I struck gold!

Where do I even begin?

When I spoke to Carol about this beautiful baby in June, she referred to her as "Emily from Starfish." Okay, I get that they call her Emily, but what is Starfish? I breifly googled starfish back then but never really found anything.

Yesterday I heard back from the woman at "Blessed Kids" about my package to Rita. She told me that her father called the orphanage in Yulin City (up north) and was told that she was actually in a foster program in Xi'an. (capital city of Shaanxi which is in the southern part of the province.) This morning in the shower (the ONLY place where I think clearly) it hit me. Starfish is probably a foster care system in Xi'an. I googled, and here is what I found.

http://www.thestarfishfosterhome.org/. I opened it up and there she was! My daughter is currently being cared for by some of the most amazing people on planet earth!

A woman named Amanda, who I personally believe is an angel, started this facility. They take high-risk children who need surgeries from orphanages who are not equiped to handle the special need, they raise $$ for the surgeries, she personally goes with the child to the hospital, they care for these children and prepare their dossiers so that they can be adopted through the CCAA. Most of the children are cleft lip/cleft palate or have heart conditions.

But wait, there is more!! She keeps a blog!!

I read through her blog and found precious pictures of Rita! When I saw the picture of her in an animal print halloween costume, I knew for sure that this little fashionista belongs in our family! I also found the cutest photo of her with her little friends. (she's the peanut on the far left.)

Then I found several blogs talking specifically about her medical condition, her surgery and her recovery. This is more information than I ever expected to know about her. Apparently her tumor was actually a parasidic twin. It extended from her bottom into her little tummy. If it had not been removed when it did, it would have killed her.

Amanda took her all the way to Shanghai for her surgery. She expected a 3 hour surgery and a 20 day stay in Shanghai. It turned out to be a 6 hour surgery and a gruelling 44 day stay in Shanghai. How do you ever say enough "thank yous" to someone who had done this for your child? Do you see why I think this woman is an Angel?

While in Shanghai, little Rita met Stephen Curtis Chapman and his wife Marybeth. I have the photo to prove it! Brenda - I'll bet you are cracking up right now!

I am so thrilled to have found this. I can't believe this information had been available on the internet all this time!

I sent an email to Amanda and hope to learn more about Rita before we go. Specifically, I'd like to find out what things we can do when we first meet her that will make her feel less afraid. Maybe we can even email her some video clips. Wouldn't that be cool?

Oh yeah, and I have to post something that she wrote about Rita. I loved this: I have no doubt that she is going to be a daddy's girl. She loves men with big voices. I think that she is going to have her dad tied around her finger. She would often fall asleep when they were holding her.

Here is a piece from her blog about the surgery: Her surgery was a really big one. The teratoma (parasitic twin) was clearly visible on her butt but what we did not know was how far it was into her stomach. The surgery took six hours and that was a long time to wait. They expected it to be three hours so you can only imagine how much you worry. Dr Wu did some laprascopic surgery on her stomach first and then opened up her back to get the mass out. It was as big as her head, the doctors told me. She was healing well when I found the blood in the bed which I wrote about. That took a really long time to heal properly. I went to the hospital everyday since we checked out on May 3 to clean the wound out, drain the fluids (It was still really deep) and to change the dressings. Finally we got the go ahead to come home. I was so happy about that!!!When I do these trips there are so many people I would like to thank:

1) I am so grateful for the skills of the doctors, especially Drs Wu and Hong who did such a great job with Emily. It was a really unusual surgery and one that was very unpredictable.

2) I would also like to thank the two sponsors. As you might remember I went to a fund raising in March when the high school kids, and with the help of Interkom, raised 20 000RMB for a surgery. It was during that weekend that I first found out about Emily. A few days before I left, I heard from Lisa who is from the Casa de Epsana, a group of Spaniards who raise funds by having parties. They donated 10 270RMB. We then had the exact amount of money we needed for Emily's surgery.

3) To the army of volunteers who made sure I was fed and that the laundry was done. The most delicious meals arrived and I felt so spoiled. I am so grateful for the use of your drivers and your resources. The way you supported me is just awesome and I am very grateful. It made being at the hospital so much easier.

4) To Emily's fan club: I loved watching you all lay the love on thick. She really is a charmer and so many people were just enchanted with her. Thank you for your prayers on her behalf.

5) To the Kedls who put up with me for a week soon after they moved into a new house and did not need the added stress: Thank you for being so welcoming and helping me so much with Emily.As if going through the surgery was not enough, Emily started teething then. She has got the biggest white spots on her upper gums. Poor kid!!!I did see her finding ad in the newspaper with all the other babies. So we are on our way with the adoption process. There was also four foreign families in Shanghai who expressed interest in adopting Miss Em.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of Lucy's new big girl bedroom. It is awesome!

Finally, I made the final batch of "make up" cookies to send out. I don't mean to brag, but they are simply spectacular! Land 'o' Lakes butter and I are a great team!