Happy Baby, Happy Mom

On Friday we got our quarterly foster update, and I was so excited to see this picture!  Leah is smiling!  She is on her feet!  Her hair is growing!  She looks healthy!  She is not wearing the red, puffy suit!  The list could go on.  I have this on my desktop and I've looked at it a million times and each time it brings a big smile to my face.

This is by far the best report we've had about Leah yet.  She is about 15 lbs. and 27.5 inches, so she has grown quite a bit.  It says that she is improving a lot and that she looks around with a huge smile whenever someone calls her name.  It describes her as happy and active.  It says she can say "mama and dad" in Chinese.  She is now standing with support for a short time, and is excited to eat.  The best part was the news that "everyone loves her" and calls her "happy baby."

You may notice that the woman in the picture is not Leah's foster mom.  Apparently Leah has been moved from her foster home because it was too cold.  She is back in the orphanage in the Lily Orphan Care room. This is an addition/upgrade to her orphanage funded by our agency's charity work in Nanyang and named after Lily who is the co founder of the agency.  All of the caregivers there have been trained by CCAI, and it is a physically warm place where the babies are well cared for and receive lots of attention.  I am hopeful that now she is there she will just stay until we come for her.  She has had so much transition already in her life.  I was worried and kind of sad thinking about her separation from her foster mom, but I guess that has already happened.  I hope it went okay, and I'm so grateful for the  care she gave Leah for over a year.

On a lighter note it's always interesting to see the way Leah is dressed.  This is the first time I have seen her in any kind of western baby clothes.  They are obviously way big and there are some padded layers underneath (which may actually be needed to stay warm), but it is a change from what she wore in her foster home.  I still have seen no photographic evidence that she received the packages with clothing we sent her so who knows if they ever got there.  Another thing that makes me laugh are the typos and information that just kind of gets lost in translation of these reports.  This report states that is was done in January of 2011 and it also says her right arm is missing.  Oops.  Oh well, we know what they really meant and I'm confident there's a right arm and a little left arm in those sleeves somewhere.

I've had lots of questions about when we travel, and the answer is that we just don't know.  I am thinking March--hopefully towards the beginning.  We did finally after an extra week of hassle and delay get our NVC letter so all of our paperwork is now at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China.  We are waiting on them to issue an Article 5 (probably about 2 more weeks), which goes to the CCCWA in China (another 2-4 weeks) and they issue Travel Approval.  Once we get that we actually plan our trip and will leave within a few weeks.  It's a long process, but we're getting there.  I'm starting to envision Leah at home with her family with some chubby cheeks and pigtails.  If you want to make this last (and worst) bit of waiting more bearable then send a quilt block for the 100 good wishes quilt (see sidebar).  It's so fun to get them, and I need lots more to make 100 good wishes.  Thanks!