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One Final Post

After two weeks of praying, waiting and wondering, we have officially heard that Kaili’s birthmom has decided to keep her and raise her. We were not surprised and are thankful that no plan of the Lord’s can be thwarted. For some reason we may never know she was never meant to be our daughter. We will always feel like she was ours for that little time though and will always hold a special place for her in our hearts and pray for her.

Her new name is LuDe (it is the name Ruth from the Bible). We were told the birth mom told them to apologize to us (she was crying at the time). When the birthmom came back to give her decision she brought LuDe (Kaili) with her and they said she looked clean and very well taken care of (as you can see from the picture above). It has been a very difficult time for the birthmom and we know she would benefit from your prayers as well. She does have the support of her extended family. Thankfully it is a Christian family and we can rest in the fact that LuDe will be exposed to the hope we have. They will go to court in the near future to undo all the paper work.

About two days before we heard that her birthmom wanted her back, we were taken to Sight and Sound Theater by my cousin and his wife. They were taking us as a baby present because it was something we really wanted to do before we had a baby in the home. The play was a reenactment the Biblical story of Joseph. I know the story so well but somehow it came even more to life watching it being reenacted. We watched as Joseph put his hope in God only to be despised by his brothers, sold into slavery, brought to a completely foreign land, and was eventually thrown into prison for a crime he did not commit with no hope of getting out. All this happened because God had a particular plan for his life but I can’t imagine what went through Joseph’s mind during that time. I didn’t realize at the time what we would soon be going through, but that story has been a huge comfort to me during this time (not that I am comparing what we are going through to the many hard things Joseph went through). As I said, we may never know why we did not receive that particular baby but one thing we do know is that God is good, he loves his children and that he does have a plan for our family.

Both Matt and I can’t express how thankful we are for all your prayers and support. We don’t want to say it hasn’t been difficult, as it has, but if we had not had the support and care it would have been much harder. We are so very thankful we have a heavenly father that sees our tears and cares.

Terrible News

We found out last night that Kaili Hope's birth mother has decided to take her back. She has until April 24th to change her mind, so please pray that she will make the right decision! Obviously we want to be able to adopt Kaili, but we also know that God is in control and knows what is best for her. Please pray for us also, as this is a hard time for us.

Baby Shower!

We have been really busy lately but have been thankful for the busyness in waiting for our ok to fly over to Taiwan!!

While we were visiting Matt's family over Easter, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law surprised us with a baby shower!! It was a lot of fun and everything they served was gluten free so I could eat it all. They picked the most creative games. Everyone again was so generous and we are so thankful for how much has been provided for us!!
I took pictures of everything but they are on another camera so I will just post some pictures of being at the shower:



Playing Games:


The Presents:




My Gluten Free Food :)


Yummy Punch


Matt had fun too! :)

We are in Love!

This is her four month picture. Every picture makes us want to get her even more!!!

The court date went fine!!!

We got an email that the court date went fine!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!! They even said the adoptive mother gave up her rights to protest the adoption after the civil papers arrive so that makes everything go even faster. They said we should be able to get her in a month.

They also said she is getting longer and has developed a mind of her own :).

Tonight at 9:45 pm....

eastern time is Kaili's court date in Taiwan. I know very little about it but I do know it is really important so PLEASE PRAY THAT ALL GOES WELL!!

The cake

Here is the BEAUTIFUL cake from the shower that my friend Nadia made. It took 8 hours to make!!! She actually left school early so she could make it and told me she had a dentist appointment :) I said she needs to go into business!! It even has Chinese characters for her name written on it. (You can also see the "sushi socks" in the picture above)

Here are the party favors:

BABY SHOWER!!!!

My coworkers surprised us with a baby shower on Saturday and what a surprise it was!!! I was completely shocked and it took a while to recover. I still can't get over their generosity. It was so beautiful---the entire house was decorated in a Chinese theme and the cake was gorgeous and so detailed. The girl who made the cake organized the whole shower down to every detail!! I don't have the pictures of the shower yet but I will post some pictures of what we got. Everyone was way to generous!!!!!
Some of the things we got (I am posting these so our families can see everything :)):



My sister-in-law has decided she will be the best dressed baby around :)
Emily- she now has three red dresses!




Summer- here we come!

The yellow one says "hand picked"


Everyone brought a board book for Kaili- it was so creative!



Bath time!



A waste basket and hamper to match our bed set.





THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE FOR THEIR GENEROSITY-- I can't express how thankful we are!

3 Months!

Kaili Hope is 3 months old as of yesterday! It is hard to believe that we will be getting her in less than two months. We called the orphanage last night to see how she was doing. She had just finished a bottle (which they said she ate quickly) and was falling asleep. They tried to wake her up to get her to giggle for us on the phone but she wasn't gong to wake up for anything :). They did say she giggles a lot! We didn't hear anything else they said because the connection was really bad.

My sister has been bugging me to buy her red clothes so I did finally did buy her a red dress. She is ethnically Atayal, (a minority group in Taiwan) and traditionally they like to wear red. The Atayal people are interesting to read about. This site has info and pictures http://www.taiwandna.com/AborigineAtayalPage.html.

Almost 3 months old and........AWAKE

What a joy to open our email today. This is our first picture of Kaili with her eyes open and what beautiful eyes she has!!!!

They said she is doing really well. She eats about 4 ounces each time she is fed. They also wrote that she is smiling and giggling a lot. We are so excited to go get her.

Here a picture my sister in law sent me of all the babies at the orphanage. Can you find Kaili? I actually don't know which one she is but I have an idea.

Court Date

We finally heard about when our court date will be....It is on March 25th at 10:45 am Taiwan time (8:45 pm our time). They said we should be able to get her one month after the court date so it is coming up soon!!! The time seems to go by really fast and really slow all at the same time. Matt and I were counting and we could have as little as seven weekends left before we have a baby in the house.

We should get another picture soon as it is the beginning of March. I keep checking my email hoping to see one.

We did get to talk to the director of the orphanage the other night and Kaili was eating a bottle when we called. He said she is eating well but that she just eats really slow- he called her a "dainty eater". I often pray that she will get enough attention with her being one of 20 babies and so I guess it is good that she eats slow because then it makes people have to hold her longer!

Keep praying for our precious little one!

We went out and bought a new outfit for Kaili to send to Taiwan and decided that she needed a color other than pink :).


Here are a few "coincidences" that we have had happen leading up to Kaili's adoption:

1. One day before Kaili was born, we had the completed homestudy in our hands. She was born early so it was like she was born as soon as we were ready with the paper work.

2. Before we even knew about her, we had picked out the name Kai (恺 )-joyful Li (莉)-part of the word for white Jasmine flower. When the orphanage called us, they said that they had named her Ai (艾)-to be just unfolding Li (莉)-same as the character we had picked out! How neat that the names which were picked out seperately were so close!

3. Money: a few years ago Matt's family started an "adoption fund" for us. They collected change and gave it to us each year on our anniversary. That money, plus the generosity of my family, and an anonymous gift we had EXACTLY(plus a hundred dollars) the right amount of money to cover ALL expenses. I think back and wonder at the needless worrying I did about the exorbitant amounts of money you need for adoption. This orphanage is amazing on how much they provide and God knew ahead of time just how much we needed. Oh me of little faith:)

4. Timing: It is looking like when we get her will be right at the end of Matt's schooling. He will be able to take care of her until I finish school and then we will have a semi-free summer where we can bond with her before Matt gets a job (hopefully in September after he takes his Bar Exam).

- we could look at these as a who bunch of cool coincidences OR we could look at it as coming from a LOVING GOD WHO IS IN CONTROL OF EVERYTHING. I choose to believe the latter!

God is Good

We got another picture today! It was taken when she was a month old after we sent the package to her. The outfit is my favorite of the ones we sent- they put the adorable headband on her! I can't wait to put this precious picture in her baby book. Thank you to EVERYONE who is praying for her. It is so hard to wait!!!!!!!

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. psalm 139:13-14

New Picture!

When I got into school today I was hoping for an email from Taiwan so much and there was a picture in our inbox! I love her cute little face...it does make the wait even harder to know she is growing without us. The outfit she is wearing is one that we sent for her. She is almost two months old in the picture.

Here is what the email said:

A BEAUTIFUL PRESENT!!

My dad was on one of his trips to the countryside last week and while there he bought the most BEAUTIFUL baby carrier for Kaili. We haven't actually seen it in real life but he sent us pictures of it. Apparently the women in the Chinese countryside use them all the time and you can use them to hold newborn babies and even two-year-olds. They work on either the front or the back. Hopefully I can figure out how to put it on!! I am excited to put Kaili in it!

This is my little sister holding the carrier
(it looks like it is big enough to hold her!)

Here is a close up of the embroidery- so beautiful.....I am going to be afraid to get it dirty :)

Trip to New York

Our trip to New York on Monday went well and was actually fun other then the fact that we had to walk in the rain everywhere we went and were SOAKING by the end but it was all an adventure with a good ending.


Our adoption papers are officially signed, signed again, notarized, sealed by the Secretary of state, sealed by the TECO office, and sealed again! We were then finally able to get everything sent to Taiwan and it should arrive tomorrow! That means we should be done with all the paper work on this side of the world so now it is the waiting game.


When the paper work gets to Taiwan, they apply for a court date which will be in 6-8 weeks...then after the court date they have to wait for the court papers which is another 4-6 weeks....THEN we can go get her, finish up what we have to do there and she will officially be our daughter to take home!! If you could pray for all of this to go quickly we would really appreciate it. It is so hard to wait- everyone keeps saying it will go quickly but it sure doesn't feel like it day to day :).


If all goes well we are looking at sometime in May...possible June.

Still Waiting for a New Picture

We still have not received a new picture from Taiwan yet. We check our email everyday hoping to see one but I suppose getting to bring her home will be the only truly satisfying step in the process. As soon as we do get a picture though....I will definitely post one!

Good news: we are almost finished with the paperwork on this side of the world and will soon be sending it to Taiwan. We actually have to drive to the TECO office in New York to take care of some additional, unexpected paperwork. I have to take the day off or work so we can drive up there but at least it means we can have the paperwork in our hands faster. I feel like we are constantly racing against the clock to get to get everything finalized as quickly as possible.

We also got our crib in the mail and set it up yesterday. I love it!!

Matt and I are tring to make a list of things to do before we have a baby in the house. So far we have:

1. Go to a movie

2. Go to Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster and watch the musical Joseph

3. Go ice-skating

4. Sit in Panera for 8 hours and read

5. Any other ideas?

One Month Old

Kaili is one month old today! I try to picture what she is like at this age- I assume she sleeps most of the time :). It is so hard to wait to go get her knowing that she is growing without us being able to see it. I wonder if she has smiled yet..

Right now we are waiting for a new picture. We should get one sometime in January. We only have the one picture right now and I keep looking at it waiting for her to open her eyes.

We received some of her paperwork from Taiwan the other day. It had the home study translated into Chinese, her passport application (it had her name written on it: Kaili Hope McCloskey!!), our adoption contract and a few other papers. We got them all noteraized then we have to send it to the Secratary of State. After we get it back again we send it to TECO and THEN when they send it back we send it back to Taiwan and get a court date. Please pray this process goes quickly because the sooner it is done the sooner we can go get her!

Also, if you think of it, please pray for her mother. She is 32 years old and has a five year old son. We are so thankful she decided to have Kaili but I can't even imagine the emptiness she much feel not having a baby to hold when everything was over. Pray that she will come to know Christ as her savior and then maybe we can all meet her in heaven if not before.