Morning reads...

My morning routine is to take a coffee back to bed and read the newspaper and then I read my favourite blogs on my laptop. These are mostly families en route or in China to receive their children. This is a recent thing as I thought I was long past following these trips. We know a couple who are slowly but surely inching toward getting their referral and I began following the monthly announcements of what dates were coming up. These were linked to the blogs and I was hooked. I also have a colleague who is adopting a sibling group from Ethiopia.........same thing! The situation with Chinese adoption is so agonizingly slow now......about 3-5 years I think they are saying.....that many are turning to Africa where it is a year from beginning to end for the whole process approximately.  God knows there are enough orphans in the world that where we go doesn't matter. That these kids get a home and family does so very much. Hence my previous post..............to get people thinking.

Ethiopia.....

Think about it and then we'll talk.....

Happy news....

Danielle, our sweet pixie girl, has a family!! We are so happy for her and them. Also hear Jasmine and Benjamin will soon be going home to and also  Gabriel. That leaves 16 children from the group we came to know and love who we will continue to wait with and pray for until their forever families come for them. We will wait as they do and keep you posted.

All is well at home and spring is slowly creeping in. Isabel did her presentation at school. Everyone loved the pandas and the kids from Starfish. Some did not understand that Patrick had been a living human being put here for a purpose. They simply saw a baby who did not look like a baby but a wizened little old man and that made some of them laugh, which broke my heart. 

They just don't understand.

(pictures are Gabriel, Benjamin, Jasmine and then Danielle....all waiting)

Two weeks home...

It seems we were in China a vast amount of time ago.....and yet it was only two weeks!!!  I cannot believe how busy I have been since then. No wonder we become so immersed in our lives we forget everything else going on around us. As well as going back to work and caring for the house and the girls I have been organizing all of the trip photos. Not only here on the blog, but making DVD's with music. I am quite proud of them because they look great! 

Isabel is going to do a presentation at school. She still needs to talk about everything she saw and did in China so she can process it all. Next week after school we are hoping to meet with a friend who has been to Starfish and can feel the same connection to the place and the children we do. Sharing is good. 

To facilitate that I have made a generic travel DVD, a DVD about Starfish and the children, and one just on our amazing Panda trip. For good measure I have made 3 for friends interested in specific children. That is 6 in total. Gotta love the new technology.

I am also caught up in the new referrals for adoption on "the china adopt talk site". Last week I read that if only 7% of Christians adopted there would be no orphans. Mind boggling.

Random tourist shots...

Sims...

and our lovable little Dian Dian....

 means "tiny"........but tiny terror would be more appropriate. He raced everywhere and was always nicking food or treats from residents at Sims Cozy Guesthouse in Sichuan, not far from Tibet.  In this case a fish from the pond, which I think was dead already. Yuck!!!! Sim is from Singapore and he and his wife and 2 children ran Sim's, a wonderful hostel where a room could be had for $15 a night with double bed, TV and free DVD's, internet and private bathroom....and a darn good restaurant. Would love to have stayed longer because it was much prettier than Shaanxi. Met people here from all over the world. Lots of older kids backpacking to Tibet who were turned away because of the troubles and rioting there now.

Animals...

Obviously...the instantly recognizable and beautiful giant Pandas.  Being a conservationist I refused to pay a $150 fee to hold a Panda and so we reenacted it!!!

                 ........and the much less known

                Red Pandas.......we were actually just a very short distance away from

                these lovely bears and the reserve was well run and cared for, peaceful and tranquil.

Great restaurants....some!!!

Pretty food...

Although we never actually ate any of this it looked darned attractive...these are in the Muslim 

quarter of Chengdu in Sichuan province.........home to spicey food!!!

Travel photos as requested....

Old city wall in Xi'an on a soft spring afternoon and the moat that surrounds it

Goodnight little children......

We left little pieces of our hearts in China...

Isabel and I are well settled at home now. She's back to school and I am back to work. It is like we were never there.....except we are grieving for the children and haunted by them. We think about them a lot and talk about them and see their little faces in our minds eye and wonder what will become of them. Each one is so special and they so deserve absolutely nothing but the best. Mostly I so long to see them with a Mum and Dad and to be loved beyond all measure. Sigh!!

I have heard from Lily's (formerly Sarah)  Mum and she is settling in well. Wonder what is going through her little mind? Does she realize how her future has changed and how different her life will be. Probably not.

We have talked to a lot of people since coming home and our exchanges have to be brief even though we would like to go on and on about the kids. A few have been incredibly sensitive and have wanted to "know" everything and see our pictures and follow our blog. Even some very young people, which touched us.  Most people just cannot relate to the plight of orphans unless they actually see it and some not even then.  Perfectly natural. We are all so busy with our lives and our families and "stuff". Still I feel so lucky to have gone on this trip and that Isabel got to see all she did. We are changed because of it and hope we can hold on to what we feel now. Especially Isabel. I worried that a 12 year old wouldn't be able to "get" it. She got it and in spades!!!! Isabel has always been a spiritual child and I think given what she saw this will do more for her soul than I would ever have thought possible.  She knows what an orphans life is like; she has seen an orphanage and knows how children live there ; she has seen kids with deformities, and she has seen a child die from starvation and little ones fighting for our attention. She knows these things. Derek and I have tried to counsel her when she tells us people aren't too interested in hearing about what she did for spring break. That they can't know what she does because it is so far out of their realm of understanding. And that it's okay.

She and I know and that is what matters and eventually, if it is meant to be, our friends will too.