Jin Yuhao's story

All:

We have received an initial translation of our new daughter's paperwork from China. It includes how our daughter was found by strangers and how she became an orphan. However, I want to address one issue before you read further. Very often in the adoption domain, (especially from China) the term "abandoned" is used almost ubiquitously to describe what has happened to these babies. It has never been a term I liked and refuse to use it when describing these very lucky children.

Many wonder how woman can "abandon" their babies. They answer is that they don't. In learning and struggling with these questions, I came to the epiphany that this is much like story of Moses being set in a basket down the river to escape the tyranny of Pharaoh. These woman abandon their baby girls no more than did the mother of Moses, rather they saved them. For a woman in China to do this is illegal and she takes great personal risk to do so. Most stories we hear are that the mother will leave the child in a place where she knows she will be found quickly by people who will take care of her. Many wait in clandestine locations to view their girls, refusing to turn away until they see she is safe. Can you imagine the agony these woman endure? For the rest of their lives, no less? Legal persecution, guilt, heartbreaking decisions...all for just for the slim chance that she will be adopted by a loving family to live her life elsewhere rather than killing her (before or just after her birth). As you read below, know that our new daughter, Jin Yuhao was saved, not abandoned. Saved by a woman who is not selfish, but selfless. Her rewards are the opposites of peace of mind and emotional heartbreak. This woman, who we will likely never know needs comfort and our prayers for the rest of her life.

____

Here is what we know. I found a picture of the orphanage where she is. The source of this shot was kind enough to let me use it from her flickr page:



Here are some segments of our translated material:


Jin Yuhao, female, was born on May 19, 2006. She was abandoned at Sanzhong intersection (?), Guiping city on May 21, 2006; the local people found her and reported it to the police. The policemen from the security bureau could not find her birth parents, she was an abandoned baby and by the approval of Civil Affairs bureau, she was sent into our institute to be under custody at 10:30a.m. in the morning on the same day. When she entered our institute, she had a note with her which has her birthday on it. The doctors in our institute gave her medical exam, she was a normal baby. She was named as Jin Yuhao.

Meaning of her name: “Jin” is her family name. The children in our institute use “Jin”, the first word of “Jintian town” as their family name, in order to memorize Jintian town of Guiping city, the ruins of famous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Uprising. “Yuhao” is the name that used to distinguish this baby with others, no special meaning.

Physical condition: When this baby entered our institute, her height was 50cm, weight was 2.6kg, head circumference was 33cm and chest circumference was 32cm. She is very healthy under the good care by the caretakers in our institute. Her physical development is normal. Now through the medical examination by the International Travel Health and Medicine Center of Guangxi CIQ, her height is 64cm, weight is 6.4kg, head circumference is 43cm and chest circumference is 40cm. She has a black spot on her right leg, the size of the spot is 1 x 1cm, and this does not influence her growth. She is normal.

Intelligence development: Jin Yuhao’s intelligence development is normal, and her movements are flexible. In the first two months, she slept in most of the time. She always smiled unconsciously when she was sleeping, she could cry. When she was 3 months old, when she saw a ringing bell was hanging on the wall, she stretched both her arms wanted to touch it. She visually followed the moving of the ringing bell. When she was 4 months old, she could turn her body from right side to left side. She moved her arms and legs when heard someone called her “Haohao”. She loved to listen to music and always fallen a sleep when the music was on. When she was 5 months old, she could sit by the support from adults. She could raise her head. In this period, she began to make “Yi,Yi, A, A” sound and used baby talk to communicate with little friends. Now she can roll over her body, can stretch her arms to get the toys nearby and play. She likes to stretch out and draw back her legs to learn crawl.

Personalities and things she likes: Jin Yuhao is always cheerful, she is active and cute. She always talks and smiles. She likes to listen to music, and likes to communicate with little friends by baby talk.

Daily routine: Jin Yuhao is institutionalized and has routine life in our institute. She gets up at 6:00a.m. everyday, takes a short nap at 9:00a.m., takes a noon nap from 12:00p.m. to 3:00p.m. and an afternoon nap at 5:00p.m. She falls a sleep at 10:00p.m. with the light off. Now she has 5 meals everyday, her main food is: milk, rice cereal and pig bone congee. She has about 230ml for each meal. Time for meals: 6:00a.m., 10:00a.m., 3:00p.m., 6:00p.m., and 9:00p.m. She has some mashed apples and bananas in the morning also.

That's all we have for now. We will let you know more when we have it.

73!

Matt