There is so much to say about our adoption process...so much that I can barely wrap my head around everything! I decided it would be best to simply update our status and get to the rest another time. On the American side, we are waiting for the I600A to come back. This is the preliminary application for the visa. As part of this application, we must be fingerprinted again and all of our documentation up to now will be reviewed. I'm not so sure how long this takes, but we have friends who are about a week ahead of us in this process so we watch them closely to know what's coming next. On the Taiwan side, we just received a court date. It isn't until December 2nd, which is later than we hoped. Apparently a home study must be done on our son and his birth mother, which takes 45 days. Our attorney is working to get this portion of the process hurried, but we don't know know if this will happen. If the court date is December 2nd, we can loosely plan to bring home our son in early January, a month sooner than we had been told at the beginning of the process.
As much as we would like to have our son home for Christmas, January is good too. Our calendar is packed through 2011 and there would be some serious logistical issues if we go to Taiwan before January (though we would joyfully make it work). January will be a calmer time when we can devote more attention to a new family member and help him to adjust to our way of life. From what I am told by several people (including my husband and daughter), our son is shy and slow to warm to new things. Christmas in our home would quite possibly overwhelm him, though we have already made plans for a simpler celebration this year. Chinese New Year is in January and that would be fun for all of us to celebrate together every year as a remembrance of our new son coming to our home. As with the rest of the process, it will all happen in God's perfect timing. Until then, we will be preparing our home for the arrival of a little boy.
