As I mentioned in one of our previous posts, Storie is from the same city as Sydney. She was estimated to be one month old when she was taken to the orphanage. She was taken to the Children’s Welfare Institute of Zhanjiang City, which is also the orphanage Sydney resided in for the first eight months of her life. Zhanjiang is a beautiful city that is in the southern most part of China. It sits on the South China Sea coast line. Its appearance is very tropical with palm trees, banana trees, and coconut trees readily seen. Everywhere you go there is a multitude of fresh fruit and vegetables available for purchase.
Storie resided at the Zhanjiang City orphanage for one month until she was sent to True Children’s Home. True Children’s Home is a private run American facility. True Children’s Home funds corrective surgery, provides care for the children post surgery, and once the children are strong enough they will place the children with foster families. True Children’s Home is located in the southern city of Dong Guan, Guangdong province, China. This is several hours away from Zhanjiang City.
After Storie was sent to True Children’s Home she remained in the home for nine months, at which time she was deemed strong enough to be placed in foster care. In February of this year, she was placed with a family in a nearby village of True Children’s Home. She has remained with that foster family and will continue to remain with them until we travel to China to adopt her.
Why was Storie sent to True Children’s Home? Storie was born with a congenital heart defect, specifically ventricular septal defect (VSD) with minor pulmonary stenosis. Storie has not had corrective surgery and we are being told that she may not need to. We assume that when Storie was first taken to the orphanage she had difficulties that were a direct result of her congenital heart defect. Although she is doing well now we figure she must have struggled early in her life.
We do not know how or why Storie was chosen to go to True Children’s Home. These are questions we hope will be answered when we travel to China to adopt her. We know there are many other children from Zhanjiang who also have some form of a special need and could have been sent in her place. We feel very blessed that for whatever the reason she was chosen to be sent there. While she resided in True Children’s Home she had the benefit of a child to caregiver ratio of 2:1. She would never have received that kind of one on one care in the orphanage.
As we wait for our travel to China to meet our daughter for the first time and to bring her home, we are comforted by knowing she is receiving such good care. That fact alone makes this wait so much easier! We don’t have to worry about whether anyone is comforting her when she is scared or drying her tears when she cries. We know that when she is hungry there is someone there to feed her and to hold her while doing so. We know she is hearing someone talk to her and sing to her. She has been given such a wonderful gift! She is in a loving foster family who meets her needs and is helping her to be more developmentally on target. What a blessing!
We are so thankful that Storie was chosen, for whatever reason, to be sent to True Children’s Home. We will forever be grateful to the staff of True Children’s Home and to her foster family!
Julie
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