Happy New Year

Here is another one of the pictures we received with our referral of "the little dude".

It seems that China's recent announcement of more stringent adoption requirements has sent many people looking for other options. Based upon the amount of messages we have received, a lot of people are considering Taiwan. Good luck to all who have contacted us and to those who have decided to adopt from Taiwan. Please feel free to keep the questions coming, let us know if you have blogs, and please let us know when you receive your referral!

Well, Ryan has two future parents, and aunts, uncles, and grandparents who made sure he was not forgotten on Christmas. Yesterday, we delivered a package of baby clothes and toys to our agency, which will send it to his foster family in Taiwan.

In other news, we received the adoption agreement and power-of-attorney forms from Taiwan last Thursday - about two weeks sooner than our agency expected. Ryan's birthmother, or her legal representative, executed the agreement, and there is a red fingerprint on it. We don't know if this is his mother's fingerprint, but feel secure in knowing that she apparently finds us suitable to adopt her son.

We understand that all of our dossier documents that need to be certified by the state are being sent this afternoon. We are told they may be returned next week. Then, they will be sent to the office of the Taiwanese consulate in NY (TECO) for authentication. Once returned, the documents will be off to Taiwan to be reviewed by the court system there.