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We Have a Son!

Lian Han Kun

Early next year we will travel to China to become parents for the second time. Lian Han Kun was born in Jiangsu province on November 14, 2007, and is living at the Lianyungang Social Welfare Institute (SWI). We received his file at the beginning of August, and today our agency finally submitted our application to China.

We've always wanted more than one child, and after Lia came into our lives, our desire only grew. So we started the process for adopting again last December. It was important to us that our kids share their ethnicity, their birth country and culture, and this time we chose China's Waiting Child program for children with special needs. We did research on the most common special needs of children in the program and spent some months deliberating over what we could manage as a family.

We were thrilled to be matched with this adorable baby boy:

Han Kun has a unilateral cleft lip and palate on the left side. Thus far he hasn't had any surgery for repair. We're told that most surgeries for children in orphanages are done by charitable organizations like Love Without Boundaries that move around the country. They prioritize older children, and since Han Kun is still fairly young (ten months on Sunday) he may not have surgery before we bring him back to Canada.

The referral says "Lian Han Kun looks active and lovely. He has quick response, and gets along well with kids. When being cuddled and teased by someone, he will dance for joy and smile without stopping." That just makes my heart melt.

Some people are surprised that we've been referred a boy. While most children in the Non-Special-Needs program are girls abandoned because of poverty and the one-child policy, the kids in the Waiting Child program are about half boys, half girls.

We love his name. Lian is a character in the name of his city, Lianyungang. Han meaning cold was chosen because it was cold in November when he was admitted to the SWI. Kun means earth. We plan to name him Nico (another Greek name to match Lia's!). It means "victory of the people," which I think is appropriate for a boy from the People's Republic. Nico is a common name in the Netherlands too.

The hard part is going to be the wait. They should call it the Waiting Parent program!! When we adopted Lia, our file was reviewed and approved long before we were matched with her. In this process, Han Kun was matched with us before our file was submitted, so now the China Center for Adoption Affairs will need 3-4 months to approve our file before they will allow us to travel. So strangely enough, we will probably fly to China in February or March, around the same time we travelled for Lia.

In the meantime, we're preparing a care package to send to Han Kun. We'll include a photo scrapbook so he can get to know our faces, and I'm knitting a bright yellow baby blanket. Lia has decided that one of her Yo-Yo's belongs to Han Kun, so that will go along as well.

We have a son. Doesn't that have a nice ring to it?

Gone Camping

Lia's first camping trip was a cold, wet week-end to Lac la Pêche in the Gatineau, joined by Grandpa Rick. We were thrilled to see how much she loved the experience and, apart from some first-night adjustment to sleeping in a tent, did wondrously. It doesn't hurt that camping involves being outside all day and the menu includes copious amounts of bacon, marshmallows and pancakes!

Some video shot with the Flip:

Trying out the new Flip

Here's a little mix of clips from this afternoon's outing to the beach.