Thursday, February 7, 2008

Waiting for pre-approval

We are well into our paperchase and still waiting on PA (pre-approval) from China and our update on the home study to be completed. The Chinese New Year celebration begins today and everything in China comes to a standstill for a week, so we will not hear anything on the PA until afterwards. In the meantime, our hearts and prayers are with the Chinese people as they try to recover from the storms. We never heard anything from Jin Ming's orphanage in the reports of those hardest hit, so are assuming she and the other children are fine. Half the Sky is an organization that is helping the children and keeping us updated. Their site is http://www.halfthesky.org/ and any donations that people want to make can be made through the "little mouse fund". A friend of ours in China was able to check on Jin Ming for us a couple of weeks ago and said her medical needs are being met and that she's doing well. The staff describes her as very friendly and a little fat (she loves to eat!). By Chinese orphanage standards this is great! It is such a comfort to hear anything, yet my heart still aches to have her home.

As far as our other kids go, they are all doing great. Brit just showed her steer in Ft. Worth and placed 12th, which is awesome, but was 2 out of the money. Blake is hoping to get his steer fat enough to take to Houston in March. Isaiah is still doing very well in school and talks about his "little girl"/ sister everyday. He went shopping for her in Ft. Worth and picked out a pink rhinestone cowgirl shirt along with a Dora coloring book. He is very interested in learning his language again and we start Mandarin classes in Amarillo tomorrow.

Hope to have our PA next time I post!