Sunday, March 12, 2006

Hannah is feeling better today. Thank you Lord. A few of the babies in other groups have had to go to the hospital. We have met people from France and Spain who are here adopting. It was rainy and cold and snow had been predicted so we decided to keep both of our babies indoors today (Kristin is baby #1 and will always be our baby no matter how old she gets). Donna and I went on the sightseeing tour to the museum.

We saw a woman over 2,000 years old who had been preserved in a special tomb. There were many artifacts. We also saw some very old porcelain, pottery, bronze, etc. Then we took a tour of the city but the weather was foggy and rainy and we couldn't see much. Lunch at the hotel was fried rice with a fried egg. Supper was a western buffet with steak, shrimp, etc. It was great.

Several of the babies in our group were fighting sickness and two of them stayed in the room with their new moms. We received Hannah's Chinese passport and visa today which allows her to leave the country. We catch a flight tomorrow morning to Guangzhou and the White Swan Hotel. There we will meet with the U.S. Consulate to get a medical exam and get permission to bring Hannah into the USA.

Hannah, as I said, was feeling better today. She has this happy scream that is so shrill and loud that it hurts your ears. It is similar to the sound the alien made on the movie, "Independence Day." Now she is preferring Pam when sleepy or sick. This is a good thing. This kid is wiry and wiggly. She squirms when you feed her, when you change her, she squirms all the time. She knows how to get your attention. I dozed off today in the room and she was trying to get me to do something by smiling and waving and that wasn't working so she screams and laughs. She spaces out like me. Earth to Burke!

All the parents gathered before supper today for prayer. I started it off with a scripture reading from Romans 8:15-17 NLT: "So you should not be like cowering fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family - calling him 'Father, dear Father.' For the Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children. And since we are his children, we will share his treasures - for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we share his glory, we must also share his suffering." God wants us to overcome our fears and really believe we are his children and allow him to share his treasures with us. Hannah wakes up and looks around to see if we are still there. Every day her fears decrease and she believes more and more that we are her family and we love her and that we will take care of her. That's what God wants to do for us....to adopt us and deliver us from fear and unbelief. Allow God to prove himself to you.

The featured family today is the O'Hara's. They adopted Carly, 22 months. Kevin and Tina have a daughter who is 12 named Christina who they adopted from China. Christina loves holding all the babies. This has been a trip of discovering her roots. She is a very smart and well adjusted girl.

The next time I update this site will be from the White Swan Hotel. Thanks for the encouraging words on the guest book. A few of you forgot to sign your names. Keep us in your prayers.

Jeff