Adopting Ethan

Introducing Ethan Daniel Davenport
Born April 9, 2004
Langfang City, Hebei Province
China
His Chinese name was Dang Ai Xing.

This was the first picture of him that we received. It was a black and white photocopy of a picture taken sometime in early 2006. We knew when we saw it that he would be ours. But, we asked the advice of doctors as to his medical condition. He was born with cleft lip and palate and was brought to the orphanage on or about the day he was born. Once in the orphanage he developed rickets, which is a Vitamin D & Calcium deficiency. The pediatrician saw nothing in his medical charts that discouraged us. When we received his initial medical reports and photo he weight about 28.6 pounds and was 34 inches tall. This is well within the normal ranges for his age.

We have determined that Langfang City is about 30 miles east of Beijing. Most likely he is in a very suburban, modern area of China. The photos also indicate this.

Now we just sit and wait on all the completed paperwork to be processed by China and are hoping to have him home before Christmas. We make the wait bearable by working on his room and by getting things together to take to China when we go get him.

All family and friends excitedly await his arrival.

8/4/06 - Today we learned that Ethan is being fostered by a family in Langfang City. Even though the Langfang Welfare Institution is still retaining guardianship of him, this family is responsible for his daily care. Although the details on the family are sketchy at this time we were able to find out that it is an American couple who have previously adopted a child from China. They are in Langfang City working. The couple has begun to call him Ethan and is working on his English. All of this is good news for Ethan because he is receiving more one-on-one attention than he would have in the orphanage. We also were told that he is still in diapers. So, I now will have to wait for updated weight and height and will be off to buy diapers, and all the things that go along with that, for the trip.

8/8/06 Today we received the photos below from Ethan's foster family. The little girl in one of the photos is the adoptive daughter of the American couple. You can tell from the photos he is being well taken care of. We are grateful to his foster parents for giving him so much one-on-one care!

8/9/06 - Today we received the following info about Ethan and his foster family:
Dang Ai Xing came to this family on October 28, 2004 so he has been with this family for almost two years. The foster family has 4 children, three biological and one adopted Chinese daughter. They are also fostering three other Chinese children, for a total of 7 kids in the home, so Ethan is used to playing with other children. His foster father had this to say, "He is inquisitive and quite well behaved. He loves cars and trucks and is fascinated with wheels and gears. He loves swimming. We are an English speaking family and he seems to have complete understanding of what we are saying. We have not attempted to potty train him. When he came to us, we took him to a good doctor in Beijing and was basically told he had a severe calcium absorption issue. We have intentionally increased his calcium intake and this will need to be continued."