Update!

I've been fairly quiet lately because I've been incredibly busy with adoption paperwork, etc. Today, I finished everything up and now the only thing we have left to do is get our federal fingerprints done and then we wait. So, here's what I've been up to:

We went to Puerto Rico (which was wonderful and I will blog about it in detail soon) the last week in March:

Two days after we got home, we received all of our documents from Taiwan that we needed to have authenticated by the Secretary of State and by TECO (Taiwan Economic & Cultural Office). I was planning on mailing our docs. to Denver since it's a six hour drive from where we live, but when I got on their website, I realized they would not expedite the process unless I came in in person.

We received the documents Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday morning, I was headed up to Denver. If you know me in real life, you know that I DO NOT like to drive in the snow...not at all! Well, of course it was snowing like crazy over wolf creek pass, why wouldn't it be snowing and chains required? I mean, it is April!?! This is what it looked like going over Wolf Creek:

I know, taking a picture while driving was probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, but we were seriously going 5 mph (no exaggeration) because the wind kept coming up taking visability down to zero.

Luckily, once I got over the pass, it wasn't too bad the rest of the way. Unfortunately, creeping over the pass at 5 miles an hour ate up some serious time so I wasn't able to get into Denver before 5:00 when the Secretary of State closes.

My brother and sister-in-law live near Denver so I just headed straight to their house planning to get everything taken care of in the morning. The next day, I headed back down to Denver feeling brave about facing traffic right in the heart of Downtown:

I successfully navigated my way around the one way streets and crazy intersections and found a parking spot with ease (I know, kind of surprising). When I got to the secretary of state's office, they informed me that their computers were down and I would have to come back on Monday (it was Friday). I was pretty bummed...ok, I was more than bummed, my eyes were filling with tears; but I knew there was nothing the nice lady could do for me so I just gave her the docs and told her to call me as soon as they were done.

I got about half way back to my brother and sister-in-law's when the secretary of state's office called to let me know that their computers had come back up and I could pick up my documents afterall! What a relief!!!

Once I got the documents, I sent them to their next destination, the TECO office in Kansas City. TECO received my documents on Monday morning and called to inform me that I had overpaid and they would be sending me a refund; I didn't mind that part ;)

Our documents were overnighted back to us yesterday and we got them today and they have been sent back to Taiwan so the ladies at His Hands can apply for a court date. It was overwhelming for sure, but we got it done and I know it will be completely worth it when we get to see Caysen IRL for the first time.

I mean, really, how can you not love that sweet face? I could just eat him up :)

Another sweet one of Trena loving on Caysen...and Caysen loving on his Giraffe, and the puppy loving on everyone :)