Not sure what to think.....

This was on RQ yesterday. I am really not sure what to think about this.....

I am again seeing children with repaired special needs being referred to parents who are in the non-special-needs program. This cropped up last year and then seemed to fade away, but now it seems to be making a comeback.

So far these include things like heart surgeries, and extra digits (toes, fingers) that have been removed.

It can also include a repaired cleft, which to me is a bit scary for a family expecting NSN since children can require multiple surgeries for this until their faces stop growing and changing. Also, children who have cleft issues can have problems with other organs in their bodies. The same “issue” in utero that causes the cleft can also make some of the internal organs not develop properly and some parents who adopt a waiting child with a cleft do not know their child has these other problems until they are home with them.

A few agencies are now starting to warn clients of the possibility of being referred a child with a repaired special need so I’m assuming they have heard something from the CCAA that tells them this is will be the new policy.

FCC Brunch

Thank you Lee for hosting a wonderful brunch yesterday. Here is the (not quite) Red couch picture of (from left) Brea, Natalie, Mattie, Sammi and Gigi. This was Gigi's first big outing since they came home from China last Tuesday? I can't wait until Amelie is on the couch too!

Better chance of winning the lotto....

What? Getting a referral in 2008? Yeah, that too! But what I am talking about is changing our request from a girl as young as possible to twins. Yup, finally convinced David that we should ask for twins. Worse case, we still get one beautiful little girl. Best case, we get two. From what I understand only one in every 2000 referrals is a twin referral, but you never know!

August babes

Referrals came out yesterday-7 days of LID's-again. Seems to be the ongoing trend. I now have 156 LID's ahead of me. So 156 /7=22.28. So I have 22 and a half more months to wait. At least I am under two years now!

Summer Reading

Last month at our FCC meeting, our "troop leader" lent us all out books to read. I am in the middle of the last one and if you enjoy reading novels these are three wonderful ones:

. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Dai Sijie) about the lives of two teens, childhood friends who have been sent to a small Chinese village for "re-education" during Mao's Cultural Revolution

.The Waiting Child (Cindy Champnella) An extraordinary true story of human resilience in the face of tremendous odds. Adopted by an American family at age four, Jaclyn goes to her new home with a great burden. She had to leave behind a little boy who had been under her charge at the Chinese orphanage. Jaclyn inspires two families, several agencies, and two governments to cooperate to reunite her with 'her baby.' Everyone who reads this story will believe in the power of love to change the world.

.Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See). See's engrossing novel set in remote 19th-century China details the deeply affecting story of lifelong, intimate friends (laotong, or "old sames") Lily and Snow Flower, their imprisonment by rigid codes of conduct for women and their betrayal by pride and love.

I am reading the Snow Flower book right now and was teary eyed reading about the footbinding. It is a probability that my daughter's biological grandmother or great-grandmother was made to go through this torture in the name of "beauty".