Introducing Xue Fei

On July 10th, we were both at Koolhaus when the email came. We closed ourselves in Wolfgang’s office and opened the mail - a girl! Then Wolfgang insisted on reading the entire contents of the email, and scrolling to the bottom of the screen, carefully checking every piece of information contained therein.

Dear Leslie and Wolfgang:
CONGRATULATIONS! We received your proposal today!
Her name is JIANG Xue Fei and she was born on Nov [X], 2007. She is from SWI of Dianjiang County. Attach please find her photos. I have sent your proposal to Lu for her translation and I should have it in 10 days. I will send a proposal package to you after I receive Lu’s translation. If you have any questions, please let us know.
Thank you and CONGRATULATIONS again!!!

Meanwhile, the attachment with her photos was RIGHT THERE and he wouldn’t click on it! This was the longest moment of my life. Finally….
She is about 5 months old in these photos. Her referral consisted of all her medical information and some description of her daily schedule and personality: she has an alert pair of eyes, is a sound sleeper and smiles easily!

Shortly after we received Xue Fei’s referral, I found a Yahoo discussion group for parents who have adopted from the Dianjiang Social Welfare Institute. I introduced myself and asked anyone who would be traveling to the orphanage before we did to scout for Xue Fei and take pictures. The next day, I received an email from someone who was in China and would be visiting the orphanage the very next day! In the middle of her own adoption, this woman had the presence of mind to ask about our daughter. She reported back that Xue Fei was not presently at the orphanage; she had been in foster care since the end of April. In fact, there were no babies older than 3 months in the orphanage. The Dianjiang Kids organization had been that successful at fund raising for foster care!

This explained why the foster care info was not in her referral. They must have placed her with a foster family right after sending her file off to Beijing. So, I packed up a blanket, pyjamas, a toy and a disposable camera and sent it to the orphanage. We amended a standard letter in English and Mandarin with an extra line of text:

Please send the package to JIANG Xue Fei’s foster family so they can take pictures that will let her remember them. Please extend our deepest gratitude to the foster family for their loving care.

I also pinned one of Xue Fei’s referral pictures as well as her name printed in Mandarin to each item in the box! I even unwrapped the camera and taped her picture to it! I wanted to be sure there was no question as to who these items were meant for.

In mid-August we received an update. Now she has two teeth and weighs 22 pounds!