Trying to make an update sound like new info

Well, we have sent our acceptance letter to our agency, and they sent it (with those of the other three families in our travel group) to China on Tuesday of last week. They say it takes between 1 and 4 weeks (and probably more like 4) to get travel approvals issued for our children. And the US Consulate will not make appointments for us without those travel approvals. So, we are waiting. Our agency is estimating that we will leave in late September and return in October. There is also a Chinese holiday in the beginning of October, so we will have to see how that plays in too.

In the mean time, I have been chatting with Diane. For those of you that don't know, Diane graduated with me from Witt. It's funny, when I found out that Ms. Bao was in Kunming, I kept thinking, "that sounds so familiar." I thought maybe I knew someone else who has a daughter adopted from there. But, no one did. What I'd forgotten was that Diane was in Kunming for 1 1/2 years of her 3 year stay in China. It's been a while since I chatted with Diane. In fact, I haven't really been in contact with her since she was in China. (So, maybe I did recognize the location after all.) She is a wealth of information for us about the area and customs etc. She has even volunteered to write a description of the city for us to put in Bethany's scrapbook. She is an awesome blessing.

I just sent Diane a letter to translate so that we can enclose it with a care package for Bao. We want to send her some pictures of our family, so maybe she can become familiar with our faces before we get there. Also, we are sending a disposable camera. We are hoping that the orphanage director will take a few shots of Bao with her nanny and her friends and bring it with her when we get Bao. Our agency says it is about 50/50 whether we will get any pics, but it is worth a try. Diane even volunteered to contact some folks that she keeps in touch with in Kunming to see if any of them are able to actually go take the pictures. How cool is that?

We have decided to finance the rest of the adoption with the mother of all checks from our credit card company. It was either that or dip into the home equity credit line. But the credit card has a 0% finance charge that is long enough (we think) for us to be able to pay it off. My desire was to not go into debt over this, but it just hasn't worked out that way. The super fantastico part is that our only other debt is the mortgage, and with Paul's new job and a tax return, we are hoping to have all the adoption stuff paid off in the next year.

In the mean time, the ladies at church are all asking about a baby shower and stuff like that. Specifically, April had asked when I wanted a shower. So, I gave April a list of stuff we need for Bao while we are in China, and I figured that they would just get stuff off that list for the baby shower. But, what I think has happened, is that her Sunday School class has just taken it upon themselves to take care of the stuff on the list. When she came up to me on Sunday she said they had all but three things covered, and I could expect to start receiving items any time. Confused, I just asked, "when is the shower?"

"Shower? I don't know. I think someone else is taking care of that" was April's response. I feel like a total heel. Maybe I should just write "MOOCH" on my forehead. Who needs a shower after getting all of that stuff?

As much as I feel like a dork, I must say, my church ROCKS!

That's it for now, people.