His original referral pic from last October:
At 8:30 P.M. on Sunday, we got the call from our agency. I almost didn't answer the phone as I was worn out from all the yard work and didn't feel chatty. The news gave me a lot more energy!
It had been 298 days from our first phone call and email with a possible referral to this phone call. We knew that there would be a wait, but as it passed six months, the usual far end of the waiting period, it became harder and harder to be patient. J's adoption was five and a half months from referral to meeting. Our wait for D's adoption will have been more than ten months. We watched a lot of families with far later referrals travel and got quite discouraged. Intellectually we knew he was coming, but emotionally we grew a little doubtful. I haven't written about D's adoption before this, because of privacy issues and also because it stretched on so long that we were feeling rather as if it would never happen. But now it is really almost here!
D is two and a half now, and hs been in foster care for eleven months. We've sent pictures of our family and home to him, but this is going to be a big adjustment for such a little guy.
J is beside himself at the news. He was ready to get in the car and head to the airport when we told him the next morning. He has been asking for months, "Why we no go get my D?" He has also made a long mental lists of things that he will teach D when he arrives. Topping the list are "not to drink poison" and "to not holler down the stairs at bedtime." He's also been practicing his seat belt directions so D won't "fall out of the car and be smashed." (J has a very vivid imagination and it tends towards the gruesome. His idea of joy would be to ride in an ambulance after being saved from a "mergency" by a fire truck/police car combo.)
Tien, our agency rep, asked if we could be in Taiwan by Wednesday (which means leaving Tuesday due to the International Date Line) but even with our eagerness, that was a little overwhelming (Roni was aghast at the idea of wrapping up his only-six-week-old job in one day)so we're shooting for this coming Saturday. The combination of finding flights that work and getting an AIT appointment have made things a bit complicated, plus the agency recommended travel agent is in Taiwan on vacation, 15 time zones away, so our actual departure/return dates dart around the calendar and there has been a whirl of phone calls, emails, and web site searches. At the moment, we're traveling either Saturday, August 22 or Wednesday, September 2.
Our timeline so far:
10/22/08 - first call about tentative referral
11/20/08 - dossier sent to TWCA in Taiwan
02/27/09 - court hearing
07/06/09 - first ruling call
08/16/09 - final ruling call
D's update picture from June - he's really starting to leave his toddler stage behind:
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