Thursday, October 30, 2014

Lots of progress

Today was a very busy day.

We rolled out of bed, ate a quick breakfast, and headed off to the health clinic. On Tuesday we started the skin TB test. Today we went back to have the results read. Neither of us showed a reaction to the test. We emailed the test results over to our doctor so that she could finish up our medical clearance.

This afternoon, we heard a delivery truck pull up in front of the house. My first thought was, "please let that be the Fedex guy!" Sure enough, there was a knock on the door. By the time I got to the door, he was already in his truck but I was able to wave thanks. Our paperwork from Taiwan arrived!

After a quick email with our new agency to make sure I was scanning the right documents, I scanned in all 39 pages of our home study and the Mandarin translation. After emailing that to the agency, I received confirmation that it has been forwarded to St. Lucy's in Taiwan. Our pre-approval process has begun! The agency said they expect it will take about six weeks to receive our pre-approval. I'm praying we'll have good news by Christmas. That would be a wonderful present.

Yesterday we had a nice surprise. I emailed the agency to ask about St. Lucy's schedule in providing updates on the kids. Our coordinator said she would email and request an update with photos! We only have one photo of Jenny and would love to see more. She sent over all of the updates she's received since the agency started advocating for Jenny. There was one update in the batch that we hadn't seen before. It was old, from November 2013, but it still had a few tidbits of information we hadn't seen before. That was a really nice surprise. Then we found out this morning that the coordinator in Taiwan had already requested the update before our agency had sent the request! It's already in the works!

I'm slowly getting more excited about this adoption process as we make forward progress. I'm still guarding my emotions as we are not guaranteed to receive pre-approval. I expect we will since we have received pre-approval before to be matched with a child. But it's not guaranteed. I don't want to start getting attached to the idea of adopting Jenny before we're officially matched. Once we're matched, I'll throw my heart into the adoption and prepare for the Skype call and our first care package.

6 comments:

Julie Fukuda said...

A lot there to celebrate!
I hope it is a sign of things to come.

barbara woods said...

praying every thing goes great

Jason and Michelle said...

I'm glad that there is some progress that is being made. I will continue to keep you, your husband and Jenny in our prayers.

Michelle said...

Sounds exciting!

Continuing to pray!

It's a blessing to watch this journey.

Anonymous said...

I completely understand the anticipation and joy that the FedEx guy (or an e-mail from the agency) can bring at a time like this. When we were in the process, my wife and I would pore over every document we got, trying to mine any bit of information about our girl.

I'm so glad that progress is being made and I keep you in my prayers.

Cassandra said...

Jim - yes! We pore over every single piece of paperwork and every photo multiple times just trying to get a tiny bit more of an idea of what she's like. I realized yesterday that the old photo and one of the new ones were taken in the same office. They've definitely rearranged the furniture but I recognized the bookshelf. I wonder if it's the children's home. I would assume so, since she switched schools this fall. See? Looking for every clue! :D