Countdown to Kaley

Hi, everybody!

2009-05-18T06:12:00.000-07:00

Hi there! No, we have not fallen off the face of the earth. I honestly did try to post while we were in Taiwan but kept getting distracted (gee, wonder why!) and never got the post finished. And since we've been home, I've been a little focused on the new joy of my life! :-)

Kaley is now home (YEA, GOD! THANK YOU!) and has adjusted beautifully! She bonded with us almost immediately in Taiwan and since we've come home, it's even better. She knows we are "her people" and even calls Michael "baba" (Chinese for "dad"). She's said "mama" a couple of times, too! She's a verryyy happy baby and her smile just lights up the room.

We have such a wonderful church family at Crossmark that we arrived home to a clean house, happy dogs and food in the fridge...even flowers on the counter! (Love you all! Thanks again!) It sure made the first week sooo much easier.

When we arrived at The Home of God's Love, Kaley, as well as several other babies and a couple workers, were sick. Within the week that we were there, Michael and I caught the tummy-bug, too, but by the end of the first week home, we were all healthy and had made it past the jetlag and time change. Getting a baby to turn her days and nights around on a permanent basis is a challenge but Kaley did beautifully (in SC, we are exactly 12 hours different than at the Home of God's Love in Taiwan, so the first several days we were all waking up at 2:00 in the morning wanting lunch! It's nice to be back on a normal time schedule now.)

Kaley is a very active, alert and inquisitive little girl. She's very good at army-crawling; gets up on her knees, too, but then can't seem to get it all to work together...too cute! She loves to run around in her walker and bounce in the jumparoo to anything musical. She's eating well and loves to feed herself snacks (when she's not sharing them with the dogs).

I've not been able to upload the pictures yet but we are taking lots, so I'll get some up in the next day or so. For now, here's the first picture we took as a family, at a tea field up the road from the Home in Taiwan.
Thank you, God...you amaze us every day!

2009-03-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

Alright, here's the scoop! This is the e-mail we received from Ted this morning:

Dear Michael & Kimberly,
“Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.” Proverbs 25:25

Praise the Lord! Everything went very smoothly today. The court docket was about an hour behind schedule, so it was almost 6:00 P.M. before we got out of court. (It’s now 7:00 P.M. as I write.) The new judge turned out to be a judge that we had had a few years back and he was just transferred back to Luo-Dong. He knew us and we him and it was a very amiable time in court. You can praise the Lord together with us.

The judge did have some difficult cases today, so I’m not sure how long it will be before
we get the first court paper but we will just keep trusting and praying, as God’s timing is always best.

What a blessing to have a good and known judge! What a relief! So we still don't know how long the rest of the process will take but at least we know that things went smoothly and that God has returned a good judge to this court (so smile, Dwayne, Melanie, Matt & Janie! God is handling all of this.)

I know several of you were up in the dark of night praying as we were. Thank you so much. Michael and I sat in Kaley's nursery and prayed and I promise, I could feel you all there petitioning at God's throne with us. I'm still tearing up at the incredible sense of peace and love we feel. Thank you.

Please keep praying. We're moving forward! Go, God!!

Court is tomorrow!

2009-03-24T07:14:00.000-07:00

As some of you have noticed and already commented about, our court date for Kaley is tomorrow, Wednesday! Ted (our agent there) will be before the judge at what equates to 4:45 AM in Columbia, SC.

We will be praying and waiting to hear. I certainly don't expect you all to wake that early and pray but please remember Kaley, Ted & Bev, the judge and us in your prayers today and tonight.

I'll post any news as soon as possible; hopefully Ted will be able to find out how this new judge will handle things and we'll be able to guess at a time frame. Right now we are all in the dark as to what to expect. Michael and I just continue to make preparations and pray.

We know this is all in God's timing but honestly, my stomach is a bit tight right now as we wait to hear how the court appointment goes and find out how this new judge acts. In Kaley's room there is a decoration that simply reads "Trust"...that is what we are doing now. Thank you all for trusting along with us.

More soon! Here we go, God...

Our first court date is set!!!

2009-03-05T06:32:00.000-08:00

This morning we received word that our court date is set for March 25th at 4:45 p.m.! This is the initial court date; we do not have to be there for it. We will be there for the finalization later.

The thing is that this is a new judge and it will be the first time the Skiles have taken a case before him. In the past, the paperwork wait has only been 2-3 weeks after the court date but then a new judge was placed who apparently wasn't as favorable toward international adoptions and paperwork took longer to arrive afterward (more like 2 months). Now that judge has been moved and yet another new judge is in place, so we don't know what to expect.

PLEASE join us all in praying that the new judge will understand that the goal is to place these children (Kaley and the others waiting) in loving families and the country in which those families live should not be an issue. The love and care of the children is the utmost matter here. Please also pray that everything follows God's timing and that we will be patient in the waiting. With all you prayer warriors covering this process with us, we truly feel blessed and humbled.

Now for more fun stuff...PICTURES!

Isn't she precious?!?

These are the babies at The Home of God's Love right now. Our Kaley is third from the left. The two in the middle are our friends' daughter Kaylee and our other friends' son, Chase.

You can see why we are passionate about praying for the judge and these beautiful children. Thanks for praying with us!

Don't know how she keeps getting cuter...

2009-02-28T17:42:00.000-08:00

Lookie what we got this week! It's Kaley's "official" picture; the one they took for the court, visa and passport applications. It's extra cool for us because she is wearing the outfit we sent to Taiwan with the paperwork. :-) More pictures of our baby girl. Looks like she's going to be mobile soon.

Still working on the registries but the ladies at work have decided to hold a baby shower for me this month. After so many years, this whole thing is taking some getting used to, but this is going to be one very loved and cared for little girl.

Now THEY have the papers!!!

2009-02-24T08:58:00.001-08:00

We woke up this morning to the following e-mail:
_____________________________________________

Your paperwork and Kaley’s new outfit arrived yesterday. Michelle put the outfit on her right away and in fact, when we had her pictures taken yesterday that will be used for her passport, visa physical and U.S. visa interview, she was wearing the new outfit you sent.

As soon as we received the paperwork yesterday, we prepared what was needed and took it to the court to apply for your adoption. Let’s keep praying! God’s timing is always perfect.

In Christ’s Love,
Ted for Bev, Kaley, Michelle, Carolyn, Anna and all in
The Home of God's Love
_____________________________

YIPPEE!!! Please keep praying! It is now all in the hands of God and the Taiwan government. Lord willing, we'll have her home when she's about 9 months old.

And for those who have asked what size she is, Kaley is now 7 months old (on Feb. 14th) and the fleece onesie we sent was a 6-month size. We know she is small so we took a guess and apparently were right. We did not get a picture of her in it; I'm hoping we'll get that soon.

Here are pictures of the bedding (before the room was painted). The room is now a beautiful yellow that goes with all the colors in the bedding.

I was telling Michael I HAD to find the camera dock so I could offload the photos and put them up here. He said, "why don't you just take the disk out of the camera and stick it in your computer?" (at which point I thought...DUH! I knew I could do that!) I hate it when I get so fixated on doing something a certain way that I miss the obvious alternative! By the time I got home yesterday, he had them all saved to the compter for me. (He's so good!)

After several friends and family members asked me last week where we were registered and when the baby showers were, I finally got around to starting the registry last night. (Karen, I am listening to your wisdom; Target and Wal-mart. :-). Not much on there now but I'm planning to work on that tonight and tomorrow night.

Love you all. More soon!

WE HAVE THE PAPERS!!!!!

2009-02-20T06:23:00.000-08:00

The authenticated papers arrived from TECO yesterday!!!!! Can you hear my screams of excitement?!?

Today we'll send them to The Home of God's Love in Taiwan and the final leg of this journey can begin...the court date and visa paperwork so we can go get our daughter! It will take several weeks to get through that part but at least it will be out of our hands and we are soooo close! I can't even describe the feeling when I got home last night and saw the authentication stamps on the documents.

And the nursery is now a beautiful yellow (thanks, Roxanne!). I've got pictures of the bedding and nursery-in-progress but since we moved all my office stuff out of there and merged it in with Michael's home office, I'm not sure where the camera dock ran off to! I'll be searching for it this weekend so I can download the photos from the camera to the computer and share them with you all.

Have a great day! I know we are! :-)

So sorry...

2009-02-16T18:29:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. I'm so sorry for not posting in a while. One thing after another but we are getting so close!

After a mix up with Michael's passport delayed everything, we finally received his passport last Wednesday afternoon and were able to overnight everything to the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Atlanta on Thursday. We have confirmation that it was received Friday morning so now we are just waiting to receive it back so we can overnight everything to Taiwan! Woo hooo!!! (and I have to say that the man who called back from the passport office was extremely helpful. He verified everything and, knowing we were working on an adoption, he processed it immediately. We had Michael's passport two days later. Thanking him and thanking God for that.) I sent an overnight return envelope with our papers to TECO so as soon as they put it back on the way to us, we'll know.

I'm working on a pictorial to send and we will have the nursery painted this week. Pictures of that coming soon! For those who care, we went with the Peek a Boo Friends set by CoCaLo (Google it and you'll see how cute.) Fun colors, lots of texture and adorable animals. I think she'll enjoy it (I know it makes us smile. :-) We've also received this new picture of our adorable little one. We're so pitiful...we actually just stand and look at the collage on our refrigerator each day. Kaley's picture is not only around our house and wallpaper on all our computers, it's on the big screen at church each week because our Crossmark family is almost as excited as we are! Honestly, I think we could go out every night for a month and have a different babysitter each time if we wanted! Promise...I'll post pics of the nursery this week and let you all know as soon as everything's on it's way to Taiwan. Lord willing, this will be a great and productive week!

Our little beauty

2009-01-23T17:15:00.000-08:00

First, here's the picture we received this week. Cutie pie, isn't she?

We are another day closer to bringing her home and that is SO exciting!

This week we chose the nursery bedding and today we received the long-anticipated I-171H! YEA, God! Now we can get the notarized home study copies and as soon as the passports arrive, everything goes to the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) for authentication. TECO authorization is the final step before everything goes to Taiwan for court dates. Friends have said their TECO authorization only took a matter of days, so we're praying that our passports arrive this week and that our TECO office moves as quickly as theirs did. If so, everything could be going to Taiwan in the next couple of weeks!

Thanks for all your prayers.

Get fingerprinting done...check!

2009-01-15T18:46:00.000-08:00

The Citizenship & Immigration Services process requires that we be fingerprinted. No biggie, right? Well you'd think that since we live in the capital city, we could just run downtown and do that, but that's not how it works. The state's USCIS office is in Charleston, a two-hour drive away and you have to come at the appointment time they set. Not a huge deal, but it does take a bit more planning.

Our appointment was at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday. Not wanting to get up at an unearthly hour and have to fight highway and Charleston traffic at morning rush hour (and also really needing to have some time away together), we decided to turn it into a 24-hour vacation. Yea!

After work Monday evening we packed, turned our dogs and home over to a friend for the night (thanks, Tom!) and drove to North Charleston. We stayed in a beautiful Residence Inn, had a great breakfast there in the morning and then set off for fingerprinting.

They use a cool machine, not the old ink-style; it was neat and very efficient. Michael's fingerprints went smoothly but mine (of course) took forever! Basically, I have no fingerprints. OK, so you can see them...but barely. They were bad when I was younger but so many years of typing, etc. has worn off the rest. I've known this for a long time and we both warned the poor man that it would be challenging but he still had to do what he had to do, and I am so thankful he was patient and pleasant. (Sorry no pictures of this part of the journey but they don't allow cameras or even cell phones in their office; you have to turn them in and pick them up when you leave.)

We had planned to finish with CIS by 10:00, then explore Charleston for the day. It's a beautiful city with so much history everywhere you look. Unfortunately, it was chilly, gray and rainy, so we found a mall and walked around exploring stores, sales and good coffee for several hours. Still VERY relaxing; no talk of anything work or church-related. A nice drive home and a yummy late lunch at Chili's, then we went home and took a nap! (I know...we are so old and boring, but this was a beautiful, relaxing time for us, especially since we had just jumped another hurdle towards bringing Kaley home!) Lord willing, I'll soon be able to post that our paperwork is in the hands of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office!

Kaley at Christmas

2008-12-31T20:20:00.000-08:00

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!!!)

2008-12-31T18:52:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-31T18:38:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-12-11T03:35:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-02T13:37:00.000-08:00

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!

Our little angel

2008-11-19T18:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a really busy week here; church events, work, sickness...you name it. But during it all, Kaley turned four months old! It's really cool, though, to look at pictures of our little angel every day and knowing that we are another day closer to having her home.

Here are a few more photos Dan and Megan took of Kaley while they were in Taiwan.

Looks like she's going to be the first petite girl in the family. :-)

Don't you just love those cheeks?!?!

I think she likes the doll from her cousin Avery.

Our home study is progressing and should be finished in about a week, then it's in the hands of the governments. Thank you everybody for praying for all of us as the process continues. It is a real blessing to have such wonderful family and friends. (And I know you all are almost as anxious to meet Kaley as we are!)

More pictures!

2008-11-13T04:07:00.000-08:00

Dan & Megan are home with their Avery (yea & thank you, God!). They were kind enough to love on Kaley and take lots of pictures. They even delivered a box of things to her for us. You'll see Avery and Kaley in some of these pictures together...what two precious little ones! Ok, friends and family...here you go!

LOVE that smile!

Avery & Kaley

Kathy (Dan's mom) is showing Kaley who we are.

I'm out of time for now but I'll post more of them later (so no scolding from "Aunt Karen", ok? :-)

Home Study continues

2008-11-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

Today was our first home study visit. We have been blessed with a wonderful agency and today Lisa came to our home. Nearly three hours in our home and asking us questions, and she didn't run out the door laughing, so I'm thinking that's a good thing. :-)

Thank you to all of you who were praying about the visit. Please continue praying that the rest of the study goes well and goes quickly. Also, please pray for Lisa, our case worker. She is under a big time crunch right now with traveling and preparing several studies. I know she, and we, would appreciate prayers over the next few weeks.

Our friends, Dan and Megan, are in Taiwan picking up their daughter, Avery. They have held our Kaley and even fed her. Megan says she is doing great and loves to laugh. Thanks so much, Dan and Megan, and congratulations!

2nd Pictures (Oct. 30th)

2008-11-05T16:36:00.000-08:00

We received these updated photos late last week. I may be partial, but I think she's pretty adorable. Our friends are there right now and said that Kaley loves to smile. That's good, because God gave her a beautiful one. :-)

We are on our way to being parents!

2008-11-05T15:40:00.000-08:00

Finally, after 15 years Michael and I are on our way to becoming parents! It's now a month after we received "the call" and it still seems surreal. I can hardly believe that the beautiful little girl in the pictures will one day be our daughter. God's timing is perfect and we will continue to trust that the rest of this process will go by as He sees fit.

For now, we will enjoy seeing her pictures around the house and knowing that we will one day get to meet this precious little one. Friends are there picking up their daughter this week (yea, God! yea, Dan & Megan!) and have actually held and fed our little girl, too. (Thank you so much for loving on her for us.)

No more time to write this evening. Have to prepare the house for a home study visit this weekend, but several friends and family (you know who you are!) have been asking if I'd started a blog yet, so here you go. :-) For now, enjoy the photos of our beautiful Kaley Liane. These are the first pictures we received of her. Talk about love at first sight!