All About Sydney

These are the pictures that we received when we requested more information on Er Wei (Sydney) from our adoption agency before we officially proceeded with the adoption. Here is some of her story. Her surname is Chen (the same last name as the orphanage director - this is typically how children are named and several of her playmates share that name). Er Wei are her given names and they mean you and small, slight. However, this also depends on the source that does the translation. We are doing some more checking to clarify the meaning. She was born on 6-14-03 and is staying at the Wenzhou Children's Welfare Institute (CWI), Zhejiang Province while she waits for us.....her "forever family". She is well cared for there by her aunties (please see the information on the CWI post for more information on her current home). Sydney has been diagnosed with congenital heart disease, Tetrology of Fallot. She had surgery to repair a hole in her heart (VSD for you medical buffs) on 10-25-04. She appears to be a healthy and active little girl!
We requested an update in December of 2005 and the CWI was gracious enough to honor our request and even sent us some updated photos!













































The CWI also took Sydney to the hospital and provided an updated ultrasound of her heart, as well as some additional developmental information. Get out your metric conversion charts....and you thought you'd never use the metric system! Here are her stats from 12-31-05: Height=93 cm; Weight=15 kg; Chest Circumference=53 cm; feet length=15 cm; Number of teeth=20. Here's what else they had to say: her heart problem does not affect her daily activity, she can run, she likes reading and can turn pages, she can speak in short sentences, she responds to praise and encouragement, she can mimic adults, she will be interested to sing some children's songs and lullabies (get your singing voices in shape grandmas!), she needs help using the bathroom, she plays games with other children voluntarily, and my favorite.......she lays on the ground when upset or mad and acts like a spoiled child when she is happy (I can hear Grandpa Bud laughing at her now!). We are praying that she is healthy and happy and that He will continue to watch over her while we wait to hold her in our arms.....see her smile....and hear her laughter.