October 12, 2012 - Moving Forward

We finally received our revised paperwork from Taiwan.  The Taiwan court had denied our home study because it was going to expire in November.  So we had to get it updated here in the U.S., then we emailed to Taiwan where they needed to translate it to Chinese.  The translation is complete now and we received it in the mail today! I rushed it to Indianapolis where it had to be signed by the Secretary of State.  We are headed back to Chicago sometime this week to take it to the TECO office (Taiwan economic and cultural office.).  After that we will send it back to Taiwan.  It will be re-submitted to the Taiwan courts and we will hopefully get a travel date soon after that!

Thank you to everyone who have kept us encouraged and are praying for us and Grayson!!! We are very much hoping to travel in November?  Please pray for a speedy court process as that could be a long wait before we hear something.

Thanks dear friends!
-Matt and Lindsay

October 8, 2012 - Plane Landing

I had a quick meeting after school with my amazing team members. When I came back into my room, I noticed something had changed. I had some airplanes above my desk. These planes "landed" there because my colleagues had so graciously donated some money to help us with the travel expenses of bringing Grayson home. Tears were forming when I walked in the room for the first time. I had no idea they were going to do all of that. Thank you to all who gave so generously. We can't thank you enough.
Matt

October 2, 2012 -- Set Back.........Sigh.

We heard this morning that all of our paperwork came back from the Taiwan courts....and of course there is a problem.  Our home study is due to expire in November so they have requested we get an updated home study.  Sounds like an easy task right?!  I had actually wondered if this would be a problem a month ago so we went ahead and updated our home study already -- which is good news!  So the next step is to send it to Taiwan, get it translated to Chinese, mail it back to us, we have to take it to the Secretary of State downtown and get it signed, then send it to Chicago to the TECO office for them to sign.  Then send it back to Taiwan.............whew.  Sound pretty easy :/

All this to say, we will not be traveling to meet our Grayson anytime soon.

~ Totally bummed.

October 1, 2012 - Monthly Pictures and Email

We just got our monthly picture and email from Grayson! We've been waiting all day for it and it finally came! It brought tears to our eyes to see him. We can't believe that he's already 3 months old. We can't wait to get over there and meet him. Here's his email to us. 

Hey Mom and Dad!

Happy Mid-Autumn Moon festival!  We had a bbq yesterday to celebrate, but unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to have any of the delicious food, due to lack of teeth. I did enjoy listening to the fireworks though! Wouldn’t you know it, I’m still growing! I now weigh 12.41 lbs and am 25.5 inches long. I talk all the time, and as long as I have someone’s attention then I’m happy! I love kisses and cuddles, and have the biggest cutest smile you have ever seen! …Or so I’ve been told :) ! I’m learning to play on my tummy and I still love to kick my legs all the time. I have been drinking more milk lately and I sleep pretty well at night now too, although not always in my bed. I hope you all are great!

Love you lots!

Grayson

September 30, 2012 -- Final Touches!

So I am a crazy about pinterest and found out how to make these adorable onesie-tie outfits :)  So my amazing mom and I started making them today!  These are Grayson's "church clothes"!!

We have also been working on his room!  We are sooooo excited to be getting it all ready :) Counting down the days.....even though we don't have an exact date we will be bringing out baby home yet.  We know that God's timing will be perfect.

September 16, 2012 - Build-A-Bear

We ventured out to the Greenwood Park Mall today to visit the Build-A-Bear Workshop and make Grayson a bear to give him when we go over to Taiwan. We're going to keep him in our house and hope that the bear starts smelling like we do so that he can recognize our smell when we are not together and get used to us. A long time ago, Lindsay went to Build-A-Bear and got a recordable piece that could be inserted into the hand of the bear. We finally were able to make it back up to the mall to make the bear and put our message in the bear. We picked the standard teddy bear to use for Grayson's first teddy bear. It just seemed more like his personality than all the others. Not really sure how we could tell his personality by not actually meeting him, but nonetheless, this seemed like the right one. Once we picked out the bear, we had to go over to the "Stuffing Station." The lady put our recordable thing into the hand of the bear and then she started stuffing the bear. While she was stuffing the bear she asked who the bear was for. We got to tell her all about our journey to being matched with Grayson. She was really excited for us! Once it was all stuffed we had to put the hearts into it. We both put one inside the bear in case you were wondering why it would have two hearts. :) She was so nice as she asked us to put the hearts into the bear. She told us to warm up the heart by blowing on it.  At this time, we kind of looked at each other thinking that this is really odd, (if you were watching us, you would have been laughing hysterically by the way). We decided to follow her directions. So we rubbed the heart in our hands and started to blow on it. Then we had to rub it on our knees so the bear would run fast. Then rub it on our heads so it would be really smart. Next, we had to rub it on our hips so it would be a good dancer. There were a few others in there, but she went so fast that we don't even remember them. We were rubbing hearts all over our bodies. I'm sure it was quite comical to watch us. We then stuck the hearts in the bear and she sewed him up.

We moved on to picking out some clothes for him. We picked out some simple jean overalls. I think it was an nod to our midwestern roots. We thought it would look good on Grayson, too.

We then got to print out the birth certificate. We paid for him and off we went.

September 14, 2012 - Parents Night Out

Tonight, we hosted a Parent's Night Out at Elite Cheer and Dance to help raise a little money for our airplane costs that we will be incurring. We had around 45 kids come out for the event! We had some VERY, VERY generous parents this evening and we thank you very much for what you all of you have done for us with your donations. We appreciate your kindness and your giving.
Matt.

September 3, 2012 - Mission Accomplished!

The paperwork had made it to Taiwan!!! Now we wait............ ;)

September 2, 2012 - Heavenly Coincidence?

During the church service today, there were four baptisms. It was Lindsay's turn to take the baptism pictures. After the service, Lindsay was back in the prayer room waiting for the families to come in the room. While waiting there, a lady from the church approached Lindsay and asked her if she belonged to the Cooper family. She said yes and wondered why she asked that question. The lady continued to tell Lindsay that when she walked into the prayer room God put it on her heart to pray for the Cooper family. She went on to talk about how God was telling her it had something to do with children or something like that.  I imagine Lindsay's chin hit the floor about that moment. Lindsay began to tell her about us adopting. The lady replied, "Oh, how wonderful! I had no idea you were adopting! Yep. That must be what God is putting on my heart. I will be praying for you and your family."

God must have known that our hearts are getting anxious and a little nervous at this point.  It's exactly what we needed to hear that day. That God IS still in control even when we are fearful and we should find peace in knowing that He will never forsake us.  God is good - and He is able.

September 1, 2012 -- SAY CHEESE!

So we have been looking forward to September 1st since August 1st!  On the first of every month we get new pictures and a letter from Grayson!  We were so excited to open our email this morning and see the most adorable pictures of him!....and yes, we even cried a little :)  Below is the letter we recieved and the new pictures.

Hey Mom and Dad!

I may be small, but I’m growing! I now weigh 10.56 lbs and am 21 inches long. I still like to kick with my long legs, but have started to sleep better at night. I love to smile and am very ticklish sometimes! My cheeks are getting chubby, and I’m even starting to get a double chin! I am usually kind of slow at drinking my bottle, but sometimes when I am very hungry I drink it all really fast. I also really like my pacifier, and I need it to fall asleep. The weather has been really hot, but just started cooling down which makes everyone happy! I hope you are great!

Love, Grayson