Faith Facts

Sooo, I never really shared any of the other info that we know about Faith. Here is what little we do know:

On the morning of 10/26/06 Faith was brought to the obstetrics department of a hospital by a 20-ish yr old woman. She asked to have her baby bathed. The Dr. took the baby into another room to bathe Faith and when she returned to the waiting area the woman was gone. There was a bag left. In it was a newborn dress, bonnet and a napkin. And a note. The note stated the mother's name and that she was unable to financially provide for the baby and that she would not reclaim her. That she had given birth to the baby on 10/26/06 and named her Tran Hoai Anh. The Dr's kept Faith there until the afternoon, but the mother did not return, so she was brought to the orphanage.

Remember that some things are "lost in translation". I think that maybe it is common for woman who give birth at home to go to the hospital to have the newborn properly cleaned and checked out by a Dr. And I don't think that a napkin is what we think as a paper napkin....probably more like a rag or something to clean baby spit up..

I have asked if we would receive the things that were found with Faith from her mother. I was told no. It saddens me. It would be nice to have things from her mother to give to her someday. I am happy to know that her mom gave her name to her and that she confirmed her birth date. Many orphaned babies are given a name by the orphanage and an estimated birth date.

I can't imagine how difficult it was for this young woman to make this decision. Any woman who has ever been pregnant knows how you feel about that life that you can feel growing inside of you. I imagine she had to try to hide her pregnancy as young unwed woman are not looked upon kindly by the Vietnamese society. She would been considered nothing more than trash. Used goods. Dirty. :( I like to believe that she wanted the best for her daughter and that is why she chose to abandon her. I wish I could someday talk to her birth mother. to thank her. And to tell her that we will love and take care of her daughter and provide her with many opportunities.

Faith is at an orphanage called that is located in a suburb of Hanoi, called Ba Vi. On the map of Vietnam, you can see Hanoi, the capital, in the North. Although it is part of Hanoi, it will take 2 hours to get to the orphanage from our hotel in central Hanoi because of the poor roads. Hanoi is similar to Washington DC. It is it's own district. Not part of any province.

As I previously mentioned she was given a check up by our agency doctor on January 8th. (10.5 weeks old) At that time she weighed 9.2 lbs and was 51 cm long. She had blood tests performed for several things like HIV, Hep A, Hep B...and a few others, they all came back negative. That is all we know about her. I have been told that she is said to be lovely, personality wise.

That is all we know. A few facts and 3 pictures. We may or may not get updated facts and pictures before we go to her. But, it is amazing how easily we have fallen in love with her. Pat is already the brainwashed Daddy. I will show him pictures from blogs of people who are picking up their babies or people or recently got referrals too...and I will say : "look at this baby isn't she cute?" He will shake his head and only say: "Not as cute as ours!" Well DUH! ;) We are still waiting for one piece of paperwork from the US government before we can log our Dossier into VN so that we can receive approval from the VN government to come get her. Each day we both eagerly check the mailbox. Because we know that without this piece of paper we cannot start waiting to hear about travel. We expect it will be here in the next week. I have to say that it cracks me up a little to see Pat kind of anxious. Usually he the "it will get here when it gets here" type while I am checking the mailbox. It is funny to see how a little baby face can change a man into a pile of mush. :)