FINAL DECREE CELEBRATION

We found out today that the final decree for our adoption was issued and we are traveling to bring Emma Szu Yu home to join our family in March! CAN YOU HEAR US SHOUTING FROM THE ROOFTOP???!!!
We celebrated with ice cream tonight. It was so much fun! The boys are so excited that Emma will be here soon. Samuel was smiling from ear to ear when I told him and Wilson wanted to know if she was coming today. It was precious!
We will keep you posted as we know more about our specific travel dates. We hope to hear more after Chinese New Year--maybe mid Feb. Our agency thinks we will travel in mid March.
Thank you for all of your continued thoughts and prayers as we prepare for this exciting, life changing time for Emma Szu Yu and us.

January Package Sent

We prepared a new care package for Szu Yu and mailed it last week. I checked today and it arrived to our agency this morning. We hope Szu Yu receives it soon and enjoys it. It is so fun preparing packages for her. The boys each drew a picture for her this month. They were really excited about it. We included a little bracelet Samuel picked out for Szu Yu.

Our agency contacted us via email today to let us know they have not received any new information from Taiwan about our court filing. So we continue to wait to hear more and pray for Emma Szu Yu. I have been reading some adoption books that have been on my "to read" list. We will keep you updated as we hear more. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. This is so exciting!

SNOW fun

Snow is a rare happening in GA. Last night we finally got some snow--not much but enough to create huge amounts of excitement here!! The boys were so thrilled. They were outside from the first flake until there was enough on the ground to make snow angels and a snowman. They loved every second of it. Eric had a ball in it too. Here are a few pictures we took of the fun.

Finishing Touches

We added a few finishing touches to Emma Szu Yu's room this weekend. It is adorable!

January Update

We received an email this week from our agency saying that all of our paperwork has been prepared by the orphanage and our agency and we are awaiting a court filing for our paperwork. The court filing and then judge's approval are the next steps. We will not hear when the judge receives the paperwork. We will hear once the judge has approved it and we receive a travel date. So, now we wait and pray for patience and for God's timing. We are super excited and can't wait to get a call from our agency with the date for travel. It could take several months. We would love to travel in early spring but it may be longer...we are hoping it will be as soon as May? It could be summer though. There is no way to know..we just wait and see. We will definitely let you know when we hear more.
We are preparing a package to be mailed to Emma Szu Yu. I hope to send it next week. I am waiting to add some pictures of her room to her package so she can see it. I am adding some final touches to it this weekend (hanging her curtains, putting on the bed skirt, adding a few items to the walls, etc.). It has been so much fun to decorate.
We have had an exciting month so far. Our church officially opened the new building last night and we had a huge celebration service. It was incredible! It was awesome to see how God has been at work for the last 20 years since 12 stone church began. Eric has been working super, super hard these past few weeks in preparation for the opening. The children's ministry areas are incredible. I will post some pictures soon.
Other exciting news and firsts from our family...Samuel lost his first tooth a week ago! He looks so adorable with his missing tooth! And we took our first trip to the ER Wednesday night. Wilson fell coming upstairs and hit his chin. He had to have eight stitches. He was so brave and the pediatric ER doctor was super. He was very calm and upbeat (which was just what Mommy needed because I was far from calm). Wilson was excited the next day because his bravery earned him a trip to the Disney Store....a new REX figurine from Toy Story.
So, that is the update from here. Lots of news this month. I am hoping the remaining weeks of January are calmer. :)

Think Pink.......and lime green.....

We have started working on Emma Szu Yu's room this month. We painted the walls this past weekend and I started decorating this week. It is so cute! Having a pink room is a whole new world for us. Here are a few pictures of the transition of the room. We can't wait until she is here in person to see it.

Happy New Year--Paperwork in Taiwan!

We found out today that our paperwork made it safely to Taiwan last week. The paperwork is all being prepared and should be sent to the judge this week. After the judge receives it all we wait for the judge's approval so we can travel to bring our daughter home. This is so exciting! One step closer to meeting our sweet little girl. We still don't know when we will travel but we are excited that the last few steps have gone quickly. Our agency director said to expect about 90 days for the judge to approve the adoption and then we will travel about a month later. That would mean we would travel in late spring, maybe late April or early May. Happy 2008! What an exciting year already.