Hearn Happenings

So I’m praying I did everything right but I’m so confused about the paperwork that I don’t know. Right or not, the translated papers, along with the English versions, are now on their way to Atlanta, GA to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Offices. They do their thing, which I’m still not sure what that is but I do know it’s $15/page to do. Then they will send everything back to us with their seal of approval (or not if I did it wrong). We then send it all back to the orphanage in Taiwan. They can then apply for a court date. That court date will be 6 weeks out from application date. Then there is the mandatory 2 weeks the courts have to wait to be sure that no family members wants to claim Caleb. Then if we have the good judge, rights will be terminated and we can start planning our trip to Taiwan :O) So Logically with the time line, we are now looking at early November. Optimistically and with prayer, we are still hoping for October. Please continue to pray with us!!! Thank you to everyone for your support and prayers!!!!! We couldn’t do it without you :O)

We received the translated papers today :O)  There may be one snag on one little thing but we are praying that it will still get through without problems! So now we have to get a few things notorized. Then we have to get all the notories varified by the county and then we can send them to TECO. We’ll keep you updated to each step :O)

My friend Beth F. hosted my first baby shower for me today :O)  We had a great time, playing shower games, eating good food and opening presents. She gave us a very cute jumpsuit.

Cary’s mom gave us some really wonderful things from Cary’s childhood, that were monogrammed or embroidered with a “C”, that his grandmother made.  Her friends from the Outer Banks sent her with some goodies for Caleb as well.  My mom gave us tons of clothes, a super cute pair of shoes and a brand new hand made blanket with Caleb’s name on it out of Winnie the Pooh material. We were also blessed to receive multiple bibs, bib and pacifier clips, a plush classic pooh, classic pooh crib sheets and blankets,  baby monitor, baby carrier, baby healthcare & grooming kit, New Testaments, plenty of clothes, a crocheted blanket and a crib mattress :O) Yea!

Then we went to a birthday party for a women in our church small group. It was very cool because it was a ballroom dancing party! We had some lovely food, dancing instruction and then time to dance the steps that we learned. We had a great time!

My brother, Owen, arrived late last Monday night. He spent Tuesday buying supplies to work on our basement. Then we went to P.F. Chang’s for dinner. He had never been before. Fun times!

My parents flew in on Wednesday morning. We picked them up, had brunch and once we got home, Owen and dad began work on the basement. The ultimate goal is to have some space finished off down there so we can move the office downstairs and have a play room for Caleb :O) So we are still in the beginning stages but it will get there eventually :O)

In Adoption News: After I sent an e-mail yesterday stating I hadn’t heard anything in 3 weeks, Ted called us last night to tell us that they have been waiting for the last page of our Home Study with signatures on it to finish the translation. Apparently he sent an e-mail on August 5th that I never received. So now a whole month has essentially been wasted just waiting around on nothing. But everything happens for a reason and it’s all in God’s time so I have to believe that this has all been for our good. They have what they need now so we hope to get the translated papers soon :O)

Sorry it’s been a while but we’ve had a lot going on. Since August 1, we have only had time to get ready for our trip, be gone and then return to company (Jyll’s parents & brother) at our house. Yea!

Friday, August 8, we decided we wanted to see the Grand Canyon and enjoy some relaxing time as a couple. So we hopped on a plane. Saturday we visited the Grand Canyon, which is simply amazing and unbelievable! Words cannot describe its breathtaking enormity! It’s truly awesome what God created!!! We had a lovely day with beautiful weather searching for Elk, Coyote and Chuckwalla :O) Sunday was very relaxing with wonderful Spa appointments where we both got Hot Stone Massages :O) :O) :O) Then a fantastic dinner in the Eiffel Tower of Paris, Las Vegas overlooking the Belagio water fountain show. We had a GREAT time! And as you can see, we have started to become professionals at taking pictures of ourselves…LOL

Adoption Update: We have not received the translated paperwork. We haven’t heard anything in quite a while now. We are pretty frustrated but leaving it all in God’s hands. His perfect timing is for a reason. Praise the Lord we can leave that burden on Him :O)

Yea! We got new pictures and a report earlier than expected :O)
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The following is from Bev (Ted’s wife/co-missionary running the orphange) and Kristin (a worker):

Caleb is doing so well. We are seeing major improvments in him. For awhile he would cry a lot. But now most of his time is spent smiling and talking to us. Of course it is baby language though. Don’t worry he has not said his first words yet. He is eating very well and is sleeping better then he used to but there are some moments when he will wake up and cry. But we will take that any day over what it used to be like. We love the package you sent. I think that the workers here enjoy the packages more than the babies do. Haha. He is getting so big. We love having him here with us but we cant wait till he can come home with you all.
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From the pictures, you can see he is obviously pointing a lot :O) In the first he is saying “peace” with his 2 fingers b/c he’s so happy to have the toys we sent him :O) In the second, he’s saying he’s #1 with his pointer finger b/c he must already know he’s #1 in our hearts :O)

Discovered some new information today. As if we didn’t already have enough steps in this process…we have learned of one more we were unaware of. The court date is not the end all, be all, it’s just when they decide to terminate parental rights. But they still allow at least 2 weeks after the court date before they completely release all rights to the adoptive parents in case there might be any other family that may want to step up. And P.S. there are only 2 judges. One who moves quickly or the “good” one and one who moves slowly or the “bad” judge. You may have noticed in our comment box that our friend Jackie made mention of this. Unfortunately her case has been assigned to the “bad” judge and their court date is August 4 but they may not be able to bring their baby boy home for a few months after that b/c of this judge. Jackie is keeping me sane right now and I look to their case for hope as we are adopting from the same orphanage.
The good news: Taiwan has our Home Study and it is being sent for translation.
The bad news: We have no idea how long this will take, plus all the steps previously listed on this blog, plus add these (at least) 2 weeks that we were previously unaware of…well, lets just hope we are able to go get Caleb by the end of this year :O/
Please pray HARD for October like we’ve been planing!!! Thanks!

Well, the report has been written. Our worker called us on Tuesday to say she was submitting it to her supervisor. Her supervisor e-mailed it to us today. We’re excited about how quickly this has moved. It’s really interesting to read a report about yourselves and whether or not you will be suitable parents, if your house is good enough and if you will be able to provide for another human being. It’s amazing to think of all the individuals in this world who don’t have to proove any of this before they have children and end up not doing right by them but I guess that’s why we pay taxes to ensure that they are provided for.

Anywho, after some small edits, we are hoping to have the finalized report by end of the business day Monday. Then it will be sent via e-mail or fax to Taiwan to be translated. Then back to us by snail mail to attach to our English copy and on to TECO, which I will probably drive to Atlanta. Then back to Taiwan via snail mail to go to the courts and us to wait for a court date. We’re keeping a positive outlook. It’s going well :O)

Saturday was a long day because only an hour after class we hosted a party for my friend Mary and her fiancé, Mike. They are getting married in September and I’m in the wedding. I think we can say the party was a great success since the last guests left around 11:30 pm. We played a cute bridal shower game and then had a cornhole tournament.

So Sunday we were exhausted and thus we crashed for the majority of the day after we returned home from church.

The only update on Caleb is that he is 4 months old today, which is somewhat sad because he keeps growing and getting older while we have to wait.

We learned a lot of things in this class including how truly blessed we are! Well we knew that already but we were definitely reminded of how very true this statement is!!! Although we will continue to be anxious to go get Caleb, we are in a really unique situation that is seemingly a much shorter process than all others that were in our class. There were 10 couples and a single lady in our class. Several couples were going to the Ukraine but most were going to Etheopia. Both are long processes. Etheopia is a lot of older children and you get a referral (specific child) before you go. Ukraine is a lot different. The couples will go to the country for 6 to 8 weeks. They select a child (or several children) out of all that are available in the orphanage, which I cannot imagine being able to do. The final papers are in the courts while you are there and they want the parents to have a time of bonding before they bring the child home. Apparently both court systems are very slow and their processes take almost a definite 2 years from submission of the application to picking up the child.

We sent our application to The Home of God’s Love in January. The orphanage only accepts applications on the basis that the couple is childless so they require basic info about why you haven’t been able to have children of your own before they accept the application. Then they require 5 references before your names are put on the waiting list. One of the references had to be our pastor. Because of spam blockers here and in Taiwan, our pastor had to submit his reference 5 times. It finally made it through to them mid-May. 2 weeks later we got the call that they had a boy for us. This is pretty much unheard of so we immediately jumped into action with the Home Study and all other paperwork. So October will be really quick comparitively and that’s what we will have to think of when we are getting frustrated.