6 months

So it has been 6 months so far since we started our adoption journey (since signing our contract). I feel like we have made great progress moving up ASIA's wait list, and I'm excited to think about what the next 6 months will bring! Unfortunately we had to have our pet degu, Krillin, put to sleep over the weekend. He was old (7 or 8 years) and had suffered from strokes, so it was the only humane thing to do. We will miss him. We don't plan on replacing him any time soon. When we have kids old enough to appreciate a little guy like that we will think about getting another degu - I don't think I could ever get a hamster or gerbil after having had a great degu like Krillin.

Interesting Taiwan domestic adoption article

I came across this article and thought that it was quite interesting...it talks about the number of children who are abandoned, and how the number of domestic adoptions is decreasing due to financial woes.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=765857&lang=eng_news&cate_img=49.jpg&cate_rss=news_Society

Moved up in line! #3

Today we officially moved up from spot #4 to spot #3 on ASIA's NSN infant waiting list! I'm not 100% sure what happened, but it does appear that one of the 3 families actually waiting for a referral in Taiwan (the list AFTER our list) dropped out, for whatever reason. I hope it is because they found their child elsewhere.
We are progressing much quicker than we had expected - unfortunately it is not because of referrals so far. In other words, we are progressing because other families are quitting, not because babies are coming home. There still hasn't been a referral since December 2007. So when people stop dropping out of line (which seems like it'd have to happen eventually), we will still likely have quite a wait to actually get a referral.
Also, for any family and friends who may be getting excited about our progress, please remember that even if we reach the top of our wait list, we can't submit our homestudy to Taiwan until our future bio baby is 6 months old. So we have quite a wait, no matter what :) That being said, it is still quite exciting. I would be thrilled if we made it to the top of our waiting list before bio baby is 6 months old - that would really speed up our projected process!

Rumors..and Japan pic

Here are just a couple of photos from our Japan trip! The first one is me and Chris in front of Mt. Fuji, and the second is us in front of a beautiful Buddhist temple in Tokyo.

It was an awesome trip....

Anyways, we've heard rumor that we may be moving up another spot in line. Which is just amazing. Unfortunately it is not because of a NSN infant referral - but I'm not sure why. And we've heard no official notice about it either. But we may be #3 on ASIA's waiting list soon.....

Unfortunately even if we make it to the top of the list soon, we won't be able to submit our homestudy to Taiwan until our future bio baby is 6 months old...so we've got awhile :)

Back from Japan - and one spot closer!

We are back from a week in Japan - and we had an AWESOME time. Once I get sorted through my 600+ photos, I may try to post a few.
I was delighted to see today that we are one spot higher on ASIA's NSN infant waiting list! We are now number 4! That means there are only 3 other families between us and the top of the waiting list. Yay! Not sure what happened to put us there - I know there wasn't a NSN infant referral, so I'm guessing someone switched to a different waiting list or something. Any way, I'm happy :)

1 month waiting - and going to Japan soon!

Today is our official 1 month of waiting on ASIA's waiting list. Sounds silly, but it's nice to now be able to measure our wait in months. Feels like we're getting somewhere.

In other news, Chris and I are going to Japan in a week and a half! We will be there for a week, and I'm super super excited!!! There are a lot of Taiwanese restaurants in Tokyo, which I think is really cool. I'm sure I'll have fun shopping, too. It may be hard to find food without fish (Chris and I AND my sister and her husband who are going, too, are all vegetarians), but I'm going to print out a lot of terms and sentences in Japanese that will be useful, which I can just show to the people at the restaurants. Can't wait!!!

Taiwan Fun Fact #3 - Chinese Taipei Medal Count

Just an update on the Olympics - Taiwan (aka Chinese Taipei) has won 4 medals so far! 2 bronze medals in Women's weightlifting, and 2 bronze medals in Men's Taekwondo (both of these sports have multiple weight classes of course). Unfortunately I haven't see any of these on TV.