Back in Time (IV) actual event happened in October 2006

(Pictures on the second trip to Taiwan to be with S and take care of "business")

Two weeks after I came back to America, my lawyer told me that we got our first court ruling 4 days after the court hearing and our final decree would be issued around Sep 18th. That came as a HUGE surprise, because we did not expect the ruling until December based on other adoptive parents' experience in the Tainan District court!! We then had to scramble, because S had a scheduled training in New York during early Oct. The timing actually worked out fine, because I still had other paperwork to take care of for the orphan visa application with AIT. I quickly booked my flight to go back to Taiwan and was back in Taiwan less than 3 weeks after I came back! Definitely not complaining, because Shaun had grown and changed so much in 3 weeks!

Our organization skills came to the rescue again! (1) Arranged to have all the Taiwanese documents translated to English by someone I found over the Internet. (2) Shaun's birth grandfather applied for and received his passport in 3 days, then got the household registration change done. (3) Soon after I arrived at Taiwan on Sep 26th, I took Shaun to MacKay hospital for his medical exam required for visa which took around 7 business days to be ready (& I was still working full time as well.) (4) Requested our visa interview with AIT for Oct 16. (5) Simon arrived at Taiwan on Oct 9. (6) We then went back to my home town, Chung Hwa the next day, because my cousin J and her husband wanted to take us on a road trip around Taiwan. Interestingly, we were actually able to relax in the hot springs of Tai-Dong and enjoyed the most amazing scenery of Taiwan- the Taroko Gorge! (7) We got back to Tao Yuan from the road trip on the evening of Oct 15th to pick up Shaun and the visa documents from my cousin's house. (8) Checked in a hotel that evening and had our visa interview as scheduled on Oct 16th. It was a breeze.....hahaha...looking back NOW- in reality it must have been a lot more hectic and stressful than I recalled.:)

After we got Shaun's visa, we went on other day trips with my cousin T. Flew back to the U.S. on Oct 21 and that officially concluded the adoption "Journey" and started our life as a family of "Three".. :)