Defining Hope: 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!!!!!!!!!!