Mercer Family Adoption
by Kasinda Mercer 1 Lives Impacted Shanghai, Shanghai, China
We are adopting! More specifically, a 4 yr old girl from China! We are excited, nervous & anxious and are doing everything we can to be pre...
Our adoption just got updated to Travel Planned Posted about ago
Flights are booked- we travel in 6 weeks!
It's funny how everything has moved faster than expected up to this point, yet our travel is now delayed from the usual 10-21 days after travel approval, for a full 6 weeks! It's twice as long as expected due to the government offices shutting down for Chinese New Year in February. At first, I was very disappointed, but I now see how lucky we are! We have time to plan and time to book halfway decent flights with minimal transfers and seats that are together. We have time to get our dogs healthy (both had recent bouts of diarrhea...eew!) and get our jobs and time off in order. We have time to arrange Suzie's medical appointments for when we return and we have time to learn a little bit more Mandarin and practice using our translator and apps.
My heart still aches because it's another month that this little girl doesn't know what a family is or that people accross the world love her and desperately want her. It's another month that she misses in preschool and a month of therapy that is lost. Time spent in an orphanage has been directly correlated with growth delays. One month of height growth is lost for every 2-3 months spent in an orphanage. I mourn that she will be almost 10 years old before she spends more time out of an orphanage than in one.
But, she will have one more Chinese New Year Festival in her home country. She will have one more month with the other children that she has grown up around and the nannies that she knows and has attached to. We've been told that she eats slower when she's with the nanny that she prefers. I pray that she has lots of slow meals this month and I vow to never rush her at mealtimes.
-Kassie
1/18/18
It's funny how everything has moved faster than expected up to this point, yet our travel is now delayed from the usual 10-21 days after travel approval, for a full 6 weeks! It's twice as long as expected due to the government offices shutting down for Chinese New Year in February. At first, I was very disappointed, but I now see how lucky we are! We have time to plan and time to book halfway decent flights with minimal transfers and seats that are together. We have time to get our dogs healthy (both had recent bouts of diarrhea...eew!) and get our jobs and time off in order. We have time to arrange Suzie's medical appointments for when we return and we have time to learn a little bit more Mandarin and practice using our translator and apps.
My heart still aches because it's another month that this little girl doesn't know what a family is or that people accross the world love her and desperately want her. It's another month that she misses in preschool and a month of therapy that is lost. Time spent in an orphanage has been directly correlated with growth delays. One month of height growth is lost for every 2-3 months spent in an orphanage. I mourn that she will be almost 10 years old before she spends more time out of an orphanage than in one.
But, she will have one more Chinese New Year Festival in her home country. She will have one more month with the other children that she has grown up around and the nannies that she knows and has attached to. We've been told that she eats slower when she's with the nanny that she prefers. I pray that she has lots of slow meals this month and I vow to never rush her at mealtimes.
-Kassie
1/18/18
Posted by
AdoptTogether
- $15,000 One-time Goal
- $3,182 Still Needed
- 1 Lives Impacted
Field Partner
Fundraiser Organizer
Thornton, CO, US
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Shanghai, Shanghai, China
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