Yeah For Schedule Change!!!

I just got an e-mail from the Cohen family!! Their schedule got switched and they actually went to the orphanage today.....soooooooo, I have great news about Elli and PICTURES! I have included a excerpt from her e-mail where she describes Elli, as well as the slide show below...she is going to tower over Anna! I guess Anna will get Elli's hand me downs ;-)

Thank you so much to the Cohen Family!!!

Marcy,

Our schedule got switched around and we went to Qingyuan today! Elli is very shy, but she is a big, healthy looking girl. She was afraid to be near us except in the arms of her auntie, whom she seemed to be quite attached to. We lured her into pictures with a lollipop. She ran back to her seat, where they were doing an art project - so we know she can run! We left her room and went to the one next door and she came to peek at us and then wave goodbye and and blow kisses to us. She is precious!

Well, obviously, she is gorgeous, which we knew, but she is healthy and appears to be well taken care of, which is a huge blessing. I am glad that she is attached to a caretaker. Kids need that and it helps with the bonding process following the adoption. I called Rodney and told him about the update and how much she has changed...he will be home shortly ;-)

Apparently she loves doing art, so I now know what to include in her suitcase for the trip...lots of "artsy stuff!" Harris, you are going to have an art partner! I don't know if you noticed or not, but the auntie that is holding her has on a shirt with "Half the Sky" logo on the side. This is a great organization that does so much for the children in orphanages throughout China. They were so active in the recent winter storms ensuring that the children had heat, food, water, diapers, clothes, medicine, etc. They have a program at Elli's orphanage. They are great!

So, so, so thrilled to find out that Elli is doing well. Updates are always bitter sweet. Happy she is being taken care of, but then the feeling of desperation to get her home deepens.

Sending love & hugs to that chubby cheeked princess, Elli,
Rodney, Marcy, Carter, Jacob, Parker & Anna Mei

Hopefully An Update Soon...

A family that is adopting a little girl from Elli's orphanage is in China now. They met their daughter, Eliana (how funny is that?) on Monday. They are scheduled to go to the orphanage on Friday where they will try to get us an update and new pictures. We hope to have some news by Saturday.

I am pretty anxious to hear about her. The last information we have on her is from November and the last pictures were a couple of months prior to that. I am sure that she has changed quite a bit over the last 7 months and will likely look so different. Just with Anna's adoption, the hardest parts are the wait and the not knowing. You can't control either one. The little things like what your child had for breakfast, what they played during the day, if they have a runny nose, are their shoes getting too tight...random, yet priceless information for a mother. You think about all these things when it comes to your kids. You just want to know they are okay.

This may be the last family that travels to her orphanage before us. There doesn't seem to be many adoptions from this orphanage. With Anna we were so blessed to have updates on her nearly every month and that was hard enough having to wait from one month to the next to get news. In a few months, I hope to be able to get another update on her. There are many people in China you can hire to do just that. It is just hard to do "extra" stuff when you are saving to do the "necessary" stuff. So, we do a lot of praying that God protects and provides for her, as well as all the orphans in the world.

We are consumed right now with one, but there are hundreds of thousands of children that need homes. We love this little girl and want to bring her to our home to be ours, but we can never forget the others that wait, that aren't matched, that don't have families working to bring them to a home. Please keep our Elli in your prayers, but also pray for the other children that are alone. No child deserves to grow up without a mom and dad to call their own.

Sending many hugs and much love to our sweet Elliana,
Rodney, Marcy, Carter, Jacob, Parker & Anna Mei