and certain of what we do not see" Hebrews 11:1
This bible verse truly sums up what has kept us going these last 5 years since we first embarked upon our China adoption journey..."Faith"...without it, we would truly not be where we are today - now able to look at a picture of the face of OUR baby girl. So much is still left unseen and unknown, but yet our faith continues...
So who is this little girl from Nanyang, China whom has consumed our every thought since May 16, the first day we laid eyes on her picture????
Her Chinese name is Dang Chun Mei (with Dang being the last name given to her by the Nanyang social welfare institutue). In Chinese, Chun means "spring" and Mei means "beautiful, enchanting". We have always wanted the middle name "Mei", so it's perfect that we will carry on part of her Chinese name.
Chun Mei was born on April 28, 2010. This day is very special to us since it is also Ben's little sister, Lucy's, same birthday! On May 3, 2010, she was delivered to the Nanyang Social Welfare Institute where she began her life as one of approximately 1.4 million orphaned children living across the world and over 500,000 orphaned children living across China.
Upon receipt of Amelia's referral pictures, we also received a brief medical report and a one page description of her development and personality. We learned that Amelia is a healthy little girl with a fun-loving personality, beautiful dark eyes and cute, kissable cheeks. We learned that she was born with a congenital cleft lip, a very common birth defect among children in China. God was clearly watching over our little girl as she was blessed with receiving cleft lip surgery in December of 2010. We were sent pictures of her lip prior to surgery and her cleft was quite significant - it is amazing to see the transformation that takes place from the work of these wonderful surgeons! So Amelia is considered a "special needs" child by China adoption standards due to her "post-operative cleft lip". When we decided to proceed with a special needs adoption, we were open to various conditions such as cleft lip and pallate, minor heart condition, club feet, and a number of other conditions. We are so grateful that her special need is so minor and from the report we received, she is otherwise a perfectly healthy little girl!
As for her personality and interests, we are told Amelia LOVES music! The report reads: "Chun Mei is a lively little lady. She seems to have an intuitive grasp on music. She especially loves to listen to songs. Normally, when she is not doing anything else, she will grab a cell phone, and make it play music, make the adults dance a bit, and she can follow the beat, shaking her little bottom left and right, lightly dancing. During the day she is like this, at night, while she is sleeping, if you turn on some music for this little sprite, she will fall sweetly asleep to the gentle, leisurely music." Boy will she fit into our singing, dancing, music-loving family! We also got such a kick out of the fact that her favorite toy is a cell phone. It's so ironic considering Ben has been engineering cell phones for the last 15 years!
We also learned that Amelia loves to eat. The report states: "She primarily eats rice and noodles. After she drinks milk, she drinks some more milk. Her appetite is good, and she can eat a large amount of food". Talk about a carb only diet?! We'll get her eating protein and veggies in no time (we shall hope)!
We also received Amelia's measurements which were taken at 10 months old. Despite her "michelan baby" appearance from her bundles of clothing where you can't even see where her arms begin and end, she's actually a tiny little munchkin. At 10 months of age, she was 24.8in tall and 17.6lb. At 14 months, she grew to 28 inches and 22lbs.
Although initially in an orphanage, Amelia is now living in foster care. We're not sure how long she has been in foster care or what this foster care consists of (as it is different than what we consider foster care). We hope to learn a lot more once we're in China, but we are very thankful that Amelia is getting more one on one care from her foster family!
We recently received an updated picture of Chun Mei at 14 months old. Can't get enough of those porcelein-like cheeks, beautiful eyes, hair and sweet lips!
We are so excited to have this little insight into Amelia's life in China, but yet so much is still left unseen. Does her smile light up the room? Will her laugh be as contagious as our Liam's? Is she walking yet, even running? Is she quiet or outgoing, serious or silly, daring or timid...is she happy? Although so much is left unseen and unknown, we are so blessed that we can now see a picture of her sweet face and envision her little bootie dancing across the floor. With this insight and with our trust in God, we continue to have faith and hope as we anxiously await the day that we can hold our daughter in our arms, forever.
