Wednesday, August 6, 2008

A Bit About Our Girl

I thought today's posts could be a bit of a summary of what we know about our little darling. It's been an exciting journey toward learning about her and what her caregivers perceive to be her personality. We look forward to learning even more about her on our own, once we are settled in and "doing life" together. Here is Part One - to help you start to get to know our little peanut!

WBN was found on August 15, 2007 near the local police station by "common people" (to whom we are forever grateful and deeply indebted!). She was sent to the police station where a search for her "relatives" determined her to be abandoned. She was sent to the Children's Welfare Institute in her city, and determined to be approximately 5 days old. Date of birth was determined to be August 10, 2007.

In the examination process, WBN was found to be in overall good health, with "moderate nutrition" and "loud crying." Well, of course she was crying - she needed her mama! At that exam it was also discovered that she had a deformity of her right ear. This medical condition is known as Microtia/Aural Atresia. (More on that in a later post, I think.) All other portions of the exam showed her to be healthy and normal for her age.

In February 2008, (when she was 6 months old AND when we chose to pursue a special needs adoption!) a complete summary of her life at the orphanage and medical information was compiled to enter her into the Waiting Child program. The growth curve that we've been able to trace indicates slow and steady growth, even if she is a peanut on both the American and the Asian growth charts. She was reported to be a sound sleeper, with a generous nap in the middle of the day. It appears that she was eating some solids, but was mostly still on stage 2 formula (send me your Nestle and Good Start coupons, gals!). A fun little anecdote about her love of food: when she saw the workers bringing food to the babies, she would "be happy and wave her arms." (Sounds just like Shaggy, eh?!) At this exam, she was described to be "a child with heroic spirit, firm and persistent with inflexible will like a boy (huh? or like her Mommy-to-be?!) while tender, quiet and gentle like a girl." I'm guessing that these last couple traits helped them choose her two names, which mean "cherished or precious" and "tranquil or peaceful." Additionally, the examiner noted that she likes to be cuddled, she can locate sound and respond to her name being called, and was starting to babble the basics sounds. (All good signs for one with Microtia/Aural Atresia.).

This information was presented to us within the file that we received back on July 14th. It was a lot to take in and the doc in the International Adoption program at CHOP was incredibly helpful in sorting out the details and understanding information "behind" the written words! Next post, the updated information we received on July 30th . . . .

1 comment:

heidi @ ggip said...

email me your address if you want, I have several Nestle coupons that I can send you. Seriously, I was sitting here looking at them and wondering who I could give them to. Two have expiration of 9/15 (maybe you want to stock up now) and one has a MUCH later date.

I know once upon a time I looked up microtia.