What a Gift!!

One of the families from our agency got the referral for their daughter on January 3rd, two days before us. This happened because the soon-to-be mother's father was dying so their referral was expedited. Unfortunately, the father died on January 2nd so he never saw a picture of his new granddaughter. Anyway, because of their expedited referral, they were able to go to China last week. They decided to go to the orphanage today. This is a little unusual because the orphanage is about 5 hours away from where we will be staying, so it's a two day trip.

This family was kind enough to look up the names of the other 5 families who are adopting from this orphanage (including us) and sent us pictures. Priceless! These are pictures of Sydney today! I've also included a couple other pictures of the orphanage. It's exciting to see she's got more hair than her dad now. :)

The director of the orphanage was asked if there was anything that they needed. We all wanted to get together for a special donation. We found out that the orphanage did not have any washing machines, so the five families from our agency and ourselves decided to go together and buy them one. The family that took these pictures also did all the leg work to buy the washing machine, and also bought candy for the older children at the orphanage who are all special needs. After seeing the picture below of all the laundry, it's easy to see that this is much needed.

It still looks like we'll be going to China at the beginning of March. The US Consulate is closed on Monday due to President's Day, so we should get our final dates on Tuesday or Wednesday. We'll be sure to post when we know!

I can no longer complain about laundry! The orphanage had NO washing machine until we made the donation. This woman is bringing back some of the dried laundry.