Saturday, April 23, 2005

All The Details

Jeff rolled out of bed with that sick feeling you get from not getting enough sleep, and went into the office at 6 this morning. Two hours and 3 hits on the snooze button later I rolled out of bed with that same sick feeling and went to pick Jeff up at his office so we could be in Monterey Park at 11. Jeff supplied me with Diet Coke for breakfast, as I learned in college that caffiene makes everything better.

We had great traffic all the way there- Jeff and I are convinced that the spirit of my Aunt must have cleared the Four Yugos of the Apocalypse* out of the way. We arrived at USAA at 10:30, and decided that we would at least go inside to wait for our paperwork.

As we came in the doors, we found Norman and a lovely Chinese lady seated at the small round table to the left of the reception area with several stacks of paper. We apologized for being so early, and said we would be happy to wait until 11. Norman came over and greeted us and said there was no need to wait and told us to have a seat. The nice lady asked our name, and then handed is a large manilla envelope. "Is this it???", we asked. She smiled broadly, and said "Yes! This is your referral! Go ahead and open it. I will translate for you." We opened the end of the envelope and slowly and carefully began sliding the papers out as though there might be something dangerous inside. The first document was a "Children Medical Examination Record" and stapled to the top of it were pictures of a beautiful baby. Our daughter. She was exactly the way I had always pictured her in my mind.

It was difficult to tear my eyes away from her precious face so that we could read about her. The translator read over the medical report, which is entirely in Chinese, and told us that everything was normal. She then showed us the part that said she was HIV and Hep negative.

The next document was titled "State of Growth Prospective Adoptive Child" and is filled out by the SWI, so it gives you more detailed information. According to this document:

Tenley was found on September 14, 2004.
She wakes at 6 am (oh goody), naps from 12-2, and goes to bed at 8:30 pm.
She eats at: 6:15, 10:00, 2:00, 6:00, and 10. She takes 150 ml of formula w/ rice cereal.
She is a deep sleeper.
She is described as active, restless, likes music, has a ready smile, laughs aloud, likes games, knows her name, responds to adults facial expressions, and knows the difference between an aquaintance and a stranger (uh-oh).
She can roll over and can hold her head up when lying on her stomach.

We are overjoyed- it's even better than we had hoped for, and it was love at first sight. Jeff is ready to get on a plane NOW. We heard from another parent that Norman is trying for travel on either June 17 or 24- we're hoping it's 17.

* My cousin Colin has this theroy that all crappy traffic is caused by The Four Yugos of the Apocalypse: one Yugo in each lane of the fwy, all with the pedal to the metal which means that they're doing 40, and blocking every lane with no way to go around!

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