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.