Waiting for Hari

what we know about Xiao Zhi Kuang

This is the information we have about Zhi Kuang. There is not a lot of it, but her pictures pulled us in and the doctor who looked at her reports thought she looked great.

This is the first picture we saw of Julia. All of the children adopted from China have this type of passport picture taken. When adoptions from China first started parents did not get this picture which, at that time, was about an inch square until they arrived in China. We have been staring at this face since March.





The next two pictures were also part of her original file. Looking at this picture, we decided that Zhi Kuang had spent too much time with doctors being proded and polked to begin the preparation of her file for adoption. Somehow, I don't think that anyone told the 4 1/2 year old Zhi Kuang to smile for her future family. She looks like she was plopped down on that toy and endured the photographer.

Many of the children from Xiajiang County Social Welfare Institute, in Jiangxi Province, are pictured on the same rocking toy on the same porch. Some of them smile but that doesn't seem to be a priority.










This picture was the clincher for me. The kid was showing attitude. I just knew she could stand her ground with the best of us. This picture reminded me of Cheshire at this age -- always standing her own ground.















The next two pictures are part of the update that we received in May. Both pictures were great shots of the playground with a tiny Zhi Kuang in the center. I blew up the smiling picture because I was so happy to see this kid smiling. I hope that we see lots more smiles in the future.

From the update that was done on May 12, Zhi Kuang was 42.5 inches high and she weighed almost 41 pounds. She wakes up at 6:30 am and goes to bed at 9 pm. She is a sound sleeper and usually sleeps on her back. Zhi Kuang is still taking two naps a day, and eats regular meals. She has breakfast food in the morning and eats two bowls of rice for lunch and dinner. Her favorite foods are congee (a rice soup), rice, noodles, fried noodles (her special favorite), steamed buns, deep-fried twisted dough sticks (I think they sell them at the Indiana State Fair!), vegetables, cookies, and fruits.


Under motor development, they say that Zhi Kuang walks freely but uses the wall to support herself when she climbs stairs. The report also notes that she does a standing long jump. (Umm.)

Reporting on her adaptability, they say that Zhi Kuang can turn book pages one by one, she know at least two colors, and puts caps on bottles.

They also say that she can yell, she is inquisitive, she knows all the parts of her face, can take off her shoes and socks by herself and she is cooperative when she is being dressed. She can express her needs, and knows cold, tired, and hungry.

The report describes her personality as active and energetic. Zhi Kuang is energetic, extroverted, and can be obstinate sometimes. She is closest to her foster parents. She is fond of imitating, fond of listening to music, fond of playing with toys, fond of singing and speaking. She loves to laugh, is sociable, quick in reaction. She is very fond of reading books, playing games. Her favorite activity is playing on the slide and her favorite toy is a ball.

On August 7, we received another update but it was quite weird and I expect that the measurements are wrong. Anyway, I hope they are wrong. The update said that Zhi Kuang is 51 inches tall and 41.9 pounds.

So now you know what we know. And we can't wait to meet this munchkin.

posted by Suz @ 12:40 AM