We received an email Tuesday morning (May 26th) with the translated version of Xiu Gang's narrative. It contained information regarding the events that transpired on her "finding day". Although it was a little tough to read, it's information that I am grateful to have. We learned that Xiu Gang was 6.6 lbs at birth and 19 inches long. That makes her our biggest baby, believe it or not. Benji was only 5 lbs 6 ozs and poor Jacob entered the world weighing only 2 lbs 3 oz. Xiu Gang's surname, Qian, comes from the name of a river in her district...the Qianjiang River. We also learned that she is very active, laughs loud and likes her bath.
After reading about Xiu Gang's "finding day", I got online and visited the website of a man who has helped many families obtain their child's finding ad. I called the number on his website and spoke with him for quite a while about Qianjiang. Both he and his wife traveled there in 2006. He described the city to me in great detail. I purchased a DVD that he made of the city....in fact, we've already received it and watched it. It has footage from inside the orphanage...including the newborn and baby rooms. It also shows footage of many of the finding locations throughout the district..including Xiu Gang's. I'm so very grateful to have this video. It is doubtful that Doug and I will be able to visit her orphanage. I don't even know if we will get to go to Qianjiang. It's highly possible that the babies will be brought to the nearest "large" city, Chongqing, to meet us. If that happens, and we don't get to visit Qianjiang, then this video may be the only images we will have of her birth town.
About an hour or so after I spoke with this man, I received an email letting me know that he had located her finding ad. He is sending it to us along with a copy of the newspaper it was published in. This will most likely be the earliest photo we will ever have of her. I can't wait to see it.
Later that afternoon, I headed off to Fed Ex to overnight our signed acceptance papers back to our agency. Two days later, May 28th, our agency emailed me letting us know that everything had been sent back to China for processing of our travel approvals!!! One step closer!!
The pictures in this post were taken by a family who toured the orphanage when they adopted their daughter. This is where Xiu Gang has been living while she waits for us.
7 comments:
I hope you will get to visit her orphanage when you travel to China. If you don't get to though, it's cool that you have these photo's and DVD. It's amazing how information you have been able to gather already!
Wow Mary! What precious information and pictures you have recieved! Time is flying right now isn't it! I remember the first 2 weeks after referral seemed like a blink of the eye! :) Enjoy! Talk to you soon!
Mardi
It is amazing the information you have collected!! It must be somewhat comforting seeing the pictures, knowing where she is.... These are exciting times. Hopefully you and Mardi will get through the finish line SOONER THAN LATER!!!
It is awesome how much information you have already got. You will be able to teach Xiu Gang so much about her birth town. You are so strong to reach all this for her. I know how hard some of the information has been for you to learn.
It was great talking to you today. I'm so grateful for our friendship. :)
Mary, this is so interesting. I can't wait to see her ad and here about her findings. I'm so glad you are pushing to get all this info. I'm sure it's hard but when she grows up, she's going to want to know and it's better to get the info now because later might be harder to get.
We also very excited to have our daughters finding ad too. It is a great way to start our story with our new daughters.Enjoy the journey!
Alyzabeth's Mommy for Eight Months
Post a Comment