ON Ministry Letter of Approval In!

Just got an email from our agency to let us know that the ON Ministry has granted a Letter of Approval of our change of country from China to ETH.

So, we now have a couple of bits of paper yet to amass, notarize & submit. Then, the file goes to Ottawa for "authentication", and then on to Addis for matching.

Will keep you all posted!

Lady Buddha - Guanyin

Guanyin is also known as Lady Buddha ... we visited a shrine to her when we adopted Mei Le in China ... at the Six Banyan Temple in Guangzhou. Actually, our group of families with their newly-adopted children received a blessing from the monks there.

According to Wikepedia:

Guan Yin is an extremely popular Goddess in Chinese folk belief and is worshipped in Chinese communities throughout East and South East Asia. Guan Yin is revered in the general Chinese population due to her unconditional love, compassion and mercy. She is generally regarded by many as the protector of women and children. By this association she is also seen as a fertility goddess capable of granting children. She is also seen as the champion of the unfortunate, the sick, the disabled, the poor, and those in trouble.

Am not sure why I thought of her this am ... maybe because I have been thinking about what it will be like to travel to ETH to meet Little Sister; maybe also because several other adoptive families in our little web community are currently on tenterhooks, waiting for information from ETH about their children (referrals, medicals, visas, etc). I don't really ever pray - but if I did, Guanyin would be my choice for times like these ...

Sadly, I can't find a pic on-line of the actual Guanyin statue we were blessed at ... but these are other versions of her likeness. All of our pics from China were in traditional, negative format (seems so long ago!).