Wednesday, October 12, 2005

A Little More News

Yesterday morning we received an email from our agency's national office with the translation of some of the Chinese documents that had come in our referral package last week. How exciting to get another peek into who Gwen is. The part we were most excited about was that Gwen was actually in foster care with a family until she was 13 months old! She has been at the Childen's Welfare Institue in Yibin City in just since mid April of this year. It turns out that the dates on some of the paperwork we got last week indicated this, but we had missed it until it was spelled out for us. I feel like this is a huge blessing, that during her first year of life she was not in an institution, but with a family. I praised the Lord for this last night when I was in the car by myself, that this was part of His plan for her. She has been in a family... we won't be a completely new experience!

Other things we learned include her daily schedule, with waketime, naps, and meals listed. It says she eats a variety of foods, including rice (!), noodles, minced vegetables, minced meat, steamed buns and fruits. She has a good appetite and is not a picky eater. It says she holds her bottle to feed herself milk... I'm not sure how current this information is... I think it was completed mid-August at the same time as her last medical exam, but I'm not positive. So, who knows about the bottle? I guess I should take one just in case she is still used to that.

One last thing that made me smile was that her favorite toy and activity were among the items translated... I had seen that catagory listed in our original documents, but the answer was in Chinese! Jo-Ann had suggested I take the paperwork to a Chinese restaurant to find out what they were! Fortunately, I didn't have to do that since they were in this translation. It says, "Her favorite activity is to have fun in the open air. Her favorite toys are the wooden blocks and puppets."

I need to go find that Winnie the Pooh puppet we have... it's around here somewhere... need to get it in my stack of things to take to China!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lynne-I have heard so much about your blog and all about the wait for Gwen that I had to check it out for myself. What a gift you have for sharing your heart and allowing others to be a part of this amazing time. The tears came as I thought of how amazing this whole experience must be! Thank you for sharing. I can't wait to meet her! And, who knows--reading this and keeping up with your experience may just be the inspiration Mark and I need to decide if adoption is what God has for us!
SHE IS ALMOST YOURS!!! -Jessica Curtis

Anonymous said...

So glad to have more news of her - last night again I felt like I dreamed about her a lot, but I don't remember anything concrete now.
When will you find out travel dates?
Sarah

Anonymous said...

Lynne, it was so good to read what you had told me yesterday. I guess we are all just hungry to hear as much as possible about Gwen! As Jessica said, it truly is an amazing experience! Love, Mom