Maelyn Chronicled

This is a post I have wanted to complete for a very long time. The story of the pictures I have posted is an interesting one -- enjoy!

Over the Christmas break and in-between packing, Paul and I started researching anything we could about Maelyn -- her province, her orphanage, etc. In searching, we came across blogs of other people who had also adopted children from the same orphanage as Maelyn. We even saw pictures of a little girl in the same foster home as Maelyn! It's remarkable how beside ourselves we were about being able to see her foster home from different angles -- and even a picture of the foster mother!

That blog lead us to yahoo discussion groups and more specifically, one that is for individuals who have adopted children from Maelyn's orphanage and who all had the last name, Ling (this is a name assigned by the orphanage itself). When I signed up for the group, I had no idea how important that decision would be...

While I was reading posts from others in the group, I came across a few postings from a woman who lives in Spain. She was posting messages about her organization, one that sponsors children from Maelyn's orphanage. She explained that families in Barcelona, Spain would sign up to sponsor a child and receive montly updates about the sponsored child. The money would pay for various things, but mostly it allowed the child to be moved from an orphanage setting to a foster family. In this group, she had been contacting the families of the children the organization had sponsored -- she was even able to provide the adoptive families the pictures that had been sent on a monthly basis to the sponsor families.

Well -- needless to say, I didn't waste a second. I emailed her immediately and asked if she knew Ling Wanhao. We had our answer within three days -- Maelyn was one of the girls they sponsored! We couldn't believe our luck -- we were so excited!! She told us that she had pictures for every month of Maelyn's life and would send them along shortly.

On January 6th, the evening before we took possession of our new house, we came home to an email full of pictures -- beautiful pictures of our little girl!! We were so grateful to this woman for making it possible for us to help create a history for Maelyn -- what a gift! Also, we were anxious to see pictures of what her cleft had looked like before the surgery. It was wider than we had originally assumed (due to the amazing job they did repairing her lip), but she looks beautiful in each and every photo!

October 8th, 2008 - 1 month old

November 16th, 2008 - 2 months old

December 22nd, 2008 - 3 months old

January 26th, 2009 - 4 months old

March 4th, 2009 - 5 months old

March 25th, 2009 - 6 months old

April 24th, 2009 - 7 months old

April 24th, 2009 - 7 months old

May 24th, 2009 - 8 months old

June 10th, 2009 - 9 months old

August 27th, 2009 - 11 months old

We were so excited to receive the next four photos -- they are all dated later than any other pictures we had seen of Maelyn. Our little girl is growing!!

September 27th, 2009 - 12 months old

October 22nd, 2009 - 13 months old

November 26th, 2009 - 14 months old

December 31st, 2009 - 15 months old

Being sent these pictures is one of the greatest gifts we could have ever received. We haven't seen any updated pictures of our little girl in three months, but that is soon to change! Our agency has made a request to China for an update on Maelyn. We should receive new pictures and updated medical information within the next two weeks -- we can't wait!