Sweet Sophie Mei          What's in a name?/Sweet Sentiments  |  Update!

May 13, 2008 The day began as it typically would on any ordinary Tuesday morning with just a little more excitement than usual as Christian and Michael were anxiously anticipating field trips that day at school. I hustled the kiddos out the door, loaded everyone into the van, double checked to make sure everyone had their extra-special-field-trip sack lunch, had their backpacks packed, their learning plans signed, sweatshirts on…and we were off. Off to school that is. As I backed out of the driveway, I saw something catch the sun in the street in front of our home. I gasped as I realized it was my cell phone! I must have dropped it getting out of the car the day before. It looked only slightly damaged. Ugh! I hate it when things like that happen! I dusted it off the best I could, checked to make sure I had remembered all the necessary immigration-update paperwork for our social worker…and we were off, again. The boys chattered incessantly and had smiles ear-to-ear as they jumped out of the van and practically ran into school. It’s not every day you get to go to the landfill on a fieldtrip to learn about recycling! :) Right about that time, as I pulled away from the school, my cell phone rang. I tried to answer, but realized I couldn’t. My newly damaged phone could ring, but wouldn’t let me pick up the call. I also could no longer see on the screen who was calling. A little on the grumpy side, I drove to the phone center and pulled into the parking lot. They wouldn’t open for another hour. Ugh, again. But, it was inevitable, I needed a phone and would have to wait until they opened to replace it. My phone rang again. It rang and rang and rang during that hour. What was going on? From the ring tones, I knew most of the calls (coming in approximately every two minutes) were from my husband and a few from my mom. Little did I know, I was missing “the call”! As I left the phone center, I called Ian who, in a very calm voice said, “Where have you been”? I had hardly begun to recount the phone drama of the morning, when he interrupted me and said, “Kim” (patiently waiting for me to stop talking) “we’re going to China”! Everything from that point on is a bit of a blur. The tears just came. My hands shook. I managed to choke out a few words as Ian recounted the conversation he had with CCAI. Funny thing is, the only information Ian could remember from that conversation with our agency was our sweet daughter’s age. She’s 2 ½ years old. With only that much information, we knew. Without a doubt. She was our daughter.

Somehow, through the tears, I managed to get myself home and was able to call Denise at CCAI. I wished at that point that I had thought to print out one of those “call” sheets. You know, the ones that have all the carefully thought out questions on it with space to write down your daughter’s information. I know so many who have done this--so many who have carefully planned this special moment down to the smallest detail. But that’s not the way it happened for us. Amidst breakfast dishes and toast crumbs, on the back of a school newsletter with a Sharpie marker that was almost out of ink, I scribbled down those first precious details about our daughter. It didn’t matter. It was perfect. And it was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. “Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful.” ~unknown Ni Lu Qian was found at the gate of the Yiwu Social Welfare Institute on July 11, 2007. She was almost 20 months old at the time with a birthday of *November 18, 2005. The growth report we received indicated that Lu Qian was found to be in “bad spirit” and running a high fever. She apparently cried a lot and had “bad appetite”. She was sent to a local hospital on July 17, 2007 and it was determined that she had a congenital heart condition. In an effort “to save this little life”, the orphanage contacted the Tomorrow Plan office who approved the surgical repair of her heart condition. Her heart was repaired on July 20, 2007. She was hospitalized for 20 days and was discharged on **August 9, 2007 “healthily”. She has resided at the Yiwu Social Welfare Institute in the Zhejiang Province of China since that time. Since her surgery, Lu Qian has gained weight and “her face became rosy and she got chubby cheeks”. Her appetite has grown and “she looked the same as healthy children”. She eats mostly “rice, noodle, steamed and supplemented with rice powder and milk powder…in addition, we often feed her some nutrients like bone soup, seasonal fruit juice to increase the nutritional contents in her body”. Lu Qian’s development has been slower than other children her age as a result of her congenital heart disease. At twenty-four months, she stood without support and could walk with one hand held. “It seems that she can walk without help soon.” In regards to her speech, she is “burbling”. The speech pathologist in me loved that word! We’ll definitely have “burbling” practice when she’s home. The nannies at the orphanage report that she is introverted, quiet, timid and does not often smile. They say that “her greatest wish is the hope for adults to cuddle her more”. She is perfect. She is beautiful. She is…Simply Sophie! *Our sweet daughter, Ni Lu Qian was born November 18, 2005. When Denise at CCAI told me her birthday, the tears began to flow again. Our little one was born 3 days after I had first attended an informational meeting for prospective adoptive parents being held by CCAI. It was the one and only meeting that CCAI has ever held in our area. At least the only one I have ever been aware of. At the time of this meeting, I literally knew nothing about the process of adoption from China. But, I do distinctly remember the feelings I had as I listened to the information they presented. Feelings that were strong and overpowering and made me know in my heart that we had a daughter somewhere in China. **Last summer, Ian and I wrestled with the decision whether to change directions and pursue a special needs adoption. After a lot of prayer and research, and some direct answers to questions we had, we submitted our medical conditions checklist to CCAI in August…the same month our daughter returned to the orphanage after her surgery. I have felt overwhelmingly blessed and humbled through this entire process.

“Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.”
~Jackson Brown, Jr.

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