Da Bunny...

Jake and Sara were excited to see the Easter Bunny at the mall the other day. Mommy was excited to take a picture with her phone and NOT pay $20 for a really bad quality one. :)

Sigh

I was really hoping to get new pictures of Tessa this week but no such luck. Hopefully we'll get an update next week, although it may not happen until mid-April. Also, I made my blog public again as our agency said it was fine.

Care package delivered!

Our care package arrived in Taiwan early this morning! Yay! It's so exciting to imagine that Tessa Yi-Hsiu could soon be wearing the outfits I chose so carefully, gazing at the photos I sent, and listening to our voices on the bear. :)

And the middle name is....

Yi-Shiu! (Yee-Show)

I went back and forth on this decision. I really like Mei, and the connection it has to her birth grandmother. BUT, we kept Jacob and Sara's birthnames so I didn't want Tessa to not have hers. Then, what sealed the deal was today I was talking to my friend Lisa, who is an adoptee from Korea. I asked her opinion and she basically said to definitely keep her birthname. She may hate it at one point in her life, but when she's grown and an adult, she'll really appreciate the connection to her birth. Thanks Lis! :)

So, our girl is Tessa Yi-Shiu. :)

And her new name will be....

Tessa! :) But don't go getting anything embroidered with it yet! LOL! :)

Mama's happy. I love the name Tessa. I was luke warm on Chloe, but thought Todd loved it. Finally I asked him the other day to tell me on a scale of one to ten what he thought of each name. Turns out Chloe was a 6 and Tessa was a 5. And since picking the name is way more important to me than Todd, well, he's a good guy. :)

A fellow mom with our Taiwan adoption group got a court date last week...5 weeks after her paperwork went to Taiwan. Ours has been there 1 week. So perhaps in 4 weeks we'll hear word of our hearing date. And, in another week and a half we should get an update on our sweet Tessa, with new pictures and a video. I'm VERY excited to see how she's grown.

Finally, we have absolutely beautiful weather here. It's about 50 and sunny. I actually sat my butt down on an innertube for awhile on a snow bank while I soaked up some sun on my face. The kids were sliding down our small hill with no coats on. And yes...we still have A LOT of snow here.

Dossier has arrived in Taiwan!

It was signed for at 10:19 am on Wednesday (today) which was actually 10:19 pm last night our time (they are 12 hours ahead of us.) I'm SO happy it arrived safely. Next, we get logged into court and wait for our hearing date. :) And, her first care package was shipped this morning. According to the post office, it should arrive in 6-10 days.

What's her name??

Well, stay tuned. Chloe's name may not actually be Chloe. And Mei might not be her middle name. I'm so easily confused. We've been calling her Chloe for months now. But, I see her picture and she's just not a Chloe to me. So, we're tossing around the name Tessa for awhile to see if it sticks. :) And we might go with her birthname (Yi-Shiu) for her middle name instead of Mei. But we might not. How's that for solid decision making?

Anyway, here's her picture again for inspiration. What do YOU think?

First Care Package

I'm finished putting together Chloe's first care package and it will leave here tomorrow on its way to her.

Included in the care package:
-MP3 Bear with recordings of us reading and singing to our girl
-Chocolate covered dried cherries from our area for TWCA staff/foster family
-Super soft pink blanket that I slept with in hopes that she'll get to know my smell
-Soft toy with black and white photos of all four of us
-Disposable camera
-5 pink and brown Carter's onesies (size 0-3 months)
-2 sleepers (size 0-3 months)
-1 cherry romper (0-3 months)
-Taggy blankie
-Teething toy
-Baby keys

I bought all 0-3 month clothes because she was under 6 pounds when she was born, so I'm hoping the smaller size will still fit her. I'll probably send another care package out in a month or so with bigger clothes. :)

Dossier is on its way

Gladney confirmed that our dossier is on its way to Taiwan! Yay! I'm so relieved to have that step of the process done. Our caseworker said it could be 2-3 months before we hear anything about our first hearing date. I hope it's not that long.

Patient Kitty

And the award for the most patient kitty goes to: Ollie! :) Sara prefers dressing the cats over her own baby dolls.

Officially Private...

I've officially gone private...so if you're here, you're good to go. :)

Please leave comments when you think of it...this blog will eventually be printed and/or made into a book for Chloe, and all we'd love her to see how excited everyone was to meet her. If you're new to the blogging world, to leave a comment click on the words "Said Hello, Hola, or Ni Hao" that are at the bottom right under each of my posts.

Paperwork update...TECO is yet to send our documents out to our agency, so our dossier MAY be a day or two delayed going to Taiwan. I'll keep you updated. (Update 6:45 pm, it WAS sent from TECO after all, YAY!! Paperwork will arrive at Gladney on 3/9, and will hopefully head out to Taiwan that same day!)

Paperwork Update

On Saturday we got our adoption contracts from Taiwan/Gladney. Monday we had them notarized (along with the rest of dossier), then Tuesday I drove them downstate to be certified. After that I sent them off to TECO (the Taiwanese equivalent of a consulate) and they should arrive at Gladney by Friday. On Monday, they're off to Taiwan (unless there is a problem, of course).

So, God speed little dossier, go do what you do best in Taiwan...and do it FAST. :)

Now, we wait. And wait. And wait. In the meantime, I'm putting together a care package to send to Chloe. I'll post more about that later.

I'll be going private in the next day or two, so make sure you email me if you want to continue reading. If you have sent me your email address, I will send you an invite.

Thanks!

Number One Question...

When can you go get her??

Well, I wish the answer was next week, but it's not. We have to go through a fairly complex court process in Taiwan that averages 4-6 months. August is the month we're hoping to travel. Jake and Sara both have September birthdays, so we'd love to be home with Chloe before then.

Here's the basic process:

This week I will be completing the paperwork that gets submitted to Taiwan. With any luck, it will be done and sent by the end of the week or early next week. Once we are entered into courts, we wait for a hearing date.

Step 1:
Hearing (typically 1-3 months after paperwork is filed in Taiwan)

Step 2:
First Ruling (typically 1-3 months after hearing)

Step 3:
Final Ruling (typically 2-6 weeks after first ruling)
After the final ruling, Chloe will be legally ours

Step 4:
Paperwork Processing and Travel Notice (typically 4-6 weeks after final ruling)

The trip to Taiwan will be about a week long. We want to take time in Taiwan to experience Chloe's birthcountry, but at the same time don't want to be gone from our other two "babies" for too long. We're excited about our upcoming (hopefully sooner than later) trip!

Gotta love the internet!

I've been having trouble figuring out what Chloe's birthname means. While Mandarin (Chinese) is spoken in Taiwan, the pinyin (symbols) can be different.

So, I went on to Facebook and searched for her birthname (Yi-Hsiu). And wouldn't ya know it, a lovely young lady from Taipei came up. She's a student at Boston. I sent her a message about her name and she told me the following:

In general,
Yi-- means happy; cheerful; joyful
Hsiu--means beautiful and excellent

And it's pronounced Yee-Show. :) Thanks Yi-Hsiu! :)

Isn't that cool? I love what Chloe Mei (Yi-Hsiu)'s name means. :) And I love the internet! :)