Shared Blessings

These photos were taken around June 2011.

Lena is the one about to enter the hula hoop on the left.

Lena is towards the back right side with the nanny, who we believe is the deaf nanny.Lena is the one in the far back corner.

Lena is in yellow being held by the boy in the front in a white t-shirt.

These ladies were visiting the orphanage last spring.

Lena is being held by the woman standing in purple.

While we are waiting for LOA (and I believe today is day 33....not that I am counting), I figured I would share some neat stories of things that have happened the last couple of months.

I connected with a wonderful family who is adopting a little girl from the same orphanage as Lena. They were waiting on some of their last steps in the process and recently got their TA (travel approval). They will be leaving this Friday for China and have so generously offered to take a care package to Lena for us. We sent them some fun things for her. They are hoping to get to visit the orphanage and meet her as well, but that will depend on if they are allowed to and how well their daughter is adjusting. The package will get to Lena via the orphanage official no matter what! :) I am so excited for them and for their daughter Hannah to be coming home though I am sad that one of Lena's friends will be leaving her.

And speaking of that, a month ago maybe we were given some videos of Lena from our agency...videos sure are a wonderful gift! In one of them she is running around and smiling and though it is just a few seconds long, it melts my heart. In a couple others she is at the top of a slide and we noticed she has a little bossy side...lol. I think because she is unable to communicate with anyone like the other kids there can, she uses her facial expressions, clicking noises, her pointer finger, and other body parts to get the message across. I shared the first video we got with our friends because their daughter Hannah was in it. They were so happy to have that video, even if it was just a few second glimpse of her. :) I also shared Lena's birthday pictures and a few other pictures I have found in an online Chinese search engine that have both girls in them with this family...what a great find! Those photos are posted above. But back to the videos- so in the one video where Lena is showing her personality/bossy side, Hannah comes up the slide and Lena kind pushes her off with her knees. She tries again and Lena takes a balloon ball toy and hits her on the head a couple of times, as well as pointing where she should go with the click click sound she makes. Oh my! I am going to share that video with Hannah's family as well because it will show them how precious she is and give them a feel for her sweet, easy-going personality- she never once got upset, yelled or pushed back, etc. She just happily went somewhere else. I told Hannah's family that it looks like I need to give them a disclaimer before sending the video- our daughter is the orphanage bully!

Lena sure reminds me of Landyn. Those two will give each other a run for their money- could be interesting around here. Lena also looks bigger than she is too. Her and Hannah are only 2 weeks apart in age. Hannah's DOB is her true birthdate because her parents left her with a birthnote. Lena's birthdate is estimated so they could be off a bit, but I wouldn't think they'd be off by more than 2-3 months since she was found as an infant. She just looks big, but maybe it is all of that winter gear they keep them in.

Here is another neat story that I had to share: A woman from Canada on the orphanage yahoo group posted about going back to visit the orphanage with her daughter so that she could show her daughter

where she is from. I asked her if she would try and get pictures and/or video of Lena and give her a hug from us. I also asked her if she would be willing to ask the orphanage if she could get photos and/or video of three boys that I have found on the shared list who are still waiting for a family. I gave her their information and the photos from their files. She visited there today (last night probably while we were sleeping) and she got some photos of Lena that she shared with us and here is what she said about her: "I was able to obtain a video of your little Yujie.....very cute little girl. They say despite her hearing disability, she knows a lot of things. It seems the nannies in her part of the orphanage are quite fond of her." She said she would share the video when she got home. She got photos and video on two of the boys as well and told me a bit about them. The third was living in a foster home and couldn't get there. She said: "I explained you were on your way very soon to adopt Yujie. They were pleased, but when I explained why I wanted updates on the boys, they were ecstatic. I said you were trying to locate families for them, and they thought that was wonderful. Keep up the good work." This all just made my day! :) I am now praying that I will be able to find a family for at least one of those boys- a family for all three of them would be wonderful!

Here are the pictures of Lena from March 12th in China...last night for us!