Yes, you read that right!! Disregard the message we posted on July 14th. It is truly an amazing story from the very start until now...We shut the door on the adoption on July 13th -5 days later Mike was shredding the medical records that were sitting on his desk at work when he looked down and the dates just jumped out at him. The more he looked, the more puzzled he became. He called me and when the line was busy so, he sent an email for me to get offline and call him right away. I had to dig out the records from the trash on our computer and didn't know what to think. So, I immediately called our family coordinator from the agency and she of course had gone home for the day. So, we spent the night pondering the entire thing. The next morning, I called the family coordinator. She looked at the paperwork and tried to figure it all out herself. Well, come to find out after contacting the workers in China...The paperwork had been mistranslated...Two of the dates on the medical records were listed as 2007 while everything else said 2006. Needless to say, it should have been 2006. Thus, changing his medical records that we thought were for a 18 mo. old to that of a 6 mo. old. That is why his size was so off!!! So, since discovering the errors we have been waiting for the orphanage to send a current height, weight, head circumference, etc. Well, we found out this week that he is healthy and about the size of Rylee.
Oh my goodness...This has been a wild roller coaster of a ride. But, as always we just put our hands up in the air and scream "Whee!". I submitted the paperwork today so, it is nearly official. We just have to wait for the Chinese government to accept our request to adopt him.
A boy, you ask? Yes. 99% of the time families are referred little girls, but boys that are considered "special needs" are frequently available to be adopted. This happens for several reasons: lack of medical care, fear of the child not being able to provide for them once they become elderly, lack of education on some medical conditions. We saw little Ming Qiu Wen (Ming = orphanage name, Qiu = autumn, Wen = not sure...for Rylee it meant educated) on the special needs list and were drawn to him. Then, all the pieces started falling into place that confirmed to us that we needed to pursue adopting this little boy.
A little about Ming Qiu Wen...We plan to name him Ryan QiuWen Reagle. Why Ryan? Well, I love Irish and Welsh names and names that are gender neutral. I could also justify the name to Mike because the RY is from Rylee and the AN from Morgan. Ryan turned 2 years old on August 14th, thus the heart cake that Morgan decorated. He is currently in the SanMing Social Welfare Institute (orphanage) in the Fujian province. He has a hearing impairment and possibly is deaf in one ear. We will not know exactly the degree of his hearing impairment until we have him tested after arriving home. His condition is called bilaterial microtia/atresia. His outer ears were not fully formed and his ear canals are covered. We believe he has some hearing and that a bone conductor hearing aid will be able to assist him. Reconstructive surgery will probably be in his future. A lot of unknowns right now, but we know with 100% certainty that this is the child God intended for us! Scary, yes...A lot of work ahead of us, yes...But, we are faithful and can not wait to meet this special little boy!!!
I know, I know...He sure is going to look funny sleeping under his hot pink and green quilt...His sister's "hand me downs" sure are going to look funny on him...He doesn't quite look like an Abbie!!
We still have a lot of work ahead of us (moving children around, educating ourselves, preparing the kids, etc) and decisions to be made (who will travel)...please keep little Ryan and our family in your prayers.
Oh, pictures...You want to see pictures????
