So, this past week was somewhat of a roller coaster. As you know, we recently finished up our paperwork and sent it immediately to Taiwan via FedEx. David and I were stuck like glue to the FedEx tracking page...we tracked our package non stop day and night....and finally it said DELIVERED on Tuesday! BUT, when I looked at the delivery city it was not Taitung City, rather it was Taipei City. My heart immediately stopped and shear panic took over. I called FedEx and they informed me that once it arrives in Taipei, it then has to be shipped by the Taiwanese postal service to its final destination and there is no way to track it from that point on.....WHAT?! Immediately I felt a sense of loss of control. How come this was not explained to us before...Don't they know these are the most important documents ever and they must get to Taitung City as soon as possible?! I quickly called David and informed him about all of this chaos. As usual, he was very reassuring and positive...I just love him for that! He is always my strength when I am weak and always knows just what to say. He told me "don't worry, our papers are being hand delivered by God and they will arrive safely." After hearing that, I was able to calm down and take a deep breath. I prayed and asked God to take my worries away, as I know He will take care of us.
Wednesday morning came and I checked my email first thing...this has become the routine to the start of my days. Our documents had arrived safely! It was probably about 530 in the morning when I was reading the email...but I instantly ran into the bedroom and jumped on the bed to let David know. I was so overcome with excitement! And....attached in the email was a picture of JE and a video! He is growing so fast! What a joyful way to start the day :) Friday morning brought even more pictures and a update on JE from his check-up. He is now 10.5 lbs. and is 21.2 inches long. He is eating 4 ounces every 4 hours and loves to be held! This was the first email that contained information about him other that just pictures. It was so nice to hear about him growing and a little about his personality. We sent him his second care package last week as well and in it we included a recordable book that we were able to record our voices as we read it. We have read that this will help him to recognize our voices when we meet him. What a great idea! We also included disposable cameras and asked his nannies to take snapshots of him throughout the days....we plan on sending a couple with each care package so we can include these pictures in his baby book! His package should arrive on Monday or Tuesday.
What do we do now?! We wait! We are hoping that this week we will receive a court date for our first ruling. We are praying that this court date will be sometime in August! After the first ruling, we will have two more before we are able to travel. Please continue to be in prayer for Jack Everett and those taking care of him and that the courts will move swiftly!
Blessings,
Sherra
Lilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Hurry up and wait!
Where do I start? Well Thursday was crazy (Got all of our legal documents notarized at the local and state level)...and then came Friday! All of our legal paperwork had to go to Houston, Texas to TECO (Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office).
There are a number of TECO offices across the U.S. but Mississippi is designated to Houston. Once the paperwork is there, they will verify that all of the paperwork is legit and all of the notaries, local and state notaries, are correct. IF we would have sent the paperwork via FedEx...it could have taken more than a few days for them to verify it once they received it. So if we would have sent it FedEx there, the time it would take TECO to review and notarize the paperwork, and then send it back to us....would have taken TOO long! (Not to mention the website specifies that they are not responsible for lost documents!) So we decided to take the documents to TECO and personally deliver it to them. This process only takes a few hours! Sherra dropped me off at the airport around 6 Friday morning and my flight left at 7:10. After arriving in Houston at 8:30ish, I picked up a rental car and drove directly to TECO (found it with no problem!) Oh, this was my first trip to Houston and that city is just HUGE!Everyone at the office was extremely nice. I was told that the paperwork would be finished around 11:30 so I could wait there or come check back then. Lucky for me I decided to pack my running gear just in case I had to wait...so I went for a run. I really enjoyed running through downtown Houston (it was very flat) and found a nice neighborhood to run through. I made it back to the office at 11:20 and it was almost exactly 11:30 when she gave me the paperwork. Now my flight was scheduled to head back to Jackson at 8:40 pm. Luckily I contacted Mrs. Jo Ann (who set up all of my flight and rental car) and she informed me that there was a 3:00 flight heading back if I made it in time. I called and verified the flight change and made it back to the airport with plenty of time to spare (after getting lost a few times on the way back...did I mention Houston is HUGE?). My flight made it back safely and boy was I tired. I slept late Saturday morning, which I do not usually do, and then we set out to FedEx. The documents were sent to Taiwan Saturday morning...so now we wait and pray that they make it safely! From there everything goes to the Taiwan courts and we wait some more! Oh the waiting......
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Starting to Get a Glimpse of the Light
Hey guys! Today has been an exciting day for us! Yesterday, we received all of our paperwork from Taiwan....yippee! David & I immediately blocked our work and school schedules for today so we could begin the notary process. We started our day off with a nice, relaxing run this morning, which I needed because I did not sleep a wink last night! Running is always a good way to relieve stress.. at least for me anyway! Not sure about David...I think I slow him down quite a bit when we run together..but he's such a good sport and always provides me with words of encouragement during our runs :)
We immediately came home and got dressed and headed to the bank....1st stop for notary..thanks Ms. Janice! Following this, we headed downtown to the Secretary of State office for our second step in the notary process. As I told you guys in a previous post...this is a very meticulous process, but it is all so worth it! Tomorrow morning, David will fly to Houston to hand deliver our papers to the Taiwan officials at TECO...this is the final step of the notary process....woo hoo! You have the option of sending the papers through mail, but we are so ready for Jack Everett to come home and decided to hand deliver them ourself! This will take about two hours (if all goes as planned) and then he will fly back home tomorrow afternoon. We will immediately send these documents back to Taiwan and hope to be entered into the courts sometime next week. IF this happens, then it should be about 4-6 weeks until our first court hearing!!!
Please pray for a safe day of travel for David tomorrow! Thank you all for your prayers and kind words...Jack Everett sure has a lot of love to come home to!
Many Blessings,
Sherra
We immediately came home and got dressed and headed to the bank....1st stop for notary..thanks Ms. Janice! Following this, we headed downtown to the Secretary of State office for our second step in the notary process. As I told you guys in a previous post...this is a very meticulous process, but it is all so worth it! Tomorrow morning, David will fly to Houston to hand deliver our papers to the Taiwan officials at TECO...this is the final step of the notary process....woo hoo! You have the option of sending the papers through mail, but we are so ready for Jack Everett to come home and decided to hand deliver them ourself! This will take about two hours (if all goes as planned) and then he will fly back home tomorrow afternoon. We will immediately send these documents back to Taiwan and hope to be entered into the courts sometime next week. IF this happens, then it should be about 4-6 weeks until our first court hearing!!!
Please pray for a safe day of travel for David tomorrow! Thank you all for your prayers and kind words...Jack Everett sure has a lot of love to come home to!
Many Blessings,
Sherra
Friday, July 8, 2011
Growing In Love & Faith
Tonight we enjoyed what has come to be, our weekly dinner at Mr. Chen's. When we are there, it makes us feel as if we are in Taiwan and that much closer to Jack Everett. As we sat down, I looked over at the table next to us, and there was the cutest Asian family enjoying their delicious meal. They had a son who was probably about 4 years old, and I could not keep my eyes off of him. My mind was overcome with thoughts of Jack Everett soon sitting there with us! As each day passes, my love and hopes for him grow stronger and stronger!! David and I began to talk about our love for him and our love for God, and how since we began this journey our faith has exploded! We know, 100% that this is the plan He had for us all along and we are more than honored that He chose us to adopt one of His children! We are excited to walk in this journey with Him and throughout our lives and can't wait for Jack Everett to join us! It is unimaginable to truly understand the love He has for us!
So, what has been going on this week?....A LOT! Our final homestudy was sent to Taiwan and will be FedEx'd to us on Monday. We are hopeful to receive it by Wednesday, along with other legal documents that will undergo an extensive notary proces. After this takes place (which will probably take about 2 weeks), we will immediately send it back to Taiwan and within 48 hours, be entered into the Taiwanese courts. On Wednesday, we sent in our USCIS application. This is immigration paperwork that must be done for Jack Everett to become a U.S. citizen and usually takes one-three months to be finalized. We aren't as rush, rush on this paperwork, because it is one of the final things that needs to be completed....BUT, of course we would like to have this done as soon as possible!
The next and most popular question we are asked is...when will y'all be bringing him home?! We wish more than anything, that this question had a "final" answer...but unfortunately is does not. We did receive an email today with a "guestimated" travel timeline that suggests November. Please continue to be in prayer for Jack Everett and those taking care of him. Please pray with us, that our paperwork will be completed very soon and entered into the courts.
Blessings,
Sherra
So, what has been going on this week?....A LOT! Our final homestudy was sent to Taiwan and will be FedEx'd to us on Monday. We are hopeful to receive it by Wednesday, along with other legal documents that will undergo an extensive notary proces. After this takes place (which will probably take about 2 weeks), we will immediately send it back to Taiwan and within 48 hours, be entered into the Taiwanese courts. On Wednesday, we sent in our USCIS application. This is immigration paperwork that must be done for Jack Everett to become a U.S. citizen and usually takes one-three months to be finalized. We aren't as rush, rush on this paperwork, because it is one of the final things that needs to be completed....BUT, of course we would like to have this done as soon as possible!
The next and most popular question we are asked is...when will y'all be bringing him home?! We wish more than anything, that this question had a "final" answer...but unfortunately is does not. We did receive an email today with a "guestimated" travel timeline that suggests November. Please continue to be in prayer for Jack Everett and those taking care of him. Please pray with us, that our paperwork will be completed very soon and entered into the courts.
Blessings,
Sherra
Thursday, June 30, 2011
One Step Closer...
This has been a week filled with good news! On Tuesday, we received updated pictures...3 of them and a video of Jack Everett playing! What a blessing that was! David & I were so anxious to receive more pictures of our sweet boy. He is just absolutely beautiful & we can't wait to share his pictures with everyone. Today he also turned one month old...Happy 1 month JE....our hearts are overflowing with love for you and we can't wait to have you in our arms!
Today, we received wonderful news...our FBI checks have been cleared and are in the mail to us!!!! This is such joyful news, because as soon as we receive these in our hands, we can send them to our social worker so she can sign off on our homestudy! So, what does all of this mean?? It means, it will then be COMPLETE...we will send it back to Taiwan so the translation can be finished and it will then be sent back to us...in Chinese! We can't wait to see it...our life story.....in Chinese. After we receive it, it will have to be notarized three times. Once in Rankin County, then by the Secretary of State, and then again in Atlanta...what a process! The adoption world is definitely not green, there is TONS of paperwork :) Of course, it is all worth it! Once all of the notary paperwork is done, our homestudy will go back to its final place...Taitung, Taiwan and go before the courts! We are praying that this process will not take too long.
I have talked to other adoptive parents and have read many blogs, and now understand the feelings they have shared with me about waiting on bringing your child home. When you first begin the adoption process you are consumed with completing paperwork and gathering many documents....this keeps you super busy! After this work is done you begin the wait for referral stage. Once you receive your referral (your child), this is where it really becomes difficult. One of my weaknesses, is that I am not very patient. My mind right now, is only focused on bringing our son home as soon as possible. It is so hard, because we have no control over what happens from this point forward. Our work is done...now we just wait on others to do their work...this is what I find to be the most difficult for me right now. I have NO control. I pray daily for the Lord to take this feeling away from me, as I know that He will bring Jack Everett home according to His time...not mine. Please pray with us, for our son to be home according to God's plan and pray for the staff that is taking such wonderful care of him.
I hope that you all have a wonderful Fourth of July! Happy Birthday, America!
Blessings,
Sherra
Today, we received wonderful news...our FBI checks have been cleared and are in the mail to us!!!! This is such joyful news, because as soon as we receive these in our hands, we can send them to our social worker so she can sign off on our homestudy! So, what does all of this mean?? It means, it will then be COMPLETE...we will send it back to Taiwan so the translation can be finished and it will then be sent back to us...in Chinese! We can't wait to see it...our life story.....in Chinese. After we receive it, it will have to be notarized three times. Once in Rankin County, then by the Secretary of State, and then again in Atlanta...what a process! The adoption world is definitely not green, there is TONS of paperwork :) Of course, it is all worth it! Once all of the notary paperwork is done, our homestudy will go back to its final place...Taitung, Taiwan and go before the courts! We are praying that this process will not take too long.
I have talked to other adoptive parents and have read many blogs, and now understand the feelings they have shared with me about waiting on bringing your child home. When you first begin the adoption process you are consumed with completing paperwork and gathering many documents....this keeps you super busy! After this work is done you begin the wait for referral stage. Once you receive your referral (your child), this is where it really becomes difficult. One of my weaknesses, is that I am not very patient. My mind right now, is only focused on bringing our son home as soon as possible. It is so hard, because we have no control over what happens from this point forward. Our work is done...now we just wait on others to do their work...this is what I find to be the most difficult for me right now. I have NO control. I pray daily for the Lord to take this feeling away from me, as I know that He will bring Jack Everett home according to His time...not mine. Please pray with us, for our son to be home according to God's plan and pray for the staff that is taking such wonderful care of him.
I hope that you all have a wonderful Fourth of July! Happy Birthday, America!
Sherra
Monday, June 27, 2011
Dinner With Mr. Chen
Well Sherra and I just finished a fantastic dinner at Mr. Chen's Authentic Chinese Cooking. If you have not tried Mr. Chen's, you must! It is my new favorite place to eat! It also has an Oriental Supermarket connected. The Supermarket has an abundance of authentic Oriental foods (rice, noodles, desserts, fresh seafood...just about everything you could imagine) and other Oriental products. So back to our meal....tonight we had the Kung Pao shrimp, shredded curry chicken, spring rolls, and crab rangoons. All of the food was great but we particularly liked the Kung Pao shrimp and I absolutely loved the crab rangoons! After we finished our meal we walked into the market to look around. Of course what does Sherra want to look at....the SWEETS! While we were shopping we met this nice older gentleman who gave us many suggestions on the best sweets to buy! He said that he was not supposed to eat many sweets, but his shopping cart was FULL! We ended up buying four different sweets/desserts to try out. White Chocolate Yogurt Wafers - we noticed after we left that these are made in Taipei, Taiwan. They are very good and probably my favorite...Grape Gummy candy...Pocky which is Chocolate cream covered biscuit sticks, very good also...and Taiwanese homemade almond cookies, very good too, I think these are Sherra's favorites. Going to Mr. Chen's and the market makes me feel like I am in Taiwan. It makes me feel closer to Jack Everett. I guess because they are both authentic Oriental establishments and we are eating and shopping with Asian families, I tend to feel as if I am a part of the culture. Needless to say...we are excited about our son!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Getting caught up to speed
Hey guys! David & I have decided to start this blog together, so each of us will be able to share our thoughts and our journey with you. Today, I will start. First, I will catch everyone up on our story. Our adoption journey started years ago. Since I was in college, I have had a passion to one day adopt a child. Lucky for me, the Lord led me to David, who also shared in this passion. We were married in March of 2003, and of course everyone soon after began asking..when are y'all going to have children? Since we were only 22 years old at the time we were married, we were absolutley in no hurry to do such a thing! We both agreed that we wanted to accomplish our educational goals first, so we finished college and last year we both enrolled in graduate school. David will graduate in August with his Master's in Education Administration (way to go Dave!) and I am scheduled to graduate with my Master's as a Family Nurse Practitioner in May 2012.
As each year passed....and they pass much quickly these days, we began talking more and more about our family. We knew we wanted to adopt and have biological children...we just didn't know what the Lord's plans were for us and how we would have a family....sometimes our plans and HIS plans are so different :) We prayed over this for many years, and knew that He would bless us with children (whether biological or through adoption) according to His plans and at the time He had planned for us. We feel certain, that all along, His plans have been for us to adopt our children and we cannot express the excitement we feel that we have been chosen by Him to do so!!
David would agree with me, when I call myself somewhat of a "control freak"....I don't mean in a crazy way, but I do like to be in control of things and am very much a planner. In Sunday school today, we talked about how much we as a society try to control everything and how hard it is to stop the worrying about tomorrow, and just let our Father take care of us. He knows what we need, before we even ask and He will always take care of us. One of my favorite bible verses, Jeremiah 29:11 says "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I have a bracelet that I wear daily that has this enscribed, it is my reminder to let go and let God.
So, about our adoption...I am kind of a rambler, so I will work to keep my thoughts clear for you guys! Ok! After years of not knowing how we would have children, our prayers were answered in January. We were at church one Sunday and were singing the opening hymn, when I felt a strong feeling in my "gut"(an overwhelming sensation went through my body) that it was TIME...I was 100% ready to start this journey! As we sat down after singing, David leaned over and whispered in my ear..."I am ready to adopt"....I wanted to shout with excitement, because little did David know, that the Lord had just spoken to me as well....our God is awesome! I could hardly wait to tell David after church that I too was ready!
And so, after weeks of praying and asking our Father to lead us to the country of our child, our prayers were answered in February....Taiwan! We received our referral on June 10th for a healthy baby boy. We are honored and overcome with joy as we announce that we have been chosen to be the parents of the most precious boy...Jack Everett Williams! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Where are we now? Right now, we are awaiting our FBI background checks to be completed...it has been 3 weeks and the wait time is estimated to be 7 weeks. I called Friday and have requested them to be expedited, because as soon as we receive these, our homestudy can be finalized and we can hopefully receive our first court date!! If you don't know what a homestudy is, it is your life story (ours is 13 pages!) that is presented to the courts. It is THE document! The sooner we can have this document finalized, the closer we can be to bringing Jack Everett home! Right now...it is "guestimated" to be Novemeber when we will be able to travel to Taiwan and bring him home. However, with the adoption world...anything can happen! Please keep us in your prayers as we embark on this journey!
Many Blessings,
Sherra
As each year passed....and they pass much quickly these days, we began talking more and more about our family. We knew we wanted to adopt and have biological children...we just didn't know what the Lord's plans were for us and how we would have a family....sometimes our plans and HIS plans are so different :) We prayed over this for many years, and knew that He would bless us with children (whether biological or through adoption) according to His plans and at the time He had planned for us. We feel certain, that all along, His plans have been for us to adopt our children and we cannot express the excitement we feel that we have been chosen by Him to do so!!
David would agree with me, when I call myself somewhat of a "control freak"....I don't mean in a crazy way, but I do like to be in control of things and am very much a planner. In Sunday school today, we talked about how much we as a society try to control everything and how hard it is to stop the worrying about tomorrow, and just let our Father take care of us. He knows what we need, before we even ask and He will always take care of us. One of my favorite bible verses, Jeremiah 29:11 says "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I have a bracelet that I wear daily that has this enscribed, it is my reminder to let go and let God.
So, about our adoption...I am kind of a rambler, so I will work to keep my thoughts clear for you guys! Ok! After years of not knowing how we would have children, our prayers were answered in January. We were at church one Sunday and were singing the opening hymn, when I felt a strong feeling in my "gut"(an overwhelming sensation went through my body) that it was TIME...I was 100% ready to start this journey! As we sat down after singing, David leaned over and whispered in my ear..."I am ready to adopt"....I wanted to shout with excitement, because little did David know, that the Lord had just spoken to me as well....our God is awesome! I could hardly wait to tell David after church that I too was ready!
And so, after weeks of praying and asking our Father to lead us to the country of our child, our prayers were answered in February....Taiwan! We received our referral on June 10th for a healthy baby boy. We are honored and overcome with joy as we announce that we have been chosen to be the parents of the most precious boy...Jack Everett Williams! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Where are we now? Right now, we are awaiting our FBI background checks to be completed...it has been 3 weeks and the wait time is estimated to be 7 weeks. I called Friday and have requested them to be expedited, because as soon as we receive these, our homestudy can be finalized and we can hopefully receive our first court date!! If you don't know what a homestudy is, it is your life story (ours is 13 pages!) that is presented to the courts. It is THE document! The sooner we can have this document finalized, the closer we can be to bringing Jack Everett home! Right now...it is "guestimated" to be Novemeber when we will be able to travel to Taiwan and bring him home. However, with the adoption world...anything can happen! Please keep us in your prayers as we embark on this journey!
Many Blessings,
Sherra
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