Thursday, December 23, 2004
Referral day
It's been a busy day. I didn't have time to post anything more than the picture this morning, as we were home only briefly after we received our referral packet at the agency and before we headed downtown to the doctor. A quick recap of the day:
- We received three pictures. High resolution versions of all three are on the "photos and videos" link to the right of this window.
- We discovered that we have been using the wrong name. The correct name is Qianfang: the F was mistaken for an S in our initial phone call. (Perhaps I should rename the blog "Fmirnoff" in honor of this blunder). We were told that Fang means sweet-smelling, fragrant, good or virtuous. We'll take any of those. There is no firm information on Qian: one meaning is "male" but somehow that doesn't seem right. Her current surname is Ling (quick, clever, intelligent, effective, skilful) and we'll take any of those too.
- The doctor tells us she is basically healthy as far as he can tell from the limited information we received. She tested negative for all the important diseases. She is below average height and weight for her age, but this is to be expected for a child in her situation. Our priority is to "get her out of there" as he put it.
- We celebrated with a modest lunch downtown after the consultation. We headed for the Walnut Room in Marshall Field's, but even at 11.00am there was a 2 hour wait, and hordes of people with the patience for it. Anybody would think it was Christmas or something. We went elsewhere and had a glass of champagne with our sandwich and salad.
- We finished our excursion with a visit to Circuit City to buy a camcorder, like all good suburban parents. Our excuse, not that we really need one, is that we will want to send video snippets to far-flung family, and that a video record of our trip to China will be an important part of Qianfang's "life book" for her to enjoy and learn from as she grows up.
We are as pleased as punch by all of this, of course. But today our thoughts are with Qianfang's biological parents as we consider how they must have struggled with their decision. It must have been the hardest day of their lives.
- We received three pictures. High resolution versions of all three are on the "photos and videos" link to the right of this window.
- We discovered that we have been using the wrong name. The correct name is Qianfang: the F was mistaken for an S in our initial phone call. (Perhaps I should rename the blog "Fmirnoff" in honor of this blunder). We were told that Fang means sweet-smelling, fragrant, good or virtuous. We'll take any of those. There is no firm information on Qian: one meaning is "male" but somehow that doesn't seem right. Her current surname is Ling (quick, clever, intelligent, effective, skilful) and we'll take any of those too.
- The doctor tells us she is basically healthy as far as he can tell from the limited information we received. She tested negative for all the important diseases. She is below average height and weight for her age, but this is to be expected for a child in her situation. Our priority is to "get her out of there" as he put it.
- We celebrated with a modest lunch downtown after the consultation. We headed for the Walnut Room in Marshall Field's, but even at 11.00am there was a 2 hour wait, and hordes of people with the patience for it. Anybody would think it was Christmas or something. We went elsewhere and had a glass of champagne with our sandwich and salad.
- We finished our excursion with a visit to Circuit City to buy a camcorder, like all good suburban parents. Our excuse, not that we really need one, is that we will want to send video snippets to far-flung family, and that a video record of our trip to China will be an important part of Qianfang's "life book" for her to enjoy and learn from as she grows up.
We are as pleased as punch by all of this, of course. But today our thoughts are with Qianfang's biological parents as we consider how they must have struggled with their decision. It must have been the hardest day of their lives.
