Well, we were hoping Chinese New Year might not affect us too much, but it did. Chinese New Year is today, January 31, and it's the biggest holiday of the year in China. Everything shuts down for a week - businesses, government offices, etc. So if you remember from the last adoption post, we had Article 5 pickup scheduled for January 27, which was this past Monday.
What is supposed to happen on pickup day is the the courier picks up the Art. 5 from the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou and express mails it to the CCCWA (China Centre for Children's Welfare and Adoption) in Beijing, and then the 1-3 week wait for Travel Approval begins. Well, what happened with our Article 5 pickup was this...the courier picked it up on the 27th as planned (that was Monday of this week), but the mail system in China had shut down early for Chinese New Year. So....our Article 5 just sits on the courier's desk until next Friday, February 7, when it can be express mailed to Beijing. It's sort of like our Art. 5 pickup hasn't even happened yet. It's frustrating that we are losing almost two weeks when the government offices only take one week off. But we lean on God and His perfect timing, and we know He will work things out the way they are supposed to be!
In happier news, we received our second update on M on Monday as well! (Some good news to go along with the bad that day.) We got seven new pictures of our little sweetie, and have enjoyed studying them and getting used to her older-looking little toddler face! On a humorous note, we have marveled at her absolutely terrible new haircut. ;) Orphanages tend to keep the babies' and little kids' hair very short or shaved, likely to keep the risk of headlice and contagious skin diseases to a minimum. So M has always had short hair in the pictures we've seen of her. But in these pics, she has a freshly-buzzed haircut with a round circle of longer hair in the front - sort of an attempt at bangs, it looks like. She's truly adorable, but the poor thing has a pretty bad haircut!
In the update we learned that, well, we feel even more of a sense of urgency to get her out of there. Her head circumference has not increased since October (not good, as it was too small to start with) and she's only gained a pound. Our almost 2-1/2-year-old weighs a whopping 16.5 pounds. It's so hard to be stuck here knowing that she needs more food and we can't give it to her yet! We ask your prayers for her health and nutrition, and protection for her brain from permanent damage due to malnutrition...and also for speedy processing of paperwork. We'd love to travel at the beginning of March. We trust the Lord for His protection for M and His will for the timing of this entire process!
1 comment:
I hadn't checked your blog for awhile and just looked at it this evening - and now CCCWA has your Article V, yay! Funny about M's haircut. TongJie had a pretty wonky haircut in his photos, but when we finally got him it was just a regular old buzz cut. We are praying for you guys and for little M. It must be really hard to wait, knowing how small and underweight she is.
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