Fire in China Orphanage

I just learned of a deadly fire in an orphanage in Huizhou City. Grace is in that city, but not that orphanage. Apparently a mosquito coil caught quilts on fire and 8 disabled children died in the fire from smoke inhalation, age 4 and up. When I first saw the post, I panicked! But it was another orphanage. Please pray for speedy paperwork so we can go and get our girl!

I apologize for a lack of posts lately, but our Internet connection is really awful these days. I'll be on for 5 minutes, then it's gone for half the day. The Comcast guy is coming tomorrow.

We are almost done with our paperwork. Looks as though we need to file a motion to redo our I-171H since we are now going with a special needs child. ($$$) We also need to get new fingerprints. We applied for both of those this week. Still waiting to hear back from the USCIS on both. We did, however, finish our homestudy update! YAY! I have it in our possession. It'll be used in China.

Tonight I go to a consignment sale. I'm dropping off a van-full of clothing and toys and doing my "volunteer work" for a few hours. Then, because of that, I get to shop early tomorrow! Wish me luck. I'm hoping to find a double stroller (either a nice Maclaren or such... or a jogging stroller).

Last weekend we "went to the dark side", as one of Mike's co-workers said. We bought a Mac. A Macbook Pro to be exact, so we now officially have a laptop ready to take to China! YAY! However, I'll never be able to look at it without feeling a dull pain in my gut. While we were at the Apple store (and Mike was checking out), I noticed that they had a special on printers. $100 rebate when you also bought the computer. So, we bought a $130 printer/fax/copy combo printer. Our other one was on it's last legs... springs were popping off all the time! For $30, I didn't care if it was the best one on the market... it was only $30. So after we carried the new computer (with a nice little box and handle, carried by one-handed Mike) and the new printer (huge, bulky, heavy, push-in handles blocked by poorly designed foam insert, carried by me!) across the long, long, long mall, we felt we made a good deal (despite my sore arms). It took a couple of days, but I finally got the printer hooked up and set the box aside to deal with the rebate. Somehow, both Mike and I forgot. One of us set it in the garage. I threw the box away with the trash yesterday morning. Yesterday evening, it dawned on me... I needed the UPC code. We now lost our $100. UGH!!! Who would've thought a box would be worth $100.

In any case, we are one step closer to China. Got the laptop and a new super-compact digital camera ready to go.