We were finally able to send the first package over to Taiwan. We were so excited to finally give her something from us. Brian and I went out and found some comfy clothes for her to wear in the orphanage. There is no way to know if these little out fits will stay with her but it is worth the thought. Also we knew that we were going to miss her birthday so we sent a birthday card and outfit for her to hopefully wear on her big day. We put in a few little fun toys. I also tried to think of the best way for her to get to know us so far away. I really wanted to appeal to her senses including sight, smell, and sound so she could get to know us. (I don't think taste would do much good and my dream is to hold her so she can feel my touch but I can't send that in the mail either.) Included in her package was a little blanket that we have kept with us for the last few weeks so hopefully she can smell us. This was recommended to us from some other adoptive families. We also included a recordable book so she could hear our voices. Brian talked to her in Chinese and I tried to a little too, but the book we read in english. Lastly, we included a soft photo book so she could see pictures of her new family and how they are related in both english and chinese. We think she may have already received our package but we haven't heard from the orphanage in awhile so we are not sure. We hope the reason we haven't heard from them is because they are working really hard to get our little girl home to us soon. That brings us to the paperwork part of this post.
This is a lot of paperwork!!! I know now why so many families call it "paper pregnancy". The pictures show all the paperwork we have being working on just since we were matched. This is our dossier, power of attorney, and contracts. Each one had to be notarized and sent for state authentication before we could finally mail them to TECO (Taiwan Economic and Cultural Offices) in California. These pictures are taken day we finally finished and put them in the mail. . . but only for the first time. Then the phone calls started with why one document needed a name re-verified or how the signature didn't look like the printed name. The littlest things all of a sudden became HUGE obstacles in the way of getting our paperwork into court and getting our little girl home. We had to play the overnight game back and forth until one day Brian finally broke when they wanted to send some of the documents back again. I have never seen Brian get so upset. I was in the shower when the phone call came and as soon as I heard the yelling I knew what happened. I came out running dripping wet in my towel to try to calm him down. "You can't yell at the gate keeper to our daughter." Luckily he got the point across and when she verified our paperwork one more time with the consulate, it was good news and we were approved! He did apologize profusely after, but I guess you don't get between a papa bear and his new cub. Now we are waiting for a court date and praying it is before April the 1st to prevent any delays with the new requirements. We are pretty good at this whole waiting thing but it hurts more everyday.
