It's Official!

We officially accepted our referral of Pei-Chi today! She received a clean bill of health from the doctor who reviewed her medical files, pictures and videos. Pei-Chi was only in the third percentile at birth but in the past two months has made her way up to the 25th percentile in weight and head circumference and 10th percentile for height. Not too bad for a progress report. :-) The doctor said she looks like a perfectly normal, healthy girl and there isn't any reason for us to hesitate in accepting the referral.

Today was also special because it's Rob's birthday. He made the call to our case worker to tell her of our acceptance. Here's a picture of the proud Papa making the call. Who could ask for a better birthday present?

Last Night At Dinner...

Last night I had a video shoot at the church. Since I'm not on my darling husband's payroll when it comes to video work, I made him take me out to dinner. Given the circumstances of the past few days, I was in the mood for Chinese. We went to a wonderful restaurant called Flo's Asian Kitchen and split Peanut Chicken - fantastic. Caleb had Chicken Potstickers (thank you half-price happy hour appetizers!) and actually liked them a lot. Anyway, after we were done eating, our waiter brought out our fortune cookies. This is where it gets good (and reminds us that God has a sense of humor). Rob's fortune cookie: You will have a happy adventure soon. My fortune cookie: Others take notice of your radiance. Caleb's fortune cookie: You will be rewarded for being a good listener. lol Too bad he didn't read this before dinner!

Pei-Chi's First Video

We all love the part where she sneezes. So cute! We kind of think she either just woke up or is really, really tired - she keeps trying to rub her eyes - poor baby.

A friend is going to translate what the foster mother is saying to Pei-Chi for us. Once we find out, we will post it so you can understand too. Not being fluent in Mandarin, the only part we understand is when the lady says Pei-Chi's name. :-)

We Have A Baby!

Pei-Chi Yang

We have received our referral for our Taiwan adoption! This has come as quite a surprise as we weren't anticipating a referral until February. We have a beautiful daughter from the Yunlin province of Taiwan born on October 9, 2007. She was born full term, but was quite the little peanut weighing in at 5.25lbs and measuring 18.5". She has grown quite a bit in the past two months as she now weighs 8.8lbs and measures 20.5". Her Taiwanese name is Pei-Chi Yang (pronounced Pay-chee). We have been trying to figure out what Pei-Chi means in Mandarin, but haven't had any luck so far. We are currently reviewing her medicals with a doctor who specializes in international adoptions. Once we receive notice of a clean bill of health from her (we have no reason to believe she isn't perfectly healthy) we will formally accept the referral. Once that happens, we will be buried in paperwork trying to get our dossier off to the Taiwanese government as soon as possible. Once the courts in Taiwan have our documents, they will schedule a civil ruling where the judge determines if the baby was given up willingly, have the parental parties relinquished their rights, etc. If all goes well during the civil hearing, then a final hearing will take place and the baby will legally be declared our daughter and the birth parent rights are permanently terminated. Once the final hearing takes place, we will have between 1-3 weeks of notice before traveling to Taiwan. We will stay in country for 7-10 days and then return home with our baby. The whole process will hopefully be done by late spring early summer. We will keep you all up to date on what happens.

Thank you all for your many prayers and kind thoughts throughout this process. Also, a special thank you to those who participated in our spaghetti dinner fundraiser. We are enjoying Phoenix very much and are excited about what the future holds for us.

PS - Caleb absolutely loved that she was wearing Mickey Mouse 'Pajamas'. :-)