Moved up on list!

I just checked ASIA's website (as I have a habit of doing compulsively), and noticed that we've moved up to slot #2 on the waiting list!! And this time it looks like we moved because someone ACTUALLY received a NSN infant referral! Or at least that's what the tables show - I'm hoping to confirm this. This is very exciting, since ASIA has not received a NSN infant referral in almost exactly a year. Since our little bio baby won't be born for about 5 months, we have about 11 months before we could actually submit our paperwork to Taiwan, even if we were #1 on the list. This makes me optimistic, however, that by the time we're ready to submit we'll BE #1 and will just have to wait for the next slot to open :) I'm certainly crossing my fingers!!

I'm pregnant!

Happy Holidays everyone! We have big news to share - I am pregnant! My due date is June 10th, 2009 so I am just over 16 weeks along. So far I've been feeling really good - not really any sickness, just occasional tiredness. I'm still not showing a whole lot, but I imagine I will be in the not-too-distant future! In a couple of weeks I will find out if the baby is a boy or girl, which is quite exciting. And no, this does not affect our Taiwanese adoption - we have planned all along to try to have a bio baby during the wait, and fortunately that has worked out for us. We're excited that our plans for our family are finally coming to fruition. I think I'm going to add another ticker to the bottom of my blog, so everyone can track my progress with me. :)

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 :)