Meet Virginia

Meet Virginia.  She's the most awesome little girl I know.  And we haven't even met her yet.  

Now that we've received our LSC, we're supposedly allowed to share information about our little girl.  Wu Jin Jun is her legal Chinese name, and she is in the orphanage in Shanghai.  She is considered a special needs, or "waiting child," as she was born extremely premature (and had other typical issues that go along with that), and had surgery very early to correct a hernia.  She turns three years old in just two days.  However, physically she's quite behind as you might imagine.  Doctors and others who reviewed her profile encouraged us that she has a very good prognosis and likelihood of catching up.  

Sharon and I have decided that her American name will be Virginia Grace Bridges, but we'll be most likely calling her "Ginny."  This was not the original choice we've had picked out for years as a girl's name, because what we had picked out just didn't fit anymore.  Why Ginny/Virginia?  Ginny sounds like Jin, part of her Chinese name, and likely what she's been used to being called already.  Plus, since our first six years in full time ministry was spent in Virginia, where the Lord saw fit to give us our first child, the name had double significance.  Plus, we know a few really cool people named Ginny/Jeni, and Sharon had a grandmother named Virgie.   

What's next now?  Well, the next big milestone is the TA, or travel approval.  In the meantime, we are also waiting for our I-171H renewal to come through, which we should have gotten by now.  And then there's the money thing.  We'll be beginning a fundraiser soon that we hope you'll help us with.  I just finished another grant application tonight as well, and plan to start a few more in the next week.