More Qin Jian

In 2 short days we've learned even more about our little boy. We are still trying to come up with a name (but are really close!) so from now on we will call him by his Chinese name, Qin Jian.

We found out that he has already had his cleft lip surgery (and that he for sure does not have a cleft palate). No palate, good, surgery already, a bit sad for us for several reasons. The biggest one being that I hate for him that we weren't there to comfort and love him through it. It's hard to imagine what that was like for him... but I utterly trust God was there and did a much better job than we could have done. I also find myself worrying about the kind of job they did on the surgery. But I am going to trust God for the outcome and also am sure that the Cleft Lip team of doctors here in Ohio will do a fine job to fix any remaining problems. (They come highly recommended.) It really is amazing how my motherly instincts have kicked in and he already seems like mine. Really weird and rather unexpected.

I also talked w/ my best friend, Lisa, (the one who spent SO MUCH time trying to get that blasted letter from China) and it "just so happens" that the orphanage QJ is in is an orphanage that our friends visit every summer to serve at and do improvements in. I am looking forward to hearing from those friends and finding out what the conditions there are like. (It seems like from these pics that it is clean and there are fun toys.) There just also may be a chance that there is a woman who works for this orphanage who runs a wing for older kids and treats it more of a foster care situation. Obviously QJ wouldn't be involved in that but b/c she is friends with my friends, there just may be a chance that she would go check in on him for us and perhaps even get some pictures.

It really seems like God's hand has been in this from the beginning. We have no doubt about that, but to see some specifics is really unbelievable to me. Doesn't he look SO different already post the surgery. It's amazing to me. Now if they would just get him out of that dang PINK exersaucer.