had a blast. We give it 5 stars for family friendliness. On Friday night, we lit 1 candle and sang Happy Birthday. We can't wait until Lainie is home and we can have a big birthday party for her. Lainie's aunts, Michelle, Julie and Crystal, all brought her sweet gifts before we left. They are so thoughtful. How lucky Lainie is to have people who already love her so much. 
**Cindy Coursey, who is also a CWA client, left on Friday for China to pick up her daughter, Makayla. She is from Lainie's orphanage so we sent a care package for her to give to the Nannies. Families have done this in the past and the package has been delivered, so hopefully Lainie will have her package from us by the end of the week. I am trying to include the link to Cindy's website on our list, so you can follow her journey as well.
** It's a small, small world. We haven't really known anyone personally who has adopted from China until we started this process, but I do remember hearing some time ago about a couple in our town that adopted a daughter. I didn't really keep up with them then as I didn't know we would be doing this at that time. But, Bobby ran into them in the office last week and asked them about their experience. Would you believe their daughter is from the same orphanage in China? Remember, there are thousands of Chinese girls adopted from China by Americans alone every year. We are amazed that two girls from the same orphanage would wind up in our small town together. Someone said to me, "It's a small, small world isn't it?" I said "No, it's a big big GOD." We are so thankful for all of the people and circumstances that he has placed in our lives through this journey. We are just amazed every day as we watch Him put all the details together into this beautiful picture He is painting. Day to day it is hard to see the progress, but when you look back over the past year, we stand in awe at what He has done.
** There are no updates on the time line. We are thinking that the Chinese New Year celebrations will probably cause us to get our TA (travel approval) a little later than we first thought. We are still hoping that it comes in April and we travel in May. But it may be pushed a month later. We'll just wait and see. Most importantly, God already knows the day, time and place when Lainie will be handed to us. We trust His timing.
