plenty of children; too few parents (long)

Friends,

What a great day we had yesterday in a bitter sweet way. We spent all day with the children at Harmony Outreach and had lunch with the director, Lily. They have 17 children and are trying to make room for 4 or 5 more.

First off, they need parents to adopt. While many of the children get adopted, many do not. In particular, 2 boys are 6 and need homes (as do almost all the children, these 2 are just the oldest). Lily says once the paperwork is turned in to Cn, she can have the parents ready to come adopt within 3 months. Christopher and Trevor are bright, playful, and full of laughter. Their special needs are not signifcant. After rough housing with them, I was surprised to learn Christopher's leg was malformed. It certainly doesn't slow him down! I still don't know what Trevor's special need is. And then there are William and Tommy who stole our heart. We saw no issues with either of them and Chrissy and I disagree that William's head is oversized (as noted in the Harmony webpage). www.harmonyoutreach.org


Oh, so about our day. We walked in and went to see the children who were just waking up. A little girl named Yuanyuan cried when Chrissy left the room. Christian picked her up and they were together for most of the day....Yuanyuan demanded it! Chrissy and I had a good talk about the "least of these" and seeing Jesus in their faces. Christian has so much love to offer and she spread it all day. We could tell the children were accustomed to lots of love; there was absolutely no bonding issues. They wanted us to hold them, kiss them, and play with them. Tommy called me gua gua (big brother) right when we met and for the rest of the day. I had to not think about it or go in the other room and cry. On the lighter side, he obviously knows how old I act! The nannies kept telling him I was a baba (daddy) but he disagreed and continued to call me gua gua. Many of the children called the nannies "mama." I am confident in saying that Harmony Outreach is about as good a situation as an orphanage gets. These nannies know what they are doing and they do it with the love of Christ. "Jesus loves me" in chinese is just as simple and touching as it is in English.

17 kids, one house, 4 or so nannies. It was crazy! They have special bottles for the cleft lip and palate babies and Mia was very interested in their conditions. It was good preparation for MingZhen. The babies were happy to let Mia hold them and she seemed so big to me! Much to the dismay of the nannies, Mia tought Tommy and William the art of chunking snow balls at each other when we played outside. Eventulaly, Mia fell asleep and the director took her to a room with 8 cribs and put her in a bed. An hour later, my imagination got me and I panicked, thinking she would wake up and think I left her there. Ha! No chance, she ruled the placed and showed no signs of her past experiences.

Please pray for Jessica. She is beautiful and appears fine. I don't understand totally but the doctors have said she has Luekemia but just to wait and see what happens. She needs a second opinion and I would love to have her visit the US and be seen by a specialist. Maybe doors will open up for her. The director and nannies would like to do so much more but the needs are so great. The director is overworked, out of her own dedication. I was ashamed of the complaints I made about adoption paperwork when compared to what she must deal with. They needed a nebulizer that Anne and Madeline are bringing. I loved solving one issue so quickly (it's a guy thing!!) Once we have pictures (long story, camera broken but they gave us a disposible), you will see they need some outside play equipment and we have a first Sunday project to put together pictures of adoped children as an encouragment to the nannies--- but most of all...they need mommies and daddies and love.

We made it!

Looking outside my window, I see the Forbidden City. Wow, we are definately in China. I love this place. Mia and Chissy are doing well. Mia is having fun; we already went swimming first thing this morning (Friday in China).

We met some folks from Tenn. who are also here to adopt. They have waited 4 years to adopt a baby. It is very frustrating to know there are so many orphans and many folks who want to adopt but government policy and red tape keep the two apart. Not just in China but in so many countires. The good news in China is that because the adoption of babies has been slowed, many more older (2 and up) children are being adopted. It has taken us under a year to get to this point (with all our complaining about delays, you would think it took us much longer.)

We are off to an orphanage here in Beijing later today (if all our plans work out.) Chrissy says she knows how to post pictures and we will try.

Tommy

LAX to Beijing

Chrissy, Mia and I (Tommy) are in LAX waiting to board China Eastern to Beijing. So far, so good. It all seems surreal and is very different than when we traveled to get Mia. Not better or worse, just different.

A big thanks to Brent and Leah, who sent us off at the airport at 6:15 this morning. We are so appreciative of all that our family and friends (f/f) have done for us this past week. Taking the entire family has been a challenge....both financially and in getting ready. But this week, we received 3 checks from f/f that have allowed us to relax and enjoy the trip. Thank you so much!! We are very grateful to friends at the Well who have supported us financially and spiritually. The Well Bible Church rocks!

Others have helped by taking care of the kids so we could pack and by lending us travel supplies. We are hoping that our kids will have an experience of a lifetime and remember our visits to the "least of these." Who knows what God has planned for them but I suspect these travels are a part of the preparation.

The next time we check in, it will be from Beijing. Pictures from Harmony Outreach will follow soon. We miss you Mom and Madeline and will see you on Sunday.

Mia, Chrissy, Tommy

Here is a picture of Sheng Mingzheng (Colin).

Travel Schedule

Here we have the main events that will be happening on our trip.

• Feb. 26, Chrissy, Tommy and Mia arrive in Beijing
• Feb. 27, Visit to Harmony Outreach
• Feb. 28, Adoption paperwork meeting
• March 1, Anne and Madeline arrive; travel to Shenyang
• March 2, We get Shen MingZheng (Colin)
• March 2-5, Adoption paperwork in Shenyang, visit orphanage
• March 6, Travel to Guangzhou
• March 7-10, Medical check up, apply for MingZheng's US visa, take oath
• March 11, Travel to Shanghai
• March 14, Travel to Austin