The update did come after all! Our baby is looking really sad in the photo. I think she is waiting for her mommy and dada to come pick her up soon!

• Height: 65 cm (25.6 in)
• Weight: 6.9 kg (15.21 lbs)
• Head circumference: 42.5 cm (16.73 in)

No update this month, just a few photos of our baby. Now we know how to get her to sleep *heh*

Legally at least! We got the most wonderful news today – ‘We received the final decree!’. The last legal hurdle has been crossed and Ava Chia-Wen is now legally our daughter. Years of waiting and hoping and finally we will have a daughter. It may take us 6 more weeks but at the end of it she will be with us and we are then committed to giving her the best possible life we can.

What a relief! We were getting very nervous the last few days since it was taking a little longer than expected between the first and final decree.

The gotcha day is May 23rd. Yes, that’s the day we get to hold her and bring her back with us. That’s the day our lives change forever. We are planning to travel on the 20th of May out of Los Angeles and return on the 26th. This is not going to be a sighseeing trip for us, although we will take as many photographs in as little time we have out there to create some memories for our daughter.

This is not the end of our journey but just the beginning. Until now and for the next few weeks Ava is our daughter we cannot hold or touch. On May 23 she truly becomes our daughter and will be dependant on us for a long time. This is a big responsibility and we will try to chronicle the early years of the post adoption part of the journey on this blog. I say try because we have a vague idea of what we are venturing into and have been told that time (and sanity?) is one thing we can count on not having after we become parents! *smile*

Did I mention that we are excited?