Both girls are doing amazingly well.  Anaia tells every Chinese person she meets how we "choose her and then flew all the way to Beijing only because we wanted to adopt her- that we wanted her so much we had to fly to China to get her".  She is charming and animated when she speaks, so proud of what she is announcing...so you have to imagine her sitting people down to explain all of this to them.  She is ALL CHARACTER, 24/7.  She is full of life, hugs, kisses and "I love you too!"  My favorite: she is constantly asking me to kiss the top of her head, she says when I kiss her there I am giving her intelligence and she becomes smarter...what a bright girl, a mama's love and care sure does make a girl smarter!

Her undiagnosed special needs are quite complicated and we are in a holding pattern until mid December.  We know that she has Pelger Huet Anomoly, but what we don’t know is what else it is linked to and if it is a part of something larger.  She saw an orthopedic specialist and we got the fabulous news that she does not need spinal surgery right now.  Whether that changes in the future or not depends on whether her condition is degenerative or not.  The doctors believe she has some form of dwarfism and one of the types they suspect involves a progressive kyphosis (spinal curvature- the back curves out instead of in).  She has a slight kyphosis now, but nothing requiring intervention. Her arms are long enough and bend far enough for her to take care of herself, so there is no need for an procedures involving her arms as well.

We continue to experience many miracles, including a phone call yesterday from the genetics clinic.  After a lengthy conversation the woman scheduling the appointment with the geneticist specializing in skeletal deformities, she talked with a few personnel and they decided we should see another doctor.  She was very excited as he is the #1 premier specialist in the world for dwarfism. He will see Anaia in December!  I was emphatically told by the receptionist that we were exceedingly "lucky" (we know better, it is the hand of God) that we live here as most of his patients travel 1/2 across the world to see him.  Please join us in praying that this doctor can identify Anaia’s condition and that it is nothing degenerative.  Please also pray that her symptoms do not point to something larger,  involving internal organs or future complications.  Right now she has a clean bill of health and this appears to be the worst side effect from her diagnosed syndrome, but they are going to be looking at everything in the coming months. 

Naomi is more quiet than Anaia, but is talking up a storm- just not in the show-stopping way Anaia does...

She is frustrated with the lack of education she was given at the orphanage school  and is often heard muttering, "They never taught us this...why?  It is basic, they should have taught us...they didn't care..."  Both girls are feeling rather "ripped off" in the education department.  I keep assuring them not to worry, but they get frustrated when they realize what the rest of the world has been learning...  She is polite, always smiling or laughing, and a total sweetheart.  She is also very motivated to learn English and her pronunciation is amazing.  She has definite ideas about what she likes/dislikes and it is great to see her sharing her opinion and being so relaxed.  Often she just shakes her head at Anaia and laughs...  She is sharing quite a bit about the foster village where she lived for a few years.  She was attached to her foster mother and was very happy when I told her she could call her, as she never got the opportunity to say good-bye.  She lived with them and a few other children for a few years before transferring to the #2 CWI.  However, she returned over holidays for visits up until she was selected for the HOPE Project.  She was not allowed any contact after that.  Her best friend lived next door, but sadly she aged out before the project happened.  Naomi has already written her a letter for me to mail and was thrilled when I told her we would try to send her a Christmas present at the #2.  I am so grateful to this woman who took such good care of my daughter, who hung her picture on the wall of her home and made her feel important and like she belonged there.  She hid confidence in Naomi’s heart and it is now our job to draw it out.

Anaia was never in foster care but was very close to her “jiejie”, the older girl put in charge of her.  She also wrote a letter and was very excited about sending her a gift for Christmas.  Her jiejie took very good care of her and often protected her and her possessions.  Anaia recently admitted that the photo book we sent to her in the CWI was not really borrowed and lost by her friend.  In actuality her jiejie would often sit with her and pour over the pictures.  She told Anaia her greatest wish was to be able to come to America with her and be adopted by our family.  Anaia said she would often see her looking at the book and gingerly touching all of the photographs.  So, when she was leaving and her jiejie gave her one of her possessions- a large stuffed mouse, Anaia decided to give her the photo book.  Anaia has a few pictures of her, but I don’t need to continuously look at them to think of her…in truth, her sweet face will never leave me.  A girl simply deemed “too old” to ever know the joy of a family.  A girl who took good care of my daughter- who protected her when I couldn’t.  A girl desperately wanting to belong somewhere.  A girl I vow to never forget.  Her picture will also be hung on our wall, to be honored and always remembered.

The girls are sharing many stories from  their previous lives, most are difficult to hear.  Anaia’s bruised face in the video we were given from another adoptive family in July, was as we suspected from a brutal beating.  Naomi assured me that right after it happened, the whole side of her face was purple and what we saw was mostly healed.  Naomi also shared a frightening story about an intruder who came into their room in the middle of the night to steal all of their possessions…how much to orphans have that is worth stealing?  Well, enough for this man…he stole their toothbrushes and toothpaste, cups, hairbrushes, any clothing in the room…I don’t believe it gets any lower than stealing a toothbrush from an orphan.  The scary thing was that he threatened all of the girls as they began to wake up, hearing him make noise in the room.  She put his hands over the mouth of a girl near to Anaia and actually grabbed Naomi’s foot.  At some point he left their rooms to head to another one and one of the girls went for help.  The police came and left, unable to locate him.  Naomi got up several times every night to take one of the girls to the bathroom (she has various mental problems and wet the bed every night…which caused her many other problems).  She was returning from taking this girl to the bathroom when she  saw the intruder again entering a room.  She ran to get a teacher and that time the police were able to apprehend him.  Evidentially their possessions were all evidence in the case against him because they didn’t get their things back.  Both girls are afraid to be in any room at any time alone- this certainly gives credit as to why.

It is painful to hear of all the pain they have suffered, how when left unsupervised, so many children were hurt by children bigger than they were.  On the flip side, it is encouraging to also hear stories of how they protected and cared for each other and it is easy to see who are the children they are very emotionally attached to…and are missing.  Anaia was devastated to learn that her best friend was going to live over 8 hours away from us.  Naomi, who has struggled with carsickness, assured me that the 3 hour drive to her friend’s house was a complete cake walk.  My heart breaks for them- they have to endure even more pain in order to gain a new chance at life.  They are so strong…and so brave, so much more so than I could ever imagine myself being. As I look out at my family sitting around the dinner table, I know that I am truly in the company of extraordinary little people.  I am getting to live day in a day out along-side my heros.

OK- I've rattled enough for one night...so much to share, so little time to sleep.  I am off to eat a bunch of Cheeto's and collapse in bed!  After I grade Algebra 2 papers that is...