Thinking About Changing Mia's Age?

Mia turned 11 on October 10th?

But did she really?

Pic taken in 2/2008
(6 yrs 4 mos. old,  this is the youngest pic we  have of her)

The children in China are given birthdates. Often times it coincides with when they were found and how old they estimate the newborn child to be.

Pic taken 12/2008
(she would have been 7 yrs old)

But more often than not the records are not accurate... 

at 

all...

In fact they may even say that the child was found as an newborn infant and they were actually left around the age of 4 yrs old.

And then, maybe they estimated 5 yrs old when they were really 4 yrs old??

 Pic taken 1/2009
(she would have been 7 yrs 3 mos  old)

Then,

 put a child in an orphanage for 8 plus yrs and the result is a child who has not been exposed to anything and has not had much opportunity to learn.

When we read Mia's file something inside of me questioned the information given.

I did not question that she is indeed an orphan in need of a forever family.

BUT,

her referral sounded pretty much like every other child around her age coming out of this orphanage. Why would they keep these children for 10 plus years with such a minor disability?

Pic taken 6/2009
(She would have been 7.5 yrs old)

With these thoughts we hesitated,

we do not want to reinforce untruths in adoption.

We want to bring home, love, raise, educate and care for children that really do need a family.

We do not ant to take a child away from an existing family.

10/2010
( 9 yrs old?)

BUT, Mia was older and by the time we could get to her,

she would be 
even 
older.

We prayed about it and felt God encouraging us so we moved forward.
Just so you know when I saw her pic my heart leapt and hubby said an immediate YES!

Once I joined the orphanage yahoo group I found a plethora (I love that word and it may be the only big word I know, so I use it ;-) of pictures of our new daughter!

It was like Christmas in July!

All the pictures were from 2008 - present.

We also got her finding add, it was from 2007.

Now, before we come to any conclusions that was the first year they did finding ads in her Province.

So does that mean she had been at the orphanage for 5-6 yrs prior and they finally put it in the local paper because that's what they did for all the children who were previously in the orphanage? 
OR was she found in 2007 and so they put her in the local paper in hopes to find her family?

The point of this is to say we do not really know how old our daughter is? 

Now the orphanage could blow our hypothesis away by giving us younger pics of Mia.

I would love that!

We had seriously considered making Emma younger but once she was home and we went to the Dr, the dentist and other specialist we could see that Emma really was near her given age. 

This could happen with Mia, too.

Currently our new daughter Mia, is 4 feet 2.5 inches.

Her weight is unknown but we are estimating 55 lbs.

Her feet are 21 cm, about a 1-1.5 size shoe.

Mia has 13 baby teeth and 7 adult teeth.

(we do not know which molars she has)

BD 10/14/2001

Our Ellie has been home for 2.4 yrs.

She is supposedly 9 months younger than Mia.

Ellie is 4 feet 7.5 inches tall and 74 lbs.

She wears a size 3 shoe.

She has all her adult teeth and she is getting her 12 yr old molars.

BD 7/20/2002

(BTW- Being home makes a BIG difference)

Ava  has been home for 1 yr 8 months.

She is 4 ft tall and 54 lbs.

She wears a size 13 shoe.

She is supposedly 3 yrs 8 months younger than Mia.

Ava has 6 adult teeth and 14 baby teeth)

Mia's orphanage is very poor. 

Soooooo, 

our feelings are that Mia is younger than the age on her referral.

At this point we could easily see making her one year younger and having her birth year 2002 or 1.5 yrs younger and having her 9.5 yrs old when we meet her.

However,

 we will wait until we see her and gather all medical, dental and developmental information.

What are your thoughts?
Have you changed your adopted daughters age?