Amazing Grace

Today (Wednesday) is our last day here in China. We fly out early on Thursday morning. Later this afternoon we will travel to the US consulate with the babies for the official oath we must take as the parents before the babies are granted a visa to travel to the US. Before we leave China, I wanted to share a couple of things about Celia Grace that I have found out along the way.

Celia Grace was found when she was 3 months old. She was blue and having a difficult time breathing. She was sent to the Qingdao City Children's Welfare Home where she received excellent care. After about 2 weeks she was admitted into the hospital where she under went open heart surgery. They say that your heart is the size of your fist and grows at the same rate. Imagine the fist of a 3 month old with a 14 mm hole in her ventricle wall. In addition, Celia had a flap between 2 chambers that did not close after birth as normal. These are not unusual birth defects even in the US and the repair has become fairly routine. However, the size of the hole in Celia's heart was pretty significant. Things were complicated by the fact that she had pneumonia. Celia remained in the hospital for almost 1 month. When she was discharged, she was sent back to the orphanage where she thrived. She remained there for about 5 months. She was then placed with 2 different foster families for the past 9 months. She is very healthy noww and we are expecting that her heart check up when we get home will reveal that her heart is now completely normal. The local doctor here heard no murmurs and said her heart sounds normal.

Celia is amazingly clever. Even the Chinese people are amazed at the vocabulary and command of the language she has. She speaks very clearly (or so I am told). It seems that she can count to 10, knows some colors, and the names of many objects. She has detailed conversations with just about anyone who will speak to her. Some how, she seems to understand much of what we tell her in English as well. She loves to entertain and certainly does not mind being the center of attention.

Here are some other things that Celia can do (and usually does well). Remember, she is only 18 months old! She can feed herself--hold a bowl of rice and feed herself without dropping very many pieces. Celia LOVES shrimp and would eat it every meal if it were available. She can eat almost a whole plate of shrimp. She can walk and run very well. She can hold a conversation in Chinese. She is potty trained (she actually tells you -in Chinese- when she has to go.)

She is an amazingly funny and smart girl. She loves to snuggle and is so well adjusted. Our guide, who has seen many babies from the orphanages, told me that she has no signs of being institutionalized but I already knew that! She loves her sisters and loves to play with them (and vice versa).

I am so blessed to have found Celia Grace and am grateful to be her mother forever. It is a true honor. I will leave you with some pictures of Celia we have taken during the past week and a half.

Today will be a busy day here. Thursday (all 24 hours of it) will be spent traveling home. My next post will come from home some time this weekend. Until then...