August 16 - Our Placement

 

Jiang Xue Lan, approximately 4/20/10

Lyn was walking into the bathroom, reading email on her Blackberry when she received a message from CCAI informing us that we had been matched with a beautiful little girl from China.  It was 10:39pm on Monday, August 16, 2010. 

Jiang Xue Lan was born February 11, 2007 in Jiangmen City in the Guangdong Province of southwestern China.  She was picked up by police, who received a report of a female baby left in building 2-8 of Lianghua West in Jiangmen City, on February 16, 2007.  The police brought her to the Jiangmen Social Welfare Institute, which is where she still lives.

To provide perspective, Xue Lan was abandoned 47 days after Lyn and I received our LID - Log-In Date - from China, the day that China approved our request to adopt a child.  It took exactly 42 months, to the day, for us to be matched. 

The night that we found out, Lyn and I stayed up well past our bedtime.  So did Mahlon, who got up to go to the restroom at 1:30am and learned about Xue Lan from Lyn who was at that moment emailing Xue Lan's picture to friends and family.  Lyn held up this picture of Xue Lan in front of Mahlon and said nothing.  Mahlon stared at the picture for about 20 seconds and then said "What is her name?" "How old is she?"  "When do we go get her?"  And that was the end of sleeping that night for Mahlon.  She was too excited to go back to bed.

We started the process of adopting Xue Lan in the summer of 2006.  In fact, Lyn and I got married (officially) for the sole purpose of adopting a child from China.  It wasn't enough that the state of Colorado considered us married under common law.  The Chinese government required a piece of paper.  So, we invited a small group of family and friends to our wedding, September 24, 2006 with an invitation that started with the line, "Because the Chinese government is forcing us to...we invite you to the wedding of Judd Choate and Lyn Kathlene."