new photos!

At 10:20 a.m. this morning I received a very surprising email from our agency with 2 new photos of our precious baby girl!!!

The only photos we had received, prior to these, were taken late last summer / early fall. She has changed and grown so much!! Look at her hair!!! She's so beautiful and appears very healthy. 

What an amazing gift to have these photos! It's a happy, happy day!!!

orphanage

The Zhoukou Social Welfare Institute is located in the Henan Province. Henan is located in the central part of China. The name Henan means "south of the (Yellow) River." With nearly 100 million people, Henan is the most populous province in China. Zhengzhou is the province's capital, and where we will meet Lucy Mei! (most likely at the Zhengzhou Registration Office).

Zhoukou City has a population of nearly 11 million people and is a 2 hour drive from Zhengzhou. It is a major agricultural producer in the province of Henan. Its economy is based mainly on trade in agricultural products such as grain, cotton, oil, meat and snuff (smokeless tobacco). It is famous for the Huai goatskin, a breed of goat.

Zhoukou Social Welfare Institute



We know very little about Lucy's orphanage. I believe it's a new orphanage and only recently opened to international adoption.

Our agency is very charitable and active in the Henan province. They receive a lot of the referrals from this orphanage. Our agency's website states 10 adoptions from Zhoukou completed to date.

There is a yahoo group for families adopting from this orphanage....but, there is not a lot of activity. All families who have adopted from Zhoukou indicate the children are very well cared for and loved. :)   

 

another "update"

Someone has met our daughter!!!

I emailed a charity outreach organization in the Henan Province where Lucy's orphanage is located in the hopes of receiving information. 

Much to my surprise, the Project Director emailed me back and stated the following:

"I met your girl when I visited ZhouKou and she is so adorable :) :) :)

The orphanage has great caregivers and they love those children and your daughter is in a very good hand. No worries :)

She is SOOOO sweet and cute, everyone will love her :) :) :)"

My heart sank. Someone has met our Lucy Mei....and confirmed she is in good, loving hands!!!

This woman's words were so touching to me. To know Lucy is being loved and well cared for, brings me tremendous peace of mind and relief. 

From the bottom of my heart, I thanked her for passing along such kind and comforting words. I will forever treasure them.

Can't wait to meet our girl!!!

update

We received our first update on Lucy Mei today!...sadly, no pictures.

Our agency will request the next update in late May. We are very grateful for any information we receive!

4-24-12 Update

Medical/Development

* She can stand by herself and can walk by herself.
* She can jump off the floor when both of her hands are held.
* She can stand on her own without adult's help.
* With an adult holding her hand, she alternates her steps to go up stairs.
* She can pick up food to feed herself.
* She can call "ma ma", and she can understand adults' speech and some simple instructions.
* She understands the meaning of "bu" (no).
* She responds to her name.
* She can understand simple instructions from adults, and she knows to give an object that an adult has asked her for.
* She knows her hands; if you call her to wash her hands, she will reach out her hands.
* When she is happy, she moves her body. :)

I LOVE the last comment! Love knowing she's "happy" and showing it!!

fingerprints

Our biometric fingerprint appointment was assigned by the United States Citizens & Immigrations Services department for May 1st in Louisville, Kentucky (approximately 2 hours from home).

Greg will be traveling the first week of May for work. We could have rescheduled, but could have delayed our appointment by weeks, if not a month. We decided to take a chance and "walk-in" to the Louisville USCIS office on April 12th.

The waiting room was very large....and very empty....except for 3 people. No line and 2 open counters.

We showed the gentleman our USCIS appointment paperwork. He glanced it over and firmly stated our appointment was on May 1st.... and pushed the paperwork back to us. UGH!!!

We explained our dilemma. Apparently, walk-ins are a frequent occurrence and the officer wanted no part of it. We were devastated....we plead our case and ultimately he agreed to do our prints.

He stared us down, said he was "memorizing our faces", said he would never do this for us again. (BTW, Greg is feeling very confident he won't have to!)

So, we are printed and will hopefully receive our I-797 approval within the next week. At that point, we will begin the process of sending all of our paperwork to the Secretary of State's office for authentication. YAY!!!