Love

Well, I was going to update my blog on what we've been busy with lately. Then I got an email today. The subject read UPDATE!! and it was from our agency. Be still my heart.....it was an update on Anna with pictures!! We had requested an update over a week ago, but our agency had said not to expect a reply because it is rare to hear an update before you go there. So this was a complete surprise! Since you will just scroll down to check out the pictures anyway, I will post them first before telling you all the details. 

She has more hair! 

I LOVE her smile! She is wearing many layers of clothing due mainly to the fact that there is not much heat in the orphanages. :(  Ryan says she looks like Pebbles from the Flinstones with her hair like that. Seeing these pictures made us both quite emotional today. It's like they told her, "Smile for your mama and baba (mom and dad in Chinese)" And she is smiling at us! We want to go NOW. I don't want her one more day having to wear four sweaters and snow pants inside. This is Anna. When we got the other pictures, she was Dang Bao Li, but here she is Anna Vandriel.  She is ours and she is so far away. She looks healthy which we are thankful for. 

This is what they told us:

Her current health is good

She can walk, run, jump, go up and down stairs. She is potty trained. She can say: baba, gege, mama, nainai etc. 

Her personality is extroverted (makes sense right??? )and affectionate.

She is attached to a care giver. That is a good thing. We want her to be attached to someone. It means she will, hopefully, be able to attach to us easier. I know that doesn't quite make sense. It will be harder at first for her (I can't even think about taking her from someone's arms) but better later on. That also tells me that someone loves her, that she is feeling loved. At least I pray that is what it means. My heart hurts thinking about those nannies that do love on the kids only to say goodbye. I know that feeling. To take care of children that aren't "yours". To love them like they are yours and then to feel a huge hole after you are no longer needed. That it's not just a "job", it's where your heart is.  

Well I'll have to update more about what we've been doing another day. We are flying high today!