The Finding Ad

We received something truly amazing in the mail yesterday. 

Virtually all adoptions in China are abandonments, so “finding ads”, or ads placed in newspapers that identify found children, are required before a child is placed for adoption.  This should give families a chance to find their children if indeed a child was lost or taken.  Of course, as with many aspects of adoption, the horror stories of finding ads being placed far away from a child’s hometown or after a child has been adopted out of the country are forefront in everyone’s minds. 

We hired a researcher to look for Little Guys finding ad, and he found it fairly quickly.  We received it in the mail yesterday, with a translation.  A few things stood out:

*We received the actual newspaper containing his finding ad.  The actual newspaper, not a copy.  And it’s a national paper, from his hometown, and printed about 3 months after he was found.  Holy cow.

*The story in the ad absolutely matches up to what we were told. 

And the big one.  Huge.  Enormous.

It contains a picture of him as an infant.

Be still, my heart. 

We now have an infant picture.   We never thought we would have something this important. 

We are so, so happy and so, so fortunate.