Merry Christmas!

Notice the Chinese writing? I believe I wrote (umm...cut and pasted) "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" in Cantonese. The main language in China is Mandarin, but in the south, where Olivia is from, they speak Cantonese. (click image to enlarge)

Photo of Olivia's orphanage

This is Rong Xian SWI (Social Welfare Institute) where Olivia has lived for her first 3+ years. Built in 1952, the SWI's first international adoptions began in 2002. As of this August, there have been 47 children adopted internationally and 12 adopted locally. Also as of August, there were 27 staff members caring for 15 children under 18 and about 50 elderly people. We are glad that Olivia's SWI/orphanage is so small compared to some of the huge overflowing 8+ story buildings. We're hoping smaller means more individual attention, but it's still a poor substitute for a family.

I found most of the RongXian photos and above info from an organization called Grace And Hope (www.Grace-Hope.org) that has recently taken on the task of trying to recruit and train foster families in Olivia's town (and 15+ others in Guangxi). They also try to raise financial support for these foster families to get children out of orphanages and into loving foster families since the majority of Chinese orphans will never get adopted.

Since adding RongXian to their foster plan in August, four children have moved into foster homes while nine remaining children still need sponsors. We don't know if Olivia was one of the lucky four (since our info is from June before the foster plan began and Grace & Hope is not allowed to tell us) or if she is still in the orphanage.

I am so grateful that someone cares enough to reach out to these kids--my kid--and amazed that for only $40/m we can get one of Olivia's friends out of the orphanage and into a foster home. We can't adopt them all, but what a huge impact we can make in the life of another child. I hope all of Olivia's friends can learn what parents are, can have a place to call home, can attend school, and can have a chance for a bright future. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all nine get a sponsor!!

Photos of Olivia's Town, RongXian

RongXian Public Square
RongXian City Park
RongXian motor bike
RongXian Park
RongXian farmer at market
RongXian Public Square
Dyed paper or textiles drying

A river that flows like blood. In Olivia's town of RongXian there are more than 170 factories involved in paper dyes along the Xiujiang river with more than 3,000 employees. . .and more than 560 textile enterprises employing 16,100 workers. This is the economic backbone of a county that is classified as "impoverished" in the national ranking system. This industry also has multiplier effect on the rest of the local economy through transportation, food, service, etc. If this industry is shut down, the town economy would be devastated.

I can't find the town's population, but read somewhere that the population of the province of GuangXi has over 50 million people even though 70% of the land has mountains/hills!

Video: All I Really Want for Christmas

Steven Curtis Chapman is a Christian recording artist who is also the father of six children, three of whom were adopted from China. As a result of his passion for orphans, he and his wife started an organization called Shaohannah's Hope to help remove some of the financial barriers to adoption.

Since it's the Christmas season, I thought this would be a good time to share one of his music videos, "All I Really Want for Christmas [is a Family]." I couldn't figure out how to upload the video directly to the blog, but you can view it by clicking:

http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer?pagename=allireallywant

If the above link doesn't work for any reason, you can also see it here: http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?vid=68977

FINALLY

Once we agreed to adopt Olivia, we had to send China a Letter of Intent (LOI) stating our plans. It's been almost a month now since we first got her picture on Nov. 20 (my Mom's B-day!) and I mailed our letter to our agency shortly thereafter. I knew it had to be translated before being going to China, but I'd hoped it had long been sent... However, our agency informed me today that our letter should be going out TODAY, Dec. 18, along with four others. While I'm glad it's FINALLY on it's way to China, I'm disappointed that it didn't go out weeks ago. I didn't realize that step was going to take soooo long. But then again, nothing with adoption is quick or easy!

I'm mostly disappointed because this means China has no idea yet that Rong Fu Tan is spoken for and our countdown hasn't even started yet :( According to those who have been there done that, I'm expecting it take 30-60 days from today to get our Travel Approval (TA) which will invite us to China. That means we should get our TA sometime between Jan 18th and Feb 18th. Once we have our TA, we can begin to set up appointments in China and book our flights. Assuming we'll need a few weeks notice between getting our TA and take off, it now looks like we probably won't be traveling until February or (early?) March.

Our travel may be further complicated by Chinese New Year, the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. The 2007 new year begins February 18th and the festivities continue for 15 days. I know government offices shut down for at least part of this time, so we may be advised to avoid travel during that time.

The bright side of this is that we will have plenty of time to recover from our 10-day Christmas trip to Florida before having to hop on another plane!

trouble viewing video?

If you have trouble viewing the video, you may have better luck going straight to the source: http://www.bringmehope.org/dvd/index.html There are three versions that have varying lengths. I personally love the full 7 minute version :)

Video from BringMeHope.org

In our country, we're free to have as many children as we want, but the Chinese aren't so lucky. Due in part to China's sad history of mass starvations, the government decided to reduce the number of people competing for food by telling families that they are only allowed to have ONE child. Since girls don't remain part of the Chinese family (once married, they live with their husbands family and take care of their in-laws in old age), it's imperative to have a BOY to carry on the family line, care for the parents and appease the ancestors (they practice ancestor worship). A Chinese woman feels much pressure to produce a boy and has quite a dilemma if her one child ends up being a girl. The women often try to hide their pregnancy in case the baby is a girl that she can't keep. Those "unlucky" mothers of girls often feel compelled to illegally abandon the baby in the dark of the night, with the hope that the baby will be found be found and cared for by someone else. This is why the orphanages are overflowing with girls with no known birth parents and no known history. I feel sorry for those mothers caught in a dilemma we'll never have to face. What a burden to bear! It may not have occurred to us to adopt if we hadn't had so many fertility issues, but every time I see this video, I feel privileged to be in a position to make a difference in the life of a child.

Photos of Guangxi province

I found these photos of Guangxi online. I'm not sure what we'll actually get to see, but the Li River in the north and the waterfalls in the south (by the border of Viet Nam) are very beautiful! On the map, they don't look far from where we'll stay in Nanning, but with mountains and bad roads, trips in either direction can take 4+ hours each way. (click on photo to enlarge)

Map of Guangxi

Olivia is in the town of RongXian which is in the southeast of Guangxi, between Wuzhou and Yulin. I don't know the population of the town, but it appears to be a poor community that relies heavily on the textile trade. (click on image to enlarge)

Map of China provinces

Olivia's province in called Guangxi. It's in southern China and borders Viet Nam--light blue in this picture. (click on image to enlarge)

Emily is SEVEN!!

Yesterday was Emily's 7th birthday. She was born at 5:23 am, but when I referred to her being seven sometime yesterday afternoon, she had to correct me, saying, "No, silly, I'm not seven until AFTER I blow out the candles!" So last evening at Chuck E. Cheese, surrounded by a few neighbor friends, she officially turned seven :)

She was awe struck when ChuckE came out and was in heaven when she attached herself to him with the world's longest hug. I think she thoroughly enjoyed her special day!

More Pictures of Olivia!

Today we got the original file (in Chinese) and all FOUR of her referral photos--we'd only seen the two previously posted. The one with her shirt off was attached to her medical report to show her scar from open heart surgery. It's good to see that she's not all skin and bones :)

Granted, Chinese babies are typically smaller than Americans, but Olivia is really TINY! At her last medical exam in June when she was about 3.5 yrs. old, she was 30 in. tall and weighed 21 pounds. According to (American) growth charts, that put her at about the size of an average 10-14 month old here!! However, I've been reassured by plenty of adoptive moms whose children were/are also tiny, but perfectly healthy.

I was starting to shift my thinking towards a "big" girl, but she may look (and seem?) like a baby after all. But a walking, talking one!