Goodbye Beautiful

I am sorry for all you who were following us and wondering how come suddenly we stopped blogging to no apparent reason.  Well, there was a good reason, and it just took me this long before I could come back here and post about it.
     On September 20, 2010 our daughter seemed to have gotten sick.  We stayed up with her all night, giving Tylenol and water in small doses.  By morning, she wasn't getting better so we took her to the emergency room.  On the morning of September 21, 2010, the first day of the mid-autumn festival  our daughter passed away 20 minutes after entering the ER.  The task of getting your child back to the United States after they have passed away while being in China is not something I'm yet ready to write about.
     After arriving back in the U.S. an autopsy revealed our sweet little Echo has died of a large "spontaneous acute diaphragmatic hernia".  We consulted lots of doctors and specialists about this here in the U.S. bringing translated medical records, x-rays, and autopsy reports.  The all said it was "odd" or "weird", that they had never seen something like it before (acute diaphragmatic hernias are usually caused by traumatic injury (like a car crash) or a undiagnosed congenital condition) none of which happened to her.  They also said that, had we stayed in the U.S.  the outcome would have most likely been the same.  It's not something you can really "catch" and there is not much you can do for them because it happens so fast.  From her first symptoms to the time she died was only 10 hours for us.  Anyway, we miss our little girl.  The Chinese people were incredibly supportive of us and very kind, but we needed to go home.  To heal.  To lay our little Echo to rest.  We love you Echo.

Happy Family