adoption paperwork nearly done!!

It is now Thursday afternoon - we are only waiting for the notary paperwork to be delivered - tonight hopefully!! We have only been here two days - sorry we are doing this so fast - I know so very many of you are waiting and waiting. I am not sure why God chose for us to do these adoptions like this but it is certainly all Him! The workers at the civil affairs office were asking our guide, Angela (my angel), why is everyone pushing this along so fast - what is so special about this boy?? Why him? She was without response - I told her I would have simply said - this is how God has chosen to place Lushi in a family - all the children come via their own path .... Lushi has waited nearly 14 years and he has certainly waited long enough!! He is opening up and laughs at Mama's attempts to use chopsticks ... and speak chinese!! He jokes with the civil affairs officers and is smiling lots and lots! And Mama has found out he is VERY ticklish! His only request before we came was for a translator ... electronic. We went today to look at some ... in a FREEZING cold building - he was so stubborn, so 14!! He wanted this one and ONLY this one that he obviously has seen someone else using. It was so confusing to use and finally I told him this translator would be like his didi's (little brother's) prosthetic arm - fine to look at but quite useless for everyday functioning. He then agreed .... my nearly 14 yr old son agreed and said he didn't want it!

He opens doors, pours our tea, passes the first coke to me - he actually has some manners! We had a very nice lunch at a local cantonese restaurant .... mmm,mmm very good (sorry Cait and Grace :P )- the orphanage adoption worker that brought him finally agreed to join us and he shared some about Lushi and how he has a very sensitive heart. I simply can't WAIT to be able to converse with him and joke with him. When Angela leaves us and we head home, he asked who will help translate -this will be his biggest adjustment, but hopefully he will tackle it head on and work hard at it. I told him it will take many months but it will finally happen and he will be able to talk with us and we will all understand each other.

Since our work is all done we are going to try to fly off to Langfang tomorrow and spend a bit more time at Shepherd's Field. I will miss out on going there in the spring for the planned mission's trip and will cherish sharing with the children and meeting up with Christina!! I'm sure she will totally enjoy leading us around to show us all the babies and loving on them with us!!

For all of you not in the midwest area, please pray for our teen daughters and younger kids - they got 14inches of snow yesterday and everything is still closed around the area. Caitlin was the "man of the house" and conquered snow blowing the driveway with much effort ... said there were 5 foot drifts from the 40 mile/hour winds. They stayed in most of the day Wed and made cookies ... eating most of the dough before it could even be cooked! Sounds like MY daughters!! Raw dough is so very yummy!!

Can't wait for all our family and friends at home to meet Lushi - watch out James S - he can put some spin on a pingpong ball!!

In HIS strength and mercy alone,
MaryK