News about Amy

As I mentioned previously, a family visiting Jian's orphanage in July told her about the adoption. I was concerned that it might be too soon, but hoped for the best. Recently I spoke with a girl who was adopted from the same orphanage in 2009 (and was Amy's foster sister). She spoke with Jian in August, but neither girl shared that they knew about the pending adoption. The conversation did reveal that Jian has real angst about leaving China and her friends. My fear that too much time to think about it without a regular flow of updates and information about us and the adoption could be a problem seems to have been confirmed. Due to agency rules, they STRONGLY prefer families not have contact with the child they are adopting until the letter from China asking us to confirm our decision (LSC) is received and signed. That happened last week. I am in the process now of drafting a letter for Jian, introducing our family to her and hopefully allaying some of her fears. It is a rather lengthy letter that I now need to find someone to translate for us. 

Because of this development, I have taken another look at the name issue - with new eyes so to speak. Thinking about Jian feeling scared about the unknown she is facing, I decided that we should go back to one of the first names we selected (and then shelved) - AMY. It has never really left the short list during my many iterations of ideas. It means loved and I think (hope) that will be at least a little reassuring for Jian. So it is decided. Her name is Amy Jian…. and I ordered a necklace with that name in braille for her to solidify the choice. (Who knew you could get jewelry with braille? Really nice. Can't wait to see it and then send it in a care package to Amy!)