Zoo and Important Update

Today, Reed and Abbey went to the zoo. They had a great time looking at the animals with the extremely beautiful weather.



So, we've been holding some information from you our beloved blog readers and it is time to come clean. We switched adoption agencies.



As you know, our agency JOH's program, was on an indefinite hold and we were nowhere near close on the list. It was going to be 2-3 years before we got our little girl. You know that we considered the Marshall Islands and during that process realized that we really have a heart for the babies of Taiwan.



We also realized that it was important to us that Reed had a sibling of his own nationality, so after really thinking we had a great lead on another Taiwan program and it fell through, we decided that we would be patient with the JOH program and just enjoy the ride.



(the picture of the speakers above is on of Reed's favorite things about the zoo. He loves the speakers. Don't ask us why. We have no clue.)

So, while we were enjoying our ride, we heard about another Taiwanese program and just made an inquiry. We were told that they were not taking applications at the time and to call back late summer, early Fall. So, once again, we were enjoying the ride ... but only for about a week!



We got an email from the agency that said they wanted to talk to us about their program. We were thrilled, so we talked to them and found out that currently their program is by invitation only as it is still rather early in its life.

One thing led to another and two days ago we made the official jump to this new agency. That is scary, but we really have a great feeling about this program. It is definitely a Christian agency and they do lots of missions for the countries that they serve. We LOVE this about the new agency.



(Another of Reed's favorite "animals," a CAT.)

So, tonight we had our orientation call with our caseworker and found out all of the information we need to know. This agency is very much intent on spelling everything out and has clear guidelines for required communications. We liked that we know we will hear from our caseworkers on a regular basis.



After our orientation call, our friend Jerry, who is Mei Mei's daddy, went to his office with us and notarized a gazillion papers. Tomorrow we will overnight them so that we will be officially on the list (which is short by the way). We'll have to get our homestudy updated a bit for this new agency's requirements and then we'll also have to get the dossier together.



They say to anticipate a 6-8 months wait for a referral, but referrals have been coming at a much faster rate. So, we could feasibly be getting a baby by the end of the year!

Oh wait, I forgot to mention that this new program is a birth mother program, so she'll choose us. That means NO specifying gender, so we might be getting another boy. We're totally okay with that.

So, please be praying for us as we continue on this journey of growing our family. We'll keep you updated, we promise.