An Adoption Miracle

Through this journey of adoption, I had so many miracles in order for everything to work out perfectly. It has been a journey of faith and of God's will being brought to pass.
Today I'd like to share someone else's journey. Along the way I met Tami. She's an incredible woman of faith. They adopted Noah from Taiwan and then decided Jeremiah needed a home too. Jeremiah is a special needs child with cerebral palsy. I saw Jeremiah in his crib when we were in Taiwan and I've been praying that they can get the money they need to adopt him.
Tami and her family have literally raised the money to adopt him $1 at a time. They have held bake sales, plate dinners, car washes, auctions, yard sales and every kind of fundraising event you can imagine. I've been amazed at their determination.
They leave for Taiwan soon - I think next week and after all that they have done, they needed a bit more money. Today they received an anyonomous donation via PayPal for $2000. They finally have the last bit of money needed to adopt Jeremiah! Praise God! You can view the video here.

One Month Home

We picked up Lacey just over a month ago. My how time has flown by. Lacey has really blossomed since we got her. She just turned 10 months old and we are helping her catch up developmentally. Here are some accomplishments:

• She can now sit up for small periods of time before tipping over. She couldn't sit up at all when we got her.
• She rolls around the room and has started doing the army crawl.
• When we got her she couldn't eat from a spoon and now she eats all the baby foods like a trooper.
• 2 teeth have broken through the bottom gums.
• Her left hand was always clutched closed. We work her out daily and really concentrate on trying to get her more interactive with her hands. Now the majority of the time her hand stays open. We are working on getting her to hold her bottle and try to pick up small objects with a thumb and finger.
• She sleeps through the night! Hooray!
• Her words are hi, dada, and baba, (interesting that baba in chinese means daddy, so no luck for me). Plus lots of other jibberish words like en - for needing food.
• She's tiny - around 16 pounds in the 5% for weight and 50% for height.

Overall, she has such an easy going, sweet personality. We love her to death. Her 4 brothers (a.k.a. the court jesters) keep "The Princess" entertained at all times and they adore her. We are all in love with Lacey and the long wait (3 years) was completely worth it.

We left for Taiwan 2 days after Gerry's work was scheduled to to have a 5 week seasonal break. It was perfect timing. He's been home this entire time - feels like a maternity leave - and it's been nice to have the extra hands while we are adjusting. He starts back to work in a few days. We will miss having him around all of the time.

Grandma M. made this adorable blanket. Lacey with cousin Cayden. He's 2 weeks older.

We went to visit Grandma Luci. She is so happy to finally have a granddaughter after 10 grandsons. I have a feeling she is going to spoil her rotten.

One more picture, just because she's so darn cute!

Beautiful Video - My New Life

This video is beautiful, but grab a kleenex before watching!

You can visit Stephanie Nielson's blog here. She is an amazing blogger, woman, Mother and inspiration.

Why We Love Skype

Skype was an incredible tool for us when we were in Taiwan. For those of you not understanding what it is, I'll try and explain. Skype is a free program that you download on your computer. You choose a user name. Then your friend or family member also downloads it to their computer and chooses a user name. Make sure you exchange user names with each other. If you have a web cam on your computer you can video talk to each other for free. We used it daily while in Taiwan to communicate with the boys. They really enjoyed being able to talk with us face to face and it was especially fun once we got the baby for the boys to see her.

Another very valuable tool through Skype is Skype phone calling. Before we left for Taiwan they offered a special rate of $2.95 per month. We could call any U.S. number through our computer (not video calling, but voice calling) for just the $2.95 a month fee. I can't tell you how valuable this was to be able to call some family members that don't have access to Skype videos. Also, in Taiwan we decided to change our flights and were able to call the airlines through the computer, thus saving lots of time and money on phone calls. Now that we are home, we have cancelled the monthly charge as we don't need it any longer.

Before I went to Taiwan, I called my cell phone service - Verizon to see what it would cost to make phone calls in Taiwan. They don't have any International plans for Taiwan so the price is $2 per minute whether you call or someone calls you. At that rate, I decided to forgo the cell phone and just use the Skype calling.

Got Milk?

This outfit is pretty special to us as it was given to us in Taiwan. We think Lacey looks adorable in it and had to share!

Overall we are adjusting wonderfully, other than a bit sleep deprived. The boys adore Lacey and we've had to put them on a rotating basis of who is next to hold her. She loves them! Today we even journeyed out to Target and must say that she is more even tempered than any of our kids. She didn't fuss at all. We are so incredibly happy and in love!

Our Trip Home

Lacey is on Taiwan time, which means she slept most of the flight home from Taiwan to LAX. We really enjoyed our flights in EVA airways. The service was excellent. We upgraded to Elite class, so we could have more leg room and were also able to get a bulkhead seat for the way home. In front of the seat, a bassinet was able to attach to the wall so that Lacey could sleep in it the majority of the flight.
Once to LAX, we had to process her through Immigration. We were given a mysterious set of papers that we had to give Immigration. These papers were sealed in an envelope and we were commanded to not open them at all. Once we gave them the papers, we were told to wait in the waiting area with around 50 other people from countries all around the world.
Judging from how slowly things were moving, I estimated it was going to be around a 3 hour wait for our turn. After 15 minutes, we were called forward. I think maybe they process adoptions first, but am not sure. They told me how to apply for a social security card and that some items (I think a green card) will be mailed to me. Honestly, I'm not sure exactly what they said, it's all a blur, so if anyone knows the next steps I need to take to get her name changed etc., please fill me in. Then they handed me her Taiwanese passport and congratulated us on having the newest American immigrant.
We walked through customs without any problems and up to the area where people were waiting for the arriving Immigrants. Several people had American flags and it really hit me that Lacey's life has just changed in a big way. I got a bit teary eyed to think she is the newest American. Several workers at the airport told us "she is one lucky girl." We feel that way, but also feel that we are the lucky ones.
We are overnighting in LA, as there were not any later connecting flights. We have the first flight home this morning. Lacey has been up since 2 am, and I've given up on getting her back to sleep. It could be tricky to get her days and nights switched around. Plus, she's a little social bug and is afraid she will miss something. The orphanage workers told us that she catnaps at night and likes to play during the night and sleep during the day.
The boys are so excited to see their sister. We have been using Skype the entire time while in Taiwan and it has helped them to feel connected. They will be getting out of school early today to meet us!
My plan is to updated a little more about the trip and some tips for other adoptive parents in a few days as time allows.

On Our Way Home

We had our appointment this morning with AIT (American Institute in Taiwan). This is where all adoption papers are checked and processed so we can get Miss Lacey's visa and passport. Everything went very smoothly. They are able to get it done today, so we have changed our flights and are coming home 2 days early.
We loved our time here in Taiwan, but are ready to head home to our boys. So we've been doing the whirlwind packing job and are heading out in less than an hour. All flights are changed and we're ready to go home.