This is our first video of Cormac. I think they woke him up for this. He is so sweet. I forgot they are this little. LOVE HIM.

I know it looks like he's choking her, but he's really hugging her.

I love charming people into picking me up!!! Of course Auntie Sara will pick me at the least provocation.

What could it be? What could it be?

We had a wonderful Christmas with the Lee side of the family. The three days before Christmas, however was yucky!!! Piper, Connor and I(mom) had the headache, sore throat thing that was going around. Hard to be merry, when you feel gross.

On the adoption front I am all done with my paperwork. We had everything notarized and authenticated and I shipped it off Friday to the Taiwan Economic & Cultural Office in Chicago. They have to check it out and forward it to our adoption agency. Then it all goes to Taipei and we enter the court system. Hopefully mid January. I found out that I can't send Cormac anything until we enter the Courts. This of course means that the package is getting bigger and bigger. I'm trying to sane about it, but if you know me and shopping, then you will be chuckling a little as you read this.

Here is a cool video on Utube about Taiwan. I think it is a bunch of tourism videos, it's about 10 mins long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIBshbaha9U

And we have a winner!!!!! After much debate and soul searching, (Sorry Connor, it's not going to be Parker) we have decided to name our new son ...................... drumroll, please.


Cormac Wei Sheng Lee.

Surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got the call around 6:00 today and I'm still in shock. We were presented with the referral of a seven week old boy named Lin Wei Sheng. Look at the precious face! After a few moments of stunned puzzlement we called our agency back asked for all of his info. His birthday is Oct 26th, 2006. Happy birthday to you Aunt Nancy!! We had been 7th on the list for a girl, but we had listed either a boy or a girl on our home study. I didn't even know we were officially in the running for a boy. Hopefully we will get more updates and a video of him soon. Hopefully I will figure out how to post the video here on this site. We are over the moon with happiness. Connor is excited to get bunk beds, Piper is excited to point to the baby in the picture. Now the real paperwork begins.

Cari and Rosie the Tarantula

busy bees. Don just had to get in this photo



The Lees

What's going on?
Some mugging for the camera.

We had a great time visiting our friends the Dofts in CO. The kids did great on both flights even sans naps.
We are busy decorating for Christmas. This year we will be with the Lee family. I hear a pool tournament is in the works this year. Two years ago I came in second in the Kings in the Corners tournament. I'm not sure I will do as well in pool.

Well I found out through the grapevine that two families on the list ahead of us may be switching to the boy list. So, we may be either number 5, 6 or still at lucky number 7. Not much news, but here it is.

"Piper how old are you?" "TWO!" Can you believe my baby is two. We had a great party, although the birthday girl hated most of it. She had a great time when everyone left and she got to play with her new toys all by herself.

NO REFERRALS IN NOV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Need I say more? But you know me, I will. Obviously there can be no referrals of babies if there have been no babies that have been born. Maybe next month there will be flurry of baby girls. I've got my fingers crossed. Connor is off the whole month of Dec from preschool, so we are going to visit our friends Tony, Julia and Macy in CO. Can't wait to see their new house. Hope they are ready for the invasion. Piper has had her eyes checked and they are super duper. With no medical history, you have to check everything. Connor will have to go soon, as Donald and I have almost alienly bad vision. Do aliens have bad vision, you ask? Yes, its a very common fact!:) Anyway, he'll look cute in glasses when he ends up having to get them. There are no new pictures of the kids, so here are Donald and I rowing in the Dragon Boat race. Our team was the FCC-Midwest Dragon Families. The most impressive trophy ever is, for our fourth place finish. I am the second person back and Donald is behind the woman in the blue visor. I think you can see his hand.

Connor

nothing better than licking the spoon














all the presents are for me


The video isn't very good, but how cute is the song!!!!!

We had a great time at Grandma Caroles house for Thanksgiving and a preparty for Piper. Lots of friends and cake. A good time was had by all. We are having Piper's party this weekend. Circus theme! The Dollar Store is my downfall. The Goodybags got a little full.

We are hoping to hear that someone in our program gets a referral this week. I would like to be number five or lower for Dec. Am I jinxing it by saying so?

Connor is being an Astronaut. I'm not sure that headgear will protect him in space.
Can You Stand How Hip and Cool My Girl Is!!!!

He is giving her a kiss, he is an awesome big brother!!


No news on the adoption front. Still waiting. No more referrals yet this month. I have heard from our Taiwan coordinator that they are expecting some referrals yet this month, no idea how many or if they are boys or girls. We have started a yahoo group for parents in the process with JOH agency. If you are a parent in process send me an email and I will send you an invite. Somehow I got elected moderator. In the picture of Piper, I feel the need to mention, the super duper cute legwarmers that she is wearing. I knit them for another little girl and she saw them and had to try them on. She wouldn't take them off and so I had to knit another pair.

A TOTALLY WONDERFUL DAY!!!!!!!!1

With great excitement, I announce that we are officially on the LIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I spoke with our agency Journeys of the Heart this afternoon. There are six families ahead of us, so we are lucky number seven. She hopes to have a referral for us by Dec or Jan. OMG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She said applications to Taiwan are booming. There are 25 families in the process behind us. Yeah for my pushyness (is that a word?). We are still waiting for another daughter, although thoughts of a son run through my mind every once in awhile. Donald would really like another daughter. Re-enforcement for Piper with all the Lee grandsons. Plus for those of you that know me, we've got alot of girl clothes and the shoes, well, Donald thinks the shoe situation is out of control. I caught him taping together a pair of sandals, so you know he is a little biased.

Here is some info about our timeline and how it will all happen.

Our agency Journeys of the Heart works with people from all over the U.S. . In the Taiwan program children become available for international adoption after the birthmother intitally signs relinquishment forms. The birthmother does have the legal right to change her mind during the adoption process, for up to 10 business days after the first ruling. I have been told this rarely occurs. In program III families are matched with referrals according to their place on the waiting list and in addition to their indicated openess to various conditions, along with possible birthmother preferences.

Families will receive all info that JOH received about their referred child. We will get a birth certificate, photos, a video and medical report. A short social history about the birthmother is included. There are currently six families ahead of us on the list for a healthy female infant. We are told our wait for referral will be about 3-5 months.

Once we accept the referral all the legal paperwork will be sent to Taiwan and submitted to the District Court. The court processtypically takes 3-5 months. The process includes a hearing, a first ruling and a second ruling. Following the second ruling we will get our notifications of appointment for placement. Donald and I will have to appear before our judge in Taipei.

Here is the link to our agency Journeys to the Heart if you are interested in adopting from Taiwan. They have been great. http://www.journesyoftheheart.net

Nothing new to report. More waiting. We thought we would be on the waiting list by now, but we found out that we have at least another week before we are placed on the waiting list. Bad news is that other families have gotten on the list ahead of us. When we talked to our agency last week there are six families ahead of us. This is up from four families from about two months ago. Good for them, bummer for us. The name game goes on. Many many many suggestions, good and bad. Donald still refuses to pick a name until he sees her face. Makes me a little nuts, but I'm getting better at the waiting. Connor and Piper are excited about Halloween. We carved our pumpkins this evening and they turned out great. We had to drag them inside and away from the pumpkins. Hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween.

an artist at work

preview of the scary halloween chickens

am I working the outfit or is it working me?

bedtime boots?

ready for my close up

Hi Everyone,

We are starting this blog to let our family and friends follow along with our journey to our third and last child. We have been led to the country of Taiwan for our second daughter. Connor is already talking about his new baby sister. I have been previewing names with him. He kept saying that he only like the name Piper for a girl. I explained to him that two sisters named Piper might get confusing. He said he would call his sister Piper, Piper and his new sister Baby Piper. I had to concede that it might work, but that we wanted her to have a name all to herself. Lately he has been talking about someone named Parkly and about how she is in Pei. I finally asked him what he was talking about and apparently he has named his new sister Parkly and he has picked up that Mom and Dad have to travel to TaiPEI to get her. Piper is currently totally infatuated with all babies. She points them out to us and wants to give them nice pats. How she will feel when the baby is here full time and is being held by DaDa, is anyones guess.

We are having our homestudy this coming Monday. It should take about two weeks to have it written up and then we can get placed on the list for a healthy female infant. We had heard about the Taiwan program from our friend Andrea (BIG SHOUT OUT TO YOU ANDREA!!!!!!!). She has lead at least two couples to this program. Thanks for thinking of our family. Taiwan is completely different from the process we did for China. We should get our referral in about three to five months and then wait for five to seven months for travel notice. We have to appear before the courts in Taipei to finalize the adoption. The stay in country is only a required four to five days. Most of the babies are two to three months at referral and all background information is known. I have been told that 80% of the time the adopting parents get to meet the birthmother. I am very excited about that.

We should have our referral by February 2007 barring any paperwork snafoos.