Where She Lives Now: Pingjiang Social Welfare Institute

The Pingjiang Social Welfare Institute is one of a few institutes in China where a nanny takes care of only one child. While young, the children sleep in their nanny’s room at night. This extra care results in children that have good physical skills and are age appropriate in developmental skills. We feel so fortunate that our baby is there.

One family who has visited there last year mentioned "the nannies would go to the temple to pray for the children if they were sick or to pry for continued good health. "

Another couple who were allowed to visit the orphanage October 2006 reports the following: “We then toured very specific areas of the orphanage - the babies' rooms with their little cot/cribs lined up, the playroom, and a room with a handful of kids playing. We saw many smiling nannies and some very happy babies, all of whom were being held and cared for by their own nanny. We saw a lot of love and caring while we were there, and the director himself (Mr Yu Yong Gao) seemed to have a very special relationship with each baby as well. He told us that there were only 40 children in the orphanage at the time, and over the past 10 years, 200 children have been adopted out of Pingjiang."

Medical Report Checks Out: Dr Davies "Gushes"

We had a telephone consultation this afternoon with Dr. Julian Davies from UW's Center for Adoption Medicine. The practice specializes in health concerns of international adoptions.

He started our conversation with the remark that he was inordinately gushing: "This is the best health report I've seen for a long time," he reported. "She's in the 90th percentile in height and weight, and 75% in head circumference (we guess that's important?) and all her test results are normal."

Her growth is strong. He says she's a big kid, experienced stellar growth on arrival at the children's institute, and is maintaining that growth. About the only item of note is she might be a little anemic, but we can correct with diet once she gets to the US.

Dr. Davies, who we both like very much, also mentioned that while many of these growth reports are boilerplate, the section that talks about Xia Shuang as a "Happy Buddha" is very unusual and is a great indicator of her robust health and happy temperament.

Here are the numbers.
At 6 weeks: 22" long, 13.2 lbs
At 4 1/2 months: 25" long, 16.5 lbs

So she may end up taller than Andy and me. OK, that's not a huge bar to jump over, but still great news. Another step closer to her arrival here, hooray!

So What's Her Name Mean?

Elizabeth's full Chinese name is Jiang, Xia Shuang (shah shwong). My brother Peter, the China scholar, tells me he thinks her name means she was the second child after one already born - "Shuang" means "a pair" and "Xia" means "beneath" or "under."

Given the situation in many rural Chinese communities, it indicates that she likely was the second born in a family that already had a child. This is still common in China right now. The financial and social penalties are stringent and people are just ekeing out sustenance existences. Families either try for a boy, and/or are financially penalized for having additional children. It makes it impossible for them to keep their second or third children, especially if they are girls.

While we are joyful hearing the news of her imminent arrival here, we feel terrible for her family. So her Chinese name, which has a beautiful sound, reflects some of that sadness.

Dossier Details

We picked up her dossier (which makes her sound like a baby spy) which includes her medical record, the details surrounding her arrival at the children's welfare institute, and some clues to her station and personality.

• The glad: She's really healthy! She weighed 16.5 lbs at 4 months and was 25" long. She seems to be gaining 1 lb and growing 1" each month.


• The sad: She was 6 weeks old when she was left on the steps of the PingJiang Children's Welfare Institute, which means that her mother kept her for 6 weeks. The good part is she was likely breast fed and is clearly well cared for. The awful part is her poor mother - it must have been heart-breaking to leave. If you're inclined this way, please say a prayer that her mom knows she is well-off.


• The totally rad: The dossier reports that she is active, likes music, games, looking at picture books and is a mimic. She jumps up and down when people hold her on their laps, her favorite activity is playing outside and her favorite toys are her dolls. For some reason, this completely slays Nancy.

Introducing Elizabeth Xia Shuang

Elizabeth Xia Shuang's (pronounced shah shwong) birthday is May 14, 2006 and she currently lives in the Ping Jiang Children’s Welfare Center in the Hunan Province, which is located in inland China.

This makes her a Taurus, born in the year of the Dog. Children adopted from Hunan are often called "spicy babies", for the food they are supposedly given, and for the alleged effect it has on their personalities.

Andy did a quick Google search on her name: as best we can tell it means “Lady of Iron.” We think we will have our hands full.