Song Wan Qiu

 

Take a peek at our daughter! These were her referral pictures-not sure how old she is in these pics. Think they are months apart.

We are so excited to announce her arrival into our lives. We first knew of her on April 11 (the day before Edie's 4th birthday), and after a SEARCH for her file on the shared list (that lasted 6 excruciatingly painful days) we were locked in with her on April 18 in the wee hours of the morning. We wrote our letter of intent for her later that day (which tells China you intend to adopt this child and why) and we received our PA, or pre-approval from China on April 23.

She turned 2 in February, and is currently living in Hangzhou City (110 miles SW of Shanghai)- either at the children's welfare institute or with a foster family. We have heard wonderful things about this orphanage and feel that she is being cared for in a stable environment, and even possibly by a family.

She was born with a congenital heart disease known as TOF or Tetralogy of Fallot, with secondary ASD. From her file we know that she was suffering from cyanotic spells (turning blue) from a lack of oxygen reaching her body b/c of her heart defect. On another post I will explain what all that means, but she has had open heart surgery already in China to fix this pretty significant problem.  We have been told from U.S. physicians- a pediatric cardiologist- that her surgery was performed well and that she looks great. She will need to have an annual check up with a cardiologist for the rest of her life, mostly because at some point she may need a valve replacement (most likely between the age of 10-20) as her heart grows.

We have asked for updates and are still trying to figure out if she's living at the orphanage or with a family. We are currently waiting on a letter seeking confirmation (most popularly known as LOA). This could take months- so I won't even guess when that will be. We know that at this point, most people we know travel about 6 months after PA (which we got yesterday)- so we are thinking we will travel in October. In the meantime, I will post new updates and pictures- and other outings/family adventures here - don't think I'm a lifetime blogger- but I think it's the best way to update everyone on this exciting journey until we bring her home:)

Also- no name yet! We were convinced that we were getting a boy (we had 2 awesome names picked out) - but have to start over with a girl! We are still in shock that this is our daughter! How blessed we feel!