Blog has moved

For my birthday, Jayson set up a really cool blog for me and had it designed specifically for me. Which I think was pretty sweet :) So anyway, from now on I will be blogging from my new blog....you can find it here: onelessbroken.com Please check it out-it is way cooler than this and will soon be full of all of our Uganda trip pics and posts :)

Can't wait to go get Kai!

It seems very unreal that we are leaving here so SOON to go get Kai. This whole process has gone so fast and has been quite the contrast from our Taiwan adoption experience. Taiwan is pretty much at a standstill and I wonder if it will ever happen, and here we are going to Uganda Dec. 1st to get our baby girl :) My heart for Uganda and Africa, in general, is overflowing with love and also a lot of pain. The suffering, all the orphans and poverty, sickness, all of their history. It is unbelievable and I know that going will be life-changing. We are so ready to go get our baby and see her/hold her for the first time! The plan is to go meet her and take her into our care Dec. 3rd. We are also very nervous and anxious about going. We are leaving behind our boys (although we know that they will be in great care with my parents) and leaving the month of Christmas. We have been "Promised" to be back before Christmas, but TIA (This is Africa!) so really there are no guarantees and nobody know what will exactly happen and how the whole process will unfold once we get there. Our biggest concern right now is getting an appointment with the Embassy and hoping that they will get all of the paperwork processed in a timely manner. Hopefully they will be anxious to process our file before Christmas and it will be done quickly. We should have Kai's passport ready before we even get there and as long as everything goes well in court, our only real concern is getting the visa! So please pray for us, but specifically for the visa process. We have a lot of packing and planning to do, and we will be having a very busy week getting ready for Taylor and Molly's wedding on Nov. 26 (not to mention having all family, guests, and Thanksgiving dinner, reahearsal dinner, work and school next week too!) I probably will not be writing again, unless something drastically changes, so please keep us in your prayers! Thanks!!!! Taryn

Preparing for Kai

A lot has been going on the last few weeks in preparation for our new little one. We have moved Beckhem into Jayce's room. We bought better bunk beds (smaller ones, so that there is more room in the bedroom) and a new bigger dresser so that we could hold both of the boys' clothes. We also got Kai's room ready. I love it! It is pink (of course) and many other colors too, and it has cute owls :) I think she will love it. Then, today, we went and bought a van! I am soooo happy to have a nice "mom" car. I am definitely not one of those anti-van people, and I have been wanting one for a while. There is soooo much more room in it, which is exactly what we need for all the kiddos and their things :)

Since I last wrote, we found out that Kai is healthy and that there are no medical concerns. The doctor did say that she is b/w 5-6 mths and we needed to pick a birthday for her to reflect that. So, we made her birthday June 1st, 2010. She is doing really well and all the reports that we get say that she is happy, sleeps through the night, and is gaining weight. So even though we hate not being able to hop on a plane and go get her immediately, it is nice to know that she is being well taken care of until we can go.

We are still waiting for our paperwork. It is very frustrating because we should have had it by now. We were told that there is still a possibility of going before Christmas (for a Dec. 1st court date) but that cannot happen unless we have that paperwork. Hopefully, I will hear back from our officer this week about it and if not we are going to look into other options of trying to get it back ASAP. As of now, it is looking like January, but it would be awesome to have her here for Christmas. So, PRAY for that :)

The great thing about this time of year is there is sooo much going on to keep us busy and our minds occupied. We are busy getting ready for our Thanksgiving program on Wednesday at the preschool. We also are starting to plan for Thanksgiving, all our guests, the wedding, Christmas, and packing for Uganda. Jayce is playing soccer, which keeps us busy with practices and games every week. I have not been very good about updating this and am pretty sure that I will continue to be slacking with everything going on.

Btw, we got new pics of Kai and she is seriously the cutest! We cannot wait to go and scoop her up in our arms and bring her home!

Waiting, waiting, waiting..

So, everything was going really well, almost too well as far as international adoptions are concerned, and we hit a little bump in the road. Nothing major and we are still very happy with this process, but the paperwork we have been waiting on is still not in our hands! We just need our I171h form (we had one for Taiwan but need it to be changed to Uganda instead) and we can go get Kai. I have done everything I can to try and expedite the process and others have tried to help as well but there is nothing we can do but wait. Most likely this extra waiting means we will not get to travel to Uganda until January. In December, everything pretty much shuts down and the judges all go on a month long break. So, it is looking like we will not be leaving until January. We also are still waiting on Kai's medical reports. Her caretaker has tried several times to get the info from the doctor and it is very frustrating. But she was promised to have Kai's reports (along with the other children in her care) by Monday. So, hopefully we will have more info. tomorrow. Also, when Kai was taken to the doctor, the doctor said there is no way she is eight months old and thinks she is really more like six months. We are hoping to find out more about that so we can change her birthday if need be to be more accurate. We just have to wait and see what info. we get and what we should do. Right now we are just waiting on a lot of things, but we are confident that God has a plan and His timing is best!

Kai Shiela is so cute and doing well :)

I haven't posted in a while, but things are proceeding really well. Our dossier did in fact make it to Uganda and Kai has been picked up from the baby home and is being well cared for until we can go and get her. We even got to see a picture of her, and she is so adorable. We are hoping to get more pics and the full medical this week. She goes for a complete medical exam on Tuesday and we are hoping and praying that everything is well and she is healthy (besides the fact that she is under weight-she only weighs about 11 pounds right now.) We also found out her birthday is February 8. She has been eating and sleeping well and we will continue to get regular reports on how she is doing. We are waiting on our I600 form to be processed and to get the I171h form back in the mail. Once we have that form we are set with everything and can have a court date. Once we know when the court date will be, we will book everything. We want to bring her home as soon as possible (obviously.) So, please pray for that form to come back to us ASAP. We will most likely be traveling to Uganda right after Nov.26 (Taylor and Molly's wedding) and should be home in plenty of time for Christmas, which would be awesome :) I will try and keep this updated as I find out more info about Kai and our travels. Thanks everyone for your support and prayers!

Dossier is done and on its way!

So, last week was very busy finishing up everything for the dossier. But it is done and was shipped on Friday. So, hopefully it will be safely in Uganda soon enough. Now there is just a few pieces of the puzzle left, and we can go get our little one :) We need to get our I600 back, which I think is called the I171h or something...not really sure. We had the approval for Taiwan already, but need to have the country switched (obviously) to Uganda. Our social worker though that it may take up to a month, but hopefully it will get done faster because we cannot get a court date or proceed with anything else until we have that approval form. I am calling tomorrow to make sure they received our info. and will hopefully have a better idea of how long we are going to have to wait on that. I am hoping and praying that I will speak to someone who is very kind and helpful and we will be able to expedite the process.

In Uganda, our precious one will be moved into the care of a social worker. We are hoping that this will happen Tuesday (in Uganda time) and then we will also be able to find out more info. and have more updates on her. The main thing that we are very excited about is to get our first picture!!! It will be so fun to finally see what she looks like :) Please pray for the dossier to make it safely to Uganda, for the paperwork to come back super quick, and for the safe transportation of our daughter from the orphanage she is at now to the social worker who will care for her until we can go get her.

There is so much to worry about and think about with this whole process, but I am confident that it will all work out since it is not in my hands anyway. We know that God is in control of everything and have seen Him working all along. My biggest worry is when we will actually get to travel and how long we will have to stay in the country (worried about leaving our two precious boys and Jayson leaving his job.) So, even though, I know God is in control and trust that His plan is best, I still am a little anxious. Please, please keep these things in your prayers. Knowing that friends and family are praying for our family and this whole process really does make us feel so much better :)

Dossier is coming along!

So, we are pretty much done with dossier stuff. Still waiting on a few forms (one from the IRS, one from our bank, doctors notes) but all of the major stuff is done or about to be done. The updated homestudy should be ready to go in two weeks, or maybe even earlier. Please pray that we can have a completed dossier ASAP. There is a little girl in Uganda who we are trying to be matched with. She is only seven months old and we would love for her to become a part of our family. Unfortunately, the orphanage she is at does not have much to offer her in terms of nutrition and protection (not even screens or anything on windows, doors.) So, pray for her safety and well being. Once we have our paperwork in, we can have her moved into safer care until we can go over to get her. There is also the chance that another family may be trying to adopt her as well. So, just pray for us in this process and this little girl. We also know that it may be God's will for us to have another child and are open to that as well (even if it means three boys, aaaaahhhhhhhhh :) I will definitely try and update this with new info. as I know what is going on. Oh, and Friday we are supposed to go to the Health Dept. in Gainesville to get a ton of shots! I am still afraid of doing this even though I am adult now, so pray for that too :) Thanks, Taryn

Uganda here we come!

I type this with some reservations, only because I know how quickly things can change in the world of adoption. As of now, the plan is to proceed with a Uganda adoption. We have been fortunate enough to have a Christian social worker who has given our name to a friend who has adopted from Uganda. This friend is also now helping families adopt from Uganda through missionary friends of theirs and a Christian attorney. We are very excited to start getting our dossier ready for a Uganda adoption, since there are children over there who NEED a home RIGHT now. So, the quicker we get our stuff together, the quicker we get a referral and can go over to Uganda.

This process will go relatively fast. Which is great because it will give us plenty of time to come home and adjust to life with another little one, before getting a referral from Taiwan. The process will also be less expensive because there is not an agency (and all the fees that go along with one) involved. However, it will still be quite expensive, especially once it is time to travel. We are excited about some fundraising opportunities that should help us with some of the cost. There is a great website (147millionorphans.org) that offers wholesale prices to families adopting and then we can sell items, like t-shirts and Uganda necklaces, and make 5-10 dollars on each item. I am also excited because the necklaces and t-shirts are very cool and are a great way for all of us to draw attention to the orphan crisis in the world. So, once I know exactly how we are going to sell these items, I will let everyone know! I would also recommend everyone checking out the two ladies blogs who started 147 million orphans and their friend who is a missionary over in Uganda. You can find their blogs from the 147 million orphan website. It is amazing what God is doing in their lives and over in Uganda through them. It is also very eye-opening to the need over in Uganda.

I will definitely try to update this more as we continue on in our journey...

Exciting new things to come...

So, things are still SLOW with our Taiwan adoption. Normally, this would depress me, but I am definitely in a good place right now. We are pursuing other options at this point and I am excited to see where God leads. (*Hint-think Africa!)

I have talked with many social workers from many different adoption agencies and are figuring out the best way to do another adoption, while keeping our dossier in Taiwan as well. We should have time to do one before even getting a referral from Taiwan. Right now there are two possible options for us, but we should know better in a week or two exactly what we are doing and how it will all work out. Once we are set, I will definitely share so that everyone can know our plans and pray for us as we start another process for bringing home one of the children that God has for us.

So excited to see where this all goes....until next time...

We're back!

Okay, so we have been back for a couple of days now, but I have been very busy. My house is pretty much still a disaster, but at least the luggage is unpacked and put away.

We had a great time in New Jersey. The wedding was really nice and went really well. Jayce walked down the aisle! We didn't think he would at first. He walked in, looked at all the people, and walked right back out. I pretty much figured it wasn't going to happen at that point. Then he came back in and did it! He acted really shy and kind of covered his face with his hand, but he did it!!! And he looked adorable, by the way.

When we went to the airport to leave on Sunday, our flight was way overbooked. So, we volunteered to take a later flight and were greatly rewarded! We got to fly first class and got 400 dollar vouchers for all of us! It was a long day in the airport, but definitely worth it!

No new news on the adoption. I found a few little girls who are adorable on rainbow kids, and I have sent our info to that agency so that maybe we can review their files. They are both from Korea, but both of them already have families looking at their files. So, we will hear back if their files become available. If it's meant to be, I am sure we will hear. It would mean changing our homestudy and other info for a different country and going through a different agency, and I am not sure if we want to do that unless it all seemed to work out and feel right. So, we will see...

VPK and New Jersey bound!

So, VPK has started at the preschool. Jayce did really well, no surprise there. He has been going to the school since he was two years old. He has been split up from his partner in crime (who is in my class :) and, as a result, has received a ticket for both Monday and Tuesday. So, hopefully this means we are going to have a great last year of preschool!

All three VPK classes are going well and even though we are only two days in, I think this will be a fun school year. Which hopefully means, it will just fly right by! Then we can hopefully get a referral and everything will work out nicely. We just need to get Beckhem listening better and talking more (using words, instead of scary, demonic screams.) Once we accomplish that, maybe potty training?

Tomorrow we head back up to New Jersey for Ellen's wedding! I can't believe Jayson has not been up there for over two years! It will be nice to be back in the area (and back to some civilization and GOOD malls!) Of course, it will just be nice to see family and friends and celebrate with the wedding.

We are hoping Jayce will do a great job walking down the aisle. We are trying to not make it a big deal since that will probably make him more nervous and scared and weird-acting. He has a tendency to say crazy things and act out of control if he is embarrassed. So, hopefully he will just do great and it won't be an issue. Thankfully, my mom is also coming up for the wedding and will help handle Beckhem. We definitely don't want him running around during the ceremony and reception.

Well, since it is getting late and there is packing to do, I better go...

Patience is not my virtue

We are in the process of adopting a little girl from Taiwan. We are so excited and want to get a referral right NOW! Unfortunately, we have at least a two year wait (according to our agency.) We had all of our info. into Taiwan sometime in November 2009. So, we haven't even waited one year yet. Why am I already going crazy with impatience????

We have two little boys. One is four and one is two, and we are obviously very busy. We both work and our boys go to preschool (where I-mom-also works.) We have had a very fun and busy summer. We went to the Bahamas to visit family, to HHI, and are heading to New Jersey for a wedding this week. All of this to say, why am I so unbelievably ready to add on to our family right now? I wish I knew, but every single day I wake up hoping to get a call from our agency that we surprisingly have a referral.

I have always wanted to adopt a little girl from an Asian country. I always knew that one day I would, and I am sooo anxious to fulfill this dream of mine. I also am very ready to not be the only girl in the family! I love my boys, but I am greatly outnumbered. I have a great relationship with my mom and am ready to have a daughter of my own now. I know that God has a plan for our family and is in control of our adoption, but I am so anxious for something to happen that I feel like I need to constantly research adoption and different agencies to see if I can make it happen quicker. I know that as a Christian this is not the most faithful way to be behaving, but I just can't help it. Patience is definitely not my virtue.

I am driving my husband, mom, and anyone else who knows me well crazy with our adoption. I want to talk about it all the time and am always researching adoptions (mainly in Taiwan) on the computer. Everyone is very supportive of me but just keeps telling me to be patient and to at least wait two years before looking into other options. (We were told originally from our agency that it will most likely be a two year wait, if not longer.) But I can't stand not knowing when this will actually happen! How can we plan anything? What if I want to get pregnant again? I also want to adopt from China. Trying to plan for our family and future with so much uncertainty of when our Taiwan adoption will happen and how old our daughter will be is stressful and scary for someone like me. I want to try and control this and make it happen as soon as possible.

The only reason I decided to start this blog was so that others who may be feeling the same way could have someone to talk to or relate to. I know many people who are in the adoption process feel frustrated and impatient too, and I want to assure you that you are definitely not alone!

I think that is enough venting and info for now. Until next time....Taryn