New Measurement Update

Happy 4th of July, everyone!!! As I'm typing this blog, I hear fireworks popping and whistling just outside my window. I'm thinking, next year AJ will be 2 years old. She'll probably be ready to see her first fireworks display. Lots of "wow"s and "ahh"s! Which, by the way, I will tell her, was invented in China some blah, blah, blah years ago. (I guess I'd better google for the answer before that time comes, huh?).

Anyways, yesterday we received updated measurements of AJ at 13 months. Our pediatrician was a little concerned about the accuracy of previous measurements and wanted us to request updated ones. Her old measurements placed her in the bottom 3rd percentile of normal weight, height and head size, but her pictures showed her to be normal developmentally. To say the least, we were pretty concerned. Was she terribly malnourished? Did her head size indicate that she would have learning difficulties down the line? Will any of this affect her future social, emotional and physical development?

After two weeks of apprehension, our agency coordinator, was finally able to convince CCAA to fax us new updated measurements. AJ must have put up a good fight! That's our girl! Well, we received it yesterday via e-mail and am happy to say, that the new numbers place her close to the 50th percentile, in terms of, head circumference (whew!) and her weight, though still on the low end, around the 10th percentile. She's a tiny little thing, but she seems to be very healthy! We are falling in love with her more and more every day.

About a month ago I received an e-mail from a wonderful woman, by the name of Janet Fink. She had founded a foundation called Shanghai Superkids, which brings occupational therapists to Chinese orphanages to help rehabilitate children who have special needs. She had, also, adopted a little girl with special needs from Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute (SCWI), in 2005.

She wrote that she was going to visit SCWI, in late June, and if we were interested in having her to try to get pictures of AJ. We were,like, oh my gosh! No way, this is just too awesome! If she carries this off, she is going to get a very nice donation from us! I, really wanted pictures of AJ before adoption, so that we can show them to her, when she's older, what her life was like before we came into it. Great lifebook material!

Well, to make a long story short(not!), she returned to the states last Friday and e-mailed us to let us know she had seen AJ. She wrote that when she walked into AJ's room, AJ zoomed over in her walker to see who came in. When she picked AJ up to give her a hug, she cried, because she was shy and didn't know who she was. (I would have given anything to have been there to hug her myself.) But, once she handed her over to her favorite caregiver, she immediately stopped crying. We can already imagine something similar on GOTCHA DAY! But, this time, we won't be handing her back to her caregiver. All-in-all, a great sign, though! What this tells us is that she has learned to form healthy attachments to those who love and take care of her and, therefore, will be capable of forming healthy attachments again. It is always a concern for adoption experts when babies don't form a bond with those familiar to them and just go indiscriminately to anyone.

Janet, bless her heart, was able to take pictures of AJ and her favorite caregiver, along with a pillow we had sent to her, with both of our pictures on it. She was even able to take some video footage! We couldn't believe it! We are just over the moon with joy and anticipation! We're hoping to receive it in the mail any day now. WAITING, WAITING, WAITING!!! It seems like that's all we've been doing, lately. Well, anyways, we look forward to sharing them with you, just as soon as we get them.