China Said Yes!

Our “letter of acceptance” from China arrived yesterday at our agency in Texas.  This is our proof that China said yes!  After a very, very long wait (129 days to be exact), the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA) approved our application to adopt.  And with that approval, we are finally allowed to share our children with the world.

We are delighted to introduce to you our daughter, Kiera Susannah Jieyu Chesla, and son, Matteo Chentao Partenheimer Chesla.

Kiera

Kiera was born on March 12, 2012 in Shenzhen, which is in Guangdong province.  She’s five months younger than Soren, and will most likely be in the same grade.  In the adoption community, kids closer than nine months in age to each other are called "virtual twins."  I've always wanted twins, but I never imagined I'd have twins in this sense.  

These are the first pictures we ever saw of Kiera!  She's probably around 19 or 20 months old in these pictures.

The orphanage staff named Kiera Jie Yu, which is pronounced sort of like Jeh Ew.  We had thought about the name Kieran for a boy, so when ended up with a little girl, Kiera was a natural alternative.  And Susannah (or some variation of it) has been passed down for generations in the maternal line of my family.  My middle name is Susannah, my mom's cousin is Susan, my grandmother was Suzanne and it continues up the line.  My mom had made it known that if I ever had a girl, she hoped I would carry on this naming tradition. 

Kiera lived for awhile in an orphanage in Shenzhen, but is now living with a foster family who lives near the orphanage.  She still visits the orphanage most days so that she can play in the playroom with other children.  Although we know nothing about her foster family, kids thrive much better in these (albeit temporary) family environments than in an institution, so we are thankful for the change in living situation. 

Kiera was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, but so far, the doctors who reviewed her file haven't been able to see any evidence of it.  She doesn't appear to have any physical limitations, but it remains to be seen whether she was misdiagnosed or not. Based on her picture, we suspect she has ptosis of her left eye, which our doctor said is mostly a cosmetic issue and surgery should fix.  But again, until we meet her and have her evaluated, there are so many unknowns.

We don't know much about what kind of kid Kiera is except that she likes all toys and games (what kid doesn't?) and that she's quiet and introverted, but has reportedly come out of her shell a bit since living with her foster family. 

Matteo 

Matteo "Matt" Chentao Partenheimer Chesla was born on September 30, 2012 in Fuyang City in Anhui province.  At only six months younger than Kiera, he and Kiera are also considered virtual twins!  (And since Kiera is a "virtual twin" to Soren, I'm not sure if that means that Chris and I technically have "virtual triplets"...)  However, because of his fall birthday, he'll end up in the grade behind her in school.  

And these are the first pictures we ever saw of Matteo!  The Chinese bundle their babies up!  I'm guessing these pictures were taken in the late fall or early winter and it's very cold where Matteo lives.  He's probably around 15 or 16 months old in these pictures.

Matt was named Chen Tao by the orphanage staff.  According to his file, his name "represents the good wishes that he will live freely and happily like a dragon under the sunshine."  It’s a fitting name given that he was born in the year of the dragon.  

Other than when Matt went to a "healing home" to prepare for and recover from surgery, he has lived with a foster family in Fuyang.  We know nothing about his foster family, but he's reportedly close to his foster mother and we were ecstatic to see that he appears very well fed!  

Like his sister, we knew we would keep Matt’s Chinese name as his middle name, but we wanted to choose a new first name for him.  The problem is that Chris and I have a heck of a time agreeing on names!  In a case of Facebook serendipity, I met an adoptive mother (from Minnesota no less!) who volunteers for Love Without Boundaries stateside.  Love Without Boundaries works in Matt's orphanage, sponsored his surgery in China and currently sponsors his foster family. When she found out Matt was at an orphanage supported by Love Without Boundaries, she told me that if I sent her his picture and Chinese name, she'd let the volunteer coordinator in Fuyang know that Matt has a family coming for him.  When I sent her the information, she wrote back, "I know him!  That's Matt!"  Because the Chinese government does not let anyone working with orphans to post their Chinese names and other identifying information, Love Without Boundaries gives the children in their care nicknames and Matt just happens to be what they called him.  My contact on Facebook suggested I search the Love Without Boundaries website to see if I could find any pictures of our little boy because the organization often posts pictures of the kids in their programs.  I immediately typed "Matt" into the search box on their website and a post about "Smiling Matt" was the first to pop up.  (I hope reading that post leaves you smiling as much as Chris and I were.  When we have so little information about our adoptive children's early lives, we were relieved to learn that he's been so loved and well-cared for.)

At this point, Chris and I were still debating names, but after reading the blog post, we realized that the only name we both liked was Matt. Since there are already two Matthew Cheslas in the family, we went for the Italian, Matteo. 

As you can see from his pictures, Matt was born with cleft lip and palate.  He had a very successful surgery on his lip at five months of age, but will need to have surgery on his palate shortly after he comes home.  Like most children with corrected cleft lip and palate, he will most likely need speech therapy.  

Every time I look at Matt's referral pictures, I laugh.  I think this kid is going to keep us on our toes!  His file described him as "cheerful and cute", active, energetic and extroverted. 

What's next?

Everyone wants to know when we get to go to China, but the answer is that it'll still be awhile.  I would have gotten on a plane last May when I first saw their faces if I could have.  Instead, we'll have to wait until possibly February 1 before we can fly over there.  We still have a lot of paperwork to complete, mostly for the U.S. side of things, and then of course, there are a lot of travel arrangements to make.  Over the course of a two-to-three-week trip, we'll travel from northern China to the south and spend time in three different provinces.  So it'll take about another 10 weeks to get all this squared away.