The good & bad

I'm feeling sad. No matter how I figure it up, and let me tell you I go over the time table all the time, I can't see us getting our approval to bring Frankie home until about February. All the approvals and processes are just taking so much longer than I expected. I wrote for advice from the wonderful Waiting Children yahoo group I belong to and everyone said a year is pretty much the average time span. We would be one year if we bring him home in Feb. It felt good to know I'm not doing something wrong. I feel like I am trying so hard, but always wonder if there is something I could be doing better or different to make things go faster. Obviously I want to do the best I can for him. He's got another birthday coming up and it brings me to tears to think he is going to still be in the orphanage for it. I don't know for sure what he knows or doesn't know about someone wanting to adopt him. I agree it is too long of a wait to tell him yet. But knowing how it hurts him thinking he doesn't have a family and is another year older just breaks my heart. I just want him home. We want to start making up for all those years. It hurts. Then on a very good note, I was so happily surprised when Donna let us know that we made $550. toward his adoption through our Pampered Chef fundraiser! We need $2560. to send in at the time our dossier goes to China (which I pray will be soon). So $550 is a chunk of that! I'm so excited about that.  We've made it this far. After that stage we will be looking to get a loan. Then some of the financial pressure will be off. I think at that point we'll have a better understanding what we will still need and hopefully be able to get a loan we can handle better. Thank you so much to everyone that purchased something or donated toward helping us get this far. I can't wait to tell him how many people cared about him. That he was important. And everyone wanted to make such a difference for him. Thank you so much. We're blessed. And he is blessed. God has His hand on his life. He's got a plan for him. He was destined to not remain an orphan. And with that I have to remind myself, that it is in God's time. And we wouldn't want it any other way. But until then, I guess I'm going to shed a lot of tears. We love you Frankie.