Updated info about Harper!

Last week we sent a photo album to Harper.  It has lots of pictures of our family, and we hope that the nannies at her orphanage will look through the photos with her and introduce us.  We also sent a dress for Harper and some dresses for the other girls at the orphanage.  Finally, we sent a letter asking a few questions about Harper.  We got the answers today and are so excited to have a bit more information about our daughter!

We received updated information about her height, weight, and foot size.

height:75cm (29.5 inches)

weight:9.5kg (21 pounds)

foot:12cm (4.7 inches)

We learned that she has 6 teeth.  The last update from a month ago said she had 12 teeth.  She must have gotten into a bar fight and had some of her teeth knocked out.  Or maybe she bit the person who was trying to count her teeth so they stopped counting.  We've heard that sometimes the information received from the orphanage may be incorrect, and clearly one of these teeth counts is a bit off.

My second question was "What do the nannies call her?"  We are happy to learn that she is called Ji.

I asked about her diet.  In China, children remain on a bottle much longer than they do in the US.  We learned that she is still on a bottle, but also eats congee (like a watery oatmeal) and other solid food.  The nannies said she eats anything and is not picky about her food.  I hope this part is true!

She is not potty trained.  I am glad for this!  Chinese potty training is a bit different than in the US, and I think it will be less confusing for Harper if we start from scratch several months after she comes home.

She wakes up at 6:30 in the morning, takes a nap from 12 until 2 and goes to bed at 8pm.  Perfect!

She likes to sleep with light off and sometimes she likes to sleep with a fan on.

She has been in the orphanage her entire life.  Some of the kids are in foster care.  Having this information will help us during her transition.  Children who have always been institutionalized will often have a harder time adjusting to life outside the orphanage.  We are prepared for her to grieve heavily, but pray that the transition will not be too difficult for her.

We are so blessed to have this new information!  Anything we can learn about her will help ease the transition.