is now expired. Also, we don’t have clothes that small since Maya was a year old when we brought her home and believe it or not, I haven’t been shopping! However, I do have a nice shoe collection started for her already!  Oh well, it will all get done somehow. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and continue to pray for a smooth delivery!

Court Update!

We just got an update from Taiwan!  The first court appointment happened as scheduled yesterday and everything went really well.  The judge asked Ciana’s  birth mom a few questions.  He was satisfied with her answers and did not ask for any additional information, so a second court date is not required!!!  Now we wait for the judge to issue the 1st Decree.  We’re told this could take roughly 8-10 weeks.  Once the 1st Decree is issued there is another process that takes approximately 1 month before the final decree is issued and Ciana officially becomes our daughter.  Then we can schedule our travel to go bring her home!  After all the waiting in the beginning, I feel like this is moving really fast now.  Let’s pray it continues!  We also got some updated pictures.  There is a really cute one of her with a grin on her face smiling at her nanny.  She has so much hair I can’t believe it.  In another picture you would have thought I did her hair, because it looks like I back-combed it and gave her “big hair” already!  It’s too funny!

Kindergarten Graduate



First Day of School



Last Day of School

Well, Maya’s last day of Kindergarten was yesterday.  She has learned so much this year.  I was worried when she started Kindergarten that it would be a lot of review for her and I’m sure some of it was, like recognizing letters and the sounds they make, etc. , but she also learned a lot.  Before she started Kindergarten last fall she didn’t seem to be interested in learning to read.  She had one book that she knew how to read, but wasn’t really interested in trying others.  Now she can read pretty much anything, with a little help now and then.  She even checked her first chapter book out from the library a few weeks ago.  They also did a lot of writing in her class.  They kept journals throughout the year about what was happening in their lives.  She wrote a report about spiders and many stories that she made up.  She is a very good writer and seems to really like it.  They learned about money and she can tell you whose picture is on the different denominations of money.  They must have also studied weather, because she keeps telling me if there are cirrus, cumulus or cumulonimbus clouds in the sky.  Recently, they learned all about Iowa.  She can sing the state song and tell you what our state flag says on it.  They talked all year about the 7 Habits of Happy Kids from The Leader in Me.  Since I said I didn’t know what the 7 habits were, she said she thought she was smarter than me!  She also made many new friends and boyfriends!  After reporting to me that she had kissed a boy just a few days into the school year, I then heard more recently about who her new boyfriend was every now and then.  First, there was Noah, then Soren, Vincent and Safvet, I think.  Now she says she doesn’t have a boyfriend, instead she just has good friends that are boys.  Phew!

 

Last Day of School!



  

 

Court Appointment

Great News!  I just got word this morning that our court date has been set.  Our paperwork was submitted to court on May 8^th and our social worker originally told us that it can take 2 – 4 weeks to hear about an assigned court date and the court appointment could be assigned up to 2 months out.  Well, ours was set for May 31^st at 10:30 a.m., only 3 weeks after receiving our paperwork!  Also, since Taiwan is 13 hours ahead of us this is actually at 9:30 p.m. on May 30^th, which happens to be my 40^th Birthday!  This is exciting news, but we were warned earlier that quite often the court appointed social worker doesn’t get their report done on time and the court date has to be rescheduled.  We’re praying this doesn’t happen in our case and everything can happen as scheduled. 

Court Process

The ten days following our referral were filled with lots of paperwork.  First, there was the Taiwan paperwork that had to be turned in immediately.  So, after getting everything notarized, Jeff and I made a trip to the Secretary of State’s office in Des Moines on April 20th to get some documents State Certified.  We put them in the mail to our agency the same day.  Then there were a bunch of agency documents to sign and have notarized.  After our agency received the Taiwan documents they had to have another certification done on them and they were sent to Taiwan on May 2nd.  We received word on May 8th that they had been submitted to court.  This starts the official court process which will finalize the adoption!  Here are the steps in the court process as I understand it.  Now that our documents have been submitted to court we will be assigned a court date.  Between now and the court date a social worker will interview the birth mother and visit Ciana at Hannah’s Hope to document things.  At the court date, the Taiwan staff from our agency will represent us before the judge.  The birth mother will also be present.  The judge can then decide if he needs more information or if he is satisfied.  If he wants more information a second court date will be set.  Then a first decree will be issued.  The birth mother will receive a notice from the judge and if she agrees to the adoption as it is stated she will sign the decree.  She has 10 days after the 1st Decree to change her mind about the adoption.  If she agrees and signs the papers then the judge will issue the Final Decree.  The Final Decree makes Ciana officially our daughter!  Once we have the Final Decree we will get an appointment with AIT, which is like the US Consulate in Taiwan.  This will establish our travel dates!  Our agency is estimating approximately 5-6 months for the court process.  So, I’m guessing we could be traveling in October, like we did when we brought Maya home.

What's in a Name?

This time around I found it really difficult to come up with a name.  With Maya, I always knew it was going to be Maya, which means “God’s Creative Power” and Darlene after my mom.  Everyone knew her name well before we got our referral.  This time, after we got the referral of Pan Ko-Han, we still hadn’t decided on a name!  We had settled on a boy’s name in case it was a boy, but the girl’s name was much more challenging.  I had one name that I had liked for over a year, but Jeff didn’t like it at all.  The second name I came up with Jeff was stuck on, but I had since decided I didn’t like it that much.  So, more recently I was searching for a name when I found one that I had never heard of before.  I liked it and I also liked the meaning.  So, when I mentioned it to Jeff he said he liked it too.  It is Ciana, which is pronounced See-Ah-Nuh.  It is of Italian and Chinese origin and it has several meanings which are “God is Gracious”, “Light” and “China”.  It is also a short form of Jane, which Jeff’s mom’s name, Jeanette, is also a form of.  So we decided on Ciana.  Then we had to come up with a middle name.  I had a list of names that we were looking at for first names so we looked at those.  I was kind of looking at the name Elise, when Jeff said what about Elise!  I said that was the name I was just looking at!  We liked the meaning of it, which is “God’s Promise”.  I looked into it further and found out that it is a short form of Elizabeth, which is Jeff’s grandma’s name.  So that is how we came up with the name Ciana Elise.  We decided on the name just days after the referral because it was needed on some paperwork.  The funny thing is that here it is 3 weeks later and no one in our family knows the name yet!  I guess they forgot to ask, or they think we’re waiting to name her when we bring her home or something.  The morning after the referral a really neat thing happened.  I woke up and it looked like it was going to storm.  I looked outside and there was a beautiful double rainbow outside that completely enveloped our house from one side to the other.  It was awesome!  It definitely was a sign for us concerning Ciana Elise, God’s Gracious Promise!

Referral!

It was 9:46 am on April 17th when the call came in.  I looked at my cell phone and saw that it was Kate from All God’s Children calling.  I didn’t get too excited for a couple of reasons.  First, Jeff and I had recently become so discouraged by the way the process had slowed down that we were convinced we would never get a referral.  You can start to feel that way after waiting so long and hearing of changes in the law that could halt the process.  We officially decided to adopt from Taiwan 2 years and 9 months ago.  Then we waited 11 months for the Taiwan program to officially open so we could start the process.  After a 6 month home study process we started out at #9 on the waitlist.  After 9 months on the waitlist we had moved from #9 to #1 so we thought we would hear something fairly quickly.  Then we waited and waited and waited.  After being #1 on the waitlist for 6+ months we thought we would never get a referral.  Second, I had just sent Kate a question by email the day before and I thought maybe she was just calling to talk about that.  She wasn’t!  She said she had some exciting news to share and it was that she had a referral for us!  It’s a girl!  She was born 1 week ago on April 10th, 2012.  She is 5.8 lbs and 20 inches long.  About the same size that Maya was when she was born!  I calmly took down all the information that Kate gave me.  Then I hung up the phone and started shaking.  I called Jeff at work.  He’s not supposed to get calls at work, but he had his cell on.  He heard it ringing but didn’t get to it in time so he called me right back.  When I told him that Kate had called he didn’t seem to think that it was with a referral either.  When I told him she had a referral for us he was shocked and all he could say was “No, way!”.  He said he wanted to get something to write the information down and all he could find was a paper plate.  I told him that Kate was going to email me all the information and some pictures.  I asked him if he wanted me to wait until I got home and we could look at the pictures together.  He said I could go ahead and look at them.  Thank God, because I would have gone nuts waiting the rest of the day!  She is so cute with lots of black hair.  I called to tell Angie and one of the things she asked me was if she had a name.  I looked on the paperwork I had received and read her the Taiwanese name Pan Ko-Han.  She said no, I meant does she have an American name yet!  Oh my gosh, I had been so shocked by everything that I hadn’t even thought about that yet!  The answer was no.  We had a boy’s name picked out, but we hadn’t officially decided on a girl’s name yet.  Now we need to get it decided ASAP!!!  Then, I looked at the date and time she was born and I noticed that I was at the dentist at that time and I realized that I was scheduled for another dental appointment on the referral day.  Maybe she is going to be a dentist when she grows up!  I got done at my dental appointment early so I stopped and picked up a balloon for Maya.  When she got home I told her that the adoption agency had called.  I had the balloon sitting there inside a pillowcase.  She wanted to know what was in there, so I told her to open it up and read what it said.  She pulled out the balloon and read “It’s a Girl!”.  She was really excited!  She wanted it to be a girl really badly.  Now we start the next round of paperwork and waiting!  

It

13 Months - Again!

Thirteen months ago we were added to the waitlist for our adoption from Taiwan. We started out at number 9 and then moved up fairly quickly, averaging about one spot per month. When we hit #1 the first of October we figured the same progression would continue and we would have our referral soon. For some reason that hasn’t happened and we have now been #1 for 4 months. I guess it’s true that nothing is predictable when it comes to the adoption process. When we started out we were told to expect 9 to 18 months wait for our referral, so I guess we are still within that timeframe. When we started our first adoption from China we were told it would be a 6 month wait and it ended up being 13 months. So, here we are at month 13 again. Hopefully month 13 will be lucky for us again. We aren’t sure why this is taking so long, but we can only trust that the child God has chosen to be a part of our family just isn’t available yet and that God has a better plan in mind than we can imagine.