How'd we get here?- A bit about Mei Li Quan

I started thinking about adoption back in 2002. I say "I" because my husband thought I was crazy when he called me one day as he was visiting his mother and 2 sons who live in Denmark and I announced "We are going to adopt a little girl from China". He said something like "OK dear." to pacify me. Little did he know that the journey had begun.
Once I get something in my head, there is little stopping me- once I feel something in my heart...well, then it is a done deal.
I only had to spend months researching adoption from China, pleading my case and waiting for my husband Jann to warm up to the idea.
Since we were about 39 and 48, we had spent most of our time working and going on vacations. We lived a comfortable life. Jann's sons were already 11 and 16 and living in Denmark. He traveled to Denmark every month for the weekend to visit them. That gave me plenty of time to research adoption. ;}
At the time the CCAA had imposed a Quota system on agencies and several were not taking any more that year. We moved to Texas, started new jobs and the paperchase began. We were Dossier to China May 2003. At that time the wait was @ 13 months due to various delays including SARS.
The process speeded up and after waiting 8 months for a referral, we finally got the call.
This is the first photo we ever saw of Mei Li.

Her Chinese name is Cen, Ye Quan (pronounced Sen, Yeh, Choo wen). She was born in Heng Feng, Jiangxi province, China on February 6th, 2003.
The information about height and weight was from a few months earlier; she was 14.3lbs and 26 inches tall, tiny in size but never went to the hospital. You can see by the size of the person's thumb in the photo, this photo was taken when she was quite young.
The next day we got the packet with some more photos of our daughter. I made about 1000 copies and framed them and put them everywhere.