祝你生日快乐 (Happy Birthday) Li Ya Nan!

It's Friday, April 12, 2013 in China. According to her daily schedule, Maeli is most likely back at the Institute getting ready to have lunch soon. It's a BIG day for her today! She is officially a teenager! Our sweet girl is 13! Although we would love nothing more than to be able to spend this day with her physically, we rejoice knowing this is the last birthday she will celebrate without us! We wanted to let her know that we are thinking about her on this special day, so we arranged for a care package and a birthday cake to be sent to her from Ann of Red Thread. Ann is a wonderful Chinese woman who sends gifts and letters to children for adoptive families. Maeli's care package includes a birthday cake for her to enjoy with the children at the orphanage as well as a few gifts. In addition to the cake, here are the things Ann sent:




One of Maeli's reports says that she loves to read so we decided to send her the first Harry Potter book in Chinese. We hope she enjoys it! The candies are for the nannies and caretakers.




Ann included a flash drive so her nannies can save photos from her time at the orphanage for Maeli to have when we go to get her.
The items that my friend took should be given to Ann today who will forward them on to the orphanage so Maeli can receive something personal from us for her birthday.
















We are so thankful for the willingness of our dear friend to hand deliver these things to Ann. There's just something special about knowing our girl will hold something we've held in our hands too!
Tomorrow (April 12th for us) we are going to have dinner with family and friends at a local Chinese restaurant to celebrate our sweet girl's birthday. I hope that tomorrow also brings birthday surprise that will help bring our girl home soon!!! I will certainly post about that tomorrow if God "gifts" us that blessing!

To our Maeli Yanan: "Happy Birthday sweet girl! Your Baba and Mama love you dearly! May you feel that love and have a special day filled with smiles and fun!


-Jessica