What's the history behind her name?
Avery is a name that we have a special history with as a couple and have liked for many years. Lynne is Tera's middle name. Ying is actually Avery's middle name and also the name that her foster family calls her. So, we combined Tera's middle name and Avery's middle name into one name!

Additional Information
Avery was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate. Her lip was repaired at a hospital in Beijing in March 2009 and she looks great!!! She will need to have her palate repaired shortly after we return home. She has been living with her foster family since her lip surgery. They were wonderful about answering questions that we have had about Avery. We learned that the family has two teenage boys that also live in the home.

Personality traits
What we know so far about our daughter is:

She is smiley and outgoing, she can have a temper, she can be stubborn and impatient. (Reported in August 21, 2009) We are looking forward to learning more about her personality!

Development
Avery's foster family provided us with the following updated information that we received on August 21, 2009:

She can say “baba” and “mama” at the age of 13 months. Now she can crawl, has a good pincer grasp, can pick up small items, she has started to walk recently, can walk a few steps. When she plays with building blocks, she can take the blocks in hands and beat each other. She can put the block in a cup, then take it out, she can also cover the box with a lid.

When others ask her for something, she is willing to share, she can understand when adults speak to her, she understands the meaning of “no”, she cooperates when being addressed.

Size
We know that she is on the small side right now but we aren't too worried about that because we know that she may be having difficulty eating due to her open palate. We have learned that she is starting to put on some weight since her lip was fixed.

Update!
In mid October, we sent Avery and her foster family a care package and translated letter using a service that is in China. We were pleased that Avery's foster family once again readily answered questions that we had. When we read the answers, we were surprised to learn that Avery had her cleft palate surgery on October 16, 2009!!