Care Package Update!

On September 24, we sent a small care package to Little One.  Our agency works with a wonderful woman in China who has a tremendous heart for the orphan and their adoptive families!  She works her heart out as a guide for many when they make their adoption journey to China and then she also provides a wonderful service to the families through our adoption agency; care packages.  Rather than simply packing up a box and haphazardly shipping it off to China with a blind hope that it will reach your child, we get to use this amazing courier.  She sends you an e-mail with very explicit instructions about how and where to send your package...right down her address and phone number ready to be copied to a packing label in both English and Chinese.  If you want to eliminate the guesswork of even that, she will actually shop FOR you and purchase your requested items to deliver to your child!  While I did like the fool proof notion of having her do the shopping for us in China, I really, really wanted to be the one to pack up Little One's package and send it to her.  I wanted to shop for her gifts, I wanted to touch them and hold them, I wanted to do it.  It is the first of many gifts we will purchase for her and I wanted them to come from my heart.  I knew shipping would be crazy and I also didn't want to draw too much attention to our package (read: have it get stolen) by making it super big, so we kept it incredibly small and simple.  Here is what we sent:

• Jelly Bellies for the foster parents-These are made in the USA and an item that was recommended to me.  It is great to send gifts that are made in the USA.
• Post cards for the foster parents--Just a couple of shots of things around our state, to show them where Little One will be living.
•  Toddler snacks--For Little One.  Some of those freeze-dried yogurt bites.
• A Lovie-For Little One to snuggle and hold and feel secure with.  I did a good bit of snuggling and holding it before I sent it.  I would soooooooooo love it if she still has this at Gotcha Day and can bring it home with her!
• A photo album--A super small one that is appropriate for little hands.  It holds six pictures and was just enough space to include one of Chris and I together, one of each of the kids, and one of our home.  I labeled the photos in both English and Mandarin to hopefully assist the foster parents in looking at it with her.  This is another item I would be over the moon excited to get back at Gotcha Day!

While sending the care package was very therapeutic for me, we also hope it will serve the purpose of preparing Little One's heart to receive us when the time comes.  We hope she will study our photos and we won't look so "strange" to her on Gotcha Day.

So, we packed it up and sent it to the courier in China, hoping that it would get there safely, unopened, and clear customs without hiccups.  I got an e-mail today, and it made it! It has arrived at our courier's home!  Praise God!  Now the courier will package it up and handle the in country shipping to Little One.  Hopefully by this time next week I will have confirmation that she has received it and I can start imaging her sweet little hands hugging her soft purple lovie blanket.

While there are no guarantees that we will get any of the items back and we will have no way of knowing how much she actually gets to have access to the items, we wanted to send them to her--praying and trusting God to use the items as He sees fit in this journey.

Hopefully this time next week I can update saying SHE GOT IT! 

Oh, and did I mention sweet Little One has a name?  We don't have her full name decided yet, but her first name will be Hannah.  What a joy it is to call her by name!