Eva,

Hello! I hope this message finds you and all the Angel Home family well! I apologize for taking so long for sending an update on Lily-Mei!

Lily seems to be adjusting very well. She loves having so many sisters and brothers, and she especially loves her 4-year-old sister Sophie. She also loves the extended family of her grandmothers, aunts, and cousins, and is always happy to see them. When she first came home, she was very afraid of our dogs, but now she enjoys them and loves helping take care of them. She amazes us with what a nurturing and loving little girl she is. She is always very caring of others and never likes to see anyone sad. She is always ready to give hugs! She also likes to be funny and silly. We have discovered that she loves to sing, especially if she has a toy microphone she can use. She also loves playing with the girls' toy kitchen and coloring and drawing. She also loves playing with baby dolls and pretending she is Doctor Lily.

Lily has surprised everyone by learning English so very quickly! She only says a few words in Mandarin anymore, and those are because the Mandarin words are easier to pronounce than the English words with her cleft palate, but she understands the English and tries to say the words sometimes. She is very hard to understand at times because of her palate, but she is training us to understand what she is saying! She is a very determined little lady! Her latest English word is "why" and she is now always asking why for everything. She is so eager to learn! She is finishing up her evaluation by a speech therapist tomorrow and should hopefully start weekly speech therapy next month. That should help improve her pronunciation somewhat before she has surgery.

Since Lily has been home, she has had quite a bit of medical testing and evaluation. She recently had workup by a pediatric cardiologist from Chicago who did an echocardiogram on her heart and found that her only heart problem is a very, very mild heart murmur that will cause no problems and should go away on it's own. She also had testing because of her short stature. Her growth studies came back low, but the doctor is hopeful that she will start growing and not need any treatment for that. He wants to observe her growth over the next 6 months to see if she is improving. She will soon be seeing a special pediatric dentist to complete some dental work on her, and after that we can finally schedule her palate repair! She will be having her surgery done at Shriners Hospital in Chicago in the early months of 2014, the same hospital where her friend Jordy LuJia just had surgery. We were very impressed by the doctors and nurses there and how much they care for the children, so we know they will be just the right people to help our little Jumping Beans!

This week is our holiday of Thanksgiving. We are truly thankful for Lily and what a gift she is to everyone who knows her. She is so special and we love her very much! We appreciate all of the love and care you gave to her while she was at Angel Home. We are certain that part of the reason she has done so well in her new home is because of the wonderful volunteers at Angel Home who loved her and prepared her for being in a family. We are thankful for you all!

Many blessings to you!!

Sincerely,

David and Kathie Steinberg

(翻译供参考)

Eva

你们好，希望您和天使之家这个大家庭都安好。很抱歉，这么长时间才更新梦迪的消息。

Lily 调整得很好，很适应这里。她喜欢有这么多兄弟姐妹，特别喜欢的是四岁的小姐姐Sophie.她还喜欢她祖母、伯母及表兄弟这些家庭，看到他们总是很高兴。当她第一次回家的时候，非常害怕我们的小狗狗，但是现在她很喜欢它们，也帮忙照顾它们。我们非常惊喜地发现，Lily是个很善于照顾别人、很有爱的女孩。她总是非常照顾其他人，不想看到任何一个人悲伤，她总是准备给别人拥抱！有时候她也喜欢搞怪淘气。我们发现她喜欢唱歌，特别是如果她有玩具麦克风，她就会用它来唱歌。她还爱玩女孩的玩具厨房和绘画。她也喜欢玩布娃娃，经常把她自己装扮成医生Lily。

Lily学英语的速度非常快，我们每一个人都很吃惊。现在她仅仅可以说简单的一些普通话，这是因为由于她腭裂的缘故，汉语的词汇比英语容易发音，但是她已经懂得这些英语的意思了，并且有时候努力说几个单词。由于腭裂，有时我们很难懂她所表达的，但是她会努力的向我们表达她所说的话。她是个有主见的小淑女。她最新的词汇是“为什么”，现在总是问“为什么”。她渴望学习新的东西。明天她就要完成语言治疗师的评估，下个月有希望开始每周进行语言治疗。这将有助于在手术前改善她的发音。

自从Lily回到家，她已经完成一些医疗测试和评估。她最近已由来自芝加哥的小儿心脏病专家检查，这位专家给她做了心脏超声心动图，发现她的心脏问题是非常、非常轻微的心脏杂音，没有太大的问题，将会自愈。身材矮小的问题医生也给她做了检查。她的生长研究表明处于先期发育较慢，但医生认为她有希望长高，而不需要任何治疗。医生想观察她在未来的六个月的增长，看看是否有改善。她将要看到一个专业牙医完成一些关于牙齿的问题，在那之后我们可以安排腭裂的修复手术！她将会在2014年上半年在芝加哥的Shriners医院做手术，这个医院正是她的朋友Jordy(钱路佳的英文名字)做手术的医院。我们对那的医生和护士有很深刻的印象并且很照顾孩子，所以我们知道他们会是合适的人来帮助我们的“小蹦豆”。

这周是我们的感恩节，我们感谢Lily, 她对于每一个知道她的人来说都是一份珍贵的礼物。她是如此的特别，我们都非常爱她。我们感激她生活在天使之家的期间，你们给她的所有爱与照顾。我们确信她在新家做的这么好的原因之一是因为天使之家的工作人员和志愿者，爱她并为将来融入家庭所做的准备。我们感谢你们所有人。

无尽的祝福！！