Happy Birthday, Max!!

December 28th was Max's first birthday. Heidi and Griffin (3) came over to toast Max with a cup of hot chocolate, and a hearty rendition of "Happy Birthday". Griffin is just getting used to his future role of "Big Friend", so we read a book about how Max came to be, and how I will soon bring him home. He had lots of questions!! :)

It looks like Carolyn and I will be traveling from January 28th through February 12th. We are working on getting our travel visas, which is more complicated than we had initially thought. It turns out that Carolyn (bless her heart!!) will have to fly from Panama to San Fransisco, spend a few days there with her niece and get her own travel visa at the Chinese Embassy. Then, she'll fly up here on the 24th, and we're off on the 28th.

Our itinerary looks like this:
Jan. 29: Arrive Beijing- tour of Beijing
February 1- February 6: Picking up Max in Chongqing City
February 6- to Guangzhou for US processing
February 9: US CONSULATE APPOINTMENT if confirmed
February 11: depart China and return home

Of course, none of this is confirmed yet, so we'll see. In the meantime, I'm in the process of rearranging my house, collecting "stuff", and basically getting ready. It's so much fun!!

Thanks for all your thoughts!

Finding Ad

I contacted a guy in Utah who sent me Max's original Finding Ad, which is a newspaper ad that is placed in the local newspaper in hopes of contacting family members or even the parents of abandoned orphans.

Here is what it says:

Name: Qian Xiu Zhuang

Gender: Male

Birth Date: December 28, 2007

State of body: He has a cleft lip and palate

Date arrived at Institute: January 1, 2008

Finding date: January 1, 2008

Finding location: At the gate of the Qianjiang District Civil Affairs Bureau, Chongqing City

Characteristics of body: He has a cleft lip and palate

Items found with him: Nothing

Pretty neat to put together some of these pieces.

Letter of Confirmation

Hello Everyone,

I got my Letter of Confirmation today, which is big news. I'll go down to Tacoma tomorrow to sign it, so the agency can return it to China on Friday. Based on this event, I'll probably receive my permission to travel in 2-3 weeks, which will give me a better idea of when I'm actually going to China. Good progress today - all in babysteps!!

Thanks for all your good thoughts!!
More to come, hopefully soon.






Someone else is getting really excited!!

Cleft Lip and Palate Information

While I'm still waiting for the Letter of Confirmation, I thought I'd take a moment to share some information about Max's cleft lip and palate. I've gotten a lot of information about it from the Cleft Palate Foundation, which is a great website meant to educate about cleft lips and palates.

Basically, Max was born with a hole in his mouth. The process of fusing did not finish in the womb. The hole doesn't hurt, and will be fixed through several surgeries.

No single cause of cleft lip and palate has been identified, however it is believed that the majority of these issues appear to be due to a combination of inherited facotrs (genes) in combination with certain environmental factors. Clefting occurs very early in the pregnancy, and represents a problem over which a mother has no control. Cleft palate is one of the most common of all birth defects, and seems to appear in all racial groups. However, the combination of cleft lip and palate seems to appear most commonly in Asians. Approximately one out of every 700 to 750 infants born in the U.S. has a cleft lip and/or palate.

Feeding, of course, is one of the major concerns with cleft lip/palate babies. According to his growth numbers, Max has figured out how to get enough food in his belly. He is exhibiting good numbers, although by American standards he is in about the 10th percentile of growth.

We will travel with a variety of nipples and bottles that are available for a baby with cleft lip/palate. In general, babies with cleft need to be in a semi-upright position, and need to be burped more frequently. We'll figure all that out soon, hopefully.

Max will need a series of surgeries. Childrens Hospital in Seattle will be the place we'll get it fixed. We will meet with a craniofacial anomalies team that includes representatives from medicine, speech and hearing. dentistry, and psychosocial departments.

Usually, the cleft lip will be fixed first.

Sometimes it can be done in one stage, but often two separate surgeries are needed. Usually, the hospital stay is just one night, and Max will go home with some stiff gloves on his hands so he won't mess with the stiches.

Palatal surgery is done between eight and eighteen months of age, and usually involves a hospital stay of one to three days. They'll fix the soft palate first, which involves some incisions around the outside of the soft palate and stretching the skin to fuse the two sections. Hard palate surgery could involve some bone grafting, and might have to wait until hishead has stopped growing. Since we don't know the extent of his cleft lip/palate, a lot of this will obviously be decided once he's home.

Children with cleft lip and palates have increased risks of having ear infections, and therefore it's quite common for them to get ear tubes during the first two surgeries. Also, we'll need to stay on top of Max's hearing as that is often problematic for kids with cleft lip/palates. Once he starts speaking, we'll also keep track of his speech development, and because of the palate issues, Max might need some speech therapy.

Hopefully that answers some of your questions. Of course I'll keep you all posted on the next steps.

:)

Introduction

Hi Everyone,
I have finally reached the point of getting to keep all of you posted on my adoption process. It's certainly been a long, bumpy road for me, and I'm thrilled to be at this point.

On October 22, I got THE call from my adoption agency that I was matched up with a little boy in China. His Chinese name is Qian Xiuzhuang - Qian (pronounced 'jian' for the city in which he was born (Qianjing), and Xiuzhuang because it's a nice name (according to the report I received :) I've decided to name him Max Qian Christiansen.

Max was born on December 28, 2007. He was found at the Civil Affairs Bureau of Qianjing district of Chongqing City on January 1, 2008, and was sent to the Social Welfare Center of Qianjiang District fo Chongqing City, his current orphanage.




Here is a map of China and the municipality of Chongqing.







SWC of Qianjiang is about 8 hours drive from Chongqing City. It's a big building that sits on top of a hill, and looks quite mysterious! In 2006, it took in as many as 200 children, 160 of who were 10 months or younger. I'm not sure how many babies it holds today. There is usually a 15:1 children to caretaker ratio, 8:1 for babies. Because of its large numbers, it has also established a foster care system, where local families take in up to 4 babies.

Here are some pictures of the orphanage:




Here is the front of the orphanage.


















Babies sleeping.












Babies in these walkers. Anything familiar about the picture on the wall? (Same one Max posed on for his 7 month picture!)











When Max and I got matched up, they sent me a report from the orphanage of what Max's life has been like for the past several months. He has a routine that involves normal sleep and eating habits, and according to officials, he has normal physical and mental development.

As you can see, Max has a cleft lip and palate, and I'm finding out a lot about the different levels of surgeries that area available these days. Children's Hospital in Seattle is a fabulous place that is well known for repairing cleft lip and palates. Find out more about this condition here. We'll see a craniofacial team at Children's as soon as we return home.

Speaking of taveling, I'm not quite sure when we'll be heading over to China, but it looks to be between mid-January and March. I don't think we'll actually travel to Qianjiang, but will meet Max in Chongqing. Maybe a trip to his birthplace is one for the future. Lots to do between now and then. I'll be traveling with my friend Carolyn, who, besides being a most amazing friend, will keep me organized and focused!! I couldn't do this without her!

So, hopefully I'll get to write another update very soon.
Stay tuned!

:) Jessi