And They're Off!

After three late nights in a row, I am delighted to report that we have officially completed the last of the very bizarre U.S. government forms necessary for the adoption. See exhibit A below.

Tomorrow morning, we'll mail the forms to the AIT office in Taipei so they can pave the way to bring our sweet William home. It's hard to believe, but in 31 days, the wild and crazy journey that we officially began 15 months ago will suddenly come to a beautiful end when our baby comes is brought through the doors and placed into our arms.

The Mystery of Snow

Now that I've cracked the mystery on where to find Baby Yum Yums locally, my next case to solve was what kind of formula to purchase for William.

At St. Lucy's, I'm told the babies are fed a brand called "Snow," which is manufactured in Australia and reportedly rather difficult to find in Taiwan. (Incidentally, a quick Google search indicates that the makers of Snow have come under fire for some questionable marketing practices, but that's another story.)

I put the formula question forth to Dr. Farber, our adoption pediatrican at CHOP. For those of you whose ability to sleep at night hinges upon the answer, here's what she had to say:

"Snow brand infant formula is a milk-based formula but doesn't have DHA added. It's called Beanstalk formula in Japan and is very expensive and does have DHA... just buy enough Snow to transition your baby over a week or so to a U.S. made formula... He should be on a formula with iron, and it [should have] vitamins. If you do not make the formula with water that has flouride, then your pediatrician should give you [an] Rx for that."

Of course, if William is the typical baby, we may have to do some experimenting with different formula brands to find out which one he prefers. Nah. I'll just have to remember to ask the St. Lucy's caretakers for the manual that came with him when he was born. Perhaps it will tell me which brand to use. After all, doesn't every baby come with a set of directions?

Serendipity

I found them! I found the Baby Mum Mums!

Some of you have no idea what I'm talking about and may think I've gone off my rocker. Those of you who are adopting may recognize Mum Mums as the famous "Surfboard Crackers" that the babies at St. Lucy's and elsewhere are sometimes given to teethe on.

Rumor has it that they're sold at WalMart. I checked our local store and nada. This afternoon, I was delighted to stumble upon them at Whole Foods while investigating rice cereal and oatmeal options for William.

If you look carefully at the upper left hand corner, you'll note that they're manufactured by a company called "Hot Kid." Eh??? I have half a mind to send in the picture to engrish.com, a website that takes a light-hearted poke at signs and products from Asia that are, well, well-intentioned. Here are a few examples from their website that had me chuckling:

If I think this is funny, I can't help but wonder what verbal faux-pas I'm bound to commit when using my Chinese-school-dropout Mandarin at St. Lucy's. If I see the staff tearing up and doubling over, I can guarantee you it won't be because I forgot to zip my pants.

Well, knowing myself, it might be.

Information Received

Today, we received answers to the 9 questions regarding William's birthmother that we sent to St. Lucy's several weeks ago. Apparently, the birthmother and her family stopped by St. Lucy's last week and supplied the responses in person.

We had no expectation of getting any answers, so quite understandably, we were overjoyed. To read what she said, to hear the care for her child coming through so clearly in her responses, to now possess definitive evidence to prove to William one day that yes, he was and is so loved by his birthmother... well, words fail me. I feel like I have just been hit by a ton of soft bricks, to phrase it awkwardly. My gratitude and awe for this young woman who has made such a tremendous sacrifice overflows.

Hello, My Name Is...

After many months of head scratching, strong voter turnout at the name polls, and some inter-continental consulation, we are pleased to announce that our baby finally has an English name.

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you... Methusaleh Roy K.

Ha. Er, no.

We present to you... William ( ) K.

There are parentheses where his middle name should be because quite frankly, we still haven't figured it out the best way to spell it. Yes, we know we are pathetic. Yes, we know we are unworthy of such a beautiful baby.

Hairshirts and cat 'o nine tails aside, here's a long-winded glimpse into our thought process:

1) It just feels right. When we look at the photos of our baby, he looks like a William. Perhaps it has something to do with the letters in the name. With the exception of the "a," all the letters have a tall-ish, upwards orientation and in an odd sort of way befit a baby with a longer face. I think this same, subtle reasoning also factored into naming William's big brother, Andrew. His roundish face matches the predominantly shorter letters in his name.

2) It's easy to pronounce. While Collier was a close contender and the runaway winner of the name poll, Collier Szu-Chuan K. (insert common Polish name with harsh syllables) is a mouthful to say. We would have sincerely loved to honor Grandpa by naming our child after him, but it just wasn't meant to be.

In addition, considering many of William's new adoptive relatives are not native English speakers, we also had to be sure to give him a name that was easy on the tongue. My two older sisters and I are named Even, Sherry, and Judith. However, if you ask my parents who their three older daughters are, they will tell you, "Eben, Shelly, and Judas." Catch my drift?

Names with too many syllables got the axe. Names with "Th" or "V" or certain "R" sounds also went out the window since they aren't used in Chinese and Taiwanese and are hard for ESL speakers to pronounce. So, buh-bye, "Theophilus," "Gregorio," "Cuthbert," and "Voldemort."

(On a side note, if someone ever wanted to convert William into a Chinese name - I don't know why they'd want to since he already has one - the two syllables would render much better than a one syllable or 3+ syllable name. )

2 1/16) It jives with his Chinese name. My mother insists with an air of finality that William is the name for our boy because we can nickname him Bill (this nickname I adamantly refuse to use since Bill is the name of a 55 year-old man and is thus unsuitable for a little boy). Since his Chinese name bears the characters for gold, jade, and king, she claims that the name "Bill" - as in dollar bill - would dovetail quite nicely.

As for me, I'm thinking if the birthmother did give him his Chinese name, perhaps prosperity for her child is something that she wished upon him. I know, worldly wealth is not the be-all, end-all in life, but if that was her intent, it is certainly something special and worth honoring.

3) It welcomes him. William is Craig's middle name. Even if our son bears none of our genetic traits, sharing a common name with his adoptive father will hopefully help him feel like the equal and valued member of our family that he is.

So there you have it. The number of Williams worldwide has just increased by one, and the world is all the richer for this most precious of additions.

The Game Plan - for Now

It's all well and good to talk about going to Taiwan to pick up our baby, but it's all speculation unless we have plane tickets to get us there.

I'm delighted to report that as of today, we have officially booked our airfare and in so doing, have dropped a huge weight off our shoulders. Here's our schedule as it now stands:

Friday, February 29th - Catch a 7:40 a.m. plane from Philadelphia to Taipei via San Francisco

Saturday, March 1st - Arrive in Taipei at 10 p.m. and immediately board the southbound high-speed train to Tainan (approximately a 1 1/2 hr. trip). Check into a hotel.

Sunday, March 2nd - Drive down to Pingdong, one hour south of Tainan, to visit my 87 year-old maternal grandfather and other relatives. Drive back up to Tainan that same night

Monday, March 3rd - Load up the diaper bag and head to St. Lucy's to pick up our baby. Perform a happy dance and frighten our baby with our stuck-in-the-'80's dance moves. Hop back on the high-speed rail with baby and my parents in tow. Head back up to Taipei, where we will stay at a rental home some relatives have graciously offered to us.

Tuesday, March 4th - Go to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in Taipei to apply for the baby's Visa to enter the United States.

Wednesday, March 5th - Return to AIT to pick up the Visa. Squeeze in some shopping in Taipei depending on how well the baby is adjusting.

Thursday, March 6th - Deal with any possible lingering AIT issues (hopefully not). Head to the airport and board the outbound flight to Philadelphia via San Francisco at 11:30 p.m.

Friday, March 7th - Arrive in Philadelphia at 6:09 a.m. Who wants to come pick us up? We'll treat you to a cup of coffee from a concourse vendor on the way to baggage claim. (But wait - coffee shops may not be open at 6:09 a.m. - doh!) Head home to give Andrew countless hugs and kisses and to slowly recover from the whiplash effect of traveling halfway around the world and back in seven days.

Paper Chains and Coyotes

Yesterday, Andrew and I sat down to make a paper chain. I asked him to write the days of the week on each of the seven links. Each link signifies a day that Mommy and Daddy will be gone in Taiwan to pick up his baby brother. Starting today, we're going to tear off one link a day so that he can better understand what our absence will feel like. This is only a practice run; we'll make another chain shortly before we leave.

At 4 1/2 years old, Andrew's concept of time is still iffy, and I sense that after day 2 or 3 of our separation, he could really start wondering and worrying. After all, he's only been apart from us for one night at the most.

But for now, when I've talked to him about our trip, he has only expressed delight at the idea of being able to play endless games of Coyote with Pa, Craig's dad. (Coyote, by the way, is a game he invented in which one has to hide from an imaginary, hungry coyote in different spots around the house).

Please pray for Andrew and please pray just as hard for Pa - 7 days of Coyote could send anyone to the darkest depths of insanity.

The Last Package

Last month, we mailed off a care package to our baby with the hopes that it would be the last one we'd ever have to assemble. Though I was wrong, thankfully I wasn't too far off.

Crammed into the final Ziploc bag is a record number of assorted items. They include:

1) A pacifier clip with two pacifiers. These pacifiers were the closest equivalent I could find to what I've seen used at St. Lucy's.

2) Two board books, Jesus and the Children and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

3) One CD onto which we've recorded our voices reading the books, a one-way conversation with the baby in wobbly Chinese, and Andrew singing a couple of songs to his Didi. This month, we finally got our act together and triumphed over digital recording technology.

4) A laminated picture of our family. On the flip side is an enlarged picture of one of the cars featured on the crib bumper he'll use back at home. I'm hoping that the advance viewing of that image will help get him used to his new sleeping accommodations.

5) An infant finger toothbrush and toothpaste. Gotta keep those potential pearly whites pearly white.

6) One disposable camera and one disposable digital camera. I'm very excited to see the pictures the caretakers might have taken of our baby over the past few months. Please, please, please tell me they turned on the flash and will do so this time around, too.

7) A soft book with a mirror so he can interact with that mysterious, good-looking baby smiling back at him. On the other side of the mirror is a picture sleeve into which I've inserted yet another photo of our family.

8) A set of toy keys that have slots in which I've fitted- guess what? - yet more pictures of our family. If our baby can't identify us out of a lineup of a million people after seeing our faces so many times, I'd be astonished. The keys also have teething grooves and play annoying music - sorry, caretakers. While I hear it's the norm for St. Lucy's to keep toys that are sent over, I think this is one that the ladies will happily to return to us.

9) A set of directions in Chinese describing how to operate the cameras and turn on the flash and a letter to the the caretakers in Chinese expressing our gratitude to them, asking them to give our baby extra hugs and kisses on our behalves, and telling them what his English name is (apparently, the caretakers will begin calling the babies by their English names in order to help them transition to their new families).

Oops - did I just say we finally gave our baby an English name?

In Good Company

On Sunday night, we had the privilege of sharing dinner with Paul and Heather, a great couple who live a few towns over. We initially "met" them online through one of our Taiwanese adoption Yahoo groups. They're very close to getting on their agency's waiting list and are hoping to adopt a baby girl. We really enjoyed getting to know them and hearing about their adoption experience.

Paul and Heather also blessed us with Szu-Chuan's first baby gift. Check out the adorable outfit below. You can't help but smile when you see the ears on the hooded jacket. Thanks, guys!

Happy 6 Months' Old!

"Happy six months ooooo-ld, happy six months to you!"

Our precious baby turns six months old today. Sorry, sweetie, Mommy and Daddy wish we could be there to celebrate with you but even with a super-fast judge, we'll be about 7 weeks late.

Your big brother, Andrew, suggested we create a special half birthday ritual just for you. Instead of going out for donuts like we do on his half birthday, he said we should go out for ice cream when it's your turn.

Six months old. Maybe you'll start sitting up this month. Maybe you'll even start pushing up in a pre-crawl. Perhaps you have a tooth or two already. We can't wait to see you and learn all about you. You don't know it yet, but we're making all sorts of plans to bring you home. Hang on just a little longer, baby, and don't cry - Mommy and Daddy are coming to get you soon.

Numbers

This afternoon, I mailed off a bank check to our agency in the amount of $9,475.00. It included the second half of our agency fee, an in-country coordination fee, and a post-placement coordination fee. Adding today's payment to the total, we have now spent $21,241.49 on the adoption. Travel costs have not been added to that figure.

(The source of this post was unavailable for further comment at press time. She was too busy trying to extinguish the burning hole in her pocket.)

Let's Go to Taiwan!

I'll cut to the chase: WE RECEIVED OUR TRAVEL DATE!!!

We'll finally get to hold our little baby in our arms on Monday, March 3rd.

The good news came via email this evening from Mandi, the FFC coordinator who assists families waiting to travel. Two other families, Mel's and one other (if you're out there in cyberspace, please email me) will be picking up their children from St. Lucy's on the same day.

The dates work out well in that my parents will get to travel with us. My dad and mom will say goodbye to their medical practice of 35+ years on Friday, then hop on a plane to meet us in Taiwan the day after. How's that for dedication?

The timing is also great in that while Craig's parents will be in town to take care of Andrew, they'll be able to celebrate their other grandson, Isaac's, birthday in person. This is something they've never been able to do living 12 states away.

There's so much to do from here on. We've got a to-do list a mile long. Still, with our precious baby so close in sight now, we count it all joy.

Thank you so much, God.

Information Please?

Today we received a report from FFC containing some older details on Szu-Chuan's health. Unfortunately, the fields on the form where his December 2007 height/weight/head circumference statistics ought to be were blank (the last set we have is from November 30th, 2007). Those figures would be good to have in order to track his growth from a medical health standpoint. They'd also be very useful in helping us figure out practical details, such as what size diapers and clothes he might wear at homecoming time.

We are still awaiting the results of some standard medical medical tests our adoption pediatrician requested to be run on Szu-Chuan.

We've also been forewarned that we may not get the answers to the list of questions we sent to St. Lucy's about Szu-Chuan and his birthfamily. Apparently, St. Lucy's has many such questions to answer from other families and may not have an opportunity to address ours. I'm really hoping we can get even just a few answers since they may prove to be very important to our child at some point in his life.

Thankfully, the report did include one sentence that compensates for all the missing information: "[Szu-Chuan] loves to interact with others, loves to smile."

Amidst all the unknowns, those words shine like a star.

Carseat? Check.

As you can imagine, here in the K. household we are reeling with excitement and shock at yesterday's news of imminent travel - well, all of us except for Andrew. He doesn't quite comprehend the changes that are going to rock his world in the weeks to come.

Since receiving the good news, my mind has been adding things to my mental "to do" list at breakneck speed. The one thing I did accomplish last night was to go online and purchase a new carseat for Szu-Chuan's big brother. Szu-Chuan will be taking over Andrew's Britax Marathon. Meanwhile, Andrew will be graduating up to a Britax Regent. This behemoth of a carseat is one of the few toddler booster seats that uses a five-point harness, the key selling point for us.

We purchased it online from Albee's, a great baby gear store in New York City. They feature some pretty fabulous deals on quality baby products with free shipping on items over $100.00. We had originally picked up the carseat at the local Babies 'R Us but returned it when we saw it on the Albee's website for $60.00 less, tax-free.

Alas, poor baby, as child #2, your life of hand-me-downs has already begun.

Peel Me Off the Floor

Are you sitting down?

I hope so, because here's the email I opened up from Laura at FFC when I got home this afternoon:

"We were notified today by the St. Lucy Center that you have received a final decree on your adoption case. This means that you're almost done! St. Lucy's is checking their calendar and working with AIT on available appointment dates. We'll probably be shortly after Chinese New Year.

We'll be in touch with more travel instructions and information shortly!"

I had just emailed her a couple of days ago to find out if we had even gotten logged into the courts, but I hadn't yet heard back from her. To find out that we had already obtained a final decree was delightfully shocking to put it mildly. Keep in mind that the wait time for an approval from the Taiwanese courts is usually quoted to be 3-6 months. The courts in Tainan that handle the adoption cases from St. Lucy's are supposed to be the slowest of all. From the day that we sent in our contracts until today, one month and five days have elapsed. One month and five days.

I feel like we are in a game of Chutes and Ladders, having hit the jackpot and landed on the square with the ladder shooting all the way to the top of the board. I don't know exactly why we've been fast-tracked; I only know that somewhere behind the scenes, God is working out a very specific and wonderful plan for our family. I am equally thankful and mystified.

We obviously don't have a travel date yet, but if our case follows some of those I've recently read of online, we might get as little as 15 days' notice. Since Chinese New Year happens the week of February 7th, perhaps we could be flying out in mid- to late February, maybe early March. While we are hoping for travel as early as possible, a fly date in March would also work out well in that my parents could travel to Taiwan with us (my dad retires on February 29th). Craig's parents have graciously agreed to fly out to Pennsylvania to watch Andrew the week we're gone.

O.K. Stand back now while I scream.

"WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

Blog reader in New Zealand - did you hear me?

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.