He keeps getting cuter!

We've received another update! Our little guy, who turned 6 months old on April 1, seems to be doing GREAT. We received a 50-second video, where he is grasping for a stuffed toy and seems very alert and responsive to what is going on around him, with good eye-hand coordination. Since he is in foster care, he is receiving lots of individual attention, as babies in orphanages often do not (although we understand the orphanages in Taiwan are very good), so his development will probably be right on track with a 6-month-old who has been raised from birth by his biological parents. He will probably be crawling by the time we travel home with him, which will make for an interesting 30 hours of flying, but we're hoping he'll still like to be held a lot even after he becomes "mobile."

We're getting more anxious to receive the monthly updates now that we know the schedule on which they're sent (between the 2nd and 5th of each month). We were both stalking our e-mail accounts all day yesterday and today, hitting "refresh" several times an hour, since we knew another update was coming soon. We were happy to see that, in his new pictures, Ryan is wearing some of the (boy's!) clothes we sent him in February. We're in the process of putting together another package to send him this month, with some toys, teethers, and, of course, more clothes.

This is a summary of the court procedure in Taiwan, as described on the U.S. Department of State's website, at http://www.travel.state.gov/family/adoption/country/
country_335.html:

"An application for adoption is first submitted to the Taiwan
District Court. [Ours should have reached the court by late February.]
After one to two months, the adoptive parent(s) or a designated
representative will receive a notice to appear. During this waiting
period, a Taiwan social worker from the local bureau of social affairs
or a designated agency will review the foreign (U.S.) home study.
After the hearing, the court will rule on the adoption (usually within
two months) and publish a final ruling three weeks later.

The third step is to register the adoption at the Taiwan Registrar’s
office by submitting the original court ruling, final ruling, and the
power of attorney certified at the Taiwan Foreign Affairs Police
Station at the Taiwan Registrar’s office. This usually takes only one
hour."

We are presently in the stage of the process described in the first paragraph, waiting for the first of the two rulings. I am not sure if the "third step" described in the second paragraph is something we participate in during our trip to Taiwan, or if it is done by our attorney beforehand.

Based on what our agency has told us, we are optimistic that we'll be traveling this summer (hopefully July), which makes me the equivalent of being 6 months pregnant -- without having to suffer any of the physical symptoms!