Happy Birthday!

Today is Raina's birthday. She is 2 years old today. I'm not sure if the orphanage will recognize her birthday... (they might not even know it). But today, we will sing Happy Birthday to this beautiful little girl, we will light some candles and we will eat a few cupcakes in celebration of this little milestone in her life. She won't have any idea that on the other side of the earth, a family she doesn't know yet will be thinking of her on this day. (Well... we think of her every day anyway.) And I can promise you, her next birthday... well let's just say- we're sure she'll remember that one.

Raina's Bedroom

Thought I'd post a pic of the progress we've made in Raina's room. We just have a few things left to hang on the walls, but other than that... It's finally done. Gotta always hand it to Laura - her color choices never fail. We think our little girl's gonna like it. This sure is a far cry from the Blue & Yellow of the "Michigan" room... We're proud of it.

Chinese Travel Visa

We went to the Consulate General of the People's Repulic of China in Chicago this morning. We were officially given our Chinese travel visas approving our travel to China. So, when we receive our travel arrangements from the CCAA, we'll be heading out soon. It won't be long now...

Typhoon

Dwellers clear remains of their houses at Meiyang Village in Zherong County, southeast China's Fujian Province. Typhoon Morakot has killed at least three people and caused direct economic loss of almost 2 billion RMB yuan (292 million U.S. dollars) in Fujian as of Wednesday afternoon, after a powerful landing in east China on Sunday.

After attempting to receive whatever information we could from Bethany's in-China representative, we were told the following: "The typhoon hit the province, but the local government prepared well. The orphanage staff said that we do not need to worry because they have typhoons every year and know what to do. Thank you for checking." This is somewhat reassuring for us, as we were quite concerned about the state of things for the children, their orphanage, and the workers. We pray for their quick recovery efforts, and we hope that this will not affect our impending travel.

Official LOA

Well, this is the document that says it all. It is the official Letter Of Approval stating that we are the chosen parents to adopt Li Hua Yu. She is our Raina... and we are her family... and printed on this piece of paper that came from China are the words that say it's so. It is the most beautiful piece of paper I've ever seen.

All In The Same Day...

Well, we've been waiting for our pre-approval since we turned in our LOI (letter of intent) to Grand Rapids about 3 weeks ago. We found out this morning that our PA had arrived at Bethany on July 17th (we just weren't notified). This was excellent news... so imagine our surprise when an hour later our social worker called to tell us that our official LOA (letter of approval) came TODAY! We are officially LOA! This is a tremendous step forward, and one that we certainly didn't expect to come this quickly. This process is in full fast forward mode, which seems strange, since we spent the last 2 1/2 years in a virtual holding pattern. The speed of this is certainly overwhelming, as it may now only be 4-8 weeks until we actually travel to China. We feel overjoyed, yet unprepared - (which I guess is normal). We have much to get ready, and little time for it. But God is faithful - He has known the timeframe of this from the very beginning. Hang on Raina... we're coming sooner than we thought.