Finally... adoption news

There is finally some news for us on both adoption fronts... China and Taiwan! And though it certainly isn't "we have a referral" worthy... it is worthy none the less.
FIRST Taiwan... I start with the Taiwan adoption news because though we started our Taiwan adoption second... it is expected to happen first. I received an email today from our homestudy social worker telling us that our homestudy looks like it has finally been approved by our new agency and that it is expected to be sent out for notarization on Friday. Yes... this Friday. Seeing an end to our Taiwan homestudy journey is a relief. We were stuck in homestudy limbo for 3 and 1/2 months. Our first social worker visit was on June 25. Our homestudy was waiting for approval since the first week in August when our Taiwan agency suddenly closed its doors. Then... it sat with no one to approve it! It seemed at first that no one could help us. Thank goodness for our social worker! She stuck by us. She was our only line of communication for a long time. She helped us complete our homestudy! Once we have our homestudy we can finally send out for our I-600A for Taiwan. We have our fingers crossed for sending that out next week! Finally... we move one step closer to our child in Taiwan... Shasha's baby brother or sister!

SECOND China... This certainly doesn't sound like great news... but it is... for us anyway. An announcement has been made by USCIS that "grandfathers" us into the pre-Hague I-600A. Our current I-600A is only good for 18 months. Then, we get a free extension. That means that we would be good for 36 months of waiting. But now... with USCIS's new announcement... we can pay for another I-600A before our free extension expires and then apply for yet one more free extension. I know... it's kind of confusing. But in the long run it means that we can now wait up to 6 years for a child from China before we have to worry about changing agencies or OUR government standing in our way. I don't think we need to decide on a name anytime soon... our wait could very well be 6 years!