We're back home, though this picture of Li Mei is from our hotel the White Swan in Guangzhou. She's so tiny that even though she's two and a half she wears 12 month clothes for the length, but doesn't have the toushie to hold up the pants. In this picture she was probably about 16 pounds. If I went only by weight, she'd be in 0-3 month clothes. Her body proportions are that of a newborn but her attitude is very two year old while being easily amused.
Once we hit Guangzhou, our schedule was packed with tours and paperwork. We also finally met some of other adopting families -- all of us were part of the Waiting Child program (older children and children with special needs). So much has happened I think I should re-blog and fill in some of the gaps. To see more of the baby pictures, you can visit my family blog at http://kai-rowan-jasmine.blogspot.com.
The boys went off to school with our car pooling buddies and all around friends Cheryl Burton and her daughter Aimee. Her dad, Chris and new baby sister Renee stayed home. Cheryl and Aimee visited for a little while to meet Jasmine (aka Li Mei)and drop off a baby present.
2 comments:
*snicker*
Well, I think Jazz's biggest need is sun protection, she's very light phobic and she'd get a sun burn on even the mildest of sunny days. I just put sun screen on as part of the morning brush teeth and put on clothes routine.
We don't have much idea about her visual abilities, but they're better than I first hoped. She can spot individual pieces of cereal and pick them up, but she definitely needs to get close (a few centimeters) to pick up details of certain objects.
We have doctor appointment #1 today, so we'll find out more then. Dentist is tomorrow. That should be popular. ;)
Li Mei does have albinism, which caused considerable confusion in China. Many people didn't realize that she was Chinese and had to be convinced. White hair is only found on the elderly and no one has blue eyes.
In Guangzhou a larger city, people were very open and with only one exception very positive about her condition. In Taiyuan the capital of ShanXi a smaller city, people gave us their condolences and one gentleman tried to give us money.
I really knew I was in the US when the general reaction was, "She's Chinese? Cool!"
Our doctor said the same thing about the injections -- he wanted to wait until the second visit to start the full series of childhood immunizations. He phrased it almost identically: Welcome to the US, POKE! Turns out she was only 16 pounds at her first US visit. Heart wrenching. She'll be three years old in November.
We just did the blood test and submitted a stool sample -- yum. Results Monday. Next Tuesday is the eye doctor. That should be popular. The dentist will just put her under at the downtown Children's Hospital for the whole procedure (mostly just cleaning but also any other needs as determined by all these tests). In two months, after she's adjusted a little to the US, we do an evaluation to determine her needs in terms of physical, occupational and speech therapy.
Whee!
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