Up and Down and all Around...

Man...every time we call to check on Rylyn we never know what we will find out. We were super excited on Tuesday because we were told that Rylyn's mom showed up to the court date, signed all the papers and even signed the papers given up her right to contest the adoption. However, due to Chinese New Year, neither the orphanage or the birth mom had received a visit from the government social worker who has to file a report for the judge before the judge will pass on the adoption.

When we called this morning to check on Rylyn we found out that she is in size 2 diapers, she is wearing 6 to 9 month clothing, She was given shots at her 1 month, 2 month, 4 month and 6 month check ups. We were told last time we called that she had been spitting up a lot. They switched her formula to lactose free and she is doing much better with eating, not much spitting up at all. As far as her baby food eating, she has now tried pears, apples, bananas, spinach, carrots and mashed potatoes mixes with rice cereal and a little water and blended together. I asked about if she likes a pacifier and they told us that she really would rather play with it than suck on it. We found out that she is sleeping through the night. She sleeps from 8pm-5am. Yay! Her bedtime is about 8pm but it takes her a bit to fall asleep. She is like Greg in that area. They also told us that she doesn't care for toys too much. She throws rattles on the ground but she likes to hold and look at books a lot and she also likes to look at herself in the mirror. Greg was excited about the book part. (Like her daddy again)

We found out this morning that because of a new law that we need to get our passports certified. now we will need to go to the Clerk of Court, SOS and TECO to get our passports certified. We are hoping to work on that this week and have it done by early next week. We have to have that done to apply for Rylyn's passport when that time comes.

This part we are a little confused about... Last time we called we heard that Rylyn's had three other sisters and brothers. Now we are not so sure. We were told this time that Rylyn’s birth mother has never been married before and does not have any other children. Rylyn is her first and only child. Her birth mother was 24 years old when Rylyn was born and she said the man was 47, which is probably 46 the way we count time. He is also a married man with 3 children of his own. We do not know his name which is actually better because they don’t have to track him down and get notarized papers. They orphanage does have the birth mother’s notarized papers stating she doesn’t think the birth father will ever take any responsibility for Rylyn. That releases us, AIT (the American Institute in Taiwan) and us from any further liability or responsibility toward the birth father.

We found out that the social worker did come Friday to the orphanage to do the report on us for the judge. She said she would try to get the report in this week. However, they have no idea who the social worker is for Tainan or who will go to the birth mother’s home to do a report about her for the judge. Until both of these reports are in to the judge, a verdict on the adoption will not be forth coming. It is because of this that we were aren't supposed to post anything on face book or tell people that everything is okay. We were just told that. Tainan is infamously slow at getting their reports done, so it could still be 2 months from now before the judge even hears from them, to say nothing of how much longer it will take to get the civil court decree and final civil court decree. They still don't know what to expect.

We were also told when Rylyn's mom visited she asked a lot of questions about us and wanted our address. They did not give it to her. It will however be in the civil decree when it comes. When Rylyn's mom visted Rylyn at the orphanage she took lots of pictures of Rylyn. It was close to nap time were we told that Rylyn never seemed to connect with her that day. A gentleman brought the birth mom to the orphanage. They asked is he was the birth father and he denied he was. The birth mom said the man was her boss at work and he encouraged Rylyn’s birth mother that she had made the correct decision to give Rylyn for adoption to us. We were also told that Rylyn's birth mom is beautiful and we should hopefully get a picture of her. We are still waiting and praying.