Prayers for the weekend...

Today's milestones:
At dinner Kylie polished off a stage 2 size sweet potatoes, a stage 1 size bananas and a handful of peach flavor puffs. (All this after taking 6 oz of formula mind you!) She was playing with her water bottle and had little droplets on her tray. Suddenly she started acting like she was picking the water drops up and putting them in her mouth so I asked her if she wanted more to eat. She immediately smiled, correctly showed the sign language for more and opened her mouth. I figured she must still be hungry, so I offered her a stage 1 size applesauce. Before each new bite I'd ask if she wanted more and she would sign "more" to me and then open her mouth. Pretty impressive when you realize that we got our baby signs book on Tuesday! (We did manage to catch that on video ~ we're finally remembering to get that out again!)

The other milestone was that she finally realized how soft one of her blankets is. A dear friend made this lovey for Kylie and we've used it many times, but until now it was just another blankie to her. She never seemed to recognize how soft the "minkie" fabric felt against her skin. But today she brushed past it as it hung over her rocking chair. That brought a smile and you could almost see the little wheels turning in her head. Then she grabbed it and started dragging it around with her, stopping frequently to rub it on her face. Oh my goodness how cute!!!

Now to the prayer requests...
Someone emailed me and asked for specifics on Caroline and Gracie so she knew what to pray for. Here's what I know.
On Tuesday doctors suspected that Caroline (one of Kylie's Lianjiang "sisters") had rotavirus. She was pretty badly dehydrated and they said that hospitalization for rehydration was likely. I haven't heard anything more from her mom, so at this point I'm guessing that Caroline was admitted. Caroline has three older siblings, so pray for her recovery and the juggling act that her parents face keeping the other three in school and activities.

Gracie has been in the hospital again since the post that I first requested prayer for her. Doctors have told her parents that if this cycle (seems to be six days of serious ~ every 10 to 15 minutes ~ vomiting followed by three healthy weeks and then starting over) repeats again they will diagnose her with CVS (Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome) which has no medical explanation. (Nice to have a name to what is going on, but frustrating that there is no way to prevent it from continuing) Gracie's parents also have three other children, so their juggling act is tough with so much time spent at the hospital. Please join our China families in praying that this past bout of sickness will be the last.

The last prayer request I have is for those families still waiting on referrals. I recently found out that the CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) got through just two days of dossiers in the past 3o days. The wait from the time documents arrive in China to referral was 6 months when we started the process, but we ended up waiting 15 months. This last batch was about 18 months and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight to the lengthening. We know how endless the wait can seem and with it only appearing to get longer I'm sure there are lots of waiting families feeling blue right now. Please lift them up, I know that prayer can lighten hearts!