Shenglian

She lives in an orphanage in Harbin City.


Yes, we will go pick her up, it is a 2 week trip. I am tossing around the idea of taking the whole family on the trip. Yes, that would be 5 tickets there and 6 on the way back, but I think it would be worth it.

I don't know for sure if she speaks Mandarin, but I hope so.

We asked the agency to look for a child for us from the waiting child list. They were able to find her MUCH faster than we expected. Our parameters were that it be a girl 6 or under with a minor special need. The waiting child list from China surprisingly consists of mostly boys.  While I would love to have another boy, it seems logical for us to add a girl to the family due to the fact we already have 2 boys and only 1 girl (who by the way has been asking if we could adopt her a sister for a couple of years or more).  We also got our pre-approval back faster than I thought we would so now I feel like I need to hurry to get the paperwork finished.

Shenglian's special need is cleft lip/cleft palate. This birth defect is very common in Asian people. She has already had them repaired, but will need some more procedures as she grows up.

She is an orphan. In China, due to the law, if parents are not able to care for their child they leave the child in a public place to be "found".

Enough for now. :)