January 31, 2013 -- Update

Lindsay, Leslie, and Ted were able to pick up the medical information on time. They delivered it to the AIT office and they will return later in the day to pick up the completed paperwork. That will be the final piece to the puzzle. Praise God!!!!! Tears. 

January 31, 2013 -- Bittersweet Day + a Tooth :)

Well, if everything goes smoothly tomorrow this will have been the last day here at THOGL.  I  truly cannot believe it.  This has been my home for almost 3 months and it has been Grayson's for his entire life!  This has been the strangest, longest, most awesome experience of our lifetime (so far).  I am still in awe of the miracles that happen in this place every single day.  God is so good and faithful, even on the hard days.  We never dreamed this would be our adoption story.  Full of twists and turns, mountains and valleys along the way.  There is no doubt that God has chosen Grayson to be our child here on earth and we know that God will do amazing things in his life.  I mean, just look at how strong satan has been trying to keep him from us!

Today we spent most of the day packing our room.  As you can see from the picture yesterday we had a LOT to do :)  Hey, what do you expect when living somewhere for 3 months??!! It was quite the task and we are not even completely finished yet, but we will finish in the morning time.  We had a late lunch and headed down to the lake to eat at the Salex one last time.  We told the owner this was our last day since our adoption should be final tomorrow.  He bowed to us (in a Chinese way) and said, "Thank you very much and congratulations".  Pretty sure he was our life-saver at least once a week :)...............and I think he knew it!  

We took pics today with the nannies and volunteers that have played a vital role in raising Grayson from birth.  These women are such Godly women whom I have come to respect and love like family.  They have been my rock on some days and have made me laugh till I was crying.  They have given me hugs, advice, cried with me, prayed over us, made me laugh, and mostly loved our Grayson as their own.  I know it's a bittersweet time for them as well.  I pray they will know just how amazing they are and that they will always hold a special place in my heart.  

After that we continued to pack and organize again.  I headed over to supper just so I could sit with the kids and Jenna one last time.  I took Grayson along and Jenna held him most of the meal.  She didn't know we were leaving tomorrow so I think that might have upset her a little, but she is really tough and said she is happy for us :)  I tell you what, some of these kids are truly amazing and have great hearts.  I just wish they had the chance to have a real family, but that wasn't the cards they were dealt in life.  It's tough for me to understand that, but they are happy here and are well taken care of.  The day was busy here with us packing upstairs, lots of babies downstairs, and I also met with Ted to go over final paperwork and Grayson's file we will take with us home.  I only got to see a small part of it because there is so much to read about.  It was really neat though to see all the "chops" and signatures, final decree's ,etc.  Soooo much paperwork!  And hopefully we will have even more paperwork tomorrow to bring back!  

My nerves are going to be on high-alert tomorrow as we will head to pick up Grayson's final medical papers and take them to the AIT building.  AIT has an "in-service" training day and is technically closed, but has "said" they will finish our paperwork for us!  Please, please be in prayer for this to actually happen and go smoothly!  This will determine whether we will fly home and arrive Saturday night OR we will be changing all flights to Hong Kong and then have to return to Taiwan to finish the paperwork sometime next week.  This will be a crazy day so please pray for God to continue moving mountains and give us a peace about it all.

Grayson has been in a funky mood the past few days.  I will say that we have been carting him everywhere and running around to try and complete the adoption.  He is also cutting teeth really bad.  And guess what................WE HAVE TOOTH #1!!! It made it's appearance late tonight :) Just in time for our 20+ hour plane ride!! :)  

Prayer request:

1. Safety traveling to Taipei

2. Grayson's medical paper will be done properly and ready for pick-up

3. AIT will process the paper quickly and give us the final packet tomorrow!

4. Pray for our families who are sitting on pins and needles awaiting the final news and also pray for Mom, Grayson, and I as we are all nervous as well :)

We thank you in advance for the time you will be speaking with God on our behalf!!!!  Updates will come asap tomorrow.  

This is a new cafe they had just started building when I got here in November!

Drying lettuce...........on the car (what other way is there?)

Eating at the Salex 1 last time :)

The owner of the Salex (he knew he was our favorite cafe to eat at!)

Last picture with Showhwa :) One of the most amazing woman I know!

Picture with Syou-Mei -- Grayson has been loved by some amazing women and I am so grateful!

A wonderful lady who volunteers here that has known Grayson since birth. (Renee)

Mom enjoying the beautiful day at the Salex

Jen-Jen --- She also volunteers at the orphanage.  She was actually the one to bring Grayson to THOGL.

Last picture here :)

Taking down my "house" decorations!

Mom cutting these dumb straps off the stroller :) hehe!

Grayson playing while we are packing!

The new orphanage coming along!! WOW!

Last picture with Jenna.........She's pretty awesome :)

January 30, 2013 -- And it comes down to this.

Shewy!! What a day! We left this morning at 6:45am to start the journey to Taipei. And it was quite the day to say the least. We started the day with a small fender bender once we got to Taipei. Ted literally stopped in the street, put the car in reverse because we passed the "parking lot" and we backed into another car just sitting there behind us. There was no damage to either vehicle and we were all fine. Then Ted ran inside the Passport office to get Grayson's passport. We were left sitting in the car because it was suppose to be a quick thing. A lady came up and put a ticket on the front car window!! We thought we had gotten a ticket, but I guess that is normal and shows the time a car parks there?? Anyway, Ted came out and said that he forgot a paper at the house, but they could use a couple other documents he did have to finish the passport! Thank God! So we got his passport (which is super cute) and headed to the AIT office. We waited in line for a long time and I kept signing things in Grayson's name and my name. Then I was interviewed by an "american" guy and he asked questions like, "when did you see Grayson first and when was our court date, etc. Pretty easy questions. He asked when we were headed home and I said, "well, hopefully saturday!"............he just looked at me. I told him my VISA expires on Sunday." -- " so if I am not outta here by then I have to fly to Hong Kong and come back into the country, etc." He said, "we will do everything we can to push this through!!" By the end of the conversation he ended with this statement, "Well, everything except for Grayson's medical is cleared and he is ready to go home. Congratulations on your adoption!" He was extremely nice and seemed willing to help us in any way possible. There was another lady helping him and they were wispering to each other during the interview because they are going to push our paperwork through on a day that the office "should be closed" for in-service training. But the boss has said they will do ours!! Praise the Lord!

After that we headed to the hospital to get his medical clearance started. We were literally running because we were told to be there by 11:00am and what do you know it was 10:40am when we left AIT. So we ran to the hospital and got in and checked in at the front desk, only to find out the doctor was not in yet -- he wouldn't be in until 1:00pm............so WE WENT SHOPPING!  We only bought a couple of things, but it was really neat. We went to a Chinese Handi-craft mart that was 4 stories!! And we only bought about 6 things! Pretty proud of ourselves 

We went back to the hospital where they weighed and measured Grayson. They were very nice. We then headed upstairs where we waited for the doctor for a long time. Our name was finally called and he listened to Grayson's heart, checked his belly, checked his vaccination records, and asked a couple of questions. Then we were done with that part. Normally they make you wait 5 days before you can pick up the medical paper, but they said they would have it for us on Friday at 11:00am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now this is tricky, because they close at 11:00am on Fridays so we will need to be there earlier to get the paper and rush it to the AIT office. The AIT office closes at 3:00pm on Fridays so we are going to be on the EDGE of our seats!!!
So what does this mean? We are currently getting ready to book flights to leave Saturday morning and return HOME to Indy around 8:15pm Saturday night!!!!!!!!!! Yes, we are taking a huge gamble that all of our paperwork will be done and ready for pick-up on Friday afternoon. But at this point we are all in.

 Please pray for everything to go as planned and that everyone will do what they have promised!
Well, we just got home and its 6:15pm and we are exhausted, but on cloud 9 as well!
Guess what we are doing tomorrow......................PACKING!!!!!!!!!!

 On our way to the AIT meeting!  Grayson's all dressed up in his tie-onesie and corduroy pants!! ADORABLE!

Grayson's passport!

In front of the AIT office :)

At the Chinese handicraft mart!

Grayson waiting on his physical :) it was a looonnngg day.

And 3 months later..............this is my room. YIKES!

January 29, 2013 -- Praise God for our FINAL DECREE!!!

Wow. I don't even know where to begin writing every little miracle that happened today!!  I am overwhelmed just thinking about it and not wanting to leave anything out!  We were praying hard this morning that we would get the call from the courthouse that our final decree had been issued and to come pick it up.  As the minutes passed this morning the phone was ringing off the hook!  I was about to throw up every time the phone range....literally.  The minutes turned to hours and by 12:00 I felt defeated.  We would HAVE to get that decree during the morning time in order to get everything done we needed to this week.  By noon I was barely holding it together while I secretly felt the weight of the world crashing inside my chest.  It's one of those moments where you want/need time to stand still until the phone rings and it's for you.  After a small lunch, Grayson of course decided he wasn't going to take a nap.  And I of course just wanted to crawl in bed and sleep the rest of the day.  I love Taiwan and the people here, but we are ready to come home.
After trying to get Grayson asleep I gave up and decided to take a walk outside in the sunshine.  We walked with mom for a long time.  It was a much needed break and it was good to "try" and clear my head for the rest of the week.  We were contemplating when to fly to Hong Kong this week.  Once we got back to the home Grayson was playing with the other babies when Bev came downstairs.  She had a very serious look on her face and told me she needed to talk to me right away.  Not knowing if it was good or bad, I just froze in my tracks.  She went on to say that the court clerk just called and they have our FINAL DECREE!! I tried to hold it together, but then Bev came over and hugged me and started crying.  I lost it and soon everyone was crying.  Once we gained our composure we needed to get down to business!  The first decree was in, however, we must pick it up by 4:00pm or they will put it in the mail (which we did NOT want to happen).  I looked at the clock and it was 3:20pm.  I began running around getting myself ready, Grayson ready, and the diaper bag ready! Oh, did I mention that Ted wasn't in town??? He was in another city 1.5 hours away!  How on earth was he going to get here in time?  We called Ted and told him about the decree in which he turned and called the court clerk.  They decided that the only people that are allowed to pick up the final decree were Ted, his secretary, or the "adoptive mom"!!! THAT'S ME!! :) Problem solved.......or not.  As we all got ready, we then realized there was no one to drive us to the courthouse! Oh my.......my heart sank. Just about that moment Anna (Ted's assistant) walked in the front door! Praise the Lord!  She wasn't suppose to be home until later in the evening?? We yelled at her to go get the car!!!! We jumped in and headed to the courthouse while "hoping" we had everything in his file with us and all the "chops" (stamps) we would need to pick up the paper were with us.  We had to be there by 4:00pm!! Time was running out!  We rushed up the stairs to the 3rd floor where we met the court clerk.  He pulled out the "Golden paper" :) and I signed for it.  He said that was all he needed and we could go now.  We walked in of the courthouse at 3:55pm and walked out at 4:00pm...........................................(enter sigh of relief).  Another mountain moved by God.

*We then headed with the final decree to the HUCO office (Household Registration Office).  This is the place where everyone must register where they live, work, attend school, keep records, birth certificated, etc.  We walked in at 4:30pm.  It usually takes about 1/2 hour to complete all the paperwork and change the birth certificates to say that Matt and I are his parents now.  The business closes at 5:00pm and their computers shut down automatically.  Anything left undone will be completed the next business day. Ahhhh!!!  Of course the lady we had helping us was new to the job and required lots of help from everyone in the office.  Luckily, when we walked in there was no one in line (which is rare I guess).  So we were watching this lady struggle to change all the records when the other women working there began running around copying papers, stamping things, etc.  It was a great team effort! :)  Remember the office closes at 5:00pm - no questions asked.  We left at 4:58pm!!!!!!!!! Another mountain moved! Woot woot!

*You would think the day was done and the miracles were complete.......oh but wait!  There's more.  We desperately needed to move our AIT meeting to make it home this weekend!  Keep in mind they have already bent over backwards to help us out this week.  Ted called them and they agreed to meet us tomorrow morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT???!!!  So tomorrow we are headed to the AIT office in Taipei to "finalize" everything!  I cannot believe it.  Now, we still do not have his passport or his medical stuff cleared yet to take to the AIT office, but they have agreed to go ahead and meet with us in the morning.  Then after that we will head to get his passport finalized and and get his medical records (which normally takes 2 days to get). After getting those things completed we can submit those documents to AIT!!!!! Sorry, if that made no sense. It's all very confusing :)  Basically another mountain has been moved!! Praise God :)

Prayer request:
1. AIT will go smoothly tomorrow morning
2. getting his passport will go well
3.  Pray a lot for the medical office to do all his paperwork the same day (fat chance of that, but we can ask?).
4. Pray for strength and peace for us as the next few days will be nerve racking.  
5.  Pray that we will get home this weekend.  We MUST fly out by Sunday.....we are either flying to Hong Kong and back to Taiwan or we are headed home????
6. Safety during our travels around Taiwan to finish this up!

Thank you soooooo very much to all the prayer warriors that stayed up throughout the night to pray for us.  We will forever be grateful for all of you!  I will be updating the blog again tomorrow on the newest mountains moved!! Stay tuned.......................

 working on the orphanage today!!

On our walk today!

Taiwan version of Aunt Kelsey's car!

He loves the hop-n-pop!

On our walk around the lake :)

Guess who's blowing bubbles???

Playing with the Nanny!

Grayson finding out we got our FINAL DECREE!

Picking up the final decree at the courthouse!!! Praise God!

After picking up the final decree!

He's not sure what's going on, but he's happy too :)

Grayson always falls asleep in the car!

Waiting at the HUCO office with Anna helping translate! Getting his birth certificate changed to say that Matt and I are his parents now!!!!

The sign behind us means "blessings" in Chinese :) and indeed it was a "blessed day"

Look at this adorable hat we got Grayson!!! I can see some adorable pics in his near future with this!

January 28, 2013 -- Time is running out.

We were hoping to get a call today from the judge stating that our final decree was ready and we could come pick it up at the courthouse, but that call never came.  Ted called to check on it and they said it would not be ready today.  That is all the information they would give us.  It was a hard day as there is a lot riding on that paper this week.  We will see what tomorrow brings, but we will need the paper during the morning hours in order to get Grayson's medical stuff done in time.  The medical side usually takes 2 days to get that paperwork, which would be Tuesday/Wednesday.  Then we would head to our AIT meeting on Thursday morning at 7:30am.  

If our paper is not issued to us in the morning time then we will go ahead and make plans to fly to Hong Kong at the end of the week.  We will fly back in to Taiwan the same day.  We of course would just like to wrap this all up so we can come home to our families.  Please pray for peace, guidance, and our final decree to come tomorrow (8-12pm Indiana time).  We thank you all again for the love and support you are providing us right now.  :) Hoping to see you all very soon!

 Grayson being silly :)

 Getting closer to crawling! Ahhhhhh.

 Playing in the walker today!

 The Nanny clipping his nails :) He didn't mind.......just looked a little frightened :)

 Getting ready for devotions!

 Playtime :)

 This picture is funny because it looks like he has 2 heads :)

Playing with Misti!!

January 27, 2013 -- Now is the time!

Today was a really long day :)  The nannies are not here on Sunday's so it's just the volunteers, my mom, and I.  It makes for a long day most Sundays.  But I still enjoyed my time with Grayson!  Last night was the first night he slept in our room.  He only woke up 1 time around 3:00am to take a bottle so that was good.  Of course every time he moved I was right there looking in his bed :)  So needless to say, I didn't get much rest. Now I know that not only is he an "on the go kid" during the daytime, but at nighttime as well!  I am hoping to get a little more sleep tonight :) We shall see.  Tomorrow is bath day so I went ahead and gave Grayson his bath tonight so that's 1 less baby we need to do tomorrow.  Bath days are crazy :)  You just have to see it to believe it!  Grayson is not too crazy about baths yet.  I hope once we get home and he can play in there with some toys, etc. he will enjoy it more.  Baths are usually in a hurry around here and he isn't too sure what to think of the water.  Although he loves looking at it from outside the tub :)  Grayson has also been getting up on his hands and knees a lot throughout the day!  He tries to crawl forward by pushing off his legs, but his arms will shoot behind him and he will face plant!  This scared me the first time he did it because it looked like it hurt so bad, but he didn't cry :)  So he is continuing to get on his knees and face plant.  I keep telling him that he needs to wait until we get home to crawl!

We also had chicken and noodles for supper with mashed potatoes!!! YUMMY! and it was normal!  Mom and I were chowing down so fast and had 2 bowl fulls of it.  At one point I looked up and everyone at our table was staring at us (heheheh).  We usually don't eat much over there and we normally do not take seconds!  I smiled at them and they just smiled back.  Then mom and I started laughing :)  Now they know what we like to eat! And.......we had watermelon for "dessert"!! It was delicious.  

Tomorrow will be a very big day.  We desperately need to get our final decree tomorrow in order to make everything else happen this week.  We cannot move forward anymore without that paper.  Please be in prayer for us and that the judge will sign it quickly and see the need to move it through.  Now is the time that we know satan will do anything he can to hold this adoption up longer.  We know God can move the biggest mountain we are facing this week.  Now is the time to pray. Please feel free to pass along this prayer request to anyone who will truly pray.  We will keep you all posted!

 Grayson playing on the floor :)

 I just love his smile :)

 He loves his pacifier :)

 My baby and I :)

 Playing with Kesley!

 Such a happy baby!

 Misti reading him a book.........in a british accent (hehe)

Bath time :)