We talked to our daughter!....

We got to talk to Xiao-Mei last night, at 1:00 in the morning we connected through the webcam to Taiwan. We were so lucky to get to talk and see her for 1 hour and 45 minutes. She was so cute. She said (through a translator) that she is worried about school and sleeping in her own room and the pool. We reassured her the best we could about everything. She was very quiet and shy, but did refer to us as Mom and Dad. She said she was happy to come to America and be in our family. She was happy to see Rebecka and talk to her. The social worker with her told her Ai-Ai's new name is Rebecka. I thought that might interst her into thinking she would get a new name but she didn't ask so we didn't tell her yet.

Staying up all night was well worth it. We really feel blessed to get a small glimpse into our daughter before we travel. Hopefully we will talk to her again soon.

Jaclyn

We are going to have a web chat!!....

Hello everyone, it has been confirmed by my agency that will will have a web chat with Rayanna on Saturday night at 1:00 am. That will be 2:00 in the afternoon on Sunday Taiwan time. They gave us a few times to choose from and unfortunatly they were all in the middle of the night. So I hope the kids will be able to get up and be awake to meet thier sister. We are all very excited and are starting to write a list of what we want to say and ask. We have been approved for an hour chat, thats a long time, I hope we find enough to talk about.
Our court date is getting closer, only 8 days away now. I hope it's not too long after we hear something.
We also recieved an e-mail with some answers to the questions we sent a few weeks ago. They said Rayanna's biggest worry about coming to America is not knowing English. She would also like to share a room with Rebecka in the beginning. She wants to know how long the plane ride will be from Taiwan to America. Very very long my dear! Her favorite colors are peach ,white and black, and she doesn't like the color red. She loves all kinds of hair and nail stuff and shoes, she will get along with Rebecka great. She won't have to paint her brothers nails anymore :-)
That was all, nothing to give us a clue into her personality. Hopefully we will see a bit of that on Saturday night.
I went out and bought a web cam, set it up and only tried it once with a friend that has an MSN address. I'm not too sure how to work it but hopefully it will be OK when the time comes. Wouldn't that just be horrible if it didn't work. I have enough to worry about, I'm just going to assume it will be fine. If anyone has one and wants to try it out with me, my MSN account number for the webcam is ..carlisle302@hotmail.com.. I beleive I have yahoo messenger too,I think it can only be used within the same network, so my yahoo address must work too.
Thanks to everyone following our journey and please think of us Saturday night as we meet our daughter for the first time.
Jaclyn

Happy Birthday Rayanna....

Across the ocean and a world away, our soon to be daughter turned nine today. It's been a tough day knowing our daughter is having her birthday alone without her family. But, if God's willing this will be the last one. On a happier note, I did find out today that our first court hearing has been scheduled for January 31st. That is good news, although it really doesn't give me an idea of when we may travel. We could get our final ruling from the court and "The Call" that we can make travel plans as soon as 3 weeks after first hearing but could be as long as 3 months. Usually travel is 4 weeks after "The Call". I also asked our agency why I have not recieved any updates at all. We have recieved a few pictures but no written update. With Rebecka we got an update every month. Maybe different Social Workers has something to do with it. I'm really not sure. But whatever the reason our agency told me to write a letter to the orphange Social Worker requesting information and asking specific questions about her and how she feels about the adoption and any concerns or questions she may have. So I will get to work on that ASAP, I'm dying to know how she feels about this. Well, I'll let you know if I hear anything. Please say a prayer and a wish for a speedy court process.
Jaclyn