Creepycrunchystinkyyummy

Don't tell the social worker who's due to come next weekend for our 2 month post-placement visit. She doesn't need to know that I let William eat a stinkbug.

Well, actually, I didn't let him. He was amusing himself so nicely in a corner of the playroom while I helped Andrew assemble his pirate ship. When I turned around to look at William, he was smiling at me, mouth open. I saw the flash of something brown inside his mouth. It looked vaguely like a stinkbug, the sort of which we get inside of our house this time of year. But no, it couldn't be. Not in his mouth.

Eh, heh, heh... upon closer inspection, indeed it was. Thankfully, William hadn't crunched down on it yet, so I was able to sweep it out of his mouth quickly. Apparently, he must have put his developing pincer grasp to good use, finding the dead bug on the floor and maneuvering it into his mouth.

Just in case you're wondering, my award for most oblivious parent arrived in the mail yesterday.

Picture Perfect

Thanks to Deborah, we received back the autographable matte to a picture frame we'd like to hang in William's nursery. I had planned to to bring the matte with us to Taiwan so that the St. Lucy's staff could sign it. Unfortunately, I forgot to throw it into our jam-packed suitcase at the last moment. Supermom that she is, Deborah was gracious enough to bring it with her on her special day when she picked up her son, Alex.

I'm glad that many of the ladies took the time to sign the matte. It's a bit surreal to have specific names to associate with the mysterious group of women who spent so many months caring for William. Regrettably, in the photo below, I omitted the upper right hand part that bears my favorite message from a woman named Diana. She wrote, "Miss You, Love You."

Deborah also mailed us a video camera and a disposable camera that we had sent in William's last care package. Sister Rosa at St. Lucy's told us they didn't use them since we were due to arrive so soon after they received the package. I'm amazed that the ladies kept the cameras and thought to send them back with Deborah. It's impressive how well they manage to keep tabs on the children and their future families.

So, what's going to go inside of the frame? While at St. Lucy's, we asked the caretakers if we could take a picture of them with William so that he could remember the women who lavished him with so much love and good care. When I showed that photo to William a few weeks ago, he let out a happy screech and flapped his hands up and down. Did he recognize the women? It's anyone's guess, but one might think so.

Unfortunately, I can't post that picture since our agency has rules against showing the caretakers' faces on blogs. However, I can show you something just as good: the most beautiful baby in the world.

Smile!

All's Well that Ends Well

I could be wrong, but I think William is in the process of dropping his third, late-afternoon nap. He's right at the age when this should be happening. When 4:30 rolls around, he's tired but unable to fall asleep. As you might deduce, it's a challenging time of day.

This afternoon, I changed him into his pajamas around 5:30 p.m. then tried to stretch him to a bedtime of 6:30 p.m. The first 45 minutes were rough going. At least we ended the last 15 minutes of the day well. William banged away happily on an electric keyboard and dove after my camera as I tried to snap pictures of him.

William vs. Nature, Round 2

Has William finally overcome his fear of plants? You be the judge.

Swing Low, Sweet William

William's not half the motion junkie that his older brother Andrew is, but he can still appreciate a good swing ride. Below are some pictures of him in the tree swing behind our house.

Adopting - Again.

Now that we've adopted William from Taiwan, we've decided to adopt him once again in the United States.

We brought William home on an IR-4 visa, not having seen him prior to picking him up. As a result of his visa classification, we need to complete more paperwork and participate in a re-adoption hearing with a local judge. Doing so will enable him to have a Pennsylvania birth certificate, necessary for so many important filings later on in his life.

In addition, because we need to file a name change on his behalf (his Taiwanese visa only lists his given Chinese name), I'm told by our county courthouse's adoption unit that we need to hire an attorney. I could be misinformed, but apparently this is something that the average layperson cannot do.

Initially, I was under the impression that the attorneys' fees would run somewhere in the $300.00 range, a price that someone on a Pennsylvania online adoption group had estimated. However, when I interviewed three lawyers who have handled a good number of re-adoption cases, I learned that their fees range anywhere between $750.00 to $1,500.00. Ai-yo!

At this point, if you haven't guessed, we're a wee bit tired of cracking wide our wallets and dealing with paperwork. However, if this is what it takes to ensure our son won't hit any snafus with identity, citizenship, or who knows what later in life, I guess we'll just need to suck it up and forge ahead.

Boy in a Bubble

It's not all smiles all the time with William. Here are a couple of photographs from earlier. Andrew was outside testing a giant bubble blowing wand (thanks, Auntie Jenny and Uncle Paul) while William looked on cautiously from his stroller.

"Those mysterious, wiggly blobs - friends or foes?"