While we were fostering little "chen chen" we were approached by an organization here that has a baby home {one of the only in the city} and asked if we would be willing to be part of a pilot program to get more foreigners to foster. The new program was suppose to offer more flexibility for foster parents than the local system {like travelling with your foster child} and maybe even the possibility of adoption a foster child {which is not allowed under the normal foster system here}.
We were excited about this new opportunity and jumped right in after we returned from summer holiday. Because it was just in the start up stage, it actually took until March for the program to be up and running and at this point they didn't want to give us a placement since we would be off for summer soon. It seemed another school year was wasted with the process of it all.
At this same time CA contacted us again and wondered if we might want to foster another baby girl. This one with Bilateral Microtia and other general delays. It was only for 6 weeks and fit our schedule so we said yes.
When little Yi Li arrived she was a very small baby for being 6 months. I remember we had a terrible time getting her to sleep that first night.. but she had just had a 10 hour travel day to come to us and had been dropped off to strangers... I'd have trouble sleeping too!
Right from the start we learned the label - General Delays - were given to her only because the orphanage had never seen her condition before. She could roll just fine and learned to sit up before she turned 7 months. Within inn a few weeks it was apparent that all delays were because of environment, not her DNA. It was fun to watch her blossom and open up as well as she became comfortable with our family.
I went with her to her hearing test, which showed that despite not having outer ears, her inner ears worked just fine { this is normal for her condition}. At the ENT we learned that with a bone anchored hearing aid she would have a normal range of hearing, and should develop speech normally. A Physical Therapist checked out her delays, but by the time with saw this dr. most of them had self corrected due to being in our home. A jaw surgeon said she "may" need some jaw expansion surgery someday due to her smaller left side jaw.
AND... we fell in love with her! Almost right away we knew we wanted to try and adopt her. We spoke to CA and they said her adoption paperwork had not been started by the home, but when she went back to China, her file would be put together and they would help us to try and adopt her.
You can read about my trip to return her to China here.
at the time we were told if would take about 6 months after her papers were finished to complete the adoption. We were hoping that she would be in our home by early 2015.
the next post.... it actually took a full year.... the story of ROSE...
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