Sunday, August 24, 2008

LUCKY # 8; More Taiwan Facts

TAIWAN'S 2008 SUMMER OLYPMIC SYMBOL



LUCKY NUMBER EIGHT. We accepted the Referral of Brooke on 08-08-08. The Number 8 is considered a lucky number in China, like some Americans consider number 7 lucky. I hope our judge notices this and speed up our court process!! It should come as no surprise that the Olympic games in China start on Friday August 8, 2008 or 08/08/08. Brooke's birthday is filled with eights. 6-28-08 (6+2=8, 8 -08). Andrews lucky number shoud be 9. His birthday is filled with 9's: 5-4-99 (5+4=9, 99).


In China you have to pay extra to have the number 8 in your phone number or license plate. In addition, home and business owners like to have the number 8 in their civic address.


If you turn the number eight 90 degrees horizontally, it becomes “infinity” in math or “eternity” philosophy. In Chinese Astrology, perfect balance is considered the ideal. You can slice the number 8 in half vertically or horizontally, and both halves mirror themselves perfectly. Again, perfect symmetry lends itself to perfect balance. The number 8 in Chinese is pronounced “baat” and sounds like “faat” meaning “prosperity” or “wealth” As well, 88 means “double wealth” or “double prosperity”.


The number 4 is considered unlucky, just like we view the number 13. The number 4 is pronounced “sei” and it resembles the word “death”. 44 is super unlucky as it means “double death”. It is not uncommon to see no 4th floor in Vancouver or Richmond Condos and high rises, but you do see number 13. In fact, you don’t see floors 14, 24, and 34! The number 14 is considered to be one of the unluckiest numbers in Chinese culture, as it is literally translated to “ten die” or “want to die?”. So, when Chinese people and people from the West live in the same building in Beijing, it makes numbering apartment floors fairly complicated.
One example... (see picture above). Notice the floors that are missing: 4, 13, 14. Presumably the exclusion of these floors makes the building lucky enough for people of all nationalities and superstitions.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

REFERRAL DOCUMENTS = STRESS!!

We received our referral documents last Tuesday, August 12 . These documents had to be notarized, certified by the county clerk (proof that your notary is certified), receive the "GREAT SEAL of AL" by the Secretary of State in Montgomery, then sent to TECO (Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Atlanta, GA) for authentication and last but not least Fed-ex to Journeys of the Heart. See why this was stressful. Byron and I were both off Wednesday so we planned our trip, prepared our documents, and obtained more information on this process by fellow JOH yahoo member Chuck M. (Thanks Chuck). Really I did all this while Byron was asleep in bed!!! We planned to do all of this in one day and be home by 5:00 so we could attend our first church small group meeting.


Our First Stop:


Took Andrew to School (7:30 am)



8:15 a.m. Arrived at Madison County Court House. We had all 9 documents notarized at the court house. We then went down stairs to the county clerk's office to have the Notary's signature certified (this step makes no sense to us).

9:30 a.m. Headed south to Montgomery!



12:30 arrived at our State Capitol to obtain our GREAT SEAL!

While in Montgomery ... we had to locate a place to make 2 copies of all nine documents (multi-paged), assemble, then separate. We both worked hard at OFFICE DEPOT, then on to Byron's favorite store "WAL-MART" to purchase a money order, and he did some quick shopping /looking.



Last but not least we locate a FED-EX to send all of these documents to TECO in Atlanta. Byron used great care to place our documents neatly in an envelope, only to have the Fed-ex worker shove them into several different size envelopes to find the best fit. I had to stop her and explain the importance of these documents and they needed to arrive unbent. She was very nice about this and was more careful. Byron of course checked to see that it was properly sealed!!! And then we were done (or so we thought).


3:30 p.m. We left Montgomery to head back home. (WHEW!!)



6:30 p.m. Picked Andrew up from friends (Thanks Brandi!!)



7:00 p.m ; 400 miles and almost 12 hours later we made it HOME!!! I was stressed, tired, and really relieved!


The Next day.... I received a call from TECO that the county clerk dated the forms the wrong day!! Several calls later and two faxes that problem was resolved without any additional driving!!

I received word for Journeys of the Heart that our documents have been sent to Taiwan!!!!!

Now officially done with the referral packet and ready for the court process to begin!!!!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Andrew's 1st Day of School



Well.....Summer is over. Andrew has started 3rd grade!!!!! School is NOT on his favorite things to do list. Each year on the first day of school, I make him pose for all the "first day of school" pictures. Next year we will have Brooke in the pictures! Look how he has grown.....

Andrew starting K-4.




Andrew starting 3rd grade!!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Where in the World is Brooke?




Here is some useful information about Taiwan. I'm starting with the basics - Where is Taiwan? Take a look at the map above, and you'll see Taiwan in the red box. It is often described as a leaf-shaped island approximately 100 miles off the coast of mainland China. The island (there are actually many smaller islands also apart of Taiwan but which are not usually discussed) itself is slightly larger than the combined land mass of Maryland and Delaware, to put things in perspective. (Information and photo borrowed from a fellow blogger)
Its population is more than 23 million and is growing by 0.6 percent annually. Its three largest cities are Taipei, the capital on the northern tip, Kaohsiung in the south and Taichung in the west.
The population is primarily ethnic Chinese, including 84% Taiwanese, 14% mainland Chinese and 2% original inhabitants of the island.
The climate is humid and hot in the summers with temperatures averaging 89 – 100°F in the summers (must feel like Alabama) and 54 – 64°F in the winter. It is possible to experience typhoons between June and October. The island also experiences numerous small earthquakes. See side bar on this blog for current weather conditions.
The official language is Mandarin Chinese, yet most local residents also speak Taiwanese, the language of the first Chinese immigrants. You can also hear the Chinese dialect Hakka.
Taiwan is guaranteed freedom of religion and much of the population practices a combination of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. About 5% of the population is Christian.
Thanks for reading. I will be posting more information in the future. I want all of our family and friends to know abouts Brooke's birth country. There maybe a quiz. JUST KIDDING!!!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

WE HAVE A REFERRAL!!! 08-08-08




We finally received the call we have been waiting for!!!!
Birth Name: Hsiang Yun Huang sounds like Wang, Shawn Yun
DOB June 28, 2008
Weight 6.1

I have been watching the phone and caller ID for the (206) area code (Location of Journeys of the Heart)for the past month. We finally received the call on Thursday. Here is our referral story.......
Byron was home and Tien (our adoption coordinator) called to tell us she had a referral for us. She stated the baby was born on June 28th and appeared healthy. Byron called me at work and told me to come home early. I ask "did she call" and he said just come home. I looked at my e-mail and there was an e-mail from Tien!!!!! So I had to see one more client and hurried home. All three of us watched the video and viewed the pictures together as planned!!!!! We had her medical information reviewed and accepted the referral on 08-08-08 (sign of Luck according to China). I had really been hoping to have a referral by this date. We have been waiting for our referral for 8 months.

A friend from my yahoo group also received a referral on the same day and we spoke on the phone that night. It was great to share this joy with someone else in the process!!! Maybe we will travel together. Read her blog!! It is listed on the side bar under "JOH Blogs", "Bao Bei Baby-Sara. Also, I have listed blogs of others adopting from Journeys of the Heart. So READ and follow their journeys too. One other blog note... if you subscribe to my blog (see side bar) you will receive and e-mail each time we post!!

What's Next...... We hope to go to Taiwan to bring her home sometime in January or February 2009. I will post more about the court process.

OUR REFERRAL VIDEO!!! She's a STAR!!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

No adoption news for us.......



GIRLFRIENDS


Here is a group of friends from our previous church. Glenda (bottom right) formed this group after our previous church went through some changes and many of us left and went to other churches. She called the group "Girlfriends". We meet once a month and try out different restaurants. It is a great way we can stay in touch with our previous "Church Family" , which I really miss. They are also following our adoption. I missed all of you who were not there!!






OUR EXCITING RAFTING TRIP!!!!





























ADOPTION UPDATE.

We still have no news. We are really hoping for a referral very soon. I think 08-08-08 would be a great day for a referral!!!! We have now been on the "list" for 8 months. We started this process about one year ago and compared to other programs we are moving really fast (just seems so slow).



OTHER ADOPTION NEWS...... Common Wealth Adoptions suddenly closed this week, leaving all of those families in limbo. My heart stopped when I read this news. I cannot even imagine what they are going through. This was one of the agencies we had considered last year. We have been blessed that we are with Journeys of the Heart. With the overall slow down in international adoptions, I expect we will see more agencies closing. So pray for those families and ours as well.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Chattanooga, TN Camping Trip July 07

NO ADOPTION NEWS(YET)!

Our next adventure was a camping trip to Chattanooga, TN with the W.'s and the H.'s. Byron and I took all the kids to a lunch show and to a 3-D Imax movie. The next day Andrew and Ethan went on their first white water rafting trip in NC.







Beach Trip July 4th!


July 4th Camping Trip to Gulfshores, AL with the W. and the N. Family.

WAY TO GO JOHN W. GREAT FIND!!

Playing Joke on Byron!! Byron searched for a starfish all day, while the rest of us "pretended" to find lots of starfish. (really only found 2) !


Eating with Friends

Andrew with cousins.








Life in the fast lane.




Night life (every night at 10:pm, on the hunt for crabs and starfish)


Tuesday, July 22, 2008

WE'RE MOVING UP!!

We are members of a Yahoo group that was developed by others who have adopted from JOH. This has been a great resource and very supportive. According to the data base, we are now on the top of the list for a referral (Along with one other family, the Sullivans)!. Over the past seven months we have slowly moved up the list. Our agency quoted a wait time of 6-9 months, when we were put on the list in December. I really thought we would have a referral by June. It feels great to finally reached the top of the list. For those who don't know what this means: we should have a referral within about 0-6 weeks!!!! After our referral, the court process will take 4-6 months (sometimes longer, as my yahoo friend Chuck knows all to well).

On to other Couey news. We have tried to stay busy while we have been waiting to bring our baby girl home. In July, Andrew played on his first baseball All-stars team. They placed 4th. We took a camping trip to Gulf Shores State Park with my brothers family the N.'s and our good friends the W.'s. We had great weather and a great time. We just returned home from a camping trip to Chattanooga, TN with the W.'s and the H.'s. We went to an IMAX movie and some of us went white water rafting in NC. This was Andrew's first rafting trip.
PICTURES COMING SOON!!!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

The beginning



After some encouragement from my JOURNEYS OF THE HEART yahoo adoption group. I am starting my blog!! I didn't even understand what a blog was until last year. I will be blogging about our adoption process, camping, geocaching ,ect. We have been thinking about adoption for about 8 years and finally took the plunge last year. We started this process about one year ago. After researching several countries and agencies, we were blessed to find Taiwan's foster care program and Journeys of the Heart! We hope to have a referral of a baby girl anytime now!

Days since our Referral