First Update Video

Kate Pei-Jung at 2 Months and 22 Days Old

Technical Difficulties, Please Stand By...

Hurray! We received an update today on Ms. Kathryn Pei-Jung, but the video did not come through = ( sad. As soon as it is resent we will post it along with pictures. Kate is beautiful and doing just great!! The update information was completed on 8-28-08 when Kate was 2 months and 22 days old. She weighs 9.9 lbs. (up from 5.1 lbs at birth!) is 21 inches long and drinks 4 oz of formula every four hours. All her developmental milestones are on target: she is focusing on faces, grasping fingers, turning her head, rolling from side to back, vocalizing and generally doing all the things you would expect from a little person her age. We feel so good about the wonderful care she is obviously receiving from her foster family in Taiwan. How lucky we are that there are wonderful women in the world who want to do this very important exhausting work. Bless them. So stay tuned! We will be posting pictures and videos just as soon as we can.

Extra Extra Read All About It!!!

FINALLY!!! As you can see from the above news item, our hearing date has been set for Thursday October 16th (that's Taiwan time, so it will be happening in our world a day earlier.) This is the first of three hearings. A hearing date is generally scheduled between 1 and 3 months after referral. So, with a hearing date occuring 2 months and 8 days post referral things seem to be on track. If this trend continues, we would expect to travel sometime in January. Of course, things don't always go as planned so we could travel anytime between December and February (UGH!) At this time, we hope that our baby is safe and happy, her birthmother is surrounded by love and support and our judge is a compassionate soul who will want to expedite this process so that a baby can join her forever family half-a-world away. Please PLEASE keep all of us in your thoughts and say a prayer for the people of Taiwan who recently experienced a serious typhoon. Someday, I hope you will read this post, Kate, and know that we were thinking of you every single day. It's so hard to wait for you. Be well baby girl, we love you!

First Care Package

Tomorrow is September 6th and Kate will be three months old. How odd and sad it feels to have missed this precious time in our daughters life. In our program (JOH program III) babies are cared for in a hospital for the first three months. Next, they are placed in a foster home where they remain until the court proceedings are complete and they are relinquished to the custody of their parents. We have heard nothing but high praise for the foster care system in Taiwan both from agency workers and families who have traveled to Taiwan to meet their children. We are thrilled that we will have the opportunity to meet with the foster mother while we are in Taiwan. Now that Ms. Kate is moving to a foster family we are able to send care packages to her. Today we sent off our first package which included two outfits, a few onesies (size 3-6 months), two pairs of socks, a build a bear teddy bear with mom's voice recorded on it, a soft picture book of black-and-white family photos (since those are the colors babies are most interested in at this age), a disposable camera so that the foster family can take pictures and a little blanket. We also sent a package to the staff at TWCA and one for the foster family. We filled those with nuts and candies from a special Montana store, Montana teas and a 2009 Montana calendar featuring beautiful pictures from around our state. We did write notes to both TWCA and the foster family hoping that someone at the agency will be able to translate. We desperately want them to know just how much we appreciate all their hard work on behalf of our family. We will always be indebted to the many people who were there to care for our daughter when we could not. We think and talk about you all time Kathryn Pei Jung. We can't wait until we bring you home so that we can cuddle, love and care for you ourselves. Soon, we hope.