AIT Appointment!!

So we just got an email yesterday saying that the American Institute in Taiwan has given us an appointment for picking up Abby's visa. This means we have our travel dates!! We fly out on the 4th but fon't arrive till the 5th. We will have the 6th to organize and rest and then we pick up Abby on the 7th! We have our appointment on the 8th and then we could leave but we think we will stay till the 13th to get some sightseeing in. Who knows when we will be able to come back to Taiwan?
More details and pics of our packing to come!

Final Ruling!!!! and more waiting.....

We recieved our final ruling yesterday!! Very exciting news that means that we are officially Abigail Heng-Chen's parents.
We are going to have to hustle to be ready to travel. We still have quite a to-do list. We still have to wait for an AIT (American Institute of Taiwan) appointment, but once we have that we will fly out. The appointments are usually made in 2 weeks. My last day at school will be Friday April 3 and we will travel right after that, hopefully!
The end is definately in sight. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for our adoption journey and keep on praying!

Surprise March Update!

We were excited and surprised to see a new update in our mailbox yesterday. Usually the updates come near the very end of the month so this was a fun surprise. We had to wait until 9pm to open it because we wanted to be together. Mondays are busy because of Sara's tutoring and Jon's fencing ministry at the church. Anyway-here is our angel!! She now weighs 11.7 pounds and is 23.1 inches tall. She is about 4 and a half months in the pics.

This may be our last update if we travel early in April. We are praying for a fast final ruling.

Here is a link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTv4TmxuFX0

February Update

Here is our baby girl's update for February. She is about 3 and a half months in the pics and video. She is 22.4 inches and 10.3 pounds so she is growing but still tiny!

We did not send the bright yellow outfit but we think Abby is "workin it"!

Here is the link to Abby's video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH55MFPNCTQ

First Ruling

Abigail Heng-Chen celebrated her four month birthday on the 24th with her foster family and the very next day we recieved our First Ruling!

This is an important step in the Taiwan court process. This basically says that the judge is going to rule in favor of our adopting Abby. The birth family has 10 days from the time of the first ruling to contest (this is very rare). The time between the First Ruling and Final Ruling is about 4-6 weeks and then Abby will legally be our daughter and we will travel to pick her up.

We are so excited to have the end in sight!

Abigail Heng-Chen's Nursery

We have finally finished remodeling the nursey. This room was a catch all for odds and ends and old furniture at first but we are really happy with the way it turned out.

We haven't had a baby shower yet so we are not totally finished but we have been scouting out Craigslist for the last few months and got great deals on all the furniture. The kitchen set is a gift from another family who just brought their little girl home from Taiwan this year. We can't wait to have play dates with them!

I know we still have a few decortating things to finsh up but here are before and after pics of the nursery. We did all the work ourselves except the shutters-which you will recognize as the same company as the guest room!

BeforeAfter

Guest Room Remodel

So we have been busy getting things checked off of our "To-Do-Before-We-Pick-Up-Abigail-And-Our-Lives-Change-So-Much-That-Nothing-We-Planned-To-Get-Done-Will-Get-Done" list. (Jon thinks the title of the list needs work!)

One thing we needed to do was remodel the guest room so people will want to come and help with the new baby! Although, if you've seen her pics you know we don't need any more reasons-she's sooooo cute.

We are posting before and after pics. The room used to have wall to wall painted wood paneling which we ripped off. It also had this hideous wall paper map poster that we stripped off. Also hideous green carpeting. We did all the work ourselves except for the installation of the new shutters. (There are things on the bed and dresser that were left for Rachel's fiance, Jonah. He was our first guest in the new room)

Also, that is our cat, Zorro in the last shot. We shave him that way and it is okay to laugh!

Before

After