Lin's First Web Site

Lin's First Web Site	Month 4 - April / May 2003

Easter

Lena ex-Shanghai comes to stay for Easter and we had great fun playing together
(and so did our mums).

We were allowed to eat our Easter eggs but Baba made us sit on a towel so we don't get chocolate on the furniture - typical Baba. It almost worked, most of it went on our clothes.

We make a lovely duet together.

We shared our bath.

SARS warnings be damned, they're going in was the headline on page one of
The Sydney Morning Herald on April 28 2003.
No fear... Sydney couple Stephanie and Wolfgang, pictured with the children of friends, are determined to travel to China to adopt their own little girl despite SARS travel warnings. And who should be sitting closest to the camera when the photo was taken.

Stephanie and Wolfgang are 8,000 kilometres and four weeks away from their baby daughter and they are not about to let fear of a virus get in the way of holding her for the first time. The Sydney couple have known for three weeks that eight-month-old Zeng Xiao Fang is theirs to adopt. Now they must wait anxiously for final administrative clearance before they can bring Xiao Fang home from China as parts of the country go into progressive lock-down in response to the SARS epidemic, and travel warnings are extended.

May 3rd Lin was baptised at the Sacred Heart, Roman Catholic Church, Mosman by Monsignor Eugene Harley who also married Baba and Mama. God-parents were Andrew James Frayne and Annabelle Catherine Frayne. After the baptism a party was held at home for the 25 people who attended the service. Lin went off to bed for her afternoon sleep and they forgot to cut the baptism cake until late in the afternoon.

She was dressed in the Frayne family baptism gown. It was made by an Italian lady in Ingham, Nth Qld for Lin's uncle Jim in 1946. Lin's late grandmother Rita commissioned the dress which consists of a petticoat, a smocked dress, a bonnet and a crocheted jacket. Today Lin wore the petticoat and the dress and looked exquisite.

The outfit is very special. Lin is the 11th Frayne to wear it since it was made in 1946. Lin's daddy wore it and her uncles, Rick and Phil, and Aunty Helene wore it too. It was kept by grandmother Rita in a special place for the next generation and then it came out for grandchildren - Edward (1984), Annabelle who is Lin's godmother (1986), William (1988) and Rosemary (1994). Uncle Phil also used it for his son, Thomas in 1992.

Lin's mother, Sandra, washed the dress with love and it is almost as white as it was in 1946. It has never been worn by a 'walker' before.

At the party after the baptism.

10 May 2003

Our first professional family portrait

Visit from Nanny and Poppa In 1990 Poppa saw Alan Kay, grandfather of the Mac, present the opening keynote address at a world conference organised by Lin's Mama. Poppa has never forgotten the video Alan showed of a two year old competently using a mouse and MacPaint and other Mac applications. Lin being two plus Poppa having an old Mac in his garage equals Lin gets her own computer. Now the only one in the house without their own computer is Monty the cat.

Westmead Visit DOCS recommend that all overseas adopted children be assessed by the Overseas Adoption Clinic at Westmead Childrens Hospital. The waiting list for this free service is quite long as it only operates one day per week. The assesment involves two visits in one week, the first visit to have blood tests and chest x-rays performed. The second visit is to get the results and for an examination by the doctor. Lin's name was already well known at Westmead because we had sent her worm specimen to Westmead for identification. Lin passed all her tests, she is clear of TB and her immunisations seem to have worked except for a borderline result on tetanus, meaning she needs to have one more DTP injection when we next see our local GP. Her growth since she arrived in Australia moves her to the next curve on the growth charts which is very pleasing to the Mama who follows her daughter around for an hour each mealtime trying to get more spoonfuls in her mouth so that she'll fatten up.

We are thrilled to receive a reply to our letter to the foster family via the orphanage. They enclosed photos of the family and of Lin taken in October 2002 soon after she started walking. There is a big sister in the family aged about 10 who would have been a great playmate for Lin. There is also a maternal grandmother in the house who looked after Lin during the day whilst the foster mother was at work. We are so happy to have these photos as our memory of the foster family from the brief handover is very blurred. We did not get any photos of the actual handover and we did not get to meet the foster family later in the week as seems to happen at some other orphanges. As I've mentioned elsewhere, for Lin to be as loving and confident as she is, this foster family has obviously looked after her for 11 months with a great deal of professionalism as well as much love. The foster family have enclosed their address and an email address so an email reply in Chinese characters is underway.