Slowing Down...Finally

The paperwork is done for now. What a relief!! Today we had a conference call with the CCAI Travel Department and it was very interesting. We have done extensive research in the past so we already knew a lot of the information discussed. It was very exciting to be listening to our agency acutally finally discussing our travel plans. Until we get our Travel Approval from China they will not be able to finalize anything but we could be traveling as early as the second week of January. Yeah!! We are so ready.

I would like to share a little more about Hope. We will be getting a translated history of her time in the orphanage soon but we do know a little. In August of this year they did her medical evaluations and we do have that. She looks to be very healthy although a lot of her blood work was just a tiny bit high or low. Probably can fix all that with a multi-vitamin!! We are so thankful. She weighed 22 pounds in August and was 30.31 inches tall, so she is quite small. Looking at the height and weight guidlines listed on a lot of the toddler size clothes at Wal-Mart it really looks like 2T will be the correct size to take along...even if she gained several pounds and grew a couple inches in the last 6 months. The picture of Hope in the yellow sweater with the cute pink bow was taken about the time of her medical exam which would be at about 2 1/2 years. We actually think she was at least 6 to 9 months younger in the picture where she is in the pink sweater. It appears that her head had been shaved in the photo in yellow......you can probably figure that out.....

Hope has been in the Huainan Social Welfare Institute since December 14, 2004, so she was about 2 days old when found. Her name is Huai, Dong Tan. Huai is the last name given to all the children from that orphanage, they are given the surname of the orphanage where they reside. The name Dong means Winter in Chinese and the name Tan means Night, although it is just a guess we are thinking she was found on a "Winter Night". That is typically the way they name the babies...just something related to the way they look or where they were found.

The Province her orphanage is in is Anhui and according to the facts we have learned about this orphanage only 20 or so children have been adopted through our agency from there. We may be the only family traveling to this province. Often families who go to this province enter the country through the port city of Beijing. We had hoped to go to Beijing but really thought it would be during a warmer time of year! It is possible that we may go through Hong Kong. We will know more after our Travel Approval comes in. It generally takes 2 to 5 weeks for that to happen. This means we could have as little as 7 days notice before traveling. We better get ready!!!!!!!!

I'll relate more later when we know more for sure. The one thing we do know for sure is that we are falling more in love with our sweet Hope everyday. Please pray for her that she will be safe, warm, not hungry or scared while waiting for us.

We are so thankful the Lord trusts us to raise another daughter and so thankful He saw fit to bless us so richly with this beautiful little girl.

I will praise thee, O Lord among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.

For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds.

Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth:

Psalm 108: 3-5

Becky