Our Model

As promised in the previous post, our model to see if the clothes we bought would fit Sarah Grace. I think his expression says it all.



We got Sarah Grace's birthday present in the mail today! She turns 8 on January 1! I wish she were going to be home for her birthday. We'll have to send it to her instead. Ling speaks Chinese and English (she says things like "I like to sing/ wo xi huan chang ge" and "My name is Ling/wo jiao Ling" and she counts from 1-10.) I thought she was pretty cute and I hope that Sarah Grace enjoys her!

Great News!

We heard from Penny at Cathwel today and Kai Wei has had his civil ruling! From the way she put it it sounds like it was the final ruling. If it was that means we are Kai Wei's Mom and Dad and the parents of SIX kids now! He is our son! I emailed her to confirm. Because it may be the civil ruling and then the final ruling in 10 days--but sometimes they get called on them at the same time. Either way, we are much closer. They have chosen not to say anything to Kai Wei, as they don't want him to blame Ssu Ya for a delay in getting home (no word on her from the courts) After the final ruling you just a need an AIT appointment to get the child's visa and then you can bring them home. That often happens in about 2 weeks! But we will probably be waiting a bit longer for all Sarah Grace's court rulings. I say probably, because if they think it will be months of delay we may have to go twice! I just can't bear the thought of having to make Kai Wei wait many more months than he already has. I'm looking into airline tickets! I can't believe it!

We got a package of stuff I ordered online for Ssu Ya today--it was so much fun to look through. We got great pics of our "super model" that I'll have Annie post when she gets a chance. We got 2 pairs of pants, some long sleeve shirts, an outdoor vest and some PJ's! I think I have just about enough stuff until they get here. I did not want to get too much, as it is hard to be sure of size.

So this journey has been so long. I've gotten so used to waiting. I can't believe the waiting is actually going to come to an end!

God has been so good to us! :-)

有哭，有笑 Laughter and tears

We had another video chat with the kids last night. They brought Kai Wei and Sarah Grace in separately this time, which we thought was a good idea. Kai Wei was happy to see the Christmas tree. He really seems to be thinking about how next year he will be able to be a part of all the Christmas celebrations. It snowed here on Wednesday, and when we told him that his whole face lit up. Tim went out and made a snowball to show him, which Daniel started to eat. He was REALLY excited to see that. It was cute. We really hope there is snow when they get home so we can take them sledding and make snow-men and snow angels and eat hot chocolate. It is so special to be around older children who are experiencing their first snow storm. On Wednesday it started to snow while I was teaching my reading class, so once I got to a transition, I let all the kids go ad look out the windows while I put away their supplies. Their little transfixed faces were priceless, and hearing my second grader from Cambodia say with excitement, "this is the first time I see snow!" and later commenting on how much faster it was falling brought a smile to my face. I can't wait to share the beauty and excitement of snow wiht my own little sister and brother.

Kai Wei was so cute after his part of the call was ended. He leaned back in the chair and stretched, and visibly relaxed. He doesn't look stressed during the calls, but apparently they must be a little stressful for him. He's doing really well with his English pronunciation, but I think that's one of the things that makes the chats hard for him.

(If you click on any of the photos in the slideshow, it will pause the slideshow and enlarge the photo. These are all from last night).

Sarah Grace was cute and happy at the beginning of the call. She showed us her toy gun, which Daniel was excited about. I think he was thinking, "now that's my kind of sister!" She also liked the Christmas tree and looked really excited by the snow ball. But, all her smiles disappeared when my Mom asked if she was excited about coming here. Her face fell and she shook her head no. It was so heartbreaking to see her sorrow written all over her face an din her body language. She is really missing her foster family. We all wished that we could reach out and comfort her. It must be so hard to be 7 years old and go through such a big change. I am praying that God brings healing to her sadness and that she realizes with time that she can love our family, while still remembering and loving her foster family.

At the end of the call, she was quietly playing with the sticker book that we sent the other week. It was so neat to see her playing with something we sent. It makes her a little closer, if something my Mom and I were just looking at (and being tempted to play with) is now in her hands and she's playing with it. She was so cute, choosing dresses and accessories for each of the dolls.

Lest I forget, Daniel was disappointed the other day that no one ever commented about him, so of course, I told him the blog wasn't about him. So, he asked for his own blog. Being the nice big sister that I am, with nothing better to do since school let out early during the snow storm, I did. He would be very delighted (his word) if you visit his blog and leave a comment.

The Scenic Route

When I was at that point between waking and sleeping the other day, I dreamt of weary travelers, staggering after their leader, finally arriving at their destination. They realized as they arrived that there was a much shorter path they could have taken, it was just ugly and barren and they would have missed all the amazing views along the way. As I drifted back into consciousness, I thought to myself, "that's what our adoption journey has been like- taking the scenic route".

When we started this journey 23 months ago, we never thought it would take this long. We were told it might take 12 months. The wait has been frustrating. It tries our patience. It tires us out. And yet, the extra wait has been rewarding too. I love new cultures and languages, but Chinese was always a language I mentally checked off as too hard to learn. As we waited, I started learning Chinese out of my desire to communicate, but I didn't have any very high expectations at first, I just wanted to be able to communicate the basics to ease our transition. It wasn't long though until I was fascinated by the Chinese language, and the whole process of learning a language again. Soon I was becoming interested in the written language as well as the spoken language. I also started reading about Taiwan and China, and found a whole empire's worth of history and culture that I knew very little about. The more I learned, the more I was fascinated. Soon I couldn't imagine never seeing the country of my siblings' birth, and I planned for my trip to Taiwan this summer. If the kids had been home a year ago, I wouldn't have gone to Taiwan this summer. I probably wouldn't have pursued learning very much Chinese since I've learned most of what I know since last winter and the more I learn the more my fascination and commitment to learning the language has grown. During our wait we have also met so many people- the local Chinese people we have met through the Chinese church and Chinese classes who we now know are there to support us and will be there to translate if we need them to during the first few months, other families with adopted children who have been there, done that, so many other families adopting from Taiwan whom I haven't met in person, but who we talk about and pray for just the same, and we know they do the same for us. This is what has made the journey scenic. I have definitely become greatly enriched along the way.

Even epic scenic journeys come to an end someday, and I hope soon, we finally, tired but triumphant, make it to the top of the hill, and enjoy the end of our journey- life as a family of 9!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful day. We are thankful for our many blessings: God's gift of his son for our salvation, our family, the ability to spend Thanksgiving with our grandparents, the fact that in a few short months Kai Wei and Sarah Grace should be HOME, a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, the technology that allows us to have video chats with the kids, a country where we are safe and free... We truly have many blessings.

There are so many others, however, who aren't as blessed, and I wanted to share this opportunity to be a blessing to them with you. Reece's Rainbow is an organization that helps children with Down syndrome be adopted. They sponsor children and help raise money for families who are in the process of adopting children with Down syndrome. This year, they are doing a Christmas fundraiser. Their goal is to raise $1,000 for each of the 85 children they are trying to find family's for. Visit their site, donate if you feel led, and pray for these children.



Many of them will be moved to mental institutions and receive very little care if they are not adopted. You can read about one family's journey to adopt Aleksa, a little girl with Down syndrome and get the code to put your own button link to Reece's Rainbow on the Cornish family's blog.

Another webchat!

We just finished our Skype conversation with Kai Wei AND Sarah Grace this time! What cuties! It was so fun to see Sarah Grace, and a bit of a surprise, because we weren't sure whether or not we would. It was also nice to see them together. This time I thought to take some screen shots while we were chatting, so I have photos to share! Look at their smiles. Aren't they beautiful?



We introduced the family cats this time, which made the kids smile, but Sarah Grace was a bit nervous about the dog. She asked why we wanted to have a dog. Hopefully she realized he was a friendly, mostly harmless puppy by the end of the conversation.

We got some good news during our conversation. Kai Wei's court hearing is on Wednesday! We're so excited about that, and he is too.

They said that Sarah Grace is adjusting well to life at Jonah House, and that she and Kai Wei are getting along pretty well.

It was fun to chat again tonight and learn a little more about the kids and see a bit more of their personalities shine through. Si Ya is a little monkey, (which I'd already gathered from my visit with her this summer) She loved making faces for the camera!
She wants to go roller skating when my parents go to Taiwan, she likes the color yellow, shrimp and apples. She wants a toy cell phone.

Kai Wei likes blue and prefers sweat pants to jeans. He remembers a lot of the things he has heard about our family or has seen in our photo album. He asked about our lake and knows that it is much colder here. He seems very interested in and excited by our animals. He seems easy-going and agreeable.
I just love to see his smile! He got his hair cut since the last time we talked to him.




我們 愛 你們 凱維 跟 思雅
We love you Kai Wei and Si Ya! We can't wait for you to come home.

WebCam Conference!

So it is so exciting! Tonight for the first time we saw our son and heard his voice! We had a video conference with Kai Wei via Skype. It was really fun. Almost the whole family was home. (But Jonathan who was very disappointed that he would be camping with scouts). Kai Wei was so happy and sweet. His English was great. He is very limited with what he can say, but we were impressed with his pronunciation. We think he will be very easy to understand.

We were ALL a bit nervous. But we all had fun too. In Taiwan Kai Wei's social worker was in the room with some other people and they were joking and laughing and helping to translate. And at our house we were all talking and saying hi and introducing him to each of us. He really seemed to like it when Timmy asked how old he was and then told him he was 17. He also liked the new puppy, Java and he said Daniel was cute and that he would pray for him on his birthday. (Which Daniel told him was next week). We are really excited to chat with him again.

We've also had some news on Sarah Grace. She is going to be moved to Jonah House next week! This was not anticipated. But we are hoping it turns out to be a good thing for her, Kai Wei and the whole family in general. I guess we may get a chance to speak with her in a future chat!

God is so good and tonight we thank him for technology that made this possible!