Aug 5th 2009

As of yesterday, august 5th 2009 we have been waiting 1175 days OR 3 years, 2months and 18 days, OR 167 weeks.

there is a site that calculates the wait time with mathematical equations and they estimate at the current rate we will get our referral sept 10 2010 (that's my birthday!). That is 58 days of dossiers to be processed before they get to ours. China is currently processing about 3.1 days of dossiers each month. Currently they have placed children through March 22, 2006. Our LID is May 19, 2006.

Another year and 1 month more to wait to get our China baby. I am hoping that the speed up that so many agencies are talking about will happen this fall and we can get our referral in March/April 2010.

right now there are families stuck in china because the CDC has made a change that if a child is tested for TB and the chest x ray and sputum test is positive that they have to stay in china for 46 days to get treatment before they can travel home or leave the baby they have attached to back in the orphanage again until the treatment is complete. With this and the swine flu and now a new disease in Tibet there are a lot of worries about travel and some delays too.

100 million

http://www.shanghai daily.com/ sp/article/ 2009/200907/ 20090712/ article_407186. htmHenan tips birth of 100-millionth
The most populous Chinese province, Henan, expects to have its 100-millionth citizen by next July.The province's Population and Family Planning Commission made the prediction on Friday ahead of yesterday's 20th World Population Day.Henan predicted the symbolic birth was likely to come between noon of July 7 next year and the morning of the next day.Reaching the number has been delayed by 13 years, said Meng Xiancheng, head of the Henan commission, as the province avoided 33 million births over the past three decades, thanks to China's one-child family planning program. The population of Henan stood at 99.18 million at the end of last year, accounting for 7.4 percent of the country and 1.5 percent of the world.The large population poses a challenge to the province, Henan's Communist Party Chief Xu Guangchun said. "We must strictly control the birth rate and make sure the population is below 107 million in 2020.Birth control"We cannot slack on this issue, or else we could have hundreds of thousands of extra births in the twinkling of an eye," Xu said.
In Henan, local people are well rewarded if they voluntarily answer the country's call on birth control. Rewards ranging from land and education preferences have reinforced birth control efforts.Li Meixiang, a 42-year-old woman in Duandong Village, Mengzhou City, had been approved to have another child besides her 14-year-old daughter. However, she gave up the quota to continue enjoying the benefits of one-child status and received as reward a patch of land to build a new house.The large population has become a big burden for the development of Henan, diluting the wealth and resources of residents, said Wang Xianzhi, director of the Institute of Population and Development Studies at Henan Institute of Education.
The province's incentive-oriented family planning policy has won extensive support, but it is still not enough to stop the current baby boom, said Wang."The 100-millionth citizen is a warning," she said. Xinhua

3 years

next month will be our 3 year LID anniversary. Yikes, can't believe that. There has been some talk about speeding up the process, that China has sent letters to all the orphanages to ask for more waiting children. Also, i have read that it is now becoming one of the orphanage director's job requirements, to get a good job review, they must have more children get paper ready.

Currently they have placed children up to LID March 8, 2006. i believe it has slowed down to about 1-2 days worth of LIDs each month. The average before that was 5-7 days. And when we started 3 years ago they were doing about 20-30 days worth of LIDs each month.

So, with no speed up we are looking at about 14-20 months wait. Geeesh, i think i have been saying that for 3 years now. We do hope for a speed up. It is possible now with the Olympics over and the spot light off of China. We have heard there would be speed ups before...many have not happened. There is a lot of attrition to the SN program that is moving at high speed. There is always HOPE!

thanksgiving

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. had the family over and we ate lots of good food. Black friday was not the same this year. it didn't seem like there were as many great deals. you know like the free or almost free door openers. P went out for a few hours and did a little shopping after noon.

Look at these bags

I'll mention a new site that i found, she has some really wonderful items on her website right now that you need to take a look at! Check it out at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5511685&order=&section_id=5410578&page=1

ALSO, she's doing a really fun contest right now. If you go take a look at a blog posting below, and leave her a comment, she'll put your name in a drawing for a beautiful bag that is just to die for. You can check THAT out too!

Check out this link and go the the bottom and leave a message to join the giveaway for this beautiful bag. Each month she is offering a new giveaway. http://uptown-blog.blogspot.com/.

The Mural is Done

This weekend I finished the mural! For the last 10 weeks I have spent every Saturday painting in the Children's Ministry of our new building. The mural consisted of 3 walls. Two walls that are about 15-20 feet long and one wall that is about 30 feet long and has 4 windows.

The theme is from Luke 19. One end wall has Zacchaeu$ in the tree. Jesus has just walked up to him and with a crowd around him he invited Z out of the tree and wants to go to Z's home.

In Luke 22 Jesus asks his Disciples to get a colt for Him to ride into Jerusalem. In the corner I have a donkey waiting for Jesus. On the other end wall is the city of Jerusalem. It is a market place with awnings and store fronts. The long wall has more buildings, the windows will have dark blinds and awnings as curtains to mimic the market place (this will be done in a week or so).

Here are a few pictures from when we first started. I have the final ones and will upload them soon.

Rain, Rain Go Away

It has rained for 5 days straight. Since Monday night, Aug 18 when Fay arrived we have had rain everyday all day long. Today the sun came out for 8 minutes and then it clouded over and rained again. We have experienced no flooding in our neighborhood. Where there were once large fields there are now lakes, huge lakes. Most of our lakes and ponds were as full as i have ever seen them. This describes our last 5 days.

We've been through every kinda rain there is. Little bitty stinging rain,and big ole fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. Sometimes rain even seem to come straight up, from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night. --Forrest Gump

Tropical Storm Fay

TS Fay has hit our state this week. Fay has been one of the most unpredictable storms. The path it was predicted to follow is constantly changing. Now, it has stalled over Cape C. Because of this it has rained almost 2 feet in 24 hours, there is alot of flooding, there have been a few tornadoes and the beach erosion on the coast is almost 3 feet.

We have received a lot of rain, but there is no real flooding in our area. The winds were only around 30-40 mph and the storm passed at night.

This weekend we went out to stock up on some supplies and they had run out of water. We had to buy the 10 gallon water jugs and we don't have the equipment to put them in. Batteries and flashlights were sold out in many stores.

Staying busy

I am painting a room full of murals for our church's Children's Ministry. Yes, this is a new venture for me. I am a graphic designer by trade but do have formal training in illustration. I have been working for months on designing the entire room: the murals, the theme/look, storyline and even draperies.

I have a team of 4 volunteers that are helping. I work right now on Saturdays from 9-8pm. Because the building is still under construction, for the last 6 weeks we have been working in a building with no electricity or air conditioning. Yep, it gets pretty hot in there during the day.

I will post pictures in the upcoming days.