Court Process 101

To put the miraculous nature of our fast final decree into context, please see the post below about what happens exactly during the mystical court process. Credit for this information is due to Ahma Penny, the fabulous adoptive grandmother of two beautiful children from Taiwan and the smartest woman I know when it comes to adoptions from Taiwan.

1. District Court Process-a. The family court office reviews the case/petition and a Judge is assigned to the case. b. Judge reviews and considers the case and schedules a "hearing". Hearings are handled differently depending on the birth family's situation, the judge's schedule, persons representing the birth family and those representing the adoptive family. The time involved in getting a hearing scheduled depends on the judge's calendar/schedule and that of everyone else required to attend. Hearings can result in--The immediate decision to finalize the adoption (though this is rarely the case) or - Result in the judge's request for more information (in one case we saw the judge request additional counseling for the birthmother and he scheduled a follow-up hearing. A(gain, this is rare).

Most often, the hearing just provides a judge with more information about the case and allows him/her to rule on the adoption with confidence. Most often, the judge's decision (final ruling) happens weeks or even as long as months after the hearing. The responsibility of the District Court is to make sure that every issue related to the best interest of the child has been considered. Though lengthy and frustrating at times, the District Court process protects the child, the birth parent, the organization caring for the child, AND in the end protects us as adoptive parents. When the District Court decisions have been made, adoptive families can be confident that the process was handled with consideration and in the best interest ofthe child. 2-4 MONTHS

2. Part I of Final Decree(first decree). Once the District Court hearing has been completed and the judge has had time to make a decision to finalize the adoption, he/she issues the first part of the Final Decree. This is a short statement signed by the judge that is forwarded to the parties involved (social services organization on behalf of the adoptive family and the birth family) notifying everyone of his/her decision to finalize the adoption. This first part of the Final Decree must go to each party and there is a waiting period of 10 days before any more can happen to ensure that everyone has been notified of the judge's decision. 2-4 WEEKS.

3. Part II of Final Decree. Once the 10 day waiting period is up (and the court staff finds time!), the second part of the Final Decree is forwarded to all parties. When the second part of the decree is received by your child's social service organization, the court process is DONE!

4. Household registration change and immigration requirements. Before adoptive family travels, a lot must be accomplished by the child's social service organization. All court documents and background info on the child must be officially translated to English and submitted with certain paperwork to AIT. Also, the child must have his/her Visa medical exam which is forwarded directly (unopened) to AIT's immigrant visa office. At some point the child's guardian must file for a household registration change. The household registration is a file located at local government offices in Taiwan that contains certificates and information about each person in Taiwan. Your child's household registration is attached to his/her guardian's file until the adoption has been finalized by the Taiwan courts. Once the child has been legally adopted in Taiwan, the guardian files with the government office to remove the file from theirs and create a new file showing that the adoptive parent(s) are the new legal guardians'.The household registration change takes a day or two or a week depending on the placing organization and the local government office. 2-4 WEEKS.

5. New family receives a travel date. Each organization in Taiwan is different in when and how they schedule a travel date. Some wait until all of the above paperwork is filed and then give the family notice to travel quickly. Some schedule the travel in advance, while they work at preparing the above documents, giving a couple of weeks notice before travel.

A Request

"Earth has no sorrows that heaven can't heal."

I don't know who originally spoke those words, but I'd like to offer their sentiment to a great family I met online. They were in the midst of completing the adoption of their child when they received word that the child had passed away suddenly.

I can't imagine what they must be going through right now. It has no doubt been an emotional roller coaster ride for them. To have waited so long to be matched, to have grown attached and accepted the child into their family, and then to have met with such an outcome is devastating. My heart grieves with them for the loss of their child.

If you wouldn't mind, please take a moment to lift them up in prayer right now.

Half Birthday

Today, Andrew turned 4 1/2 years old. We celebrated as we have for the past three years by plunking down at Dunkin' Donuts and going on a family sugar high. It was an indulgent way to celebrate the 1,642 days we have now shared with our not-so-little-anymore Monkey.

Driving home, I got a bit melancholy. Szu-Chuan is exactly 4 years and 10 days younger than Andrew. Translated, that means mass birthday party chaos every July for the next 10 years of our boys' lives. Sadly enough, it also means we are not going to get to celebrate his half birthday with him when it happens 10 days from now. For some reason, that thought really gripped me. As milestones go, it's not that significant; it's probable that we'll have him home in time to witness his first steps, to hear his first words, to rejoice together on his first birthday, the real biggie.

Nonetheless, it's disappointing to think he'll miss out on this one particular, peculiar family ritual. I know he's too young for donuts and may not even have started on solid food yet. Still, with each day, the anticipation builds to have our baby join our family, to enfold him in our daily paces, to observe him experiencing the ordinary and the extraordinary events of our shared lives, and together, to settle into a "new normal."

Come on, fast judge!

Let the Demolition Begin

I'm sure it's no secret to those who have been reading our blog that the writer of all of our posts so far has been Judy. While there have been a few occasions on which I was simply beaten to the punch by Judy in her excitement to post on the most recent happenings with our adoption, I have to admit that most of the time, I have been content to let her take the lead with our posts. She is, after all, a very natural and creative writer and also seems to find a great deal of satisfaction in sharing our joys and struggles through this mode. Today, though, will hopefully be a milestone in our process as I post for the first time (please go easy on me!). I want to share some of my experience on New Year's Day working with Andrew to prepare for Szu-Chuan's arrival.

One of the major themes in our household lately has been planning for the impact of the adoption on Andrew. We anticipate the jealousy that will likely appear and the challenges he may have adjusting to having a brother sharing our time and energy. Of course, this is something that every family considers as it grows. We know that God is in control of our children's lives and will use them both to build character in each other, but we want to make sure we do our best to encourage them toward right choices and attitudes.

Practically, we have been trying to encourage Andrew to be excited about having a sibling by telling him what a great big brother he will be, how he will be able to teach his Didi all about how to play with trucks properly, and how he might educate his little brother on which vegetables to eat in order to get the biggest muscles. We even taped a picture of Szu-Chuan on the door of the bedroom next to his - soon to become the nursery - so that he could start getting used to the idea of having a neighbor.

Recently, I continued on this theme by asking big brother Andrew to help out in preparing for his Didi's arrival by assisting me with the simple renovations that I have to complete before we have to travel. Our thought is that we will not have much time or energy to be working on renovations once Szu-Chuan comes home and we also don't really want to be doing work in the bedrooms while the two children are around anyway. We can juggle Andrew's sleeping situation easily enough now as we work on his bedroom, Szu-Chuan's bedroom, and the guest bedroom by painting and doing other necessary work.

I was absolutely amazed when Andrew told me how excited he was about our work project. He then spent over an hour stripping off an old airplane-themed wallpaper border in our guest bedroom with me. He took hold of a metal scraper and gently worked at pulling the wallpaper off of the wall and dropping the scraps into a plastic garbage bag. He told me several times how much he liked helping and that if anyone needed help, he could help them.

Of course, by the end he became bored and declared that he absolutely had to take a break by sitting on a chair in the room for 5 minutes. It was truly exciting to see our little boy taking huge steps toward big-brotherhood. I can't want to see all the great things that these two little boys will inspire in each other as they grow up together in our home!

Coincidence or Divine Que Sera Sera?

Last year for Christmas, my sister, Sherry, gave us a 365 Scripture Verses a Year calendar. Time and time again, I've been amazed at how relevant the passages are to what I have been facing on a given day. Some people would say it's merely coincidence or that I'm just interpreting the passage according to what I want to hear - a very dangerous possibility for anyone.

But check this out: the page below is from November 26, 2007.


November 26th, 2007, by the way, is the day when we received our referral call.

Move over, Elvis

Here's something that indicates that I've just got a wee bit too much time on my hands. Below is a picture of a a Triscuit that I pulled out of the box earlier today. It's a 1/4 larger than the typical Triscuit and perfectly fused together. Sadly, it's not in the shape of Elvis so I can't sell it on eBay for gobs of money.

New Year, New Look

Notice something different? No, it's not the hair and no, we haven't lost any weight.

We've been BLOGOVERED!!!

Rebecca, a fellow adoptive mom-to-be and computer design whiz, has worked tirelessly on revamping our blah blog, turning it into something spectacular. She patiently endured my persnicketiness through more revisions than I can count and turned out a gorgeous final product. It's simple, stylish, and easy on the eye. You can check out samples of her other makeovers by clicking on the link in the sidebar to your left.

Thanks, Rebecca! What a beautiful way to begin the new year.