He is on his way to stardom....

We received another update last week regarding Ryan, including three new photos, medical records and a one-minute video of him waving his arms around and cooing. It was quite a sight for a number of reasons, and we have probably watched this thing about 100 times.

The video was accompanied by audio, and his foster mother can be heard saying "hello" to him in English. That impressed me. I doubt she is speaking English around him that often, but it is nice to know that he may understand us a little bit when we meet him. (Being naive here?)

In other news, we are still in the document authentication process and are waiting for our I-171H to arrive.

My uncle hosted a Christmas party where one of the guests was the director of the local US-CIS office. I showered her with drinks and gifts with a wink here and there to get that I-171H to us ASAP. Okay, not really, but we did have a pleasant conversation. Karin, who always carries pictures of Ryan with her, flashed her pocket album like an FBI agent flashing a badge before taking down an interstate drug cartel. She made Ryan the hit of the party.

Now, I suppose this is a result of wanting for more clothes and bedding, but it has not escaped Ryan's future father and grandfathers that he is wearing girls' clothes in these most recent photos (note the gathered sleeves!) and has been sleeping on pink sheets. Actually, I think it was his future mother and grandmothers who noticed this. (Women reading this are no doubt commenting that men never "notice" things.) Now I am really regretting not buying that little football jersey for him -- but we have sent him several outfits with fire trucks, baseballs, etc., so I'm sure he'll be fine!

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.