Introducing, Mei Mei!
Some of you may know that the Chinese word for little sister is also 'mei mei'. There are many different Chinese characters with many different meanings that are pronounced 'mei', or as we would spell it in English, 'may', all spoken in Chinese with an associated tone that changes the meaning. OUR Mei Mei's full name is Wu (last name) Ling Mei and she has the Chinese character Mei that represents 'beautiful' for her name. It is a completely different Chinese character from 'mei' character that represents a little sister. The Chinese word for BIG sister is jie jie (which is pronounced almost like Gsa Gsa Gabor's first name, but with the 'uh' vowel sound instead of the 'ah'). So, our jie jie is Mei Mei, which is sort of ironic! We think that whoever chose her name was right on target, though! Isn't she beautiful? We especially love her most recent photo where she is showing off her sweet, nearly toothless smile! I can just picture her enjoying slurping noodles through that enormous gap - how fun!
Mei Mei turned 7 years old in December and has lived with a foster family in Wuhan city in the province of Hubei, China for nearly 4 years. She currently attends Kindergarten and enjoys drawing, singing, dancing and watching television with her foster family in the evening. :o) Mei Mei has a condition known as hydrocephalus for which she had a surgery when she was 34 months old. She is a very healthy, active, smart little girl. She speaks the Wuhan dialect of Chinese but she would also understand some Mandarin since that is the official language of China and what she would be taught in school. We are so happy that she will be joining our family!
Mei Mei is currently 49" tall and supposedly weighs 53 pounds, but we think the weight is a little high based on her photos. Her updated information also states she wears a size 24 (Chinese/European size) shoe. Either she has very tiny feet, or her shoe measurments are not right either. She would be about a child's size 7 dress and a toddler shoe size of 8 based on her March measurements. I will try to resist buying shoes, but everyone knows I can not help myself when it comes to buying dresses!
Enjoy a look back at how much she has grown and changed already! :o)
We sent our Letter of Intent to adopt Mei Mei to our agency on March 27th, they received it March 31st and they FINALLY sent it out on April 14th (long story)! On Thursday May 14th, we received word that China has PreApproved us to adopt Mei Mei! WOOOHOOO! The PA is dated on May 13th and we have until August 13th to get our dossier logged in. Our home study is finally out of review and we will have to hope for the best for a speedy immigration approval now. Approval is taking as little as 20 days in some cases, but more like 30-50 in most cases. However, we anticipate fingerprinting problems again. I have sent an email to the National Benefits Center (NBC) to find out if the procedure for fingerprint failures has changed with the switch to the I-800A (instead of the I-600A pre-Hague) and to the centralized NBC. I have the most important dossier docs ready to go and have just a few little local notarizations left to get done so that all of our paperwork is in order once we receive our USCIS approval. Maybe we can set some paperchasing records!
I am very fortunate to have friends with connections in Wuhan! [Shelli, you are my hero. :o) ] Enjoy the most recent pics I received (taken March 31st) and put your left ear on your left shoulder to enjoy Mei Mei's rendition of "Beijing Welcomes You" from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I think she has a lovely signing voice! Our contact asked her what she would like from her new family, and she said a photo album of her new family, and a Barbie doll. Okay - we can do that!
In April Adam and I attended an Attachment Parenting conference at Johns Hopkins, led by nationally recognized attachment therapist Dan Hughes. We really liked him! Mei Mei is very attached to her foster family, which is a really great sign that she is an emotionally healthy little girl. We are hoping for the best for her transition to our family, but we are adding tools to our 'parenting toolbox' and will be prepared for the worst case scenario, just in case!
We hope to be in China before Mei Mei's 8th birthday this year. I will keep you posted on our approval process!
We are blessed beyond belief!
Laura Beth (mama to THREE beautiful children)!!!!!
