A Chinese adoption is endless forms followed by an interminable wait. The fall of 2006 was like that. We would fill out forms, turn them in, wait for their acceptance, and begin filling out the next set of forms.
Turns out, being placed with a child begins the same process.
When we received notice of placement at 10:39pm on August 16, 2010, CCAI gave us 72 hours to decide whether to accept the child or reject the placement. So, we had a lot of work to do in a short period of time. Lyn and I scoured over her file, looking at every detail provided. The medical issues were the most important.
Lyn took the file to Children's Hospital to have the doctors there examine it. She discovered that while Xue Lan's file suggests that she's healthy, she was very small for her age - below the 1st percentile in terms of height and weight.
That evening, we took Xue Lan's file to our neighbors, Mike and Cecelia Wang. Mike is a pediatric oncologist and Cecelia is an internist (who reads Mandarin). They have a five-year old adopted child from China, named Maya. Mike and Cecelia read through the file and noticed several things. Most notably, they found that Xue Lan looks entirely healthy, with the exception of Xue Lan's cleft lip and palate. While two previous surgeries, when she was eight and fourteen months old, were largely successful, the file indicated that additional surgeries will be necessary. Further, Mike noted that Xue Lan's blood results showed that she is anemic - a common malady for children who are malnourished. When considered together with Xue Lan's height and weight, it appears that Xue Lan's diet has likely been inadequate by common U.S. measures.
Having heard nothing in these discussions to indicate that Xue Lan's medical issues extended beyond her cleft lip and palate and malnutrition, we notified CCAI that we were accepting the placement the morning of August 18th.
Then it was more forms, followed by more waiting.
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