A Hope Update!

On Friday we were super excited to find an email with an update about our sweet Hope. When I sent her birthday care package, I included a list of questions for the staff about Hope's past, some personal info, and info about her orphanage life. I thought we would get the answers to these questions when we picked her up. However, they sent the answers via email to my agency rep in China, so I have the answers now.

Here are a few of the answers that we were excited to get.......

How long was she in foster care? I am so excited to find out that she was in foster care for four years!!! This is very good news because this means she had some good early bonding and has been part of a family. She went back to the orphanage in March of 2008.

What do you call her? They call her NaNa (pronounced nahnah). I was happy about this too, because I had a fear that they called her LeeLee since her first part of her name is Li (pronounced Lee)

I asked about her special need and what they do for it? They responded that she doesn't have that special need, so needless to say, we are a little confused right now! But no worries, we don't really care what her need is! We know she has one need, and that is to have a family and WE ARE IT!

What kind of food does she like? She likes spicy food! I knew there was something about this girl I loved! Makes me a little sad though that my dad will miss out on getting to know this one. Sounds like they could have been eating buddies.

Are there any baby pictures of her? They said that there PC crashed and they lost all of her pics. So, I am really hoping that we may be able to get in touch with the foster family and that they may have something that we can have for her to fill in the gaps of her past.

How does she feel about adoption? She has seen our pics and is very excited about us and about coming to the US to live with us. Yeah!!

My favorite part of the update was that she wants her new family to send her some pretty clothes! I have no clue what size she is, but if my girl wants some clothes, we will send her some!

I was super excited to get the update, then yesterday I was blown away to open my email and see these precious photos of our girl!!

I love this first picture! That is the smile that I fell in love with! That smile is the one that had me on my knees praying that a family would come forward to adopt her! I love that God had me praying for myself-He has a sense of humor doesn't he? We couldn't be more honored that he has chosen us to go down this path again.

Check out those eyes! They seem so deep and soulful! Most of the pictures I have of her she has that same giddy smile, so it is fun to see those great lips and beautiful eyes! I love the outfit!!! LeeLee has her own creative sense of style and it appears NaNa does too! I had my own amazing sense of style when I was younger (and still now), so I so understand this! Part of me wonders if she picked this out or not. Paul and I have decided that we are just going to take a few outfits for her, and we will take her shopping when we get there so she can pick out some clothes. I may feel a little like TLC's Clinton and Stacy giving her some rules on What Not To Wear! Before anyone asks, yes, this is her bed! They are like this for safety issues. She is in a really good orphanage, and they take great care of her.

Needless to say, this makes me want to get to her faster!! We are so excited!