A Clear Sign

The Jiangxi Province, Sinclair's birthplace, will always have special significance to us and her. We may not get to tour around much while we are there, but we would like to pass on some of the amazing facts we have learned about this special province.

Jiangxi (jyong-shee) is a southern province of China, bordered to the north by the famous Yangtze River. The Gan River runs through the entire province from south to north, emptying into Lake Poyang which in turn empties into the Yangtze River. In fact, the short name for Jiangxi is "Gan" after the river. The subtropical Jiangxi province has a warm and humid climate with cold springs and winters, hot summers and dry autumns. The average temperature of the province is 37-48 degrees Fahrenheit in January and 80-88 degrees in July. Jiangxi province has a large forest area, mountainous terrain and beautiful scenery. It is one of the more wild places of central China especially around the marshes of Lake Poyang where every year about 2800 white cranes migrate to spend their winter. The lake has been well known as "a land of abundance" and is reputed as a "bright pearl." On the east side of this lake is Mount Lushan, Lushan National Park, and the location of a well-known Buddhist monastery, the Donglin Temple. In 2007, Survivor was filmed in the Zhelin Reservoir of Jiangxi Province!

The capital and main industrial center of Jiangxi is Nanchang. It is home to the Tengwang Pavilion, a towering pavilion dating back to 653 AD and the setting of the first communist-led armed uprising against the nationalists in 1927. Bayi Square is the second largest public square in China, after Beijing's Tiananmen Square. It is also home to the The Star of Nanchang, formerly the world's tallest Ferris wheel. We will most likely first meet Sinclair Bo-Zheng in Nanchang!

Another famous city in this province is Jingdezhen which has been producing pottery from the white clay of a nearby mountain since the Han Dynasty. It is known as the "capital of porcelain" and regarded as the producer of the best porcelain in China.

There are several crops grown in the Jiangxi province, with rice as the most predominant. Cash crops commonly grown include cotton, rapeseed and oranges. The Black Tea produced in Ningzhou City and the Green Tea produced in Wuyuan City are well-known throughout China.

We think it is very interesting that chili peppers are also grown in Jiangxi province and the people here eat spicy food. Girls from this province are known as "Spicy Girls!" It is no coincidence that we would be matched with a baby from this province, though the CCAA had no idea that Anita's grandparents come from New Mexico from where they still order and roast red chilis for sauces for their food. Anita's whole family loves spicy food. Our Spicy Girl will fit in perfectly!

Labels: China, Jiangxi province

Sinclair is now 9 months old. We can't wait to kiss those chubby cheeks and see her little toes! We may only have to wait 5 more weeks. We'll keep everyone posted on the exact dates when we receive our travel approval. For now, we'll keep gazing at the pictures we have of her around our house. I wonder what she's doing today....

This week we got the translation of the rest of Sinclair's dossier. We got information about her immunizations thus far and her daily eating routine. We also got more information about her life over the last 8 months. Here is a summary of what it says:

Sinclair was abandoned at the gate of the Social Welfare Institute (SWI) under Bureau of Civil Affairs of Poyang County on Oct. 27, 2007. Once she was found, her abandonment was reported to the police station. She was examined by a doctor and it was estimated that her birthday was on Oct. 27, 2007 according to her umbilical part and a birth note left with her. She was identified as a healthy baby. She was named Bo Zheng and has been living at SWI Poyang County ever since.


Sinclair has been growing well under the care of the orphanage where she is living. When she first arrived she was "gentle and sensible." After one month "she sometimes looked as if smiling, maybe unconsciously, but it was such a nice smile." After two months, she would giggle at the expressions and voices of her caregivers. After four months, she liked to babble to herself. "She is happy to see familiar people and sometimes waves her hands and feet. She would hide, she even cries, when she sees strangers. Now she is a pretty girl with big eyes and rosy lips. She is very cute....Let us pray together for the healthy and happy growing of this child."

We have been praying for this child for so very long! In fact, we have prayed for her and her caregivers since before her conception. We are so excited to be her parents! "For this child I have prayed and God has granted me what I asked of Him" (I Samuel 1:27).

With hearts overflowing, we introduce Sinclair Bo-Zheng!!

Bo Zheng was Born on Oct. 27, 2007
in the Jiangxi Province of the People's Republic of China.
At 5 months old she weighed 13 pounds and measured 24 1/2 inches long.
She is currently being cared for at the Social Welfare Institute of Poyang County.

Here are some of the comments from her "State of Growth":

Bo Zheng is a deep sleeper. She can hold her head up while lying on her stomach. She can roll from supine to prone position by herself. She can locate the direction of sounds and voices. She visually follows moving toys and looks down for dropped toys. She can hold a block in each hand at the same time. She follows a person by moving her head from one side to the other and distinguishes between acquaintances and strangers. She makes vocalizations directed at people and toys and she laughs aloud. She is active, fond of listening to music, fond of playing with toys, and fond of playing games. She is also found of quietness. She is closest to her caregiver.

Most importanly, WE LOVE HER!!!

We just received the following email from our agency:

It is with great excitement that we email you today to let you know that you will be receiving your referral soon! Referrals have not yet arrived in our office, but the CCAA has posted the cut off date for processing and your LID was included. The cut off date for this referral group is 1/25/06. You have endured the difficult wait and have persevered, and will soon see the face of your child that you have long waited for. We look forward to contacting you soon to tell you about your precious child.

We are waiting on pins and needles now! What will we do with ourselves all day?! We're so excited!

It is the CCAA’s job to match all of the available orphans in China with their adoptive families. Many people have asked why the youngest children available from China are 6 months old—why not younger? It is because it takes some time to get these children paper-ready and then send their dossiers to the CCAA, just as it took us about 6 months to get our dossier together. The children’s dossiers are in one queue and the adoptive families dossiers are in another. The child that the CCAA matches us with is greatly dependent on the types of children next up for placement. Here is what we have read about the matching process from several different websites.

First, they review the baby dossiers and make sure there are no issues with them. Then they count up all of the baby dossiers that are eligible for matching that month and then look to see how far this stack will go in the parent dossiers without sending out a partial day of LID’s, and they pull all of those parent files.

Secondly, they match orphanages up with agencies. For example, this orphanage has six babies, this agency has six families; these two orphanages are in the same province and have a total of 12 babies, this agency has 12 families, etc.

Thirdly, they start matching individual babies to individual families. They first look for something that stands out: a matching birthday, a baby who looks a lot like a parent, or a baby who likes music and a parent who teaches music. Several matching people have stated they match by bone structure of the baby’s face and the parents’ faces (this is why parents send their passport photos, so they can compare our mug shot with the baby’s mug shot). Some have stated that they have used Chinese astrology also. Once they’ve matched the obvious matches they then start to look at things like age of child requested. The age requested is not a priority for them, because they feel they are matching families and not filling orders. But at this point they do try to satisfy the particular requests of the applicants. Our request was for a baby aged 9-14 months. Most people ask for the youngest child possible; therefore, in most groups, the youngest couples will get the youngest children (babies) in that group and the older families will tend to get the older children (toddlers). Keep in mind that the youngest families will be 30 years old and the oldest families will be 50 based on China’s adoption requirements. Therefore, we are on the younger side.

Ultimately, it is God who will do the matching! We have prayed for His hand in all of this and trust in Him to work through the CCAA. He has known and planned all along whom our baby would be. Psalm 68:5-6a says, “A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families.” We can’t wait to see who He has chosen to place into our family!

Labels: China Center of Adoption Affairs

Ladybugs are supposed to be good luck in the China adoption community. The story goes that several years ago, while numerous people waited for their referrals, there was a huge infiltration of ladybugs across the nation. Immediately following the ladybug sightings, a flood of referrals came in for many of the waiting parents. Many people now believe that when a ladybug is seen, a referral is not far behind.

We swore we weren't going to get into this ladybug trend when we started out on our adoption. But honestly, we can't resist. Ladybugs are too cute! We're not superstitious people and really don't believe it means anything, but have found ourselves compelled to buy ladybug wrapping paper, stickers, and whatever little things we see.

Matt saw a ladybug on a website the other day, and the ladybug seemed to have nothing to do with the website. It was just there. So that's one sighting this week! Let's have fun with this: if you see any ladybugs, post your finds in the comments section of this post!

Labels: china adoptions