Seeing is beleiving

We are very blessed to have received a video from a dear lady who traveled to Ling's orphanage in 2008. She sent us about 30 minutes of video of the orphanage with over 5 minutes of Ling included! The video that she sent on DVD is actually much clearer than it appears on our blog. I have trimmed several minutes of the video and posted it here. The video shows Ling playing with and comforting several small children. It is such a blessing to see her caring for others in her situation. We have been told that she is a very loving and caring young lady and we can see that in the video. Carolyn and I debated if Ling had some sort of "tick". If you watch her closely, it appears that her head "jerks/twitches" somewhat. I think we came to the conclusion that it was probably that she was just facing a very large window and she was "fighting" the glare. One of the ladies that has visited the orphanage several times this year says that she refuses to wear sunglasses.

Pictures

Here are a few more pictures that we have of Ling. She looks sooooo skinny! These almost look like two different girls, but we have been assured they are both Ling. I think they are take about a year apart (both pics are about a year old)

Fingerprints and answered prayer!

We went to the USCIS office in Columbus to have our fingerprints recorded on the 17^th and all went well! Another answered prayer to report! We received a wonderful phone call on December 16^th from an organization that we had applied to for assistance! They will be sending our agency $3,000 on our behalf to go towards our expenses! Praise the Lord! He truly knows what we need when we need it!! We had a balance of $1,300 that needed paid before we could send in our dossier, and now we have it! We have our Consulate and Embassy documents ready to go for the final authentication. We hope to have our USCIS approval toward the end of the week or early next week. When we have that, we will need to have a copy of it notarized, taken to the county courthouse for authentication, and then my plans are hand delivering it to the Secretary of State for their certification. Then it will be ready to send to the Consulate. Once we have the USCIS clearance document back from the Consulate, our dossier should be ready to go to China. If (and that’s a big “if”) we can get “logged-in” before January 10 ^th, we wont have to file an extension. The Lord will truly have to work a miracle for that to happen.

Just a quick post, but another answered prayer. God has provided the money we need to send our dossier paperwork clear up to the Secretary's of State level. Just like He said He would do!

Inside the Orphanage

Over the last few days, a nice lady has sent me more pictures of Ling's orphanage and surrounding Province. The orphanage is a once abandoned hotel. It looks clean, but according to the pictures I have seen, looks very bleak and somewhat colorless. I am sure they do what they can for these kids, but I wished they had a little money to spend on pictures etc. to make it a little nicer for them. I have stared the certification process for all of our paperwork that must go to the state and federal government as well as the Consulate and Embassy for authentication. Its a huge process, but taken one step at a time, is manageable. Carolyn and I are praying for the money to finish this part of the process. The next time I post, I hope to be able to report that God has provided again :)

Today we mailed out the care package. Praying that it makes its way into her hands. According to the post office, it should arrive at her orphanage in 7-10 business days. I didn't mention that we were able to mail the box as a result of an answered prayer. We had it nearly ready to go with the exception of a few remaining items we really wanted to send and was praying for the funds to get them. On Friday we received an unexpected check from a church in Alabama that was just enough to purchase the final remaining items and to pay the postage to send the box. Thank you Lord once again. I also received a few pictures today from an online friend who has been to the orphanage. One of them looks like it was taken on wash day. I couldn't image doing laundry for 200 kids and having to dry it outside on anything available (as the picture alludes). The orphanage is an abandoned hotel. Not really sure of the internal living conditions, but imagine they are sparse at best. I am sure they do the best with what they have.

Care Package

Today I finished the care package that is going to Ling. Tomorrow it goes in the mail! We ended up putting the following items in the box: A pink Ohio State hat (just because it was pink, but Trisha will like this anyways), a pair of fuzzy jammies, 4 pair fuzzy socks, 4 pair sunglasses (not fuzzy), a tween journal (hopefully her caretakers will encourage her to write in it and maybe her friends and caretakers will do the same), a set of 4 cute ink pens, chap stick, 1 heart shaped necklace, another necklace that says "big sister", two disposable cameras, hair scrunchies, hair clips, fancy bobbie pins, a package of Gheodelli chocolates (for the orphanage Director), and a photo album with about 75 pics of family (our favorite item). We labeled a lot of the pictures in Chinese and American so that she could see who her mom and dad are (ok, maybe not a good idea-lol) and what her siblings looked like. We also were blessed to be able to have two letters translated (thank you AHH). One from us to Ling and one to the orphanage director. I know how excited we were when we sent Bella a similar box! When I was packing this one for Ling, Bella was asking me question after question. "Daddy, did you send me a box when I was in China"? Yes sweetie, Me and mommy sent you a box just like this one. "Why daddy"? Because we loved you Bella and we wanted to let you know that we were coming for you! "Did you put the same stuff in the box Daddy"? Some of the stuff was the same, but we also sent you some different things that we thought you would like! "I did like them daddy, I liked them a lot"! I dont really think she remembers opening the box, but who knows. We have pictures of her opening it....and they are priceless to us! We pray that this box makes it to Ling with at least the letter and photo album. If the rest of the items make it, great. But we would at least like her to be able to see her new family so that maybe she wont be so scared. If you dont mind, those that are reading this, say a little prayer that the box makes it to the right destination. We probably wont know until we go get her.