Happy 13th birthday!

Happy 13th birthday, Cin-Ru!! I hope she had a wonderful birthday today with her friends. 13 years old. Wow! I can't believe she's officially a teenager.

The above photo is when Cin-Ru modeled her new shirt. This was part of her birthday care package and I believe it was a hit.

I'm so glad that we were able to celebrate early with Cin-Ru, even though we couldn't be there in person. Next year we'll celebrate as a family. I can't wait!

Last week

Last week was a crazy week with some highs and some lows. I am holding out hope that this upcoming week will be much better!

Bye bye, beautiful one...

We had to say goodbye to our beautiful kitty today. She was 15 years old and we've been her minions for the past seven years.

I'll mostly miss her night time cuddles. She loved bedtime, immediately demanding cuddles after I crawled into bed.

Bye bye, my beautiful Fiona. Thanks for gracing our lives these past seven years. I'm glad you're finally at peace.

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins - Vegan and delicious!

Today I made Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins. They were so good that I had to take an additional walk this evening so that I could eat another. Definitely a keeper!

Court!!!!

I am so excited!!! We received news this morning that our paperwork has officially been submitted to court in Taiwan!!!! There are still a few small steps along the way, but this is the last major one before travel. I hope the judge has mercy and pushes us through quickly!! And if not, I hope God helps me develop even more patience. We're in COURT!!!!!!!!!!!

Skype call #5

I can't believe we've already had five Skype calls. I treasure each and every one of them, though some have gone better than others. Friday night's call was the best one yet!

We had technical difficulties on Taiwan's side; the audio wasn't working so they couldn't hear us and we couldn't hear them. This actually worked out in our favor, as our girl was SO much more relaxed without the pressure of having to listen to a bunch of English and try to understand what is going on. Instead, we chatted with the translator in the chat window and tried to entertain our girl with facial expressions and miming and showing off various things we've prepared for her. Surprisingly, it went really well.

Friday afternoon, I baked up a batch of sugar cookies. During the call, Jeff and I made a big deal of spreading frosting on each cookie and then decorating the cookies with icing.

Note - Don't buy this icing. It was too watery and ran down the cookies when we tried to show her. Even when we let them sit a few minutes before picking them up, it did the same thing.

She seemed to get a kick out of this so we told her that we can decorate cookies once we come home from Taiwan.

Our girly-girl found Skype's chat window emoticons about half way through the call so the translator let her pick the emoticons to send. She loved doing this, sending us "stickers" as they called them and seeing which ones we sent back. This conversation took place toward the end of the call:

I about died laughing. We'll see if the audio works on the next call! Personally, seeing how relaxed Cin-Ru was without the audio, I'd rather it doesn't work. We have one more Skype call scheduled this upcoming Friday, right before her birthday. Her birthday package will definitely be in Taiwan in time for the call and we'll bake her a cake and sing happy birthday. I can't wait!

Three more months

Yesterday we found out that our paperwork should be submitted to the court system by the end of next week. We also found out that our care package has already been shipped to Taiwan. We are asking that the Taiwan agency hold the care package until our Skype call on the 24th because that is the closest Skype date to our girl's birthday.

It finally hit me that is really happening. So much of the adoption process is a matter of paperwork. You know that there is a flesh and blood child on the other side of the world but all you deal with is paperwork and appointments and writing checks. But all of a sudden I had a realization that we are about to step into the unknown. I have been guarding my heart, afraid that this adoption will fall through like the last adoption attempt. Once our paperwork is submitted to court, we'll be further along in the process than we've ever been. Yes, the judge can still say no but that is highly unlikely.

Our agency told us yesterday that we will probably travel in late July or early August. Cue panic. Only three more months of us being a couple with no children. We've been married for 9.5 years and are very set in our ways. Only three more months and we will be responsible for another human being. But only three more months and we will be able to meet Cin-Ru in person and start loving her. Only three more months until we will have a daughter and our girl will have a mother and father. Panic mingles with joy. Only three more months.