Frannie already got mail

Frannie got mail yesterday which cracked me up. We got that orthopaedic appointment for her so Emory sent her some paperwork to fill out!

I also read that the Hope for Children family that is ahead of us by one week just got a consulate appointment for August 20! Which means we are a week behind them (potentially traveling on Aug. 17?)

LSC in China - waiting for TA

We are in St. Augustine for a few days for our baby shower last night (thank you Peggy!!) and for the Bead Chick annual meeting. Mary Pat (Frannie's future Godmother) is with us to regale us with her stories and to keep up everyone's spirits. Frannie really lucked out loot-wise at the shower last night. We got the coolest double wagon with cupholders and everything -- I think Kevin has plans for me to get my exercise by pulling him, Frannie and a cooler around the neighborhood. We got lots of beautiful clothes, books, toys, a precious (I don't use that word often) Saint Frances Cabrini medal, two beautiful handmade blankets, some gifts for Mom and Dad Fay, a trike (yes!) some gift cards, and more -- a beautiful cake provided by my missing sister Mary (I missed you -- but I'm glad I got to see you last month :))

One thing I wanted to share from the shower was a great treat that Peggy came up with. She asked all these women who I love and respect to give advice to me as an expectant Mom. There were some obvious directives and some of my favorites were "remember to have fun" "remember to cherish the time when they are young because time flies so quickly" and Peggy's advice to "listen, read them a book and cuddle a lot." I looked at all the people in the room who have been such good examples to me of what a Mom should be and I really felt so blessed to have so many great examples to emulate. Truly, as it went around the room (there were approximately 23 adults and 6 or 8 kids), I thought of what each person has shown me and how I can incorporate that into my own mothering -- Denise's humor with her kids, Peggy's incredible consistent loving with her boys, Katie's loving patience with Elena, Judy's incredible effort to keep her kids close to her (it's so easy to just say go play, but I always noticed how she kept her kids close which has proven to make them close to their Mom!), Sharon's obvious pride in her son and grandsons, Anita's friendship she has with her kids, Laura's dedication to her kids first before others, ohmygosh so much more I can't believe it. Thank you Lord for giving me such good friends. Even if I weren't related to half of you, I would love to have you as friends!

Lucy and I had both joined a Yahoo group specifically for our girls' orphanage and there's lots of good info about the careproviders, the medical treatment of the kids, past families' experiences, photos, etc. What a wonderful resource. Getting e-mails from families from Belgium, the Netherlands, etc. who have adopted from there is fun.

Mary Pat, the Fairy Godmother/nurse brought us news of a potential surgery for Frannie's hand. Since she is missing her right thumb (which obviously could be her dominant hand), this very well may benefit her. The procedure takes her index finger (the first one) and moves it down to create a thumb. She is left with three top fingers, but with a working thumb. The doctors first assess her ability to function with her existing hand and determine then whether to operate or not. I have an appointment with the highly respected pediatric orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Robert Bruce on September 25, thank you Lord. He was so good to us when we were "reviewing" Frannie's medical info in May to determine whether we wanted to adopt her or not. Despite not having much medical info to go on, he did his best to give us his professional opinion.

Please pray for my two little students, Brett and Michell who are both still in the hospital as far as I know. Brett has been at Scottish Rite for a week and Michell is at Egelston. The kids and parents need prayers. I miss you Lisa!

Our LSC reached Beijing on Monday by FedEx and the estimated wait for our travel date is 1-3 weeks. So we could potentially know our travel date this week! Keep up the prayers!

Travel request

Kevin and I are working out the schedule for travelling. For both of our jobs, we decided to ask if we can travel a bit later in August (rather than sooner). God is so good! 1)Kevin had very, very little work those last 2 weeks of August anyway, 2) we are getting almost $12K back from our taxes just for adopting, 3) my co-worker Susan is so gracious in making me feel like EVERYTHING will be taken care of at school when I am off for maternity leave AND 4) we get Frannie to boot.

Frannie's Hometown

Frannie does not live EXACTLY in this city, but close enough. She lives in Xianyang, which I understand to be about 20 miles away. We will get to tour this archeological site which is, if you don't know, the Tomb of the Emperor Qin, approximately from the age of Christ. It was only discovered in 1974. They are called the Terra Cotta Warriors.

Frannie's scalping

An aside -- my Mom used to give me "pixie" haircuts and I had enough psychological problems as a child, I needed a gender confusion problem too? This hairdo will never happen to her again! I don't care if she gets covered with lice, I will not do that to her! (ha ha).

New Photos from Xianyang

Our friends Lucy and Doug Harkness were visiting Frannie's orphanage today to say goodbye to their daughter's home and nannies. They met Frannie and gave her another picture of her new Mom and Dad (as you can see). I like the picture of her crying because it shows her little chicklet teeth! We'll be there soon sweetpea!

July 18, 2007

This blog is set up for friends and family of Frannie Fay. We will use this mostly to keep everyone apprised of her/our progress in the adoption process and during the trip to China.

Frannie info: Her birthday is estimated to be November 2, 2005. She presently lives in the Shaanxi Welfare Institute in the Hope Haven section. Her Chinese name is Qin Rui Zhen. She was found (near the orphanage?) on November 25, 2005 weighing only 4.4 pounds and "very furry" according to one of her nannies (Sophie) who has graciously e-mailed us from Australia. She has a missing right thumb and "slight" scoliosis, whatever that means. As of this date, as far as we know, she is 18 pounds, 26 inches tall (wearing a 9-12 month size despite being almost 21 months old).

The story of her name came about (skip this if you are bored or have heard this before) when Kevin and I were tossing names around before we even knew we were getting Qin Rui Zhen or any other baby. He had been out of town and I woke up with a start one Satruday morning thinking "Oh MAN, she has to be named Frances after Kevin's Mom." When I spoke to him later that morning he thought it sounded great, but had not been sure if I would like the name or not. At that time I had a "Lives of the Saints" in the house, but didn't bother to go look for it just thinking I would look up a Saint Frances later to see which females we had to choose from. Weeks went by and I kept thinking I would look her up, but kept forgetting. After being persuaded into going to adoration one day by a fellow adoptive Mom I looked over in the chapel to see the Saints book and opened it to the exact page for Saint Frances Cabrini, Patron Saint of Immigrants. Weeping openly on my way to the car, I dialed Kevin and I'm sure he could barely decipher my words but I finally relayed what had happened and it was settled. We talked about "Frances Elizabeth" for a while. When I spoke to my buddy Kathleen at school (a fellow Catholic) around this time and told her about how it happened she immediately told me we had to name her Frances Cabrini, NOT Elizabeth and she should be nicknamed Brini (pro. Breenee) and I laughed at her assuredness. Kevin surprised me and agreed so Frannie (Brini) will have an Irish/Chinese/Italian identity to work through....

We received her referral on May 1 (thank you very much Blessed Mother) and were not certain for 7 days whether she would be granted to us or not by Hope, due to another family checking her out too. After about 1,000 crying and praying episode that week, we got the call from Hope that she is ours. I was so emotional that I had to drive down to Turner Field and sneak up on Kevin working at High Home and squeeze him. We had our Letter of Intent sent over to China a week or so later and the waiting began. Thank God that Hope put us in touch with the other families who also had their LOIs sent over at the same time. After e-mailing and talking, we finally met the Harkness family and Donna Straight the same night at the "Third Friday" meeting in Lawrenceville. The Harkness family had chosen their daughter from the same list and she is living in Frannie's orphanage as well. Lucy and I bonded instantly and promised to share info, ship the girls some goodies together and since Lucy is already a Mom, I asked her lots of questions and felt instantly connected to her family. At this stage, we were expecting to wait 100 or so days for the "Letter Seeking Confirmation" to come back to us from China, but it only took 51 days! As of today, we are anticipating going to China to get her around August 15, staying for 2 weeks (for those novice China adoption people, there's a whole lot of crap in between there, and for those skilled in the ways of this titillating process, you already know!)