The Second Time Around

I had a page called The Second Time Around, but now that this adoption is moving again-all of my ducks are starting to get in a row-it is time to move the information about our little girl into the main blog.

She was six in March and when she comes home she will be in kindergarten-one year behind Aidan, even though she is exactly eight weeks older than him.  At some point, after language mastery, she may move up to be in his grade, but this will give them separate identities at first which I think is good.

Her name is Min Yu Qiang which means that she is probably called Qiang or Qiang-Qiang.  That would be pronounced Cheeyong.  She lives in Guizhou Province and is officially referred by the Anshun City Social Welfare Institute, but lives in a foster home.  She is shy and very close to her foster mother.  She has untreated club feet, the true club feet, but can do everything any other kid can.

Our homestudy visit was on March 12-we only needed the one since we are returning adoptive parents and our last one for Aidan was in November.  This week we should get our last document needed to complete that leg of the journey.

The last week of May I met with the pediatric orthopaedist who operated on our first daughter, PB, when she had a growth defect with one leg.  He also sees her youngest, Matthew, for his turned foot.  He says that, despite the way this girl's feet look, she has no pain.  When she gets home, she can have surgery right after coming home or wait a few months.  We can have one foot done at a time or both.  She will have callouses just like we do on our heels, but on the side of her ankles.  He said whether or not she has the surgery at six or seven doesn't matter, but the difference between, say, six and nine would be pretty significant and then complicate things.

Her name will be Eva, after my mother's mother who died three years before I was born.  Aidan doesn't like that name, but too bad-this will be my only chance to use it, and no one else in our family is going to since they're all done having kids.