Updates and Pictures

We were told that once we received our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) we could ask the orphanage for an update. We were allowed to ask 5-10 questions so of course took full advantage of this and thought of ten questions and asked for pictures and videos of our sweetie. We waited a few weeks and finally received our update. While I am grateful for any information or pictures we can get, I am disappointed with the results. None of our ten questions were addressed and the three pictures we got were taken the same day and time as our previous two videos that we already have. It doesn't give a very good picture of how she is growing and changing over these last few months since we already have video from the same day when she was 12 months old. We also received updated measurements which were clearly inaccurate. They said she has gained five pounds in less than two months, now weighing 22 lbs. Isla doesn't weight 22 lbs. at 21 months. There is no way that this little girl weights 22 lbs. at 14 months. Apparently they weight them fully dressed (and the Chinese tend to dress their babies in A LOT of layers) so maybe this poor baby had 4-5 lbs. of clothes on during her latest measurements.

Here are a few additional pictures of our sweet girl at twelve months (she is 14 months now).

Although we didn't get any new updated pictures we were holding out hope because a family we have met online through Facebook are in China right now picking up their son from the same orphanage. Yesterday they had a chance to visit the orphanage and were planning on checking in on our sweet baby girl and getting some pictures for us. We held out hope this would be our way to get an updated photo. I obsessively checked my Facebook page and email and heard back from them last night. There is good news and bad news. The bad news is they were not able to get a picture or see her because she was not at the orphanage. The good news is they were not able to get a picture or see her because she is not living in the orphanage, but rather she lives in a foster home! This is wonderful news that we had heard may be a possibility but they were able to confirm it for us. This means that our little girl will know what it is like to live in a house with the love of a family. This is very good news for all of the attachment and bonding that we hope comes quickly and naturally once we get her. Kids who are raised in orphanages never learn to bond and attach to one specific caregiver and therefore often have a lot of issue attaching once you get them home. While she will grieve harder for the loss of her foster parents once we have her, we hope she will be able to easily learn to trust us and turn to us to meet her needs and love her. I pray everyday that someone is showing her love, attention and she isn't seen as a burden to anyone. Now that I know she has a foster family I believe there is a great chance that she is being hugged, kissed, talked to and played with every day by only a couple of people rather than the numerous caregivers she would have in the orphanage.

We are still waiting on US Customs and Immigration to get the next set of paperwork (our i800) back to us so we can move on to the next. I am hoping we will have it by the end of next week.

Stay tuned for two exciting updates that I will blog about soon. We have finally chosen a name and we hope to receive her finding ad soon. I will tell you more about finding ads in a later post.

Thanks for reading!