Wow- what a weekend! Last Tuesday night (Wed. morning China time) a new waiting child list came out. This is a new list of children registered for adoption in China with some type of special need. Our agency works to match families with children based on certain criteria. We thought we would be on this list and stayed up very late waiting for the much-anticipated email from China. It never came. I was a little disappointed but realized that it just wasn't our time yet- Emma Grace would get to us when the time was right. I just had a feeling she was coming, and when it didn't happen I was so SAD.
Then, Friday night came along. We got the kids in bed and I stayed up making hair bows for my sweet Emma. I made her a bow board and hair bows that would be just for her. I made so many that I started to get emotional seeing them all hung up. Here are all these bows for a girl we have never seen, but we are almost certain she was born and somewhere in China. I decided to just take a break and go to bed. I went upstairs to check on all my little sleeping chickens, just like I do every night before going to sleep. When I was in Timothy's room, Rick starts screaming from the basement. Rick does not ever act "urgent" about anything, so I thought something was wrong. I ran downstairs saying "what's wrong..." over and over again. He said "I think we got a referral, but it is all in Chinese!" I was in SHOCK! We weren't expecting a referral over the weekend- we had already started looking forward to June. Then- I saw her picture. The most beautiful little girl and I just knew- that is HER. We finally found the English version of the reports and scanned through everything. From what we could tell, she looked healthy, happy, and her reports seemed great. But we aren't doctors! And, we had a weekend to review the file when most doctors are not working. We were not prepared to deal with this scenario :) But, I sent an email to our International Adoption doctor at midnight. At 8 am Saturday morning, I had a response and she wanted to review the file. It was an answered prayer!!!!! Not only did she review the file, she did not charge us the weekend fee.... and she did it all based on TRUST that we would pay our fees on Monday. She read through the reports, contacted a cardiologist and called to give us a phone consultation. Thank you, Dr. Staat- you really are as amazing as everyone says that you are!
So, in the words of Dr. Staat... it is an "excellent referral." She gave us the worst case scenario for what we might see. She gave us her "mother perspective" as an adoptive mother herself (her daughter has the same heart defect as our Emma) and she gave us her professional opinion. Everything was positive- so without a doubt, we are taking this little girl!
About Emma- we don't know much but we will share the few details that we do know. She was born on July 26, 2009 and found on July 27, 2009. She was found at the gate of the No. 20 door of Chazhong Road of the Taijiang District. The police sent her to the Children's Welfare Institute of Fuzhou City where she has lived ever since. She is in the Fujian province. On March 10, she was 62 cm and 7 kg. Dr. Staat said that she is in the 10th percentile for height, and 50th for weight. Of course we would get the chunky baby! She is growing well and looks very content and healthy. She has a cleft lip, which appears to be very minor. Her report says cleft palate, but we aren't sure about this yet. Her palate is either fine or very minor. There were no details about this in the report, and from the way her lip appears, it doesn't seem to be bad. She also has a minor heart defect, a VSD, which is a hole in the heart. Dr. Staat said that most babies with heart defects and clefts have trouble growing- and clearly, she is growing just fine. That is all great news and a wonderful sign.
Now, we set our sights on traveling to bring this little girl home to a mommy and a daddy that want her so bad we can hardly stand it. To a home with 3 brothers- I am sure she will be in complete shock at the 3 blonde monsters that run around in their underwear, act like super heroes and jump off the furniture. I am sure she will be in the mix of all that before too long. Our little Emma- we are so excited to finally see that sweet little face. We will be RUNNING to get you- so hang on tight because we are coming for you!!!
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