Addison Rae Tarwater

After 9 months we received a call from CCAI. They had a folder on a little 15 month old girl who had a third degree cleft lip and palate. They wanted to know if Bob and I were interested in looking at her file. I of course told her "YES." As soon as we got off the phone they emailed me a copy of the file.

I sat on the couch for about 5 minutes bawling my eyes out. I was terrified and excited at the same time. "What happens if she isn't our child?" "Is this really happening?" "Can we do this?" "God, I hope we can do this!" To make matters worse, Bob was in Florida, so I would be looking at this little girl alone.

I opened up our email and there it was "Wu Chun Xing." I made myself read all her documents before I opened up her pictures. She was living in the Wuchuan Social Welfare Institute in Wuchuan City, Guangdong Province, PRC. She was developmentally on track, healthy, liked babies and to be hugged and touched. She was dropped off at the orphanage a day after she was born. So far everything sounded great...but could we handle the cl/cp?!?!? I wanted so much for her to be our daughter.

I opened the pictures and the first thing I noticed were her eyes...not her cl/cp, but her eyes. They just had a sparkle to them. I so much wanted her to be our daughter, but could we do this?!?! Bob called later that night and I forwarded him the email. I let him know that her cl/cp were pretty severe but otherwise everything looked great!

Being the pragmatic one in our family he wanted opinions from Drs, therapists, etc. So over the weekend and into Monday I did a bunch of research. I sent Wu Chun Xing's info to an international adoption specialists. She emailed back saying everything is correctable and "Overall, I'm very optimistic about her future." - Yeah!!

I called DC Children's hospital for their opinion. Their cleft team nurse had me email Wu Chun Xing's info. She emailed back "She should do quite well with a surgical correction with a very good result cosmetically as well as functionally. Speaking as the mom of a biologic daughter with a cleft lip and palate-----I would not hesitate to adopt her." - More great News!!!

Then I spoke with Nathan's speech therapist, Jessica. Jessica was very helpful in explaining the speech therapy aspect involved with a child who has a cl/cp. She too felt that everything was manageable and that as far as her cleft was concerned there was great potential for a good outcome. We would love to have Jessica work with Addison when she come home.

So after all this encouraging news, we were sold. We called back and said "YES, we would love for her to be our daughter." So in our hearts Wu Chun Xing has become Addison Rae Tarwater. We are still trying to work part of her Chinese name into her American name.