Introducing Youhua

This is Zhou Youhua 周有华, last name first. He was born May 8, 2009. He is currently living at the Children Welfare Institute of Dongguan City in Guangdong Province China. John and I were preapproved to adopt Youhua last Thursday, 12/9/10. John and I are tossing around some American names to give him. I am guessing that he was named after a Chinese Olympic baseball player Guo Youhua. Zhou means boat, You means friendly and Hua means magnificent. A few weeks ago I was ready to throw in the towel. We had been hoping to be chosen by a local birthmother who then decided to keep the baby and I was devastated. Then, we met with Becky and Cindy at Adoption Horizons and they encouraged us to see if we would be approved for a special needs child from China. They called Xiaoqing at Bay Area Adoption Services and she e-mailed Cindy several profiles. Youhua was the first one she printed out. We all thought he was cute. I looked over all the profiles over the weekend but John barely looked at the others after seeing Youhua. I e-mailed Xiaoqing that we were interested in Youhua and she had me write a letter of intent which she forwarded to CCAA, the China Center of Adoption Affairs. Now we have to finish up our homestudy and send it to the State Department who decides if we are eligible to adopt a child from another country and then our Dossier is sent to China and we wait for a Letter of Approval and then Travel Authorization.