FIRST DECREE

Samantha now (9 months) and Samantha at 2.5 months (referral photo) - Sierra at our quick celebratory "First Decree dinner" which was Mexican food to commemorate the day we accepted Samantha's referral lo those many months ago!!

I just happened to be home today because we are getting our new windows in the bedrooms and Sierra is home sick, so when the phone rang at 10:40 I answered (well I screened but when I heard Jennifer's voice I picked up) and Jennifer from HAI gave me the wonderful news. We got our first decree!!! Samantha will be home and joining our family in six to eight weeks! I am so relieved that it is finally happening. It has been so hard waiting for so long and watching Samantha grow (and not grow like she should - we got an update a few days ago and she's still in the 13 pound range at 9 months and she has not even doubled her birth weight yet) for over half a year. She was only three months old when we got her referral. She will be 11 months old (if the 6-8 weeks holds true) when we pick her up. For most of us 8 or 9 months isn't really that long (unless you're waiting to pick up your baby!) but for a baby that length of time brings so many changes it's unreal. We are just thrilled that we are now so close to bringing her home and we will continue to pray for a speedier process because we really want to get her home before her first birthday, especially since we always thought she'd be home by the time she turned 9 months, and so far everything has taken longer than we expected. We are still struggling with not having her with us for Christmas but instead of just being sad that she's not here we can plan a belated Christmas celebration and start wrapping the Christmas gifts that Sierra and I picked out for her. I couldn't bring myself to wrap them when everything was so up in the air. Although I wish Sierra was not sick (she has a tummy bug and a sore, red and swollen throat) I am glad that we were able to share in this moment. She cheered and jumped on the guestroom bed, which is in the living room because our house is totally torn apart (I will post later about all of the work that's going on in our house!) and then we checked the calendar and started planning our trip. Hopefully we will be in Taiwan in January picking up Samantha and starting our new life as a family of four!