From the beginning of our adoption we decided to adopt a child with special needs. It broke our hearts that children in China could be looked at as a curse to the family due to their disability. Some families could simply not afford the care a child with special needs requires. Our daughter's special need is Cleft Lip. Her medical information is a little unclear if she also has a Cleft Palate. When we received our Referral the pictures of her were when she was 4 months old with her lip not repaired. We immediately feel in love. She has the sweetest eyes! The information said she had thick black hair and small features. In her referral picture the sides of her hair are shaved with the top about 2 inches long. Dr. Chambers was excited that she was wearing a onesie. Most children are bundled up in layers of clothes. Dr. Chambers said her lip should repair well since her lips are a little fuller than most. Dr. Chambers said that all of her blood work looked great and that her measurements were all porportioned. She felt she was at a good weight considering her CL can cause some eating issues. We were impressed at how detailed the Referral talked about her daily life. She is in a program called Half A Sky at the Chengdu CWI. This is a huge answer to prayers. I have prayed throughout the adoption that someone is physically touching her and loving on her. Teaching her how to love and bond with a caregiver. Half The Sky is a program that goes into orphanges and provides training to the caregivers in order to correct many of the physical and mental delays that children have due to being institutionalized. In the Nurture Care program, HTS provides a Mother or Nanny to care for 2-3 babies. The nanny sleeps in a twin bed with 2-3 cribs in her room for the babies. The nannies are able to physically love on the children, hold them and feed them. Our daughter had to have a lot of special attention when feeding so that she would not choke. Due to this special care of a nanny her weight is healthy. Some of the other issues they have addressed are lighter clothing, tummy time, educational games, less crib time, etc... What a blessing Half The Sky is to so many children.
Brian and I were anxious to see when and if she has had her CL repaired and to see how she looks 8 months later. Thursday morning we woke up to updated pictures! Before PreApproval! We were soo surprised and excited. The nannies dressed her up in sequins, stockings and hair extentions. Yes, I said hair extentions. We immediately noticed how great her lip looked. She had surgery just 2 months ago and they did a wonderful job. Her hair is starting to grow out...what we could see under the extentions. Her weight looks good, just over 20 pounds at 1 year old. I love the fact that she is in dress up clothes...even down to the bracelet! I don't believe she is very happy about her outfit. I will post her picture in a day or two along with her new name. Her name now is Hu Wu Lei. The nannies call her LeiLei.
Cade seeing his baby sister for the first time. 
Cade kissing his baby sister!
Owen woke up and saw new pictures of his sister.
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