No News

That sounds like a country song. Actually, it is. "Send a pigeon, send a fax; Write it on a post-it pad. Send a signal up in smoke, tap it out in Morse Code" (Lonestar). Now I know how they feel.

Taiwan was officially closed on Monday and Tuesday for the Moon Festival. We were told that it's a harvest festival like Thanksgiving. Wednesday the 26th was the deadline for the two weeks Yu-Wen's biological mother had to change her mind. Our final ruling can happen anytime after that. We heard a rumor it usually takes 10 days after the final ruling for us to be notified. The family before us took three and a half weeks to get their final. They are leaving tomorrow. Their court time means we would get word the first week of October. My guess is the first or second week of October, but the agency warned us it could take another six weeks. I still choose to ignore them on that estimate. I can't imagine waiting another two months to bring Yu-Wen home.

I finished my shopping for gifts today. The necklace I bought for the birth mom, myself, and Yu-Wen arrived today. I picked up four boxes of Sees Candy yesterday. Now I'm tempted to open them to help with the stress! A friend from Taiwan told us that you can't get Sees there and they love it. Hopefully, it doesn't melt on the way there (or get eaten at home).

Photos of the Nursery

Gifts to Take to Taiwan

Here's how the gifts break out:

For the 8 TWCA staff and Mr Yeah

Red gauzy bag with bead ties(Red is a color of good fortune)in them:

Deck of Reno playing cards

Pair of dice key chains

Lake Tahoe magnet

Rock candy on a stick (the old-fashioned stuff)

Small dream catcher made by Native Indians

For the agency

Small book of Lake Tahoe or Virginia City

Box of Sees candy

For Foster Mom in same red bag

Silver earrings. They are a circle then a heart in the center with NV silver flakes in a turquoise stone

The old-fashioned candy

Dream catcher

Box of Sees

Book of VC or Tahoe

Also have as few things as backup

Books of Tahoe and VC

3 sets of 12 Tahoe prints, postcard size

extra box of chocolates

couple of kids' pictures and coloring books of Tahoe Tesse

3 nice Tahoe hats

For birth mom

A square silver necklace. It has a heart on one side and a tree on the other in gold. Around the corners, it says, "Many hearts, one family." I also ordered one for Yu-Wen and me.

Creative memories book of wallet-size photos of Yu-Wen

At the first year a creative memories printed book of Yu-Wen's first year here

I plan on telling the medical society about our trip. Anyone who wants to donate to Taiwan Women and Children's Agency (they not only do adoptions but also work with families of domestic violence) can give me money and I'll buy formula and baby food in Taiwan.

Hope that's it!

So much for our "Day of Officials"

The nursery was officially supposed to be done today,

but no assembly instructions came with the crib.

The gifts were supposed to be officially done,

but still waiting for the necklace for the birth mom.

On the positive side:

I officially bought the first clothes for specifically for Yu-Wen when

she gets home. Several Carter jammies and crawler outfits from

Costco. Way cute.

Ralph has decided I am planning the invasion of Normandy.* He wants to

know where I want to land the Higgins boats and where to mount the

machine guns. Guys just don't get it. If it were up to him, we

wouldn't do anything until we got the final call.

Oh, last official:

We are officially bad parents. Ryan has been having a bad

evening and also day. He wanted a jelly sandwich with smarties on it that I bought in VC today. So, the first dinner consisted of a jelly

and candy sandwich. I'll be lucky to get some steak and

potatoes into him later.

Tami

* Ralph here. What I said was "The Invasion of the Home Islands of

Japan" (which never happened.) Each of the three beaches in the first

phase of the invasion was planned to be larger than the entire

Normandy invasion. (Now, about the fake radio traffic and rubber

boats we're using to confound the Jerries...)

Fifth Update

Guess this is the week for updates. What a good way to start off the week, both a ruling and new photos and video. Yu-Wen is about 5 months old in the photos.

Civil Ruling

I felt I needed to check my email when I got up this morning. Our case worker just said that our civil ruling was "received" today. I'm unsure if this is the day of the ruling or if they got notice today. The civil ruling means the judge has decided it is in the best interest of Yu-Wen to be adopted by our family. This is a big relief as I was worried about him questioning my health issues.

Legally, our final ruling has to be 2 weeks after the civil. This is the time the mother has to change her mind about the adoption. We were told final rulings typically take 2 months, but lately, several of my blogette group members received theirs in 3-4 weeks. That will be our final legal hurdle in Taiwan. Travel time is 1-2 weeks after final ruling.

Travel dates are possible anywhere between early October to early December. It's a good thing the nursery is almost complete, and we have started packing.

We should get updated information and photos of Yu-Wen next week.

Please send us all your prayers, good wishes and Karma.