Kaley at Christmas

It would have been amazing to have Kaley home with us for her first Christmas, but we'll just look forward to next year. In the meantime, we received these two pictures from Taiwan.

Adorable, isn't she? :-)

Now, I fully recognize that I'm a bit biased in this matter, but I think that's just about the most precious smile I've ever seen!

More good news (or Merry Christmas to us!!!)

So we were already having a great belated Christmas with most of my (Kim's) family; Mom, Dad, Karen (sister), Jeff (brother-in-law) and Elijah (my unnaturally adorable 19-month old nephew), when the doorbell rang Monday morning. It was FedEx...with a package from Taiwan! WOOHOO!

We received the translated paperwork and list of next instructions! To see everything translated into Chinese made this whole journey even more surreal...and real...at the same time. There's a translated copy of the home study, adoption contract, power of attorney, and even a passport application for Kaley. Wow.

It was so neat to have family here to share in the excitement; we were bouncing around for joy. Elijah heard it was about his "cousin Kaley" and Taiwan, and he started running around the house saying "Kaley" and "ni hao" over and over again! ("Ni hao" is "hello" in Chinese.) He was all over the place, like he was looking for her and just wanted to say "ni hao" to her. I soooo wish I'd been able to get to the video camera!!!

Karen, Jeff & Elijah had to leave soon afterward to drive back to Indiana but Mom & Dad didn't have to leave until the next morning, so we strolled around a small historic town all afternoon. When we got home, Michael picked up our mail and there was another great surprise waiting for us! That same day, we received our letter from CIS (Citizenship & Immigration Services) telling us when to come for our fingerprinting! Yee haw! January 13th we'll be in Charleston for that next step! Go, God!

Merry belated Christmas & Happy New Year!

A lot has happened in the Cottle household in the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, between a very busy schedule and a serious internet connection problem (which Michael just fixed...thanks, babe!), I haven't been able to update the blog in a while. Sorry 'bout that.

We'll start off with the first round of unexpected photos. Our friend Megan found these pictures of Kaley on someone's facebook page! Seems Amanda had been taking photos of some of the Home of God's Love babies when they went to pick up their new daughter. She took some of our Kaley, without knowing anything about her soon-to-be family. Megan saw these pics, copied and sent them to us and we promptly got in touch with Amanda, who was kind enough to share better copies. Thanks, Megan and Amanda!

A few more pictures & some good news...

We've had a lot of people ask for more pictures of Kaley so here are the rest of the photos I have of her so far. These were also taken by Dan and Megan when they were in Taiwan last month.

With one of the wonderful caregivers. (Thank you!)

Avery H. and our Kaley.
Avery is two months older than Kaley. It will be fun to reunite them "stateside".

Our little peanut.

The good news to share is that we were able to send a copy of the home study to Taiwan so that they could begin the translation! Another copy has been sent to DSS for approval of our I-171H and then we should get our I-600A approval from CIS. This means that not only will we be able to bring Kaley into the U.S. but she will be a citizen as soon as she arrives. We are sooo excited that something can actually start happening in Taiwan now! That's a HUGE "yea, God"!

Home Study is approved! Yea!

So today we found out our home study was approved! Thank you, God (and Lisa :-). It's been a great day so far.

What does one do to celebrate, you ask? One fixes a belated Thanksgiving turkey, of course! Honestly, in a weird sort of way, today feels more like a Thanksgiving to me than the actual holiday did. Maybe it's because the biggest thing I'm thankful for just got a step closer.

I know many of you (friends and family) are wondering how this whole adoption process works and what the steps are. Well, the Home Study is kind of the foundation of the whole thing. Until this VERY thorough study is done (our history as individuals, our history as a couple, our families, our home, our finances,our health, our beliefs and values, our community, even our dogs), the US Citizenship and Immigration Services won't process the documents saying we can bring Kaley into the U.S. And until the Home Study and that USCIS documentation are finalized, the Taiwan government can't start the adoption on their end.

So you can see how important today was...and why we're celebrating. Seriously, I feel like I just completed the first trimester of a pregnancy. Like, no matter how long we've known about this, it's finally ok to believe this will go "full term" and we will end up bringing home the little angel we've been praying for. I know things could still happen that would prevent us from getting Kaley, but when we got that news, the bit of my heart that still said "it's been 15 years already. Maybe you're not going to have a child", just woke up and said "woohoo...there's a baby coming!"

A couple of supporting documents needed to be added in to the home study report after our visit today, so those will be added and the agency should send the report off to USCIS by Friday or Monday. Then we just wait until USCIS sends back our approved documents. When we get the USCIS approval, we'll send copies of everything, along with a pictorial of our family, home, etc., to Taiwan so it can be translated and go before the judge. After that, it's just a time of waiting until they set our court date when we go over to Taiwan to meet Kaley, her wonderful caregivers and go before the judge for approval of our petition to adopt.

There's still a long way to go and as frustrating as the waiting can be, we know it is because people are protecting the children. God will bring Kaley home in His time...that's all we've ever wanted.

OK, got to run baste a turkey! Thanks for the prayers!