Vivi Cate Before She Was An Official McDonald

Vivi Cate's six month Gotcha anniversary is this week, and I've been nostalgic over this whole experience.  I never got to share pictures of Vivi before her Gotcha Day... so here is the little girl we fell in love with before before we had even met her.


When we saw her face for the first time...

She was adorable, right?

You can read details about that week here and here.

This is what was included with her file...

"She is a clever, active and restless little girl. She has bright eyes, curved eyebrows,

and mouth like a geisha, is very cute. She has a ready smile and she always laughs

happily in the room and is everybody's happy.

At the age of 6months, she is 65cm in height, 6kg in weight, 41cm in head size and

40cm in chest size. She is familiar with the sound of mother; everyday once mother

enters the room, she would turn to locate the direction of mother’s sound; when

mother holds her hands and talks to her, she would respond to mother with sound of

oh oh. When mother puts her down and cuddles another child, she would cry

At the age of 8months, she is 69cm in height, 6.5kg in weight, 42cm in head size and

41cm in chest size. When she looks at herself and mother in the mirror in the activity

room, she is very curious. She can grasp the toy passing to her while lying on the

stomach on the cushion; when mother covers her sight with a handkerchief, she would

wave her hands and takes it down, and pleasantly surprised to look at mother."

*FYI: mother (mama) is what she called all of the nannies*

These pictures were taken when she was nine months old..

Can you believe how tiny she was!?!

 Caregiver Interview 3/12 (9 months old)

1. What is your favorite thing about this child? 

She loves attention and responds well. She is beautiful. Her nanny wants her to come back to visit after adoption.  She is a “star” here in the orphanage.

2. Describe his or her personality (characteristics like quiet or talkative/ likes to play

on own or likes to play with other children/ active or calm/ clingy or independent/

outgoing or shy/ artistic or sporty)

Active

3. What do you call this child (nickname)? 

Wen li or Meinv (beautiful girl) pronounced ma nu ee

4. Any additional comment? 

She is definitely a favorite of the orphanage.

Three Months Before Gotcha Day
Our agency visited the orphanage again in September.  She was 14 months old.  I received these photos toward the end of October, and they made me sad.  My poor baby was bald.  The caretakers shave the children's hair several times a year to ward off lice and other pesky creatures.

 I'm not sure you can see from these photos, but if you look closely at her arm, you will notice some of her rashes.  Poor Vivi was infested with scabies along with some other skin issues.  By the time we saw her on Gotcha Day, her skin was even worse.  Vivi would soothe herself during the night by continually scratching and picking at her skin.  Her skin reacted by creating a very hard layer over her hands.  It almost seemed like her hand was one giant callous.  

 Her skin still has flare-ups and is extremely sensitive to EVERYTHING, but the scabies are gone and her hands are smooth.  It took several months for her to stop scratching herself regularly and now only does it in extreme situations.  She is incredibly brave.



Seven Weeks Before Gotcha Day
During the first week of December, we sent a care package to Vivi.  We picked pajamas, a blankie, photo album, candy for the nannies, and a flash drive in hopes of the nannies uploading pictures on it.  (Her nanny returned the flash drive to us on Gotcha Day with 180 pictures on it. We are thankful for each and every one of them.)

Here is the photo album we sent her.

She carried it around and kissed our pictures.  

The album and the flash drive are the only things that were returned to us on Gotcha Day. 

With the care package, we could request pictures and an update.  Within 48 hrs of ordering the package, we received these amazing pictures and an update.

 We learned she was standing on her own!

and she liked her snacks :-)

 and blingy hats!

and these pictures...

made me want to forgo the rest of the paperwork process and get on a plane to meet her ASAP.

How cute is she showing off her art project!?!? 

Less Than One Month Before Gotcha
I had been in contact with another adopting mama who was adopting Vivi's cribmate, Amelia.  Amelia's Gotcha Day was on Christmas, and three days later I got the best Christmas present in my inbox.  Amelia's mommy, Keri, met Vivi, took pictures of her, AND sent the cutest video of Vivi and Amelia.

Keri told Vivi that I was coming to get her soon

 Vivi showed her that she was now walking like a big girl!

On the same day these pics showed up in my inbox, December 28th, my lovely friends Betsy, Chandra, and Jill took me out to lunch to celebrate Vivi Cate.  Later that evening my agency called to tell me that we had received our Travel Approval.  It was an amazing day! We had spent the last few months falling in love with our new daughter, and we would FINALLY get to meet her on January 21st.