Precious Pictures

I recently received an email containing pictures of Pearl.  They were taken during another child's birthday party at the orphanage in July 2010. Pearl is on the nannie's lap in the yellow shirt. In the second photo she is the one whose chair the nanny is pushing in. The mother of the birthday girl (in the green and pink) sent them to me.  I am so glad to see that Pearl was healthy enough to be participating in the party.  Pearl's orphanage is  part of Half the Sky. Lainie was in a Half the Sky orphanage as well and we believe it is one of the reasons that she came to us developmentally on target and obviously well loved.  I love the nannies faces in the picture here.  Their faces show how much they love and care for the children.  We are so thankful for this glimpse of our girl having a good time. 

We just finished our home study and mailed in our I800A to US Immigration.  Now we wait for our fingerprint notice, followed by our approval letter.  Then we have all of our documents (about 13 of them) certified by the state and the Chinese consulate.  Then, we are ready to mail our dossier to China.  After that we will wait, and wait, and wait for our letter of approval and our travel approval.  What does all this mean?  I'm hoping it means we travel early to mid spring - but timelines vary so that is just a guess.  I'm praying I don't miss Trey's 16th birthday on April 17th, but I have peace in knowing that God already knows the day and time I will see Pearl and his plan is way better than mine.

My dad is traveling with me and Bobby will be staying home with all the kiddos.  If I weren't so terrified of flying I'd definitely be thinking I got the better end of the deal.  I'm looking forward to spending the time with my dad and while we have plenty of family and friends who volunteered to take care of the kids so Bobby and I could both travel, we felt it best that one of us stay behind with the them.  It was also the best decision financially for just one of us to go.  From this point forward the rest of our expenses will have to come from fundraising.   More details on that later.....

Hope everyone enjoys their Labor Day.  We will be hanging out here trying to reorganize after the two weeks of back to school chaos that has totally dishelved us.  Everyone is happy though.  Jillian made the middle school volleyball team, Lainie only cried the first two days of kindergarten and now she LOVES it.  Will loves his teacher and Trey just ordered his class ring.  Me - I'm just trying to keep up !!!  I am getting used to my new teaching position but it is a bit like being a first year teacher again.  Hopefully soon I'll be able to settle into a routine that doesn't involve working 12 hours a day at school.  All that being said, I am thankful to have a job that I love and there is nothing else I'd rather be doing.

Only 173 school days until summer vacation is back !!!