A poem I found...

KISSES IN THE WIND...

I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams
You are here each day with me, at least that is how it seems.
I know you wonder where we are.....What's taking us so long,
But remember child, I love you so and God will keep you strong.
Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin.....
Because tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.
May God Hold you in his hand until I can be with you,
I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do.
Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.
But for tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.
May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.
And let the angels bring the kisses that I send to you each night.

Author Unknown

Zack's January Update!

The January Update has arrived! We are so relieved It came before the Chinese New Year.

We have his first Christmas Photo! That's so neat.

Zack's new measurements are:

Length: 27.76" / 70.5 cm
Weight: 18.3 lb / 8.3 kg
Head: 17.52" / 44.5 cm

Out of our hands!

We have now turned in the very last piece of paper required by our agency for the dossier. The dossier will now go through a few processes in the states, (translation, certification, athentication) making stops at the Secreatary if State's office and TECO (basicaly Taiwan's consolate) and then be on its way to the Taiwan courts. It seems we may have entered the adoption process in Taiwan at a rather good time. They have recently done away with one step in the process, the Superior Court, so now the dossier will start out in the local courts where the final ruling or decree is actually made. Not many people I am in contact with have adopted since the procedure change, but the few that have seem to be traveling 3-4 months from when they enter court. One family traveled in 2!!

It is all out of our hands now. This is a huge moment for us. When we got the BINDER of requirements for the adoption in November I was feeling like we may never finish, but instead we completed our homestudy and dossier in 2 1/2 months, while hosting Thanksgiving and celebrating a few Christmases. This is what some other adoptive parents call "Birth by Paper", and one observant dad noted that with a hospital birth, "at least you can get an epidural"!
I second that! Neither Chris nor I have hver spent so much time with a Notary Public in our lives. To maintain my sanity while trying to coordinate notarys and my busy working husband with a physician at a hospital, I would remind myself, If I were charged with finding a family for my beautiful innocent baby what might I require? A heck of a lot! Probably much more that has been asked of me!

~Amanda

Zack's room comes to life...

Zack's room is now painted! It's not finished yet but the biggest hurdles were getting Luke into a big boy bed and painting. Yeah!! We can check both off the list. Now for the fun part, decorating!! Stay tuned for the final product...

Luke Gets A Big Boy Bed!

Luke has moved into a toddler bed. The transition has gone amazingly smoothly. We had one night of confusion and a few tears, but even then he was asleep by 9:00! Now we just need to convince him to hang out in his room a bit longer in the AM. We also need to get used to him being able to just walk out into the living room when his nap is over. So far he has scared me to death every time! He just sorta appears next to me with no announcement at all. At night he has a gate up so he can't leave his room while we sleep, safety first. He just Loves his new Fire Truck Bed.

Chris, Luke, & Amanda....just waiting for Zack!!

Meet Chasity Hope Poindexter-Diaz!

Amanda's sister Missy and Her boyfriend Daniel welcomed a BEAUTIFUL baby girl, Chasity Hope, on Saturday, January 7th 2005 at 8:00am. She weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs., 9oz's!

Mommy and baby are doing very well, and will be leaving the hospital today.

Meet Zack!

Here are our first photo's of Zack From St' Lucy's in Taiwan (and one of Luke, 18mo's). In these photo's Zack's 5mo's old, but he's actually 7 mo's old this month. His birthday is 06-18-05, only 11days from Luke's birthday, 06-29-04!! We are currently getting our third bedroom ready for Luke to move into so that Zack will have the room closest to us. Cross your fingers that all goes smoothly.
We are just about finished with our last stack of paperwork, called the dossier, that will be sent to Taiwan and travel through the local courts there. We are also waiting for word from Immigration and Naturalization Services that says we are approved for an international adoption.
Many of you have asked, "How long until you go get Zack?". We won't know for sure until a few weeks before we travel, but it will likely be in about 3-6 months.
When the time comes Chris will be traveling with his mom Sherry to Taiwan to bring home our baby. We would really like to bring him home before his first birthday. We will be posting regularly with adoption news and anything else that strikes our fancy! We should be getting updates at the end of every month with Zack's photo's and medical info , so stay tuned...