I thought that I would share with you the backround of what we know about our waiting baby boy. This details a bit of where he was found--and his 1st days at the orphanage. It also tells a bit about his personality! It is from June of 2008--so it was the first information that we received. We are hoping to get another written update--and hopefully pictures before we travel!!

On a wonderful note--we got notice that we are officially logged in at the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs as of 1/13/09. It was quite speedy because they received our paperwork  on the 12th and we were logged in the very next day!!!  Now we officially wait to hear back from the CCAA--we are waiting for our Letter of Seeking Confirmation (LOSC) which takes 60-120 days---let's hope for the 60 days (or sooner!!!!!!). Then after that Travel Approval is issued-usually within 3 weeks of the LOSC. And once you have that you can travel pretty quickly--we went just 2 weeks after recieving ours for Hope. So it's a waiting game--but keep praying--miracles do happen, and maybe just maybe we will be able to hold our son soon!!!

Here is a glimpse of Samuel's humble beginnings..........

2 In early days in the institute

On admission the baby was wrapped with an old and shabby cotton coat, wore a underwear. His leg was wrapped with a towel and he was placed beside the road near the garden of Panshi street, was found by Comrade Zhang Xiuying, a citizen in resident committee of Panshi street, Panshi town of Yunyang County, who picked up and sent her to Chengxiang Social Welfare Institute of Yunyang County. PE by the medical staff in the welfare institute found his 52cm in height,3.9 kg in weight,33cm in head size,32.7cm in chest size. The baby had well-formed features, loud crying, conscious mind, strong sucking, ruddy complexion,no abnormal finding of heart and lungs by AUSC, umbilical cord not fallen off, soft abdomen, normal bowel sound, no abnormal appearance of anus and genital organs, but had scald from right skeleton to tiptoe of dorsum of the foot which was estimated to be caused for unknown reason after birth. Preliminary diagnosis: abnormal infant. According to its physical growth and umbilical part, the doctors in this institute estimated his DOB as Dec.5 2007. He was named Yang Fuchen. Yang represents Yunyang, Fu means welfare institute, Chen means morning and that he was found in the early morning . At the time he was seen to have scald on his body, so he was named Yang Fuchen for the hope of him to recover early and was thriving like the rising sun in the morning. This is a good name.

1)      Daily life

      Yang Fuchen is fed and raised in a group in the institute. Under the excellent care of the caretakers he has good eating habits and routine living schedule. He usually gets up at 6:30, then takes a bath and has breakfast, has lunch at 10:30, then takes a nap, has snack food at 14:00, has supper at 17:30, then naps for a while and takes a bath, plays for a while on bed, has milk at 21:30 and then goes to sleep. He also has milk at 2:00 and sleep till the next morning. His food is mainly milk paste which was mixed by  Nestle Nengduojian formula and Modern Nutritional rice cereal, usually he still need to be supplemented with vitamins and trace element, meat soup and minced fruit etc. Yang Fuchen’s physical state is good, has milk well and his eating volume per meal increased from 20-30ml at the beginning to 180-190ml at present. 

   Growth

Age(month)	Height(cm)	Weight(kg)	Head Size (cm)	Chest Size (cm)	No. of teeth
1	52	3.9	33	32.7
2	54	4.2	35	34.6
3	56	4.8	37.2	36.9
4	58.5	5.5	39.5	39.1
5	62	6.1	41.3	40.9
6	65	6.5	42.6	42.3

Under the excellent care of the caretakers, Yang Fuchen has good eating habits, routine living schedule, good appetite and sleep and normal defecation and urination per day. 

3)      Body and intellectual growth 

Yang Fuchen is an obedient childwith normal intellectual growth. On admission he had scald on his body, but he was very cooperative with the doctors who was treating him, did not cry noisily when being administer medicine. Every day he was quiet. Because the scald was very severe, the treatment lasted for more than 1 month. Because the treating conditions were not good, he had scar on his right skeleton, dorsum and tiptoes of foot . At the age of 3 months he was energetic, liked to look at light, his eyesight can turn following objects he saw or sound he heard. When teased he can smile, sometimes he can babble. He liked to lie on bed and play his fingers, sometimes sucked them. At the age of 4 months he can roll over from back to side, tried to roll over, sometimes can roll to stomach. He can grasp things with his hands proactively. When grasping a toy making sound he can shake it incessantly. When teased he would smile first, then wave his hands and feet to show happiness. At the age of 5 months he can understand his name being called. When you called his name, he would turn around to look and smile at you. If you did not go to cuddle him for a while, he would cry angrily. After cuddled by others and played for a while, he would stop crying when being put on the bed. Whenever the caretaker came into his room, he would look at the caretaker expectantly to see if the caretaker could call and tease him. From the age of 6 months up to now he can locate sound source. His vision and hearing are all good, can distinguish strangers and familiar people, roll over easily on bed, roll over to lie on stomach at an angle of 90 degrees with the bed. When he receives skingrafting operation when growing up, there will be no large scars. The operation will not interfere his life.

 Yang Fuchen is a clever and lovely little boy, has good personality, active, outgoing, has well-formed features, good skin, has a ready smile. Seeing others coming to his bed, he will be smiling. He is a lovable child. His physical growth and mental development are normal. 

 So there you have it----our baby boy had a rough start in this life--but we cannot wait to love and hold him like he deserves!!! In a recent brief update we got the orphanage called him their "angel with a broken wing" that they cannot wait till we come and love him with all of our hearts.

We can't WAIT!!!!!!