Great news, today I went to our mailbox to find a letter from Shaohannah's Hope, we had been expecting to hear something from them soon, so I quickly called the family in. We opened it and were very thankful to find they are awarding us with a $3,000 grant! There's still more to be raised, but this certainly helps!

These are the front doors into Sarah Lu's orphanage, where she has been spending the first two years of her life.
It is a very small SWI and only a very small number of children have been adopted from here. There are about 30 children living there, along with our little Sarah.
Langfang is a prefecture-level city and is almost exactly midway between Beijing and Tianjin. It has a population of over 3 million. Langfang has been given the name of "China's Silicon Valley". Langfang is home to China's Oriential University. About 50,000 students attend there.
Langfang is a predominently green city. It has the longest pedestrian street in all of China, which is five kilometers long. It is also home to China's largest golf course.

Here is Sarah's Chinese name, Lu Hua, written out in characters. We are not sure what it means yet, as her translations did not say. From Chinese sites I have been to, the first character "Lu" means "shore"; "land"; or "continent". The second character "Hua" means "magnificent"; "splendid"; or "flowery". So, perhaps her name means magnificent land?... I have several good friends who are Chinese and should know, I will ask them and keep you all posted.

We have a new baby in our house! Her name is Lilly and she is a 10 wk old Black Lab, just like our other dog, Wesley. They have become fast friends. Sarah Lu now has TWO puppies to come home to!!

Amazingly, this past week we received "The Call" from our agency for the referral of a beautiful 26 month old little girl!! She is from the LangFang City SWI in Hebei Province. She has a repaired cleft lip. She is described as being a very happy little girl! From her measurement, she is also quite tall! Our LOI (Letter of Intent) was sent in on Friday, August 18th. We cannot share photos of our little Sarah Evie Lu until after we receive TA. We hope to have her home by this Christmas!!

Besides leaving Sarah's chinese name as part of her middle name, we also wanted to give her an English middle name. It has taken us a while to decide, but we have finally chosen Evangeline, which means "good news."

We have a Log-in date! It is July 14th. We are told right now the wait from Log-in date to referral is approximately 12- 13 months. Although, we are hoping to adopt a special needs child, so if we do, that timeframe will not apply to us. Our agency anticipates the next set of special needs referrals in the upcoming weeks, so we hope Sarah will be among this next set! That would just be so wonderful.