Court Hearing

I mentioned earlier that March 29th is our court hearing date. Depending on how you look at it (with the date line), that is either today or tomorrow. This initial hearing takes place in a Taiwan District Court; the judge on our case will review our homestudy as well as information regarding the birth family. A representative from the Taiwanese agency that our US adoption agency is working with will be at court to represent us. We may not hear anything, unless a problem turns up. Hopefully not! The usual progression after a first hearing is for the judge to make an initial ruling on the case within 2-6 weeks. The final ruling follows no sooner than 10 days after the first ruling, giving members of the birth family an opportunity to change their minds. After the final ruling, the Taiwanese agency will make an appointment for us at the AIT (American Institute in Taiwan, the defacto embassy) and let us know when we can come pick up our daughter.

Who by then will be our daughter, as she isn't yet. One of the things we liked about the Taiwan adoption program is that there will likely be some opportunity to meet the birth mother. And as mentioned above, she can still change her mind. That happened earlier this week to a family who recieved their referral in January. First they were told there would be a hearing at the end of April, and less than a week afterwards that when informed of the hearing date, the birth mother decided she wanted to mother this child after all. I'm glad that option exists, since I would be very sad to find out years later that our daughter's birth mother had quickly regretted her initial decision to relinquish, but was unable to reclaim her child. But it does leave a small degree of uncertainty in the process, and makes these court milestones more than symbolic.

One of the great things about adopting in the Internet Age is the wealth of information available from other adoptive parents. Many other PAPs (Prospective Adoptive Parents) have blogs, and there are multiple online groups where people share news and information. Incredibly valuable are the timelines that people post, giving some indication on how long the different stages of the adoption can last. Going through the last two years of information, it looks like there is a 50% chance we could have our AIT appointment by June 5th, an 80% chance we will have her home by the end of June. Of course that leaves the 20% chance that we're waiting impatiently into July. So it is all moving along, and we're looking forward to Hsiu-Wen coming home.

Planning for Taiwan

As I mentioned earlier, C's will be in Taiwan next month. This won't be his first visit - he was there for work last November. He was very impressed by the friendliness of the people he is working with there. And appreciative of the rich culture. This photo is of a temple dog, outside a temple in Kaohsiung.

We're slowly putting together the pieces we need in place to bring our daughter home. And thinking about all the fun things we hope to do with her! After talking to several friends with small children who are active in the outdoors, we made our first major kid purchase - a bike trailer that can also be used as a stroller and ski pulk (a Chariot). We'll be using it as a stroller to begin with, since she'll be too young to wear a bike helmet, but hopefully she'll learn to enjoy being in the Chariot and propelled by us in any number of ways. And we'll gain a new appreciation for the hills around here!

March Update

Welcome to the ongoing story of Hsiu-Wen joining our family. She was born in Taipei on November 25, 2006. We recieved a referral for this darling girl at the end of December and are now waiting for her file to go through the Taiwanese court system so we can bring her home. Meanwhile we get occasional updates of photos, a video and health information.

After not having gotten any updates for over two months, the expected update emails arrived today! And isn't she a cutie. Look at that hair!

Hsiu-Wen is now 3 months old, a lanky 62 cm weighing in at 5.6 kg. She'll definitely be an armful when we bring her home this summer. She's in foster care now, hopefully getting lots of love and cuddles. We know the care package we sent last month arrived safely, since it is the cream fuzzy blanket in the photo. We have a photo album to send her, but might wait for C to bring it with him when he visits her next month.

If you are wondering how to pronounce Hsiu-Wen, the approximation I get from the videos is "shao-0ne" with the emphasis on the second syllable. We're going to keep Hsiu-Wen as her middle name, but still haven't decided on a first name. Hopefully we'll have something before we fly to Taiwan to pick her up!

As for when she'll come home, we are at the mercy of the Taiwanese courts. Our paperwork went into the courts at the end of January and we will have the first hearing on March 29th. Looking at other people's timelines for adopting from Taiwan, most travel 2-4 months after their first hearing. It could be as quick as 6 weeks. We're currently figuring we'll be in Taiwan sometime in June or July, when the weather is maximally hot and humid.

And C gets to meet our sweetie! He is travelling to Taiwan for work at the beginning of April and will have time to spend a day with her. He's both excited and apprehensive. This might be his first opportunity to change a diaper. He'll have a camera with him, so by this time next month we'll have lots more photos.