Sunday, October 14, 2012

Jillian and the Big, Big Wolf

First of all, it's worth noting that this is my 900th post on this blog.  That seems like some sort of milestone, so I thought I should have something of significance to write about.  Since it seems like everything right now revolves around our adoption of Jillian, let me give you the info that we received about two weeks ago from her orphanage.

It's often hard to know if you're getting 100% accurate information in these situations.  In some cases, the orphanage may tell you what they think you want to hear.  We have little choice, though, but to take things at face value. 

As you might have guessed from looking at the photos I posted recently, Jillian is very slight.  Apparently she weighs just 33 pounds and is only three and a half feet tall, even though she is almost seven years old. Jeannette says she has kids in her pre-kindergarten class who are bigger than this.  In a way, this may be a blessing since we plan to start Jillian in kindergarten and so even though she's older than the other students, she will likely fit in size-wise.

We were extremely curious to know whether they were going to tell her about the adoption in advance.  (We thought they would, but wondered how far ahead of time they would do so.)  It was encouraging to hear that "She received the family’s package and was very happy. She knew she would be adopted by an American family a few months ago."  So, she has seen the picture book we sent her and at least has some vague idea of what is ahead. At the very least, she has to be aware that life is about the change very dramatically for her!  They told us, "She is very willing to be adopted."  That's great, though we also know that she probably can't comprehend what is really going to happen.

Jillian is in a foster family.  We have heard that they will often remove the child from the foster family about two weeks in advance of the adoption, so we were curious to know what they planned to do with Jillian.  We were told that, "Where she lives is only 300 meters from the institute and she comes for kindergarten every day. We can make the arrangement if the adopting family wants her be moved back to the institute."  We've decided not to give any instructions to them and just trust that things will play out for the best. 

Finally, they told us that her favorite TV show is "Happy Goat" and "Grey Wolf."   I did a little checking around and learned that this is Xi Yang Yang Hui Tai Lang, which apparently is translated "Pleasant Goat and the Big Big Wolf."  Not familiar with this show? 



Apparently it's extremely popular in China, with more than 500 episodes produced and many children wearing Happy Goat clothing.  Someone in a Yahoo group that I've joined said it's kind of like Hello Kitty Meets Wiley Coyote. 

Gotta love it.

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