Waiting to go . . wanting to go

After all the excitement of the referral, we now wait again! But at least we now know where we're going; just not when. Our Little Empress presently resides at the Zhanggong District Social Welfare Institute in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province. This map shows where her province is, and provides interesting information:

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/jiangxi/

Here is a page with information about Ganzhou, the location of The Empress's current abode.

http://www.gurrad.com/china/ganzhou.htm

The Empress is Revealed!!!!

Greetings All!
The day has finally arrived and Curtis and I have a two year old daughter in China. Her Chinese name is Zhang Xiang Bing. Zhang is the family name, which we will drop, and name her Elizabeth Xiang Bing Morgan. We will be traveling in approximately 6 to 8 weeks (mid October or early November) to China to pick her up and bring her home.

On the report (dated June 16, 2005) which we received today (Sept. 7), Elizabeth's birthday is estimated to be August 13, 2003. She was found on Sept. 2, 2003 in the doorway of her orphanage, the Zhanggong District Social Welfare Institution of Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Provice. Her name Zhang expresses the Zhanggong District where she was found, Xiang expresses the year of the Sheep (it also means fragrance), and Bing means beautiful and lovely. Elizabeth is a very healthy child. She is well nourised, eats well, likes to play, and can crawl and walk. She weighs 22 pounds and is 30 inches tall (as of June 16, 2005).

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Katie (my wife) and I have been "in the process" for well over 2 years now. We are working through the Bethany Christian Services agency office in Fairfax, Virginia, about an hour from here. (We live in the Shenandoah Valley, which is gorgeous, but sometimes it seems that EVERYTHING is "About an hour from here.")

People sometimes ask us, "Why China?" Two reasons: first, we were told that the PRC is the easiest country to adopt from, among other things requiring only one adoption visit to the country; some countries require two or more. Second, we think Chinese children are beautiful.

The paperwork is overwhelming, but we completed it last January, and the Chinese authorities "logged" it in on Jan. 31. It is customarily a 6-7 month wait for a referral. We're getting close, and hope to receive word of which little girl (2-3 years old) we have been matched with by the end of this month (August). In the meantime, we wait . . .

Curtis & Katie -- waiting for the Empress to arrive . . .