Well, we have been out of translation for 15 days and for about 1/2 of that China has been on holiday. The chance of Jaden coming home in time for Christmas is diminishing with each day that we don't receive our Letter of Acceptance from China. Regardless of our hopes, we do know that while God's timing is not always what we would want it to be, it is always perfect. Still praying for an LOA before October 16th though, it could happen, right?
We just realized that Jaden's health information is over a year old. The good news is that if a child's file is over 9 months old, updates can be requested! Tim sent off a request for information and often the updates come with new pictures. We aren't exactly holding our breath as the process is known to be sloooow, but I am checking my email oh, about 50 times a day. No luck yet.
I don't think I've mentioned yet but we learned quite a while back that Jaden does not speak Mandarin but rather the Wu dialect. We haven't been able to find any language help with this dialect on any type of search. Apparently it is only spoken in the "little town" of Haimen City. Only in China, would a gathering of a million people be considered a little town. :) This dialect difference is not like in the US where "Hi Y'all" and "Hey you guys" would be considered different dialects. These are totally different languages. Any closet Wu-ians among my friends? We'd love to hear from you!
Tim, Mitch and I are still learning Mandarin (slowly) in hopes that it may make the trip a little easier. Mitch really hopes to go on the Visiting Orphans (not Oprah) trip this summer, too. Perhaps we should add charades lessons also; it will probably help with communications more with Jaden than our mangled Mandarin will. As the time gets closer, we hope to make a communication board with pictures as a possible means of communication with Jaden. Anybody have any pictures of squatty potties they'd like to share? I'm not sure that pictures of western bathrooms would mean much to our little guy.
I've tried to change the blog settings so that anyone can post and so if anyone can think of any "must-have" pictures for a communication board for a 3 year old, suggest away!
We're in the final stretch! Some specific prayers I would love from my family and friends:
Jaden's health
Speedy LOA
Preparing Jaden's heart for the massive change his life is about to take
Wisdom for us on how best to prepare for Jaden
Blessings Y'all!
