Single Digits, Visas, and a New Old Picture

NINE DAYS!! In nine days I leave for China. We have hit the single digits until departure phase of this journey, folks and I am getting more excited every day! I have suitcases in my bedroom and things are being added and my 'packing pile' is disappearing. As I promise to take more things such as packages for waiting children, special bottles for babies with cleft palates, etc. I begin to wonder how much clothing I will actually have room for. I may end up doing a lot of washing in the hotel sink and hoping it dries by morning! If I look a little damp and disheveled in all the pictures y'all have some grace, okay? Just remember that there are more important things than clothes!

On that note, guess what arrived at my house via FedEx today? My visa! Which means they will actually let me in the country when I get there! Woo! I always feel better when I have my passport back in my hands with the visa in it. It is so fun to flip through and see the different visas in there. Kazakhstan, China, Russia, now another one for China. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunities I've had. Every one of those trips are/were adoption or orphan related and I really marvel at the way God has called us to this ministry and how it has left such a deep impression on our lives!

Of course I've been thinking a lot about visiting the Shanghai CWI again and thinking about the time Eliana spent there. It is so hard to imagine a life without her or that we did not always belong to one another! You mean I existed without her and she lived somewhere else? No way! But she did. For 3 1/2 years she did. We don't know a lot about those years and we don't have a lot of pictures of her in that time period, so when another Shanghai mom recently posted some pictures of Shanghai kiddos we were so excited to see this one!


Eliana when she was still Wu Xing Yao!

I just read an article about one of the orphanages we plan to visit while in China. You can read it here. It is a fascinating read!

This is the last week to be entered in the iPad mini raffle/fundraiser. You can read the details here.  The drawing will be on Saturday evening and it is going to be fun! :)