Sunday, April 1, 2018

Hope for this week

I hope your Easter was as lovely as ours. It was cold here, but brimming with love and laughter. We got  word over the weekend that Shi Qing received her little birthday package we sent. Her birthday is March 28,  and we ordered a 'birthday package' from a woman who sends special packages, photos, and letters to your child at their orphanage. She is based in China, and she is so kind. We ordered "Birthday Package #2" which included a birthday cake, one photo in a frame, cookies for the rest of the kids in the orphanage, special tea for the nannies, and a letter for Shi Qing. It was very hard to write that letter. We don't know if Shi Qing knows she has a family coming for her, and we didn't want to freak her out. We asked Neil's co-worker Li, who is from China and speaks Mandarin (we are so blessed to have her translate the videos etc. that we have!), how best to approach this letter. She gave us some great suggestions, she told us to just say we care about her and we think about her, and whatever we do, don't say all the mushy American love stuff! Haha! Apparently the Chinese are overwhelmed by American's outpouring of emotion. We kept it simple and told her we looked forward to seeing her this summer and that we would write again. We included a note for the nannies thanking them for all their good care of the children and that Shi Qing looked well cared for and we are very grateful. We also sent a USB and asked them to take a lot of pictures of Shi Qing for us. Normally families receive in return a big bunch of photos of the birthday party and videos and an update with their child's measurements, but  I am dubious that we will receive anything. Another little company that offers this same service has posted that Shi Qing's province no longer issues updates or photos. As of this weekend all we have heard is that she has had her 'party'. Interestingly, there was another family that ordered a birthday party at the same orphanage this last week. I am so curious to know how it went, what it looked like, etc. So this is one of the hopes for this week, that we will get an update and photos of Shi Qing. (As a side note, our adoption agency requested an update and photos the week before Chinese New Year--in early February--but has received nothing yet either. Our only information about her is from May '17)

The other hope we have this week is that we are LID. This is another acronym in the never-ending array of adoption acronyms. This one stands for Logged In Date. This makes our dossier officially 'logged in' over in China. This is the official beginning of the countdown to LOA--Letter Of Acceptance (this is the golden ticket acronym!!). Right now, sadly the countdown to LOA from LID is running 60+ days. This is far longer than normal, so we do have hope that it will go back to the usual 30-40 days. But the countdown doesn't start until we are LID. It's funny/not funny that with each step accomplished we should be feeling closer to the end, but in reality it feels as if we are further than ever. We have come a long way, but it feels like the end is really just a mirage, and it keeps moving farther away as we journey towards it. We had hoped to travel in July, then late July, then early August, and now I'm not terribly confident that we will travel in August at all. That will take us into 13 months of  what we were told was an 8-10 month process. We have very little to do, thankfully , in the way of managing and gathering paperwork. We really do nothing but wait. After LOA (golden ticket) things *should* move much more quickly. We firmly believe, no matter what my aching heart tells me, that the timing will be just perfect: that God is sovereign, and all good, and this adoption belongs to none other. It is a holy thing, this waiting. It is refining. It is supremely hard, and we are blessed, so very blessed to be in it.





So very blessed to be waiting for her. The wait is hard hard hard.

(these are a bit older photos of Shi Qing. she was 4-5 ish in these. She has been on the waiting list for years, and I was told no one had inquired about her or asked for her file....I cannot believe it. But how lucky are we??  Oh the wait is hard)

Prayer request for this week:  Please pray that we are LID this week. And perhaps this is a frivolous prayer request, but please pray we receive new pictures, video, and/or an update this week.

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