Introducing: Zhou Xin Xuan

It is amazing how I can be sitting at my desk at work one moment...and then a moment later get a phone call that changed our lives forever.  We are so excited to introduce you to Zhou Xin Xuan:

Born:  July 26, 2012
Province:  Henan
City/SWI:  Zhengzhou Children’s Welfare Institute

We believe the first photo was taken around 7 months of age.   We were so blessed to have been sent a video with her medical file...the second photo was a shot I lifted from that video and she is 14 months.  It showed her crawling, and can stand while holding on to something!   The nannies say that she is a “lively and active” child…she should fit right in with her Big Sis Izzy!  We do not yet have a name for her, but we will keep ZhouXin as her middle name.

We received our phone call September 3.  However, we waited to tell people about her until we could get some updated information on her state of health.  It was a bit touch and go for a while and we were worried she wasn't going to be healthy enough to make it home to us.  We had set a date with our agency to get the update and Jeff and I stayed home Friday, September 27, so we could be together and also finalize our Letter of Intent (LOI) and get the process moving as soon as possible.  We then went up to school to pull Isabel out a bit early.  She was very confused as to why mom and dad were at her school in the middle of the afternoon.  We told her we had a surprise and then sat down with her at home in front of the computer.  We asked her “what have we been waiting for a looooonnnng time?”  She immediately said… “Little Sis??!!!!”  It was a moment I will never forget.   We showed her the video our agency sent and Isabel was so excited!  She asked to write an email to tell her teacher at school and then we printed out pictures so she could show all of her friends.  She is so very proud!

(For a process that has moved unbearably slow at times, things are moving at light speed now.  I will post more soon about the next steps in our process...)