We have a date for our hearing!

Our agency always seems to have big news for us whenever we go to their office. Last December, our case manager had just received our referral by e-mail when we stopped in to drop off some preliminary paperwork. Today, when Rob stopped in to drop off our latest package for Ryan, our case manager was just getting off a phone call with the Taiwan program director, who learned that our hearing will be held on May 17!

From what we understand, the purpose of the hearing is for the court to review the information we submitted in our dossier to determine whether we are fit to adopt Ryan, and whether the adoption is in Ryan's best interest. I think Ryan's birth mother also has to attend the hearing in order to testify that she has relinquished her parental rights. (We do not have to attend the hearing ourselves -- we have a representative in Taiwan, who attends on our behalf.) After the court issues its first ruling following this hearing, there is a 10-day period in which the birth mother can decide to "reclaim" the child from foster care. We understand that this is rare, and our agency believes it is unlikely to happen in our child's case...but you never know.

Our case manager said that the second (final) ruling is typically issued one month after the first, but also told us that another couple in the program received their final ruling only 10 days after the first (i.e., as soon as the waiting period was over). The final ruling makes the adoption official, which means we will legally be Ryan's parents before we even travel.

After the final ruling, we will be assigned a travel date, which is typically 2-3 weeks after that ruling. We will need to spend about 1 week in Taiwan, which will include completing immigration paperwork at the U.S. Consulate. That paperwork will make Ryan a citizen as soon as we land in the U.S.

So....if we are lucky enough to receive our final ruling as quickly after our first ruling as this other couple did, we could be traveling by late June. Or, if we receive our final ruling about 1 month after the first, we should still be traveling by the end of July. In any event, we're really getting close!

We should also have new pictures of Ryan by the end of next week.