Beginnings and Endings

I received our official Travel Approval in the mail today. There is an additional picture of our little girl on the official form. We have seen it before. She looks slightly younger and her head is shaved on one side. In China, they do a lot of IV fluids for heart children and they also tend to run IVs for children on their heads.

I am still waiting on my official travel date. Hopefully I will hear something this week. The Chinese New Year begins next week, so I will need to hear something by Thursday (China's Friday) to expect a travel date close to a February 20th leave date.

My last day of work is less than 2 weeks away. Where does the time go? I was planning on returning to both jobs on April 26th, however I will not be returning to my part-time after-school job after winter break. It makes me sad to think about not returning to my elementary school job, as I will really miss my 5th graders. They have brought me many professional challenges, laughter and joys. I am very thankful for that opportunity, but after much consideration I realized that it is the best thing for Jiliang and for T.J. as well. There are going to be a lot of household transitions and health factors for Jiliang, so I believe that a more normalized schedule is what my family needs most.

I have been waiting to hear from Ladybugs 'N Love about the cake that I sent Jiliang. Angela in Beijing, from LNL, checked last Friday about the cake. The person in charge of adoptions there has been out recently and they have been a little busy with their end of the year business. Their New Year starts next week. The orphanage left a message for the person in charge of it to place the order when they got a chance. Hopefully it will happen before I get there. I do understand that they are very busy, so hopefully it will happen and the pictures will be a pleasant surprise. Angela at LNL is really wonderful to work with and I am very appreciative that the orphanage has agreed to do it at all.