ElleAnna and Her New Friend, Mandy Rose

At some point last year, I started following the blog of a family that lives about four hours from us. They were going to China to adopt their daughter, who also had a repaired lip and palate. She reminded me so much of ElleAnna when I saw their photos. Mandy was from a more Southern Province, where there was no snow. Very different from Elle's home province! All the time that I watched their journey, I never realized that it was such a small world...

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One day last fall, the little girl's photos appeared on the Facebook page of one of my son's classmates. She introduced the little girl as her cousin. How amazing! Mandy Rose's aunt and uncle live less than fifteen miles from us. Her cousins went to school with my oldest son. In fact, many years ago (longer ago than I care to count), I did investigations with this little girl's uncle.

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So, when Mandy Rose brought her parents to see her aunt and uncle over spring break, we all went out for supper together. The two photos above are only a few that were taken that evening. Most were on the cell phones of a bunch of wild teenagers :-) because they had a great time too! It was neat to meet another family who shared so many similar experiences. And, Mandy LOVES snow now :-)

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Recent Fire

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Its been terribly windy here the last several weeks. Add to that the lack of moisture and you see how difficult fighting a fire can be... It would jump the road. Eating the dirt and soot that was blowing made it even more tough. It was very difficult to even see a lot of the time!

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The Back Seat Can Be A Dangerous Place

They are playing the "Freeze Game" with the web like SpiderMan does, but it goes TERRIBLY wrong, especially for Alex :-).

Updates

Here is an update on my search for other children who were also in the same SWI (Social Welfare Institute) as our daughter, ElleAnna. I found a way to send a blanket e-mail to all the adoption agencies in the United States who work with the Chinese government. Only one indicated that they had ever had any referrals on children from Panjin - They've actually had three from there.... IT WAS THE SAME AGENCY THAT WE USED TO ADOPT ELLE. As far as we can tell, only three children have come from Panjin to be adopted by families in the US.

The other two children are both about a year older than ElleAnna. One was in fact the little boy who was adopted only a few weeks before we met ElleAnna. He was a little over three years old when he was united with his forever family. The other was a little girl, who has been with her new family since last fall. She was four years old when she was adopted. Both of these other children have special needs, so it is possible that is the only type of referrals they make for international adoption.

I did work with Adele Hall through Blessed Kids to send a camera to Panjin along with film, candy, and money to develop the pictures and have them mailed. We asked to have photos taken of places and people that Elle would possibly find familiar. We hope to get those photos in the next few weeks. The orphanage also sent a book for ElleAnna about their facility. She was never in foster care, so we are excited to have those for her as she grows up, especially given the very limited information about her region and very few children from there.

We will continue searching and learning - I may have found someone who can take photos of her "finding place". She was only a few hours old when she was found, based on a physician's assessment. It will be special to have a picture of that location also...
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