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!