Everything is on it's way to China!

Well my dossier is officially on it's way to China! I was told that I can start telling everyone that in about 9 months I will be home with little Eliza! That means April 2006 I should travel to China! How will I ever be able to wait that long?
Typically the babies adopted from China are about 10 months old when their parents travel to China to pick them up. Sometimes they are a little younger and sometimes they are a little older, but 10 months is the average age. I’ve requested a baby girl as young as possible. This means that little Eliza has probably already been born and will have to wait another 9 months for me. She will either be in an orphanage or in foster care with a family.
There are many, many children in orphanages in China. Estimates are that there are upwards of 500,000 little girls in orphanages all over China. One may think that the Chinese don’t like girls or that the birth mothers are cruel and inhumane. This is not true. The people in China live in such poverty and forced to make decisions that we, as Americans, are fortunate enough to never even have to think about. By being born in America, we have all basically hit the jack pot and are more fortunate than we may ever realize.
“Most children who make it to the orphanage may not make it to their first birthday. The children who are abandoned are victims of dire poverty. Their parents faced unimaginable odds jut to bring the pregnancy to full term and those parents are dirt poor. Not the poverty you see on the streets in China’s cities, but dirt poor, the likes of which we cannot even approximate. The children who are abandoned are often malnourished due to lack of sustenance in utero. If the facility cannot offer first-rate care, many of the children will die in those first months. To alleve any of your fears, the adoption centers will only refer the healthiest children in the [orphanage] which is why these girls who come to the US are such powerhouses. In fact, only a fraction of a fraction of the children in the facilities will ever make it into the adoption pool for international adoption.
Birth mothers abandon out of love not out of hatred for girls or disregard for children. The act of abandoning a child in a well populated area where they will surely be found is an act of love and bravery. Simply having an unplanned and unwarranted pregnancy and carrying it to full term is a daunting task in China. Having an abortion in China is so very easy right now, but these parents choose to forgo that route. To give birth and care for that child in its first days/weeks/months is an extraordinary act and to give that child up, in hopes that someone will be able to better attend to their needs, must be heartbreaking to any parent. The parents face insurmountable odds just to carry out the pregnancy, quite simply, and to have to give that child up must be one to he hardest things they will ever have to face.” ~Eric Stowe, MA
I will be forever grateful to my child’s birthparents for choosing to give her life. I will also be forever grateful to the Chinese government for allowing me to adopt this baby.