"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar." -Helen Keller

Great news! The dossiers for all of the six older children have been pushed through to the CCAA, the national agency in China responsible for coordinating adoptions with foreign agencies. It’s quite exciting, since they’ve been here over 9 months! Hopefully they’ll get new homes before any more crawl out of their cribs…they’re reached that dangerous age, unfortunately. Jonas and Laura, after having a case of lice and worrisome fevers, both had successful cleft palette operations, and have returned home with a few stitches and “stiff-arms” to keep them from pulling on the sutures. That means that the only older child still in need of medical attention is Susan, the miracle heart baby. For her, it’s still a waiting game…

Have you ever shaved an infants head? Well none of us ever had, and being the only one who shaves facial areas on a regular basis, I was officially nominated the person to shave Angel’s head. The barber shop across the road refused to help us cut it shorter with trimmers, saying she was too little (refuse service in China? What the?!). So we used a pair of scissors, a razor and shaving cream to push ahead in our efforts. We assume that her coarse and prickly hair was that way because of malnourishment while she was in the government orphanage. So hopefully, she’ll grow a new head of soft brown hair.

ha.

Recognizing that all of you have probably seen pictures of the Forbidden City, I thought I would humor you (at least I found it humorous) with a sign I saw inside the city that isn’t as publicized, but just as monumental as the Forbidden City. If any of you has ever used an authentic Chinese public restroom, then you would appreciate restrooms like this. I traveled to Beijing last week and got back recently. It was a great trip. In our free time we visited the Forbidden Palace, Tiananmen Square, a Silk Market with cheap name-brand goods, and other touristy walking streets. The city is getting spruced up for the Olympics, and I enjoyed my first-ever ride on a subway. We were able to visit several orphanages similar to Amanda’s, only much farther along, so we got a lot of pointers and ideas. That we know of, hers is the farthest inland that is run by a foreigner. Xian is debatably like Independence, Missouri was 150 years ago…the edge of civilization as westerners know it.

Well I went to the countryside and had an enjoyable time with one of the orphanage workers (I call her Liu Mama) and her family. While there, I caught on camera the reason why Huggies, Pampers, and all other name-brand diaper companies have had such a hard time doing business in China. If you look closely (you may have to open the picture in a different window), you will see the amazing “split-pants wonder,” the cheaper alternative to disposable clothing, common throughout all of China.